Inkjet Drive Waveform Synchronization for Droplet Landing
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Solution Overview
Problem
In ink jet recording devices, the consecutive ejection drive method often results in timing deviations between small and medium droplets, leading to misalignment and poor coverage on the recording medium, especially when the small droplet lands later than the medium droplet, causing granularity issues and uneven density.
Innovation Solution
An image recording device and method that utilize a liquid ejection head with a specific drive waveform configuration, including multiple ejection waveform elements, to synchronize the landing of small, medium, and large droplets by adjusting the timing and combining droplets appropriately on the recording medium, ensuring precise alignment and high resolution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the small droplet is ejected at an early timing in the drive cycle to reduce landing timing deviation, then the landing timing of the small droplet can be advanced, but the landing timing cannot be precisely matched with the medium droplet
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the drive waveform adjustable and adaptable. Different drive waveforms are selected based on the droplet size requirements, allowing the system to dynamically optimize the ejection timing for each droplet type. This enables precise control over when each droplet is ejected during the drive cycle, ensuring they all land at the same position despite different ejection timings.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameters of the drive waveform to control droplet ejection timing. By adjusting the timing parameters within the drive cycle for different droplet sizes, the system achieves precise control over droplet ejection moments. This parameter adjustment allows small, medium, and large droplets to be ejected at optimized timings that ensure synchronized landing positions.
2Productivity
If multiple drive pulses are used to eject droplets of different sizes, then printing speed can be increased, but landing position deviation occurs between different droplet types
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the drive cycle into multiple distinct phases, each optimized for specific droplet sizes. By dividing the ejection process into separate timing windows for small, medium, and large droplets within the same drive cycle, the system maintains high printing speed while ensuring each droplet type is ejected at its optimal timing for precise landing alignment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs periodic action through the repetitive drive cycle that systematically alternates between different droplet ejection timings. Each drive cycle contains structured periodic patterns of ejection events for different droplet sizes, ensuring that while multiple droplets are ejected rapidly, they follow a controlled periodic sequence that guarantees synchronized landing positions.
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
The solution effectively matches the landing positions of different droplet types, enhancing image quality by preventing deviations and ensuring consistent density, even at high printing speeds and across various ejection heads.
Implementation Method 1
a plurality of liquid droplet ejection elements pressurizing liquid in the plurality of pressure chambers, respectively, depending on a supplied drive waveform
Data Source
AI summary
An image recording device and an image recording method capable of matching landing positions between droplet types in a consecutive ejection drive method are provided. The object is resolved by an image recording device in which a drive waveform for forming a dot of a small droplet is a drive waveform for ejecting a liquid droplet by a first ejection waveform element arranged in a first half of one drive cycle, and a drive waveform for forming a dot of a medium droplet is a drive waveform for ejecting the liquid droplet by the first ejection waveform element and a second ejection waveform element arranged after the first ejection waveform element in time series, and the liquid droplet ejected by the first ejection waveform element and the liquid droplet ejected by the second ejection waveform element are not combined while reaching onto a recording medium.