Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Medium and processing means
Reexamination Certificate
1996-02-12
2001-07-24
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Medium and processing means
C347S100000, C347S096000, C347S105000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06264320
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet printing method and apparatus. More specifically, the invention relates to an ink-jet printing apparatus and an ink-jet printing method for performing printing by ejecting an ink and a printing quality improving liquid for making a component in an ink insoluble or coagulated, to a medium to be printed.
The present invention is applicable for all of devices or apparatuses employing a paper, a cloth, a non-woven fabric, an OHP sheet, and so forth, and even a metal as a printing medium. In concrete, the present invention is applicable for an office appliance, such as a printer, a copy machine, a facsimile machine and so forth, an industrial production machine or so forth.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ink-jet printing systems have advantages of low noise, low running cost, easiness of down-sizing and providing color printing capability for the apparatus, and so forth, and have been widely used in a printer, a copy machine and so forth.
However, when an image is printed on a printing medium, such as a plain paper and so forth by such apparatus using the ink jet printing system, it is possible that water resistance of the printed image is insufficient. Also, in case of printing of color image, it is somewhat difficult to achieve both of high density image which may not cause feathering and an image which may not cause bleeding between adjacent colors. Therefore, it is often impossible to obtain high quality color image with high image fastness.
As a method to improve water resistance of the image, an ink containing color agent which is provided with water resistive property, has been put into practical use. However, water resistance of the image is still insufficient in many case. Further, in principle, the ink containing a water resistive coloring agent is an ink which is difficult to dissolve in the water when once dried. Therefore, such ink can easily cause plugging of ink-ejection openings in an ink-jet head. Also, a construction of an apparatus for preventing plugging of ink can be complicated.
On the other hand, in the prior art, there are large number of technologies for improving fastness of a printed medium. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 24486/1978, there is disclosed a technology for fixing a dye to the medium by laking the dye through post-treatment of the dyed product to increase fastness of the dye on the medium.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 43733/1979 discloses a method of the ink jet printing system for performing printing employing two or more components which may enhance film forming performance by mutually contacting at normal temperature or upon heating. By this, mutually contacting respective components on the printing medium may form a printing product with a film firmly fixed on a printing medium.
Also, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 150396/1980, a method for applying water-proofing agent forming a lake with a dye after printing with a water soluble ink by ink-jet system, is disclosed.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 128862/1983, an ink-jet printing method for printing a printing ink and printing quality improving liquid in overlapping manner with preliminarily identifying a position of an image to be printed is disclosed. In the disclosed method, the image is precedingly printed with the printing quality improving liquid in advance of printing by the printing ink, the printing quality improving liquid is applied in overlapping manner on the printing ink printed in advance, and the ink is applied in overlapping manner on the printing quality improving liquid in advance, then, the printing quality improving liquid is applied over the printing ink in overlapping manner.
However, in application of printing quality improving liquid to improve printing quality of printing with a conventional printing ink, it is typical to separately process the printing medium before printing or to perform a separate process after printing.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The inventors have implemented the conventionally proposed art. As a result, it has been found that while application of a printing quality improving liquid may improve printing quality (improvement of water-resistance) to a certain extent in comparison with an image for which the printing quality improving liquid is not applied, it requires devices for performing pre-treatment or post-treatment and further requires complicated pre-treatment or post-treatment. Therefore, it has judged that the conventionally proposed arts are impractical in view of efficiency of printing.
Therefore, the inventors have made extensive study under a premise of use of the printing quality improving liquid per se for further improving printing quality and for adapting the apparatus for high speed printing with achieving compact size.
In a process of study, the inventors have found that a condition up to physically integrating the ink and the printing quality improving liquid on the surface of the printing medium causes variation of the printing quality.
Therefore, the present invention has been worked out with focusing a new condition which has not been paid the attention in the prior art, by supposing new task which has not been recognized in the prior art.
In general, applying a large amount of printing quality improving liquid on the printing medium within a short period may cause feathering and bleeding between different colors to degrade reliability of the printed image. However, the present invention may provide a technical level beyond a level of such point concept.
The present invention was worked out in view of the above-mentioned problems. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an ink-jet printing apparatus and an ink-jet printing method which may cause certainly reaction of a coloring agent in an ink and a printing quality improving liquid to effectively make the coloring agent insoluble or coagulated to permit printing of high quality image with improved water resistance of a printing product.
Here, the printing quality means water-resistance of the printed product, printing density, prevention or decreasing of feathering and bleeding between different colors, and hue.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an ink-jet printing apparatus and an ink-jet printing method for generating ejection data of the ink and the printing quality improving liquid to certainly cause reaction between the coloring agent of the ink and the printing quality improving liquid.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an ink-jet printing apparatus and an ink-jet printing method, in which, when the printing quality improving liquid and ink are ejected from a printing quality improving liquid ejecting head and an ink ejection head to be contacted and mixed on a printing medium, the printing quality improving liquid and the ink are ejected at an ejection interval within a period, during which at least part of one of the printing quality improving liquid and the ink ejected at the earlier timing remains on the surface and whereby before one of the printing quality improving liquid and the ink penetrates into the printing medium, mixing of the printing quality improving liquid with the ink can be performed.
In a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink-jet printing apparatus for performing printing on a printing medium employing an ink and a printing quality improving liquid for making the ink insoluble or coagulated, the apparatus comprising:
an ejection controller for ejecting the printing quality improving liquid and the ink on substantially the same position or adjacent positions for mutually contacting with each other on the printing medium, at different timing, a time interval between timing for ejection of the printing quality improving liquid and timing for ejection of the ink being set within a period during which at least part of one of the printing quality improving liquid and the ink ejected at earlier tim
Hirabayashi Hiromitsu
Inui Toshiharu
Kato Masao
Kato Minako
Kurabayashi Yutaka
Barlow John
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Shah Manish
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