Curing calibrations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10183514-B2
Application number	US-201715468298-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 24, 2017
Priority date	May 2, 2016
Publication date	Jan 22, 2019
Grant date	Jan 22, 2019

Abstract

Examples described herein include method for calibrating LED modules in a curing engine. The method of calibrating UV curing modules includes receiving an uncured calibration image and initiating a curing operation that includes operating the curing modules according to a plurality of corresponding initial power level settings to apply radiant energy to the uncured calibration image to generate a cured calibration image. The method further includes receiving user input or information about an image characteristic of the cured calibration image from a user. The method then includes analyzing the user input to generate adjustments to the corresponding initial power level settings, and then applying the adjustments to the corresponding initial power level settings to generate a plurality of corresponding adjusted power level settings.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A printing system comprising:
a print engine disposed at a first location in a print path of the printing system;
a curing engine disposed at a second location in the print path;
a controller coupled to the print engine and the curing engine; and
a non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising executable code, that when executed by the controller, causes the controller to control the print engine to:
control the print engine to generate a calibration image;
control the curing engine to cure the calibration image based on curing engine calibration settings to generate a cured calibration image;
receive user input corresponding to a visual inspection of an image characteristic of the cured calibration image; and
update the curing engine calibration settings in response to the user input,
wherein the curing engine comprises a plurality of curing energy source modules and the curing engine calibration settings comprise individual power level settings corresponding to each of the plurality of curing energy source modules to generate an even radiant energy across a substrate to uniformly cure an image printed on the substrate.

2. The printing system of claim 1 wherein the curing engine comprises a plurality of UV LEDs controllable in groups according to the curing engine calibration settings.

3. The printing system of claim 1 wherein updating the curing engine calibration settings comprises comparing the user input to data corresponding to a desired image characteristic.

4. The printing system of claim 1 wherein the calibration image comprises a plurality of curing zones, each curing zone including markings that indicate a corresponding power level setting used by the curing engine to cure that particular curing zone.

5. The printing system of claim 4 wherein the plurality of curing zones correspond to a particular curing energy module in the curing engine or to steps up or down from an initial power level setting.

6. An LED curing engine comprising a plurality of individually controllable LED modules operable according to a plurality of corresponding individual power level settings, wherein the individual power level settings are generated in response to user input corresponding to image characteristics in curing zones of a calibration image cured by corresponding individual controllable LED modules in the plurality of individually controllable LED modules to correct for variations in radiant energy output of the plurality of individually controllable LED modules and uniformly cure a printed image.

7. The LED curing engine of claim 6 wherein each LED module comprises a plurality of UV emitting LEDs.

8. The LED curing engine of claim 6 wherein the image characteristics comprise color saturation, surface finish, or transparency.

9. The LED curing engine of claim 6 wherein the individually controllable LED modules comprises tunable LEDs operable according the plurality of corresponding individual power level settings to generate variable intensity and spectral emissions.

10. A method of calibrating a plurality of individual UV curing modules comprising:
receiving an uncured calibration image;
initiating a curing operation comprising operating the plurality of individual UV curing modules according to a plurality of corresponding initial individual power level settings to apply radiant energy to the uncured calibration image to generate a cured calibration image;
receiving user input comprising information about an image characteristic of the cured calibration image;
analyzing the user input to generate adjustments to the plurality of corresponding initial individual power level settings; and
applying the adjustments to the plurality of corresponding initial individual power level settings to generate a plurality of corresponding adjusted individual power level settings,
the plurality of corresponding adjusted individual power level settings to correct for variations in radiant energy output of the plurality of individual UV curing modules to uniformly cure a printed image.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
receiving a secondary uncured calibration image;
operating the plurality of individual UV curing modules according to the plurality of corresponding adjusted individual power level settings to apply radiant energy to the uncured calibration image to generate a secondary cured calibration image;
receiving additional user input comprising information about an image characteristic of the secondary cured calibration image;
analyzing the additional user input to generate secondary adjustments to the plurality of corresponding adjusted individual power level settings; and
applying the secondary adjustments to the plurality of corresponding adjusted individual power level settings.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein initiating the curing operation further comprises operating the plurality of individual UV curing modules to generate a plurality of curing zones based on the plurality of corresponding initial individual power level settings.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the curing zones correspond to image zones printed in the calibration image.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein each of the image zones indicate a particular power level setting used to cure the curing zones that corresponds to the image zone.

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Ind Printing
• Hp Scitex Ltd

Inventors

• Kotik Eyal
• Levin Alon

Classifications

• B41J11/002

  Curing or drying the ink on the copy materials, e.g. by heating or irradiating · CPC title

• B41J29/38 Primary

  Drives, motors, controls or automatic cut-off devices for the entire printing mechanism · CPC title

• B41J11/00218

  Constructional details of the irradiation means, e.g. radiation source attached to reciprocating print head assembly or shutter means provided on the radiation source · CPC title

• B41J11/00212 Primary

  Controlling the irradiation means, e.g. image-based controlling of the irradiation zone or control of the duration or intensity of the irradiation · CPC title

• B41J11/00216

  using infrared [IR] radiation or microwaves · CPC title