Anticipating maintenance in a printing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11188275-B2
Application number	US-201515533514-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 13, 2015
Priority date	Jan 13, 2015
Publication date	Nov 30, 2021
Grant date	Nov 30, 2021

Abstract

In an example, a method of anticipating maintenance in a printing device includes determining an inertial reference signal of a printer carriage and measuring a current inertial signal of the printer carriage. The method includes cross-correlating the inertial reference signal with the current inertial signal and determining from the cross-correlating when the current inertial signal is not within a preset confidence interval of the inertial reference signal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of anticipating maintenance in a printing device, the method comprising:
determining an inertial reference signal of a printer carriage;
measuring a current inertial signal of the printer carriage;
cross-correlating the inertial reference signal with the current inertial signal; and
determining from the cross-correlating when the current inertial signal is not within a preset confidence interval of the inertial reference signal.

2. A method as in claim 1 , wherein determining an inertial reference signal comprises accessing the inertial reference signal from a memory of the printing device.

3. A method as in claim 1 , wherein determining an inertial reference signal comprises:
measuring an inertial metric value for each of a plurality of scans of the printer carriage;
averaging the inertial metric values between the scans of the printer carriage to determine the inertial reference signal; and
storing the inertial reference signal in a memory.

4. A method as in claim 3 , wherein measuring an inertial metric value comprises measuring a metric selected from the group consisting of acceleration, velocity, and distance.

5. A method as in claim 4 , wherein measuring an inertial metric value comprises measuring the inertial metric value of the printer carriage in X, Y, and Z coordinate directions.

6. A method as in claim 1 , further comprising:
when the current inertial signal is not within a preset confidence interval of the inertial reference signal, providing a user notification to indicate abnormal movement of the printer carriage.

7. A method as in claim 1 , wherein determining from the cross-correlating when the current inertial signal is not within a preset confidence interval of the inertial reference signal comprises determining that the current inertial signal is not within a 95% confidence interval of the inertial reference signal.

8. A method as in claim 1 , wherein the inertial reference signal and the current inertial signal comprise acceleration signals of the printer carriage, the method comprising:
measuring the acceleration signals with a device selected from the group consisting of an accelerometer affixed to the printer carriage and a linear encoder associated with a carriage drive motor.

9. A printing device capable of anticipating maintenance, comprising:
an inertial measurement unit (IMU) to measure an inertial component of a carriage as the carriage passes from one edge to another edge of a print media;
a sample module to store a carriage pass signal formed from sample values provided by the IMU, the carriage pass signal characterizing movement of the carriage across the print media; and
a cross-correlator to cross-correlate the carriage pass signal with a reference signal and determine a malfunction when the carriage pass signal is not within a preset confidence interval of the reference signal.

10. A printing device as in claim 9 , further comprising a reporting module to report the malfunction to a user interface.

11. A printing device as in claim 9 , further comprising:
a toothed belt to transport the carriage between edges of the print media; and,
a carriage motor to drive the toothed belt.

12. A printing device as in claim 11 , wherein the IMU comprises a device selected from the group consisting of an accelerometer affixed to the carriage and a linear encoder associated with the carriage motor.

13. A non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions that when executed by a processor of a printing device cause the printing device to:
measure an inertial signal of a printer carriage;
compare the inertial signal with a reference signal; and
anticipate maintenance for the printing device when the inertial signal does not fall within a confidence interval of the reference signal.

14. A non-transitory processor-readable medium as in claim 13 , wherein measuring the inertial signal comprises measuring acceleration of the printer carriage as the printer carriage moves across a printable medium.

15. A non-transitory processor-readable medium as in claim 13 , wherein comparing the inertial signal with the reference signal comprises comparing the inertial signal with the reference signal by cross-correlating the inertial signal with the reference signal.

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Development Co

Inventors

• Vilajosana Xavier
• Tuset Pere
• Fornos Pol

Classifications

• B41J29/38 Primary

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

• B41J19/00

  Character- or line-spacing mechanisms · CPC title

• B41J29/393

  Devices for controlling or analysing the entire machine {; Controlling or analysing mechanical parameters involving printing of test patterns} · CPC title

• B41J29/46

  Applications of alarms, e.g. responsive to approach of end of line · CPC title

• G06F3/121 Primary

  Facilitating exception or error detection and recovery, e.g. fault, media or consumables depleted · CPC title