JPH06143688A - Inkjet recording method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an inkjet recording method which enables overwriting by means of a writing instrument to a manuscript of an OHP sheet printed by an inkjet recording apparatus. CONSTITUTION:A printer head 2 is fixed to a carriage 1 and moved on a guide rail 3 in the sub scanning direction by a driving motor 8 via an endless belt 9. When an operator selects a mirror image mode, first, the carriage 1 is moved to a printing end position 13. Then, printing is conducted while the carriage 1 is moved in a direction of an arrow B. At this time, the transferring order of the image data to the printer head 2 is completely the same as that at the normal printing time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus for ejecting ink droplets from a nozzle by a pressure generated by a pressure generating unit for recording, and more particularly to a method for printing on an OHP sheet by the ink jet recording apparatus. It is a thing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Ink droplets are jetted directly onto a recording medium,
An inkjet recording apparatus for recording is a recording technology that has been attracting attention in recent years because the apparatus can be easily downsized and noise during recording is extremely small. In this ink jet recording apparatus, recording is mainly performed using a water-based ink. Therefore, when an OHP dedicated sheet (hereinafter referred to as an OHP sheet) used in an electrophotographic recording system or the like is projected by an inkjet printer when an overhead projector (hereinafter referred to as OHP) is used for the projection, the ink is not fixed to the OHP sheet, There was a problem such as flow on the surface and color mixing on the surface in the case of a color original. This problem occurs because the OHP sheet used in the conventional electrophotographic recording system and the like is composed of a single layer of a material such as PET (polyethylene terephthalate) that does not allow water-based ink to penetrate.

For this reason, an OHP sheet for exclusive use of ink jet has been developed which has improved ink fixability. For example, the O disclosed in JP-A-62-204989.
There is a HP sheet. Figure 3 shows the OH for inkjet
It is a sectional view of a P sheet. In the figure, 31 is a support layer, 32 is an ink receiving layer, and 33 is ink. As shown in FIG. 3, the OHP sheet dedicated to inkjet is composed of two layers, an ink receiving layer 32 and a supporting layer (base layer) 31. As the ink receiving layer 32, a hydrophilic resin, for example,
Polyvinyl alcohol, polyvinyl pyrrolidone and cellulose derivative systems are used. The support layer 31 is made of a film of cellophane, celluloid, or the like. Further, as a material for the support layer 31, an electrophotographic recording type OH is used.
PET generally used for P sheets can also be used. By using such an OHP sheet exclusively for inkjet, the ink 33 ejected from the inkjet recording device penetrates into the ink receiving layer 32 and stable recording can be performed. As described above, in the OHP sheet dedicated to the inkjet, the fixability and transparency of the ink are improved. However, in reality
When a sheet original is used, it is often overwritten by a writing tool, but the writing property for overwriting by this writing tool is not considered.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the projection principle of OHP. In the figure, 41 is a light source reflector, 42 is a light source, 43 is a Fresnel lens, 44 is an aperture, 45 is a document stand, 46 is an OHP sheet original, 47 is a projection lens, 48 is a reflecting mirror,
49 is a screen. The light emitted from the light source 42 and the light emitted from the light source reflection plate 41 are reflected by the Fresnel lens 43 and are illuminated from the lower side of the document table 45. An OHP sheet document 46 is placed on the material table 45, and the illumination light passes through the material table 45 and the OHP sheet document 46, is condensed by the projection lens 47, is reflected by the reflecting mirror 48, and is displayed on the screen. The image is formed at 49. With such an OHP, when a normal OHP sheet original 46 is projected on the screen 49, the image is inverted left and right by the projection lens 47. Therefore, if the correct projection is made on the screen, the printing side is up and the light is emitted from the bottom. Will be irradiated. Inkjet dedicated OHP
When a sheet is used, the ink receiving layer is usually on the upper side and the support layer is on the lower side. In this case, when writing is overwritten with a writing instrument for an OHP sheet that has been conventionally used, for example, a water-based ink pen, the ink of the pen penetrates into the ink receiving layer and mixes with the ink previously printed by the inkjet recording device. After printing, you have to wait for a while. Further, when overwriting with an oil-based ink writing tool, the oil-based ink is repelled by the ink receiving layer, and good writing cannot often be performed. Further, there is a problem that the ink ejected from the ink jet recording device adheres to the pen tip of the writing instrument, and the pen tip is soiled.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides an ink jet recording method capable of overwriting an OHP sheet document printed by an ink jet recording apparatus with a writing instrument. That is the purpose.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, in an ink jet recording method for an OHP sheet, an ink jet recording apparatus for ejecting ink droplets from a nozzle onto a recording medium to perform recording is provided. OH
It is characterized in that the input image is horizontally reversed and printed on the ink receiving surface of the P sheet, and writing can be performed on the opposite surface by a writing instrument.

Further, in the invention described in claim 2,
In a recording method in an inkjet recording apparatus that performs printing in the sub-scanning direction by moving a carriage equipped with a print head, by controlling the carriage to move in a direction opposite to the operation of the carriage during normal printing, the input image is The feature is that the print is performed by reversing the right and left.

According to the third aspect of the invention, in the recording method in the ink jet recording apparatus having the buffer memory for temporarily storing the print data, when the image data to be printed is taken out from the buffer memory, the normal data in the sub-scanning direction is used. It is characterized in that an input image is printed by reversing the input image by taking out and printing in the reverse order.

[0009]

According to the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the input image is horizontally reversed with respect to the ink receiving surface of the OHP sheet by the ink jet recording apparatus for ejecting ink droplets from the nozzle onto the recording medium to perform recording. When the OHP sheet printed on the OHP is used, it can be turned upside down and placed on the data base, so that the ink printed on the lower side can be printed. The receptive layer serves as the receptive layer, and the upper surface serves as the writable surface, so that overwriting can be performed with a conventional writing instrument for an OHP sheet.

According to the second aspect of the invention, in an ink jet recording apparatus for performing printing in the sub-scanning direction by moving a carriage equipped with a print head, the carriage is moved in a direction opposite to the operation of the carriage during normal printing. By doing so, the input image can be horizontally reversed and printed, and as described above, by printing the horizontally reversed image on the back surface of the OHP sheet, writing can be performed on the front surface with a writing instrument.

Further, in the invention described in claim 3,
When extracting image data to be printed from the buffer memory that temporarily stores print data, the input image can be printed by reversing the input image by retrieving and printing in the reverse order in the sub-scanning direction. Further, for example, by printing a horizontally reversed image on the back surface of the OHP sheet, it becomes possible to write on the front surface with a writing instrument.

A mirror image printing mode can be added to the ink jet recording apparatus so that the operator of the recording apparatus can select this mode when using the OHP sheet. Further, the OHP sheet may be automatically detected and the mirror image mode may be selected.

[0013]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a recording section of a thermal ink jet printer for carrying out the recording method of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a carriage, 2 is a printer head, 3 is a guide rail, 4 is a maintenance device, 5 is a recording medium, 6 is a paper feed roller, 7 is a capping member, 8 is a drive motor, 9 is an endless belt, 10 Is the main scanning direction, 11 is the sub scanning direction, 12 is the print start position, and 13 is the print end position.

The printer head 2 has a plurality of nozzles in the main scanning direction 10, and printing in the main scanning direction 10 is performed by the plurality of nozzles and paper feed. The printer head 2 is fixed to a carriage 1, the carriage 1 is locked to an endless belt 9, and is movably arranged on a guide rail 3. Printing in the sub-scanning direction is performed by driving the endless belt 9 by the drive motor 8 and moving the carriage 1 on which the printer head 2 is arranged on the guide rail 3. In normal printing,
The carriage 1 moves in the direction of arrow A from the print start position 12 and prints the input image by the print width in which the nozzles are arranged. The carriage that has reached the print end position 13
It returns to the print start position 12 without ejecting ink. The recording medium 5 is moved by the print width by the paper feed roller 6, and the carriage 1 moves in the direction of arrow A while printing again. When printing is not performed for a long time, the printer head 2 has moved to the position of the maintenance device 4, and the maintenance device 4 performs maintenance operations such as capping and priming by the capping member 7.

Normal printing modes include a low speed mode in which the carriage is moved in only one direction as described above, and a high speed mode in which an image is printed at high speed. In the high speed mode, the carriage 1 that has reached the print end position 13 prints when returning to the print start position 12, that is, when moving in the direction of arrow B. In this case, when the carriage 1 reaches the print end position 13, the recording medium 5 is swiftly moved by the print width by the paper feed roller 6. In the printing in the direction of arrow B, the writing start position is different from that in the printing in the direction of arrow A, but the order of data input from the host is reversed in advance, or the image data is stored in the buffer memory in the recording device. May be temporarily stored and the image data may be transferred to the printer head in the reverse order.

A first embodiment of the printing method for performing mirror image printing will be described. Mirror image printing is applied, for example, when an OHP sheet is used as a recording medium. The OHP sheet used is exclusively for inkjet. The OHP sheet is fed to the recording apparatus so that printing is performed on the ink receiving layer side of the OHP sheet dedicated to the inkjet. The operator selects the mirror image mode of the recording device. When this mode is selected, the moving direction of the carriage is completely opposite to the moving direction described above. First, after moving the carriage 1 to the print end position 13, printing is performed while moving in the direction of arrow B. At this time, the order of transferring the image data to the printer head 2 may be exactly the same as that in normal printing. The carriage 1 is moved in the direction of arrow A without printing. In the high speed mode, printing is performed in the direction of arrow A, but the data transfer direction at this time may be the same as in the direction of arrow B in the normal high speed mode.

On the OHP sheet thus printed, a mirror-image input image is printed on the ink receiving layer side. When the printed OHP sheet original is set on the OHP so that the printed surface faces down, the support layer is placed on the upper side, and the overwriting can be performed without impairing the writability.

In the printing method described above, the operator selects the mirror image mode, but the type of the recording medium is automatically detected regardless of the instruction from the operator, and the recording medium is the OHP sheet. In this case, it is possible to automatically reverse the paper feed direction of the carriage.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an optical detection sensor for detecting a recording medium used in a thermal ink jet printer for carrying out the recording method of the present invention. 2 in the figure
1 is a detection sensor, 22 is a sensor light source, 23 is a photodetector,
Reference numeral 24 is a paper tray, and 25 is a recording medium. There are various possible methods for detecting the type of recording medium,
Here, a method of optically detecting will be described. The recording medium 25 is carried out from the paper tray 24, and the detection sensor 2
Reach 1. The detection sensor 21 includes a sensor light source 22 and a light detection sensor 23, and detects the type of the recording medium 25 based on an output signal from the light detection sensor 23.
In the case of an OHP sheet, the light from the light source is transmitted, so the output signal from the detection element is large, but on paper or the like, the light is not transmitted and the output signal is small. This recording medium type detection sensor is used together with a recording medium detection sensor such as a limit switch, and when the recording medium detection sensor detects the recording medium, the recording medium type detection sensor By comparing the output of the detection sensor with a predetermined threshold, whether the recording medium is a transparent body such as an OHP sheet,
It can be discriminated whether it is an opaque body such as paper. The specific configuration of the sensor, the configuration of the signal processing circuit, and the like can be easily realized by those skilled in the art, and thus detailed description thereof will be omitted. When the OHP sheet is detected by such a detection sensor, the mirror image mode is set, and the mirror image image is printed by changing the moving direction of the carriage as described above.

A second embodiment of the printing method for mirror image printing will be described. In the first embodiment described above, the mirror image is printed by changing the moving direction of the carriage, but in addition to this, the moving direction of the carriage is not changed and the image data from the buffer memory of the printer to the printer head is changed. Alternatively, the mirror image may be printed by reversing the order of transfer. In general, the inkjet recording device has addresses corresponding to the number of nozzles mounted on the head in the main scanning direction, and print start position 12 in the sub scanning direction.
A two-dimensional memory having addresses corresponding to the number of dots from the print position to the print end position 13 is used. The image data sent from the host is once stored in this buffer memory. When the image data stored in the buffer memory is transferred to the printer head, for example, if printing is performed in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1, the sub-scanning direction address of the buffer memory starts printing from the address on the print end position side. By changing to the position side, it is possible to obtain a printed image in which the left and right are reversed. In this case, the movement of the carriage may be the same as in the normal print mode. In the high-speed mode for reciprocal printing, when printing in the direction of arrow B in FIG.
It may be read from the print start position side of the buffer memory and transferred to the printer head.

Further, when the image data transferred from the host to the printer is stored in the buffer memory of the printer, the address in the sub-scanning direction may be reversed and stored. In this case, extraction of image data from the buffer memory, transfer, and movement of the carriage may be the same as in the normal print mode.

In the present embodiment, the recording medium for printing the mirror image is limited to the OHP sheet for the purpose of improving the writing property on the OHP sheet original, but the configuration of the present invention is not limited to the OHP sheet. It goes without saying that a mirror image can be printed on the recording medium.

[0023]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, for example, in an OHP sheet, a mirror image of the input image is printed on the ink receiving side, so that the OHP sheet original is turned over on the OHP sheet. When installed, the support layer having excellent writability is on the upper side, and there is an effect that good writing can be performed even when overwriting with a writing tool.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a recording unit of a thermal inkjet printer for carrying out a recording method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an optical detection sensor for detecting a recording medium used in a thermal inkjet printer for carrying out the recording method of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of an OHP sheet dedicated to inkjet.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an OHP projection principle.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 carriage 2 printer head 3 guide rail 4 maintenance device 5 recording medium 6 paper feed roller 7 capping member 8 drive motor 9 endless belt 10 main scanning direction 11
Sub-scanning direction, 12 print start position, 13 print end position,
21 detection sensor, 22 sensor light source, 23 photodetector, 24 paper tray, 25 recording medium.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An ink jet recording apparatus for ejecting ink droplets from a nozzle onto a recording medium to perform recording by horizontally reversing an input image to an ink receiving surface of an OHP sheet for printing, and writing on the opposite surface with a writing instrument. A method for inkjet recording on an OHP sheet, which is capable of 2. In an ink jet recording apparatus for performing printing in the sub-scanning direction by moving a carriage equipped with a print head, inputting is performed by controlling the carriage to move in a direction opposite to the operation of the carriage during normal printing. An ink jet recording method, which comprises reversing an image and printing the image. 3. An ink jet recording apparatus having a buffer memory for temporarily storing print data, when extracting image data to be printed from the buffer memory,
An inkjet recording method characterized in that an input image is printed by reversing the input image by taking out the image in the sub-scanning direction in the order reverse to the normal and printing.