Inkjet Print Head Nozzle Detection Within the Print Area

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing inkjet printing technologies fail to distinguish between ejection failure nozzles within and outside the print area, leading to unnecessary replacement of print heads.

Innovation Solution

An inkjet printing apparatus with a second print area ejection failure determination unit that identifies ejection failure nozzles only within the print area, notifying of abnormality only when the number exceeds a threshold, and executing recovery processes to prevent unnecessary print head replacement.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If ejection failure nozzles are detected across the entire print head width, then all ejection failures are identified, but unnecessary print head replacement occurs when failures are outside the actual print area

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveejection failure detection accuracyVSAvoidunnecessary print head replacement time

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent divides the print head nozzle array into multiple segments based on their positions relative to the print media width. Nozzles are categorized as being within or outside the print area, allowing selective monitoring of only those nozzles that actually affect printing quality, thereby avoiding unnecessary replacements when failures occur in non-printing zones

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies different detection criteria to different regions of the print head. Instead of uniform detection across all nozzles, the system uses localized quality assessment that considers whether each nozzle's ejection failures impact the actual print area, enabling precise differentiation between critical and non-critical failures

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

2Reliability

If the number of ejection failure nozzles is counted without considering print area, then comprehensive monitoring is achieved, but false abnormality notifications occur

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvemonitoring coverageVSAvoidfalse abnormality information

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts and separates nozzles into two distinct groups: those within the print area and those outside. By taking out the irrelevant nozzles (outside print area) from the failure count, the system eliminates false abnormality notifications while maintaining reliable monitoring of only the nozzles that actually impact printing quality

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentUS20250326234A1Inkjet printing apparatus, control method, and storage medium

Publication Date: 2025.10.23 CANON KK

AI summary

An object of the present disclosure is to prevent unnecessary replacement of a print head. An embodiment of the present invention is a printing apparatus includes: a print head including nozzle arrays disposed at different positions in a first direction and each including multiple nozzles that eject an ink and are arrayed in a second direction crossing the first direction; a recovery unit; a second print area ejection failure determination unit configured to determine, for each of nozzles among the multiple nozzles, whether the nozzle is experiencing ejection failure, the nozzle being present within a second print area larger in width than a first print medium to be subjected to an image printing process; and a notification unit configured to notify of abnormality of the head after the second print area ejection failure determination unit executes a second print area ejection failure determination process.