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US 12,728,645 B2Granted
Printing apparatus and printing method
AssigneeSCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd.
InventorHideaki Onishi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The return pump which feeds the ink from the collection tank to the supply tank is provided, and the differential pressure generation assistance to feed the ink from the collection tank to the return pipe by the return liquid feeder is performed concurrently with the execution of the printing differential pressure generation. In the collection tank, the volume of the air layer above the gas-liquid interface is thereby expanded, to thereby decompress the air layer, and in the supply tank, the volume of the air layer above the gas-liquid interface is thereby compressed, to thereby pressurize the air layer. Thus, the generation of the differential pressure between the collection tank and the supply tank is assisted.
Claims13
A printing apparatus, comprising:
- an ejection head having a nozzle to eject ink;
- a supply ink storage which stores ink to be supplied to the ejection head;
- a collected ink storage which stores ink collected from the ejection head;
- a return liquid feeder which feeds ink from the collected ink storage to the supply ink storage;
- a first pressure adjustment part which adjusts a first pressure to be applied to a supply gas-liquid interface which is a boundary between the ink stored in the supply ink storage and air;
- a second pressure adjustment part which adjusts a second pressure to be applied to a collection gas-liquid interface which is a boundary between the ink stored in the collected ink storage and air;
- and
- a controller which performs a printing differential pressure generation to adjust the first pressure by the first pressure adjustment part so that the first pressure becomes a supply pressure and adjust the second pressure by the second pressure adjustment part so that the second pressure becomes a collection pressure lower than the supply pressure,
- wherein when the printing differential pressure generation is completed by adjusting the first pressure to the supply pressure and adjusting the second pressure to the collection pressure, performed is printing ink feeding to feed the ink from the supply ink storage through the ejection head to the collected ink storage by using a printing differential pressure which is a difference between the supply pressure and the collection pressure,
- the ejection head performs printing by ejecting the ink supplied from the supply ink storage along with the printing ink feeding, from the nozzle, and
- the controller performs liquid level preparation to generate a liquid level preparation state in which the supply gas-liquid interface is lower than a first preparation liquid level and the collection gas-liquid interface is equal to or higher than a second preparation liquid level before the printing differential pressure generation is completed after the printing performed by the ejection head is ended, and causes the return liquid feeder to perform differential pressure generation assistance to feed the ink from the collected ink storage to the supply ink storage concurrently with execution of the printing differential pressure generation.
8 more elements
A printing method, comprising:
- performing printing differential pressure generation to adjust a first pressure by a first pressure adjustment part for adjusting the first pressure to be applied to a supply gas-liquid interface which is a boundary between air and ink stored in a supply ink storage for storing the ink to be supplied to an ejection head having a nozzle for ejecting the ink, so that the first pressure becomes a supply pressure, and to adjust a second pressure by a second pressure adjustment part for adjusting the second pressure to be applied to a collection gas-liquid interface which is a boundary between air and ink stored in a collected ink storage for storing the ink collected from the ejection head, so that the second pressure becomes a collection pressure lower than the supply pressure;
- performing printing ink feeding to feed the ink from the supply ink storage through the ejection head to the collected ink storage by using a printing differential pressure which is a difference between the supply pressure and the collection pressure by completing the printing differential pressure generation by adjusting the first pressure to the supply pressure and adjusting the second pressure to the collection pressure;
- and
- performing printing by the ejection head by ejecting the ink supplied from the supply ink storage along with the printing ink feeding, from the nozzle,
- wherein liquid level preparation to generate a liquid level preparation state in which the supply gas-liquid interface is lower than a first preparation liquid level and the collection gas-liquid interface is equal to or higher than a second preparation liquid level is performed before the printing differential pressure generation is completed, and
- differential pressure generation assistance to feed the ink from the collected ink storage to the supply ink storage by a return liquid feeder for feeding the ink from the collected ink storage to the supply ink storage is performed concurrently with execution of the printing differential pressure generation.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.