1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a registration adjustment method used in the apparatus, and particularly to, for example, a printing apparatus including a plurality of inkjet printheads and a registration adjustment method used in the apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printing apparatus including an inkjet printhead (to be referred to as a printhead hereinafter) forms dots on a print medium by discharging ink droplets from the printhead, and forms an image by the dots. A dot alignment technique between different conditions is called a registration correction technique, and alignment of dots is implemented by acquiring and applying a correction value.
A method of acquiring this correction value by visually observing a printed pattern by the user, and applying that correction value, a method of reading a printed pattern by a sensor included in a printing apparatus, and executing automatic adjustment, and the like are available.
As one automatic adjustment method, a method of directly detecting a position shift distance of patterns formed under a plurality of printing conditions using a sensor, and acquiring that distance as a correction amount is known. This method is called a range detection method.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-56746 has proposed a conventional registration adjustment method.
In a printer which executes printing on a print medium of a large size such as an A0 or B0 print sheet by reciprocally scanning a carriage that mounts a printhead, it is difficult to maintain a stable state all over that scanning region.
External disturbances which influence stable printing include a variation of a distance between the printhead and print sheet, an attitude variation of the carriage, and the like. These external disturbances occur depending on a position in the carriage moving direction. For this reason, the apparatus state varies depending on a registration adjustment position, and a correction value cannot often be correctly calculated. Especially, in the range detection method, the influences caused by external disturbances occurred between a plurality of patterns used to compare position shifts often directly result in errors of the correction value.
Accordingly, the present invention is conceived as a response to the above-described disadvantages of the conventional art.
For example, a printing apparatus and a registration adjustment method used in the apparatus according to this invention are capable of eliminating the influences of external disturbances occurred depending on positions of a carriage in the moving direction, and attaining satisfactory registration adjustment.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus, which executes printing by reciprocally scanning a carriage, to which a printhead having a first nozzle array in which a plurality of nozzles are arrayed in a first direction and a second nozzle array in which a plurality of nozzles are arrayed in the first direction is mounted, in a second direction intersecting with the first direction, comprising: a first print unit configured to print a first adjustment pattern on a print medium using the first nozzle array and the second nozzle array of the printhead; a first acquisition unit configured to acquire a first registration adjustment value based on a distance between print positions of two patches of a plurality of patches that form the first adjustment pattern; a second print unit configured to print, on a print medium, a second adjustment pattern different from the first adjustment pattern using the first nozzle array and the second nozzle array of the printhead in a state in which a registration of the printhead is adjusted by the first registration adjustment value; and a second acquisition unit configured to acquire a second registration adjustment value based on densities of a plurality of patches that form the second adjustment pattern.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus, which executes printing by reciprocally scanning a carriage, to which a printhead having a nozzle array in which a plurality of nozzles are arrayed in a first direction is mounted, in a second direction intersecting with the first direction, comprising: a first print unit configured to print a first adjustment pattern on a print medium using the nozzle array of the printhead by a scan in a forward direction and by a scan in a backward direction of the carriage, respectively; a first acquisition unit configured to acquire a first registration adjustment value based on a distance between print positions of two patches of a plurality of patches that form the first adjustment pattern; a second print unit configured to print, on a print medium, a second adjustment pattern different from the first adjustment pattern using the nozzle array of the printhead by the scan in the forward direction and by the scan in the backward direction, respectively, in a state in which a registration of the printhead is adjusted by the first registration adjustment value; and a second acquisition unit configured to acquire a second registration adjustment value based on densities of a plurality of patches that form the second adjustment pattern.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a registration adjustment method for a printing apparatus, which executes printing by reciprocally scanning a carriage, to which a printhead having a first nozzle array in which a plurality of nozzles are arrayed in a first direction and a second nozzle array in which a plurality of nozzles are arrayed in the first direction is mounted, in a second direction intersecting with the first direction, comprising: printing a first adjustment pattern on a print medium using the first nozzle array and the second nozzle array of the printhead; acquiring a first registration adjustment value based on a distance between print positions of two patches of a plurality of patches that form the first adjustment pattern; printing, on a print medium, a second adjustment pattern different from the first adjustment pattern using the first nozzle array and the second nozzle array of the printhead in a state in which a registration of the printhead is adjusted by the first registration adjustment value; and acquiring a second registration adjustment value based on densities of a plurality of patches that form the second adjustment pattern.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a registration adjustment method for a printing apparatus, which executes printing by reciprocally scanning a carriage, to which a printhead having a nozzle array in which a plurality of nozzles are arrayed in a first direction is mounted, in a second direction intersecting with the first direction, comprising: printing a first adjustment pattern on a print medium using the nozzle array of the printhead by a scan in a forward direction and by a scan in a backward direction of the carriage, respectively; acquiring a first registration adjustment value based on a distance between print positions of two patches of a plurality of patches that form the first adjustment pattern; printing, on a print medium, a second adjustment pattern different from the first adjustment pattern using the nozzle array of the printhead by the scan in the forward direction and by the scan in the backward direction, respectively, in a state in which a registration of the printhead is adjusted by the first registration adjustment value; and acquiring a second registration adjustment value based on densities of a plurality of patches that form the second adjustment pattern.
The invention is particularly advantageous since registration adjustments of two steps of different methods are executed to make satisfactory registration adjustment which utilizes the advantages of the respective methods. This invention is particularly effective in a printing apparatus which executes printing using print media of A0 and B0 sizes, has a large carriage moving length, and is configured to include a plurality of large printheads each including a plurality of nozzle arrays.
Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments (with reference to the attached drawings).
An exemplary embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail in accordance with the accompanying drawings.
In this specification, the terms “print” and “printing” not only include the formation of significant information such as characters and graphics, but also broadly includes the formation of images, figures, patterns, and the like on a print medium, or the processing of the medium, regardless of whether they are significant or insignificant and whether they are so visualized as to be visually perceivable by humans.
Also, the term “print medium” not only includes a paper sheet used in common printing apparatuses, but also broadly includes materials, such as cloth, a plastic film, a metal plate, glass, ceramics, wood, and leather, capable of accepting ink.
Furthermore, the term “ink” (to be also referred to as a “liquid” hereinafter) should be extensively interpreted similar to the definition of “print” described above. That is, “ink” includes a liquid which, when applied onto a print medium, can form images, figures, patterns, and the like, can process the print medium, and can process ink. The process of ink includes, for example, solidifying or insolubilizing a coloring agent contained in ink applied to the print medium.
Further, a “printing element” (to be also referred to as a “nozzle”) generically means an ink orifice or a liquid channel communicating with it, and an element for generating energy used to discharge ink, unless otherwise specified.
<Overview of Printing Apparatus (FIGS. 1A and 1B)>
As shown in
As shown in
In case of this printing apparatus, the printheads 3a and 3b (which are often referred to as head units 3a and 3b hereinafter) which discharge inks of six colors in correspondence with color inks of 12 colors, so as to attain color printing on a print medium are mounted on the carriage 4. The head units 3a and 3b adopt the same arrangement. These head units 3a and 3b will also be collectively referred to as a printhead 3 hereinafter. The relationship between the head units and carriage, and the detailed arrangement of each head unit will be described later.
When printing is performed on a print medium by the aforementioned arrangement, the print medium is conveyed by the conveyance roller 70 to a predetermined printing start position. After that, an operation for scanning the printheads 3a and 3b in the main scanning direction by the carriage 4, and an operation for conveying the print medium in the sub-scanning direction by the conveyance roller 70 are repeated, thus attaining printing on the entire print medium.
That is, when the carriage 4 is moved in the direction of the arrow A shown in
<Description of Control Arrangement (FIG. 2)>
The control arrangement required to execute printing control of the printing apparatus described above using
As shown in
In
Furthermore, reference numeral 620 denotes a switch group which includes a power switch 621, print switch 622, recovery switch 623, and the like.
Reference numeral 630 denotes a sensor group which is used to detect apparatus states, and includes a position sensor 631, temperature sensor 632, and the like.
Moreover, reference numeral 640 denotes a carriage motor driver required to drive the carriage motor M1 used to reciprocally scan the carriage 4 in the direction of the arrow A; and 642, a conveyance motor driver required to drive the conveyance motor M2 used to convey a print medium. Reference numeral 644 denotes a head driver required to drive the printheads based on print data and control signals transferred from the controller 600.
The ASIC 603 transfers data required to drive printing elements (discharge heaters) to the printhead while directly accessing a storage area of the RAM 604 at the time of print scans by the printhead 3.
A power supply unit 100 supplies electric power to the controller 600. Also, the power supply unit 100 can also supply electric power required to operate respective units of the apparatus such as the drivers, motors, printhead, sensor group, switch group, mechanism portions, and the like.
<Detailed Arrangement Around Carriage (FIG. 3)>
The position of the carriage 4 is detected by reading a scale 103 arranged along the main scanning direction by an encoder (not shown) provided to the carriage 4. That read count is reset by an origin sensor 104 provided to the end portion of the printing apparatus 2. Therefore, a count value of the encoder is that from the position of the origin sensor.
A print sheet 106 is pressed by a pinch roller (not shown), and is held on a flat platen 107. Since print sheets to be used of this embodiment have large sizes such as A0 and B0, they have large paper widths, and the platen 107 is configured to be divided into some portions. Due to such divisional configuration, platen heights suffer variations due to their attachment states, and often cause a variation factor of a distance between the print sheet and printhead. The print sheet is conveyed in the sub-scanning direction by the conveyance roller 70 (not shown in
<Arrangement of Printhead (Head Unit) (FIGS. 4A and 4B)>
As shown in
A pitch interval between nozzles in the Even and Odd arrays of the A and B arrays is 600 dpi, and nozzles of the Even and Odd arrays in each of the A and B arrays are arranged on the chip while being shifted by half a pitch (that is, 1200 dpi) in their arrayed direction. Furthermore, the A and B arrays are arranged on the chip while being shifted another half pitch (that is, 2400 dpi) in their nozzle array direction. Therefore, as the entire head unit, printing can be executed at a resolution of 2400 dpi in the nozzle array direction.
In this manner, since the nozzle arrays are arranged on the chips while their relative positions are shifted, an image can be formed at a high resolution.
At the time of printing, the respective nozzles are driven at different discharge timings according to a distance 207 between the nozzle arrays, so that inks discharged from nozzles with the same nozzle numbers of the respective nozzle arrays in each chip land at the same position on a print sheet. However, since the distances between these nozzles suffer variations due to manufacturing variations of the printhead, such variations result in shifts of print positions accordingly. The shift amounts of the print positions are also called registration amounts, and a technique for correcting the shift amounts is called registration correction.
<Description of Registration Correction>
In case of reciprocal printing, the registration correction is applied not only to the shift amounts between the nozzle arrays but also to correction of print positions between forward and backward print processes of the printhead. These correction values include some types depending on correction targets.
Registration Correction Type
Respective types will be described below.
1. Even-Odd Array Correction Value
This correction value is used to correct print positions between the Even and Odd arrays. A driving timing of the Odd array is corrected so that an ink droplet discharged from the Odd array matches that discharged from the Even array on the print sheet with reference to the Even array. This correction is applied to each chip, and further applied to each of the A and B arrays. The Even and Odd arrays tend to have different ink discharge velocities, and suffer the influences of height (distance between the discharge surface of the printhead and print sheet) variations.
2. A-B Array Correction Value
This correction value is used to correct print positions between the A and B arrays. This correction is applied to each chip by correcting print positions between Even arrays of the A and B arrays. The Odd arrays can be corrected by adding the A-B array correction value and Even-Odd array correction values of the A and B arrays. Since the A and B arrays have nearly equal discharge characteristics, the influences of height variations are small, and those of position shift factors of nozzle arrays are large.
3. Forward-backward Correction Value
This correction value is used to correct print positions between forward and backward prints. This correction is applied to each chip by correcting print positions by forward print of the Even array of the A array, and those by backward print of the Even array of the A array. Since a discharged ink droplet flies having inertia caused by the carriage moving velocity, the shift amount is influenced by the carriage velocity and flying time.
4. Inter-Chip Correction Value
With reference to one chip, this correction value is used to correct print positions of other chips. With reference to a chip filled with black ink, print positions by forward print of the Even array of the A array of this chip and those by forward print of the Even array of the A array of the adjustment target chip are corrected. Since a distance between chips is larger than those between the Even and Odd arrays and between the A and B arrays, it is strongly influenced by a slanted attitude of the carriage.
Registration Measurement
As shown in
As shown in
An analog signal processed in this way is input to the ASIC 603 as a digital signal via an ADC (A/D converter) 603a of the ASIC 603. Also, that analog signal is input to a comparator 408, and a comparator output is input to an interrupt port 603b of the ASIC 603 as an interrupt signal. Furthermore, a signal from an encoder 407 used to detect the position of the carriage 4 is also input to the ASIC 603.
The ASIC 603 synchronizes the output signal from the reflective-type sensor 105 and the position signal from the encoder 407 in cooperation with the MPU 601, and processes the signal from the reflective-type sensor 105 as a density detection signal corresponding to the position of the carriage 4. The RAM 604 is connected to the ASIC 603, and stores read patch data, a count value output from the encoder, and the like.
As shown in
The pattern 404 is formed by discharging ink so that a target position 502 in the main scanning direction by the reflective-type sensor 105 matches the pattern center, but it is usually formed at a shifted position due to registration. A spacing 501 between neighboring patterns is set to have a sufficient margin with respect to that expected shift. At the time of pattern detection, a pattern position is detected within a detection range 503 having the target position 502 as the center.
The ASIC 603 acquires the carriage position measured by the encoder 407 at that timing according to the interrupt signal. Since the pattern 404 is detected while the carriage 4 is moved, two points of edge positions on the two sides of the patch of the pattern can be detected. This position detection resolution is decided by the resolution of slits provided to the scale 103, but the resolution may be multiplied by temporally dividing a signal from the encoder. A pattern central position 506 of the detected two points of the edge positions is set as a patch position. Thus, position shift influences when the detection signal exceeds the threshold and when it falls below the threshold can be avoided.
Factor of Influence on Registration
In order to calculate an optimal registration correction value from the measured registration amount, various factors have to be taken into consideration.
(1) Influence of Height (Distance Between Discharge Surface of Printhead and Print Sheet) Variation
This distance variation is caused by attachment variations of the platen 107. This distance variation especially influences registration values in reciprocal print. A discharged ink droplet flies to have a velocity component in the carriage scanning direction by inertia from the carriage 4, and its flying time is decided based on the distance between the discharge surface of the printhead and print sheet.
On the other hand, as can be seen from
Since a distance in the case shown in
In
R=h/v·Vcr×2 (1)
As described by equation (1), a variation of the distance h influences the shift amount R during reciprocal print operations. Since this variation mainly depends on the platen, it is generated depending on the carriage position in the main scanning direction when viewed from the carriage.
(2) Attitude Variation of Carriage
The carriage 4 is moved along a rail arranged along the main scanning direction. However, when the rail is curved, an attitude of the carriage is slanted.
A pattern used in registration adjustment applied to the printing apparatus with the aforementioned arrangement will be described below.
In
In each line, five patches are formed, and are laid out so that printed positions in the main scanning direction match in the vertical direction. Line1 to Line5 of the pattern are formed without conveying a print sheet. In this case, the pattern may be formed by a plurality of scans of the printhead, and in this example, it is formed by four reciprocal scans without conveying a print sheet.
A correction value between patterns is decided by comparing detected patch central positions between two lines. At a position in the main scanning direction with reference to an origin position in the main scanning direction, letting X1 be a position of an adjustment target pattern and X2 be a position of a reference pattern, a shift D between the patterns is given by D=X2−X1. In this case, by setting a correction value P=D, and executing printing by adding P upon printing under the condition adjusted using the adjustment target pattern, printing can be performed at a position that matches X2 in the example of
In step S1001, patterns are formed. In this case, patterns for five lines are formed without conveying a print sheet. In this case, print scans themselves may be divided. In this example, patterns are formed by four reciprocal scans. The reason why the print sheet is not conveyed is to prevent formation positions of patterns from being shifted due to skewed conveyance at the time of conveyance.
In step S1002, the printed patterns are read by a forward scan of the carriage, as indicated by an arrow 1001 in
In step S1003, the acquired patch positions are stored in the RAM 604. In this case, the patch positions are stored in association with patch numbers.
It is checked in step S1004 whether or not reading of all the five lines is complete. If reading is not complete yet, the process advances to step S1005 to select the next line as a reading position. The process then returns to step S1002 to read the next line. In this manner, the processes of steps S1002 to S1005 are repeated until reading of all the five lines is complete. For this purpose, as indicated by arrows 1002 in
Next, the registration correction value is calculated based on the acquired patch positions.
Pattern formation conditions are as shown in
In step S1101, positions are compared in association with a patch array having a vertically arranged relationship 1101 shown in
It is checked in step S1103 whether or not correction value calculations for all the five patches are complete. If the calculations are not complete yet, the process advances to step S1104 to select the next patch as a calculation target as indicated by an arrow 1102. Then, the process returns to step S1101 to make a calculation based on the next patch. In this manner, the processes of steps S1101 to S1104 are repeated until the calculations of all the five patches are complete.
After the differences of the positions for the five patches are calculated in this way, the process advances to step S1105, and the storage results of the differences of the positions for the five patches are read out and averaged, thus calculating a correction value.
By calculating the correction value in this way, the influences of external disturbances generated depending on the position in the main scanning direction are eliminated, thus obtaining a more suitable correction value.
Next, ink discharge timings in reciprocal print processes are adjusted based on the obtained forward-backward correction value. In ink discharge operations, discharge pulses are generated based on position signals from the encoder so that ink droplets are attached to targeted print positions.
For example, assume that backward print is shifted to the home position (HP) side of the carriage with respect to forward print, and the forward-backward correction value is +5. Based on this correction value, the forward-backward correction value is applied to backward print so as to be matched with a print position in forward print. When the carriage reaches a delayed position in correspondence with the forward-backward correction value=+5 compared to the ink discharge position in forward print, a discharge pulse is generated so as to allow an ink droplet by backward print to be attached on a position shifted to the HP side. Since the carriage is moved to approach the HP side in backward print, an ink droplet, which is discharged at a delayed timing in correspondence with the forward-backward correction value=+5, is attached on a position shifted to the HP side. As a result, the print position in the backward direction matches that in the forward direction.
In consideration of the structure of the pockets of the carriage 4 on which the head units shown in
As shown in
In order to eliminate the influence of such head slanting, this embodiment uses neighboring patterns so as not to increase an interval in the nozzle array direction between reference and adjustment patterns between conditions for correction value calculation targets.
According to
In the above description, patterns are formed without conveying a print sheet. However, the relationship between patterns to be compared is satisfied even in a case where conveyance of a print sheet is made.
Especially, since the printing apparatus shown in
For this reason, this embodiment executes two-step adjustment processing shown in
Referring to
After that, in step S1504, adjustment (fine adjustment) according to the density method (second adjustment method), which has a narrow adjustment range of a correction value but assures high adjustment precision is executed. In this fine adjustment, adjustment patterns are printed again by the coarse-adjusted printing apparatus (second pattern print), and are read by the reflective-type sensor (second reading), thus executing the fine adjustment. In this manner, in step S1505, a final correction value to which the results of the two adjustment methods are reflected is calculated.
Note that the density method disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-37936 or the like can be used.
According to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-37936, adjustment between forward and backward print processes in reciprocal print processes is executed. In forward printing, the printhead as a processing target is appropriately driven to form, for eight patches, patch elements having a pattern in which four dots and a blank area for four dots are repeated by a predetermined width in turn from a left-end pixel array as an absolute position reference of each patch to the right in the main scanning direction.
Next, in backward print, the printhead as the processing target is appropriately driven to form the following sample patches SP1 to SP8. That is, these sample patches include:
SP1: a patch in which four dots and a blank area for four dots are repeated by a predetermined width in turn from the fifth pixel on the right side of the left-end pixel array as the absolute position reference of the patch in the right direction;
SP2: a patch in which four dots and a blank area for four dots are repeated by a predetermined width in turn from the fourth pixel on the right side of the left-end pixel array as the absolute position reference of the patch in the right direction;
SP3: a patch in which four dots and a blank area for four dots are repeated by a predetermined width in turn from the third pixel on the right side of the left-end pixel array as the absolute position reference of the patch in the right direction;
SP4: a patch in which four dots and a blank area for four dots are repeated by a predetermined width in turn from the second pixel on the right side of the left-end pixel array as the absolute position reference of the patch in the right direction;
SP5: a patch in which four dots and a blank area for four dots are repeated by a predetermined width in turn from the first pixel on the right side of the left-end pixel array as the absolute position reference of the patch in the right direction;
SP6: a patch in which four dots and a blank area for four dots are repeated by a predetermined width in turn from the left-end pixel array as the absolute position reference of the patch in the right direction;
SP7: a patch in which four dots and a blank area for four dots are repeated by a predetermined width in turn from the first pixel on the left side of the left-end pixel array as the absolute position reference of the patch in the right direction; and
SP8: a patch in which four dots and a blank area for four dots are repeated by a predetermined width in turn from the second pixel on the left side of the left-end pixel array as the absolute position reference of the patch in the right direction.
That is, the sample patches SP1 to SP8 correspond to a pattern formed by superposing patch elements which are formed in a forward path and in which a four-dot forming area and blank area for four dots are repeated, and patch elements which are formed in a backward path and in which a four-dot forming area and blank area for four dots are repeated while being shifted by one dot. This pattern can be formed by shifting print timings or shifting print data.
Then, intensities of reflected light of these sample patches are measured using the optical sensor included in the carriage, and a function required to calculate a relative print shift amount is calculated from a relative relationship of these values.
Processing for calculating that function will be described in detail below.
These figures show dots when print positions are matched in the forward and backward scans, and patterns (a) to (g) in these figures respectively correspond to the sample patches SP2 to SP8. Also, a pattern (h) corresponds to the sample patch SP1 or a patch in which four dots and a blank area for four dots are repeated by a predetermined width in turn from the third pixel on the left side of the left-end pixel array as the absolute position reference of the patch in the right direction with respect to the patch element in the forward path. Also, a pattern (i) corresponds to a patch in which four dots and a blank area for four dots are repeated by a predetermined width in turn from the fourth pixel on the left side of the left-end pixel array as the absolute position reference of the patch in the right direction with respect to the patch element in the forward path. For this patch, the optical sensor measures the same density equal to that of the pattern (a).
According to this measurement, since a print area ratio of the pattern (e) is minimum, a maximum reflected light intensity is obtained. Also, since a print area ratio of the patterns (a) and (i) is maximum, a minimum reflected light intensity is obtained. Then, the density measurement results of the sample patches SP1 to SP8 formed by an actual printing apparatus are more likely to be scattered in states among the patterns (a) to (i).
Processing for an example of the density measurement results of the sample patches SP1 to SP8 will be described below with reference to
As can be seen from the patterns shown in
Since the output value of the optical sensor indicates an intensity of reflected light, the relationship between a shift amount between forward and backward paths and the output value is as shown in
Hence, in the relationship shown in
The density method is advantageous in that a correction value is calculated with high precision, but it also is disadvantageous in that an adjustable range is restrictive and the amount of ink and the number of print sheets to be consumed for that adjustment are large.
The patterns used in the registration adjustment based on the density method may use the same patterns used in the registration adjustment according to the range detection method, but patterns unique to the density method may be used. In this case, for example, a pattern which includes a plurality of patches (for example, four dots) each having the same length to be spaced by the same interval (four dots) as the patch length may be used. Therefore, a reference pattern is printed using this pattern at a 50% duty in the main scanning direction. Next, after the reference pattern, an adjustment target pattern is printed at the same position as the reference pattern, using nozzles as measurement targets. In this case, when a registration is shifted by, for example, four dots in the main scanning direction, the reference pattern and adjustment pattern are printed together at a 100% duty in the main scanning direction. This duty difference is observed as a print density difference. Therefore, by measuring the print duty of these patterns using the reflective-type sensor, a registration shift is calculated, and an adjustment value is consequently obtained.
From such situation, a printing apparatus, in which the number of inks to be used is large (for example, 12 colors) and print sheets of large sizes are used, adopts two-step adjustment which utilizes advantages of the range detection method and density method.
Therefore, according to the aforementioned embodiment, since two-step adjustment is executed, both the wide adjustment range and high adjustment precision can be attained as the whole adjustment operations. Also, the influences of external disturbances occurred depending on positions of the carriage in the main scanning direction are eliminated for respective types of correction values, and more suitable correction values can be acquired. Also, suitable correction values from which the influence of printhead slanting is eliminated can also be acquired.
In the aforementioned embodiment, a so-called large-sized printing apparatus which prints on print media of A0 and B0 sizes is used. However, the present invention is applicable to a printing apparatus which prints on print media of relatively small sizes such as A4, A3, B4, and B5.
Furthermore, the aforementioned registration adjustment method is applicable not only to inter-chip correction and inter-head unit correction, but also to inter-substrate correction when a plurality of substrates are mounted on a single head unit. In addition, the aforementioned embodiment has exemplified the heat unit in which a plurality of chips having the same print width are arrayed in the carriage main scanning direction (first direction), as shown in
While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application Nos. 2012-103834, filed Apr. 27, 2012, and 2013-077263, filed Apr. 2, 2013, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2012-103834 | Apr 2012 | JP | national |
2013-077263 | Apr 2013 | JP | national |
This application is a divisional of application No. 13/865,328 filed Apr. 18, 2013, which in turn claims benefit of Japanese Application Nos. 2012-103834 filed Apr. 27, 2012 and 2013-077263 filed Apr. 2, 2013.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20150210098 A1 | Jul 2015 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 13865328 | Apr 2013 | US |
Child | 14681246 | US |