Printer Carriage Sensor Placement for Continuous Printing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional printing apparatuses experience delays in starting a printing pass due to the need for the carriage to return to a predefined position when nozzles reach the medium before the sensor, resulting in inefficiencies regardless of the sensor's placement relative to the head.
Innovation Solution
A printing apparatus with a controller that determines the distance between nozzles and a sensor, allowing continuous movement during a printing pass if the medium is detected, and prevents droplet adherence by ensuring medium support before discharging ink, thereby optimizing the start time of the printing process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If the sensor is positioned to the left of the head and the carriage moves rightward, then the nozzles reach the medium before the sensor, requiring the carriage to return to a predefined position, but this increases the time until the printing pass starts
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor is positioned to the right of the head so that it reaches the medium detection position before the nozzles arrive. This preliminary detection allows the system to prepare for printing in advance, eliminating the need for the carriage to return to a predefined position and thus reducing the time until the printing pass starts.
2Loss of time
If the carriage moves continuously without stopping to detect medium presence, then printing can start immediately, but ink droplets may adhere to the platen if no medium is present
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor performs medium detection before the nozzles reach the medium position, providing advance verification of medium presence. This preliminary action allows the system to confirm medium availability in time, enabling continuous carriage movement without stopping while preventing ink droplet adherence to the platen by ensuring medium presence is verified beforehand.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration significantly reduces the time required to initiate a printing pass and prevents ink droplets from adhering to the platen by ensuring proper medium detection and support during nozzle movement.
Implementation Method 1
a sensor carried on the carriage at a position in the first direction between the head and an end in the first direction of the carriage where the sensor is capable of facing the platen and the medium supported by the platen, and configured to detect the medium
Data Source
AI summary
There is provided a printing apparatus including: a platen; a head; a carriage moving in a first direction and a second direction; a sensor configured to detect the medium; a memory; and a controller. Before a certain printing pass starts, the controller is configured to get a first distance value in the first direction between the sensor and a most downstream nozzle and a second distance value between an end of the medium and a close landing position that is closest to the end of the medium. The controller is configured to continue the certain printing pass without stopping the movement of the carriage, when the controller has determined that the second distance value is larger than the first distance value, and when the controller has determined that the medium is supported by the platen.