Printing apparatus and printing method
AssigneeSCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd.
InventorsKazuhiko Asada, Shogo MUTO
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention includes a head holder configured to collectively holding a plurality of discharge heads and a collective head mover configured to move the head holder between a printing space above the printing medium being conveyed in the conveying direction and a retraction space separated from the printing space. Therefore, is provided a printing technique capable of printing a high-quality image at low cost by discharging inks from a plurality of discharge heads arranged adjacent to each other in a direction parallel to a conveying direction of a printing medium while reciprocally moving the respective discharge heads between a printing space and a retraction space.
Claims9
A printing apparatus for printing an image by discharging a plurality of mutually different inks to a printing medium being conveyed in a conveying direction, comprising:
- a plurality of discharge heads arranged adjacent to each other in a direction parallel to the conveying direction, each of the plurality of discharge heads configured to discharge the ink downward from a discharge surface;
- a head holder configured to collectively holding the plurality of discharge heads;
- and
- a collective head mover configured to move the head holder between a printing space above the printing medium being conveyed in the conveying direction and a retraction space separated from the printing space.
A printing method for printing an image by discharging a plurality of mutually different inks to a printing medium being conveyed in a conveying direction, comprising:
- collectively moving a plurality of discharge heads for respectively discharging the mutually different inks downward to a printing space above the printing medium being conveyed in the conveying direction with the plurality of discharge heads arranged adjacent to each other in a direction parallel to the conveying direction;
- performing printing by the plurality of discharge heads moved to the printing space;
- and
- collectively moving the plurality of discharge heads to a retraction space separated from the printing space.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.