JPH09187969A - Recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [PROBLEMS] To provide a recording apparatus capable of performing high-quality color recording by coping with, for example, a sudden change in the speed of a carriage. First, an inclination angle of an ink ejection nozzle row 101 ejecting a first ink and an inclination angle of an ink ejection nozzle row 102 ejecting a second ink are made different.
Then, the heater provided for each nozzle constituting each nozzle row is divided into a plurality of blocks,
The recording operation is performed by driving the heater for each block. At this time, control is performed so that the driving order of the blocks corresponding to the ink ejection nozzle row 101 and the driving order of the blocks corresponding to the ink ejection nozzle row 102 are different.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, printers are roughly classified into two types according to the difference in recording method.

One is an LBP (laser beam printer).
2 is a method of scanning a light beam to record one pixel at a time, and the other is a method of simultaneously recording a plurality of pixels as represented by a serial printer or a full line printer. In such a serial printer, in order to improve the recording accuracy without being affected by the speed fluctuation when the recording head is scanned, a linear type or rotary type that generates recording timing when the recording head is scanned. Some are equipped with an encoder.
Printers equipped with such an encoder are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 51-71628 and 60-15408.
It is proposed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 1 and the like.

FIG. 15 is a perspective view showing the structure of a conventional serial color printer. This printer is black (Bk)
Ink, cyan (C) ink, magenta (M) ink,
A recording head in which four head units for ejecting yellow (Y) ink are integrated is mounted on a carriage, and the carriage is reciprocally scanned to perform color recording.

In FIG. 15, 101 is a recording head in which four head units are integrated, 401 is a linear encoder scale portion, 402 is a linear encoder detection portion, and 404 to 407 each store black (Bk) ink. Ink tank (Bk ink tank), ink tank that stores cyan (C) ink (C ink tank), ink tank that stores magenta (M) ink (M ink tank), ink tank that stores yellow (Y) ink (Y ink tank), 403 is the recording head 101 and Bk
A carriage on which the ink tank 404, the C ink tank 405, the M ink tank 406, and the Y ink tank 407 are mounted, 408 to 409 are carriage guide shafts holding the carriage 403, and 410 is the carriage 403 along the carriage guide shafts 408 and 409. Carriage belt 411 for reciprocal scanning by means of carriage carriage 410
A carriage motor 412, which is a drive source for reciprocally scanning the carriage 403 via the print head 101, transfers print data generated by an electric circuit unit (not shown) to the print head 101 and sends a print head control signal to a flexible printed circuit board (FPC). ) 414 is a recording sheet, 413 is a recording sheet 4
14 is a paper feed roller that conveys 14 in the a direction.

Here, the four head units forming the recording head 101 have the same structure.

FIG. 16 is a diagram for explaining the arrangement of the ink ejection nozzles of the recording head 101.

The recording head 101 has four rows of ink ejection nozzle groups corresponding to the respective colors in order to eject four colors of ink, and the nozzle groups of each row are provided in one head unit. Although corresponding, here, for simplification of description, an arrangement configuration of two rows of ink ejection ports for ejecting two colors of ink is shown. Therefore, the two rows of ink ejection ports configured as shown in FIG. 16 correspond to two head units.

In FIG. 16, 501 is an ink ejection nozzle array for ejecting a first color ink, 502 is an ink ejection nozzle array for ejecting a second color ink, both in the scanning direction of the recording head 101, That is, the carriage 4
Any one (n) while tilted by 1 dot in the moving direction of 03
It is implemented at intervals of dot.

FIG. 17 shows the recording head 101 shown in FIG.
3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a logic circuit inside one head unit 601 included in FIG.

In FIG. 17, reference numeral 202 denotes an image signal (IDA) input in synchronization with a clock signal (IDCLK).
TA) to perform so-called serial / parallel conversion, and 203 is a latch signal (LTCLK) for the output from the 16-bit shift register 202.
16-bit latch that is captured in synchronization with the rising edge of 2
Reference numeral 04 denotes an output signal from the 16-bit latch 203, a heat pulse signal (HENB), and a block selection signal (BLKE).
NB <1> (or BLKENB <2> or BLKENB
<3> or BLKENB <4>))
An ND gate, 205 is a power transistor, and 206 is a heater driven by the power transistor 205 to heat ink and eject ink droplets.

Further, VH is a heating voltage applied to the heater 206, and GND is ground.

Therefore, in the circuit having the structure shown in FIG. 17, 16 heaters are selected in 4 blocks of 4 heaters each, and each block is energized to perform the recording operation.

18A-18B are the same as FIGS. 16 and 17.
6 is a time chart of each signal for driving the two head units of the recording head 101 described above. FIG.
18A is a time chart regarding the head unit corresponding to the ink ejection nozzle array 501 for ejecting the first color ink, and FIG. 18B is related to the head unit corresponding to the ink ejection nozzle array 502 for ejecting the second color ink. It is a time chart. As can be seen from the comparison between FIGS. 18A and 18B, the print control is performed at the same timing except that the ink colors handled by the respective head units are different.

Next, the recording control operation will be described with reference to FIGS.

The output data of the 16-bit shift register 202 is held in the 16-bit latch 203 by the latch signal (LTCLK) output in synchronization with the rising edge of the detection signal (ENCLK) output from the detection unit 402 of the linear encoder. , Then image signal (IDATA)
Of 16 bits (D16, D15, ..., D1) are transferred and output to the 16-bit shift register 202 in synchronization with the clock signal (IDCLK).

At the same time as this transfer, on the other hand, a block selection signal (BLKE) for selecting four heaters 206 out of 16 heaters 206 is selected.
NB <1>, BLKENB <2>, BLKENB <3
>, BLKENB <4>) and a heat pulse signal (HENB) that controls the time for driving the heater 206. As a result, the 16 heaters 206 shown in FIG.
HT1-1, HT1-2, HT1-3, HT1-4 are driven first, then HT2-1, HT2-2, HT2-3, HT2-4, and then HT3
-1, HT3-2, HT3-3, HT3-4, but finally HT4-1, HT4-2, H
T4-3 and HT4-4 are driven.

[0018]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, since the heater of the recording head is divided into a plurality of blocks and driven, a certain difference in recording timing occurs between blocks. On the other hand, the moving speed of the carriage is not completely constant, and is usually accompanied by speed fluctuation of several% to several tens%. Therefore, the output signal from the linear encoder detected with the movement of the carriage is affected by the speed fluctuation.

Therefore, if the recording control by block division is performed based on the output signal from such a linear encoder, the recording result will have recording unevenness due to the influence of the speed variation of the carriage, and the recording quality will be deteriorated. There are drawbacks.

To solve such a problem, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 51-7162 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-154081 propose a correction method for the speed fluctuation. It could not cope with short cycle or sudden speed fluctuation such as sudden load fluctuation of the carriage.

Therefore, in the conventional printer using a recording head, for example, as shown in FIG. 16, a plurality of ink ejection nozzle rows corresponding to a plurality of inks are arranged at regular intervals, the printer shown in FIG. The misregistration of the dots recorded by the respective color inks as shown in FIG.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example, and it is, for example, to provide a recording apparatus capable of high-quality color recording by coping with a sudden change in the speed of the carriage. Has an aim.

[0023]

In order to achieve the above object, a recording apparatus according to the present invention has the following arrangement.

That is, in a recording apparatus for performing color recording on a recording medium while reciprocatingly scanning a color recording head having first and second ink ejection nozzle arrays corresponding to the respective first and second color inks. And a scanning means for reciprocally scanning the color recording head, and first and second recording element groups corresponding to the nozzles forming the first and second ink ejection nozzle arrays, respectively, in a plurality of blocks. Dividing means for dividing, recording means for sequentially energizing and driving the plurality of blocks for recording while scanning the color recording head by the scanning means, and driving order of blocks included in the first recording element group. And a recording control means for controlling the recording means so that the driving order of the blocks included in the second recording element group is different. That.

[0025]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS With the above-described structure, the recording apparatus of the present invention reciprocally scans a color recording head having first and second ink ejection nozzle arrays corresponding to inks of the first and second colors, respectively. However, when performing color recording on the recording medium,
The first and second recording element groups respectively corresponding to the nozzles forming the first and second ink ejection nozzle arrays are divided into a plurality of blocks, and the driving order of the blocks included in the first recording element group is divided. Then, while controlling so that the driving order of the blocks included in the second recording element group is different, a plurality of blocks are sequentially energized and driven to scan the color recording head to perform recording.

Here, the first and second color recording heads
The arrangement direction of the ink discharge nozzle rows is arranged so as to be inclined with respect to the scanning direction of the color recording head. At this time, the inclination angles of the first and second ink ejection nozzle rows may be different from each other, or the inclination angles of the first and second ink ejection nozzle rows may be the same. The first and second ink ejection nozzle rows may be
The color recording heads may be arranged side by side in the scanning direction. Further, the recording medium is provided with a conveying unit that conveys the recording medium in a direction perpendicular to the scanning direction of the color recording head.
Alternatively, the second ink ejection nozzle row may be arranged side by side in the transport direction of the recording medium.

The color recording head may be controlled to complete the recording from the first and second recording element groups by scanning a plurality of times. For example, the number of times of scanning is set to two, and when the first scanning is completed, the transport unit transports the recording medium by half the recording width corresponding to the first and second ink ejection nozzle rows, Further, in the first scan, ink is ejected from the odd-numbered nozzles of the first and second ink ejection nozzle arrays, and in the second scan, the ink is ejected from the even-numbered nozzles. Control.

The scanning of the color recording head is provided with a carriage on which the recording head is mounted and a carriage motor for moving the carriage, and the carriage is provided over the range of movement of the carriage for detecting the moving position of the carriage. It is also possible to further include a detection unit that includes the encoder film and a sensor that is provided on the carriage and that moves with the movement of the carriage and that detects the position of the carriage from the encoder film.

The above-mentioned color recording head may be an ink jet recording head which ejects ink for recording, or is a recording head which ejects ink by utilizing thermal energy, and the heat applied to the ink is used. A configuration including a thermal energy converter for generating energy may be used.

The color recording head ejects a first head that ejects a first color ink, a second head that ejects a second color ink, and a third color ink. A third head and a fourth head for ejecting a fourth color ink
Head. Here, the first color ink is black ink, the second color ink is yellow ink, the third color ink is magenta ink, and the fourth color ink is
The color ink is cyan ink.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing the structure of a color recording apparatus provided with a recording head for recording according to the ink jet system which is a typical embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a recording medium 1 such as a recording sheet or a plastic sheet is supported by a pair of conveying rollers 2 and 3 arranged above and below the recording area, and an arrow is formed by a conveying roller 2 driven by a sheet feeding motor 4. It is conveyed in the A direction. A guide shaft 5 is provided in front of the conveying rollers 2 and 3 in parallel with the conveying rollers 2 and 3, and a carriage 6 reciprocates along the guide shaft 5 in a direction of an arrow B via a belt 8 that transmits a rotational force of a carriage motor 7. To do. Then, during the recording operation, when the carriage 6 moves in the PT direction, recording is performed by ejecting ink from the recording head 9, and when the carriage 6 moves in the CR direction, recording is not performed and the recording medium 1 is conveyed. .

A linear encoder scale unit 10 is provided in the moving range of the carriage 6, and when the carriage 6 moves, a linear encoder detection unit 11 provided on the carriage 6 detects the scale and detects the scale. The signal (ENCLK) is output.

The carriage 6 is equipped with a recording head 9 capable of performing color recording at a resolution of 360 dpi in the carriage movement direction.
Are four heads 9A (black heads) and 9B that eject inks of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (Bk) in the carriage scanning direction.
(Cyan head), 9C (magenta head), and 9D (yellow head). These heads 9A, 9B,
On the front surfaces of 9C and 9D, that is, on the surface that faces the recording surface of the recording medium 1 at a predetermined interval (for example, 0.8 mm), a plurality of (for example, 16) ink ejection ports intersect the carriage scanning direction. Ink ejection portions are arranged in a line in the vertical direction.

Now, returning to FIG. 1 and continuing the description, a drive circuit (driver) 2 for performing the drive control as described above.
Nine circuit boards are provided on the carriage 6.

CPU and ROM, RAM attached to it
The control circuit 15 of the recording apparatus including a printer receives a command signal and a data signal (recording information) from a host computer (hereinafter, referred to as a host) 17, and drives the electric circuits of the heads 9A to 9D via a drive circuit 29 and a heat driver 13. A drive power source (heat power source) is applied to the heat conversion body.

The operation panel 160 attached to the outer case (not shown) of the recording apparatus has various keys such as an online / offline switching key 16A, a line feed key 16B, a form feed key 16C, and a recording mode switching key 16D. A display unit including a plurality of alarm lamps 16E, a power lamp 16F, an LCD (not shown) and the like is provided.

Further, in FIG. 1, 28 is various motors,
A power supply circuit that supplies power to the display unit, the control circuit 15, and the like.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic structure of the control circuit 15 of the color recording apparatus shown in FIG.

The CPU 21 in the form of a microprocessor is
It is connected to the host 17 via the interface 22 and has the ROM 24 storing the control program, the EEPROM 23 storing the updatable control program, the processing program and various constant data, and the like, and has received from the host 17 via the interface 22. The RAM 25 that stores a command signal (command) and a recording information signal is accessed, and the recording operation is controlled based on the information stored in these memories. The RAM 25 stores print data based on the two-dimensional pixel array of the formed image.

Further, the CPU 21 moves the carriage 6 by operating the carriage motor 7 via the output port 26 and the carriage motor control circuit 42, and outputs the output port 26 and the sheet feed motor control circuit 4.
By operating the sheet feed motor 4 via 4, the transport mechanism such as the transport roller 2 is operated. Furthermore, C
The PU 21 can record a desired image on the recording medium 1 by driving the heads 9A to 9D via the head drive circuit 29 based on the recording information stored in the RAM 25.

From the power supply circuit 28, the logic drive voltage Vcc (for example, 5
V), various motor drive voltages Vm (for example, 30 V), and heat voltages Vh (for example, 2 V) for driving the recording head 9.
5V) and the backup voltage V for protecting the recording head 9
DDH or the like is output. The heat voltage Vh is applied to the recording head 9, and the backup voltage VDDH is applied to the recording head control circuit 29 and the recording head 9.

Further, an instruction input from the operation keys 16A to 16D is transmitted to the CPU 21 via the input port 32, and when an instruction from the CPU 21 is transmitted to the lamp generation control circuit 62 via the output port 36, the alarm lamp 16E. A message is displayed on the LCD 65 when the power lamp 16F is turned on or when it is transmitted to the display control circuit 66.

Furthermore, the detection unit 1 of the linear encoder
The detection signal (ENCLK) from 1 is transmitted to the CPU 21 via the input port 12.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 70 denotes a CPU bus which connects the above-mentioned various components to each other.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the arrangement of the ink ejection nozzles of the recording head 9.

The recording head 9 has four heads 9A (black heads) for ejecting four color inks, as described above.
9B (cyan head), 9C (magenta head), 9D
(Yellow head) Each ink ejection nozzle group has one row corresponding to each, but here, in order to simplify the description, an arrangement configuration of two rows of ink ejection ports for ejecting two colors of ink Is shown. Therefore, the two rows of ink ejection ports having the configuration shown in FIG. 3 correspond to two of the heads 9A to 9D.

In FIG. 3, 101 is a head 9A, for example.
Corresponding to the ink ejection nozzle array for ejecting black ink, and 102, for example, an ink ejection nozzle array for ejecting cyan ink corresponding to the head 9B, both of which are in the scanning direction of the recording head 9, that is, the movement of the carriage 6. It is mounted in a tilted state. Here, since the inclination angles of the ink ejection nozzle array 101 and the ink ejection nozzle array 102 are different from each other, as shown in FIG.
In each nozzle of the two-nozzle arrangement, the two nozzles at the corresponding positions are not at equal intervals.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an internal logic circuit of one of the four heads 9A to 9D included in the recording head 9. This configuration is almost the same as the configuration shown in FIG. 17 of the conventional example, and the same reference numerals and symbols are used for common components and signals, and therefore the description of the common portions will be omitted. Only the characteristic parts of this embodiment will be described below.

As is apparent from the configuration of the nozzle array shown in FIG. 3, the ink ejection nozzle array 10 is used in this embodiment.
1 and the ink ejection nozzle array 102 have different inclination angles, the difference between the tilt angles is 1 compared to the conventional example shown in FIG.
A block selection signal (BLK) for 16 AND gates 204 provided corresponding to each of the 6 heaters 206 is provided.
ENB <1>, BLKENB <2>, BLKENB <3
>, BLKENB <4>) input positions are different.

With such wiring, the driving order of the heater 206 is as follows. That is, first, HT1-1, HT2
-1, HT3-1, HT4-1 are driven, then HT1-2, HT2-2, HT
3-2, HT4-2, but also HT1-3, HT2-3, HT3-3, HT4-3
But finally, HT1-4, HT2-4, HT3-4, HT4-4 are driven.

5A and 5B show two heads of the recording head 9 described in FIGS. 3 and 4, for example, heads 9A to 9A.
It is a time chart of each signal for driving 9B.
FIG. 5A is a time chart regarding the head 9A corresponding to the ink ejection nozzle array 101 that ejects black ink, and FIG. 5B is a time chart regarding the head 9B corresponding to the ink ejection nozzle array 102 that ejects cyan ink.

As can be seen from the comparison between FIGS. 5A and 5B, FIG. 5B performs timing control similar to that of FIG. 18B, but in FIG. 5A, the number of block divisions is substantially "2". A heat pulse signal (HENB) is applied twice for each operation of recording a 16-bit image signal (for each recording operation of one cycle), and when the first heat pulse signal is applied, two block selection signals (BLKENB < 1
>, BLKENB <2>) are applied simultaneously, and when the next heat pulse signal is applied, another two block selection signals (BLKENB <3>, BLKENB <4>) are applied simultaneously.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a recording result recorded on a recording sheet by the above control. Comparing this with the example shown in FIG. 19 in which recording is performed according to the recording control of the conventional example, the deviation of the recording dots is not periodic with respect to the carriage movement direction, and the deviation is dispersed over the entire recording result. I can see that

Therefore, according to the embodiment described above,
By making the inclinations of the two ink ejection nozzle arrays that eject ink droplets different according to the color of the ink and making the recording timings for the two inks different, even if the speed of the carriage changes, Even if the position shift occurs, the shift is dispersed, and the periodic shift disappears when the entire image is seen, whereby the deterioration of the image quality can be suppressed.

In the above example, the case where the two ink ejection nozzle arrays tilted in the same direction have different tilt angles, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, a recording head having a nozzle array configuration in which the two ink ejection nozzle arrays 101 and 102 are inclined in different directions may be used.

Further, as shown in FIG. 8, the two ink ejection nozzle arrays 101 and 102 have the same inclination direction and the same inclination, and recording is performed using two ink ejection nozzle arrays and two inks corresponding thereto. Control may be performed such that the recording timing at the time of performing the recording is different. The structure of the internal logic circuit of the head in this case is as shown in FIG. This configuration is the same as the configuration shown in FIG. 17 of the conventional example, and the heater selected by the block selection signal is also the same as that of the conventional example.

However, the recording timing at that time is as shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B. FIG. 10A is a time chart regarding the head 9A corresponding to the ink ejection nozzle array 101 that ejects black ink.
Is an ink ejection nozzle array 102 that ejects cyan ink
9 is a time chart regarding the head 9B corresponding to.

As can be seen from the comparison between FIGS. 10A and 10B, FIG. 10A performs the same timing control as in FIG. 18A, but according to the time chart shown in FIG. 10B, the driving order of the heater 206 is as follows. Like That is, first, HT3-1, HT3-2, HT3-3, HT3-4 are driven, then HT
4-1, HT4-2, HT4-3, HT4-4, HT1-1, HT1-2,
HT1-3, HT1-4, but finally HT2-1, HT2-2, HT2-3, HT2-4
Is driven. As described above, the order of block selection in each of the two ink ejection nozzle arrays is made different so that, in each nozzle of the two nozzle arrays, the intervals between the two nozzles at corresponding positions are not substantially equal intervals. The recording result as shown in FIG. 6 can be obtained.

Furthermore, instead of arranging the two ink discharge nozzle rows in the carriage movement direction, the arrangement shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, a recording head configured to be arranged in a direction perpendicular to the carriage movement direction may be used. FIG.
In the example shown in FIG. 1, the two ink ejection nozzle arrays have the same inclination direction, and in the example shown in FIG. 12, the two ink ejection nozzle arrays have different inclination directions. Even when two ink ejection nozzle arrays are arranged as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, the recording control may be performed so as to change the selection order of each block, and the recording timing may be different.

Furthermore, in the embodiment described above,
Only the print control related to the print head was mentioned,
When printing is performed by scanning the print head having the arrangement configuration such as the ink discharge nozzle row shown in FIG. 3 in combination with the conveyance control with the print sheet, for example, one scan as shown in FIG. Printing is performed using only half of the nozzles of each nozzle row (for example, odd-numbered nozzles), then the recording sheet is conveyed by 1/2 head, and the remaining half of the nozzles (for example, The recording may be controlled to be performed using only even-numbered nozzles).

In this way, a plurality of times (twice in the example of FIG. 13)
When the width of the print head is printed by the carriage scan of
A print result as shown in FIG. 14 is obtained, and, for example, even when compared with the print result shown in FIG. 6, the deviation of print dots is further dispersed over the entire print result.

Furthermore, in the above description, for simplification of description, two ink ejection nozzle arrays for ejecting ink of two colors are used, but in general, for full color recording, As shown in FIG. 1, it goes without saying that the apparatus is often configured to have four heads 9A to 9D and perform recording using four color inks.

Furthermore, in the above description, the recording apparatus provided with the linear encoder for controlling the recording position and performing recording in synchronization with the detection signal is used, but the present invention uses other control, for example, the carriage. It can also be applied to a printer or the like that records in synchronization with a motor drive signal.

Furthermore, in the above description, the number of nozzles (heaters) included in one head is "16", but the present invention is not limited to this, for example, 64, 100, 128, etc. Needless to say, other numbers are also acceptable. This number is usually determined in consideration of the resolution per inch, the recording speed (the number of dot nozzles that can be recorded at one time), and the like.

Furthermore, in the above description, the number of block divisions is "4", but another number, for example,
It may be "8", "10", or "16". This number is
Generally, it is determined in consideration of the power supply capacity of the device, the recording speed, and the like.

Further, the method of dividing the heater into blocks is not limited to the method shown in FIGS. 4 and 9 described above, but can be determined at any time depending on the tilt angle of the recording head, the driving method, and the like.

Furthermore, in the above description, the recording head is not limited to the heater but incorporates a logic circuit such as a shift register. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, a heater or a piezo element. It is also possible to use a device that directly drives the above components from an external electric circuit.

Furthermore, in the above description, the recording apparatus for recording according to the ink jet system is used, but the present invention can be applied to other recording system printers, for example, thermal transfer system printers.

However, in the above embodiment, especially in the ink jet recording system, a means (for example, an electrothermal converter or a laser beam) for generating heat energy as energy used for ejecting ink is provided,
By using the method in which the state of the ink is changed by the thermal energy, it is possible to achieve higher density and higher definition of recording.

Regarding its typical structure and principle, see, for example, US Pat. Nos. 4,723,129 and 4740.
It is preferable to use the basic principle disclosed in the specification of Japanese Patent No. 796. This method can be applied to both the so-called on-demand type and continuous type. In particular, in the case of the on-demand type, liquid (ink)
By applying at least one drive signal corresponding to the recorded information and providing a rapid temperature rise exceeding the film boiling to an electrothermal transducer arranged corresponding to the sheet or the liquid path in which Since thermal energy is generated in the electrothermal transducer and film boiling occurs on the heat-acting surface of the recording head, bubbles in the liquid (ink) corresponding to this drive signal on a one-to-one basis can be formed. It is valid. By discharging the liquid (ink) through the discharge opening by the growth and contraction of the bubble, at least one droplet is formed. When the drive signal is formed into a pulse shape, the growth and shrinkage of the bubble are performed immediately and appropriately, so that the ejection of the liquid (ink) having particularly excellent responsiveness can be achieved, which is more preferable.

As the pulse-shaped drive signal, those described in US Pat. Nos. 4,463,359 and 4,345,262 are suitable. If the conditions described in US Pat. No. 4,313,124 of the invention relating to the rate of temperature rise on the heat acting surface are adopted, more excellent recording can be performed.

As the constitution of the recording head, in addition to the combination constitution of the discharge port, the liquid passage, and the electrothermal converter (the linear liquid passage or the right-angled liquid passage) as disclosed in the above-mentioned respective specifications, The present invention also includes configurations using US Pat. No. 4,558,333 and US Pat. No. 4,459,600, which disclose configurations in which the heat-acting surface is arranged in a bending region. In addition, for multiple electrothermal transducers,
JP-A-59-123670 which discloses a configuration in which a common slot is used as a discharge part of an electrothermal transducer, and JP-A-59-123670 which discloses a configuration in which an opening for absorbing a pressure wave of thermal energy corresponds to a discharge part. A configuration based on 138461 may be adopted.

Further, as a full line type recording head having a length corresponding to the width of the maximum recording medium that can be recorded by the recording apparatus, the length can be increased by combining a plurality of recording heads as disclosed in the above-mentioned specification. Either of the structure satisfying the requirement or the structure as one recording head integrally formed may be used.

In addition to the cartridge type recording head in which the ink tank is integrally provided in the recording head itself described in the above-described embodiment, the recording head itself is electrically connected to the apparatus main body by being mounted on the apparatus main body. A replaceable chip-type recording head that enables various connections and supply of ink from the apparatus main body may be used.

Further, it is preferable to add recovery means for the recording head, preliminary means, etc. to the structure of the recording apparatus described above because the recording operation can be made more stable. Specific examples thereof include capping means for the recording head, cleaning means, pressurizing or sucking means, electrothermal converters or heating elements other than these, or preheating means by a combination thereof. It is also effective to provide a preliminary ejection mode for performing ejection that is different from printing, in order to perform stable printing.

Further, the recording mode of the recording apparatus is not limited to the recording mode of only the mainstream color such as black, but the recording head may be integrally formed or a plurality of combinations may be used. Alternatively, the device may be provided with at least one of full-color mixed colors.

In the above-described embodiments, the description has been made on the assumption that the ink is a liquid. However, even if the ink is solidified at room temperature or lower, one that is softened or liquefied at room temperature is used. Or, in the inkjet method, it is general that the temperature of the ink itself is adjusted within a range of 30 ° C. or higher and 70 ° C. or lower to control the temperature of the ink so that the viscosity of the ink is in a stable ejection range.
It is sufficient that the ink is in a liquid state when the use recording signal is applied.

In addition, in order to positively prevent the temperature rise due to the thermal energy from being used as the energy for changing the state of the ink from the solid state to the liquid state,
Alternatively, in order to prevent evaporation of the ink, an ink which solidifies in a standing state and liquefies by heating may be used. In any case, by applying thermal energy such as ink that is liquefied by applying thermal energy according to the recording signal and liquid ink is ejected, or that begins to solidify when it reaches the recording medium. The present invention can be applied to the case where an ink having a property of being liquefied for the first time is used. In such a case, as described in JP-A-54-56847 or JP-A-60-71260, the ink is held in a liquid state or a solid state in the concave portion or through hole of the porous sheet. It is good also as a form which opposes an electrothermal transducer. In the present invention, the most effective one for each of the above-mentioned inks is to execute the above-mentioned film boiling method.

In addition, as a form of the recording apparatus according to the present invention, in addition to one provided integrally or separately as an image output terminal of information processing equipment such as a computer, a copying apparatus combined with a reader or the like, and further transmission / reception It may take the form of a facsimile machine having a function.

Further, the present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or may be applied to an apparatus composed of one device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is implemented by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus. In this case, the storage medium storing the program according to the present invention constitutes the present invention. Then, by reading the program from the storage medium to the system or device, the system or device operates in a predetermined manner.

[0083]

As described above, according to the present invention, while reciprocatingly scanning the color recording head having the first and second ink ejection nozzle arrays corresponding to the first and second color inks, respectively. When performing color recording on a recording medium, the first and second recording element groups respectively corresponding to the nozzles forming the first and second ink ejection nozzle arrays are divided into a plurality of blocks, respectively. While controlling the driving order of the blocks included in the recording element group and the driving order of the blocks included in the second recording element group to be different, the plurality of blocks are sequentially energized to scan the color recording head. Since the recording is performed by the recording, the recording timing from each recording element is slightly different.For example, the deviation of the recording position due to the speed fluctuation due to some cause while the color recording head is scanning is dispersed, and the positional deviation is caused. To reduce the image quality can be prevented by Choquet.

As a result, it is possible to reduce the influence of fluctuations in the scanning speed of the recording head on the image quality and perform high-quality image recording.

[0085]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing the configuration of a color recording apparatus including a recording head that performs recording according to an inkjet method that is a typical embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a control circuit 15 of the color recording apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an arrangement of ink ejection nozzles of a recording head 9.

FIG. 4 shows four heads 9A to 9 included in a recording head 9.
It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the internal logic circuit of one of D.

5A is a time chart of each signal for driving two heads of the recording head 9 described in FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG.

5B is a time chart of each signal for driving the two heads of the recording head 9 described in FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG.

6 is a diagram showing an example of a recording result when recording is performed according to the timing control shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating another example of the arrangement of the ink ejection nozzles of the recording head 9.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating still another example of an array of ink ejection nozzles of the recording head 9.

FIG. 9 shows four heads 9A to 9 included in a recording head 9.
It is a block diagram which shows another example of a structure of the internal logic circuit of one of D.

FIG. 10A shows the recording head 9 described with reference to FIGS.
It is a time chart of each signal for driving one head.

FIG. 10B is a view of the recording head 9 described with reference to FIGS.
It is a time chart of each signal for driving one head.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating still another example of the arrangement of the ink ejection nozzles of the recording head 9.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating still another example of the arrangement of the ink ejection nozzles of the recording head 9.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a state in which control is performed so that the width of the print head is printed by scanning twice.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a recording result obtained by the control of FIG.

FIG. 15 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a conventional serial color printer.

16 is a diagram illustrating an arrangement of ink ejection nozzles of the recording head 101. FIG.

17 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a logic circuit inside one head unit 601 included in the recording head 101 shown in FIG.

FIG. 18A is the recording head 1 described in FIGS. 16 and 17;
10 is a time chart of each signal for driving the two head units 01.

FIG. 18B is the recording head 1 described in FIGS. 16 and 17;
10 is a time chart of each signal for driving the two head units 01.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example of a printing result when printing is performed by a conventional printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Recording Medium 2 and 3 Conveyance Feeding Roller 4 Sheet Feeding Roller 5 Guide Shaft 6 and 403 Carriage 7 and 411 Carriage Motor 8 Wire 9 and 101 Recording Head 9A Black Head 9B Cyan Head 9C Magenta Head 9D Yellow Head 15 Control Circuit 10 and 401 Scale part of linear encoder 11,402 Detection part of linear encoder 16A to 16D Operation keys 16E Alarm lamp 16F Power lamp 17 Host computer 28 Power supply circuit 101, 102, 501, 502 Ink ejection nozzle array 160 Operation panel 202 16-bit shift register 203 16-bit latch 204 AND gate 205 Power transistor 206 Heater

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Sohei Tanaka, 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor, Hiroshi Uemura 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Incorporated (72) Inventor Nobuyuki Tsukada 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc.

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A recording apparatus for performing color recording on a recording medium while reciprocally scanning a color recording head having first and second ink ejection nozzle arrays corresponding to respective inks of first and second colors. And a scanning unit that reciprocally scans the color recording head, and first and second recording element groups corresponding to the nozzles forming the first and second ink ejection nozzle arrays, respectively, in a plurality of blocks. A dividing unit for dividing, a recording unit for sequentially energizing and driving the plurality of blocks for recording while scanning the color recording head by the scanning unit, and a driving order of blocks included in the first recording element group And a recording control unit that controls the recording unit so that the driving order of the blocks included in the second recording element group is different. 2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the array direction of the first and second ink ejection nozzle arrays is inclined with respect to the scanning direction of the color recording head. 3. The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the inclination angles of the first and second ink ejection nozzle rows are different from each other. 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the angles of inclination of the first and second ink ejection nozzle arrays are the same. 5. The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the first and second ink ejection nozzle rows are arranged side by side in the scanning direction of the recording head. 6. The recording apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a conveying unit that conveys the recording medium in a direction perpendicular to a scanning direction of the color recording head. 7. The recording apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the first and second ink ejection nozzle arrays are arranged side by side with respect to the transport direction of the recording medium. 8. The recording control means controls to complete the recording from the first and second recording element groups by a plurality of scans of the color recording head. The recording device described. 9. The plurality of scans are two scans, and when the transport unit completes the first scan, a recording width corresponding to the first and second ink ejection nozzle arrays is obtained. The recording apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the recording medium is conveyed by a half length. 10. The recording control means, in the first scan, of the first and second ink ejection nozzle rows,
10. The recording apparatus according to claim 9, wherein ink is ejected from odd-numbered nozzles and ink is ejected from even-numbered nozzles in the second scanning. 11. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the scanning unit includes a carriage on which the color recording head is mounted and a carriage motor that moves the carriage.