Liquid Jet Device Billing Method Amortizing Maintenance Costs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Liquid jet devices face high maintenance-related liquid consumption, leading to increased billing costs, as maintenance operations forcibly discharge liquid from the jet head, resulting in a significant difference in billed amounts between maintenance and non-maintenance months.
Innovation Solution
A billing method and device configuration that calculates a maintenance consumption amount per unit number of printed sheets, distributing this cost across printed sheets, allowing billing to be spread over time rather than incurred immediately after maintenance, thereby reducing the impact on billed amounts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If maintenance operations are performed to maintain the liquid jet head, then the liquid jet head reliability is improved, but the billed amount increases greatly due to high liquid consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the maintenance consumption amount into multiple units and distributes it across multiple billing periods. Specifically, the maintenance consumption amount is divided into a plurality of maintenance consumption amount units, and these units are distributed to a plurality of billing periods. This allows the high liquid consumption cost to be spread out over time rather than incurred entirely in one month, resolving the contradiction between maintaining reliability and managing liquid consumption costs.
2Manufacturing precision
If maintenance is performed frequently to ensure printing quality, then the printing quality is maintained, but the liquid consumption and billing costs increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the maintenance consumption amount into multiple units and distributing these units across multiple billing periods. This allows frequent maintenance operations to be performed for quality assurance while the associated liquid consumption costs are amortized over time, preventing sudden spikes in billing amounts.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by storing maintenance consumption amount units in advance before they are needed for billing. The control unit stores a plurality of maintenance consumption amount units in a storage unit, and then distributes them to billing periods as needed. This preliminary preparation allows the system to handle maintenance costs smoothly without causing sudden billing increases.
3Measurement precision
If the billed amount reflects the actual liquid consumption including maintenance, then the billing accuracy is improved, but the user burden increases due to sudden large charges
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-calculating and storing maintenance consumption amount units before billing. The control unit calculates the maintenance consumption amount, divides it into multiple units, and stores these units in advance. During billing, these pre-prepared units are distributed across multiple billing periods, ensuring accurate reflection of maintenance costs while preventing sudden large charges to users.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the total maintenance consumption amount into multiple smaller units that can be distributed across different billing periods. This segmentation maintains billing accuracy by accounting for all maintenance costs while reducing the user burden by spreading the financial impact over time rather than presenting a single large charge.
Data Source
AI summary
A billing method for a liquid jet device includes, counting a consumed amount of liquid by printing, counting the number of printed sheets, counting a consumed amount of liquid for maintenance of a jet head, calculating a maintenance consumption amount per unit number of sheets, from a maintenance consumption amount consumed in current maintenance, and the number of printed sheets for which printing is performed from previous maintenance to the current maintenance, setting, as a liquid consumption amount, a value obtained by adding the maintenance consumption amount per unit number of sheets, to a print consumption amount consumed in printing for the unit number of sheets, and billing for printing for the same number of sheets as the number of printed sheets performed after the current maintenance, in accordance with the liquid consumption amount.