Liquid Discharge Apparatus Contact Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional liquid discharge apparatuses often incorrectly determine contact between a medium and a nozzle surface, leading to unnecessary interruptions in recording due to factors like foreign matter or medium deformation, rather than actual contact.
Innovation Solution
A liquid discharge apparatus equipped with a controller that uses both velocity and distance sensors to precisely determine contact with the nozzle surface, alternately controlling the conveyor and liquid discharge head to prevent interruptions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If only velocity sensor is used to detect carriage velocity, then the detection system is simple, but false determination of medium contact occurs due to foreign matter or medium deformation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines velocity sensor and distance sensor into a unified contact detection system. The controller integrates signals from both sensors to make contact determination, merging two detection approaches into one comprehensive system that resolves the contradiction between detection precision and system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from both velocity sensor and distance sensor to continuously monitor carriage operation and medium position. The controller processes feedback signals from both sensors to dynamically determine contact status, improving detection precision through multi-source feedback while managing complexity through centralized control logic.
2Measurement precision
If distance sensor is used to detect medium position, then contact detection accuracy improves, but unnecessary interruptions occur due to curled or deformed medium
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges distance sensor detection with velocity sensor detection to create a composite contact determination system. By combining both detection methods, the system achieves accurate contact detection while reducing false positives that would interrupt recording, thus maintaining productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The controller acts as an intermediary that processes and reconciles data from both velocity sensor and distance sensor. It mediates between the two detection signals to make final contact determination, preventing unnecessary interruptions caused by medium deformation while still detecting actual contact events.
3Ease of operation
If velocity threshold is used to determine contact, then contact detection is simple, but recording is interrupted due to foreign matter entering carriage mover
Solution Approach 1:
The distance sensor serves as an intermediary verification mechanism that validates velocity-based contact detection. When velocity threshold is exceeded, the distance sensor provides additional verification to confirm actual contact, filtering out false positives from foreign matter while maintaining the simplicity of velocity-based detection.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from both velocity sensor and distance sensor to verify contact events. The dual-feedback mechanism ensures that recording is only interrupted when both sensors confirm actual contact, improving detection reliability while maintaining operational simplicity through established threshold-based detection.
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a liquid discharge apparatus including: a liquid discharge head having a nozzle surface; a carriage; a carriage mover; a conveyor conveying a medium in a conveyance direction; a velocity sensor; a distance sensor; and a controller. The controller makes a determination regarding the velocity of the carriage based on output of the velocity sensor, and makes a determination regarding the distance between the medium and the nozzle surface based on output of the distance sensor. In a case that that the controller determines that the velocity is less than a predetermined velocity and that the distance is less than a predetermined distance, the controller interrupts recording performed by the liquid discharge head.