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EP0824243A2 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Printing apparatus with registration of line print heads

Assignee: Canon Inc
•
Filing: 1997-08-04
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2017-08-04
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Abstract

Abstract When a position deviation of more than 1/2 pitch of ejection port pitch is generated by a difference in thermal expansion between ejection ports (No. 7 to No. 12) of a low temperature line head and ejection ports (No. 7 to No. 12) of high temperature line head, a dummy data (D6') is inserted in part of ejection data arrangement (D1 to D12), so that ejection data (D7 to D12) inherent in the arrangement is shifted by one ejection port unit to be assigned to other ejection ports This reduces position deviation between dots formed by individual heads according to the data (D1 to D12) to less than 1/2 pitch. <IMAGE>

Inventors

  • 👤 Masashi Kamada
  • 👤 Takayuki Ninomiya
  • 👤 Kazuhiko Morimura

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction EP
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-11-09 15:03
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06K; G06K15/00; G06K15/02; G06K15/10

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 14
Claim 1
Independent Claim 133 words
A printing apparatus for performing printing on a printing medium, by using a plurality of print heads each having a plurality of printing elements arranged in a predetermined direction, characterized by comprising: head temperature data obtaining means for obtaining temperature data of each of the plurality of print heads; driving data supply means for supplying driving data for driving the plurality of printing elements of each of the plurality of print heads to said each of the plurality of print heads in accordance with an arrangement of said plurality of printing elements; and dummy data insertion means for inserting dummy data into the driving data supplied by said driving data supply means based on the temperature data of each of said plurality of print heads obtained by said head temperature data obtaining means.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim 53 words
A printing apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, characterized in that said dummy data insertion means inserts the dummy data into the driving data in accordance with differences in thermal expansion between the plurality of print heads, said differences in thermal expansion corresponding to respective temperature data of said plurality of print heads.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 64 words
A printing apparatus as claimed in Claim 2, characterized in that, in relation to the print head of which temperature data is obtained as the highest temperature between the plurality of the print heads, said dummy data insertion means inserts the dummy data into the driving data for the print head of which temperature data is obtained as lower temperature than the highest temperature.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 53 words
A printing apparatus as claimed in Claim 3, characterized in that said dummy data insertion means inserts the dummy data into the driving data when the difference in thermal expansion calculated based on a temperature difference between the lower temperature and the highest temperature is greater than or equal to a predetermined value.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 81 words
A printing apparatus as claimed in Claim 4, characterized in that said dummy data insertion means inserts the dummy data as driving data for the printing element in the print head of the lower temperature, a deviation of a position of said printing element in the arrangement of the plurality of printing elements from a position of the corresponding printing element in the print head of the highest temperature first becoming a value greater than or equal to the predetermined value.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 34 words
A printing apparatus as claimed in Claim 5, characterized in that each of the plurality of print heads arranges a plurality of printing elements in accordance with a width of the printing medium fed.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 26 words
A printing apparatus as claimed in Claim 6, characterized in that the plurality of print heads perform printing of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black colors respectively.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim 28 words
A printing apparatus as claimed in Claim 7, characterized in that said head temperature data obtaining means includes a temperature sensor provided on the plurality of print heads.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim 47 words
A printing apparatus as claimed in Claim 8, characterized in that the plurality of print heads individually have an ink ejection port as a printing element, and an ink is ejected from said ink ejection port by a pressure of a bubble produced by utilizing heat energy.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim 61 words
A printing apparatus as claimed in Claim 5, characterized in that each of the plurality of print heads have an excess printing element with respect to a width of an image to be printed, and said driving data supply means supplies the driving data shifted due to inserting of the dummy data as the driving data for said excess printing element.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim 19 words
A printing apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, characterized in that the dummy data is a data indicating non-printing.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim 30 words
A printing apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, characterized in that the dummy data is a data of the same content as the driving data adjacent to said dummy data.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim 103 words
A position deviation adjusting method of a print head in a printing apparatus using a plurality of the print heads each having a plurality of printing elements arranged in a predetermined direction and performing printing on a printing medium, said method characterized by comprising the steps of: obtaining a temperature data of each of the plurality of print heads; and inserting a dummy data into a driving data supplied in accordance with arrangement of the plurality of printing elements and used for driving said plurality of printing elements, on a basis of temperature data obtained in each of the plurality of print heads.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim 56 words
A printing apparatus or method wherein means are provided for modifying driving data for driving print elements of a print head by adding dummy data, which dummy data may be added for example in accordance with a detected temperature of the print head for suppressing deviation between dots printed by print heads having different thermal characteristics.

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