Liquid Ejection Apparatus Non-Overlapping Preliminary Ink Ejection
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Solution Overview
Problem
In liquid ejection apparatuses, preliminary ejection onto a convey belt's preliminary ejection region can lead to ink collisions, causing ink droplets to fly and enlarge, resulting in stains on the head or recording medium, and complicating high-speed recording due to the need for additional space and potential ink landing on non-recording areas.
Innovation Solution
A controller is used to manage the ejection of liquid onto specific positions on the convey belt's preliminary ejection region, ensuring that ink lands on non-overlapping areas for a specified time, preventing collisions and droplet enlargement by coordinating the head and convey belt movements based on preliminary ejection data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If preliminary ejection is performed onto the preliminary ejection region on the convey belt, then cleaning of the head is improved, but ink collisions cause flying and upsizing of ink droplets leading to stains
Solution Approach 1:
The preliminary ejection region is divided into multiple sub-regions corresponding to different ejection openings. Each ejection opening has its dedicated ejection position within the preliminary ejection region, preventing ink from different openings from colliding and mixing, thereby eliminating ink flying and droplet upsizing while maintaining effective head cleaning
Solution Approach 2:
The convey belt is designed with different functional regions: the preliminary ejection region for cleaning and the support region for recording. By controlling ink to be ejected only to specific positions within the preliminary ejection region that do not overlap with previous ejections, the system achieves effective cleaning without causing harmful ink collisions
2Reliability
If preliminary ejection is performed onto a cap, then head cleaning is achieved, but additional space and time are required reducing recording speed
Solution Approach 1:
The preliminary ejection function is merged with the existing convey belt structure. The convey belt serves dual purposes: supporting the recording medium for image formation and providing a preliminary ejection region for head cleaning. This eliminates the need for separate cap structures and reduces apparatus size while maintaining cleaning effectiveness and recording speed
Solution Approach 2:
The convey belt is designed to perform multiple functions: it supports the recording medium during image recording and simultaneously serves as the preliminary ejection surface for head cleaning. This multi-functional design eliminates the need for dedicated cap structures and maintains high recording speed while achieving effective head cleaning
3Reliability
If preliminary ejection is performed onto a recording medium, then head cleaning is achieved, but recording quality is deteriorated by landed ink
Solution Approach 1:
The convey belt surface is segmented into distinct functional zones: the preliminary ejection region for cleaning operations and the support region for recording operations. By controlling ink ejection positions to be within the preliminary ejection region only, the system prevents ink from landing on the support region where recording occurs, thus maintaining high recording quality while achieving effective head cleaning
Data Source
AI summary
A liquid ejection apparatus including: a head having an ejection face having ejection openings for ejecting liquid onto a recording medium; a convey belt that has a support region for supporting the recording medium and a preliminary ejection region onto which the liquid is ejected in preliminary ejection and that conveys the recording medium in a conveying direction, wherein the preliminary ejection is ejection not contributing to image recording; and a controller which controls the head and the convey belt based on preliminary ejection data such that, until a specific length of time has passed from the ejection of the liquid onto the preliminary ejection region, liquid is landed on a position in the preliminary ejection region in current ejection, which position does not overlap at least one position of the liquid landed after the ejection of the liquid.