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US 12,466,203 B2Granted
Printing device and printing method
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorKazuya Toshima
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In a case in which a dot of a first raster line to be discharged by a first defective nozzle and a dot of a second raster line to be discharged by a second defective nozzle are determined to be adjacent to each other in a sub-scanning direction when a transport unit performs movement by a predetermined first distance, a printing device performs first control of executing either control of changing a distance of the movement performed by the transport unit immediately before the first defective nozzle forms the first raster line by an integer multiple of a nozzle pitch from the first distance, or control of changing a distance of the movement performed by the transport unit immediately before the second defective nozzle forms the second raster line by an integer multiple of the nozzle pitch from the first distance.
Claims5
A printing device comprising:
- a printing head including a nozzle row in which a plurality of nozzles each configured to discharge a dot of liquid to a medium are arranged at a predetermined nozzle pitch in a sub-scanning direction, the printing head being configured to discharge the dot while moving in a main scanning direction intersecting the sub-scanning direction;
- a transport unit configured to perform relative movement between the medium and the printing head in the sub-scanning direction;
- a storage unit configured to store information about defective nozzles of the plurality of nozzles forming the nozzle row;
- and
- a control unit configured to control the printing head and the transport unit, wherein
- of raster lines having a length component in the main scanning direction, the raster line formed at the medium using two or more nozzles of the plurality of nozzles, the two or more nozzles including a first defective nozzle that is one of the defective nozzles and a first normal nozzle that is one of normal nozzles, the normal nozzles being included in the plurality of nozzles and not corresponding to the defective nozzles, is defined as a first raster line,
- the raster line formed at the medium using two or more nozzles of the plurality of nozzles, the two or more nozzles including a second defective nozzle that is one of the defective nozzles and a second normal nozzle that is one of the normal nozzles, is defined as a second raster line, and
- in a case in which the dot of the first raster line to be discharged by the first defective nozzle and the dot of the second raster line to be discharged by the second defective nozzle are determined to be adjacent to each other in the sub-scanning direction when the transport unit performs the movement by a predetermined first distance,
- the control unit performs first control of executing either control of changing a distance of the movement performed by the transport unit immediately before the first defective nozzle forms the first raster line by an integer multiple of the nozzle pitch from the first distance, or control of changing a distance of the movement performed by the transport unit immediately before the second defective nozzle forms the second raster line by an integer multiple of the nozzle pitch from the first distance.
6 more elements
A printing method comprising
- performing printing by controlling a printing head including a nozzle row in which a plurality of nozzles each configured to discharge a dot of liquid to a medium are arranged at a predetermined nozzle pitch in a sub-scanning direction, the printing head being configured to discharge the dot while moving in a main scanning direction intersecting the sub-scanning direction, and a transport unit configured to perform relative movement between the medium and the printing head in the sub-scanning direction, wherein
- of raster lines having a length component in the main scanning direction, the raster line formed at the medium using two or more nozzles of the plurality of nozzles, the two or more nozzles including a first defective nozzle that is one of defective nozzles of the plurality of nozzles forming the nozzle row and a first normal nozzle that is one of normal nozzles, the normal nozzles being included in the plurality of nozzles and not corresponding to the defective nozzles, is defined as a first raster line,
- the raster line formed at the medium using two or more nozzles of the plurality of nozzles, the two or more nozzles including a second defective nozzle that is one of the defective nozzles and a second normal nozzle that is one of the normal nozzles, is defined as a second raster line, and
- in the printing,
- in a case in which the dot of the first raster line to be discharged by the first defective nozzle and the dot of the second raster line to be discharged by the second defective nozzle are determined to be adjacent to each other in the sub-scanning direction when the transport unit performs the movement by a predetermined first distance,
- first control of executing either control of changing a distance of the movement performed by the transport unit immediately before the first defective nozzle forms the first raster line by an integer multiple of the nozzle pitch from the first distance, or control of changing a distance of the movement performed by the transport unit immediately before the second defective nozzle forms the second raster line by an integer multiple of the nozzle pitch from the first distance is performed.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.