System and method for ejecting adjustable amounts of ink
AssigneeFunai Electric Co., Ltd.
InventorHideo Oi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for controlling an inkjet printing system including calculating a pigment concentration of ink ejected by the inkjet printhead relative to an initial pigment concentration of the ink based on a determined height of ink in an ink reservoir and a determined period of time since a last printhead activation. A firing pattern for the inkjet printhead is determined based on the determined height, the determined period of time and the calculated relative pigment concentration to account for settling of ink stored in the ink reservoir.
Claims19
An inkjet printing system, comprising:
- an inkjet printhead comprising a plurality of inkjet nozzles;
- an ink reservoir connected to deliver ink to the inkjet printhead;
- a fire count detection system that detects a number of times the inkjet printhead has been activated to eject ink from one or more of the plurality of inkjet nozzles;
- an ink height calculation system that determines a height of ink remaining in the ink reservoir based on the fire count detected by the fire count detection system;
- a time period detection system that determines a period of time between a last inkjet printhead activation time and a current inkjet printhead activation time;
- an ink concentration calculation system that determines a pigment concentration of ink ejected by the inkjet printhead relative to an initial pigment concentration of the ink based on the determined height and the determined period of time;
- an activation controller configured to generate nozzle activation signals;
- and
- a control module operatively connected to receive information from the ink height calculation system, the time period detection system and the ink concentration calculation system and configured to determine based on the information a firing pattern for the inkjet printhead and to cause the activation controller to generate the nozzle activation signals based on the determined firing pattern.
A method for controlling an inkjet printing system comprising an inkjet printhead having a plurality of inkjet nozzles and an ink reservoir connected to deliver ink to the inkjet printhead, the method comprising the steps of:
- detecting a number of times the inkjet printhead has been activated to eject ink from one or more of the plurality of inkjet nozzles;
- calculating a height of ink remaining in the ink reservoir based on the detected number of times the inkjet printhead has been activated;
- determining a period of time between a last inkjet printhead activation time and a current inkjet printhead activation time;
- calculating a pigment concentration of ink ejected by the inkjet printhead relative to an initial pigment concentration of the ink based on the determined height and the determined period of time;
- determining, based on the determined height, the determined period of time and the calculated relative pigment concentration, a firing pattern for the inkjet printhead;
- and
- generating nozzle activation signals based on the determined firing pattern.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.