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US 9,751,336 B2Granted
Printing apparatus and printing method
AssigneeMimaki Engineering Co., Ltd.
InventorMasaru Ohnishi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The disclosure appropriately performs high-quality printing in a case of using ultraviolet curing ink in a serial type inkjet printer. As a solution, a printing apparatus for performing printing in an inkjet mode by a multi-pass scheme includes: inkjet heads, a temporarily hardening light source, a fully hardening light source, and a controller configured to serve as a pixel selector, wherein the temporarily hardening light source radiates ultraviolet light whenever a predetermined number of main scan operations are performed, and the fully hardening light source radiates ultraviolet light after main scan operations of all printing passes finish.
Claims11
A printing apparatus which performs printing on a medium with an ultraviolet curing ink of N-number of different colors in an inkjet mode by a multi-pass mode for performing printing on each position on the medium by a plurality of printing passes, wherein N is an integer of 2 or greater, and the printing apparatus comprising:
- N-number of inkjet heads configured to eject ink drops of the ultraviolet curing ink of the N-number of colors, respectively;
- a main scan driver configured to drive the N-number of inkjet heads to perform main scan operations of ejecting ink drops while moving in a main scan direction which is predetermined;
- a sub scan driver configured to relatively move the N-number of inkjet heads with respect to the medium in a sub scan direction perpendicular to the main scan direction;
- temporarily hardening light sources configured to radiate ultraviolet light which hardens the ultraviolet curing ink on the medium to a temporarily hardened state which is a state where at least a surface of the ultraviolet curing ink has adhesiveness;
- a fully hardening light source configured to radiate ultraviolet light which completes hardening of the ultraviolet curing ink on the medium;
- and
- a pixel selector configured to select pixels onto which ink drops are ejected during each printing pass of the multi-pass mode,
- wherein the N-number of inkjet heads are installed such that the number of colors of ink dots which are formed in a band area corresponding to each printing pass in each main scan operation becomes smaller than N,
- whenever a predetermined number of main scan operations are performed on each position on the medium, the temporarily hardening light sources radiate ultraviolet light which hardens the ultraviolet curing ink to the temporarily hardened state, and
- after main scan operations of all printing passes on each position on the medium finish, the fully hardening light source radiates ultraviolet light, wherein
- the N-number of inkjet heads include at least:
- a first-color head that is an inkjet head configured to eject first-color ink drops which are ink drops of the ultraviolet curing ink of a first color, and
- a second-color head that is an inkjet head configured to eject second-color ink drops which are ink drops of the ultraviolet curing ink of a second color different from the first color,
- the first-color head and the second-color head are installed such that their positions in the sub scan direction are displaced from each other,
- with respect to each position on the medium, the first-color head ejects the first-color ink drops in one of the main scan operations which is determined according to the position on the medium, and after the first-color head ejects the first-color ink drops, in another main scan operation, the second-color head ejects the second-color ink drops,
- with respect to each position on the medium, after the first-color head ejects the first-color ink drops, the temporarily hardening light sources harden the ultraviolet curing ink of the first color on the medium, to the temporarily hardened state, before the second-color head ejects the second-color ink drops, and
- the second-color head ejects the second-color ink drops onto an area where the ultraviolet curing ink of the first color has hardened to the temporarily hardened state.
14 more elements
A printing apparatus which performs printing on a medium with an ultraviolet curing ink of N-number of different colors in an inkjet mode by a multi-pass mode for performing printing on each position on the medium by a plurality of printing passes, wherein N is an integer of 2 or greater, and the printing apparatus comprising:
- N-number of inkjet heads configured to eject ink drops of the ultraviolet curing ink of the N-number of colors, respectively;
- a main scan driver configured to drive the N-number of inkjet heads to perform main scan operations of ejecting ink drops while moving in a main scan direction which is predetermined;
- a sub scan driver configured to relatively move the N-number of inkjet heads with respect to the medium in a sub scan direction perpendicular to the main scan direction;
- temporarily hardening light sources configured to radiate ultraviolet light which hardens the ultraviolet curing ink on the medium to a temporarily hardened state which is a state where at least a surface of the ultraviolet curing ink has adhesiveness;
- a fully hardening light source configured to radiate ultraviolet light which completes hardening of the ultraviolet curing ink on the medium;
- and
- a pixel selector configured to select pixels onto which ink drops are ejected during each printing pass of the multi-pass mode,
- wherein the N-number of inkjet heads are installed such that the number of colors of ink dots which are formed in a band area corresponding to each printing pass in each main scan operation becomes smaller than N,
- whenever a predetermined number of main scan operations are performed on each position on the medium, the temporarily hardening light sources radiate ultraviolet light which hardens the ultraviolet curing ink to the temporarily hardened state, and
- after main scan operations of all printing passes on each position on the medium finish, the fully hardening light source radiates ultraviolet light, wherein
- the N-number of inkjet heads include at least:
- a first-color head that is an inkjet head configured to eject first-color ink drops which are ink drops of the ultraviolet curing ink of a first color,
- a second-color head that is an inkjet head configured to eject second-color ink drops which are ink drops of the ultraviolet curing ink of a second color different from the first color,
- a third-color head that is an inkjet head configured to eject third-color ink drops which are ink drops of the ultraviolet curing ink of a third color different from both of the first color and the second color, and
- a fourth-color head that is an inkjet head configured to eject fourth-color ink drops which are ink drops of the ultraviolet curing ink of a fourth color different from all of the first color, the second color, and the third color, and
- the first-color head, the second-color head, the third-color head, and the fourth-color head are installed in this order, side by side in the main scan direction, such that their positions in the sub scan direction are sequentially displaced from each other by a distance which is a product of an integer and a pass width which is a width of one printing pass in the sub scan direction.
13 more elements
A printing apparatus which performs printing on a medium with an ultraviolet curing ink of N-number of different colors in an inkjet mode by a multi-pass mode for performing printing on each position on the medium by a plurality of printing passes, wherein N is an integer of 2 or greater, and the printing apparatus comprising:
- N-number of inkjet heads configured to eject ink drops of the ultraviolet curing ink of the N-number of colors, respectively;
- a main scan driver configured to drive the N-number of inkjet heads to perform main scan operations of ejecting ink drops while moving in a main scan direction which is predetermined;
- a sub scan driver configured to relatively move the N-number of inkjet heads with respect to the medium in a sub scan direction perpendicular to the main scan direction;
- temporarily hardening light sources configured to radiate ultraviolet light which hardens the ultraviolet curing ink on the medium to a temporarily hardened state which is a state where at least a surface of the ultraviolet curing ink has adhesiveness;
- a fully hardening light source configured to radiate ultraviolet light which completes hardening of the ultraviolet curing ink on the medium;
- and
- a pixel selector configured to select pixels onto which ink drops are ejected during each printing pass of the multi-pass mode,
- wherein the N-number of inkjet heads include at least:
- a first-color head that is an inkjet head configured to eject first-color ink drops which are ink drops of the ultraviolet curing ink of a first color, and
- a second-color head that is an inkjet head configured to eject second-color ink drops which are ink drops of the ultraviolet curing ink of a second color different from the first color,
- whenever a predetermined number of main scan operations are performed on each position on the medium, the temporarily hardening light sources radiate ultraviolet light which hardens the ultraviolet curing ink to the temporarily hardened state,
- after main scan operations of all printing passes on each position on the medium finish, the fully hardening light source radiates ultraviolet light, and
- in selection of pixels onto which ink drops are ejected during each printing pass, with respect to spatial frequencies representing intervals between pixels onto which ink drops are ejected and which are included in a band area corresponding to one printing pass, the pixel selector sets spatial frequency of pixels onto which ink drops are ejected by the first-color head and spatial frequency of pixels onto which ink drops are ejected by the second-color head, such that they are different from each other.
10 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.