Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Controller
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-10
2001-08-21
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Controller
C347S011000, C347S009000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06276773
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an inkjet recording head for recording a character and a pattern and so forth to recording medium in such a way that the drive method and the drive cause volume of ink chamber in which ink is filled up to be changed according to function of actuator such as piezoelectric vibration element. The change of volume causes infinitesimal ink-drop to be discharged from a nozzle penetrating continuously to the ink chamber. More to particularly, this invention relates to a drive method and a drive for driving this inkjet recording head.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
The Japanese Patent Publication No. SHO 53-12138, The Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 10-193587, and so forth disclose drop-on-demand type ink-jet recording device. The drop-on-demand type ink-jet recording device causes an ink chamber in which ink is filled to be changed in terms of volume of the chamber (expansion/contraction) while employing the actuator such as the piezoelectric vibration element and so forth. It causes the ink-drop to be discharged from a point of a nozzle which is formed to be penetrated continuously to said ink chamber in accordance with change of pressure of internal part of the ink chamber.
FIG. 1
is a block diagram showing a drive of ink-jet recording head according to the conventional example of the present invention.
FIG. 2
is a sectional outline view for explaining constitution of an ink-jet recording head driven by the drive of FIG.
1
.
FIG. 3
is an outline plan view showing relationship between the recording medium and the ink-jet recording head in the ink-jet printer.
FIG. 4
is a graph showing one example of drive-waveform (waveform according to voltage, hereinafter referred to as drive-voltage-waveform) which is supplied to the actuator in every one-printing period.
FIG. 5
is a view showing dot formed by the drive-voltage-waveform of FIG.
4
.
The ink-jet recording head
1
includes a nozzle plate
3
on which a plurality of nozzles (orifice) are formed, an ink chamber
4
provided corresponding to respective nozzles
2
, in which the ink
11
discharged from the nozzles
2
is filled, an ink supplying path
5
a
for supplying ink
11
to the ink chamber
4
from an ink tank which is not illustrated, and an actuator
7
provided corresponding to respective ink chambers
4
.
Further, the ink chamber
4
expands and is contracted due to the fact that it causes the actuator to be driven, thus the ink filled up in the internal part is discharged from the nozzle
2
caused by the change of volume.
The drive for driving this ink-jet recording head
1
, as sown in
FIG. 1
, includes a waveform generator
23
for generating the drive-voltage-waveform in order to supply to the actuator
7
, a drive-waveform storage means
22
in which information for generating the drive-voltage-waveform at the waveform generator is stored therein beforehand, a switching part
24
for switching the drive-voltage-waveform for supplying to the actuators
7
,
7
. . . provided corresponding to respective nozzles
2
, and controller
21
for transferring signal among the drive-waveform storage means
22
, the waveform generator
23
, the actuators
7
,
7
, . . . , the switching part
24
and so forth, and for controlling thereof
For instance, the drive-voltage-waveform as shown in
FIG. 4
is supplied to the actuators
7
,
7
, . . . . The ink-drop
11
forming a dot D as shown in
FIG. 5
is discharged from the nozzle
2
according to the drive-voltage-waveform.
The waveform generator
23
is provided with a single waveform generation circuit
25
. The waveform generation circuit
25
is connected to respective actuators
7
,
7
, . . . by the signal line. A switch
27
is provided for a branching signal line for branching signal from the signal line to respective actuators
7
,
7
, . . . . A switching of this switch
27
is implemented by a nozzle selection circuit
26
of the switching part
24
. The nozzle selection circuit
26
executes switching of ON, OFF of the switch
27
according to DSN command signal provided from the controller
21
. The drive-waveform storage means
22
stores therein information in connection with generation of the drive-voltage-waveform to be applied to the actuator
7
.
The ink-jet recording head
1
above described constitution causes the controller
21
to control a driving of a drive body for the sake of movement of the ink-jet recording head
1
in accordance with a command signal from the external part. The ink-jet recording head
1
causes the controller
21
to control a driving of a drive body of feed roller for feeding recording medium. Subsequently, it causes the nozzle selection data DSN to be transmitted to the switching part
24
in every one-printing period. Thus, it causes a discharging start command to be transmitted to the waveform generator
23
with appropriate timing.
As shown in
FIG. 3
, the ink-jet recording head
1
moves in the direction of horizontal scanning (X-axis direction) along a guide
12
provided for the ink-jet printer body which is not illustrated, and causing the recording medium
13
to be fed in the direction of vertical scanning (Y-axis direction) perpendicular to the direction of horizontal scanning according to the feed roller
14
, thus print is performed while forming a great deal of dots on the recording medium
13
. On this occasion, the nozzle
2
passes arbitrary pixel position on the recording medium
13
by only one time.
Now then, various kinds of ink-jet recording heads, drives thereof, and drive methods are proposed except for those shown in
FIGS. 1
to
3
, as the inkjet recording head, drive thereof, and drive method whose discharging enforcement (discharging method, discharging timing, diameter of ink-drop, and so forth) of the ink-drop is improved in order to obtain high quality image.
For instance, the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 4-118245, and the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 9-174884 disclose technology (hereinafter referred to as prior art
2
). Such the technology is that it causes gradation of image to be realized according to number of ink-drops adhering to recording medium. One dot is formed while causing minute ink-drop to adhere to the same position on the recording medium or the neighboring area thereof. Such the minute ink-drop is small in comparison with standard resolution or recording resolution.
Further, the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 4-361055 discloses technology (hereinafter referred to as prior art
3
). Such the technology is that it causes gradation recording to be realized while forming one pixel in such a way of causing ink-drop with different volume to adhere to approximately same position repeatedly in plural scanning due to the fact that it causes a plurality of nozzles whose volume of discharging ink-drops are different to be provided.
Furthermore, the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 9-164706 discloses technology (hereinafter referred to as prior art
4
). Such the technology is that it causes point whose dot diameter is different to be formed at the same position on the recording medium by only one time scanning, while causing a plurality of nozzles with different nozzle diameter to be provided by plural rows.
Moreover, the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 10-81012 discloses technology (hereinafter referred to as prior art
5
). Such the technology is that it causes gradation recording to be realized while forming dot with different diameter on the recording medium. The technology causes the drive-voltage-waveform signal outputted in every one-printing period to be constituted from the first pulse causing ink-drop of medium dot to be discharged, the second pulse causing ink-drop of small dot to be discharged, the third pulse causing ink-drop of large dot to be discharged, and the fourth pulse giving infinitesimal vibration to meniscus. The gradation recording is realized while forming dot with different diameter on the recording medium d
Barlow John
Dudding A.
NEC Corporation
Ostrolenk Faber Gerb & Soffen, LLP
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