Inkjet printing apparatus and cleaning control method therefor
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsAtsushi Sakamoto, Hidehiko Kanda, Aya Sugimoto
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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.
Claims18
An inkjet printing apparatus having a printhead with an orifice surface including a plurality of orifice groups each having a plurality of orifices for discharging ink, comprising:
- cleaning means for cleaning the orifice surface;
- and
- cleaning control means for causing said cleaning means to execute a cleaning operation in accordance with ink discharge counts of the plurality of orifice groups,
- wherein respective ink discharge counts, corresponding to respective orifice groups at both ends of the plurality of orifice groups, required to execute the cleaning operation are greater than an ink discharge count, corresponding to another orifice group different from the orifice groups at both ends, required to execute the cleaning operation.
A cleaning control method for an inkjet printing apparatus having a printhead with an orifice surface including a plurality of orifice groups each having a plurality of orifices for discharging ink, comprising:
- cleaning step of cleaning the orifice surface;
- and
- a cleaning control step of causing said cleaning step to execute a cleaning operation in accordance with ink discharge counts of the plurality of orifice groups,
- wherein respective ink discharge counts, corresponding to respective orifice groups at both ends of the plurality of orifice groups, required to execute the cleaning operation are greater than an ink discharge count, corresponding to another orifice group different from the orifice groups at both ends, required to execute the cleaning operation.
An inkjet printing apparatus having a printhead with an orifice surface including a plurality of orifice groups each having a plurality of orifices for discharging ink, and cleaning means for cleaning the orifice surface, comprising:
- storage means for storing, for each of the plurality of orifice groups, information regarding an ink discharge amount discharged from the orifice group;
- and
- cleaning control means for causing the cleaning means to execute a cleaning operation when the ink discharge amount corresponding to the information stored in said storage means reaches a predetermined amount,
- wherein respective ink discharge amounts, corresponding to respective orifice groups at both ends of the plurality of orifice groups, required to execute the cleaning operation are greater than an ink discharge amount, corresponding to another orifice group different from the orifice groups at both ends, required to execute to the cleaning operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.