Print Media Conveyance Control for Overlap Separation in Printers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional printing apparatuses face issues with maintaining the order of print media during successive overlapped conveyance, leading to potential deterioration in paper discharging performance when sheets are discharged in a face-down manner.
Innovation Solution
A printing apparatus with a control unit that alternately controls the conveyance and scanning printing operations, adjusting the conveyance speed and printhead nozzle driving range to separate overlapping print media, ensuring proper discharge order.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If successive overlapped conveyance is used to improve printing efficiency, then productivity increases, but the print media cannot be properly separated during discharge leading to deteriorated paper discharging performance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the conveyance speed variable rather than constant. The control unit adjusts the conveyance speed of each print medium individually based on its position and the overlapping state, allowing the system to transition between different conveyance modes (overlapped during printing, separated during discharge) to resolve the contradiction between productivity and discharging performance
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of conveyance speed dynamically. By adjusting the conveyance speed of each print medium individually, the system maintains overlapped conveyance for productivity during printing, then separates the media by modifying conveyance speeds during discharge, thus resolving the contradiction between printing efficiency and paper discharging performance
2Productivity
If print media are conveyed in overlapping state to improve efficiency, then productivity increases, but noise and power consumption increase during separation
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts conveyance speeds to minimize harmful factors. During printing, overlapped conveyance maintains productivity, but during discharge, the control unit optimizes separation timing and speed to reduce noise and power consumption by avoiding abrupt movements and unnecessary overlapping maintenance
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies skipping by rapidly transitioning from overlapped conveyance mode to separated discharge mode once printing is complete. This allows the system to quickly eliminate the overlapping state and its associated harmful factors (noise and power consumption) without significantly impacting overall productivity
Data Source
AI summary
A printing apparatus, includes a control unit to perform first control of, while performing printing by a printing unit in a state in which a trailing end portion of a preceding print medium overlaps a leading end portion of a succeeding print medium, controlling a conveying unit to separate the preceding print medium and the succeeding print medium from each other and, in the first control, adjusts a conveyance amount by the conveying unit to allow a conveying speed by the conveying unit to meet a criterion and adjusts a driving range of a nozzle based on the adjusted conveyance amount.