Inkjet Printer Maintenance Controller Dynamic Elapsed Time Logic
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Solution Overview
Problem
Inkjet printers face inefficiencies in maintaining ink head units due to excessive maintenance procedures, which consume ink and time, especially when printing jobs require ink ejection from unused nozzles after a predetermined elapsed time, leading to suboptimal performance.
Innovation Solution
An ink circulation type inkjet printer system that includes a maintenance controller to determine when maintenance is necessary by comparing elapsed times and printing conditions, allowing ink circulation processing for all nozzles and selectively performing maintenance only when required, thus reducing unnecessary maintenance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If maintenance processing is always performed for inkjet heads when sheet size or color mode changes, then printing performance is maintained, but ink consumption increases and printing time is extended
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the maintenance determination parameters from fixed (always maintain when sheet size or color mode changes) to dynamic (considering elapsed time, nozzle usage status, and ink circulation effect). The maintenance controller calculates whether maintenance is truly necessary by comparing multiple parameters including whether nozzles were used in the last printing, the elapsed time since last printing, and the ink circulation processing history, thereby avoiding unnecessary maintenance and reducing ink consumption.
2Reliability
If maintenance processing is always performed for inkjet heads when sheet size or color mode changes, then printing performance is maintained, but printing time is extended
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the maintenance determination from fixed to dynamic by introducing multiple parameters including elapsed time since last printing, nozzle usage status in previous printing, and ink circulation processing history. The maintenance controller evaluates these parameters to determine whether maintenance is truly necessary, thereby reducing unnecessary maintenance operations and shortening printing time while maintaining printing performance when conditions allow.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs ink circulation processing during the printing operation itself, which preliminarily maintains the inkjet heads by circulating ink through the circulation routes. This preliminary action reduces the need for subsequent maintenance processing, as the ink circulation already performs a cleaning effect during normal operation.
3Stability of the object's composition
If ink circulation processing is performed for all inkjet heads, then viscosity of adhered ink is reduced, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The ink circulation system is designed to serve multiple functions: it circulates ink through all inkjet heads to reduce viscosity of adhered ink, and simultaneously provides a basis for intelligent maintenance determination. The circulation routes are configured to pass through all inkjet heads regardless of which nozzles are currently used, making the system universally applicable to all heads and enabling both viscosity reduction and maintenance optimization.
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 minimizes excessive maintenance, ensuring optimal printing performance by reducing unnecessary maintenance procedures and maintaining nozzle functionality through ink circulation, thereby enhancing printing efficiency and reducing ink consumption.
Implementation Method 1
there have been recently developed inkjet printers possible to execute ink circulation processing in ink circulation routes provided in a casing
Data Source
AI summary
An ink circulation type inkjet printer includes a maintenance controller configured to: (1) allow a maintenance mechanism to execute maintenance processing for a plurality of inkjet heads before a present printing job under three conditions that: (c1) an elapsed time from a last printing job to a present printing job is less than a first reference time; (c2) the present printing job requests for ejecting ink from unused nozzles of multiple nozzles of the plurality of inkjet heads in the last printing job; (c3) the elapsed time is more than a second reference time; (2) allow the ink circulation type inkjet printer to perform the present printing job without the maintenance processing for the plurality of inkjet heads when the elapsed time is less than the predetermined second reference time.