Inkjet Nozzle Ejection Control for Surface Contamination
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Inkjet recording devices face contamination of the ink discharge surface due to faulty nozzles, leading to ink or ink mist adhering to the surface, which can result in image quality deterioration and nozzle clogging.
Innovation Solution
An inkjet recording device with a control method that selectively prevents ink discharge from faulty nozzles during maintenance and ejection operations, using cleaning rollers and inspection units to identify and manage faulty nozzles, thereby preventing contamination of the ink discharge surface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If ink discharge (ejection) is performed to repair faulty nozzles, then nozzle clogging is prevented and nozzle functionality is restored, but ink or ink mist adheres to the ink discharge surface causing contamination
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the ejection operation by identifying and separating faulty nozzles from normal nozzles. The controller selectively performs ejection only on nozzles identified as faulty, while preventing ejection from nozzles that are already normal. This segmentation prevents normal nozzles from contributing to contamination while still repairing faulty ones.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary identification of faulty nozzles before executing the ejection operation. The controller detects which nozzles are faulty in advance, stores this information, and uses it to control the ejection process. This preliminary action ensures that ejection is performed only where necessary, preventing unnecessary contamination from normal nozzles.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If ejection is performed on all nozzles including faulty ones, then contamination of the ink discharge surface is reduced through cleaning, but ink mist from faulty nozzles contaminates the recording medium
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary control mechanism between the ejection command and the actual nozzle operation. The controller acts as an intermediary that intercepts ejection commands, checks which nozzles are faulty using stored identification information, and selectively permits or blocks ejection for each nozzle. This intermediary control prevents ink mist from faulty nozzles from contaminating the recording medium while still allowing cleaning of the ink discharge surface.
3Reliability
If continuous ejection is performed to maintain nozzle functionality, then nozzle reliability is improved, but ink consumption increases and contamination risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by performing ejection only on the subset of nozzles that are identified as faulty, rather than performing ejection on all nozzles. This partial ejection approach maintains the reliability of faulty nozzles while avoiding unnecessary ink consumption and contamination risk from normal nozzles that do not require cleaning.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
An inkjet recording device and an ink discharge control method of an inkjet recording device are provided which make it possible to avoid contamination of an ink discharge surface due to ejection. This inkjet recording device (1) is provided with an ink discharge unit (20) which has an ink discharge surface where an ink discharge nozzle is provided, an ejection control means (30, 21) which performs ejection control for discharging ink from a nozzle not based on image data of an image to be recorded, and a storage unit (34) which stores faulty nozzle information relating to any of the nozzles that are faulty nozzles that do not discharge ink normally. In ejection control, the ejection control means can select whether or not to allow the discharge of ink from nozzles.