Drop velocity aberrancy detection
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsMauricio Seras Franzoso, Antonio Gracia Verdugo, Marta Coma Vives
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Examples associated with drop velocity aberrancy detection are disclosed. One example includes firing ink through nozzles of a print-head past sensors to identify drop velocities of the nozzles. A target drop velocity is selected based on the drop velocities of the nozzles. An aberrant nozzles is detected when a nozzle has a drop velocity that deviates from the target drop velocity by a selected threshold. The aberrant nozzle is deactivated, and a good nozzle that will travel over locations traversed by the aberrant nozzle is configured to print portions of a job that would have been printed by the aberrant nozzle.
Claims15
A method, comprising:
- firing printing fluid through nozzles of a print head past respective sensors to identify drop velocities of nozzles;
- selecting a target drop velocity based on the drop velocities of the nozzles;
- detecting an aberrant nozzle whose drop velocity deviates from the target drop velocity by a selected threshold;
- deactivating the aberrant nozzle;
- and
- configuring a replacement nozzle that has a respective drop velocity that is higher than other replacement nozzles that will travel over locations traversed by the aberrant nozzle to print portions of a job that would have been printed by the aberrant nozzle.
An apparatus, comprising:
- a print head having nozzles;
- optical sensors to measure drop velocities of respective nozzles;
- an aberrancy detection module to identify a range of drop velocities that will limit banding when printing a print job based on the drop velocities of the nozzles, and to classify as an aberrant nozzle, a nozzle having a drop velocity outside the range of drop velocities;
- and
- a masking module to configure a replacement nozzle that has a respective drop velocity that is higher than other replacement nozzles to print a portion of the print job that would have been printed by the aberrant nozzle.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to:
- control nozzles of a print head to fire ink drops a known distance through an optical sensor to detect drop velocities of the nozzles;
- identify a banding reducing drop velocity range based on the drop velocities of the nozzles;
- control deactivation of aberrant nozzles on the print head having a drop velocity outside the banding reducing drop velocity range;
- and
- configure replacement nozzles for each aberrant nozzle, where each replacement nozzle that has a respective drop velocity that is higher than other replacement nozzles for a respective aberrant nozzle is to print a portion of a document that would have been printed by the respective aberrant nozzle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.