Digital Printer Nozzle Failure Compensation via Texture Pattern Switching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Inkjet printing technologies face significant productivity losses due to nozzle failures, which are often visible in high-quality decorative prints, limiting their use in industries like flooring and furniture, where complex algorithms are required to camouflage errors, leading to inefficient production and downtime.
Innovation Solution
A method and device that detect nozzle failures and automatically switch to a pending print job with a texture pattern that minimizes the visibility of the error, using texture histograms and similarity measures to select a visually comparable pattern, allowing continuous printing without extensive maintenance or complex file changes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If inkjet printing is used for decorative printing, then flexibility in production quantity and design conversion is improved, but nozzle failures cause visible errors that reduce manufacturing precision
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-calculates and stores alternative pixel values for potential nozzle failures before printing begins. When a nozzle failure is detected, the pre-computed alternative values are immediately applied, eliminating visible errors without interrupting production.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates alternative representations of the decorative pattern by pre-calculating what the pattern would look like if certain nozzles failed. These alternative pixel values serve as copies that can replace the defective nozzle output.
2Manufacturing precision
If complex algorithms are used to camouflage nozzle errors, then manufacturing precision is maintained, but device complexity and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs the complex error camouflage calculation in advance, before the actual printing process. This preliminary computation stores alternative pixel values that can be quickly applied when failures occur, avoiding real-time complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces complex real-time image processing algorithms with pre-computed lookup tables of alternative pixel values. This substitution transforms a computationally intensive runtime operation into a simple data retrieval operation.
3Productivity
If printing continues with faulty nozzles, then productivity is maintained, but visible errors increase in the decoration quality
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates alternative pixel representations that copy the visual appearance of the intended pattern, allowing printing to continue with faulty nozzles while maintaining decoration quality through the alternative pixel values.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the pixel parameters (color values, intensity) in the digital representation to compensate for the physical nozzle failure, allowing the printing process to continue without interruption while maintaining output quality.
4Manufacturing precision
If production is stopped for nozzle maintenance, then manufacturing precision is restored, but productivity decreases due to downtime
Solution Approach 1:
The system prepares alternative pixel values and error compensation strategies in advance, allowing nozzle maintenance to be performed without interrupting the printing process. The pre-computed alternatives enable seamless continuation after maintenance.
Solution Approach 2:
The system maintains continuous printing operation by using alternative pixel representations that compensate for nozzle failures. This allows maintenance activities to be performed without stopping the productive printing process.
Data Source
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AI summary
The method involves selecting a tarn-image file via a control device such that the file exhibits a pattern in an environment of a region that is re-painted by an incorrect color point-generator, so that a measure of histogram of a texture feature exceeds a predetermined limitation value. The measure of histogram is determined from the region with and without using the texture that is caused by incorrect function of the generator. A sensor detects faulty function of the color point-generator, which is provided in a print head (81) of a digital printer. An independent claim is also included for a device for digital printing of a decoration unit.