Inkjet Printer Heating Control via Multi-Pass Duty Adjustment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing inkjet printing apparatuses face challenges in achieving optimal drying of images with mixed low and high duty regions, as temperature control for one region affects adjacent areas, leading to suboptimal drying and potential deformation or degradation of the sheet.
Innovation Solution
A printing apparatus with a heating unit, acquisition unit to determine duty information, and a determination unit to adjust the number of print passes and heat settings based on maximum duty within a band of print regions, ensuring the surface temperature is optimized for high-quality image formation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a plurality of heaters are used in divided regions to control temperature for each region, then drying performance for high duty regions is improved, but device complexity increases and temperature control precision deteriorates due to mutual thermal interference between adjacent heaters
Solution Approach 1:
The printing process is segmented into multiple passes, with each pass applying a portion of the total ink. This allows the duty to be distributed across passes, enabling effective drying with a single heater by reducing the ink amount that needs to be dried in each individual pass.
Solution Approach 2:
The heater performs preliminary drying action during the printing process. By controlling the number of print passes based on duty information, the system ensures that the heater has sufficient time and opportunity to dry the ink before the next printing operation, preventing deformation while maintaining simple heater configuration.
2Stability of the object's composition
If temperature control optimized for low duty regions is applied, then sheet deformation is prevented, but drying of high duty regions becomes insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the number of print passes based on the duty of each region. For high duty regions, more print passes are performed to distribute the ink load, while for low duty regions, fewer passes are used. This dynamic adaptation allows the same heater to provide optimal drying for both low and high duty regions without causing sheet deformation.
3Manufacturing precision
If temperature control optimized for high duty regions is applied, then drying of high duty regions is sufficient, but low duty regions are excessively heated causing sheet deformation
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the printing parameter (number of print passes) based on the duty of each region. By increasing the number of passes for high duty regions and decreasing it for low duty regions, the system distributes the thermal load appropriately, preventing both insufficient drying and excessive heating that would cause sheet deformation.
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 solution allows for the creation of high-quality images by maintaining an optimum dried state even with a simple heater configuration, preventing deformation and degradation by adjusting print passes and heat settings according to duty variations.
Implementation Method 1
a heater for drying the moisture in ink applied onto a sheet is mounted. The heater is controlled so that the sheet has an optimum surface temperature
Implementation Method 2
a heating unit configured to heat the recording medium during printing
Data Source
AI summary
A printing apparatus, which includes a heating unit for heating a recording medium during printing, determines a pass number for multi-pass printing based on acquired information relating to the duty in each of a plurality of regions in one band of print region. The printing apparatus sets an amount of heat of the heating unit based on the acquired information.