KR100313743B1 - Method for measuring amount of ink of ink jet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method for measuring the amount of ink of an ink jet printer is provided to accurately measure the amount of ink by checking the mass of an ink cartridge. CONSTITUTION: A method for measuring the amount of ink of an ink jet printer comprises the steps of checking the mounting state of a new ink cartridge in a carriage(S62), detecting the time(t1) for the carriage with the ink cartridge to move to a specific point B from another point A(S63), calculating the mass(M2) of the ink cartridge by checking the time(t2) for the carriage to move from one point to the other point after a specific amount of use of the ink(S64), deciding the time for replacing the ink cartridge based on the calculated mass of the ink cartridge(S65), and displaying the replacing time on a monitor(S66).

Description

How to measure the ink level of an inkjet printer

The present invention relates to a method for calculating the ink amount of an ink cartridge installed in an inkjet printer, and more particularly, by detecting the acceleration of a carriage in which an ink cartridge is mounted, and finally determining the mass of the ink cartridge to accurately calculate the remaining amount of ink. It relates to a method for measuring the ink amount of an inkjet printer.

In general, an inkjet printer is an apparatus for printing and printing contents (material) on a computer monitor by receiving an electric signal from a computer, and having an ink cartridge therein.

An ink cartridge is mounted on a carriage which is a printing device part of the inkjet printer, and there are two kinds of ink cartridges.

Such an inkjet printer includes a paper feeder unit 20 for supplying paper, a feeder unit 30 for feeding paper from the paper feeder unit 20 and transporting the paper, as shown in FIG. The printing device unit 40 for printing on the paper conveyed by the conveying device unit 30, and the paper discharge device unit 50 for discharging the paper printed by the printing device unit 40 to the outside.

The printing device 40 has an ink cartridge 42 having a nozzle (not shown) for ejecting ink installed on the carriage 41, and is transported through the nozzle according to the left and right movement of the carriage 41. Printing is carried out on the paper conveyed by the device unit 30.

And the carriage 41 is supported and mounted to the separation prevention portion 13 and the guide rod 14 mounted on the upper and lower sides of the mounting frame 11 side, respectively, the drive timing pulley ( Not shown) and the driven timing pulley 45 is installed, the timing belt 43 is wound around the outer peripheral surface of the drive timing pulley and the driven timing pulley 45, the drive timing pulley is connected to the motor 46.

That is, when the motor 46 is driven, the timing belt 43 connected thereto is rotated while the driving timing pulley is rotated so that the carriage 41 finally reciprocates left and right along the departure preventing part 13 and the guide rod 14. It is moved.

The paper feeder unit 20 includes an automatic paper feeder 21 for storing paper, and a pickup roller for transferring the paper stored in the automatic paper feeder 21 to the transfer device 30. The automatic paper feeder 21 The guide groove 28 is formed on one side of the upper end, and the paper adjusting mechanism 27 is installed here so that the paper housed in the automatic sheet feeding unit 21 can be neatly aligned and adhered to one side.

2 illustrates a printing process by an inkjet printer, wherein the paper 25 stored in the automatic paper feed unit 21 is cut into the friction roller 32 of the feeder unit 30 through a pickup roller 26. ) Is supplied between the feed roller 31 and the feed roller for printing.

The paper conveyed in this way is configured to be discharged to the outside of the inkjet printer while being transferred between the discharge roller 51 and the document contact wheel 52 when passing through the guide frame 53 to reach the paper discharge device unit 50.

Meanwhile, when the feed roller 31 is rotated in a state in which the driving roller 33 is engaged between the discharge roller 51 and the feed roller 31, the driving roller 33 receives this power and is delivered to the discharge roller 51. As it is delivered, the roller 51 is rotated.

The paper feeder unit 20 picks up the automatic feeder 21 for accommodating the paper 25 and the pick-up roller for removing the sheet 25 stored in the automatic feeder 21 one by one and feeding the sheet 25 to the feeder unit 30. It consists of 26, the automatic sheet feeding unit 21 is composed of a main frame 22 and the knock-up plate 23 for storing the paper 25 in one place, the top of the main frame 22 Between the lower end of the knock-up plate 23 and the knock-up spring 24 is mounted.

On the other hand, the belt hanger 44 is formed on the rear side of the carriage 41, one side of the timing belt 43 is fastened to the belt hanger 44 so that the carriage 41 moves when the timing belt 43 moves. Therefore, the nozzle part 47 which moves, and injects ink to a paper is formed in the lower end of the ink cartridge 42 attached to the carriage 41. FIG.

The mounting frame 11 is provided inside the case 10, and a lid 12 is mounted in front of the inkjet printer to contact the case 10.

In the inkjet printer configured as described above, the conventional method for measuring the amount of ink remaining in the ink cartridge 42 firstly stores the ink amount of the new ink ink cartridge 42 in the inkjet printer, and stores the stored ink. Based on the amount of ink, the number of jets of ink dots generated when printing was measured, and the remaining amount of ink was displayed on a computer monitor.

However, the conventional method for measuring the amount of ink does not measure the amount of ink quantitatively, so it is not possible to deliver the correct amount of measurement to the user. There was a problem of disappearing.

Therefore, the present invention is to solve the above-described problems, by detecting the movement state of the carriage equipped with the ink cartridge, that is, the acceleration of the carriage, and based on this data to calculate the mass of the currently mounted ink cartridge, eventually the remaining ink It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for measuring the ink amount of an inkjet printer capable of calculating.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a method of measuring an ink amount of an inkjet printer having a sensor for detecting the presence or absence of a carriage on one side of which the carriage moves left and right, and checking whether a new ink cartridge is mounted on the carriage. And detecting and storing the time t ₁ taken by the carriage having the new ink cartridge (mass: M ₁ ) from the predetermined point A to the predetermined point B along the guide rod by the sensor. And, after using a certain amount of ink by the printing action, the time (t ₂ ) that the carriage with the ink cartridge is mounted to move from a certain point (A) to a certain point (B) along the guide rod is calculated by the sensor Calculating the mass of the ink cartridge (M ₂ ) by the formula M ₂ = (t ₂ / t ₁ ) ² M ₁ , and based on the calculated mass of the ink cartridge (M ₂ ) Ka And determining the exchange time of the trige, and displaying it on the monitor screen of the computer when the ink cartridge is replaced.

1 is an internal configuration of a general inkjet printer,

2 is a side configuration diagram of FIG. 1;

3 is a schematic internal configuration diagram of an inkjet printer to which the present invention is applied;

4 is a conceptual diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention;

5 is a control flowchart of a method of measuring an ink amount of an inkjet printer according to the present invention.

Hereinafter, the configuration and operation of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

3 is a schematic internal configuration diagram of an inkjet printer to which the present invention is applied.

As shown, the ink cartridge 42 is mounted to the carriage 41 of the inkjet printer, the carriage 41 is connected to the timing belt 43, the timing belt 43 is connected to the motor 46 The carriage 41 is driven left and right along the guide rod 14 by the driving of the 46.

In this configuration, the carriage 41 is further provided with a detection sensor 60 (PHOTO sensor) for detecting the movement of the carriage 41 on one side reciprocating movement.

The detection sensor 60 is a sensor connected to the control circuit of the inkjet printer. When the carriage 41 is moved left and right along the guide rod 14, a signal transmitted from the detection sensor 60 hits the carriage 41. The reflected signal is read again to detect the presence or absence of the carriage 41.

More specifically, if the distance from which the carriage 41 to which the ink cartridge 42 is mounted is moved is set from A to B, the cartridge 41 moves from A to B while the new ink cartridge 42 is mounted on the carriage 41. The time required is possible by the sensor 60 to detect the carriage 41, the data at this time is stored in the memory of the control circuit.

In addition, after the ink of the ink cartridge 42 is used up, the ink cartridge 42 is sensed and stored in the memory when the carriage 41 is moved from A to B in the same manner as described above.

4 is a conceptual diagram illustrating the principles of the present invention, illustrating a method of calculating the mass of the ink cartridge 42 after the ink is consumed by deriving a constant formula from the second law of motion.

In other words, the second law of motion is that the direction of acceleration that occurs when a force is applied to an object is the same as the direction of the force, and its magnitude is proportional to the magnitude of the force and inversely proportional to the mass of the object. When the same force is pushed or pulled on different objects, the acceleration is changed by the difference of the moment of inertia.

Since the mass of the ink cartridge 42 shows a certain dimension for each manufacturer, the mass M ₁ of the ink cartridge 42 before using the ink is constant.

F (force) = M ₁ a ₁ = M ₂ a ₂ (M ₁ , M ₂ : mass, a ₁ , a ₂ : acceleration)

Acceleration (a ₁ , a ₂ ) refers to the rate of change of velocity over time. If the same force (F) is applied to objects of different mass (M ₁ , M ₂ ) in the above equation, the change in velocity, ie acceleration is mass It is inversely proportional to.

By using the above principle, the ratio of the acceleration between the ink cartridge 42 which does not use ink and the ink cartridge 42 which uses ink to some extent is found, and finally the mass is calculated, thereby consuming the ink, that is, the current ink cartridge. The remaining amount of ink remaining in (42) can be measured.

And the torque T of the motor which drives a carriage also has a fixed dimension.

Thus, T = Fr = constant (where r = radius of motor pulley)

And r is also constant

F = schedule

Then, at a certain point of the inkjet printer, the carriage is moved to a constant torque T value to have a time t value that reaches the position B of the sensor 60 that detects the position of the carriage 41.

Therefore, the acceleration until the carriage 41 with the new ink cartridge 42 is detected from the detection sensor 60 at the point B starts from A

Becomes

If you use the ink after installing the new ink cartridge 42,

Becomes

The formula for measuring the ink amount after being used by such Formula 1 and Formula 2 is as follows.

Where acceleration a is the change in velocity over time

Where Δv; Velocity variation, v; Speed when passing through the sensor, v ₀ = 0 (initial speed, the speed of the first arbitrary point A is stationary and therefore zero), t = until it passes through the sensor 60 at any point Time

In the above expression, v ₀ is the velocity at any point, so 0

Thus, Formula 5 is

Becomes the speed again

And distance s is a constant distance, so s ₁ = s ₂ .

So sum up Formula 7 and Formula 8

Therefore, the mass (M ₁ ) of the initial ink cartridge 42 is known, and the time (T ₁ ) of moving the predetermined distance (S) of the new ink cartridge 42 and the predetermined distance (S) after using the ink cartridge are moved. Knowing the time t ₂ , the mass M ₂ of the ink cartridge 42 after using the ink can be calculated.

With reference to Formula 9 above

The mass M ₁ of the initial ink cartridge 42 is given a constant value,

1. After the initial ink cartridge 42 is mounted on the carriage, the time of arrival (t ₁ ) is measured from the set point A to the detection sensor 60 and stored in the memory of the inkjet printer.

2. Print the contents (data) on the monitor of the computer on the paper and use the ink, and then know how long it takes for the ink cartridge 42 to move (t ₂ ) in the same way as above.

3. The mass (M ₂ ) of the ink in the remaining ink cartridge 42 can be calculated.

As an example applied to the formula derived as described above, the time (t ₁ ) taken by moving the initial ink cartridge 42 (M ₁ ) is 0.9 seconds, and the mass (M ₁ ) of the new ink cartridge mounted on the carriage is 76 g. If, after using a certain amount of ink of the ink cartridge (M ₂ ), the time (t ₂ ) to move the carriage from a certain point (A) to a certain point (B) again is 0.85 seconds (sec),

1. When you move a new ink cartridge

Velocity at point A v ₀ = 0 m / s

Velocity at point B v ₁ = S / t ₁

Acceleration from point A to point B, a ₁ = (v ₁ -v ₀ ) / t ₁

v ₀ = 0 m / s

a ₁ = S / (t ₁ ) ²

And the force F ₁ on the motor

F ₁ = M ₁ a ₁ = M ₁ S (t ₁ ) ² ---------- (1)

2. When using a certain amount of ink to move the ink cartridge (M ₂ )

If you organize by the above formula

F ₂ = M ₂ a ₂ = M ₂ S (t ₂ ) ² ---------- (2)

And the torque acting on the motor is the same

F ₁ = F ₂ = F

Therefore, sum up the above formula (1), (2)

M ₁ S / (t ₁ ) ² = M ₂ S / (t ₂ ) ²

M ₂ = (t ₂ / t ₁ ) ² M ₁ ---------- (Formula 9)

So if you calculate by substituting the above example

M ₂ = (0.85 / 0.9) ² × 76 g = 67.8 g

Therefore, after using the ink, the mass (M ₂ ) of the ink cartridge can be calculated by Equation 9 to be 67.8g.

That is, the formula (9) knows the mass (M ₁ ) of the initial ink cartridge 42, the time it takes to move the ink cartridge 42 from a certain point (A) to a certain point (B) along the guide rod before use ( t ₁ ), and after using the ink of the ink cartridge, the time (t ₂ ) taken when moving the ink cartridge along a guide rod 14 from a certain point (A) to a certain point (B) is detected. If detected and detected, the mass (M ₂ ) of the ink cartridge 42 after using the ink of the ink cartridge 42 mounted on the inkjet printer at a certain point of time can be calculated by substituting the formula (9).

The process of calculating the remaining ink amount after using the ink of the ink cartridge by this method will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 5.

First, the user using the inkjet printer turns on the power while the new ink cartridge is mounted on the carriage to give the carriage movement command (S61).

Therefore, the inkjet printer which has received the movement command checks the mounting state of the ink cartridge (S62) and transmits the current mounting state of the ink cartridge to the computer.

In the computer, if the mounting state of the ink cartridge transmitted from the inkjet printer is checked and installed, the detection sensor is operated (S63).

By measuring the operation of the sensor (S63), a new ink cartridge is mounted on the carriage, and the time taken to move between fixed points (t ₁ ) is measured.In addition, after the ink is used, the ink cartridge is The time taken to move (t ₂ ) is measured and stored in the memory of the inkjet printer.

The mass (M ₂ ) of the ink cartridge after using the ink is based on the measured time (t ₁ , t ₂ ) and the mass of the given initial ink cartridge (M ₁ ). ₂ = (t ₂ / t ₁ ) ² M ₁ ] is calculated and calculated (S64).

The determines the replacement timing of the calculated M ₂ (S65) if the timing of replacement is displayed on the computer monitor (S66), or the timing of replacement, it continues to measure the time (t ₂₎ required movement of M ₂ do.

When the ink cartridge replacement time is displayed on the monitor screen of the computer, the operation is terminated (S67).

On the other hand, the method for measuring the mass of the ink cartridge according to the present invention is not limited to an inkjet printer, but applies to all office automation equipment that uses ink cartridges, such as a multifunction printer and an amunzen printer, and then uses the ink cartridges and then the ink of the ink cartridges. Quantity can be measured.

Therefore, the present invention calculates the time it takes to reciprocate the ink cartridge from a certain point to a certain point before printing in a state where the ink cartridge is mounted on the carriage of the inkjet printer, and after using the ink cartridge, the ink cartridge is fixed at a certain point. It is possible to calculate the amount of ink remaining in the ink cartridge easily and accurately by applying the detected time to the formula M ₂ = (t ₂ / t ₁ ) ² M ₁ by calculating the time taken to shuttle to and from the point. It has an effect.

Claims (1)

In the ink amount measurement method of the inkjet printer having a detection sensor for detecting the presence of the carriage on one side of the carriage moves left and right, Checking the status of whether a new ink cartridge is installed in the carriage, Detecting and storing a time (t ₁ ) of the carriage having a new ink cartridge (mass; M ₁ ) from the fixed point (A) to the fixed point (B) along the guide rod with a sensor; The law of motion is calculated by using a sensor to calculate the time (t ₂ ) of moving the carriage with the ink cartridge from the fixed point (A) to the fixed point (B) along the guide rod after using a certain amount of ink by printing. Calculating the mass (M ₂ ) of the ink cartridge by the formula M ₂ = (t ₂ / t ₁ ) ² M ₁ , Determining the replacement time of the ink cartridge based on the calculated mass (M ₂ ) of the ink cartridge; And when the ink cartridge is to be replaced, displaying the same on a monitor screen of a computer.