JPH11129487A - Ink jet recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To sustain good printing at all times by synchronizing the operation of a printer with that of a person and executing cleaning of a head when the printer is not used by a user thereby preventing the throughput of printing from lowering. SOLUTION: The ink jet recorder 10 connected with a host computer 100 through a bilateral communication means and executing cleaning of a head 1 at a specified timing comprises a timer setting means 25 for setting an incorporated timer 18 with the time of a host computer 100, means 22 for preserving the print record of the printer 10 based on the time of the timer 18, and means 23 for determining the time for executing cleaning of the head 1 based on the print record. A decision is made whether cleaning is required when the printer is used next with reference to the print record and cleaning is executed before the printer is used if it is required.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a serial printer for performing cleaning as required.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an ink-jet printer, generally, an ink-jet head for discharging ink from an orifice formed on the front surface of a head is scanned and moved with respect to a recording medium, for example, a print sheet, and at the same time, the print sheet is sub-scanned. Thus, a desired image can be printed on the printing paper by attaching the ink droplets ejected from the inkjet head to the printing paper. Such an ink jet printer includes a printer controller configured by a computer, and a printer mechanism that is operationally controlled by the printer controller. The printer mechanism includes, for example, an inkjet head, a driving device that scans and moves the inkjet head, and other mechanisms.

In general, ink jet printers cause poor ink ejection due to thickening or sticking of the ink due to evaporation of the ink solvent, mixing of air bubbles in the ink, and adhesion of dust or paper powder to the orifice portion. Since there is a risk that the state may be restored to normal, a cleaning process is performed at predetermined intervals. The cleaning process includes a flash process for discharging ink from the nozzles of the inkjet head, a wipe process for wiping a nozzle tip of the inkjet head, that is, a head end surface having a nozzle opening, and a suction device for tipping the inkjet head. A suction process or the like for pressing and sucking ink from the nozzles is performed.

A timer IC measures the predetermined time, and the ink jet recording apparatus is almost equipped with the timer IC. Timer IC is usually "0 January 1, 0
It is shipped with the initial setting at "0:00". In such a conventional ink jet recording apparatus, for example, at the time of a print command, the “last cleaning time” and the “time of the timer IC” stored in a nonvolatile memory such as an EEPROM, which are completely unrelated to the world time, The cleaning was carried out when the difference was longer than the time required for cleaning.

[0005]

As described above, in the conventional ink jet recording apparatus, the operation of the ink jet recording apparatus is synchronized with the user's activity because it has no relation to the time of the general society. Could not.

That is, in the above-described conventional ink jet recording apparatus, if a predetermined time has elapsed since the previous cleaning time, cleaning is performed prior to printing even during a time period in which printing is performed frequently. Therefore, there is a problem that the printing throughput becomes extremely poor.

In view of such circumstances, the present invention changes the time of the timer to the time of the host, synchronizes the operation of the printer with the operation of a human, and performs head cleaning when the user is not using the head. Accordingly, it is an object to provide an ink jet recording apparatus capable of preventing a decrease in printing throughput and always maintaining good printing.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided:
In an ink jet recording apparatus which is connected to a host computer via a communication means capable of bidirectional communication and performs head cleaning at a predetermined timing, a timer setting means for adjusting the time of a built-in timer to the time of the host computer, An ink jet recording apparatus includes a storage unit that stores a print history of a printing apparatus based on the time of the timer, and a determination unit that determines when to perform head cleaning based on the print history.

In the first aspect, it is estimated whether cleaning is required at the next use by referring to the print history, and if necessary, the cleaning process is executed before the user uses the cleaning.

[0010] In a second aspect of the present invention based on the first aspect, the determining means determines a time zone in which the possibility of use by the user is small based on the print history stored by the storing means,
An ink jet recording apparatus is characterized in that a cleaning time for cleaning the head is set during the time period.

In the second aspect, the print history is referred to, the next head cleaning time is set in a time period in which the user is unlikely to use the head, and the head cleaning is performed in a time when the user is not using the head. Execute.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, the head cleaning is performed after a predetermined time elapses during printing or when there is print data when cleaning the head. The present invention is directed to an ink jet recording apparatus.

In the third aspect, head cleaning can be performed without lowering the printing throughput.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to third aspects, the timer setting means updates the time of the timer to a time transmitted from the host computer at regular intervals. An ink jet recording apparatus characterized in that:

In the fourth aspect, the time of the timer can be always kept accurately, and the cleaning of the head can be executed at regular intervals.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an ink jet printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 shows an example of the structure, and FIG. 3 shows a functional block of a control unit.

The printing apparatus (printer) of the present embodiment has an existing structure. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a printer 10 includes a printer control unit constituted by a computer and a printer control unit. And a printer mechanism unit whose operation is controlled by the unit. The printer 10 is connected to a host computer 100 via a communication means 11 such as a bidirectional interface or a network interface. The interface 11 is connected to an input / output control device 12. Further, the printer 10 has a control unit 14 constituted by a computer and a printing mechanism unit 8 whose operation is controlled by the control unit 14. The control unit 14 and the printing mechanism unit 8 It is connected via an interface 13.

Here, the control unit 14 has a program ROM
The CPU 15 operates based on a control program and the like stored in the CPU 16 and controls the printer 10 as a whole. A RAM 17 stores data from the host computer 100, a print history of a printer described later, and the like, a timer 18 serving as a reference for a processing time such as head cleaning, and various information to be displayed and various operations to be performed. And a switch panel 19. The printing mechanism section 8 includes a head 1 for executing printing, a carriage drive motor 4 for driving a carriage 2 on which the head 1 is mounted, and a transport motor 7 for feeding paper.

In the printer mechanism 8, the carriage 2 on which the ink jet head 1 is mounted is mounted.
Is mounted movably in the axial direction on a carriage shaft 3 mounted on a frame (not shown). A plurality of gears and a timing belt 5 (not shown) for the driving force of the driving motor 4
Is transmitted to the carriage 2 through the carriage 2 so that the carriage 2 on which the inkjet head 1 is mounted is moved to the carriage shaft 3.
Can move along.

On the other hand, a platen 6 is provided on a frame (not shown) in parallel with the carriage shaft 3. The platen 6 can be rotated by the driving force of a transport motor 7, and a recording medium S such as paper fed from a paper feed roller (not shown) is wound around the platen 6 and transported. . An imaging device 9 for detecting the state of the inkjet head 1 is provided on the carriage 2 in proximity to the inkjet head 1.

Further, a wiper 51, a cap 52 and a suction pump 53 for cleaning the head 1 are provided on the side of the platen 6, which is the end of the carriage 2 in the moving direction. The wiper 51 performs a wiping process for wiping the ink ejection end face of the inkjet head 1, and the cap 52 and the suction pump 53 execute a suction process for sucking ink from the ink ejection nozzles. The cap 52 also caps the ink discharge end surface of the ink jet head 1 that has been waiting for printing for a predetermined time or more to prevent the ink discharge nozzles from drying.

Here, the cleaning process is executed at predetermined time intervals determined based on, for example, the accumulated number of printed sheets, the elapsed time from the previous cleaning, and the like. This is performed by executing processing, suction processing, and the like.

As shown in FIG. 3, the control unit 14
Interpretation unit 20, mechanism control unit 21, storage unit 22, determination unit 2
3, a cleaning execution unit 24 and a timer changing unit 25 are provided.

The interpreter 20 is a host computer 100
And prints the data via the mechanism control unit 21.

The mechanism control section 21 has a head drive control section 26 for controlling the head 1 based on data from the interpretation section 20.
A carriage control unit 27 for controlling carriage movement by driving the carriage drive motor 4 and a conveyance control unit 28 for controlling conveyance of the recording medium S by driving the conveyance motor 7.

The storage unit 22 stores the print history from the previous cleaning processing time at a predetermined location in the storage unit 17, for example. Here, the stored data has, for example, a structure as shown in FIG. In this embodiment,
The cleaning execution time A, the cumulative number of prints B since the previous head cleaning time, the printing status in the past 24 hours, that is, the number of prints C1 to C24 in one hour unit within the time (hereinafter, printing at the current time) Save).

Based on the data stored by the storage unit 17, the determination unit 23 determines, based on the data stored by the storage unit 17, every predetermined time, in this embodiment, when the unit of minute is 0, in this embodiment, It is determined whether or not the cleaning process is necessary based on the total number of prints (hereinafter referred to as “elapsed time”) and the cumulative number of prints from the previous cleaning time and the number of prints at the same time the previous day. For example, in the present embodiment, the elapsed time exceeds 5 hours and the total number of sheets is 20
If the number exceeds zero, or if the elapsed time exceeds 35 hours and the total number exceeds 100, the determination unit 23 determines that the cleaning process is necessary.

The cleaning execution unit 24 determines whether or not cleaning is necessary based on the determination result of the determination unit 23, or operates the switch panel 19 or the like to turn on the cleaning switch. The cleaning process of the first ejection nozzle is executed.

The timer change unit 25 communicates with the host 100 when the power of the printer 10 is first turned on to update the time of the timer 18 with the time of the host 100. After that, as described later, the host 1
When the time is received from 00, the time of the timer 18 is updated to the time of the host 100 when the time of the timer 18 is different from the time of the host 100.

As a result, the time of the timer 18 coincides with the time of the general society, and the print history stored by the storage unit 17 is based on this time.

On the other hand, the host 100 has a sending unit 31. The sending unit 31 is configured by a program such as a printer driver. When the printer 10 is connected to the host 100 and the power of the printer 10 is first turned on, and thereafter, the time of the host 10 is set at a predetermined interval. Printer 1
Send to 0.

Here, control by the printer control unit 14 of the above-described ink jet recording apparatus of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In addition,
In the present embodiment, the cleaning process is performed during a time period when printing is not performed as much as possible by the following process. Therefore, it is assumed that the printer is in a state where the following process can be performed even when the power is turned off. That is, even when the power is off, the printer is applied with a voltage of about 5 V or holds a general sleep state. However, when the power supply is turned off, the cleaning may be performed at a predetermined time by determining only the time instead of the following processing.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, when the cleaning switch is turned on after the power is turned on (step S1: YES), the cleaning execution unit 24 is immediately turned on regardless of whether or not printing is being performed. The cleaning process of the head 1 is performed (Step S2). At this time, the storage unit 22
Retrieves the current time from the timer 18 (step S
3) The current time is stored at the cleaning time A (step S4), and the accumulated number of printed sheets B stored so far is reset (step S5). Therefore, the storage unit 22
The accumulated number of printed sheets B from the previous cleaning time to the next cleaning time and the number of printed sheets C1 to C24 (FIG. 4) at each time in the past 24 hours are always stored.

On the other hand, if the cleaning switch is OFF (step S1: NO), it is determined whether there is print data, and if there is print data (step S6: NO).
YES), perform print processing. Here, if paper feeding is necessary (step S7: YES), paper feeding processing is performed (step S7).
8) At this time, when one sheet is fed, the storage unit 17
One is added to the accumulated number of printed sheets B (step S9), and then the time is extracted from the timer 18 (step S10), and one is added to the number of printed sheets in the current time zone.
If it is 4:00, 1 is added to the number of prints C14 in the storage unit 17 (step S11). Thereafter, the printing process is executed (Step S12). If paper feeding is not required (step S7: NO), the printing process is executed as it is (step S12), and the process is repeated until the printing is completed. As described above, when paper is fed, by storing the cumulative number of printed sheets B and C1 to C24, it is possible to grasp the past usage status of the printing apparatus.

If there is no print data in step S6, the judging unit 23 extracts the current time from the timer 18 (step S13), and if the minute unit is 0, that is, every hour (step S14). It is determined whether the elapsed time, which is the first determination condition for determining the necessity of cleaning, has exceeded 5 hours (step S15). Here, if the elapsed time is 5 hours or more (step S1
5: YES), determine that cleaning is necessary,
Is calculated, that is, the cumulative number of printed sheets B from the previous cleaning time is added to one of the printed sheets C1 to C24 at the same time the previous day (step S).
16). Thereafter, the determining unit 23 further determines whether or not the elapsed time is 35 hours or more. If the elapsed time is less than 35 hours (step S17: NO), if the total number is 200 or more (step S18: YES), it is determined that head cleaning is necessary, and the cleaning
Executes the cleaning process of the head 1 (step S19).

The necessity of cleaning the head from the number obtained by adding the accumulated number of printed sheets B and the number of printed sheets at the same time of the previous day (any one of C1 to C24) is determined one hour thereafter. In consideration of the number of prints that will be performed, the head throughput is reduced by using the time zone not used by the user before the predetermined number of prints requiring the cleaning of the head is exceeded, thereby lowering the print throughput. This is because a good printing state is always maintained without any problem.

Thereafter, as described above, the storage unit 22 stores the current time with the current time as the cleaning time A (step S20), and resets the accumulated number of printed sheets B up to that time (step S21). That is, the storage unit 22 again stores the cumulative number of printed sheets from this time, and always stores the cumulative number of printed sheets from the previous cleaning time. If the total number is less than 200 in step S18, it is determined that cleaning is not necessary, and cleaning of the head 1 is not performed.

If the elapsed time is equal to or greater than 35 hours in step S17, the judgment unit 23 determines that the total number is 100.
If the number is equal to or greater than the number of sheets (step S22: YES), it is determined that the head cleaning processing is necessary, and the process proceeds to step S19, where the same processing as described above is executed (steps S19 to S21).

In this embodiment, as described above, in order to synchronize the operation of the printer with the action of the user, the time of the timer is updated to the time of the host when the printer is first turned on. At this time, the time of the host may not be accurate, and thereafter, the time of the timer is updated at regular intervals. This processing is as follows. In this case, an offset time described later is provided so that the head can be cleaned at regular intervals even if the time of the history at the time of updating occurs.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of the time change processing of this embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 6, the sending section 31 of the host 100 sends the host time to the printer via the interface 11 at predetermined intervals (step S3).
1). The timer changing unit 25 of the printer 10 receives the time Th of the host (step S32), reads the time Tp of the timer (step S33), and determines whether the time Tp of the timer matches the time of the host Th. Is determined (step S34). Here, the difference Td = T
If there is p-Th, the timer time Tp is updated to the host time Th (step S35). Thereafter, the difference Td is added to the offset time To and stored in the storage unit 17 (Step 36).

Here, the offset time is the accumulated time difference between the time of the host and the time of the timer since the previous cleaning was executed, and is added every time the time of the host is updated. Therefore, for example, when determining whether or not to execute cleaning with reference to the timer as described above, actually, the difference between the aforementioned “cleaning time A” and “timer Tp” is obtained, and "Offset time To"
Is added, and if it is longer than a predetermined time, it is determined that cleaning is necessary. After the head is cleaned, the offset time To is cleared. Thus, the cleaning can be always performed at a constant interval.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the necessity of head cleaning can be determined from the elapsed time since the previous cleaning and the total number of sheets, and the head cleaning can be executed appropriately. In addition, by determining the necessity of cleaning based on the total number of sheets, when there is a high possibility that a large amount of printing will be performed thereafter, cleaning can be performed before that to prevent a decrease in print throughput, and A good printing state can be always maintained.

In the present embodiment, the time of the timer is updated at predetermined intervals. However, it is needless to say that the time of the timer is updated only once at least when the power of the printer is first turned on.

Further, the method of updating the timer time is not particularly limited. In the present embodiment, the printer determines whether or not the timer time matches the host time.However, for example, the printer time is sent to the host once, and the host makes this determination. You may. In the present embodiment, the sending unit of the host sends the time of the host at a predetermined interval. For example, when a command for requesting time notification is sent from the printer to the host, the sending unit 31 sends the command to the host. The time may be transmitted.

(Embodiment 2) In this embodiment, in order to prevent a decrease in print throughput, the next cleaning time is set in a time zone in which the user is unlikely to be using the printer, and cleaning is performed at that time. This is an example of execution. In addition, the description which overlaps with Embodiment 1 mentioned above is omitted.

FIG. 7 shows a functional block of this embodiment, and FIG. 8 shows a processing flow of this embodiment.

The ink jet recording apparatus of the present embodiment
As shown in FIG. 7, the configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment except that it further includes a setting unit 29.

The storage unit 22 stores a print history such as the number of prints or the print time for each time zone. For example, in the present embodiment, the accumulated number of printed sheets per hour is stored in units of 24 hours.

When the cleaning of the head is performed, the determination unit 23 determines a time period in which the user is unlikely to use the print history based on the print history stored in the storage unit 22.

The setting unit 29 sets the next cleaning time in that time zone and stores it in the storage unit 17.

Here, this determination method is not particularly limited, and the total number of printed sheets for each block for a predetermined period of time, for example, 3 hours, is compared by shifting the time zone one by one. Select the time zone that has the least number of times, and determine the central time zone as a time zone that is unlikely to be used by the user,
The next cleaning time is set in that time zone. Alternatively, as another method, for example, it is determined whether or not there is a time period in which the time period in which the number of prints is 0 or close to 0 exists, and if so, the next cleaning time is set in the central time period. May be set. In addition,
If the preferred cleaning interval is less than 24 hours,
Before a suitable cleaning interval has elapsed, it is necessary to set a time zone where printing is least likely to be performed as the next cleaning time.

When the cleaning time set by the setting unit 29 matches the time of the timer, the cleaning execution unit 24 executes the above-described cleaning process of the ejection nozzles of the ink jet head 1.

The control by the control unit 14 of the ink jet printer of this embodiment will be described.

As shown in FIG. 8, when the cleaning switch is turned on while the power is on (step S41: YES), the cleaning execution unit 24 immediately executes the cleaning process (step S42). At this time, the determination unit 23 determines a time period in which the user is unlikely to use the time period based on the print history from the previous cleaning time stored in the storage unit 22 as described above (step S43), and sets the time period. The unit 29 sets the next cleaning time within the time zone determined by the determination unit 23 after a predetermined time has elapsed from the cleaning time, and stores the next cleaning time in the storage unit 17 (step S44). Thereafter, the print history is cleared (step S45). The storage unit 22 stores the print history from the current time again.

On the other hand, if the cleaning switch is OFF (step S41: NO), and if there is print data (step S46: YES), the printing process is performed. Here, if there is a need for sheet feeding (step S47: YES), a sheet feeding process is performed (step S48).
(Step S49), the storage unit 22 adds 1 to the accumulated number of prints in the current time zone, stores the result in the storage unit 17 (step S50), and executes the printing process (step S52). If no paper feeding is required (step S47: NO), the printing process is executed as it is (step S47).
51), is repeated until printing is completed.

If there is no print data in step S42, the current time is extracted from the timer 18 (step S52), and the next cleaning time Tq stored in the storage unit 17 matches the current time Tp of the timer. Alternatively, it is determined whether or not it has exceeded (step S53), and if it is equal or exceeds, the cleaning execution unit 24 performs cleaning of the head (step S54). After that, similarly to the above-described embodiment, the determination unit 23 determines a time zone in which the user is unlikely to use the print history from the print history,
The setting unit 29 sets the next cleaning time (step S55). Thereafter, the print history is cleared (step S56), and a series of head cleaning processes is terminated.

If the current time has not reached the next cleaning time in step S53, the flow returns to step S41, and the cleaning switch is turned on or
The cleaning process is executed when the current time matches or exceeds the next cleaning time.

As described above, in this embodiment, the print history is stored, and based on the history, the cleaning time is set in a time zone in which the user is unlikely to be using the print history. The number of times that cleaning is performed is reduced, and a decrease in print throughput can be prevented.

In the present embodiment, the cumulative number of prints for each time is stored as the print history. However, for example, the cumulative print time for each time zone may be stored as the print history.

[0062]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to execute the cleaning process of the head using the time when the user is not using the printing apparatus, and without lowering the printing throughput. Good print quality can always be maintained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of an inkjet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an inkjet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an example showing a storage state of a print history.

FIG. 5 is a processing flow according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a time change process according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a processing flow according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 host 10 printer 11 interface 12 input / output control device 13 interface 14 control unit 15 CPU 16 program ROM 17 RAM 18 timer 19 switch panel 20 interpretation unit 21 mechanism control unit 22 storage unit 23 determination unit 24 cleaning execution unit 25 timer change unit 26 Head drive control unit 27 Carriage drive unit 28 Transport control unit 31 Sending unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An ink jet recording apparatus which is connected to a host computer via a communication means capable of bidirectional communication and executes head cleaning at a predetermined timing, adjusts a time of a built-in timer to the time of the host computer. Ink jet recording comprising: a timer setting unit; a storage unit for storing a print history of a printing apparatus based on the time of the timer; and a determination unit for determining when to perform head cleaning based on the print history. apparatus. 2. The cleaning time according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines a time period in which the user is unlikely to use the time period based on the print history stored by the storage unit, and performs cleaning of the head in the time period. An ink jet recording apparatus characterized by setting: 3. The ink-jet apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when cleaning the head, if printing is being performed or print data is present, an attempt is made to perform the cleaning of the head after a predetermined time has elapsed. Recording device. 4. An ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said timer setting means updates the time of said timer to a time transmitted from said host computer at regular time intervals.