Inkjet Recording Head Airflow Control via Pre-Scan Stop
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In recording devices that discharge ink onto a medium, maintaining a suitable gap between the recording head and the medium is crucial to prevent head rubbing, which can lead to scratches and quality deterioration, especially when the medium swells or floats, causing variance in ink landing positions due to airflow.
Innovation Solution
A recording device with a gap adjusting unit and an electronic controller that stops the main scanning unit for a predetermined time based on the medium gap to weaken airflow before discharging ink, thereby reducing variance in ink landing positions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the medium gap is set to a larger gap to avoid head rubbing, then head rubbing is prevented, but recording quality deteriorates due to increased variance in ink landing position
Solution Approach 1:
The recording head is stopped for a predetermined stop time before the pass operation to preliminarily eliminate airflow in the gap between the head surface and recording surface. This preliminary action weakens the airflow that would otherwise cause variance in ink landing positions, allowing the use of a larger medium gap without sacrificing recording quality.
2Productivity
If the main scanning speed is increased to improve productivity, then recording efficiency improves, but airflow effects increase causing greater variance in ink landing positions
Solution Approach 1:
The recording head is stopped for a predetermined stop time before the pass operation to preliminarily eliminate airflow generated by high-speed scanning. This allows the system to maintain high productivity while ensuring that airflow does not cause variance in ink landing positions during the actual recording process.
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 reduces the impact of airflow on ink landing positions, improving recording quality by maintaining a stable gap and controlling the airflow momentum, thus preventing quality deterioration.
Implementation Method 1
One cause of an increase in variance in the landing position is understood to be the effects of an airflow that occurs between the head surface of the recording head and the recording surface of the recording medium.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a recording device that performs recording on a recording medium by repeating a pass operation of discharging ink from a recording head onto the recording medium during a main scanning operation of moving the recording head in a main scanning direction, and a sub-scanning operation of moving the recording medium relative to the recording head in a sub-scanning direction intersecting with the main scanning direction. An electronic controller stops the main scanning unit for a predetermined stop time determined based on a gap that is a distance between a head surface of the recording head and a recording surface of the recording medium supported by a support unit, prior to the pass operation.