Ink jet printing apparatus and ink jet printing method
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorKatsushi Hara
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ink jet printing apparatus and an ink jet printing method are provided which can perform ink ejection performance recovery operations on a print head at optimal timings while at the same time reducing a volume of ink discarded by the recovery operations. Thirty days after a previous recovery operation, a suction-based recovery operation is performed on the print head prior to the printing operation that forms an image on a print medium. The recovery operation is performed under the condition that a temperature increase of the print head caused by a preliminary ejection of the print head is not more than a predetermined value.
Claims15
An ink jet printing apparatus adapted to print an image on a print medium by using a print head capable of ejecting ink from a plurality of ejection openings, the ink jet printing apparatus comprising:
- a recovery unit that performs a recovery operation to maintain an ink ejection performance of the print head following expiry of a first predetermined period;
- an acquisition unit that acquires information on first and second parameters relating to operation of the printing apparatus;
- and
- a control unit that is operable, when the first predetermined period expires and the acquired information indicates that the second parameter meets a second predetermined criterion, to cause the recovery unit to perform such a recovery operation, and when the first predetermined period expires and the acquired information indicates that the second parameter does not satisfy the second predetermined criterion, the control unit is operable to cause the recovery unit to perform such a recovery operation if the recovery operation on the print head is determined necessary based on the acquired information on the first parameter.
An ink jet printing method of printing an image on a print medium by using a printing apparatus having a print head capable of ejecting ink from a plurality of ejection openings, the ink jet printing method comprising the steps of:
- acquiring information on first and second parameter relating to operation of the printing apparatus;
- and
- when a first predetermined period expires and the acquired information indicates that the second parameter meets a second predetermined criterion, performing a recovery operation to maintain an ink ejection performance of the print head, and, when the first predetermined period expires and the acquired information indicates that the second parameter does not meet the second predetermined criterion, performing the recovery operation if the recovery operation is determined necessary based on the acquired information on the first parameter.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.