Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Controller
Reexamination Certificate
1997-12-31
2002-05-28
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Controller
Reexamination Certificate
active
06394570
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet recording method for recording input data such as characters, images, and pictures on a recording medium. Also, the present invention relates to an ink-jet recording apparatus using an ink-jet recording head for performing such method. Further, the present invention relates to an information-processing system comprising the ink-jet recording apparatus as an output device, such as a copying machine, a facsimile, a printer, a word processor, and a personal computer.
Here, it should be construed that a term “recording” involves a technical concept of applying ink to all kinds of ink receiving articles such as cloth, thread, paper, and sheet-like materials each adapted to receive ink from the ink-jet recording head (in the form of printing, image forming, dyeing or the like), and that the present invention can be applied not only to a field of information processing but also to a various kind of industrial field (for example, an apparel industry) by using the ink receiving article mentioned above.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many proposals have been hitherto made with respect to a recording apparatus for performing a recording operation on a recording medium such as paper, cloth, plastic sheet, and OHP sheet (hereinafter referred to generally as a recording paper) with the aid of a recording head mounted on the recording apparatus so as to operate in accordance with various kinds of recording methods such as a wire dot recording method, a heat susceptible recording method, a thermal transfer recording method, and an ink-jet recording method.
Among the aforementioned recording methods, the ink-jet recording method belongs to a no-impact recording method of ejecting ink from an ink-jet recording head so as to allow the ink to adhere directly to a recording paper, and it is generally classified into two types, one of them being a continuous type (inclusive of an electric charge particle controlling type and a spraying type) and the other one being an on-demand type (inclusive of a piezo type, a sparking type and a bubble jet type).
The continuous type ink-jet recording method is practiced such that ink is continuously ejected to a recording paper from an ink-jet recording head and electric charge is applied only to necessary ink droplets among a number of ejected ink droplets. Thus, the electrically charged ink droplets adhere to the recording paper but the remaining ones are uselessly wasted.
On the contrary, the on-demand type ink-jet recording method is practiced such that ink is ejected from an ink-jet recording head only when ink ejection is required for performing a recording operation. Thus, the on-demand type process does not cause the trouble of uselessly ejecting ink from the ink-jet recording head to contaminate the interior of a recording apparatus with ink droplets. In addition, with respect to the on-demand type ink-jet recording method, each recording operation is controlled so as to perform repeatedly starting and stopping ink ejection and it can be achieved at a high speed by increasing the number of ink ejecting nozzles.
Many of recording apparatuses commercially sold at present are constructed in accordance with the on-demand type ink-jet recording method. Since a recording apparatus including an ink-jet recording head of the foregoing type makes it possible to perform a recording operation not only at a high density but also at a high speed, it is utilized and commercialized as outputting means for an information processing system, e.g., a printer serving as an output terminal unit for a copying machine, a facsimile, an electronic typewriter, a word processor, a work station or the like or a handy or portable type printer to be equipped in a personal computer, a host computer, an optical disc unit, a video unit or the like. In the circumstances as mentioned above, an ink-jet recording apparatus is constructed in such a manner as to match with a function and a type of practical use inherent to each of the aforementioned units.
In general, the ink-jet recording apparatus includes a carriage having recording means (ink-jet recording head) and an ink tank mounted thereon, conveying means for conveying a recording paper and controlling means for controlling the carriage and the conveying means. As ink is ejected from a plurality of ink ejecting nozzles on the ink-jet recording head in the form of ink droplets, serial scanning is performed in the direction (main scanning direction) orienting at a right angle relative to the conveying direction of the recording paper (auxiliary scanning direction). Subsequently, the recording paper is intermittently conveyed by a quantity equal to a recording width during the inoperative state of the ink-jet recording apparatus having no recording operation performed therewith. In response to a recording signal, the ink-jet recording apparatus performs a recording operation by ejecting ink onto the recording paper.
On the other hand, an ink-jet recording method to be practiced in association with the ink-jet recording apparatus is widely used as a quiet recording method capable of being employed at a low running cost. Since a plurality of ink ejecting nozzles are disposed along a straight line extending in the auxiliary scanning direction on the ink-jet recording head, each recording operation is achieved with a width corresponding to the number of ink ejecting nozzles every time the ink-jet recording head performs scanning over the recording paper. Consequently, the ink-jet recording method makes it possible to achieve a recording apparatus at a high speed.
In the case of a color ink-jet recording apparatus for printing in two or more colors, a multicolor image is formed by allowing ink droplets to overlap one above another on a recording paper by ejecting inks of several colors from a plurality of color ink-jet recording heads each including a plurality of ink ejecting nozzles. Generally, in the case that a color recording operation is performed with the color ink-jet recording apparatus, three or four ink-jet recording heads and three or four ink cartridges corresponding to three primary colors composed of yellow (Y), magenta (M) and cyan (C) or four colors composed of three primary colors and black (B). Lately, a color ink-jet recording apparatus having three or four kinds of color ink-jet recording heads mounted thereon so as to enable an image to be formed with full color has been put in practical use.
In addition, the foregoing type of color ink-jet recording apparatus can be constructed in such a manner as to enable an image to be comparatively easily recorded on a recording medium with a size of “A-1”. Concretely, a color ink-jet recording apparatus electrically connected to a reader adapted to read an A-1 sized original of multicolor image so as to allow the original to be recorded on a recording paper, e.g., a plotter serving as a CAD output printer has been commercialized. On the other hand, it is practically required that the color ink-jet recording apparatus can be used in a variety of fashions, and lately, requests have been increasingly raised from users for providing a color ink-jet recording apparatus capable of recording various kinds of information such as characters, graphs, pictures, and figures on an OHP film in order to visually project the information on a screen for the presentation in a conference or lecture. To satisfactorily meet these requests, a number of development works have been conducted to commercialize an ink-jet recording apparatus capable of performing an optimum recording operation regardless of the kind of recording paper employed when a recording medium having properties of absorbing ink is selected as desired.
In addition, many requests have been raised from wide industrial fields (e.g., apparel industry) for providing an ink-jet recording apparatus of the foregoing type serving as excellent recording means for recording a higher quality of image on a recording medium.
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Barlow John
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Hallacher Craig A.
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