US 2003/0222931 A1 · Method of and apparatus for managing nozzle of ink-jet printer

Abstract

A method of and an apparatus for managing a nozzle of an ink-jet printer include determining whether an operation of printing a document is requested, counting slices of print data if it determined that the operation of printing the document is requested, determining whether a counting result of counting the slices is larger than a first predetermined value and performing the counting of the slices if it is determined that the counting result is not larger than the first predetermined value, managing the nozzle if it is determined that the counting result is larger than the first predetermined value, and determining whether an operation of printing the document is terminated, and performing the counting of the slices if it is determined that the operation of printing the document is not terminated. The nozzle can be effectively managed by considering an amount of ink that is actually ejected through the nozzle and a print time, thereby improving a printing quality of the printed document.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method of managing a nozzle of an ink-jet printer, the method comprising:

determining whether an operation of printing a document is requested;
counting slices of print data in response to determining that the operation of printing the document is requested;
determining whether a counting result of the counting of the slices of the print data is larger than a first value and performing the counting of the slices of the print data in response to determining that the counting result is not larger than the first value;
managing the nozzle in response to determining that the counting result is larger than the first value;
and
determining whether the operation of printing the document is terminated, and performing the counting of the slices in response to determining that the operation of printing the document is not terminated.

3 more elements

An apparatus for managing a nozzle of an ink-jet printer, the apparatus comprising:

a print request checking unit which checks whether an operation of printing a document is requested, and outputs a checking result of the checking of the operation of printing a document as a first control signal;
a counter which counts slices of print data in response to the first control signal and outputs a counting result of counting the number of the slices of the print data;
a comparator which compares the counting result received from the counter with a first value and outputs a result of the comparison as a second control signal;
a nozzle managing unit which manages the nozzle in response to the second control signal;
and
a print termination checking unit which checks whether the operation of printing the document is terminated, and outputs the checking result as a third control signal to control the counter to terminate the counting of the slices.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method of and apparatus for managing nozzle of ink-jet printer

Life of this patent

Method of and apparatus for managing nozzle of ink-jet printer

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20