Drying Drum Section Heating for Uniform Inkjet Drying
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing inkjet printer heating controls fail to suppress temperature unevenness in the drying drum, leading to inadequate drying of areas with large ink application, resulting in drying failures.
Innovation Solution
The drying drum is divided into sections, with a controller using PID and gain UP operation expressions to continuously control the heating of each section, ensuring uniform temperature distribution by adjusting output ratios based on temperature differences and limiting outputs to prevent errors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a single heating control is used for the entire drying drum, then the heating apparatus can be simplified, but temperature unevenness occurs in the drying drum
Solution Approach 1:
The drying drum is divided into multiple sections along the ink ejection width direction, with each section equipped with its own heater part and temperature sensor. This segmentation allows independent temperature control for each section, eliminating temperature unevenness while maintaining manageable system complexity through modular architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
Different sections of the drying drum are heated independently according to their specific temperature requirements. The controller adjusts the output ratio of each heater part based on local temperature feedback, ensuring uniform temperature distribution across the entire drying drum surface.
2Temperature
If uniform heating is applied across all sections, then temperature unevenness is reduced, but sections with large ink application receive insufficient heating
Solution Approach 1:
Each section is equipped with a temperature sensor that provides real-time feedback to the controller. The controller uses this feedback to dynamically adjust the output ratio of each heater part, ensuring that sections with larger ink applications receive additional heating while maintaining overall temperature uniformity. This closed-loop control prevents drying failures in high-ink areas.
3Temperature
If the drying drum is divided into multiple sections with individual control, then temperature unevenness is suppressed, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The drying drum is divided into multiple sections along the ink ejection width direction, with each section equipped with its own heater part and temperature sensor. This segmentation allows independent temperature control for each section, eliminating temperature unevenness while maintaining manageable system complexity through modular architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller integrates multiple control functions into a single device, managing all heater parts and temperature sensors across different sections. This universal control approach reduces the need for separate control systems for each section, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity while achieving uniform temperature distribution.
4Reliability
If heating power is increased to ensure adequate drying, then drying reliability improves, but energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
Each section is equipped with a temperature sensor that provides real-time feedback to the controller. The controller uses this feedback to dynamically adjust the output ratio of each heater part, ensuring that sections with larger ink applications receive additional heating while maintaining overall temperature uniformity. This closed-loop control prevents drying failures in high-ink areas.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of uniformly increasing heating power across all sections, the controller applies partial or excessive heating action only to specific sections that require it (those with larger ink applications). This selective approach ensures adequate drying reliability for high-ink areas while avoiding unnecessary energy consumption in sections with smaller ink applications.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach effectively suppresses temperature unevenness, enhances energy efficiency, and prevents drying failures by ensuring uniform heating and reducing energy consumption, especially when dealing with varying ink application widths.
Implementation Method 1
each of the sections is mounted with a heater part capable of heating the corresponding section
Data Source
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AI summary
[Problem] To provide an inkjet printer capable of suppressing temperature unevenness of a drying drum itself as much as possible. [Solving Means] The present invention is an inkjet printer 100 having a printing part 5 for applying ink to a medium before printing 1, a drying drum 3 for heating and drying a medium after printing 1a having the ink applied in contact with an outer circumstantial face thereof, and a controller 4 capable of individually controlling heating of a plurality of sections 31a obtained by dividing the drying drum 3 along a plane perpendicular to a shaft direction thereof, wherein each of the respective sections 31a is mounted with a heater part 13 capable of heating the corresponding section 31a, and heating of the heater parts 13 of all of the sections 31a is continuously controlled individually by the controller 4.