1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a method for free spraying of the nozzles of an inkjet print head (spraying the nozzles of an inkjet print head to clear those nozzles of clogging), in particular in a franking and/or addressing machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is worthwhile to use the advantages of ink printing in the field of machine franking and/or addressing Printing in such devices ensues without contact by means of an inkjet print head (see, for example, DE 44 24 771C1 and EP 0 696 509 B1). Ink printing technology has the disadvantage, however, that often more ink is consumed for the cleaning of the inkjet print head than for the printing process. That is particularly serious in the case of individualized printing (as opposed to continuous printing.
A franking machine with an inkjet print head is known (see EP 0 696 509 B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,994) in which the letters are transported lying horizontally and the nozzle surface is arranged parallel to the moving letters. In this machine the nozzles that are used less frequently or not at all are freely sprayed upon printing, as long as no letter is present in front of the print head. For this purpose the letter transport device is provided with corresponding recesses, and a capture reservoir for the freely sprayed ink is arranged below these recesses. The ink consumption is reduced in this manner relative to the priming, but the horizontal letter transport and corresponding design measures are a requirement for achieving this result.
As used herein, “free spraying” means a one-time or repeated activation of one or more nozzles. In contrast to this, “priming” means a multiple, successive free spraying of all nozzles Free spraying is consequently the ink-saving form of the cleaning of the nozzles of an inkjet print head.
An ink printer with a variable cleaning algorithm is known (see EP 0 934 828 A2) in which past franking imprints are recorded and evaluated (historical log) and from log this cleaning regime (schedules) is derived. Information about maximum downtime, weekly letter arrival as well as number and type of the processing workflows per week are recorded in the historical log. The type of the imprints and thus the actual activation of the individual nozzles are not taken into account.
A device for cleaning an inkjet print head in a franking and/or addressing machine is known (see DE 10 2005 052 150.9-27) in which the inkjet print head is stationary, but can be pivoted behind a guide plate in a print window. During a cleaning procedure, the device seals the printhead orifices from the environment. By means of a transport device the print medium is caused to rest against the guide plate (tilted beyond the vertical) and is transported standing on an edge Like the inkjet print head behind the guide plate, the cleaning and sealing device is arranged such that it can be displaced onto and away from the same guide plate. By means of associated displacement mechanism, the inkjet print head is alternatively pivotable into a printing position or into various cleaning regions as well as into a sealing position.
In the printing position the nozzle surface of the inkjet print head is arranged parallel to the guide plate and thus also parallel to the print medium.
In a first cleaning region, the inkjet print head is pivoted out from the printing position to an extent so that at a separation exists that is at least double the normal separation from the print medium, but all ink jets still reach the print medium. Use is made of the fact that, at the provided double separation, the inkjet printing drops disintegrate into smaller satellite drops, whose scatter region is so large that a recognizable print pattern is no longer present.
Given higher transport speeds for the print medium, this method can be applied only in a limited manner due to the mass inertia of the inkjet print head that must be pivoted. The speed of the rotation movement is also limited in order to avoid an unwanted flinging of ink due to the pivoting.
An object of the invention is to improve the print quality and extend the lifespan of an inkjet print device as well as to provide an optimally high letter throughput in a franking or addressing device that uses an inkjet printhead.
More specifically, an object of the invention is to provide a method for free spraying of the nozzles of an inkjet print head in a franking and/or addressing machine in which the transport speed of the print medium is not limited, and which is suitable both for horizontally-situated print medium transport and transport of print media standing on an edge.
The invention is based on the observation that, in countries with large amounts of incoming mail, it has now become typical to provide postal shipments (in particular letters) with machine-readable, coded, specialized print images (indicia imprint including cliché) to avoid postage losses as well as for security reasons.
This occurs in the form of one-dimensional barcodes or, more recently in the form of two-dimensional barcodes (see, for example, DE 20 2005 000 255 U1).
The individual image points (pixels) of a print image that are evaluated are represented by a number of print points (dots).
A print point arises by a one-time activation of a nozzle. Given a pixel size with 0.5 mm edge length, around 600 dots would represent at one pixel, given a printing density of 200 dpi (dots per inch).
According to the invention at least the nozzles that are not participating in the generation of the respective print image on the current print medium are free-sprayed in a mode that is irrelevant for the print image generation, while retaining the print position of the inkjet print head. This means a significantly fewer number of dots are applied onto the print medium with the aforementioned nozzle than are required for a pixel. The dots can be inserted into what are known as the white and black pixels and superimposed on the dark pixels, or can be arranged otherwise without adulterating the information content. The current print image job is evaluated and then supplemented to produce a resulting print image job, to determine the nozzles to be free-sprayed.
A preferred variant is to spray the nozzles free in an irrelevant region of the image. This ensues by the nozzles that are not used or that are infrequently used being activated at least once simultaneously before or after the relevant print image.
When only the nozzles that are not used or that are infrequently used are sprayed free, ink is optimally saved. Time is saved and the letter throughput is optimized by the retention of the printing position.
For simplification and for an easier understanding, the representations below are in somewhat schematic form.
A complete indicia imprint for test purposes according to imprint (a) in
A sub-region of the franking imprint in the two-dimensional barcode is shown enlargement (b) of
The region according to enlargement (b)
Imprint (b) In
Imprint (c) in
Imprint (d) in
A block diagram of the printer control is shown in
The memory 1 is connected in a bi-directional manner with a microprocessor 5. Moreover, the franking data input 3 is connected to the microprocessor 5 such that it arrives in a unidirectional manner at the microprocessor 5. The data supplied by the franking data input 3 are further processed in the microprocessor 5 into the current print image job and are buffered in the memory 1. In the microprocessor 5 an additional image-irrelevant (non-information conveying) print image job is derived from the current relevant print image job.
Furthermore, a memory 4 in which the resulting print image job for the relevant and image-irrelevant print images Dr, Db is buffered is connected in a bidirectional manner with the microprocessor 5.
The microprocessor 5 is connected in a unidirectional manner with a printing device 6 that receives the activation data As for the current resulting print image D from said microprocessor 5 and prints out the print image D.
The associated flow diagram regarding the block diagram according to
Naturally a free spraying can be omitted when all nozzles are used sufficiently often per print medium. Then only the data for the relevant print image Dr serve as activation data for the print device.
Although modifications and changes may be suggested by those skilled in the art, it is the intention of the inventors to embody within the patent warranted hereon all changes and modifications as reasonably and properly come within the scope of their contribution to the art.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10 2006 023 540 | May 2006 | DE | national |
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0 704 307 | Apr 1996 | EP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20070268323 A1 | Nov 2007 | US |