JP2006239999A - Inkjet recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce an ink consumption amount and an operating time while a printing quality is maintained in an inkjet recorder which can carry out the complementing action for non-ejecting nozzles. <P>SOLUTION: Setting of a starting condition of the recovering action is changed according to whether the complementing action for the non-ejecting nozzles is right or wrong. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus that records characters and images by ejecting ink onto a recording medium such as paper.

  In general, in an ink jet recording apparatus, when a recovery unit is operated periodically according to the type of ink and the data to be recorded, or when a discharge failure is detected by a discharge detection unit, a non-discharge or defective discharge of a nozzle is detected. By temporarily operating the recovery means, the nozzle state of the recording head that has temporarily become clogged and has become non-ejecting or abnormally discharged can be restored to the normal state, and the recording quality can be maintained. Has been.

As another conventional example, Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2 can be cited.
JP 2001-010030 A JP 05-301427 A

  In an ink jet recording apparatus, the number and time of ejection until a temporary nozzle non-ejection or ejection failure occurs varies depending on the use conditions of the nozzles of the recording head. Further, when the non-ejection nozzle complement operation is performed, a burden is placed on the alternative nozzle that strikes instead the image data to be shot by the non-ejection nozzle, so that a discharge failure is likely to occur. When the recovery means is operated at a predetermined fixed period as in the prior art, a large number of nozzles are used in the middle of recording under the use conditions of the nozzles that tend to cause temporary non-ejection with a complementary operation. In case of non-ejection, the recording quality is reduced, or conversely, under the usage conditions where non-ejection is difficult to occur without supplement, the recovery operation is performed more frequently than necessary, so the ink consumption increases and the recording operation time There was a defect that would increase.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus that prevents wasteful ink consumption and operation time due to the operation of a nozzle non-ejection recovery means regardless of the presence or absence of a complementary operation, and prevents deterioration in recording quality due to non-ejection. .

  The present invention provides an inkjet recording apparatus that records characters and images on a recording medium using a recording head having a plurality of nozzles that eject ink, and a discharge detection unit that detects ejection defects for all of the plurality of nozzles; Complement means that can change the image data to be formed by the detected defective nozzles to be formed by other nozzles, and start the operation to recover the defective nozzles at a time according to the set value It is provided with the recovery means which can do.

  As described above, according to the present invention, in the ink jet recording apparatus configured to detect a non-ejection nozzle and perform a complementing operation, a recovery operation start set according to whether or not the non-ejection nozzle complementing operation is possible is started. By operating the recovery means according to the conditions, it is possible to maintain the quality of characters and images to be recorded, and to suppress the ink consumption and the recording operation time, regardless of the presence or absence of the complementary operation.

  The ejection detecting means is operated to detect the non-ejection nozzle and notify the complementary means. The complement means searches for an alternative nozzle that completes an image instead of a defective nozzle according to a predetermined rule, and performs data transfer operation when an alternative nozzle is found. When an alternative nozzle is found, the setting value of the operation condition of the recovery means is determined, and the recovery means is configured to change the operation start time according to the set value.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an operation procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, S1 performs an ejection non-ejection inspection for each ink ejection nozzle of the recording head, and the result is used as ejection non-ejection data for each nozzle. Discharge detection operation to be stored, S2 is an operation that branches depending on the presence or absence of a non-ejection nozzle, S3 is a nozzle that substitutes the data that the non-ejection nozzle should hit based on a predetermined rule from the ejection non-ejection nozzle data for each nozzle The alternative nozzle selection operation to be determined, S4 is a branch when a complementary nozzle is not found in the alternative nozzle selection operation S3, S5 is an operation for selecting a recovery operation start condition when the complementary operation is impossible, and S6 is a complementary operation In this case, an operation for selecting the start condition of the recovery operation is performed, and S7 is an operation for setting the start condition at a predetermined location.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a control configuration for carrying out the present invention. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 10 denotes a complementary control circuit for performing an operation of assigning image data to be discharged from a certain nozzle to other nozzles, and reference numeral 11 discharges ink. A recording head provided with nozzles, a recording head control circuit 12 for electrically controlling the recording head 11 to discharge ink, a discharge detection sensor 13 for detecting the ink discharge state, and a signal 14 from the discharge detection sensor 13 A discharge detection control circuit that replaces the discharge non-discharge state signal for each nozzle, 15 is a CPU that controls the overall operation of the ink jet recording apparatus, and 16 is a recovery operation that controls and manages various motors, actuators, and sensors of the apparatus that recovers nozzle clogging. A control circuit, 17 is a ROM for storing an operation program, and 18 is an R for temporarily storing parameters during CPU operation. M, 19 is an EEPROM which stores the state output non-discharge. In the above configuration, a signal is sent from the recording head control circuit 12 to the recording head 11 to cause the ink ejection operation from the nozzle, and at the same time, ejection detection is performed based on the output of the ejection detection sensor 13 and the ink ejection timing signal from the recording head control circuit 12. The control circuit 14 converts the information into ejection / non-ejection information for each nozzle, calculates the number of non-ejection nozzles, and temporarily stores the non-ejection nozzle number information in the RAM 18. Next, based on the ejection non-ejection information temporarily stored in the RAM 18, the CPU 15 determines whether or not there is a non-ejection nozzle, and if there is a non-ejection nozzle, the data to be ejected by the corresponding nozzle can be complemented instead. An alternative nozzle is calculated based on a predetermined rule stored in the ROM 17. If an alternative nozzle is found, the complementary control circuit 10 is set to complete the image with the alternative nozzle, and the recovery operation start condition in the presence of complement is taken out from the ROM 17 and stored in a predetermined location in the EEPROM 19. On the other hand, when there is no non-ejecting nozzle or when no alternative nozzle is found, the recovery operation start condition for the case of no complement stored in the ROM 17 is stored in a predetermined location in the EEPROM 19. Thereafter, when the recovery operation start condition stored in the EEPROM 19 is satisfied, the recovery operation control circuit 16 is driven to perform the recovery operation of the ejection nozzles of the recording head.

Drawing showing an embodiment of the present invention The figure which shows the structure of the control system in the Example of this invention

Explanation of symbols

S1 Discharge detection operation S2 Non-ejection nozzle presence determination S3 Alternative nozzle selection calculation S4 Complementation availability determination S5 Parameter selection operation without complementation S6 Parameter selection operation with complementation S7 Set next start condition for recovery means 10 Complementary control circuit DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Recording head 12 Recording head control circuit 13 Discharge detection sensor 14 Discharge detection control circuit 15 CPU
16 Recovery operation control circuit 17 ROM
18 RAM
19 EEPROM

Claims (5)

  In an ink jet recording apparatus having a recording head capable of ejecting ink and recording an image or a character on a recording medium by moving the recording head, the presence or absence of ink ejection from a nozzle of the recording head is detected. A possible discharge detection means, a complement means capable of transferring image data to be formed by a certain discharge nozzle to another nozzle, and a recovery means for eliminating temporary clogging in the discharge nozzle of the recording head An ink jet recording apparatus.   It is configured to complete an image in multiple passes, complete an image by assigning the same color to multiple nozzle rows, or complete an image by combining multiple passes and multiple nozzle rows The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1.   2. The non-ejection detection unit is configured to detect ejection states of all nozzles of the recording head and to identify defective ejection nozzles and abnormal ejection nozzles. 2. An ink jet recording apparatus according to 1.   The supplementary means is configured to discharge and complete an image to be assigned to a defective discharge nozzle by another nozzle determined based on a prescribed rule. The ink jet recording apparatus described.   2. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recovery means is configured to be able to change a next operation timing by setting.

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