Inkjet Head Supply Paths Control Flow to Reduce Pressure Loss
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Solution Overview
Problem
Inkjet liquid ejection heads face challenges in maintaining stable ink supply due to pressure loss, especially at increased printing speeds and high image quality demands, leading to blurred printing and insufficient ink supply to local areas.
Innovation Solution
A liquid ejection apparatus and method that control the ink flow amount per unit time to ensure each area of the liquid ejection head receives a predetermined flow amount, using multiple supply paths and monitoring pressure loss to adjust ink ejection frequency and conveying speed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the printing speed and image quality are increased, then the productivity and image quality are improved, but the pressure loss in the ink passage increases causing insufficient ink supply
Solution Approach 1:
The ink supply system is divided into multiple independent supply paths, each serving a specific region of the ejection openings. This segmentation allows each path to be optimized and controlled independently, preventing pressure loss from affecting the entire system and ensuring stable ink supply to each region even at high printing speeds.
Solution Approach 2:
Different supply paths are designed with different characteristics according to the local requirements of each region. The controller adjusts the ink flow amount for each supply path individually based on the ejection amount required by each region, ensuring optimal ink supply distribution across the entire ejection surface.
2Quantity of substance
If the ink flow amount is controlled on the basis of average flow amount for all ejection openings, then the overall ink supply is optimized, but the local insufficient supply of ink occurs in certain areas
Solution Approach 1:
The control system is segmented into multiple independent control channels, one for each supply path. Each channel independently controls the ink flow amount based on the specific requirements of its corresponding region, eliminating the averaging effect that causes local supply deficiencies.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller provides differentiated ink flow control to each supply path according to the local ejection demands. This allows regions with higher ejection requirements to receive proportionally more ink, ensuring uniform printing quality across the entire ejection surface.
3Productivity
If the width of ink passage is decreased to accommodate high dense arrangement of ejection openings, then the ejection opening density is improved, but the pressure loss increases
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the ink supply into multiple independent paths, each path serves a limited number of ejection openings. This allows the use of narrower passages in each path without excessive pressure loss, as the total flow through each narrow passage is reduced compared to a single long passage serving all openings.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of increasing the width of single long passages to reduce pressure loss, the system adds the dimension of multiple parallel paths. This allows the maintenance of narrow passage widths while distributing the total ink flow across multiple channels, reducing the pressure loss in each individual passage.
Data Source
AI summary
A liquid is reliably supplied to a liquid ejection head through a plurality of supply paths. The liquid is supplied to a plurality of areas of the liquid ejection head through the plurality of supply paths and a liquid ejection amount per unit time from the liquid ejection head is controlled so that a liquid flow amount of each of the areas becomes a predetermined flow amount or less.