Dynamic modulating voltage adjustment
AssigneeDomino UK Limited
InventorsRichard Thomas Calhoun Bridges, Justin Chase, Stuart Mark Walkington
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AssigneeDomino UK Limited
InventorsRichard Thomas Calhoun Bridges, Justin Chase, Stuart Mark Walkington
Estimating the term…
A continuous inkjet printer (50) has an ink droplet generator (52) and a controller (58) that varies a modulating voltage applied to the ink droplet generator (52) and measures corresponding breakup times of a jet of ink into ink droplets to obtain a portion of a characteristic of breakup time against modulating voltage. The controller (58) obtains a variation range, varies the modulating voltage over the variation range to obtain the portion of the characteristic, calculates a gradient from the portion of the characteristic, compares the gradient with a predetermined gradient and, depending on whether the calculated gradient is less than or greater than the predetermined gradient, generates an adjusted variation range that is displaced in a first sense or a second, opposite sense, respectively, relative to the variation range.
A continuous inkjet (CIJ) printer comprising an ink droplet generator including an electromechanical transducer, a driver operable to apply a periodic modulating voltage to the transducer to cause a jet of ink ejected by the ink droplet generator to break up into a stream of ink droplets at a breakup time after ejection from the ink droplet generator, and a controller operable to vary a modulating voltage parameter of the modulating voltage and measure corresponding values of a breakup time parameter indicative of the breakup time to obtain a portion of a characteristic of the breakup time parameter against the modulating voltage parameter, wherein the controller is operable to obtain a variation range, to vary the modulating voltage parameter over the variation range to obtain the portion of the characteristic, to calculate a gradient from the portion of the characteristic, to compare the calculated gradient with a predetermined gradient and, if the calculated gradient is less than the predetermined gradient, to generate an adjusted variation range that is displaced relative to the variation range in a first sense, or, if the calculated gradient is greater than the predetermined gradient, to generate an adjusted variation range that is displaced relative to the variation range in a second sense, opposite to the first sense.
A method of operating a continuous inkjet printer, the method comprising applying a periodic modulating voltage to an electromechanical transducer of an ink droplet generator to cause a jet of ink ejected by the ink droplet generator to break up into a stream of ink droplets at a breakup time after ejection from the ink droplet generator, varying a modulating voltage parameter of the modulating voltage and measuring corresponding values of a breakup time parameter indicative of the breakup time to obtain a portion of a characteristic of the breakup time parameter against the modulating voltage parameter, wherein the method comprises obtaining a variation range, varying the modulating voltage parameter over the variation range to obtain the portion of the characteristic, calculating a gradient from the portion of the characteristic, comparing the calculated gradient with a predetermined gradient and, if the calculated gradient is less than the predetermined gradient, generating an adjusted variation range that is displaced relative to the variation range in a first sense, or, if the calculated gradient is greater than the predetermined gradient, generating an adjusted variation range that is displaced relative to the variation range in a second sense, opposite to the first sense.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.