Patent Application
20160121602
The present application claims priority pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119(a) from Japanese patent application number 2014-220712 filed on Oct. 29, 2014, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording device discharge position adjustor and an image forming apparatus incorporating the adjustor.
2. Background Art
Image forming apparatuses employing an inkjet method are known, in which a plurality of recording devices discharges liquid droplets of a plurality of colors, respectively, onto a recording medium, such as a sheet of paper, and the discharged colors are superimposed on the recording medium, thereby forming a full-color image on the recording medium.
The image forming apparatus as described above includes a first head unit as a recording device to discharge liquid droplets of an ink liquid onto the sheet and a second head unit disposed downstream of the first head unit in a sheet conveyance direction, with both head units disposed along the sheet conveyance direction. A head unit displacer can move the second head unit laterally in a direction perpendicular to the sheet conveyance direction. Edge sensors to detect the lateral edge of the sheet are disposed upstream of the first head unit and the second head unit. When the sheet skews while being conveyed, the second head unit is displaced laterally by a displacement amount based on an output from each edge sensor, so that a relative positional error of the discharge position of the second head unit to the sheet relative to the discharge position of the first head unit to the sheet is corrected.
However, because the edge sensors are disposed upstream of each head unit in the sheet conveyance direction, they cannot directly detect an edge position of the sheet at a position of the head unit. Due to a change of the edge position sideways caused by skew/wobbling of the sheet, the edge positions of the sheet of recording medium at the edge sensor and at the head unit are not the same but are instead offset laterally.
In one embodiment of the disclosure, provided is an optimal recording device discharge position adjustor including a recording device to discharge liquid droplets onto a recording medium; an edge detector unit to detect a lateral edge position of the recording medium in a direction perpendicular to a recording medium conveyance direction; a discharge position adjustor to adjust a discharge position of the liquid droplets from the recording device relative to the recording medium; a controller to adjust the discharge position using the discharge position adjustor; and an edge position converter to convert the edge position of the recording medium detected by the edge detector unit to an edge position at a position of the recording device, in which the controller adjusts the discharge position of the recording device by an adjustment amount corresponding to the edge position of the recording medium at the position of the recording device converted by the edge position converter.
In another embodiment of the disclosure, provided is an optimal image forming apparatus including a plurality of recording devices to discharge liquid droplets onto a recording medium to record an image on the recording medium, disposed along a recording medium conveyance direction; a plurality of edge detectors to detect a lateral edge position of the recording medium in a direction perpendicular to the recording medium conveyance direction; a discharge position adjustor to adjust a discharge position of the liquid droplets relative to the recording medium, from at least one of the recording devices; and the above optimal recording device discharge position adjustor.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
The first inkjet printer 102a includes a feed roller 40 to feed the sheet W, and an encoder 50 mounted on the feed roller 40 that detects a feed amount of the sheet W based on a rotation amount of the feed roller 40. In addition, the first inkjet printer 102a includes line head units 10K, 10C, 10M, and 10Y disposed along a sheet conveyance direction that discharge ink droplets of black (K), cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y), respectively, to a front surface of the sheet W that has been fed by the feed roller 40. Each of the line head units 10C, 10M, and 10Y other than the line head unit 10K is provided with an actuator 20C, 20M, or 20Y, to move each of the line head units 10C, 10M, and 10Y in a widthwise direction perpendicular to the sheet conveyance direction. Further, each edge sensor 30K, 30C, 30M, or 30Y is disposed upstream of the line head unit 10K, 10C, 10M, or 10Y in the sheet conveyance direction and detects an edge position of the sheet W. The edge sensors may be referred to as an edge sensor unit when used in combination such as an upstream edge sensor and a downstream edge sensor.
The speed detection circuit 230 detects a speed of feeding the sheet W based on a sheet feed synchronization signal output from the encoder 50 that detects the sheet feed speed. The microprocessor 220 includes a CPU 221, a ROM 222, a RAM 223, and the like. The CPU 221 performs operations necessary for correcting positions of the line head units, the ROM stores various programs that the CPU 221 performs, and the RAM 223 temporarily stores operations results, and the like.
Next, a conveyance amount of the sheet W between the edge sensor 30K and the edge sensor 30C is measured using the encoder 50 mounted on the feed roller 40, so as to detect a same position of the sheet W. Specifically, a difference between an output value of the edge sensor 30C detected when a detection position of the sheet W detected by the edge sensor 30K passes the position of the edge sensor 30C, and a preset reference value r2 of the edge sensor 30C is obtained, and the obtained value is set as a positional error d2.
Thus, by obtaining the difference between the positional error d1 and the positional error d2, a relative positional error D of the sheet W in the width direction between respective positions of the line head unit 10K and the line head unit 10C can be obtained.
Then, the actuator 20C is driven based on the positional error D, and the line head unit 10C is displaced laterally, thereby correcting the position. Herein, the positional correction of the line head unit 10C alone is described; however, similarly, as to the line head units 10M and 10Y, a relative positional error can be obtained with reference to edge sensor 30K, and the positions of the line head units 10M and 10Y can be corrected.
The line head unit position correction control is performed by three parts: A sheet edge detector 300, a sheet wobble calculator 310, and an actuator controller 320.
First, operations performed by the sheet edge detector 300 will be described. Because each of the edge sensors 30K, 30C, 30M, and 30Y can detect an edge of the sheet W and thus performs the same operation, the edge sensor 30K is taken as representative, and only the operations performed by the sheet edge detector 300 using the edge sensor 30K will be described below.
An edge sensor output voltage from the edge sensor 30K is converted into a sheet position, and after the output voltage has been converted into the sheet position, noise is removed by a low-pass filter (LPF). The term “noise” herein means a variation in the precision of sheet preparation and vibration of the apparatus, so that the cutoff frequency of the LPF is determined by the precision of sheet preparation and the vibration of the apparatus. Thereafter, a difference from the edge reference position set in an initial adjustment when shipped from factory is obtained. The edge reference position is a corrected value from the actually mounted position of the edge sensor 30K with an error, by which the detection position of the edge sensor 30K is adjusted to zero point.
After calculating the difference from the edge reference value, a skew correction amount is added to correct a skew between the edge sensor 30K and the line head unit 10K, and the displacement amount of the sheet W at the position of the edge sensor 30K is converted to the displacement amount of the sheet W at the position of the line head unit 10, by a conversion method that will be described later with reference to
Next, a calculation method of a wobbled skew between the edge sensor 30K and the edge sensor 30C performed by the sheet wobble calculator 310 will be described.
The sheet wobble calculator 310 obtains a difference between the sheet displacement amount obtained by the edge sensor 30C and the sheet displacement amount obtained by the edge sensor 30K, and the difference is assumed to be a sheet wobbled skew amount between the edge sensor 30K and the edge sensor 30C. Herein, the sheet displacement amount calculated by the edge sensor 30K by obtaining the difference from the sheet displacement amount calculated by the edge sensor C is assumed to be a past displacement amount corresponding to a distance between the edge sensor 30K and the edge sensor 30C. Further, the term “past displacement amount corresponding to the distance” means the sensor output of the edge sensor 30K detected 0.1 second earlier than the sensor output detected by the edge sensor 30C.
The edge sensor 30K and the edge sensor 30C are separated from each other in the sheet conveyance direction, the sheet W is conveyed from the edge sensor 30K to the edge sensor 30C, and the displacement amount of the sheet W between the edge sensor 30K and the edge sensor 30C is calculated by detecting the same edge position. For example, in a case in which the distance between the edge sensor 30K and the edge sensor 30C is 200 mm and the sheet conveyance speed is 2000 mm/s, the sensor output of the edge sensor 30C detected at a time t includes a difference from the amount detected by the edge sensor 30K 0.1 second (that is, 200 [mm] divided by 2000 [mm/s]) earlier.
In addition, the sheet wobbled skew amount between the edge sensor 30K and the edge sensor 30M, and the sheet wobbled skew amount between the edge sensor 30K and the edge sensor 30Y can be obtained according to the similar calculation method.
Next, operation performed by the actuator controller 320 will be described.
After calculating the sheet wobbled skew amount, noise is removed by the LPF. The term “noise” herein means frequencies related to color shift between lines and wobbling cycle, so that the cutoff frequency of the LPF is determined by the color shift between lines and wobbling cycle. Thereafter, a difference from the actuator reference value set in the initial adjustment when shipped from factory is obtained. The actuator reference position is obtained as described below and is previously stored in the memory. The actuators 20C, 20M, and 20Y moves the line head units 10C, 10M, and 10Y such that the color shift or the positional error of the longitudinal C line, M line, and Y line becomes zero generated in the same direction as that of the K line longitudinal in the sheet conveyance direction generated on the sheet W in a state in which the sheet conveyance is stable. The shifted amount of the actuators 20C, 20M, and 20Y obtained at that time is set as the actuator reference value and is previously stored in the memory.
Based on the stored value, a move command is issued to the controller, so that the controller causes the actuators 20C, 20M, and 20Y to move to a designated position. The controller sets a designated position as a target value using the Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) control method, and causes the encoder mounted inside each of the actuators 20C, 20M, and 20Y to adjust the position. The actuators 20C, 20M, and 20Y cause the line head units 10C, 10M, and 10Y to move, thereby enabling color adjustment of C-, M-, and Y-lines relative to the K-line.
The sheet W is conveyed in a direction indicated by an arrow in
To solve the problem that the difference between the sheet edge position Ks and the sheet edge position Kh becomes an error when the line head position correction control is performed, it can be though that an edge sensor 30K is disposed at the same position as the line head unit 10K in the sheet conveyance direction. However, this approach requires the whole apparatus to be larger.
The edge position at the edge sensor 30K disposed upstream of the line head unit 10K in the sheet conveyance direction is assumed to be Ks, and the edge position at the edge sensor 30C disposed downstream of the line head unit 10K in the sheet conveyance direction is assumed to be Cs. In addition, a distance between the edge sensor 30K and the edge sensor 30C is assumed to be KCL, and a distance between the edge sensor 30K and the line head unit 10K is assumed to be KL. Then, the edge position Kh at the line head unit 10K is obtained by the following formula (1):
Kh=(Cs−Ks)×(KL/KCL) (1)
Similarly, the edge position at each of the edge sensors 30C, 30M, 30Y, and 30S is converted to the edge position at each of the line head units 10C, 10M, and 10Y. As illustrated in
Ch=(Ms−Cs)×(CL/CML) (2)
Similarly, the edge position at each of the edge sensors 30K, 30C, 30M, 30Y, and 30S is converted to the edge position at each of the line head units 10K, 10C, 10M, and 10Y. As a result, error of the edge position for each color between the edge sensor 30 and the line head unit 10 can be reduced.
In the present embodiment, the position of the line head unit 10 is corrected as described above, and the line head unit 10 is displaced laterally by the actuator 20 by a displacement amount corresponding to the edge position at the position of the line head unit 10. With this structure, the line head unit 10 can be prevented from displacing laterally to a position shifted by the difference of the edge position between the position of the edge sensor 30 and the position of the line head unit 10. As a result, the line head unit 10 can be moved to a target position to discharge droplets accurately, and the discharge position to the recording medium of the line head unit 10 can be prevented from deviating from the target discharge position by the error amount laterally. As a result, the position of the line head unit 10 can be corrected more accurately, and a relative positional error of each of the line head units 10 to discharge droplets onto the sheet W can be reduced, thereby improving quality of the printout.
In the present embodiment, the line head unit 10 is shifted by the actuator 20 by the above displacement amount, so that the discharge position of the ink liquid from the line head unit 10 relative to the sheet W is adjusted; however, the structure to adjust the discharge position is not limited to this. For example, a plurality of nozzles to discharge the ink liquid is disposed along the sheet width direction on a surface of the line head unit 10 opposite the sheet W. Of the plurality of nozzles, the ink liquid is discharged from such a nozzle that positions at a position displaced laterally by an adjusted amount corresponding to the edge position of the line head unit 10, thereby adjusting the discharge position.
The aforementioned embodiments are examples and specific effects can be obtained for each of the following aspects of (A) to (F):
Aspect A:
A recording device discharge position adjustor such as a line head unit position correction device 60 includes a recording device such as a line head unit 10 that discharges liquid droplets onto a recording medium such as a sheet W and records an image on the recording medium; an edge detector unit such as an edge sensor 30 that detects an edge position of the recording medium in the recording medium width direction perpendicular to a recording medium conveyance direction; a discharge position adjustor such as an actuator 20 that adjusts discharge positions of the liquid droplets from the recording device relative to the recording medium; and a controller such as a controller section 210 that performs operation to cause the discharge position adjustor to adjust the discharge position. The device further includes an edge position converter such as a sheet edge detector 300 that converts the edge position detected by the edge detector unit to an edge position at a position of the recording device. The controller adjusts the discharge position with an adjustment amount corresponding to the edge position at the position of the recording device converted by the edge position converter.
In the Aspect A, the discharge position is adjusted by the adjustment amount corresponding to the edge position at the position of the recording device converted by the edge position converter from the edge position at the position of the edge detector. With this structure, the discharge position of the line head unit 10 can be prevented from displacing laterally to a position shifted by the difference of the edge position between the position of the edge sensor 30 and the position of the line head unit 10. As a result, the discharge position of the recording device to discharge liquid droplets to the recording medium can be prevented from deviating from the target discharge position by the error amount in the recording medium width direction.
Aspect B:
In Aspect A, the edge detector includes an upstream edge detector such as an edge sensor 30C disposed upstream of the recording device in the recording medium conveyance direction, and a downstream edge detector such as an edge sensor 30M disposed downstream of the recording device in the recording medium conveyance direction. The edge position converter converts, based on an upstream edge position detected by the upstream edge detector and a downstream edge position detected by the downstream edge detector, the upstream edge position to an edge position at a position of the recording device. With this structure, even with the width direction change of the recording medium due to a wobbled skew, the discharge position can be more correctly adjusted.
Aspect C:
In Aspect B, the edge position converter converts the upstream edge position based on a skew amount between the upstream edge detector and the downstream edge detector obtained from the upstream edge position and the downstream edge position. With this structure, even with the width direction change of the recording medium due to a wobbled skew, the discharge position can be more correctly adjusted based on the skew amount.
Aspect D:
In Aspect B or C, the recording device discharge position adjustor further includes a recording medium feed device such as a feed roller 40 to convey the recording medium; a recording medium conveyance amount detector such as an encoder 50 to detect a conveyance amount of the recording medium by the recording medium feed device; an edge detection position phase matching device to detect a displacement amount of the same edge portion of the recording medium by the upstream edge detector and the downstream edge detector; a first noise canceller such as an LPF to eliminate noise from the detection results of the upstream edge detector and the downstream noise detector; an edge displacement amount detector to detect a displacement amount of the edge position between the upstream edge detector and the downstream edge detector based on a difference between the upstream edge position and the downstream edge position; and a second noise canceller such as an LPF to cancel noise from the edge displacement amount detector. Thus, the edge position at a position of the recording device can be detected more accurately as described in the aforementioned embodiments.
Aspect E:
In any of Aspects A, B, C or D, the discharge position adjustor is defined by a moving device such as an actuator 20 that moves the recording device laterally, and the adjustment amount is the displacement amount of the recording device by the moving device. With this structure, the recording device is displaced at a position where a target discharge position relative to the recording medium is obtained, and the discharge position can be more correctly adjusted.
Aspect F:
An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of recording devices, disposed along a recording medium conveyance direction, to discharge liquid droplets onto a recording medium to thereby record an image thereon; a plurality of edge detectors to detect an edge position of the recording medium in a width direction of the recording medium perpendicular to the recording medium conveyance direction; and a discharge position adjustor to adjust a discharge position of the liquid droplets toward the recording medium, of at least one of the recording devices, in which a recording device discharge position adjustor as described in any one of Aspects A to E is provided.
With this structure, relative positional errors of each of the recording devices relative to the recording medium can be reduced, thereby preventing image quality from degrading.
Additional modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced other than as specifically described herein.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-220712 | Oct 2014 | JP | national |
