Inkjet printing apparatus and cleaning control method therefor
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsAtsushi Sakamoto, Hidehiko Kanda, Aya Sugimoto
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In cleaning an orifice surface in which the orifices of a printhead are formed, a portion of the orifice surface that readily becomes dirty along with ink discharge from the printhead is preferentially cleaned.
Claims20
An inkjet printing apparatus having a printhead with an orifice surface in which a plurality of orifice groups each formed by a plurality of orifices for discharging ink are formed, and cleaning means for cleaning the orifice surface, comprising:
- counting means for detecting and storing an ink discharge count of each orifice group;
- and
- cleaning control means for cleaning the orifice surface by the cleaning means in accordance with ink discharge counts of the plurality of orifice groups,
- wherein in said cleaning control means, an ink discharge count used to execute cleaning in accordance with a discharge count of ink discharged from an orifice group formed at a predetermined position of the printhead out of the plurality of orifice groups, and an ink discharge count used to execute cleaning in accordance with a discharge count of ink discharged from another orifice group formed at a position different from the orifice group formed at the predetermined position are different.
A cleaning control method for an inkjet printing apparatus having a printhead with an orifice surface in which a plurality of orifice groups each formed by a plurality of orifices for discharging ink are formed, and cleaning means for cleaning the orifice surface, comprising:
- a counting step of detecting and storing an ink discharge count of each orifice group;
- and
- a cleaning control step of cleaning the orifice surface by the cleaning means in accordance with ink discharge counts of the plurality of orifice groups,
- wherein in the cleaning control step, an ink discharge count used to execute cleaning in accordance with a discharge count of ink discharged from an orifice group formed at a predetermined position of the printhead out of the plurality of orifice groups, and an ink discharge count used to execute cleaning in accordance with a discharge count of ink discharged from another orifice group formed at a position different from the orifice group formed at the predetermined position are different.
An inkjet printing apparatus having a printhead with an orifice surface in which a plurality of orifice groups each formed by a plurality of orifices for discharging ink are formed, and cleaning means for cleaning the orifice surface, comprising:
- storage means for storing, for each of the plurality of orifice groups, information on a discharge amount of ink discharged from the orifice group;
- and
- cleaning control means for cleaning the orifice surface by the cleaning means when an ink discharge amount represented by the information stored in said storage means exceeds a predetermined amount,
- wherein an ink discharge amount used to shift to cleaning operation is different between an orifice group formed at a predetermined position of the printhead and an orifice group formed at a position different from the orifice group formed at the predetermined position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.