Corrugated Shape Printing for Image Uniformity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Printing technologies face challenges in maintaining image quality when a recording medium, such as a sheet, is deformed into a corrugated shape, leading to unevenness in the printed image due to varying distances between the print head and the sheet.
Innovation Solution
The printing apparatus employs correction integrated data to adjust pixel densities and color values, generating corrected print data to account for the corrugation of the sheet, ensuring consistent image quality by deforming the sheet into a corrugated shape to prevent floating and using specific correction processes to compensate for positional shifts of ink droplets.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If the sheet is deformed into a corrugated shape to prevent floating toward the recording head, then the sheet stability is improved, but the distance between the print head and the sheet varies causing unevenness in the printed image
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by making different parts of the sheet have different properties - the sheet is intentionally deformed into a corrugated shape with varying curvature at different locations. This localized deformation prevents floating at critical areas while accepting distance variations elsewhere, which are then compensated through image processing adjustments to different regions of the printed image.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes physical parameters of the sheet from flat to corrugated deformation. This parameter change in sheet geometry stabilizes the sheet during printing by preventing floating, while the resulting distance variations are compensated by adjusting printing parameters such as ink density and droplet size to maintain uniform printed image quality.
2Manufacturing precision
If the sheet is kept flat to maintain uniform printing distance, then the printed image uniformity is improved, but the sheet floats toward the recording head causing positioning errors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary anti-action by proactively deforming the sheet into a corrugated shape before printing to counteract the floating tendency. This preemptive measure prevents the sheet from floating toward the recording head during the printing process, ensuring accurate positioning and reliable print quality.
3Reliability
If the sheet is deformed into a corrugated shape, then the sheet floating is prevented, but the distance variation causes pixel density and color value inconsistencies
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing image processing corrections in advance before the actual printing. The system calculates and applies compensation values for pixel density and color variations based on the known corrugated sheet geometry, so that when printing occurs on the deformed sheet, the cumulative effect produces uniform image quality despite the distance variations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback by using information about the sheet's corrugated deformation to adjust printing parameters. The system measures or calculates the distance variations caused by sheet deformation and uses this feedback to modify ink density, droplet size, and placement, thereby compensating for the unevenness and achieving consistent print quality.
Data Source
AI summary
A print execution unit may convey a sheet in a second direction intersecting with a first direction, in a state in which the sheet is deformed into a corrugated shape along the first direction. A print control apparatus may generate corrected image data from input image data by performing a correction process using correction data, and supply the corrected image data to the print execution unit. The correction process may be performed such that a density of first-type printed partial images printed in first-type areas on a sheet is different from a density of second-type printed partial images printed in second-type areas on an assumption that the input image data represents an image having constant tone values and the sheet is conveyed in a flat state without deformation. The first-type areas and the second-type areas extend along the second direction and are alternately arranged along the first direction.