Ink jet printing on the full width of a printing medium
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsYasushi Miura, Tokihide Ebata
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A serial type ink jet printing apparatus for textile printing sets a print beginning position and a print ending position so that the space between the print beginning position and the print ending position is wider than the textile printing medium. When the printing operation is performed, a small amount of ink is discharged from an ink jet head onto a textile support member before the head reaches the textile printing medium, by which ink with high viscosity can be exhausted in a continuous printing operation before printing on the textile. Therefore, the textile can be efficiently printed entirely from edge to edge with high quality, and a separate ink receiver for receiving the preliminarily discharged ink is rendered unnecessary.
Claims56
An ink jet printing apparatus for printing an image using a printing head to discharge ink onto a printing medium having a predetermined width in response to drive signals supplied to the printing head in accordance with an image to be printed thereby, the apparatus comprising:
- scanning means for moving the printing head relative to the printing medium and beyond edges thereof in the width direction of the printing medium;
- control means for setting a print width of the printing head extending between a print beginning position and a print ending position, wherein the print width of the printing head is greater than the width of the printing medium;
- drive signal supply means for supplying the drive signals to the printing head to discharge ink therefrom across the print width;
- and
- a member extending beyond the print beginning position and the print ending position and disposed behind the printing medium relative to the printing head, wherein said control means controls printing so that the printing head discharges ink on said member while scanning between the print beginning position and one edge of the printing medium, to perform an ink discharge operation, and between the other edge of the printing medium and the print ending position.
A textile printing apparatus comprising:
- an ink jet printing apparatus including:
- at least one printing head having a plurality of discharge orifices for discharging ink toward a textile printing medium in response to drive signals corresponding to an image to be printed on the printing medium,
- a scanning mechanism for moving said printing head relative to the printing medium and beyond edges thereof in a width direction,
- a sub-scanning mechanism for conveying the printing medium in a sub-scanning direction transverse to the direction of movement of said printing head,
- control circuitry for setting a print beginning position and a print ending position for said scanning mechanism, wherein the print beginning position is spaced a predetermined distance from one edge of the printing medium in the width direction and the print ending position is spaced a predetermined distance from another edge of the printing medium in the width direction,
- a member extending beyond the print beginning position and the print ending position and disposed behind the printing medium relative to the printing head, wherein said control circuitry controls printing so that the printing head discharges ink on said member while scanning between the print beginning position and the one edge of the printing medium, to perform an ink discharge operation, and between the other edge of the printing medium and the print ending position, and
- drive signal supply circuitry for supplying drive signals to said printing head to discharge ink therefrom while said printing head is moved by said scanning mechanism, wherein said drive signal supply circuitry supplies drive signals to said printing head to discharge ink therefrom from the print beginning position to the print ending position;
- means for drying the printing medium after printing the image thereon;
- means for fixing the colors in the printing medium;
- and
- means for cleaning the printing medium having the color fixed therein.
An ink jet printing method for printing an image using a scanning printing head to discharge ink in response to drive signals while scanning a printing medium having a predetermined width, the method comprising the steps of:
- setting a print beginning position and a print ending position for the scanning printing head, wherein the distance between the print beginning position and the print ending position is greater than the width of the printing medium;
- supplying the drive signals to the printing head to discharge ink therefrom from the print beginning position to the print ending position;
- and
- discharging ink onto a member between the print beginning position and one edge of the printing medium, to perform an ink discharge operation, and between the other edge of the printing medium and the print ending position, said member being disposed behind the printing medium relative to the printing head, while scanning the printing head between the print beginning position and print ending position.
An ink jet printing apparatus for printing an image on a printing medium having a predetermined width using a printing head to discharge ink in response to drive signals supplied to the printing head in accordance with an image to be printed thereby, the apparatus comprising:
- control means for setting a print width of the printing head, wherein the print width of the printing head is greater than the width of the printing medium;
- a supporting member for supporting the printing medium disposed behind the printing medium relative to the printing head, the width of said supporting member being greater than the print width;
- and
- printing control means for supplying the drive signals to the printing head to discharge ink onto an area having a width corresponding to the print width to print the image,
- wherein said control means controls printing so that the printing head discharges ink on said supporting member outside of the width of said printing medium, to perform an ink discharge operation.
An ink jet printing method for printing an image on a printing medium having a predetermined width using a printing head to discharge ink in response to drive signals, the method comprising the steps of:
- setting a print width of the printing head, wherein the print width of the printing head is greater than the width of the printing medium;
- supplying the drive signals to the printing head to discharge ink therefrom onto an area having a width corresponding to the print width to print the image;
- and
- discharging the ink onto a supporting member outside of the width of the printing medium, to perform an ink discharge operation, said supporting member being disposed behind the printing medium relative to the printing head and supporting the printing medium, the width of said supporting member being greater than the print width.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.