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US 12,194,756 B2Granted
System and method for operating an inkjet printer to attenuate ink drying in the inkjets during printing operations
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsJason M. LeFevre, Douglas K. Herrmann, Seemit Praharaj, Varun Sambhy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An inkjet printer and method of operating the inkjet printer modifies the image content data for an ink image to be printed on a media sheet to maintain the operational status of each inkjet in the inkjet printer. For each inkjet that is operated less than an operational threshold, image data is added to the image content data to operate each inkjet at the operational threshold.
Claims18
An inkjet printer comprising:
- a media transport configured to carry media sheets through the inkjet printer;
- at least one printhead having a plurality of inkjets that are configured to eject ink drops onto the media sheets to form ink images on the media sheets as the media sheets pass the at least one printhead;
- a controller operatively connected to the at least one printhead, the controller being configured to:
- receive image content data corresponding to an ink image to be formed on one of the media sheets;
- identify inkjets in the at least one printhead that are operated less than an operational threshold to form the ink image on the one media sheet;
- identify a difference between a number of times each identified inkjet is operated and the operational threshold;
- add image data to the image content data for each identified inkjet that ejects a first color of ink, the added image data causing the controller to operate the identified inkjet that ejects the first color of ink a number of times that corresponds to the identified difference;
- operate the identified inkjets that eject the first color of ink in the at least one printhead using the image content data and the added image data to eject ink drops of the first color of ink into the ink image formed on the one media sheet;
- identify high coverage areas in the image content data;
- identify the inkjets that are operated less than the operational threshold, do not eject the first color of ink, and are positioned to eject ink drops into the identified high coverage areas;
- add image data to the image content data for each inkjet that is operated less than the operational threshold, that is positioned to eject ink drops into the identified high coverage areas, and that does not eject the first color of ink, the added image data causing the controller to operate the identified inkjets that are operated less than the operational threshold, are positioned to eject ink drops into the identified high coverage areas, and do not eject the first color of ink, a number of times that corresponds to the identified difference for each inkjet that is operated less than the operational threshold, is positioned to eject ink drops into the identified high coverage areas, and does not eject the first color of ink;
- and
- operate the identified inkjets that are positioned to eject ink drops that are not the first color into the high coverage areas using the image content data and the added image data to eject ink drops that are not the first color of ink into the high coverage areas of the ink image formed on the one media sheet.
10 more elements
A method of operating inkjets in at least one printhead to maintain an operational status comprising:
- receiving image content data corresponding to an ink image to be formed on a media sheet;
- identifying inkjets in the at least one printhead that are operated less than an operational threshold to form the ink image on the media sheet;
- identifying a difference between a number of times each identified inkjet is operated and the operational threshold;
- adding image data to the image content data for each identified inkjet that ejects a first color of ink, the added image data causing the identified inkjet to be operated to eject the first color of ink a number of times that corresponds to the identified difference;
- operating the identified inkjets that eject the first color of ink in the at least one printhead using the image content data and the added image data to eject ink drops of the first color of ink into the ink image formed on the media sheet;
- identifying high coverage areas in the image content data;
- identifying the inkjets that are operated less than the operational threshold, do not eject the first color of ink, and are positioned to eject ink drops into the identified high coverage areas;
- adding image data to the image content data for each inkjet that is operated less than the operational threshold, that is positioned to eject ink drops into the identified high coverage areas, and that does not eject the first color of ink, the added image data operating the inkjets that are operated less than the operational threshold, are positioned to eject ink drops into the identified high coverage areas, and do not eject the first color of ink, a number of times that corresponds to the identified difference for each inkjet that is operated less than the operational threshold, is positioned to eject ink drops into the identified high coverage areas, and does not eject the first color of ink;
- and
- operating the identified inkjets that are positioned to eject ink drops that are not the first color into the high coverage areas using the image content data and the added image data to eject ink drops that are not the first color of ink into the high coverage areas of the ink image formed on the one media sheet.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.