JPH10250159A - Recording device and recording head - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To reduce the number of signal lines for reading information of a recording head mounted on a recording apparatus from the recording head, thereby simplifying the configuration of the apparatus and reducing costs. SOLUTION: A shift register 90 stores ejection data corresponding to 64 ink ejection ports of a recording head.
A pattern enabling parallel input of bits b0 to b63 is formed, and the information is written by cutting the pattern according to the information unique to the head. Then, the information is read into the shift register 90 using the reset signal of the latch 92 as a load signal, and the information is extracted as a serial signal So by the clock signal CLKi. Thus, reading of head information can be performed by one signal line.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus, and more particularly, to a recording apparatus and a recording head which take in information specific to a recording head mounted on the apparatus and drive the recording head in consideration of the information. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of personal computers, word processors, and the like, the output devices of those devices are:
Printers of various recording methods such as an ink jet recording method and a thermal recording method have been used. In particular, in recent years, with the increase in processing speed due to improvement in CPU performance, etc., and the increase in capacity and cost of storage devices such as magnetic disk devices, there are many opportunities to process high-resolution images, and recording is also performed on printers. There is a demand for higher resolution, higher definition, and color images.

It is known that a printing apparatus is driven in consideration of information unique to a printing head in order to cope with such high resolution and high definition in a printing apparatus.

That is, the printing head may have slight manufacturing variations in the manufacturing process, such as the thickness of the discharge heater and the detection characteristics of the temperature sensor. Is controlled so that a fixed amount of ink is also ejected from the recording head. In addition, it is also possible to change the drive mode of the printhead according to the type of head such as a head that discharges black ink or a head that discharges other color inks, and control to perform appropriate discharge in each printhead. Is being done.

For such head drive control, the information unique to the head is read, for example, by electrically reading a resistance pattern corresponding to the unique information provided at an electrical connection between the recording head and the apparatus body. Can be obtained by

[0006]

However, such conventional reading of head information is performed through signal lines for several bits. For this reason, there is a problem in that the number of the signal lines increases as the number of parameters for determining the head-specific information increases, which also increases the cost of the apparatus.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems. It is an object of the present invention to read a parameter relating to information unique to a recording head through a single signal line, thereby reducing cost. An object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus and a recording head that can suppress an increase.

[0008]

For this purpose, in the present invention, in a recording apparatus which uses a recording head and performs recording on a recording medium, information relating to the recording head is transmitted to a parallel / serial converter provided in the recording head. And a head information reading means for taking out the information input as a parallel signal to the parallel-serial converter as a serial signal.

Preferably, the parallel-serial converter provided in the print head is a shift register capable of holding print data of a number corresponding to the number of print elements of the print head.

In a print head used in a printing apparatus, a plurality of print elements, a shift register capable of holding print data of each of the plurality of print elements, a wiring pattern representing information related to the print head, A wiring for applying a predetermined voltage to the wiring pattern, a wiring for inputting potentials of a plurality of portions when the predetermined voltage is applied to the shift register in parallel, and serially transferring data to be shifted in the shift register. Wiring for taking out as a signal.

According to the above configuration, the information unique to the head is input as a parallel signal to, for example, a shift register of the head, and the parallel signal is extracted as a serial signal by the shift register. The number of wires for extracting the personal information can be reduced to one.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an ink jet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. This apparatus is a so-called bubble having an electrothermal conversion element as ejection energy generating means. 1 shows an example of a color ink jet recording apparatus using a jet type recording head.

In FIG. 1, a recording medium 1 such as a sheet of paper or a plastic sheet is supported by a pair of conveying rollers 2 and 3 disposed above and below a recording area thereof, and is driven by a sheet feed motor 4. Is conveyed in the direction of arrow A in FIG. Two guide shafts 5 are provided in front of the transport roller 3 in parallel with the transport rollers 3, and the carriage 6 is provided so as to be movable along the guide shafts 5. The carriage motor 7 can be moved in the direction of arrow B in FIG.

An ink jet type recording head is mounted on the carriage 6 for each of the four types of ink. That is, a black head 9A, a cyan head 9B, a magenta head 9C, and a yellow head 9D for ejecting inks of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (Bk), respectively, are mounted. Each recording head has 64 ink ejection openings of 360D
Electrothermal conversion elements that are arranged in a predetermined direction at a density of PI and communicate with the ejection ports and that generate heat energy used for ejection are provided in the respective ink paths. When these recording heads 9A to 9D are mounted on the carriage 6, their ejection ports face the recording surface of the recording medium 1 at a predetermined interval (for example, 0.8 mm). The direction is substantially orthogonal to the moving direction.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a longitudinal sectional view of a part of a configuration relating to ink ejection of each of the recording heads 9A to 9D.

In FIG. 2, an electrothermal conversion element (made of a heating resistor or the like) 11 is formed in an ink path 10A corresponding to each ink ejection port 10, and is driven (energized) to form ink inside the ink. A bubble (air bubble) 11A is generated by causing a film boiling phenomenon in the air, and the ink is ejected by the pressure of the air bubble to form a flying ink droplet 12. By this ink ejection, ink droplets are deposited on the recording medium 1 and recording is performed with a dot pattern corresponding to the recording data.

Further, each recording head 9 has a switching element 1 for turning on / off the energization to the electrothermal transducer.
3 and a driving circuit (driver) for driving the driving circuit 3 are provided on a predetermined circuit board of the recording head as described later with reference to FIG.

Referring again to FIG. 1, an engine control circuit (CPU) of the recording apparatus and a ROM, RA
A control unit including M and the like is formed on the substrate 15 and the host device 1
The controller 7 receives a command signal and a data signal (recording information) from the controller 7, and controls driving sources such as various motors and driving of the recording heads 9A to 9D based on the command signal and the data signal.

An operation panel 160 mounted on an outer case (not shown) of the recording apparatus has an online / offline switching key 16A, a line feed key 16B,
Form feed key 16C, recording mode switching key 1
In addition to the key setting section such as 6D, a plurality of alarm lamps 16
A display unit including a warning lamp such as E and a power lamp 16F is provided.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a control system of the ink jet recording apparatus shown in FIG.

The control system according to the present embodiment comprises a CPU 18 as an engine control circuit, a program memory 19, a working memory 20 and a data memory 21.
M, RAM, and the like, and receives a command signal and a data signal (recording information) from the host device 17 and, based on the command signal and the data source, drives the recording heads 9A to 9D via a drive control circuit 26 together with driving sources such as motors. Drive for ink ejection is controlled.

That is, the CPU 18 controls the output port 29
The carriage motor 7 and the sheet feed motor 4 are controlled by outputting a control signal to the motor driver 31 through the printhead 9, and the printhead 9 via the head drive circuit 26 based on the print information stored in the data memory 21.
Is controlled by controlling the ejection of the ink. A serial signal read from a shift register of each head, which will be described later, is taken in through the contact portion of the carriage 6 and the input port 33.

The input through the operation keys 16A to 16D (see FIG. 1) on the operation panel 160 is transmitted to the CPU 18 through the input port 24, and is transmitted to the alarm lamp 16E and the power lamp 16F. Warning lamp 1
6 is supplied with a control signal via the output port 30.

Further, in FIG. 3, a logic drive voltage (for example, 5 V) for operating the control logic circuit and various motor drive voltages (for example, 30 V) are operated by the power supply circuit 25.
V), reset voltage, electrothermal transducer 11 of each recording head
A heat voltage (for example, 25
V), and a backup voltage for protecting the recording head 9 is applied in each corresponding circuit.

FIG. 4 shows a conventional example of a drive circuit for a recording head, which is described for comparison with the present invention. The recording information is serially transferred as ejection data Si, and the data Si is accumulated in a 64-bit shift register 91 by a clock signal CLKi. These 64-bit ejection data are represented by a signal LATCH ^* synchronized with the movement of the carriage 6 to the ejection position.
Latched by a 4-bit latch 92. Further, the 64-bit transistor array 93 is driven in accordance with the latch data, causing the corresponding heater to generate heat and discharging ink from the discharge port. At this time, the heater and the transistor array are divided into four parts in consideration of power supply and heat generation when driven simultaneously, and time-division driving is performed according to the block signals BE1 ^* , BE2 ^* , BE3 ^* and BE4 ^*. Is made. In this case, the width of the voltage pulse for driving the heater is controlled by a signal ENB ^* according to the characteristics of the head.

FIG. 5 shows the recording heads 9A and 9 of this embodiment.
It is a figure which shows each internal circuit of B, 9C, and 9D.

The main difference between the configuration shown in FIG. 5 and that shown in FIG. 4 is that the shift register is a shift register capable of parallel input. That is, in the present embodiment,
ID information of the recording head and RANK information which is a characteristic unique to the recording head are written in each of the 64-bit parallel inputs of the 64-bit shift register 90. Specifically, the parallel input terminal is pulled down, and the pattern is connected to the ground by mounting the pattern on the carriage 6 on the head chip. On the other hand, at the time of shipping check of the recording head, as shown in FIG. 6, by cutting the pattern according to the measured information, the bits that are not cut are “0” and the bits that are pattern-cut are “1”. "Can be written for each head. That is, the voltage V _S applied to each bit of the parallel input is detected as a value that is a predetermined voltage drop due to the resistance due to the pattern cut, and is recognized as “1”. On the other hand, a bit that is not cut is detected as a potential 0 by grounding and recognized as “0”. When the recording head is not mounted, it is configured to recognize “0”.

FIG. 7 shows an example of information that can be written.

As shown in the figure, the bits b0 to b2 can be used to indicate the ID information of the recording head or the presence or absence of the head. For example, there is no detection output for information in which a recording head is not mounted on the recording apparatus. Therefore, when both bits b0 to b2 are 0, it indicates that the head is not mounted. In addition, the value of the bits b0 to b2 can indicate whether the mounted recording head is a black head, a large-capacity black head, or a color head.

The bits b3 and b4 are used to store ID information for performing control different from normal as a factory shipment check head or a prototype production study head.
Thus, the correction value of the temperature sensor necessary for controlling the temperature of the head can be indicated, and the thickness information of the heater for determining the pulse width at the time of driving the head can be indicated by bits b8 to b10.

The reading of the information written in the recording head as described above is performed by loading the parallel input using the inverted signal of the reset signal CARESi ^* of the latch 92 as a load signal when the recording head is mounted. The individual information written to the recording head is stored in the shift register. Thereafter, by outputting the clock signal CLKi, information of each bit of the recording head can be taken out as the serial output So of the shift register in synchronization with the clock signal.

As described above, in this embodiment, the parallel input of the head-specific information can be read out in the form of a serial signal using the shift register used to drive each heater of the recording head. The number of signal lines for reading the head information can be reduced to one, whereby the configuration of the device can be simplified and the cost can be reduced.

(Embodiment 2) In the first embodiment, the serial signal So is taken out for one recording head. For this reason, as described above, in an apparatus that uses a recording head for each of the four color inks, four signal lines are eventually required. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, information of each recording head is read by one signal line for four recording heads.

That is, as shown in FIG. 8, 64 parameter bits of each of the four recording heads are represented by b0 to b1.
5, b16 to b31, b32 to b47, b48 to b63
And the information of each head is written in the bit allocated to each head. For example, the parameter bit b of the black head 9A
0 to b15 are assigned, and parameters such as the ID shown in FIG. 7 are written. It should be noted that "0" is detected for bits that are not assigned without cutting the pattern.

Similarly, the cyan head 9B outputs the bit b10
To b31, bits b32 to b47 are allocated to the magenta head 9C, and bits b48 to b63 are allocated to the yellow head 9D.

Then, by ORing the outputs of the shift registers of the respective heads and reading out the serial output SO, the information of the respective heads can be sequentially known. As a result, it is possible to read out the parameters of each of the plurality of recording heads without changing the number of signal lines.

(Others) It should be noted that the present invention includes a means (for example, an electrothermal converter or a laser beam) for generating thermal energy as energy used for performing ink ejection, particularly in an ink jet recording system. An excellent effect is obtained in a recording head and a recording apparatus of a type in which the state of ink is changed by the thermal energy. This is because according to such a method, it is possible to achieve higher density and higher definition of recording.

The typical configuration and principle are described in, for example, US Pat. Nos. 4,723,129 and 4,740.
It is preferable to use the basic principle disclosed in the specification of Japanese Patent No. 796. This method is a so-called on-demand type,
Although it can be applied to any type of continuous type, in particular, in the case of the on-demand type, it can be applied to a sheet holding liquid (ink) or an electrothermal converter arranged corresponding to the liquid path. By applying at least one drive signal corresponding to the recorded information and providing a rapid temperature rise exceeding nucleate boiling, heat energy is generated in the electrothermal transducer, and film boiling occurs on the heat acting surface of the recording head. Liquid (ink) corresponding to this drive signal on a one-to-one basis.
This is effective because air bubbles inside can be formed. The liquid (ink) is ejected through the ejection opening by the growth and contraction of the bubble to form at least one droplet. 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 a 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. Further, if the conditions described in US Pat. No. 4,313,124 relating to the temperature rise rate of the heat acting surface are adopted, more excellent recording can be performed.

As the configuration of the recording head, in addition to the combination of the discharge port, the liquid path, and the electrothermal converter (linear liquid flow path or right-angled liquid flow path) as disclosed in the above-mentioned specifications, U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,333 and U.S. Pat. No. 44,558 which disclose a configuration in which a heat acting portion is arranged in a bending region.
A configuration using the specification of Japanese Patent No. 59600 is also included in the present invention. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 59-123670 discloses a configuration in which a common slit is used as a discharge portion of an electrothermal converter for a plurality of electrothermal converters. The effect of the present invention is effective even if the configuration is based on JP-A-59-138461, which discloses a configuration corresponding to a discharge unit. That is, according to the present invention, recording can be reliably and efficiently performed regardless of the form of the recording head.

Further, the present invention can be effectively applied to a full-line type recording head having a length corresponding to the maximum width of a recording medium on which a recording apparatus can record. Such a recording head may have a configuration that satisfies the length by a combination of a plurality of recording heads, or a configuration as one integrally formed recording head.

In addition, even in the case of the serial type as described above, the recording head fixed to the apparatus main body or the electric connection with the apparatus main body or the ink from the apparatus main body is attached to the apparatus main body by being attached to the apparatus main body. The present invention is also effective when a replaceable chip-type recording head that can be supplied or a cartridge-type recording head in which an ink tank is provided integrally with the recording head itself is used.

Further, it is preferable to add a discharge recovery means for the recording head, a preliminary auxiliary means, and the like as the constitution of the recording apparatus of the present invention since the effect of the present invention can be further stabilized. If these are specifically mentioned, the recording head is heated using capping means, cleaning means, pressurizing or suction means, an electrothermal transducer, another heating element or a combination thereof. Pre-heating means for performing the pre-heating and pre-discharging means for performing the discharging other than the recording can be used.

Regarding the type or number of print heads to be mounted, for example, in addition to one provided for a single color ink, a plurality of inks having different print colors and densities are provided. A plurality may be provided. That is, for example, the printing mode of the printing apparatus is not limited to a printing mode of only a mainstream color such as black, but may be any of integrally forming a printing head or a combination of a plurality of printing heads. The present invention is also very effective for an apparatus provided with at least one of the recording modes of full color by color mixture.

In addition, in the embodiments of the present invention described above, the ink is described as a liquid. However, an ink which solidifies at room temperature or lower and which softens or liquefies at room temperature may be used. In general, the ink jet method generally controls the temperature of the ink itself within a range of 30 ° C. or more and 70 ° C. or less to control the temperature so that the viscosity of the ink is in a stable ejection range. Sometimes, the ink may be in a liquid state. In addition, in order to positively prevent temperature rise due to thermal energy by using it as energy for changing the state of the ink from a solid state to a liquid state, or to prevent evaporation of the ink, the ink is solidified in a standing state and heated. May be used. In any case, the application of heat energy causes the ink to be liquefied by the application of the heat energy according to the recording signal and the liquid ink to be ejected, or to start solidifying when it reaches the recording medium. The present invention is also applicable to a case where an ink having a property of liquefying for the first time is used. In such a case, the ink
JP-A-54-56847 or JP-A-60-7
As described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 1260, it is also possible to adopt a form in which the sheet is opposed to the electrothermal converter in a state where it is held as a liquid or solid substance in the concave portion or through hole of the porous sheet. 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, the form of the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention is not limited to those used as image output terminals of information processing equipment such as computers, copying apparatuses combined with readers and the like, and facsimile apparatuses having a transmission / reception function. It may take a form.

[0047]

As described above, according to the present invention, information unique to the head is input as a parallel signal to, for example, a shift register of the head, and the parallel signal is extracted as a serial signal by the shift register. The wiring for extracting the personal information from the head
It can be a book.

As a result, the configuration of the recording head and the recording apparatus can be simplified, and the cost of the apparatus and the like can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing a main part of an inkjet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing an ink ejection unit of the recording head shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a control system of the inkjet recording apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a driving circuit of a conventional recording head.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a circuit of a recording head according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example in which parameters are set in the circuit shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of control parameters written to a recording head.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a circuit of a print head and a configuration for reading parameters according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Recording medium 2 Conveying roller 3 Conveying roller 4 Sheet feed motor 5 Guide shaft 6 Carriage unit 7 Carriage motor 8 Wire 9A, 9B, 9C, 9D Recording head 10 Discharge port 11 Electrothermal conversion element 18 CPU 33 Input port

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A recording apparatus for performing recording on a recording medium using a recording head, comprising: head information input means for inputting information relating to the recording head as a parallel signal to a parallel-serial converter provided in the recording head; And a head information reading means for taking out the information input as a parallel signal to the parallel / serial converter as a serial signal. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of:
2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the serial converter is a shift register capable of holding print data of a number corresponding to the number of print elements of the print head. 3. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said head information input means inputs information on the recording head held by the recording head to the parallel-serial converter as a parallel signal. apparatus. 4. The information on the recording head held by the recording head is represented by a wiring pattern provided on the recording head, and the head information input means applies a predetermined voltage to the wiring pattern, and 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a parallel signal based on a potential of a plurality of portions corresponding to the wiring pattern is applied to the parallel-to-serial converter by applying the signal. 5. The printing apparatus performs printing using a plurality of printheads, and a parallel-serial converter for each of the plurality of printheads performs at least input of information for the plurality of printheads. The head information input means has a required number of parallel signal input terminals, and the head information input means inputs the parallel signal to a parallel signal input terminal assigned to the recording head among the parallel signal input terminals of a plurality of recording heads. 5. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said head information reading means takes out the OR of said serial signal output from each of said plurality of recording heads as a serial signal. 6. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording head is an ink jet recording head that discharges ink using thermal energy. 7. A printing head used in a printing apparatus, comprising: a plurality of printing elements; a shift register capable of holding print data of each of the plurality of printing elements; a wiring pattern representing information related to the printing head; A wiring for applying a predetermined voltage to the wiring pattern, a wiring for parallel inputting the potentials of a plurality of parts when the predetermined voltage is applied to the shift register, and serially transferring data to be shifted in the shift register. A recording head, comprising: wiring for extracting a signal; and 8. The recording head according to claim 7, wherein the recording head is an ink jet recording head that ejects ink, and the recording element includes a thermal energy generating element that applies thermal energy to the ink.