Staggered Inkjet Nozzle Phase Inversion for Streak Prevention
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Solution Overview
Problem
Inkjet recording apparatuses with staggered nozzle arrangements face issues with image quality due to streak-like patterns when nozzles fail, requiring additional recording heads and complex adjustments, increasing costs and complicating positional alignment.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus employs a serial head method with staggered nozzle arrangements, where the recording head moves at twice the conventional speed and switches between normal and reverse phases to ensure ink is ejected from adjacent nozzles, preventing continuous gaps in ink deposition and thus avoiding streak patterns without the need for additional recording heads.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If additional recording heads are added to prevent streak patterns, then image quality improves, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies reverse phase driving to the staggered nozzle arrangement, inverting the conventional driving approach. By reversing the phase sequence for nozzles in different rows, the patent achieves uniform ink distribution and prevents streak patterns without requiring additional recording heads, thus resolving the contradiction between image quality and device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the driving phase parameters for nozzles arranged in a staggered pattern. By adjusting the phase sequence and timing of ink ejection from nozzles in different rows, the patent optimizes ink distribution to prevent streak patterns while maintaining a single recording head configuration
2Reliability
If additional recording heads are added to prevent streak patterns, then image quality improves, but manufacturing cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses reverse phase driving methodology to achieve uniform ink distribution with a single recording head, eliminating the need for additional heads that would increase manufacturing costs while maintaining high image quality
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes a single recording head perform the function that would otherwise require multiple heads by implementing reverse phase driving. This multi-functional approach allows one head to cover the entire recording area uniformly, reducing manufacturing costs while maintaining image quality
3Manufacturing precision
If nozzle positions are displaced in staggered arrangement, then ink distribution improves, but positional alignment complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs reverse phase driving for the staggered nozzle arrangement, inverting the conventional sequential driving approach. This inversion compensates for the staggered positioning complexity by using phase-reversed timing to achieve uniform ink distribution, simplifying the effective alignment process
4Productivity
If recording head moves at twice the conventional speed, then productivity improves, but control precision challenges increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements periodic reverse phase driving cycles that synchronize with the doubled recording head speed. By using alternating phase sequences at the higher speed, the patent maintains precise ink droplet placement control while achieving twice the conventional productivity
Data Source
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AI summary
Provided is an inkjet recording apparatus using a recording head having three rows of nozzles which are three-phase driven and arranged in a staggered arrangement wherein the nozzles are arranged in the main scanning direction at an interval ofL/3 (L: pixel pitch); and each nozzle row is ejection-driven in the sequence from the last nozzle row to the forward nozzle row in the moving direction of the recording head, and the recording head scans at a moving speed of 2 x L x f (f is a ejection frequency per nozzle row), and after the completion of one scan, the recording medium is moved a distance of predetermined multiples of the pixel pitch in the sub-scanning direction, and in the next scan, ink is ejected onto the recording medium at pixel positions other than the pixel position on which the ink has been landed in preceding scans.