Ink Meniscus Vibration for Nozzle Drying Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional ink-jet printers face issues with ink drying and viscosity in nozzles, leading to reduced printing performance and increased ink consumption due to infrequent jetting, which existing vibration methods inadequately address.
Innovation Solution
A liquid-droplet jetting apparatus that uses a controller to apply a non-jetting drive pulse to vibrate the ink meniscus in nozzles during carriage movement, preventing ink drying and viscosity without interrupting the printing process, and ensuring consistent jetting performance across all nozzles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the carriage is moved to a non-printing area for flushing operations, then ink drying is prevented, but printing speed is decreased and ink is consumed unnecessarily
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies a non-jetting drive pulse to the piezoelectric actuator during idle periods to minutely vibrate the ink meniscus in the nozzles, preventing ink from drying and becoming viscous. This preliminary action maintains ink flow readiness without requiring the carriage to move to a non-printing area for flushing operations, thus preventing ink drying while maintaining printing speed.
2Reliability
If the carriage is moved to a non-printing area for maintenance operations, then nozzle clogging is prevented, but printing speed is decreased
Solution Approach 1:
The patent continuously applies non-jetting drive pulses to the piezoelectric actuator during idle periods to maintain ink meniscus vibration and prevent nozzle clogging. This continuous action ensures that nozzles remain clear without interrupting the printing process by moving the carriage to a non-printing area, thus preventing clogging while maintaining printing speed.
3Reliability
If flushing operations are performed frequently, then ink drying is prevented, but ink consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies a non-jetting drive pulse that causes only minute vibration of the ink meniscus without actually jetting ink droplets. This partial action is sufficient to prevent ink from drying and becoming viscous, while consuming minimal or no ink compared to full flushing operations that eject ink droplets.
4Reliability
If the actuator is used to vibrate the ink meniscus, then ink drying is prevented, but the actuator load increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies non-jetting drive pulses periodically during idle periods to vibrate the ink meniscus and prevent drying. By using periodic rather than continuous operation, and by using a lower amplitude vibration that does not eject ink droplets, the actuator energy consumption is minimized while still achieving the goal of preventing ink drying.
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 prevents ink drying and viscosity in all nozzles, reducing the likelihood of jetting failures and unnecessary ink consumption, while maintaining high printing performance without the need for frequent flushing operations.
Implementation Method 1
A drive pulse for jetting the ink is applied to a piezoelectric actuator to deform a deformable portion of the piezoelectric actuator so as to increase and decrease the volume of the pressure chambers
Implementation Method 2
a non-jetting drive pulse is supplied to the actuator so as to impart vibration to a meniscus of the ink (ink meniscus) in the vicinity of the opening of nozzles, thereby preventing the ink from drying and becoming viscous
Data Source
AI summary
In an ink-jet printer, as a liquid-droplet jetting apparatus, when a predetermined condition is satisfied during an printing operation, a non-jetting drive pulse is applied to an actuator to impart vibration to an ink meniscus of an ink in the vicinity of nozzles without jetting the ink from the nozzles, while a carriage is moving along a width direction of a recording paper. This makes it possible to prevent the drying of the ink in the nozzles without performing flushing operation frequently. Accordingly, the occurrence of printing failure can be lowered and the printing time can be shortened.