Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Controller
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-30
2002-07-23
Nguyen, Thinh (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Controller
C347S040000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06422678
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to multi-pen printers, and, more specifically, to alignment of staggered pens in multi-pen printers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Printers with multiple printheads, or pens, such as ink jet printers, for example, have historically had aligned pens. In this context, aligned means that the pens are substantially aligned in a scan axis. A scan axis is the path along which the pens, typically transported by a carriage, may travel when the printer is in operation. In such printers, aligning the printheads, or, more specifically, what the pens print on a media, is typically accomplished by using one pen as a reference and then aligning the other pens relative to that reference.
One advance in print technology is the use of staggered pens. Printers with staggered pens may have certain advantages over printers with non-staggered pens, such as improved print quality and/or improved print speed. However, conventional methods for aligning pens in printers with staggered pens may have certain disadvantages. For example, using one pen as a reference and aligning the other pens to that reference may introduce errors into the alignment of such pens due to, for example, media advance errors, though other sources of error may exist. Therefore, alternative techniques for aligning staggered pens in multi-pen printers are desirable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, a method of aligning multiple staggered pens in a printer includes printing a series of test block patterns, the test block patterns containing a plurality of composite references printed with a set of pens from at least two rows of a pen arrangement of the printer and a plurality of alignment blocks. The method further includes measuring relative distances between the plurality of composite references and the plurality of alignment blocks to determine a misalignment per pen and modifying pen operation to compensate for the per pen misalignment.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5387976 (1995-02-01), Lesniak
patent: 6241334 (2001-06-01), Haselby
Murcia Antoni
Serra Josep Maria
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