Patent Grant
9522533
This application is based on and claims priority under 35 USC 119 from Japanese Patent Application No. 2015-133318 flied on Jul. 2, 2015.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a droplet driving control device and an image forming apparatus.
2. Related Art
In an apparatus which ejects droplets of ink etc. to form an image, such as an inkjet continuous feed printer, a driving frequency for controlling timing of droplet ejection is set in accordance with image formation speed.
According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a droplet driving control device comprising: a droplet ejection control unit which ejects droplets at requested droplet ejection periods; and an adjustment unit which adjusts control of the droplet ejection control unit using at least continuous two of the droplet election periods as one set based on an error of droplet speed with respect to a proper value thereof, so that droplets can be ejected at different droplet ejection periods within a range of the one set, and an average value of the droplet ejection periods within the range of the one set for ejecting the droplets can be equal to each of the requested droplet election periods.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based or the following figures, wherein:
(Outline of Apparatus)
For example, the droplet ejection type recording apparatus 10 is provided with two image forming portions 12A and 12B, a control portion 14, a paper supplying roll 16, a discharging roll 18, and a plurality of feeding rollers 20. The two image forming portions 12A and 12B can form images on opposite surfaces of a paper sheet P in one feeding.
In addition, the image forming portion 12A is provided with a head driving portion 22A as an example of a droplet ejection control unit. Further, the image forming portion 12A includes heads 24A and a drying device 26A.
Similarly, the image forming portion 12B is provided with a head driving portion 22B as an example of a droplet election control unit. Further, the image forming portion 12B includes heads 24B and a drying device 26B.
Incidentally, there is a case where indication of a suffix “A” and a suffix “B” at the ends of signs may be omitted below when it is not necessary to distinguish between the image forming portion 12A and the image forming portion 12B and between common members included in the image forming portion 12A and the image forming portion 12B.
The control portion 14 drives a not-shown paper feeding motor to control rotation of the feeding rollers 20 which are, for example, connected to the paper feeding motor through a mechanism of gears etc.
A long paper sheet P is wound as a recording medium around the paper supplying roll 16. The paper sheet P is fed in a direction of an arrow A (paper feeding direction) in
Upon acceptance of image information, the control portion 14 controls the image forming portion 12A based on color information for each pixel of an image contained in the image information. Thus, the image corresponding to the image information is formed on one image formation surface of the paper sheet P.
Specifically, the control portion 14 controls the head driving portion 22A. The head driving portion 22A drives the heads 24A connected to the head driving portion 22A in accordance with droplet ejection timings instructed from the control portion 14, so as to eject droplets as an example of droplets from the heads 24A and form the image corresponding to the image information on the one image formation surface of the fed paper sheet P.
Incidentally, the color information for each pixel of the image included in the image information includes information expressing the color of the pixel uniquely. In this exemplary embodiment, assume that the color information for each pixel of the image is represented by respective concentrations of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), or black (K). Another representation method for expressing the colors of the image uniquely may be used.
The heads 24A include four heads 24AC, 24AM, 24AY and 24AK corresponding to the four colors, i.e. the Y color, the M color, the C color and the K color, respectively. Droplets of the corresponding colors are ejected from the respective heads 24A.
The control portion 14 controls the drying device 26A to dry the droplets of the image formed on the paper sheet P to thereby fix the image to the paper sheet P.
Then, the paper sheet P is fed to a position opposing to the image forming portion 12B in accordance with rotation of the feeding rollers 20. On this occasion, the paper sheet P is turned inside out and fed so that the other image formation surface different from the image formation surface on which the image has been formed by the image forming portion 12A can face the image forming portion 12B.
The control portion 14 also executes, on the image forming portion 12B, similar control to the aforementioned control on the image forming portion 12A. Thus, an image corresponding to the image information can be formed on the other image formation surface of the paper sheet P.
The heads 24B include four heads 24BC, 24BM, 24BY, and 24BK corresponding to the four colors, i.e. the Y color, the M color, the C color and the K color, respectively. Droplets of the corresponding colors are ejected from the respective heads 24B.
The control portion 14 controls the drying device 26B to dry the droplets of the image formed on the paper sheet P to thereby fix the image to the paper sheet P.
Then, the paper sheet P is fed to the discharging roll 18 and wound around the discharging roll 18 in accordance with rotation of the feeding rollers 20.
Incidentally, the configuration of the apparatus for forming images on front and back surfaces of a paper sheet P in one feeding starting at the paper supplying roll 16 and ending at the discharging roll 18 has been described as the droplet ejection type recording apparatus 10 according to this exemplary embodiment. It is however a matter of course that the droplet ejection type recording apparatus 10 may be a droplet ejection type recording apparatus for forming an image on a single surface.
In addition, ink as an example of a droplet includes water-based ink, oil-based ink serving as ink containing a solvent which can be evaporated, ultraviolet-curable type ink, etc. However, assume that water-based ink is used in the this exemplary embodiment. When it is mentioned as “ink” or “droplet” simply in this exemplary embodiment, it may imply “water-based ink” or “water-based ink droplet”.
(Head 24)
As shown in
The layout of the droplet ejecting members 30 is not limited to a single array line in the main scanning direction. In some dot pitch (resolution), a plurality of array lines of droplet ejecting members 30 provided in the sub-scanning direction may be arrayed two-dimensionally in accordance with predetermined rules so that ejection timing in each array line can be controlled in accordance with the array line pitch and feeding speed of the paper sheet P.
As shown in
A supply port 36 is provided in each of the pressure chambers 34. The pressure chambers 34 are connected to a common passage (common passage 38) through the supply ports 36.
The common passage 38 has a role of receiving supply of ink from an ink supply tank (not shown) as an ink supply source and distributing the received supply of the ink to the respective pressure chambers 34.
A diaphragm 40 is attached to an upper surface of a ceiling portion of the pressure chamber 34 in each droplet ejecting member 30. In addition, a piezoelectric element 42 is attached to the upper surface of the ceiling portion of the pressure chamber. The diaphragm 40 is provided with a common electrode 40A. The piezoelectric element 42 is provided with an individual electrode 42A. When a voltage is selectively applied between the individual electrode 42A of the piezoelectric element 42 and the common electrode 40A, the selected piezoelectric element 42 is deformed so that a droplet can be ejected from the nozzle 32 and new ink can be supplied from the common passage 38 to the pressure chamber 34.
Each of the head driving portions 22 (22A and 22B) is controlled by the control portion 14 (see
To eject each droplet, image formation speed (droplet ejection period) which can guarantee designated image quality can be set in a predetermined setting range (particularly with a maximum image formation speed Vmax as an upper limit).
Incidentally, a lower limit of the setting range is not particularly limited. Theoretically, it will go well as long as the lower limit of the setting range is a positive number (a number larger than 0). In addition, the setting may include one or both of paper feeding speed and the resolution in addition to the image formation speed.
When there is a change in the setting of the image formation speed, frequency control (droplet ejection period control) is executed on each of the heads 24 by the head driving portion 22.
As shown in
A user interface (UI) 62, a hard disk (HDD) 64, and a communication I/F 66 which is performed by radio (or cable) are connected to the I/O 56. In addition, a device I/F 68 which serves as a connection terminal to any of external devices (the head driving portions 22 and the drying devices 26 in this exemplary embodiment) is connected to the I/O 56.
Here, in a specific high-frequency band exceeding the upper limit (Vmax) which can guarantee the image quality, droplet speed or a droplet amount fluctuates in accordance with residual pressure vibration (see a frequency band fm in
In other words, at an image formation speed exceeding a frequency corresponding to the maximum image formation speed Vmax serving as the upper limit, a landing position of the droplet on the paper sheet P or the size of the landed droplet varies to thereby lower the image quality.
On the other hand, in this exemplary embodiment, control for suppressing the fluctuation in the droplet speed or the droplet amount is constructed in the frequency band in which the droplet speed or the ink droplet amount fluctuates (the specific high-frequency band exceeding the frequency corresponding to the maximum speed Vmax).
That is, in this exemplary embodiment, period adjustment control is executed in the following control procedures in the control portion 14.
(Control Procedure 1) When a droplet ejection frequency (droplet ejection period) is determined in accordance with image formation speed, determination is made as to whether residual pressure vibration is less than ±5% or not, based on
(Control Procedure 2) When the residual pressure vibration is in a range of not less than ±5%, a period Tf1 and a period Tf2 are generated as shown in
(Control Procedure 3) The periods Tf1 and Tf2 generated thus are repeated as one set.
As a result, the periods Tf1 and Tf2 are shifted from the designated period Tc by ±Tc/4 respectively. Accordingly, the residual pressure vibration is secured to be less than ±5%, and the designated period Tf0 is secured in the entire period.
An image formation instruction is accepted from the UI62 (see
The image information importing portion 72 imports image information from the communication I/F 66 or the HDD 64 (see
On the other hand, designated image formation speed (paper feeding speed and/or resolution) is extracted from the image formation instruction information by the designated image formation speed information extracting portion 74. The extracted image formation speed is sent to a droplet ejection period calculating portion 78 and a determination portion 80.
By the droplet election period calculating portion 78, a droplet period (droplet ejection period) is calculated based on the image formation speed accepted from the designated image formation speed information extracting portion 74, and sent to the determination portion 80. Incidentally, although the calculation result may be a droplet ejection frequency (a reciprocal number of the period), it is assumed here that the period is calculated in conformity with
An image formation speed setting range storage portion 82 and a droplet ejection period to droplet speed characteristic data table storage portion 84 are connected to the determination portion 80. Determination about the following two conditions is made by the determination portion 80.
(Determination 1) Determination is made as to whether the designated image formation speed is within a setting range or not (particularly exceeds a maximum speed Vmax as an upper limit or not)
(Determination 2) Determination is made as to whether fluctuation in droplet speed is within a permissible range or not (for example, ±5% shown in
The determination result made by the determination portion 80 is sent to an ejection control selecting portion 86. When the designated image formation speed exceeds the setting range in the determination 1 and the fluctuation in droplet speed exceeds the permissible range in the determination 2 (determination that adjustment is necessary), the ejection control selecting portion 86 issues an instruction to an adjusted election period generating portion 88 to generate droplet ejection periods (Tf1, Tf2). The adjusted ejection period generating portion 88 serves as an example of an adjustment unit.
On the other hand, when the designated image formation speed does not exceed the setting range in the determination 1, or when the designated image formation speed exceeds the setting range in the determination 1 but the fluctuation in droplet speed does not exceed the permissible range in the determination 2 (determination that adjustment is not necessary), the ejection control selecting portion 86 issues an instruction to a steady ejection period generating portion 90 to generate a droplet ejection period (Tf0).
The adjusted ejection period generating portion 88 executes adjustment to suppress the fluctuation in droplet speed caused by residual pressure vibration in order to make the droplet speed consistent with the steady ejection period Tf0. More specifically, the adjusted ejection period generating portion 88 generates the period Tf1 and the period Tf2, as shown in
Incidentally, vibration caused by droplet ejection in each dotted line portion is reduced in driving waveforms in
The adjusted ejection period generating portion 88 and the steady ejection period generating portion 90 are connected to the image formation pattern generating portion 76 respectively.
The image information is imported from the image information importing portion 72 to the image formation pattern generating portion 76 which generates an image formation pattern based on the image information and the ejection period or periods. The image formation pattern generated by the image formation pattern generating portion 76 is sent to a driving waveform correcting portion 92.
The driving waveform correcting portion 92 executes correction of landing position of droplets on a paper sheet P. The correction is an event occurring when ejection timings have been adjusted by the adjusted ejection periods. More specifically, as shown in
The driving waveform correcting portion 92 is connected to a driving instruction portion 94. The driving instruction portion 94 sends a driving signal to the head driving portion 22 (see
An effect of the exemplary embodiment will be described below.
Determination is made in a step 100 as to whether there is an image formation instruction or not. When the determination results in NO, the routine is terminated. On the other hand, when the determination results in YES in the step 100, the routine goes to a step 102 in which designated image formation speed information is extracted. Then, the routine goes to a step 104.
In the step 104, a droplet ejection period is calculated based on the image formation speed. Next, in a step 106, image formation speed setting range information (table) is read from the image formation speed setting range storage portion 82. Then, the routine goes to a step 108 in which determination is made as to whether the image formation speed is within a setting range or not.
When the determination results in YES in the step 108, the routine goes to a step 110.
On the other hand, when the determination results in NO in the step 108, conclusion is made that the image formation speed is out of the setting range. Then, the routine goes to a step 112 in which a “droplet ejection period to droplet speed” characteristic table is read from the “droplet ejection period to droplet speed” characteristic table storage portion 84. Then, the routine goes to a step 114.
In the step 114, an error of droplet speed in the droplet ejection period determined based on the image formation speed is determined.
That is, when determination is made in the step 114 that the error is within a permissible range, the routine goes to the step 110. On the other hand, when determination is made in the step 114 that the error is out of a permissible range (fox example, not less than ±5%), the routine goes to a step 116.
In the step 110, a steady ejection period Tf0 is generated, and the routine then goes to a step 118. In the step 116, adjusted ejection periods Tf1 and Tf2 are generated, and the routine then goes to the step 118.
In the step 118, image information is imported by the image information importing portion 72. Next, the routine goes to a step 120 in which an image formation pattern is generated. Then, the routine goes to a step 122.
In the step 122, determination is made as to whether it is necessary to correct a driving waveform or not. That is, when the steady ejection period Tf0 is generated, it is not necessary to perform the correction. On the other hand, when the adjusted ejection periods Tf1 and Tf2 are generated, it is necessary to correct the driving waveform by changing droplet speed correspondingly to deviations of the ejection timings.
Therefore, when determination is made in the step 122 that it is necessary to perform the correction (the adjusted ejection periods Tf1 and Tf2 are generated), the routine goes to a step 124 in which the correction of the driving waveform (correction of the droplet speed) is executed (see
On the other hand, when determination is made in the step 122 that it is not necessary to perform the correction (the steady ejection period Tf0 is generated), the routine goes to the step 126 without executing the correction.
In the step 126, a driving signal is outputted to the head driving portion 22 (22A, 22B). Then, the routine is terminated. In the head driving portion 22 (22A, 22B), the respective heads 24 are controlled based on the inputted driving signal to execute image formation.
The correction of the driving waveform in the step 124 of
When the adjusted ejection periods Tf1 and Tf2 are generated for ejecting droplets as shown in
In this case, unstable fluctuation in ejection timing among droplets can be avoided due to the ejection timing control based on the period adjustment. However, for example, in accordance with some threshold for determining whether the image quality is good or poor, the image quality may be determined to be poor.
Therefore, correction is performed in such a manner that an ejection speed VTf2 of the period Tf2 whose ejection timing is earlier by the period (Tc/4)×2 with respect to the period Tf1 is made slower than an ejection speed VTf1 of the period Tf1. The speed correction is set based on a distance (T.D. “Throw Distance”) between the nozzle and the paper sheet.
Due to the correction, the droplets ejected at the period Tf2 are displaced to solid line positions from the dotted line positions in
Incidentally, the invention is not limited to the case where one of the ejection speeds is adjusted to the other ejection speed. To describe in an extreme manner, the two speeds may be corrected so that the sum of added values of correction ratios can reach 100%.
For example, with an intermediate point as a reference, ejection speed VTf1 of the period Tf1 may be made slower by 50% (period Tc/4) of an amount to be corrected and ejection speed VTf2 of the period Tf2 may be made faster by 50% (period Tc/4) of the amount to be corrected.
(Modifications)
In
The continuous ejection driving means driving by which a plurality of droplets can be landed in one and the same position (strictly the positions which can be regarded as one and the same dot though not concentric because the paper sheet P is being fed).
For example, a single driving waveform is prepared (stored) as the driving waveform in advance. Respective pulses can be set ON/OFF independently by the head driving portion 22A, 22B (see
When a “large droplet” is formed, both pulses are set ON so that droplets can be ejected in the two pulses respectively (continuous ejection driving).
When a “small droplet” is formed, one (front) pulse is set OFF and the other (rear) pulse is set ON so that a droplet can be ejected in the other (rear) pulse.
The modifications show that period adjustment according to the exemplary embodiment and speed correction can be performed even in the continuous ejection driving waveforms.
In the comparative example of
In addition,
In other words, in any continuous ejection pattern in which “large droplets” and “small droplets” are mixed, including
Incidentally, although the exemplary embodiment (including the modifications) has a configuration in which two periods are used as one set to maintain a requested period every two periods, three periods or more may be used as one set for generating a driving waveform.
The foregoing description of the embodiments of the present invention has been provided for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Obviously, many modifications and variations will be apparent to practitioners skilled in the art. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments and with the various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention defined by the following claims and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-133318 | Jul 2015 | JP | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8911064 | Link | Dec 2014 | B2 |
| 9102142 | Gracia Verdugo | Aug 2015 | B2 |
| 9132629 | Ward | Sep 2015 | B2 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 7-323550 | Dec 1995 | JP |
| 2006-088712 | Apr 2006 | JP |
| 2007-022095 | Feb 2007 | JP |
| Entry |
|---|
| Abstract and machine translation of JP 2006-088712. |
| Abstract and machine translation of JP 2007-022095. |
| Abstract and machine translation of JP 7-323550. |
