Pattern-Aware Printing Control for Deformed Media Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing printing devices face issues with print shifting due to medium deformation during transport, especially when the medium has a pattern, as described in JP-A-2023-63795.
Innovation Solution
A printing device and method that includes a pre-print process to acquire pattern data, expand print data to generate expansion data, and then use captured pattern data to generate conversion data for accurate printing on a deformed medium, utilizing a control section, transport section, imaging section, and printing section to adjust for deformation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the medium is transported through the printing device, then the printing process can be performed, but the medium may deform and the pattern may shift, causing print misalignment
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by capturing an image of the pattern on the medium before printing, acquiring pattern data in advance. This allows the control section to calculate deformation and generate corrected print data before the actual printing occurs, ensuring alignment accuracy without slowing down the printing process
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback by capturing the actual pattern on the medium via an imaging device, comparing it with the original pattern data, calculating the deformation based on this feedback, and then correcting the print data accordingly. This closed-loop feedback mechanism ensures that print alignment accurately compensates for medium deformation
2Manufacturing precision
If the print data is corrected based on captured pattern data, then print alignment accuracy is improved, but the processing time and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses copying by creating a digital copy of the pattern on the medium through image capture. This copied pattern data is then used to calculate deformation and correct print data, replacing complex physical measurement and adjustment mechanisms with simpler digital data processing
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces mechanical measurement and alignment adjustment mechanisms with digital image processing and data calculation. Instead of using complex mechanical devices to measure and correct medium deformation, the invention uses software-based pattern recognition and mathematical transformation to achieve the same alignment correction
Data Source
AI summary
A printing device includes a transport section that transports a medium having a pattern; an imaging section that captures an image of the medium; a printing section that performs printing on the medium; and a control section that performs a print process after performing a pre-print process, wherein the control section, as the pre-print process, acquires pattern data that relates to the pattern of the medium and expands print data that is to be printed by the printing section to generate expansion data and, as the print process, acquires captured pattern data that relates to the pattern of the medium captured by the imaging section, generates, based on the captured pattern data, conversion data based on the expansion data, and prints the conversion data on the medium using the printing section.