Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Controller
Reexamination Certificate
1997-03-24
2001-11-13
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Controller
C347S041000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06315380
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording head and an ink jet recording apparatus.
Referring first to
FIG. 19
, an example of conventional ink jet recording apparatus will be described, wherein an ink jet recording head having a plurality of ink ejection outlets ejects ink to effect the recording, while relative movement is imparted between the recording head and a recording medium.
When printing instructions are supplied to the ink jet recording apparatus from an external apparatus such as a host computer under the condition that the main switch is actuated, the printing instructions are analyzed by the control circuit
8
, and then the printing operation is started. Then, an LF (line feed) motor
7
is driven, and the same driving force operates a conveying roller
6
to feed the recording medium
11
to a predetermined recording position. Thereafter, a CR motor
3
is driven, and the driving force is transmitted to the carriage
2
through the conveying belt
4
, so that the ink jet recording head
1
supplied with recording ink through an ink supply passage
9
from an ink tank
10
is moved in a main scan direction A. At the recording position, recording ink is ejected from the ink jet recording head to the recording medium
11
, by which the recording is effected. At this time, a subordinate scanning is effected by driving the LF motor
7
effective to convey the recording medium
11
in a subordinate scanning direction (subscan) B. By repeating the main scan and subscan, the recording operation is effected over the surface of the recording medium. The pitch of ink ejections in the main scan direction and the pitch of the recording medium feed in the subscan direction B are fixedly determined at the respective one levels to match the pitch of the ejection outlets and the number of ejection outlets of the ink let recording head
1
.
In an ink jet recording apparatus such as a so-called full-line head in which only the recording medium is advanced, while the ink jet recording head is fixed relative to the recording medium, the pitch of the ink ejections and the pitch of the recording material feed are similarly determined fixedly at the respective one values to match the pitch of the ejection outlets and the number of ejection outlets of the ink jet recording head.
Since the scanning pitches in the main scan direction and the subscan direction are determined fixedly to match the pitch of the ejection outlets and the number of ejection outlets of the ink jet recording head used therewith, only one ink jet recording head is usable. Therefore, even if a user wants to arrange one ink jet recording apparatus for a wide variety of uses, it is not possible. For example, the user having a high quality ink jet recording apparatus with small ejection outlet pitch may want to carry out the printing operation at a high speed with low resolution at low running cost, when, for example, a large amount of data such as experimental data are to be processed. However, this is not possible because the scanning pitches of the recording apparatus are fixed in the main scan direction and the subscan direction. Some application program for a host computer to drive the printer designates the resolution of the printer driven thereby. Even if the user wants to use the application program, it is not possible if his or her printer does not match it. In other words, the use of the printer is narrow directed, and therefore, the user who needs a variety of uses has to buy a number of recording machines with the result of forcing considerable cost to the user.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus and an ink jet recording head capable of a variety of uses with high cost performance.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording head having a number of ink ejection outlets and having ejection outlet information representative of the number and pitch of the ejection outlets.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording head having a number of ink ejection outlets and having ejection outlet information setting portion for setting the ejection outlet information indicative of the number or pitch of the ejection outlets.
Preferred embodiments of the invention are suitably usable with an ink jet recording head having electrothermal transducers for producing thermal energy contributable to eject the recording ink through the ejection outlets.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet recording apparatus, comprising: means for feeding a recording medium; a carriage reciprocally movable relative to the recording medium; an ink jet recording head detachably mountable on said carriage and having electrothermal transducers for producing thermal energy contributable to ejection of recording ink through ejection outlets thereof, said recording head has an ejection outlet information setting portion wherein a number and a pitch of the ejection outlets of said ink jet recording heads are set; and control circuit for detecting the ejection outlet information in the ejection outlet information setting portion, for discriminating the number and the pitch of the ejection outlets from the detected ejection outlet information, and for determining ejection timing of said recording head and a feed pitch of the recording medium by said feeding means on the basis of the number and the pitch of the ejection outlets.
In an embodiment of the present invention of this aspect, there is provided an apparatus wherein a unit movement amount of said carriage is an integer reciprocal of the pitch of the ejection outlets of each of different ink jet recording heads usable with said apparatus.
In another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus wherein a unit feed pitch of the recording medium is an integer reciprocal of a product of the number of ejection outlets and the pitch of the ejection outlets of each of different ink jet recording heads usable with said apparatus.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus further comprising a slit plate having plural slits arranged at regular intervals in a direction of carriage movement, and an optical encoder movable together with said carriage adjacent said slit plate to detect the slit to produce slit detection signals and to supply them to said control circuit.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus wherein the slit interval is an integer multiple of the pitch of the ejection outlets of each of different ink jet recording heads usable with said apparatus.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet recording apparatus, comprising: means for feeding a recording medium; a carriage reciprocally movable relative to the recording medium; an ink let recording head detachably mountable on said carriage and having electrothermal transducers for producing thermal energy contributable to ejection of recording ink through ejection outlets thereof, said recording head has an ejection outlet information setting portion wherein a number or a pitch of the ejection outlets of said ink jet recording heads are set; and control circuit for detecting the ejection outlet information in the ejection outlet information setting portion, and for determining ejection timing of said recording head relative to a feed pitch of the recording medium by said feeding means on the basis of the detected ejection outlet information.
In an embodiment of this aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus wherein a unit feed pitch of the recording medium is an integer reciprocal of the pitch of the ejection outlets of each of different ink jet recording heads.
The ink jet recording head is provided with means indicative of the ejection outlet information relating at least one of the number of ejection outlets of the ink jet recording he
Barlow John
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Hallacher Craig A.
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