Printing Apparatus Guide Movement for Borderless Ink Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing printing apparatuses face challenges in improving print throughput and reducing size when performing borderless printing due to the difficulty in quickly moving heavy and voluminous movable ink receivers and transport guides, which hinder efficient sheet width changes.
Innovation Solution
A printing apparatus design where the ink receiving unit is fixed, and the guide is moved as necessary, allowing for improved throughput and size reduction by decoupling the movement of the guide from the ink receivers, enabling quicker adjustments to sheet sizes without the need for extensive repositioning of the ink receivers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If movable ink receivers and transport guides are moved integrally together, then borderless printing capability is achieved, but the mass and volume of moving parts increase, making quick movement difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the previously integrated movable structure into separate components: movable guides and fixed ink receivers. This segmentation allows the guides to be moved quickly for sheet width adjustments while the heavy ink receivers remain stationary, resolving the contradiction between adaptability and weight.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of moving the ink receivers as in conventional designs, this patent inverts the approach by making the guides movable and the ink receivers fixed. This inversion enables quick adaptation to different sheet widths without the burden of moving heavy ink receiver components.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If movable ink receivers are used for borderless printing, then ink outside the sheet can be received, but the drive mechanism size increases when multiple line heads are employed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the movement function from the ink receivers and assigns it to the guides instead. This extraction eliminates the need for a complex drive mechanism to move heavy ink receivers, while still achieving the same function of capturing ink outside the sheet through the movable guides.
3Adaptability or versatility
If movable ink receivers are displaced according to sheet width, then borderless printing is enabled, but waiting time is required for movement, hindering print throughput
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional approach by making the guides movable rather than the ink receivers. Since the guides have much smaller mass, they can be quickly repositioned for different sheet widths without requiring waiting time, thus maintaining high print throughput while enabling sheet width adaptability.
Data Source
AI summary
A printing apparatus includes a print head for inkjet printing, and a guide disposed opposing the print head and configured to guide a back surface of a sheet being conveyed in a first direction. The back surface is a reverse surface of a surface being printed. The printing apparatus further includes a receiving unit disposed opposing the print head and configured to receive ink outside the sheet being conveyed, and a mechanism configured to change a position of the guide in a second direction relative to the receiving unit being fixed, according to a size of the sheet to be used. The second direction crosses the first direction.