Ink jet printing method and printer
AssigneeOce-Technologies B.V.
InventorsSebastian P. R. C. De Smet, Jos De Jong
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In an ink jet printing method, a recording medium is moved relative to a print head having a plurality of nozzles, and ink droplets are ejected from the nozzles onto the recording medium in a single pass in accordance with print data supplied to the print head. Spit pattern data is included in the print data A location of an expected ink dot ejected according to the spit pattern data is scanned, providing a scanned image, and such ink dot is searched for in the scanned image in order to determine an actual presence of the ink dot.
Claims13
An ink jet printing method, wherein a recording medium is moved relative to a print head having a plurality of nozzles, said method comprising the steps of:
- a) adding spit pattern data to print data to be printed by the print head;
- b) supplying the print data and the added spit pattern data to the print head;
- c) ejecting ink droplets from the plurality of nozzles onto the recording medium in accordance with the print data and the spit pattern data in a single pass of the recording medium along the print head;
- d) scanning a location of an expected ink dot ejected according to the spit pattern data by a nozzle of the plurality of nozzles, thereby providing a scanned image;
- e) analyzing the scanned image in order to determine an actual presence of the expected ink dot;
- and
- f) if it is determined that the expected ink dot is absent, applying nozzle failure correction during the same pass for the nozzle intended to eject the ink dot with respect to the ink droplets that still have to be ejected onto the recording medium and were intended to be ejected by the nozzle.
An ink jet printer comprising:
- a print head having a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink droplets onto a recording medium in accordance with print data;
- a transport system for moving the recording medium relative to the print head;
- a control system including a spit pattern data generator causing the inclusion of spit pattern data to the print data;
- a scanner arranged to scan a location of an expected ink dot ejected according to the spit pattern data, the scanner providing a scanned image;
- and
- an analysis module adapted to analyze the scanned image for the expected ink dot in order to determine an actual presence of the expected ink dot,
- wherein the control system is adapted to apply nozzle failure correction during the same pass for the nozzle intended to eject the ink dot with respect to the ink droplets that still have to be ejected onto the recording medium and were intended to be ejected by the nozzle, if it is determined by the analysis module that the ink dot is absent.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.