KR100644282B1 - An apparatus and a method for inkjet printing - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an inkjet printing apparatus and a printing method. More particularly, in a color ink head including a plurality of ink reservoirs, a chemical treatment agent such as a pretreatment agent or a post-treatment agent is added to some ink reservoirs, and then software is installed. By controlling the discharge of the chemical treatment agent and the color ink by using the above, the present invention relates to an inkjet printing method capable of improving the printing state by only changing the color ink head and software without changing the hardware.

Inkjet, color inkhead, software

Description

An apparatus and a method for inkjet printing

1 is a block diagram showing the internal circuit configuration of a conventional inkjet printer.

Figure 2 schematically shows an embodiment of a color ink head according to the present invention.

* Description of the main parts of the drawings *

30: color ink head

31a, 31b: ink reservoir containing chemical treatment agent

32a to 32b: ink reservoir containing color ink

The present invention relates to an inkjet printing apparatus and a printing method. More particularly, in a color ink head including a plurality of ink reservoirs, a chemical treatment agent such as a pretreatment agent or a post-treatment agent is added to some ink reservoirs, and then software is installed. By controlling the discharge of the chemical treatment agent and the color ink by using the above, the present invention relates to an inkjet chemical processing printing method capable of improving the printing state by only changing the color ink head and software without changing the hardware.

In general, an inkjet printer drives a motor or the like according to a control signal of a printer control unit, and as the carriage installed on the main frame moves left and right, the ink head mounted on the carriage also moves left and right at the same time. The ink is discharged while forming a certain shape, and is printed while being buried in the transported object.

A closer look at this process follows.

As shown in FIG. 1, the internal circuit (control unit) of the conventional inkjet printer receives print data generated from the PC 10 through the interface 21. The print data applied through the interface 21 is temporarily stored in the RAM 22, and the CPU 23 reads the font stored in the ROM 24 from the print data temporarily stored in the RAM 22. To generate a print control signal according to the print data.

The print control signal generated from the CPU 23 is applied by the motor driver circuit 25. The motor drive circuit 25 receiving the print control signal generally feeds the carrier and the media for mounting the inkjet print head and performing the reciprocating motion in the printing mechanism 27 according to the applied print control signal. To drive a motor.

When the printing preparation is completed by the printing mechanism 27 according to the print data applied from the PC 10, the print control signal output from the CPU 23 is applied by the head drive circuit 26. The head drive circuit 26 receiving the print control signal outputs the head control signal in accordance with the applied print control signal.

The head control signal output from the head drive circuit 26 is applied to the inkjet printhead of the printing mechanism 27. The inkjet printhead applied with the head control signal controls the formation of an ink drop according to the applied head control signal to display an image on the media. At this time, the power on / off circuit 28 turns on / off the supply of power to each circuit block.

The inkjet printing method used in this process is a method of ejecting ink as a small drop from a fine nozzle, and recording characters and figures on the surface of the recording object. As an inkjet printing method, an electric distortion element is used to convert an electrical signal into a mechanical signal, intermittently eject ink stored in the nozzle head portion, and write letters or symbols on the surface of the subject to be recorded. A method in which a portion very close to the ejection portion of the ink is rapidly heated to generate bubbles, intermittently ejected by volume expansion by the bubbles, and a character or symbol is recorded on the surface of the recording object.

In inkjet printing, as a supply form of ink, a method of combining a plurality of different colors of ink and ejecting the same to a recording object is known. According to this method, since the type and ejection amount of each ink ejected from the ink head are often selected in accordance with a signal based on the image information, it is possible to easily obtain a high quality color image.

The ink head used for color printing generally includes respective ink reservoirs containing three colors of inks, blue (Cyas), red (Magenta), and yellow (yellow), and ink of the color required by the head control signal. Is configured to be discharged, and not only three color inks are used, but each ink storage container including various inks such as four or six colors may be included.

Conventional methods for discharging color ink and arranging color ink have been disclosed in Korean Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 1998-047334, 1998-084204, and Utility Model Publication No. 1998-057894, which are widely used techniques. The description will be omitted.

 As a general ink used for color printing, one in which various water-soluble dyes are dissolved in an aqueous medium is widely used, and an ink in which a pigment is dispersed in an aqueous medium by a dispersant is also used.

 However, this conventional inkjet printing method has a problem in that the printing state of the recording object does not last long and can be easily changed by external factors. This is because the water resistance is poor, not only scratch, but also the color changes when exposed to sunlight for a long time.

In order to solve this problem, a method of mixing and spraying a chemical treatment agent into an ink has been developed. However, this also has a problem that a difference in viscosity occurs as compared with the case of spraying only the ink itself, thereby preventing uniform ink ejection. There was a problem that the function as a pretreatment or a posttreatment agent could not be sufficiently performed.

 Therefore, in order to solve all the above problems, in addition to the head from which the ink is discharged, a separate head which is located before and after the advancing direction of the ink head, i.e., left and right in the feeding direction of the ink head, accompanies the ink head. Thus, after the ink ejection head is operated, a method of enabling the ejection head to operate the chemical treatment agent, thereby reinforcing water resistance, light resistance, and the like has been developed.

 However, this method cannot be used by existing printer users, and there is a problem that a user must purchase a new printer to which a new chemical agent head is added.

Conventional inkjet printing methods have been used not only for the use of paper as a recording body, but also for printing using textile fabrics, and such methods of pretreating and printing fabrics using inkjet devices are disclosed in Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-0083941. It was disclosed through such a. However, this also had the same problem as mentioned above.

  In order to solve the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to use only existing hardware without additional hardware and to change only the software so that various chemical treatment agents for improving the printing state can be discharged.

The present invention is a color ink head including a plurality of ink reservoirs to achieve the above object; A control unit controlling an operation of the color ink head based on an input signal from a computer; An inkjet printing apparatus comprising: a chemical treatment agent is filled in one of the ink reservoirs, and the chemical treatment agent and the color ink are discharged by a control signal to the control unit.

In addition, the storage step of storing the chemical treatment agent in any one of the plurality of ink reservoirs constituting the color ink head; A discharging step of discharging the chemical treating agent and the color ink; It is characterized by including.

More specifically, the discharging step is characterized in that the chemical treatment agent is discharged in front of the head traveling direction, the color ink is injected behind the discharge position of the chemical treatment agent, the discharge step, the discharge of the color ink Characterized in that the chemical treatment agent is discharged behind the position.

In the discharging step, the chemical treatment agent is discharged from the rear of the head advancing direction, and the color ink is jetted in front of the discharge position of the chemical treatment agent. Characterized in that the chemical treatment agent is discharged.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 schematically shows a color ink head 30 according to the present invention. In the left and right ink reservoirs 31a and 31b of a general six-color ink head 30, a necessary chemical treatment agent is placed and a central ink reservoir ( 32) is a color ink. Reference numerals 32a to 32d denote portions in which respective color inks having different colors are stored.

The chemical treatment agent can be put in the required position according to its purpose.In case of functioning as a pretreatment agent, the chemical treatment agent can be discharged from the front of the head direction. It is preferable to be put.

For example, when the head 30 moves in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 2, the pretreatment is put in the rightmost ink reservoir 31b, and the posttreatment is put in the leftmost ink reservoir 31a. It is preferable to discharge each in front or rear of the advancing direction.

As the chemical treatment agent, various pretreatment agents for improving the condition of the surface of the recording object with which the color ink contacts, or various post treatment agents for increasing durability by coating the color ink may be used. Various chemical treatment agents may be used depending on the like.

Referring to the printing method of discharging the color ink together with the pretreatment agent and the post-treatment agent using the color ink head configured as shown in FIG. 2, first, the pretreatment agent is placed in the ink storage container 31b located in the forward direction, and the ink located at the rear side. The aftertreatment agent is put into the storage container 31a.

When the color ink head 30 as described above is mounted in the printer, the discharge of the chemical treatment agent and the color ink is controlled by using predetermined software executable by the control unit. At this time, the printer control unit has the same function as in a general inkjet color printer.

The software can be registered on a website, which can be downloaded by a user and introduced into an existing printer device, and can be provided via a recording medium on which the control program is recorded. The recording medium may be a semiconductor memory, a compact disk, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magneto-optical disk, a digital video disk, or a magnetic tape. The recording medium may be used to introduce a program into an existing printer apparatus. Can be.

In this embodiment, the pretreatment agent is discharged from the front side in the advancing direction of the head, and the color ink required at the center side is discharged from the rear side.

However, when only one of the pretreatment agent and the aftertreatment agent is required, only the necessary chemical treatment agent may be discharged through the printer control unit.

In the ink reservoirs of FIG. 2, only one kind of pretreatment agent or one kind of post-treatment agent may be filled in the ink reservoirs 31a and 31b located at both front and rear of the advancing direction.

In this case, the ink and the chemical treatment agent can be discharged at both the front and the rear of the head in both directions to improve the printing speed.

In other words, when only the pretreatment agent is used, the pretreatment agent is discharged from the ink reservoir 31b at the right end, and the color ink is discharged from the center ink reservoir 32 when the head moves in the direction of the arrow in FIG. In the ink storage container 31a, nothing is discharged. When moving in the opposite direction, the pretreatment agent is discharged from the ink reservoir 31a at the left end, color ink is discharged from the ink reservoir 32 at the center, and nothing is discharged from the ink reservoir 31b at the right end. That is, even when the head 30 is moved in any direction, the pretreatment agent and the color ink are discharged together, so that a faster printing operation is performed.

When only the post-treatment agent is used, when the head moves in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 2, the color ink is discharged from the ink reservoir 32 in the center, and the post-treatment agent is discharged from the ink reservoir 31a at the left end. Nothing is discharged from the reservoir 31b. On the contrary, the color ink is discharged from the ink reservoir 32 at the center, and the post-processing agent is discharged from the ink reservoir 31b at the right end, and nothing is discharged from the ink reservoir 31a at the left end. By using this method, even if the head moves in any direction, the color ink and the post-treatment agent are discharged together, so that the printing operation is performed, so that the printing speed is improved.

The inkjet printing method as described above is not only used for a printer using a recording material, but can also be used for printing or printing fibers. After the pretreatment is applied to the fibers to make the color ink well applied, a method of increasing the durability by applying the color ink, and then applying the post-treatment agent may be used. It is also possible to use.

According to the present invention, it is possible to apply various chemical treatment agents to a recording object by using the inkjet method only by changing the software.

In addition, by applying various chemical treatment agents, the printing state of the recording object can be maintained unchanged for a long time, and more clear printing is possible.

 In addition, if one type of chemical treatment agent is included in the ink reservoirs located in front and rear of the head moving direction, and only the chemical treatment agents in the opposite ink reservoirs are discharged at the time of bidirectional movement, the chemical treatment agent is added together with the ink. It is possible to increase the printing speed while discharging.

Claims (6)

A color ink head including a plurality of ink reservoirs; A control unit controlling an operation of the color ink head based on an input signal from a computer; An inkjet printing apparatus comprising: Any one of the ink reservoirs is filled with a chemical treatment agent, And the chemical treatment agent and the color ink are discharged by a control signal of the controller. A storage step of storing a chemical treatment agent in any one of a plurality of ink storage containers constituting the color ink head; A discharging step of discharging the chemical treating agent and the color ink; Inkjet printing method comprising a. The method of claim 2, wherein the discharging step, An ink jet printing method, wherein a chemical treatment agent is discharged in front of a head traveling direction, and color ink is injected behind a discharge position of the chemical treatment agent. The method of claim 3, wherein the discharging step, And a chemical treatment agent is discharged behind the head advancing direction of the discharging position of the color ink. The method of claim 2, wherein the discharging step, An inkjet printing method characterized by discharging a chemical treatment agent in the rear of the head traveling direction and injecting a color ink in front of the discharge position of the chemical treatment agent. The method of claim 5, wherein the discharging step, And a chemical treatment agent is discharged in front of the discharge position of the color ink.

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