Inkjet Printer Overlap Area Ink Landing Order Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Ink-jet printers face image quality deterioration due to differences in ink landing orders between continuous scan printing operations, causing uneven color concentration at image boundaries.
Innovation Solution
An image recording apparatus with a conveyer and carriage system that alternates recording passes and conveyance operations, controlling the nozzle rows to ensure partial overlap of recording areas and adjust ink landing orders to minimize color discrepancies between passes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the carriage moves in different directions in continuous scan printing operations, then printing efficiency is improved, but image quality deteriorates due to inconsistent ink landing orders
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by differentiating ink discharge control between overlap areas and non-overlap areas. In overlap areas where recording areas from different passes intersect, the controller adjusts the discharge timing of ink droplets to compensate for the reversed carriage movement direction, ensuring consistent ink landing orders and uniform color concentration across the entire printed image.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the timing parameter of ink discharge based on the carriage movement direction. When the carriage reverses direction between passes, the controller modifies the discharge timing of each nozzle row to maintain the correct ink landing sequence, thereby resolving the image quality deterioration caused by parameter inconsistency.
2Speed
If ink is discharged from multiple nozzle rows simultaneously, then printing speed is improved, but color uniformity deteriorates due to varying landing orders
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-calculating and adjusting the discharge timing of ink droplets from each nozzle row before the actual printing process. The controller determines the optimal discharge timing for each color based on the carriage movement direction and recording area overlap, ensuring that inks land in the correct sequence and maintain uniform color concentration throughout the printed image.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided an image recording apparatus, including: a conveyer; a carriage; a recording head having at least three nozzle rows; and a controller. When a moving direction of the carriage in one of two continuous recording passes is different from that in the other of the two continuous recording passes, the image recording apparatus conveys a recording medium in the conveyance direction so that two recording areas partially overlap with each other. When a line image, which belongs to an overlap area, is recorded, the image recording apparatus executes recording so that the two continuos recording passes complement each other, and forms at least part of dots in the line image in accordance with a landing order different from a landing order used when the image is recorded in a non-overlap area included in the recording areas and different from the overlap area.