Printing apparatus, method of controlling printing apparatus, and storage medium
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsMidori Yasuda, Yusuke Kiyokawa, Naoki Uchida
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A printing apparatus includes: a printing head including a plurality of nozzles each configured to discharge a liquid droplet; a detection unit configured to detect the discharge of the liquid droplet by using a light beam emitted in a position facing the printing head; and a control unit configured to inspect whether discharge states of the nozzles are normal or abnormal based on a result of the detection by the detection unit. The control unit drives the nozzles on a per-nozzle group basis, each nozzle group including at least two or more nozzles and determines a discharge state on the per-nozzle group basis.
Claims16
A printing apparatus comprising:
- a printing head including a plurality of nozzles each configured to discharge a liquid droplet;
- a detection unit configured to detect the discharge of the liquid droplet by using a light beam emitted in a position facing the printing head;
- and
- a control unit configured to inspect whether discharge states of the nozzles are normal or abnormal based on a result of the detection by the detection unit,
- wherein the control unit drives the nozzles per nozzle group, each nozzle group including at least two or more nozzles, and determines a per-nozzle-group discharge state,
- wherein the control unit retries an inspection per nozzle group by the detection unit on a nozzle group determined as having an abnormal discharge state, and determines again whether the discharge state is abnormal,
- wherein the control unit counts a number of retrials performed for the same nozzle group and compares the counted number with a predetermined value stored in a memory,
- wherein in a case where the counted number does not exceed the predetermined value, the control unit continues per-nozzle-group inspection, and
- wherein in a case where the counted number exceeds the predetermined value, the control unit individually inspects a discharge state of each nozzle belonging to the nozzle group determined as having an abnormal discharge state.
A method of controlling a printing apparatus, the printing apparatus including (1) a printing head including a plurality of nozzles each configured to discharge a liquid droplet and (2) a detection unit configured to detect the discharge of the liquid droplet by using a light beam emitted in a position facing the printing head, wherein whether discharge states of the nozzles are normal or abnormal is inspected based on a result of the detection by the detection unit, the method comprising:
- driving the nozzles per nozzle group, each nozzle group including at least two or more nozzles, and determining a per-nozzle-group discharge state;
- retrying an inspection per nozzle group by the detection unit on a nozzle group determined as having an abnormal discharge state, and determining again whether the discharge state is abnormal;
- counting a number of retrials performed for the same nozzle group;
- comparing the counted number with a predetermined value stored in a memory;
- in a case where the counted number does not exceed the predetermined value, continuing per-nozzle-group inspection;
- and
- in a case where the counted number exceeds the predetermined value, performing individual inspection of a discharge state of each nozzle belonging to the nozzle group determined as having an abnormal discharge state.
A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program, the program causing a computer to execute a method of controlling a printing apparatus, the printing apparatus including (1) a printing head including a plurality of nozzles each configured to discharge a liquid droplet and (2) a detection unit configured to detect the discharge of the liquid droplet by using a light beam emitted in a position facing the printing head, wherein whether discharge states of the nozzles are normal or abnormal is inspected based on a result of the detection by the detection unit, the method comprising:
- driving the nozzles per nozzle group, each nozzle group including at least two or more nozzles, and determining a per-nozzle-group discharge state;
- retrying an inspection per nozzle group by the detection unit on a nozzle group determined as having an abnormal discharge state, and determining again whether the discharge state is abnormal;
- counting a number of retrials performed for the same nozzle group;
- comparing the counted number with a predetermined value stored in a memory;
- in a case where the counted number does not exceed the predetermined value, continuing per-nozzle-group inspection;
- and
- in a case where the counted number exceeds the predetermined value, performing individual inspection of a discharge state of each nozzle belonging to the nozzle group determined as having an abnormal discharge state.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.