Treatment Liquid Head Unit Printing with Parallel Nozzle Inspection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current treatment liquid ejection apparatuses suffer from reduced productivity and quality due to long inspection and maintenance times, particularly caused by the need for the head unit to stop printing for nozzle inspection and complex file correction processes, leading to nozzle clogging and downtime.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus and method involve independent mounting of a head moving unit and inspection stage, allowing simultaneous or parallel processing of substrate printing with previous version print file information, enabling the head unit to print during file correction times and reducing idle time by using previously generated information.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the head unit stops printing to perform nozzle inspection using a camera, then inspection accuracy is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to printing interruption
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs test printing on a maintenance zone substrate before actual production printing. This preliminary action allows nozzle inspection to be conducted on a separate maintenance substrate while the head unit can subsequently move to production substrates without interruption, thus maintaining both inspection accuracy and printing productivity
Solution Approach 2:
The substrate is divided into a maintenance zone and a production zone. The maintenance zone is used for test printing and nozzle inspection, while the production zone is used for actual manufacturing. This segmentation allows inspection activities to occur on the maintenance zone without interrupting production printing on the production zone
2Manufacturing precision
If the head unit waits for file correction to complete before printing, then print quality is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to idle time
Solution Approach 1:
The system generates print file information in advance during the test printing phase. This preliminary generation of print files allows the head unit to immediately start production printing without waiting for file correction, thus maintaining both print quality and productivity
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables continuous printing operation by preparing all necessary print files during the test printing phase. This eliminates idle time between inspection and production printing, maintaining continuous useful action and maximizing productivity while ensuring print quality through preliminary file preparation
3Reliability
If the head unit remains idle for maintenance, then nozzle condition is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to downtime
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs maintenance activities including test printing and nozzle inspection during the test printing phase before production printing begins. This preliminary maintenance ensures nozzle reliability is checked and maintained while minimizing impact on production productivity
Solution Approach 2:
The system separates maintenance activities from production activities by using a dedicated maintenance zone substrate. This allows maintenance to be performed on the maintenance substrate while production printing continues on the production substrate, thus maintaining nozzle reliability without sacrificing productivity
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a treatment liquid ejection method and apparatus capable of significantly increasing productivity and quality by greatly reducing a maintenance time of a head unit, the treatment liquid ejection method including (a) obtaining test image information by test-photographing a treatment liquid test-printed by a head unit, (b) generating nozzle-specific characteristic information by using the test image information, (c) generating print file information to be printed, in consideration of the nozzle-specific characteristic information, (d) reflecting recipe information of a substrate or the head unit to prepare the print file information in an outputtable state, and (e) printing, on the substrate by the head unit, the print file information to which the recipe information is reflected.