Liquid Discharge Nozzle Exclusion Strategy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Ink-jet recording apparatuses face image quality deterioration due to conveyance errors, which cause positional deviations between recording areas, leading to incomplete image complementation and streaks on the recording medium.
Innovation Solution
A liquid discharge apparatus with a controller that identifies and excludes discharge-defective nozzles and their adjacent nozzles in the conveyance direction, ensuring continuous recording areas and preventing image quality degradation by using only functional nozzles for image recording.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If non-discharge complement is executed to compensate for discharge-defective nozzles, then image recording completeness is improved, but image quality deteriorates due to conveyance errors causing positional deviations between recording areas
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes discharge-defective nozzles from the recording process by identifying them through nozzle state information and excluding them from image recording. This prevents the fundamental problem of using defective nozzles that cause white spots, while the extracted information is used to adjust the recording strategy to maintain image quality without complementation errors
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary detection of nozzle discharge states before image recording begins. By obtaining nozzle state information in advance and identifying discharge-defective nozzles prior to recording, the system can pre-adjust the recording strategy to avoid using defective nozzles and prevent white spots, while also avoiding the need for complementation that would be susceptible to conveyance errors
2Productivity
If discharge-defective nozzles are used in recording operation, then productivity is maintained, but image quality deteriorates due to white spots from incomplete discharge
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes discharge-defective nozzles from the recording process by identifying them through nozzle state information and excluding them from image recording. This prevents the fundamental problem of using defective nozzles that cause white spots, while maintaining productivity by using the remaining functional nozzles to complete the recording task
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by treating different nozzles differently based on their individual discharge states. Instead of uniformly using all nozzles or stopping the entire recording process, the system selectively excludes only the discharge-defective nozzles while continuing to use functional nozzles, thereby maintaining local recording quality and overall productivity
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a liquid discharge apparatus including a conveyer, a head, a carriage, and a controller. The controller is configured to: record an image on a recording medium by executing a recording operation and a conveyance operation; obtain discharge-defective nozzle information; set, as a plurality of specified nozzles, the discharge-defective nozzle and all the nozzles disposed at an upstream side in a conveyance direction from the discharge-defective nozzle, or the discharge-defective nozzle and all the nozzles belonging to the nozzle row and disposed downstream of the discharge-defective nozzle in the conveyance direction, based on the discharge-defective nozzle information obtained, and use any other nozzle than the specified nozzles in the recording operation.