Ink jet recording apparatus and ink jet recording method

An ink jet recording apparatus using recording means provided with a first discharge port array and a second discharge port array having a plurality of discharge ports arranged to discharge ink, respectively, for recording by discharging ink to a recording medium from the discharge ports of said recording means, comprising:

• main scanning means for enabling said recording means to scan in a main scanning direction different from a direction of arrangement of said discharge port arrays relatively to the recording medium;
• sub-scanning means for enabling recording medium sub-scan from an upstream side to a downstream side in a sub-scanning direction;
• and
• recording control means for repeating a recording operation to perform recording by discharging ink from said recording means during the scanning of said recording means by said main scanning means, and the sub-scanning by said sub-scanning means to record images on the recording medium,
• wherein said recording control means performs recording scans m times (m is a positive integer) in the main scanning direction to complete an image by the first discharge port array, and recording scans n times (n is a positive integer) in the main scanning direction to complete the image by the second discharge port array, while being provided with at least two kinds of sub-scanning amounts of the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction per main scan, and with respect to discharge ports to be used for recording in the first and second discharge port arrays, a distance between discharge ports which are positioned at downstream ends of the respective first and second discharge port arrays in the sub-scan direction is made equal to the length of the continuously conveying amount of (m+a) (a is a positive integer) times by combination of the at least two kinds of conveying amounts.

An ink jet recording apparatus using recording means provided with a first discharge port array and a second discharge port array having a plurality of discharge ports arranged to discharge ink, respectively, for recording by discharging ink to a recording medium from the discharge ports of said recording means, comprising:

• main scanning means for enabling said recording means to scan in a main scanning direction different from a direction of arrangement of said discharge port arrays relatively to the recording medium;
• sub-scanning means for enabling recording medium sub-scan from an upstream side to a downstream side in the sub-scanning direction;
• and
• recording control means for repeating a recording operation to perform recording by discharging ink from said recording means during the scanning of said recording means by said main scanning means, and the sub-scanning by said sub-scanning means to record images on the recording medium,
• wherein said recording control means performs recording scans m times (m is a positive integer) in the main scanning direction to complete an image by the first discharge port array, and recording scans more than one time in the main scanning direction to complete the image by the second discharge port array, while being provided with at least two kinds of sub-scanning amounts of the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction per main scan, and with respect to discharge ports to be used for recording in the first and second discharge port arrays, a distance between discharge ports which are positioned at upstream ends of the respective first and second discharge port arrays in the sub-scan direction is made larger than the length of the continuously conveying amount of (m+a) (a is a positive integer) times by combination of the at least two kinds of conveying amounts and smaller than the length of the continuously conveying amount of(m+a+1) times by combination of the at least two kinds of conveying amounts.

An ink jet recording apparatus using recording means provided with a first discharge port array and a second discharge port array having a plurality of discharge ports arranged to discharge ink, respectively, for recording by discharging ink to a recording medium from the discharge ports of said recording means, comprising:

• main scanning means for enabling said recording means to scan in a main scanning direction different from a direction of arrangement of the discharge port arrays relatively to the recording medium;
• sub-scanning means for enabling recording medium sub-scan from an upstream side to a downstream side in a sub-scanning direction;
• and
• recording control means for repeating a recording operation to perform recording by discharging ink from said recording means during the scanning of said recording means by said main scanning means, and the sub-scanning by said sub-scanning means to record images on the recording medium,
• wherein said recording control means performs recording scans m times (m is a positive integer) in the main scanning direction to complete an image by the first discharge port array, and recording scans more than one time in the main scanning direction to complete the image by the second discharge port array, while being provided with at least two kinds of sub-scanning amounts of the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction per main scan, and with respect to discharge ports to be used for recording in the first and second discharge port arrays, a distance between discharge ports which are positioned at downstream ends of the respective first and second discharge port arrays in the sub-scan direction is made larger than the length of the continuously conveying amount of (m+a) (a is a positive integer) times by combination of the at least two kinds of conveying amounts and smaller than the length of the continuously conveying amount of (m+a+1) times by combination of the at least two kinds of conveying amounts.

An ink jet recording method for use with main scanning means using recording means having a first discharge port array and a second discharge port array with a plurality of discharge ports arranged for discharging ink, respectively, to enable said recording means to scan relatively to a recording medium and reciprocally in a main scanning direction different from a direction of arrangement of the discharge port arrays, and sub-scanning means for sub-scanning the recording medium from an upstream side to a downstream side in a sub-scanning direction for recording an image on the recording medium by repeating a recording operation for recording by discharging ink from said recording means during the scanning of said recording means by said main scanning means, and the sub-scanning by said sub-scanning means, comprising the step of:

• setting a number m of recording scans (m is a positive integer) in the main scanning direction of the completion of an image by a first discharge port array, and a number n of recording scans (n is a positive integer) in the main scanning direction for the completion of the image by a second discharge port array, while providing at least two kinds of sub-scanning amounts of the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction per main scan, wherein with respect to discharge ports to be used for recording in the first and second discharge port arrays, a distance between discharge ports which are positioned at upstream ends of the respective first and second discharge port arrays in the sub-scan direction is made equal to a length of a continuously conveying amount of (m+a) (a is a positive integer) times by combination of the at least two kinds of conveying amounts.

An ink jet recording apparatus using recording means provided with a first discharge port array and a second discharge port array having a plurality of discharge ports arranged to discharge ink, respectively, for recording by discharging ink to a recording medium from the discharge ports of said recording means, comprising:

• main scanning means for enabling said recording means to scan in a main scanning direction different from a direction of arrangement of the discharge port arrays relatively to the recording medium;
• sub-scanning means for enabling sub-scanning of the recording medium from an upstream side to a downstream side in a sub-scanning direction;
• and
• recording control means for repeating a recording operation to perform recording by discharging ink from said recording means during the scanning of said recording means by said main scanning means, and the sub-scanning by said sub-scanning means, so as to record images on the recording medium, said recording control means controlling the sub-scanning of the recording medium by using at least two kinds of sub-scan amounts, wherein said recording control means changes a discharge port group to be used for recording, which discharge port group comprises plural consecutive discharge ports of the first discharge port array, in accordance with a number of times of scans of said recording means in the main scanning direction regarding one area, for completing an image using the first discharge port array, and a position of the discharge port group of the first discharge port array to be used for recording is determined in accordance with a length for the recording medium to be conveyed by combination of the at least the two kinds of sub-scan amounts, so as to stabilize a time period between image recording by the first discharge port array and image recording by the second discharge port array.

An ink jet recording method for use with an ink jet recording apparatus using recording means provided with a first discharge port array and a second discharge port array having a plurality of discharge ports arranged to discharge ink, respectively, for recording by discharging ink to a recording medium from the discharge ports of the recording means, comprising:

• a main scanning step of enabling the recording means to scan in a main scanning direction different from a direction of arrangement of the discharge port arrays relatively to the recording medium;
• a sub-scanning step of enabling sub-scanning of the recording medium from an upstream side to a downstream side in a sub-scanning direction;
• and
• a recording control step of repeating a recording operation to perform recording by discharging ink from the recording means during the scanning of the recording means in the main scanning step, and the sub-scanning in the sub-scanning step, so as to record images on the recording medium, said recording control step controlling the sub-scanning of the recording medium by using at least two kinds of sub-scan amounts, wherein said recording control step changes a discharge port group to be used for recording, which discharge port group comprises plural consecutive discharge ports of the first discharge port array, in accordance with a number of times of scans of the recording means in the main scanning direction regarding one area, for completing an image using the first discharge port array, and a position of the discharge port group of the first discharge port array to be used for recording is determined in accordance with a length for the recording medium to be conveyed by combination of the at least two kinds of sub-scan amounts, so as to stabilize a time period between image recording by the first discharge port array and image recording by the second discharge port array.

An ink jet recording method for use with main scanning means using recording means having a first discharge port array and a second discharge port array with a plurality of discharge ports arranged for discharging ink, respectively, to enable said recording means to scan relatively to a recording medium and reciprocally in a main scanning direction different from a direction of arrangement of the discharge port arrays, and sub-scanning means for sub-scanning the recording medium from an upstream side to a downstream side in the a sub-scanning direction for recording an image on the recording medium by repeating a recording operation for recording by discharging ink from said recording means during the scanning of said recording means by said main scanning means, and the sub-scanning by said sub-scanning means, comprising the step of:

• setting a number m of recording scans (m is a positive integer) in the main scanning direction for the completion of an image by the first discharge port array, and a number n of recording scans (n is a positive integer) in the main scanning direction for the completion of the image by the second discharge port array, while providing at least two kinds of sub-scanning amounts of a the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction per main scan, wherein with respect to discharge ports to be used for recording in the first and second discharge port arrays, a distance between discharge ports which are positioned at upstream ends of the respective first and second discharge port arrays in the sub-scan direction is made equal to the a length of the continuously conveying amount of (m+a) (a is a positive integer) times by combination of the at least two kinds of conveying amounts.

An ink jet recording method for use with main scanning means using recording means having a first discharge port array and a second discharge port array with a plurality of discharge ports arranged for discharging ink, respectively, to enable said recording means to scan relatively to a recording medium and reciprocally in a main scanning direction different from a direction of arrangement of the discharge port arrays, and sub-scanning means for sub-scanning the recording medium from an upstream side to a downstream side in the sub-scanning direction for recording an image on the recording medium by repeating a recording operation for recording by discharging ink from said recording means during the scanning of said recording means by said main scanning means, and the sub-scanning by said sub-scanning means, comprising the step of:

• setting a number m of recording scans (m is a positive integer) in the main scanning direction for the completion of an image by the first discharge port array, and a number of recording scans in the main scanning direction to be more than one for the completion of the image by the second discharge port array, while providing at least two kinds of sub-scanning amounts of the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction per main scan, wherein with respect to discharge ports to be used for recording in the first and second discharge port arrays, a distance between discharge ports which are positioned at downstream ends of the respective first and second discharge port arrays in the sub-scan direction is made larger than the length of the continuously conveying amount of (m+a) (a is a positive integer) times by combination of the at least two kinds of conveying amounts and smaller than the length of the continuously conveying amount of (m+a+1) times by combination of the at least two kinds of conveying amounts.

An ink jet recording method for use with main scanning means using recording means having a first discharge port array and a second discharge port array with a plurality of discharge ports arranged for discharging ink, respectively, to enable said recording means to scan relatively to a recording medium and reciprocally in a main scanning direction different from a direction of arrangement of the discharge port arrays, and sub-scanning means for sub-scanning the recording medium from an upstream side to a downstream side in a sub-scanning direction for recording an image on the recording medium by repeating a recording operation for recording by discharging ink from said recording means during the scanning of said recording means by said main scanning means, and the sub-scanning by said sub-scanning means, comprising the step of:

• setting a number m of recording scans (m is a positive integer) in the main scanning direction for the completion of an image by the first discharge port array, and a number of recording scans in the main scanning direction to be more than one for the completion of the image by the second discharge port array, while providing at least two kinds of sub-scanning amounts of the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction per main scan, wherein with respect to discharge ports to be used for recording in the first and second discharge port arrays, a distance between discharge ports which are positioned at downstream ends of the respective first and second discharge port arrays in the sub-scan direction is made larger than the length of the continuously conveying amount of(m+a) (a is a positive integer) times by combination of the at least two kinds of conveying amounts and smaller than the length of the continuously conveying amount of (m+a+1) times by combination of the at least two kinds of conveying amounts.