Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Controller
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-29
2003-05-20
Hallacher, Craig (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Controller
C347S014000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06565180
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet printer, and more particularly, to an ink jet printer with a compensation function for malfunctioning nozzles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, ink jet printers comprise one or more ink jet printing heads, and each ink jet printing head comprises a plurality of nozzles. The ink jet printers utilize the nozzles to jet ink to print documents. However, due to a demand by users to increase print quality, the ink jet printers must have increased printing resolution. So, the size of the nozzles must be reduced, but this increases a probability of foreign materials building up on the nozzles.
Please refer to FIG.
1
and FIG.
2
.
FIG. 1
is a diagram of a prior art ink jet printer
10
.
FIG. 2
is a printing diagram of the ink jet printer
10
shown in
FIG. 1
, when operating properly. The ink jet printer
10
comprises an ink jet printing head
12
. The ink jet printing head
12
moves back and forth along an ink jet track
13
to print a document
11
. The ink jet printing head
12
comprises a plurality of nozzles
14
a
and
14
b
for jetting ink needed when printing to form a plurality of printing strips
16
and
19
on the document
11
. Each printing strip
16
or
19
is made of a plurality of ink jet spots
18
.
The ink jet printer
10
uses a popular printing method called shingling. The shingling printing method is performed by using N-printing routes to print a printing area. In the first printing route, only 1/N nozzles of total nozzles are used to jet ink. In the second printing route, another 1/N nozzles of total nozzles are used to print. This is repeated to perform N-printing routes to finish printing the printing area with nozzles at different positions. As shown in
FIG. 2
, in the first printing route of the ink jet printing head
12
, only half of the nozzles
14
a
, shown in
FIG. 2
, are used to form the printing strips
16
. In the second printing route, the other half of the nozzles
14
b
are used to form the printing strips
19
. The nozzles
14
a
or
14
b
are used separately, at different positions, to form the interlaced printing strips
16
and
19
to finish the printing operation. Again,
FIG. 2
is only a preferred embodiment of shingling printing. Actually, there are many methods of shingling printing, but this printing method is obvious to those skilled in the art, so further details are omitted.
Please refer to FIG.
3
.
FIG. 3
is a printing diagram of the ink jet printer
10
shown in
FIG. 2
, when having a malfunctioning nozzle
15
. In general, nozzles are often damaged by some reason (such as blockage by a foreign matter), so that they cannot jet ink properly. As shown in
FIG. 3
, when the ink jet printing head
12
comprises a malfunctioning nozzle
15
, because the malfunctioning nozzle
15
cannot jet ink properly, if printing with the above method, there is a blank space
17
formed on the document
11
, and the printing quality is affected.
Please refer to FIG.
4
.
FIG. 4
is another printing diagram of a prior art ink jet printer when operating properly. The ink jet printer
20
also comprises an ink jet printing head
22
, and the printing head comprises a plurality of nozzles
24
to jet ink to form a plurality of printing strips
26
on a document
21
. The printing method used in the ink jet printer
20
is different from the above printing method of shingling, and it is a printing method of area printing. The ink jet printing head
22
executes a plurality of printing processes to form an area by moving. It prints an area each time to form a plurality of printing areas
29
on the document
21
to finish the printing job of the entire document. In every printing process, the relative position between the ink jet printing head
22
and the document
21
changes. As shown in
FIG. 4
, labels I, II, and III of
FIG. 4
represent the changes of positions of the ink jet printing head
22
relative to the document
21
in three successive printing processes. Therefore, by changing the relative positions, the ink jet printing head
22
is capable of performing printing at different positions on the document
21
.
Please refer to FIG.
5
.
FIG. 5
is a printing diagram of the ink jet printer
20
shown in
FIG. 4
, when having a malfunctioning nozzle
25
. As shown in
FIG. 5
, the ink jet printing head
22
comprises a malfunctioning nozzle
25
. When the ink jet printing head
22
prints on the document
21
, because the malfunctioning nozzle
25
cannot jet ink properly, each printing area
29
formed by the ink jet printing head
22
has a blank space. Therefore, when printing by the method of area printing, the printing quality of the ink jet printer
20
is also affected, because of the existence of the malfunctioning nozzle
25
.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
It is therefore a primary objective of the claimed invention to provide an ink jet printer with a compensation function for malfunctioning nozzles to solve the above mentioned problems.
According to claimed invention, the ink jet printer comprises an ink jet printing head having a plurality of nozzles. The ink jet printer also has an ink jet compensation controlling device for driving the ink jet printing head, so that the nozzles are capable of forming a plurality of linear printing strips on the document, each printing strip comprising a plurality of points. The ink jet printer also has a detecting device for detecting a working status of the nozzles. When the nozzles work normally, the ink jet compensation controlling device uses the nozzles to form the printing strips. If the detecting device detects at least one malfunctioning nozzle in the nozzles, the ink jet compensation controlling device selects a group of normal nozzles according to the position of the malfunctioning nozzle. The group of normal nozzles comprises a plurality of normal nozzles that excludes the malfunctioning nozzle. The detecting device then controls the group of normal nozzles to form printing strips on the document that correspond to strips that would normally have been printed by the malfunctioning nozzle.
It is an advantage of the claimed invention that the ink jet printer uses other nozzles operating properly to perform the printing operation of the document when there is a malfunctioning nozzle in the ink jet printing head of the ink jet printer.
These and other objectives and advantages of the claimed invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5124720 (1992-06-01), Schantz
patent: 5534895 (1996-07-01), Lindenfelser et al.
patent: 6217144 (2001-04-01), Myung
patent: 6447091 (2002-09-01), Calvo et al.
Ho Chien-Hsien
Yu Chia-Lei
BenQ Corporation
Hallacher Craig
Hsu Winston
Stewart Jr. Charles W.
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