Ink-jet Recording Overlap Control for White Streak Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Ink-jet recording apparatuses face challenges in maintaining image quality due to variations in sheet conveyance, leading to white streaks or stripes between one-pass images, especially when the conveyance amount varies significantly, and increasing the number of passes to address this issue decreases recording speed.
Innovation Solution
An ink-jet recording apparatus with a controller that manages intermittent sheet conveyance and calculates overlap amounts for one-pass images based on the nipping state of rollers and nozzle lengths, ensuring uniform overlap and reducing white streaks without compromising recording speed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If uniform overlap amounts are used for all passes, then the edges of one-pass images overlap properly when conveyance variation is small, but the edges separate when conveyance variation is large
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the overlap amount variable rather than fixed. The controller dynamically adjusts the overlap amount for each pass based on the actual conveyance amount detected from sheet position information. This allows the system to adapt to varying conveyance conditions, ensuring proper edge overlap whether conveyance variation is small or large, thereby resolving the contradiction between precision and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback by using sheet position detection to measure actual conveyance amounts, then using this information to calculate and adjust overlap amounts for subsequent passes. The controller continuously monitors sheet position and modifies the recording strategy based on this feedback, enabling the system to maintain precise edge overlap despite variations in conveyance, thus resolving the contradiction between uniform overlap precision and adaptability to conveyance variation.
2Manufacturing precision
If the number of passes is increased to distribute nozzle width, then uniform distribution is achieved, but recording speed decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by dynamically determining the number of passes and overlap amounts based on actual sheet position and conveyance conditions rather than using fixed predetermined values. The controller calculates the optimal number of passes and overlap distribution in real-time, allowing uniform nozzle width distribution to be achieved without unnecessarily increasing the number of passes, thus maintaining recording speed while ensuring precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes parameters (number of passes, overlap amount, conveyance amount) based on detected sheet position information. Rather than increasing passes uniformly, the system adjusts these parameters dynamically to achieve proper nozzle width distribution. This parameter adaptation allows uniform distribution to be achieved with the minimum necessary number of passes, preventing unnecessary speed reduction while maintaining manufacturing precision.
Data Source
AI summary
An ink-jet recording apparatus configured to record an image based on image data on a sheet, the ink-jet recording apparatus includes a first roller pair, a second roller pair, a carriage, a recording head, and a controller configured to: control the first roller pair and the second roller pair to perform intermittent conveyance of the sheet; control the carriage and the recording head to record a one-pass image on the sheet; and calculate an overlap amount, in the conveyance direction, of a one-pass image to be recorded on the sheet in a predefined one pass and a one-pass image to be recorded on the sheet in a next one pass after the predefined one pass.