Recording apparatus and gradation recording method

Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C347S086000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06286932

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus. More specifically, the invention relates to an ink-jet type recording apparatus for performing recording by ejecting ink toward a recording medium.
2. Description of Related Art
As a recording apparatus, an ink-jet type recording apparatus has been employed in various applications. Especially, a bubble-jet type printing apparatus which generates bubbles in ink and ejects ink droplets by pressure of the bubbles for recording by forming dots on a recording medium, is becoming majority. On the other hand, according to an increasing demand for color printing in the recent years, gradation of density becomes to be given importance in order to obtain an image close to the natural color. In order to certainly obtain satisfactory gradation, various systems, such as a system controlling dot density, a system varying size of the dot, a system for using different density of inks and so forth have been employed.
However, in the case of the system controlling the dot density, size of the ink droplet to be ejected has to be made smaller and thus to make the pitch of ink ejection orifices smaller. Smaller pitch of the ejection orifices may cause difficulty in production. As well, smaller pitch of the ejection orifices may increase possibility of causing clogging of the orifices. Furthermore, for higher recording speed, a greater number of ink ejection orifices are required so as to increase the overall size of the apparatus.
On the other hand, in the case of the system varying the size of the dot, while no problem will be arisen in the construction and the number of ink ejection orifices and liquid passages therefor, in the bubble-jet system to generate bubbles in the ink by heat, heat history management for varying response speed to change the size of the ink droplets becomes necessary for controlling generation of bubbles. Particularly, when an image has high recording density, non-uniformity of density tends to be caused at leading and trailing ends.
Furthermore, in the system using different density of inks, while no constraint condition is present on a head side, and achieving of gradation or gray scale is relatively easy, it inherently requires a large number of ink containers to degrade operability in installation and removal of the ink containers. Especially, in the case of serial type recording apparatus, in which a plurality of ink containers are carried on a carriage together with recording heads for performing recording, the carriage per se inherently becomes bulky.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Paying attention to the problems in the prior art as set forth above and in order to solve the problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a recording apparatus, which can reduce the number of ink containers, contribute enhancement of gradation quality, be inexpensive and compact with capability of multicolor printing, and be particularly suitable for a serial type ink-jet system.
According to one aspect of the invention, an ink-jet recording apparatus for gradation recording having a plurality of ink containers each storing one of a plurality of kinds of inks to be supplied to a recording head portion, comprises:
a plurality of ink cartridges, each having a plurality of the ink containers;
at least one of the ink cartridges having ink containers respectively storing yellow ink and black ink;
one of another ink cartridges having ink containers respectively storing high density ink and low density ink of cyan; and
one of another ink cartridges having ink containers respectively storing high density ink and low density ink of magenta.
Preferably, the ink container storing yellow ink has smaller volume than the ink container storing black ink.
According to another aspect of the invention, a recording apparatus comprises:
transporting means for transporting a member to be recorded in a predetermined direction;
a carriage provided movable in a scanning direction;
a recording head portion mounted on the carriage, the recording head portion having a first recording head series including a plurality of recording heads in the same direction, each recording head having an ejection orifice array consisted of a plurality of ejection orifices arranged in a direction perpendicular to the scanning direction, and a second recording head series arranged spaced apart from the first recording head series in the scanning direction and including a plurality of recording heads in the same direction, each recording head having an ejection orifice array consisted of a plurality of ejection orifices arranged in a direction perpendicular to the scanning direction; and
a plurality of ink cartridges, each having two ink containers respectively communicated with recording heads of the first and second recording head series aligned in the scanning direction.
In the preferred construction, the recording head portion may have the first and second recording head series arranged adjacent to each other and has reversed T-shaped cross-section, and the ink cartridge may be of reversed U-shaped configuration to be placed over the reversed T-shaped recording head portion. In such case, the first and second recording head series may have ink supply tubes communicated with respective recording heads, and each of the ink supply tubes is connected to an ink supply passage formed in the bottom of a leg portion of the U-shaped ink cartridge. Preferably, at least one of the ink cartridges has ink containers respectively storing yellow ink and black ink, one of another ink cartridges has ink containers respectively storing high density ink and low density ink of cyan, and one of another ink cartridges has ink containers respectively storing high density ink and low density ink of magenta.
The recording head portion may have the first and second recording head series arranged in spaced apart from each other with a predetermined distance, and among a plurality of ink cartridges, and ink cartridges positioned at both ends in the direction perpendicular to the scanning direction may be formed into reversed W-shaped configuration. In such case, the first and second recording head series may have ink supply tubes communicated with respective recording heads, and each of the ink supply tubes is connected to an ink supply passage formed in the bottom of a leg portion of the ink cartridge. Also, the reversed W-shaped ink cartridge may have communicating portion at the lower portion of leg portions of each ink container.
The ink cartridge arranged at the center in the direction perpendicular to the scanning direction may be of reversed U-shaped configuration and have ink containers respectively storing yellow ink and black ink, one of ink cartridges at both ends may have ink containers respectively storing high density ink and low density ink of cyan, and the other ink cartridge may have ink containers respectively storing high density ink and low density ink of magenta.
Preferably, at least one of the ink cartridges may have ink containers respectively storing yellow ink and black ink, one of another ink cartridges may have ink containers respectively storing high density ink and low density ink of cyan, and one of another ink cartridges may have ink containers respectively storing high density ink and low density ink of magenta, and
the apparatus may comprise means for performing gradation representation upon gradation recording, by using only the yellow ink for yellow color, and the high density inks and low density inks for magenta and cyan color respectively, and the black ink and processed black ink for black color.
According to a further aspect of the invention, a recording apparatus having an ink cartridge housing ink containers storing a plurality of kinds of inks to be supplied to a recording head portion per respective kind, the ink cartridge being directly connected to the recording portion, comprises:
the recording head portion having ejection orifice arrays arranged in two columns for ejecting each of two kin

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