JPH01285360A - Liquid jet recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a recording with superior fixing properties and high quality, by disposing a plurality of recording heads in a sub-scanning direction, and mounting a means for selectively distributing recording information which is to be transmitted to the recording heads. CONSTITUTION:In recording heads 1A-1C, discharge elements including a recording liquid (ink) discharge port, a liquid path connecting to the discharge port, and an electrothermal energy conversion element provided on the liquid path as a discharge energy generation means are arranged so that the discharge ports are aligned in a feed direction LF (a sub-scanning direction) of a liquid recording medium P. Then, with the input of recording information to a memory circuit 5 through a buffer circuit 6, the recording information is distributed correspondingly to the recording heads 1A-1C without overlapping by a distribu tion circuit 4. The recording heads 1A-1C discharge ink drips as being driven by drive circuits 2A-2C. In this manner, fixing properties can be enhanced without the reduction of a recording speed, and a high-quality image recording can be performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a liquid jet recording apparatus that performs recording by ejecting a recording liquid onto a recording material.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of recording apparatus includes a serial printer type that is equipped with a recording head that performs recording by discharging recording liquid while moving in a predetermined direction (main scanning direction) with respect to a recording material. In particular, in a device using an electrothermal converter as the ejection energy generating means, it is easy to highly integrate the ejection elements involved in recording one dot.
A recording head with a plurality of ejection ports arranged in the conveyance direction of the recording material (sub-scanning direction) is used, and is configured so that multiple rasters are simultaneously recorded in one main scan of the recording head. .

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in such a conventional apparatus, the ejection ports are densely arranged in the recording head and each ejects a droplet, so that the following problems may occur. In other words, in recording with a high dot density, the ejection amount is large, which reduces fixing performance, and if ejection failure occurs at the ejection port due to clogging, white streaks occur on the recording material, and the recording quality deteriorates. etc.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve these problems and provide a liquid jet recording apparatus that has excellent fixing properties and is capable of recording with high quality.

[Means for Solving the Problems] To this end, the present invention includes a recording head having a plurality of recording liquid ejection ports arranged, and performs recording while moving the recording head in the main scanning direction with respect to a recording material. A liquid jet recording apparatus is characterized in that a plurality of recording heads are arranged in the sub-scanning direction, and means is provided for selectively distributing recording information to be sent to the recording heads.

[For production]

According to the present invention, by arranging a plurality of print heads in the sub-scanning direction and providing means for selectively distributing the print information of the print heads, it is possible to widen the print area and perform distributed printing.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(Example 1) FIG. 1 shows a liquid jet recording apparatus according to a first example of the present invention. Here, IA to IC are ejection elements that include an ejection port for recording liquid (ink), a liquid path communicating with the ejection port, and an electrothermal conversion element as an ejection energy generating means disposed in the liquid path. , the ejection port is in the conveying direction LF of the recording material P.
These print heads are arranged in a line-up (in the sub-scanning direction). In this example, the recording dots 1^ to IC are arranged so that the recording dots are continuous.

Reference numeral 10 is a carriage on which recording heads IA to IC are mounted and moves in a predetermined direction CR (main scanning direction) with respect to the recording material P; 11 is a carriage to which the carriage 10 is fixed and a pulley 1
Wire stretched between 2A and 12B, 13 is pulley 1
2B is a carriage motor that drives the carriage 10 via a wire 11. A guide 14 guides the movement of the carriage 10.

15 and 16 are a pair of rollers provided before and after the recording position of the recording head l^~IC, which nip and convey the recording material P. 17 is coupled to one roller of the roller pair 16;
This is a line feed motor that transports the recording material P in the LF direction, and is controlled so that it is fed by the ejection port array width of one recording head after one main scan.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the control system of the recording head 1^ to the IC shown in FIG. In the figure, 2A to 2C are drive circuits that drive the recording heads 1^ to ICs, 4 is a distribution circuit that distributes recording information without duplication, and 3^ to 3C are buffer circuits for the distributed recording information, Each is connected to drive circuits 2A to 2C. 7 is a control circuit that controls the distribution circuit 4 and the memory circuit 5;
is a buffer circuit for recording information supplied from an external host device, and the recording information is expanded into the memory circuit 5 via this buffer circuit.

In such a configuration, when record information is input to the memory circuit 5 via the buffer circuit 6, the record information is input to the distribution circuit 4.
distributed to each recording head l according to ~lC,
The recording heads 1^ to IC eject ink droplets in response to driving by drive circuits 2^ to 2C.

FIG. 3 is a configuration example of a recorded information distribution circuit, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of its operation. The left side of the figure and the recording dots are shown on the right side of FIG. Note that in these figures, the recording head IA-
It is assumed that the IC has two ejection ports (first and second nozzles), and the case is shown in which full ejection is performed.

First, a recording start signal, which serves as a reference for recording, is input to the input terminal X of the decoder 8, and is decoded as shown in the timing chart of FIG. The enable signal is divided by 3 in the direction and the phase is shifted by one cycle (output as X numbers A, B, and C).

The AND gate 9 performs a logical product operation on these recording enable signals A-C and recording data, and outputs the result. Note that the gate 9 is provided for each ejection element provided in one recording head.

Each of the recording heads IA-IC performs recording every three dots from each nozzle, as shown on the right side of FIG. Then,
By conveying the recording material P by the ejection port array width of one recording head, the entire recording is completed by performing recording three times on the l area.

FIG. 5 shows the relationship between recording dots and recording heads, and as shown in this figure, it can be seen that recording is performed in a distributed manner by each recording head. The larger the number of print heads, the more the print dots can be dispersed over a wider area, which improves the recording efficiency, and also allows one dot line (l raster) to be printed by one ejection port. Therefore, even if a certain ejection port fails to eject, white streaks will not occur, and missing dots will not be noticeable, so high-quality recording can be achieved.

(Example 2) FIG. 6 schematically shows a second example of the present invention. Here, 10 and IE are recording heads similar to those in the above embodiment, and each is a carriage! 00 and IOH. 140 and 14E are guides that respectively guide the carriage 100 and the IOE in the main scanning direction (direction perpendicular to the drawing). In addition, the image recording head ID
The IEs and IEs are arranged with a gap equal to the width of the discharge port array. Then, the RAD IE first records on the lower row, and the recording head 10 records after two lines.The recording area is set every other dot in the main/dramatic scanning direction so that the recording of each recording head does not overlap. Each recording head is in charge of this.

FIG. 7 shows a configuration example of a control system for the recording head ID and IE according to this example.

Here, 70 is a control circuit configured using, for example, a microcomputer, which records recorded information developed in the memory circuit 5 via the buffer circuit 6. 3 For processing,
Each part is controlled according to the processing procedure shown in FIG. , 2D and 2E are drive circuits for the recording heads ID and IE, respectively; 130 and 13E are carriage motors serving as drive sources for the carriage 100 and IOE, respectively; and 17 is a line feed motor.

FIG. 8 shows an example of the recording processing procedure according to this example.

When this procedure starts and the initialization process (step S1) is completed, first, the carriage motor 13E is driven to cause the carriage IOE to perform main scanning, and at the same time, the lower recording head IE is driven to record one line. (Step S3.
S5). When this is completed, the carriage return of the Rad IE to recording is performed, and the recording material P is line fed for one line (steps S7 and S9), and the above procedure is repeated for two lines (step 5ll).

After that, recording of the first line of the upper recording head ID is started at the same time as recording of the third line of the lower recording head IE, and thereafter, the image recording head performs recording in the area corresponding to each recording head (step 513). .

When the printing performed by the lower printing head IE is completed (step 515), printing is performed for two lines using only the upper printing head 10 (steps 517, 519, 52).
1) All recording ends (step 523).

FIG. 9 shows the state of recording performed by the above procedure in terms of the correspondence between the recording head and the recording dots. Dots 15d and 15e hatched in different directions,
These are dots recorded by the recording heads ID and IE, respectively.

In this way, by alternating the recording areas for each recording head, the same effect as in Example 1 can be obtained.

Note that in this embodiment, the recording head is provided in two stages, but
Of course, the number of stages may be three or more.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of recording heads each having a plurality of ejection elements are arranged in the sub-scanning direction, and a means is provided for distributing recording information to each recording head so as not to overlap. As a result, it is possible to improve fixing performance without reducing the recording speed, and even if there is an ejection port that has ejection failure, missing dots can be made less noticeable, making it possible to record high-quality images. It was done.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a liquid jet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of its control system, and FIG. 3 is an example of the configuration of the distribution circuit in FIG. 2. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of its operation; FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the relationship between the recording dots and the recording head according to the configuration shown in FIG. 1; FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a control system thereof; FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of a recording processing procedure according to this example; FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the relationship between recording dots and a recording head according to the configuration shown in FIG. 6; 1^~IE...recording head, 28~2ε...drive circuit, 3^~3C...buffer circuit, 4...distribution circuit, 5...memory circuit, 7.70... control circuit. 8...Decoder, 10, IOD, IOE...Carriage, 13,
130.13ε...Carriage motor, 14, 14D
, 14E...Guide, 15d, 15e-Recording dot, 17...Line feed motor, P...Recording material, CR...Main scanning direction, LF-...Sub-scanning direction. Figure 3 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 9

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) In a liquid jet recording apparatus that includes a recording head having a plurality of arrayed recording liquid ejection ports and performs recording while moving the recording head in the main scanning direction with respect to a recording material, the recording head is moved in the sub-scanning direction. 1. A liquid jet recording apparatus comprising: a plurality of means for selectively distributing recording information to be sent to the recording head;