Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Medium and processing means
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-02
2003-01-28
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Medium and processing means
C420S119000, C347S105000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06511173
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-printing medium integrated type pack accommodating ink and a printing medium to be used in an ink-jet printing system, an ink-jet printing apparatus and an ink-jet printing method, in which the integrated type pack can be employed in detachable fashion.
2. Description of the Related Art
The ink jet printing system is carried out by causing fine droplets of inks to fly and adhere to a printing medium such as paper based on various operational principles, to print images, characters, or the like, thereby enabling printing with low noise at a high speed. The ink jet printing system has advantages such as facilitation of multicolor printing and is characterized by a high degree of freedom for recordable patterns, elimination of the necessity of development or fixation, and others. Thus, printing apparatuses based on this system have been rapidly spread in various fields including that of data processing to accommodate various images and print media.
In addition, images formed by means of the multicolor ink jet printing system can easily stand comparison with multicolor printing based on the plate making system or photographic printing based on the color photographing system. The multicolor ink jet printing system enables images to be produced more inexpensively than normal multicolor printing or photographic printing if a small number of copies are particularly to be printed and is thus widely used in the field of full-color image printing.
To accommodate wider applications of the ink jet printing system and enable the recent improvement of printing characteristics such as an increased printing speed, an improved definition, and full color printing, efforts are being made to improve the printing apparatus and method. Characteristics required to achieve wider applications of the ink jet printing system and improve the printing characteristics include, for example, a high density of printed ink dots, bright and clear color tones, fast ink absorption, prevention of outflow or bleeding of inks despite overlapping ink dots, and spread of ink dots with appropriate bleeding.
It is known that these characteristics are realized not only by the printing apparatus and method but also by improving inks or printing media used for printing.
For example, it is known that coated paper is used as a printing medium due to ink absorptivity and fixability achieved thereby. The coated paper comprises, for example, a silicon pigment such as silica, or an absorbing polymer including a resin such as colloidal silica, polyvinyl pyrrolidone, polyvinyl alcohol, polyethylene oxide-isocyanate crosslinked material, or an acrylic polymer having a carboxyl group, or an aluminum-based pigment such as alumina hydrated compound or aluminum oxide, which is each coated on paper, a film, cloth, or the like together with an aqueous binder or the like. On the other hand, inks have their permeability adjusted by means of a surface-active agent or the like contained therein.
To accommodate the improvement of the printing characteristics, however, an optimal combination of printing media and inks which can realize these characteristics is more preferably selected by individually selecting printing media or inks depending on each of the characteristics. This is because the inks and the printing media show each of the characteristics through their mutual relationship.
In this case, to specifically realize the optical combination of the printing media and the inks in an inkjet printing apparatus, configurations and operations are required which replace or install the printing media or the inks depending on a combination of printing media and inks. Additionally, an operation is required for setting printing conditions on, for example, a host computer; for example, a printing mode must be set depending on such a combination. That is, it is cumbersome to carry out the above operations or setting operations each time the combination is switched. It is also difficult for a user to obtain the optimal combination.
In this regard, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Heisei 11-254700 discloses a technology to detachably load a media cartridge, in which a combination of a cassette portion stacking printing media and either an ink tank or a waste ink tank collecting waste ink is integrated, in a printing apparatus. Then, by recognizing the detachably loaded media cartridge in the printing apparatus on the side of the printing apparatus, a printing mode adapting to the printing medium and the ink can be set automatically to permit appropriate printing control adapting to the combination of the printing medium and the ink with a simple operation.
However, in the above-identified publication, while the media cartridge, in which the cassette containing the printing media and the ink tank are integrated, has been disclosed, there is no disclosure for a particular construction of the printing apparatus employing the cartridge in consideration of down-sizing of the printing apparatus and handling of the cartridge.
Also, there is no suggestion for combination of the printing medium and the ink to realize desired printing characteristics in view of material or composition of both of the printing medium and the ink. Namely, in the above-identified publication, when plain paper is set as the printing medium in a plain paper cartridge, setting of the inks is consisted of a treatment liquid, black, yellow magenta and cyan, and, on the other hand, when coated paper, glossy paper, or an OHP sheet, setting of the inks is consisted of the inks similar to the former but excluding the treatment liquid. The reason is that on the coated paper or the like, on which an ink receptacle layer is coated, usage of the treatment liquid making the dye insoluble may degrade image quality. Further, in the above-identified publication, it is disclosed that when a photographic image quality mode is set setting of the inks is consisted of high density black, low density black, high density yellow, low density yellow, high density magenta, low density magenta, high density cyan and low density cyan inks, for example.
As set forth above, in the above-identified publication, there is only disclosed the cartridge, in which combination of inks selected among several kinds of inks easily distinguished by users depending upon the printing medium or the printing mode, are integrated.
On the other hand, from a view pint of dye-affinity, even the printing media appear to be the same, adapted ink compositions should be different if materials or compositions of the printing media are different. In view of this, there are optimal combinations of the printing media and the ink compositions. Particularly, in combination of the paper and the ink, one of important factors significantly influencing for image quality is bleeding of the ink to significantly vary clarity or granular feeding of the image depending upon a degree of bleeding. In this case, it is almost impossible for users to select the combination adapting to the quality of the image desired to form.
Furthermore, as another problem, the most of currently known ink-jet printing apparatuses are more or less inclined to certain characteristics. In such case, it is relatively difficult to satisfy above mentioned various requirements for the printing characteristics.
For example, one of characteristics of the printing head as one factor determining the printing characteristics is a life of a printing head
per
se
. In the case that the printer is used frequently, increasing of durability is desired. Also, as characteristics of the ink, it is desired that residual ink in nozzles in the printing head can be easily removed by recovery operation or the like even after non-use for a relatively long period. It is also desired that composition of the ink can be maintained unchanged so as not to cause change in color. In this circumstance, characteristics of the ink-jet printing apparatus is restricted by the factors set forth above. Theref
Inamoto Tadayoshi
Kaburagi Yoshiaki
Kuribayashi Akira
Saito Hiroyuki
Suzuki Mariko
Barlow John
Tran Ly T
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