WO2005102720A1 - Procede et appareil de declenchement des buses d'une imprimante a jet d'encre - Google Patents

Procede et appareil de declenchement des buses d'une imprimante a jet d'encre Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2005102720A1
WO2005102720A1 PCT/US2004/008851 US2004008851W WO2005102720A1 WO 2005102720 A1 WO2005102720 A1 WO 2005102720A1 US 2004008851 W US2004008851 W US 2004008851W WO 2005102720 A1 WO2005102720 A1 WO 2005102720A1
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
fire
jetting
pulse
heater
ink
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/US2004/008851
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
George Keith Parish
Kristi Maggard Rowe
Original Assignee
Lexmark International, Inc
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Lexmark International, Inc filed Critical Lexmark International, Inc
Priority to PCT/US2004/008851 priority Critical patent/WO2005102720A1/fr
Publication of WO2005102720A1 publication Critical patent/WO2005102720A1/fr

Links

Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/015—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process
    • B41J2/04—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand
    • B41J2/045—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand by pressure, e.g. electromechanical transducers
    • B41J2/04501—Control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits, control circuits
    • B41J2/04541—Specific driving circuit
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/015—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process
    • B41J2/04—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand
    • B41J2/045—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand by pressure, e.g. electromechanical transducers
    • B41J2/04501—Control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits, control circuits
    • B41J2/04573—Timing; Delays
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/015—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process
    • B41J2/04—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand
    • B41J2/045—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand by pressure, e.g. electromechanical transducers
    • B41J2/04501—Control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits, control circuits
    • B41J2/0458—Control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits, control circuits controlling heads based on heating elements forming bubbles

Definitions

  • An ink jet printer typically includes an ink jet printhead assembly having a nozzle plate which is mounted in spaced apart relationship to a printhead.
  • the nozzle plate includes a plurality of ink emitting orifices which are respectively disposed in association with a plurality of heater elements mounted on the printhead. When a particular heater element is actuated or fired, ink disposed .adjacent thereto rapidly expands to form a vapor bubble. Ink is expelled through the orifice by the bubble and is j etted onto the print medium.
  • the present invention provides a method of using a single fire input/output (I/O) to simultaneously raise the energy level in two groups of heaters for different amounts of time.
  • This single fire pulse can be used to fire one group of heaters to ink nucleation and to pre- fire a second group of heaters for a shorter amount of time simultaneously.
  • the invention comprises, in one form thereof, a method of firing a plurality of jetting heaters in an ink jet printer. A first of the jetting heaters to be fired is identified. A second of the jetting heaters to be fired immediately after the firing of the first jetting heater is also identified. Power is simultaneously applied to each of the first jetting heater and the second jetting heater.
  • An advantage of the present invention is that increased printing speed and/or improved print quality resulting from a longer fire cycle for prefire and nucleation is provided. Another advantage is that there is no need to increase I/O (input-output), such as by creating additional fire I/O, in order to implement the method of the present invention.
  • I/O input-output
  • Fig. 1 is a schematic view of an embodiment of an ink jet printhead of the present invention, illustrating a typical configuration of ink emitting orifices and jetting heaters;
  • Fig. 2 is a timing diagram of typical serial data produced by an embodiment of the method of the present invention;
  • Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of the printhead chip and heaters of Fig. 1;
  • Fig. 4 is a timing diagram of typical serial data produced by another embodiment of the method of the present invention;
  • Fig. 1 is a schematic view of an embodiment of an ink jet printhead of the present invention, illustrating a typical configuration of ink emitting orifices and jetting heaters;
  • Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of the printhead chip and heaters of Fig. 1;
  • Fig. 4 is a timing diagram of typical serial data produced by another embodiment of the method of the present invention;
  • Fig. 1 is a schematic view of an embodiment of an ink jet printhead of the present invention, illustrating a typical
  • Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of the printhead chip and heaters; and Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram of a fire hold circuit of Fig. 5.
  • Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. The exemplifications set out herein illustrate one preferred embodiment of the invention, in one form, and such exemplifications are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner.
  • a printhead 10 including a nozzle plate 12 having a plurality of ink emitting orifices 14 formed therein.
  • Printhead 10 also includes a substrate 16 which is connected to nozzle plate 12.
  • a plurality of jetting heaters 18 are mounted on substrate 16 and positioned relative to respective ink emitting orifices 14. More particularly, each of the plurality of jetting heaters 18 is positioned substantially in axial alignment with a respective ink emitting orifice 14. Actuation of a jetting heater 18 rapidly heats the ink disposed adjacent thereto, and creates a gas bubble which jets ink from the associated ink emitting orifice 14.
  • Jetting heaters 18 are actuated by a printhead chip 20 in response to signals from a controller 22.
  • Input heater address data is loaded in some serial fashion through one or more shift registers.
  • the amount of time required to load the external input data into a shift register and latch the data onto the printhead chip is referred to as the "data cycle", as shown in Fig. 2.
  • the heaters are controlled, i.e., turned on and off, by a cyclical "fire signal".
  • the fire signal is a cyclically repeated series of the following: a short prefire pulse followed by a period of dead time when the heater is not turned on, followed by a longer fire pulse that causes the ink nucleation over the heater.
  • Heater 1 is an example of a heater that fires in a first fire cycle only. That is, an associated first ink emitting orifice 23 is caused to emit ink in response to the firing of Heater 1 in the first fire cycle.
  • Heater 2 is an example of a heater that fires in a second fire cycle only. That is, an associated second ink emitting orifice 25 is caused to emit ink in response to the firing of Heater 2 in the second fire cycle.
  • adjacent fire cycles do not overlap with each other.
  • Fig. 3 is a schematic view of the circuitry of printhead chip 20 driving jetting heaters 18 as shown in Fig. 2. Only eight jetting heaters 18 and their associated driving circuitry of printhead chip 20 are shown in Fig. 3 for ease of illustration. However, it is to be understood that the circuitry of Fig. 3 can be replicated as many times as necessary to support a desired number of ink emitting orifices 14.
  • a pair of group data shift registers 24 are used to create four (2 2 ) addresses for heaters 18 at four respective group latches 26 via a decode circuit 28.
  • the number of heaters 18 that can be driven by a common address is determined by how many primitive data shift registers 30 are provided. For example, in Fig. 3, each pair of vertically adjacent heaters 18 is driven by a respective group latch 26 and by two separate primitive latches 32. That is, heaters 18a are driven by group latch 26a and by primitive latches 32a and 32b. Thus, the eight heaters 18a-18d shown in Fig. 3 are driven by the four group latches 26a-26d and primitive latches 32a and 32b. In general, the number of heaters that can be driven is equal to the number of group latches 26 multiplied by the number of primitive latches 32. Latches 26, 32 latch the current data state from Clock 2 falling edge to falling edge.
  • group latches 26a-26d In operation, only one of group latches 26a-26d produces a logic "1" on its Q output, i.e., goes "high", at any point in time. Thus, only the heaters 18 associated with the "high” group latch 26 can be turned on at any point in time. For example, if group latch 26a is high, only heaters 18a can be turned on. Whether one, both or neither of heaters 18a is actually turned on is determined by the outputs of primitive latches 32a and 32b. When group latch 26a goes “low”, i.e., produces a logic "0" on its Q output, group latch 26b can then go high, allowing heaters 18b to be turned on.
  • Group latches 26a-26d go high and low in sequence, i.e., latch 26a goes high then low, latch 26b goes high then low, latch 26c goes high then low, and finally latch 26d goes high then low. This sequence is then cyclically repeated. As can be seen in Fig. 2, there is a delay between a rising edge of a prefire pulse or a fire pulse and a heater being turned on. Likewise, there is a delay between a falling edge of a prefire pulse or a fire pulse and a heater being turned off. These delays are due to the response time of power transistors 33.
  • a timing diagram of typical serial data produced by another embodiment of the method of the present invention is shown in Fig. 4. In this embodiment, adjacent fire cycles overlap with each other.
  • Power is applied to only Heater 1 immediately before the rising edge of the second clock 2 pulse. Power is simultaneously applied to each of Heater 1 and Heater 2 during the period of overlap between the first fire cycle and the second fire cycle, after the falling edge of the second clock 2 pulse.
  • the merging of the fire pulses with the respective, immediately following prefire pulses causes the overlapping of the first and second fire cycles.
  • the fire pulse and the prefire pulse of the fire signal are not distinct, as they are in the embodiment of Fig. 2. Rather, the fire pulse is extended into the prefire pulse to form one continuous fire/prefire pulse.
  • the fire/prefire pulse during the overlap between the first fire cycle and the second fire cycle serves as both a fire pulse for Heater 1 and as a prefire pulse for Heater 2. That is, Heater 1 fires during the first fire cycle, and Heater 2 fires during the second fire cycle. As can be seen in Fig. 4, there is also an overlap of the second fire cycle and the third fire cycle.
  • the fire/prefire pulse during the overlap between the second fire cycle and the third fire cycle serves as both a fire pulse for Heater 2 and as a prefire pulse for Heater 3.
  • Heater 2 fires during the second fire cycle
  • Heater 3 fires during the third fire cycle. Overlapping of adjacent fire cycles continues, with each fire/prefire pulse serving as both a fire pulse for the preceding heater and as a prefire pulse for the succeeding heater.
  • a fire cycle is longer than a data cycle.
  • the fire cycle can be set to be longer than the fire cycle of Fig. 2, with the lengths of the data cycles being equal, resulting in better print quality, hi Fig. 2, a fire cycle is equal to the time value of: Pre-fire pulse + dead time + fire pulse.
  • the length of the fire cycle increases by the time value of the pre-fire pulse of the next state. This produces more efficient ink nucleation, and, thus, better formed drops of ink and, in the end, better print quality.
  • the length of the fire cycle can be set equal to the length of the fire cycle of Fig. 2, with the data cycle being shorter than that of Fig. 2, resulting in faster printing.
  • the data cycle, as well as the fire cycle is equal to the time value of: Pre-fire pulse + dead time + fire pulse.
  • the length of the data cycle can be decreased by the time value of the prefire pulse of the next state. This would allow for a faster printing speed.
  • Fig. 5 is a schematic view of the circuitry of a printhead chip 34 driving jetting heaters 18 as shown in Fig. 4.
  • Printhead chip 34 includes fire hold circuits 36, the details of one of which are shown in Fig. 6.
  • the gain in function is achieved by triggering an extra latch 38 for each data bit to hold the state of the bit in order to provide the extended fire cycle time.
  • a second latch 38 In order to extend the fire cycle, a second latch
  • Fire hold circuit 36 makes the decision of whether or not to extend the fire cycle or start a new prefire with every new data set. As seen in Fig. 4, the output of the first fire hold remains high after the first group latch has transitioned from high to low. The second fire hold goes high as soon as the second group latch has transitioned from low to high. Thus, for a short period of time, the outputs of the fire holds are high simultaneously, thereby causing two associated heaters to be turned on simultaneously.
  • group latch 26a produces a logic "1" on its Q output.
  • fire hold circuit 36a produces a logic "1" on its Q output.
  • Group latch 26a then goes low and group latch 26b goes high, as in the previous embodiment.
  • Fire hold circuit 36a does not go low when group latch 26a goes low, however. Rather, fire hold circuit 36a maintains a logic "1" on its Q output until the falling edge of the fire/prefire pulse. While fire hold circuit 36a is maintained in its high state, fire hold circuit 36b also goes high in response to group latch 26b going high.
  • power is simultaneously applied to heater(s) 18a and heater(s) 18b, as shown in the overlap between the first fire cycle and the second fire cycle in Fig. 4.
  • Group latches 26-26d go high and low sequentially, as in the previous embodiment.
  • Printhead chip 34 provides the ability to create a longer fire cycle, or shorter data cycle, by simultaneously holding constant a high state of a previous heater address and a high state of a current address during a fire pattern. While this invention has been described as having a preferred design, the present invention can be further modified within the spirit and scope of this disclosure.

Abstract

L'invention porte sur un procédé de déclenchement d'une pluralité d'éléments chauffant de propulsion d'une imprimante à jet d'encre, ce procédé consistant à identifier un premier de ces éléments chauffants à déclencher, et à identifier également un second de ces éléments chauffants de propulsion devant être déclenché immédiatement après le premier. Le courant est simultanément appliqué à chacun des premier et second éléments chauffants de propulsion.
PCT/US2004/008851 2004-03-23 2004-03-23 Procede et appareil de declenchement des buses d'une imprimante a jet d'encre WO2005102720A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PCT/US2004/008851 WO2005102720A1 (fr) 2004-03-23 2004-03-23 Procede et appareil de declenchement des buses d'une imprimante a jet d'encre

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
PCT/US2004/008851 WO2005102720A1 (fr) 2004-03-23 2004-03-23 Procede et appareil de declenchement des buses d'une imprimante a jet d'encre

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
WO2005102720A1 true WO2005102720A1 (fr) 2005-11-03

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PCT/US2004/008851 WO2005102720A1 (fr) 2004-03-23 2004-03-23 Procede et appareil de declenchement des buses d'une imprimante a jet d'encre

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Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5917509A (en) * 1995-03-08 1999-06-29 Xerox Corporation Method and apparatus for interleaving pulses in a liquid recorder
US5988785A (en) * 1993-09-20 1999-11-23 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Recording apparatus and method for driving recording head element groups in a partially overlapped manner
JP2003334954A (ja) * 2002-05-22 2003-11-25 Canon Inc インクジェット記録ヘッドの駆動方法

Patent Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5988785A (en) * 1993-09-20 1999-11-23 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Recording apparatus and method for driving recording head element groups in a partially overlapped manner
US5917509A (en) * 1995-03-08 1999-06-29 Xerox Corporation Method and apparatus for interleaving pulses in a liquid recorder
JP2003334954A (ja) * 2002-05-22 2003-11-25 Canon Inc インクジェット記録ヘッドの駆動方法

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