Curing calibrations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10518566-B2
Application number	US-201916244765-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 10, 2019
Priority date	May 2, 2016
Publication date	Dec 31, 2019
Grant date	Dec 31, 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; and
a controller coupled to the print engine and the curing engine, the controller to:
control the print engine to generate an uncured calibration image, and
control the curing engine to cure the uncured calibration image to generate a cured calibration image,
wherein the curing engine comprises a plurality of curing energy source modules and each of the curing energy source modules to be driven with varying power level settings across the uncured calibration image to generate correspondingly varied image characteristics in the cured calibration image.

2. The printing system of claim 1 , wherein the uncured calibration image includes a consistent image characteristic.

3. The printing system of claim 2 , wherein the consistent image characteristic of the uncured calibration image includes multiple regions of consistent image characteristics printed across a width of a substrate.

4. The printing system of claim 3 , wherein each of the multiple regions of consistent image characteristics of the uncured calibration image include a band of a particular image type printed across the width of the substrate, the particular image type including a particular color or pattern.

5. The printing system of claim 1 , wherein each of the curing energy source modules to be operated with multiple different power level settings to generate multiple individual curing zones.

6. The printing system of claim 5 , wherein each of the curing zones include markings that indicate a corresponding power level setting used by the curing engine to cure that particular curing zone.

7. 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 corresponding individual power level settings of the individually controllable LED modules are varied within curing zones across an uncured calibration image to generate a cured calibration image with correspondingly varied image characteristics.

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

9. The LED curing engine of claim 7 , wherein the uncured calibration image includes a consistent image characteristic.

10. The LED curing engine of claim 7 , wherein the individually controllable LED modules comprises tunable LEDs operable according to the plurality of corresponding individual power level settings to generate variable intensity and spectral emissions.

11. A method of calibrating a plurality of individual UV curing modules comprising:
receiving an uncured calibration image; and
initiating a curing operation comprising operating the plurality of individual UV curing modules according to a plurality of corresponding individual power level settings to apply radiant energy to the uncured calibration image to generate a cured calibration image,
each of the individual UV curing modules to be driven with varying individual power level settings across the uncured calibration image to generate correspondingly varied image characteristics in the cured calibration image.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the uncured calibration image includes a consistent or repeated image characteristic printed across a width of a substrate.

13. The method of claim 11 , 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 individual power level settings.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the curing zones correspond to image zones of the uncured calibration image.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein each of the image zones indicate a particular power level setting used to cure the corresponding curing zone.

Assignees

• Hp Scitex Ltd

Inventors

• Kotik Eyal
• Levin Alon

Classifications

• B41J29/38 Primary

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

• B41J11/002

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