JPH1191182A - Ink-jet recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent skip rotation of a pulse motor at the time of starting acceleration of a carriage by outputting a driving pulse coinciding with the acceleration starting phase of the pulse motor stored in a memory means by a carriage control means at the time of starting the movement of the carriage. SOLUTION: After the initial operation, an acceleration start phase detecting and controlling means 25 detects the present stopping phase and compares the same with data stored in an acceleration start phase memory means 24. If they are not the same, the data of the acceleration start phase are updated by the present stopping phase. AS a result, even if the acceleration start phase of the pulse motor is changed by the inadvertence of a user or the time passage change of a transmitting mechanism 2, the acceleration start phase can coincide automatically with the stopping phase. Then, if printing data are outputted from a host, a carriage motor control means 20 detects the acceleration start phase based on the data in the memory means 24 so as to output a driving pulse without causing the phase jump to a motor 3 for starting the acceleration.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus in which an ink jet recording head for ejecting ink droplets in accordance with print data is mounted on a carriage driven by a pulse motor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ink jet recording apparatus is configured such that an ink jet recording head for ejecting ink droplets in accordance with print data is mounted on a carriage, and the carriage is reciprocated in the width direction of the recording paper by a pulse motor. Have been. The pulse motor moves the carriage from the non-printing area to the printing area while accelerating, moves the carriage within the printing area at a constant speed, and stops while decelerating when printing is completed. When the paper feeding for one line is completed, the above-described steps are performed in the reverse direction, and when the printing is completed, the operation of moving the recording head to the capping position is performed. Then, during the printing period, the recording head is moved to the ink receiving member provided in the non-print area for the flushing operation as needed.

[0003] The acceleration rotation, constant speed rotation, and deceleration rotation of the pulse motor are controlled by adjusting the drive current value and the pulse width of the drive pulse. In particular, in the case of an ink jet recording apparatus, since an ink jet recording head that discharges ink droplets from nozzle openings is mounted, when a shock is applied to the recording head, a meniscus that greatly affects the discharge state of ink droplets is generated. Destroyed,
In order to cause damage, great care has been taken in setting drive pulses for controlling the movement of the carriage that exerts a force on the recording head, such as an acceleration step and a deceleration step.

[0004]

However, the stop phase of the pulse motor which starts acceleration due to the carelessness of the user and the aging of the transmission mechanism connecting the carriage drive motor and the carriage, and the preset acceleration start If a phase shift occurs, a single drive pulse causes the motor to move through multiple steps at once, and a large acceleration acts on the carriage to destroy the meniscus of the recording head or to damage and print. There is a problem that quality is deteriorated. The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus capable of preventing a jump rotation of a pulse motor at the start of acceleration of a carriage and performing high-quality printing. It is.

[0005]

In order to solve such a problem, the present invention provides a carriage on which an ink jet recording head is mounted, a capping means for sealing the recording head, and a pulse based on speed regulation data. A carriage motor control unit that supplies a drive pulse to a motor to control the movement of the carriage; and a storage unit that stores an acceleration start phase of the pulse motor, wherein the carriage control unit stores the acceleration when the carriage starts moving. A drive pulse corresponding to the acceleration start phase of the means is output.

[0006]

The carriage motor control means determines the acceleration start phase based on the data stored in the storage means, drives the carriage motor, and accelerates the carriage as much as possible without skipping the phases.

[0007]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention,
The carriage 1 is connected to a carriage driving pulse motor 3 via a transmission means 2 such as a timing belt, and corresponds to the rotation of the pulse motor 3 to face a platen 4 which is a printing area; The capping device 6 reciprocates in a non-printing area where the capping device 6 is arranged.

The carriage driving pulse motor 3 is
Phase and phase B,

[Table 1] A drive pulse is applied to each phase in a certain order, so-called 2-
It is driven in two phases.

The recording head 8 is provided on the surface of the carriage 1 facing the recording paper 7, is connected to a driving unit 10 by a flexible cable 9, receives a print signal, receives ink supply from the cartridge 11, and prints on the recording paper. Discharges ink droplets.

The capping device 6 seals the recording head during the idle period to prevent drying of the nozzle openings, and is also driven by driving means such as the paper feed motor 12 via a transmission mechanism and a transmission switching mechanism (not shown). The negative pressure of the pump unit 13 is applied to the recording head 8 to function as a negative pressure applying means at the time of ink filling or ink droplet ejection recovery operation, and also functions as an ink receiving member at the time of flushing.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the control means of the pulse motor 3 for driving the carriage. The carriage motor control means 20 comprises a home position detecting means 2.
1 to detect the position of the carriage 1 based on the signal from the controller 1 and drive pulses corresponding to acceleration rotation, constant speed rotation, and deceleration rotation based on the drive current value and pulse width of the drive pulse stored in the acceleration / deceleration data storage means 22. Is output from the carriage motor driving unit 23, and the recording head 1 is caused to travel at a constant speed in the printing area, or is moved to the flushing position and the capping position.

The home position detecting means 21
The carriage 1 is moved to a predetermined position based on a signal from a detection piece 30 provided on the carriage 1 and a position detector 31 provided on the base side and outputting a signal when the detection piece 30 reaches a predetermined position. Usually, it is detected that the home position has been reached.

Prior to the start of rotation of the carriage driving pulse motor 3, the carriage motor control means 20 stores the excitation start phase of the pulse motor 3 at the beginning of acceleration stored in the acceleration start phase storage means 24, for example, the second phase. Step (A
(A mode in which a drive pulse in which the phase is negative and the phase B is positive) is read out, and the excitation is first performed in the second step, and the drive current value and the pulse width stored in the acceleration / deceleration data storage means 22 match. Is outputted from the carriage motor driving means 23, and thereafter, the driving current is increased,
In addition, a driving pulse for performing phase switching such as the third step, the fourth step, the first step, and the like is output while reducing the pulse width.

The recording head 8 is connected to the capping device 6.
At the time of sealing by the phase corresponding to the phase at the stop position,
In this embodiment, in the second step, a drive pulse for generating a weak excitation force suitable for holding the motor 3 and not generating heat is applied to the carriage motor driving means 23.
Output from

The acceleration start phase detection control means 25 detects the excitation phase of the motor 3 in a state where the initial processing is completed and the recording head 8 is sealed by the capping device 6, and stored in the acceleration start phase storage means 24. The storage means 2 compares the detected acceleration phase with the acceleration start phase which has been detected, and detects the excitation phase only when the values do not match.
4 is updated.

In this embodiment, when power is supplied to the apparatus (step (a) in FIG. 3), the carriage control means 2
0 reads the data stored in the acceleration start phase storage means 29 (step b in FIG. 3), and makes the carriage motor drive means 23 output a drive pulse with this data phase as the acceleration start phase to rotate the motor 3. The carriage 1 is driven (step c in FIG. 3), and is rotated at a constant speed when the acceleration process is completed to further move the carriage 1 (step c in FIG. 3).
D).

In this manner, the detection piece 30 is
1, the carriage motor control means 20 resets the position data of the carriage 1 when the home position detection means 21 detects that the carriage 1 has reached the home position (step E in FIG. 3). Step f).

After detecting the home position, the carriage motor control means 20 moves the carriage 1 to the capping position based on the detected home position, and stops the motor 3 when the carriage 1 reaches the capping position. Then, in order to maintain this position, the excitation phase at the time of stop is weakly excited (Step 3 in FIG. 3).

At the stage when the initial operation has been completed in this way, the acceleration start phase detection control means 28 detects the current stop phase and compares the current stop phase with the data stored in the acceleration start phase storage means 29. If not (Fig. 3
(Step 3) Update the data of the acceleration start phase with the current stop phase (Step 3 in FIG. 3). Thereby, the user's carelessness and the carriage driving motor 3 and the carriage 1
Even if a change occurs in the acceleration start phase of the pulse motor due to aging of the transmission mechanism 2 such as a timing belt connecting the acceleration belt and the like, the acceleration start phase can automatically match the stop phase.

When print data is output from the host in this state, the carriage motor control means 20 detects the acceleration start phase based on the data stored in the acceleration start phase storage means 29 and causes a phase jump. An empty drive pulse is output to the carriage motor 3 to start acceleration. As a result, the carriage 1 is smoothly accelerated in accordance with the acceleration / deceleration data stored in the acceleration / deceleration data storage means 22, and can start the printing operation without damaging the meniscus of the recording head 8. .

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As described above, according to the present invention, a carriage on which an ink jet recording head is mounted, capping means for sealing the recording head, and a pulse motor driven based on speed regulation data A carriage motor control unit that supplies a pulse to control the movement of the carriage; and a storage unit that stores an acceleration start phase of the pulse motor. The carriage control unit matches the acceleration start phase of the storage unit when the carriage starts moving. Since the driving pulse is output, the carriage motor control means determines the acceleration start phase based on the data stored in the storage means and drives the carriage motor. Printing can be started and printing can be started while maintaining the meniscus of the recording head normally. You.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing one embodiment of an ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a carriage motor control device in the same device.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a carriage motor control process of the above device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 carriage 3 pulse motor for driving carriage 5 cleaning device 6 capping device 8 ink jet recording head

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A carriage on which an ink jet type recording head is mounted, capping means for sealing the recording head, and a carriage motor for controlling a movement of the carriage by supplying a driving pulse to a pulse motor based on speed regulation data. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a control unit; and a storage unit storing an acceleration start phase of the pulse motor, wherein the carriage control unit outputs a drive pulse corresponding to the acceleration start phase of the storage unit when the carriage starts moving. . 2. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acceleration start phase is an excitation phase when stopped at a capping position by the capping means. 3. An initial operation is executed when the power is turned on.
2. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an excitation phase at the time of moving to the capping position is stored in the storage unit as the acceleration start phase. 4. When the power is turned on, the pulse motor is driven based on the acceleration start phase stored in the storage means to execute an initial operation, and the excitation phase at the time of moving to the capping position and stored in the storage means. 2. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acceleration start phase is compared with the set acceleration start phase, and if not coincident, the acceleration start phase of the storage means is updated.