Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Controller
Reexamination Certificate
1997-11-07
2001-01-09
Nguyen, Thinh (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Controller
C347S014000, C347S042000, C400S055000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06172689
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printers, and, more particularly, to apparatus and method for varying a spacing between at least two printing elements, such as ink jet nozzles, in a printing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ink jet printer typically includes a printhead having an array of ink emitting orifices, or nozzles, formed therein. The printhead is mounted on a carriage assembly which scans a width of the print medium. During a scan of the carriage assembly, ink is jetted from selected ones of the ink emitting orifices to produce a desired print image on the print medium.
It is also known to provide an ink jet printer with a printhead which extends substantially across the width of the print medium. For an ink jet printer with a 300 dot per inch (dpi) resolution, a single row of ink emitting orifices in such a printhead would include at least 2400 ink emitting orifices (i.e., 300 orifices/inch * 8 inches/page width=2400 orifices/page width).
With a page wide printhead as described above, a print quality problem may arise with respect to the associated physical geometry of the printhead due to the spatial locality of the ink emitting orifices. Because the orifices are located in a substantially linear array extending across the width of the print medium, ink dots from adjacent orifices which are to be placed within a given raster are placed on the print medium at approximately the same time. If the printhead includes multiple rows of orifices extending across the width of the page, adjacent ink dots in a given row and adjacent ink dots between rows are placed on the print medium in close proximity to each other with respect to time. For various print media, particularly transparencies, poor print quality results when ink dots are placed at adjacent positions on the print medium at approximately the same time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is related to apparatus and method for varying a spacing between multiple print elements in a printing system. In preferred embodiments, a controller receives a signal representing at least one of an advance speed of a print medium in a feed direction in the printing system and an approximate drying time of an ink after being applied to the print medium. A device, responsive to the controller, then varies the spacing between the multiple print elements on the basis of the at least one of the advance speed of the print medium and the approximate drying time of the ink. Such print elements can be, for example, ink jet print nozzles.
In one embodiment, a first nozzle is associated with a first printhead and a second nozzle is associated with a second printhead. The device for varying the spacing includes a drive mechanism coupled to one of the first printhead and the second printhead, and an electromechanical device coupled to the drive mechanism, which when actuated by the controller, effects a change in spacing between the first printhead and the second printhead.
In another embodiment, a piezoelectric material is positioned between at least two components comprising a drive train, such that when the piezoelectric material is electrically energized, a mechanical variation in the spacing between the two components is effected.
An advantage of the present invention is that the spacing between at least two ink emitting orifices, or nozzles, or between at least two rows of ink emitting orifices, may be dynamically varied in the feed direction a distance which allows the ink jetted from one of the rows of orifices to substantially dry before ink is jetted from an adjacent row of orifices.
Other features and advantages of the invention may be realized from the drawings and detailed description of the invention that follows.
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Cunnagin Stephen Kelly
Heydinger Scott Michael
Lambert D. Brent
Lexmark International Inc.
Nguyen Thinh
Taylor & Aust P.C.
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