Inkjet Recording Apparatus Inclination Detection Nozzle Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional recording apparatuses fail to perform favorable recording on inclined recording media, leading to stepwise empty spaces or ink protrusion, and require complex data rotation processes that increase costs and time.
Innovation Solution
A recording apparatus with an inclination detecting unit and ejecting position control unit that adjusts the ink-ejection starting and ending positions of nozzles based on the detected inclination of the recording medium, preventing ink ejection outside the image recording region while allowing full-area recording without the need for data rotation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If recording is performed on inclined recording medium without position adjustment, then recording speed is maintained, but ink protrusion or empty spaces occur on the recording medium
Solution Approach 1:
The inclination detecting unit detects the inclination of the recording medium before the recording process begins. The ejecting position control unit then pre-calculates and adjusts the ink ejection positions based on the detected inclination angle, ensuring that ink is ejected at corrected positions that account for the medium's tilt, thereby preventing both ink protrusion and empty spaces while maintaining recording speed
2Manufacturing precision
If data rotation conversion is performed to handle inclined recording medium, then recording position accuracy is improved, but process time and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of rotating the entire image data, the invention extracts only the inclination information from the image data using the inclination detecting unit. The ejecting position control unit then uses only this extracted inclination angle to adjust the ejection positions, leaving the rest of the image data unchanged. This selective approach avoids the time-consuming full data rotation process while still achieving accurate recording positions
3Loss of substance
If ink ejection position is adjusted for each nozzle to prevent protrusion, then ink waste is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The ejecting position control unit applies local quality adjustment by modifying the ejection positions of individual nozzles based on their specific locations and the detected inclination angle. Each nozzle's ejection position is locally adjusted according to the inclination, ensuring that ink lands precisely on the recording medium without protrusion, thereby reducing ink waste while maintaining a relatively simple control system
Data Source
AI summary
Angles of inclination of the left and right end edges of recording paper as a recording medium are detected. In the case where it is determined an image having a size extended from an image recording region of the recording paper is recordable over the image recording region or even in the case where it is determined that the image represented by the image data is not recordable over the image recording region of the recording paper, when an input operation is performed indicating the user's intention to continue recording, an image data conversion process is performed for converting a color of a portion of the image data, which is not to be recorded in the image recording region of the recording paper, into a color of which ink is not to be ejected. Thereby, ink is ejected only to the image recording region of the recording paper.