KR100238051B1 - Method for compensating error nozzle of inkjet printer having scanner - Google Patents

Abstract

According to the present invention, when an error nozzle occurs in an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner, a defect of an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner which detects and uses the scanner to replace the nozzle determined as a defect with a normal nozzle is used. It relates to a nozzle compensation method.

To this end, the present invention provides a method of compensating for a defective nozzle of a print head of an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner, wherein each nozzle of the head is fired by a certain amount when a check request of the print head is required, Confirming whether each printing is normal through the scanner, and registering the corresponding nozzle as a defective nozzle when it is not normal; Printing a corresponding line upon printing request and performing new line printing so that a normal nozzle is at the defective nozzle position to compensate for the registered defective nozzle; When the compensation printing of the corresponding line is completed, checking whether or not the end of the print, and if the end of the print, characterized in that it comprises the step of repeating the printing step otherwise.

Thus, the present invention provides an advantage of enabling the head to be used without damaging the print quality even when a bad nozzle occurs in the print head of the inkjet printer.

Description

How to compensate for a bad nozzle on an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner

The present invention relates to a method of compensating for an error nozzle of an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner. More particularly, when a defective nozzle occurs in an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner, it is detected using a scanner and determined to be defective. A method of compensating for a bad nozzle of an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner in which a nozzle is replaced with a normal nozzle to print.

As is well known, an inkjet printer uses an ink cartridge, unlike a dot printer, and thus has advantages of color implementation, low noise, and beautiful print quality.

Among the printing mechanisms of the inkjet printer, the print head is a core component that finally implements the requested printing operation. The print head is driven by a head driver to fire (fire) an appropriate amount of printing ink onto a desired area on the printing paper to perform printing. Perform. The print head of the inkjet printer includes an ink cartridge, in which a plurality of nozzles are formed, to eject ink according to a nozzle driving signal of a predetermined control circuit portion, and a carrier on which the ink cartridge is mounted, and a control signal of the control circuit portion. The carrier is moved from side to side by a carriage-return motor driven by the ink, and ink is sprayed through the fine nozzles formed in the ink cartridge to print various characters and pictures on paper.

However, when the ink cartridge is left unused for a long time, fine nozzles may be clogged due to ink dry, and conversely, an abnormality occurs in the nozzle driving circuit that drives the nozzle when the ink cartridge is used for a long time. As a result, the ink is not ejected from the nozzles, and thus, specific spots of the printed material are not printed, thereby making it impossible to obtain a high quality printed material.

In order to inspect the abnormality of the nozzle driving circuit, a separate inspection circuit is added to inspect the normal operation state of the nozzle driving circuit. Such an inspection circuit can inspect the abnormality of the nozzle driving circuit, but the nozzle is clogged. Due to this, when the volume printed matter was output, it could not be detected.

In addition, another method of inspecting the nozzles for ink failure by inspecting the ink ejection state of the nozzles is to execute an application for a nozzle test executed on a computer or a self-test program built into the printer itself. By printing and printing a specific type of test pattern, the user can visually check whether there are bad nozzles or how many nozzles are bad. This method requires the user to know how to execute a test program. In addition, there was an inconvenience to check the bad nozzle by visually confirming the printed pattern.

Moreover, according to the prior art as described above, it is quite difficult to find a bad nozzle of the print head, and even if a bad nozzle position is found, no appropriate action can be taken to replace the print head or request for repair (A / S). There is a serious problem that needs to be done. That is, the above-described prior art does not compensate for the abnormality of the print head and compensates for it, and it is difficult to determine the abnormality of the print head in circuit due to the increase in the degree of integration of the internal circuit of the print head. Therefore, when a defect occurs in some nozzles of the print head, even if a large amount of ink remains in the ink cartridge of the print head, a new print head must be purchased and replaced, or the print quality has to be reduced.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and when a bad nozzle occurs in an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner, the scanner detects this by using a scanner to replace the nozzle determined as a defective with a normal nozzle to print. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for compensating for a bad nozzle of an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner.

1 is a schematic hardware block diagram of an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner embodying the method of the present invention;

2 is a flowchart of a bad nozzle compensation method of an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner according to the present invention;

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

10: central processing unit (CPU) 30: print head driver

31: print head 60: scan block

61: scanner

In order to achieve the above object, a bad nozzle compensation method of an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner according to the present invention,

In the method for compensating for a defective nozzle of a print head of an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner,

When the print head is requested to check, the nozzles of the heads are fired by a certain amount, and each printing by these nozzles is checked through the scanner to determine whether the nozzles are normal. Registering;

Printing a corresponding line upon printing request and performing new line printing so that a normal nozzle is at the defective nozzle position to compensate for the registered defective nozzle;

When the compensation printing of the corresponding line is completed, checking whether or not the end of the print, the end of the print if the end of the print, otherwise it characterized in that it comprises the step of repeating the printing step.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the registration step,

Determining whether to check the print head;

Initializing the nozzle number if the print head is requested to be checked;

A certain amount of fire is fired through the nozzles corresponding to the sequence, and the scanner determines whether the printing factor by the corresponding nozzle is normal. If the printing factor is normal, it is determined whether the corresponding nozzle is the last nozzle. A confirmation registration step of registering the nozzle;

If the corresponding nozzle is not the last, and increasing the nozzle number by 1 and the step of repeating the confirmation registration step sequentially.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the printing step,

Determining whether printing was required;

If printing is not required, predetermined processing is performed. If printing is requested, the line corresponding to the order is printed from the first line. If printing of the corresponding line is completed, compensation is performed for the defective nozzle and the A print / compensation print step for compensating printing;

Checking whether the print end is completed when the compensation printing is completed, and ending printing of the print end surface; otherwise, increasing the line to repeat the print / compensation printing step.

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of a method for compensating for a bad nozzle of an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

According to the present invention, when a defect occurs in the print head nozzle, the scanner detects the defect, and transfers the feed line so that the normal nozzle is positioned at the defective nozzle position so that the same printing quality can be maintained by compensating printing even if the defective nozzle occurs. As shown in FIG. 2, when a failure check of the print head is requested, each nozzle of the head is fired by a certain amount, and each printing by these nozzles is normal through the scanner. Registering the corresponding nozzle as a defective nozzle (S10), printing a corresponding line when printing is requested, and performing a newline to print the normal nozzle to the defective nozzle position to compensate for the registered defective nozzle ( S20), and when the compensation printing of the corresponding line is completed, it is checked whether or not the printing is finished and the printing is finished. End the agent, otherwise, it comprises the step (S30) to be performed repeating the printing step (S20).

In the present invention, the registration step (S10) comprises: determining whether to check the print head (S11); If print head check is requested, initializing the nozzle number (S12); A certain amount of fire is fired through the nozzles corresponding to the sequence, and the scanner determines whether the printing factor by the corresponding nozzle is normal. If the printing factor is normal, it is determined whether the corresponding nozzle is the last nozzle. A confirmation registration step (S13) (S14) (S15) (S17) for registering the nozzle; If the corresponding nozzle is not the last at step S17, the nozzle number is increased by 1 and step S16 is performed to repeat steps S13, S14, and S15.

In the present invention, the printing step (S20), the step of determining whether printing is required (S21); If printing is not required, a predetermined corresponding process is performed (S27). If printing is requested, a line corresponding to the sequence is printed from the first line (S22). If printing of the corresponding line is completed, compensation for the defective nozzle is performed. A print / compensation printing step (S23) (S24) which performs a new line and compensates for the defective nozzle; If the compensation print is completed (S25), confirming whether or not the end of the print to end the print on the end of the print (S30), otherwise increasing the line to perform the step S22..S25 repeatedly (S26) do.

An operation of the defective nozzle compensation method of the inkjet printer equipped with the scanner of the present invention configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

First, Figure 1 is a block diagram of the hardware of an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner for implementing the method of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner stores a predetermined data, an ASIC 20 having a central processing unit (CPU) 10, a logic and a control circuit, as is known to those skilled in the art. A RAM 11, a ROM 12 storing programs and fonts, a head driver 30 for driving the print head 31, and a carriage return motor for driving a carriage return motor 41 A driver 40, a line feed driver 50 for driving a line feed motor 51, a scan block 60 for performing general processing related to performing a scan, a scanner 61, a computer and The interface 70 performs an interface, and the EEPROM 21 stores necessary data at power off. The method of the present invention is performed by the hardware block configuration of the inkjet printer equipped with the scanner configured as described above.

First, if there is a check request of the print head 31 in step S11, the central processing unit 10 initializes the nozzle number of the head 31 (S12). After initializing the nozzle number, the central processing unit 10 fires the nozzle a predetermined amount and checks whether the printing by the nozzle is normal through the scanner 61 (S13) (S14). If the printing by the nozzle is normal in step S14, that is, when the printing by the nozzle is normal, the CPU 10 determines whether the corresponding nozzle of the print head 31 is the last (S17). . If the corresponding nozzle is the last in step S17, the central processing unit 10 ends the nozzle check of the print head 31, otherwise, the nozzle number is increased by 1 to perform the nozzle check corresponding to the increased number. It is performed as one (S16).

If the printing by the nozzle in step S14 is not normal, that is, when the printed factor is not normal, the CPU 10 registers the number of the nozzle in the storage device RAM 11 or EEPROM 21. (S15).

If the check of the print head 31 is not required in step S11, the central processing unit 10 checks whether printing is required (S21). If printing is not required in step S21, the central processing unit 10 performs the corresponding processing of the inkjet printer (S27), if printing is requested, prints one line, and the normal nozzle for printing compensation by a bad nozzle A new line is performed to come to this defective nozzle position, and printing is performed to a defective nozzle position (S22) (S23) (S24). After step S24, the central processing unit 10 checks whether the compensation print of one line is completed, and if the compensation print of one line is not completed, the compensation print is performed by steps S23 and S24 (S25). That is, the compensation print is made by the number of defective nozzles.

When the compensation print of one line is completed in step S25, the CPU 10 checks whether the printing is finished (S30). If it is not the end of the print in step S30, the central processing unit 10 increases the print line by one line and causes the above-described step S22..S25 to be repeated sequentially. Then, if the printing is finished in step S30, the central processing unit 10 ends the printing.

As described above, according to the defective nozzle compensation method of the inkjet printer equipped with the scanner of the present invention, when a defect occurs in the print head nozzle, it is detected by the scanner, and the line is transported so that the normal nozzle is positioned at the defective nozzle position. The same printing quality can be maintained by compensating printing even when the nozzle is generated.

As described above, the defective nozzle compensation method of the inkjet printer equipped with the scanner according to the present invention, when the defective nozzle occurs in the inkjet printer equipped with the scanner, it detects this by using the scanner and normalizes the nozzle determined as defective. Since it is possible to print by replacing the nozzle of the nozzle, even if a bad nozzle occurs in the print head, the head can be used without damaging the print quality.

Claims (3)

In the method for compensating for a defective nozzle of a print head of an inkjet printer equipped with a scanner, When the print head is requested to check, the nozzles of the heads are fired by a certain amount, and each printing by these nozzles is checked through the scanner to determine whether the nozzles are normal. Registering; Printing a corresponding line upon printing request and performing new line printing so that a normal nozzle is at the defective nozzle position to compensate for the registered defective nozzle; When the compensation printing of the corresponding line is completed, checking whether the printing is completed, ending the printing if the printing is finished, and otherwise repeating the printing step. Nozzle Compensation Method. The method of claim 1, wherein the registration step, Determining whether to check the print head; Initializing the nozzle number if the print head is requested to be checked; A certain amount of fire is fired through the nozzles corresponding to the sequence, and the scanner determines whether the printing factor by the corresponding nozzle is normal. If the printing factor is normal, it is determined whether the corresponding nozzle is the last nozzle. A confirmation registration step of registering the nozzle; And if the nozzle is not the last, increasing the nozzle number by 1 and repeatedly performing the step of repeatedly checking and registering the nozzles. The method of claim 1, wherein the printing step, Determining whether printing was required; If printing is not required, predetermined processing is performed. If printing is requested, the line corresponding to the order is printed from the first line. If printing of the corresponding line is completed, compensation is performed for the defective nozzle and the A print / compensation print step for compensating printing; If the compensation printing is completed, check whether the end of the print to end the print end printing, otherwise increase the line to repeat the print / compensation print step comprising the inkjet printer equipped with a scanner, characterized in that Bad nozzle compensation method.

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