Treatment Liquid Replenishment Control for Inkjet Image Quality
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Solution Overview
Problem
Inkjet printers face issues with image quality degradation due to treatment liquid deterioration, leading to bleeding, decreased friction, and conveyance failures, which are not effectively addressed by existing maintenance processes that disrupt workflow efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A liquid coating device with a storage container, drain unit, and supply unit, controlled by circuitry, sets a target drain amount based on degradation thresholds, and adjusts supply to maintain treatment liquid properties, preventing deterioration and ensuring high-quality image formation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Duration of action of stationary object
If treatment liquid is stored in the storage container for extended periods, then the image forming apparatus can maintain continuous operation, but the treatment liquid deteriorates causing image quality degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary drainage of a portion of the treatment liquid before complete deterioration occurs. The drainage unit drains a predetermined amount of treatment liquid from the storage container proactively, preventing the liquid from reaching a state where it would cause image quality degradation, thus maintaining reliability while extending effective storage duration.
2Reliability
If the storage container is completely emptied and refilled, then fresh treatment liquid is supplied to maintain image quality, but workflow is interrupted and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of completely emptying and refilling the storage container, the system performs partial drainage of only a predetermined amount of treatment liquid. This partial action is sufficient to prevent deterioration and maintain image quality, while avoiding the complete workflow interruption that would result from a full refill operation, thus preserving productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The drainage operation is designed to be quick and automated, allowing the treatment liquid supply to the coating unit to continue without significant interruption. The system maintains continuous operation by draining only the necessary amount to prevent deterioration, rather than stopping for complete replacement, thus ensuring continuity of the image forming process.
3Reliability
If a large amount of treatment liquid is drained to ensure freshness, then image quality is maintained, but loss of substance increases and costs rise
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameter of drainage amount from a fixed large value to a precisely controlled predetermined amount. By setting and controlling the drainage amount to exactly what is needed to prevent deterioration, the system avoids excessive drainage and waste of treatment liquid, reducing loss of substance while maintaining image quality reliability.
4Reliability
If maintenance operations are performed frequently to prevent treatment liquid deterioration, then image quality is maintained, but device complexity and operational overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The drainage unit automatically performs the maintenance function of removing deteriorated treatment liquid without requiring complex manual intervention or monitoring systems. The system serves itself by autonomously draining the predetermined amount of treatment liquid at appropriate intervals, simplifying the maintenance system while ensuring image quality is maintained.
Data Source
AI summary
A liquid coating device includes a storage container, a drain unit, a supply unit, and circuitry. The storage container stores a treatment liquid to be applied to coating targets. The drain unit drains the treatment liquid from the storage container for a drain amount. The supply unit supplies the treatment liquid to the storage container. The circuitry sets a target value related to the drain amount of the treatment liquid smaller than a total capacity of the storage container, calculates a degradation degree of the treatment liquid in the storage container, controls the drain unit to drain the treatment liquid for the drain amount based on the target value when the degradation degree exceeds a threshold of the degradation degree, and controls the supply unit to supply the treatment liquid for a supply amount corresponding to the drain amount.