Liquid discharging apparatus and liquid discharging method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017190190-A1
Application number	US-201715396875-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 3, 2017
Priority date	Jan 5, 2016
Publication date	Jul 6, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A liquid discharging apparatus is provided with a head including a plurality of nozzle groups, a main scanning portion that scans the head in a main scanning direction, a sub-scanning portion that relatively moves the head and the medium in a sub-scanning direction, which intersects the main scanning direction, and a control portion, in which the control portion generates supplementing printing data, which corrects printing data in a manner in which it is possible to supplement with another nozzle within a predetermined nozzle group and executes a printing process on the basis of the supplementing printing data in a case in which it is determined that a predetermined nozzle within the predetermined nozzle group is a non-discharging nozzle when forming a plurality of raster lines on the medium by discharging the liquid from the nozzles of the plurality of nozzle groups.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A liquid discharging apparatus comprising:
a head including a plurality of nozzle groups in which nozzles are arranged, and that is capable of discharging a liquid onto a medium; a main scanning portion that scans the head in a main scanning direction; a sub-scanning portion that relatively moves the head and the medium in a sub-scanning direction, which intersects the main scanning direction; and a control portion, wherein the control portion generates supplementing printing data, which corrects printing data in a manner in which it is possible to supplement with another nozzle within a predetermined nozzle group and executes a printing process on the basis of the supplementing printing data in a case in which it is determined that a predetermined nozzle within the predetermined nozzle group is a non-discharging nozzle when forming a plurality of raster lines on the medium by discharging the liquid from the nozzles of the plurality of nozzle groups.

2 . The liquid discharging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein, the control portion generates the supplementing printing data in a manner in which it is possible to supplement with the other nozzles, which are the other nozzles within the predetermined nozzle group and which correspond to the same raster line as a raster line that corresponds to the non-discharging nozzle.

3 . The liquid discharging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein, the control portion generates the supplementing printing data in a manner in which it is possible to supplement with the other nozzles, which are the other nozzles within the predetermined nozzle group and which correspond to a different raster line that is disposed in the periphery of a raster line that corresponds to the non-discharging nozzle.

4 . The liquid discharging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the control portion generates supplementing printing data, which corrects printing data in a manner in which it is possible to supplement with a plurality of nozzles within another nozzle group that differs from the predetermined nozzle group and executes the printing process on the basis of the supplementing printing data when it is determined that it is not possible to supplement with the other nozzles within the predetermined nozzle group in a case in which it is determined that the predetermined nozzle within the predetermined nozzle group is a non-discharging nozzle.

5 . A liquid discharging method of a liquid discharging apparatus provided with a head including a plurality of nozzle groups in which nozzles are arranged, and that is capable of discharging a liquid onto a medium, a main scanning portion that scans the head in a main scanning direction, a sub-scanning portion that relatively moves the head and the medium in a sub-scanning direction, which intersects the main scanning direction, and a control portion,
the method comprising generating supplementing printing data, which corrects printing data in a manner in which it is possible to supplement with another nozzle within a predetermined nozzle group, and executing a printing process on the basis of the supplementing printing data in a case in which it is determined that a predetermined nozzle within the predetermined nozzle group is a non-discharging nozzle when forming a plurality of raster lines on the medium by discharging the liquid from the nozzles of the plurality of nozzle groups.

6 . A liquid discharging apparatus comprising:
a head including a plurality of nozzle groups in which nozzles are arranged, and that is capable of discharging a liquid onto a medium; a main scanning portion that scans the head in a main scanning direction; a sub-scanning portion that relatively moves the head and the medium in a sub-scanning direction, which intersects the main scanning direction; and a control portion that forms a plurality of raster lines on the medium by discharging the liquid from the nozzles of the plurality of nozzle groups, wherein the control portion
acquires a possible printing Duty of a predetermined nozzle group on the basis of a number of occurrences of non-discharging nozzles in the predetermined nozzle group,
compares a set printing Duty that the predetermined nozzle group is to print among an overall printing Duty, and the possible printing Duty, and
supplements a printing Duty with another nozzle group in a case in which the possible printing Duty is smaller than the set printing Duty.

7 . The liquid discharging apparatus according to claim 6 ,
wherein the liquid discharging apparatus includes a plurality of the other nozzle groups, and wherein the control portion equally supplements with the printing Duties of the plurality of other nozzle groups in a case in which the possible printing Duty is smaller than the set printing Duty.

8 . The liquid discharging apparatus according to claim 6 ,
wherein the control portion outputs an error in a case in which a total value of the possible printing Duties of the predetermined nozzle group and the other nozzle group is smaller than the overall printing Duty.

9 . A liquid discharging method of a liquid discharging apparatus provided with a head including a plurality of nozzle groups in which nozzles are arranged, and that is capable of discharging a liquid onto a medium, a main scanning portion that scans the head in a main scanning direction, a sub-scanning portion that relatively moves the head and the medium in a sub-scanning direction, which intersects the main scanning direction, and a control portion,
the method comprising: acquiring a possible printing Duty of a predetermined nozzle group on the basis of a number of occurrences of non-discharging nozzles in the predetermined nozzle group; comparing a set printing Duty that the predetermined nozzle group is to print among an overall printing Duty, and the possible printing Duty; and supplementing a printing Duty with another nozzle group in a case in which the possible printing Duty is smaller than the set printing Duty when forming a plurality of raster lines on the medium by discharging the liquid from the nozzles of the plurality of nozzle groups.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Yoshikawa Eishin

Classifications

• G06K15/105

  Multipass or interlaced printing · CPC title

• B41J2/2132

  Print quality control characterised by dot disposition, e.g. for reducing white stripes or banding (methods for local corrections by dot omission, image edge enhancement, or multi-pass mask selection G06K15/102; colour conversion H04N1/40) · CPC title

• B41J2/04543

  Block driving · CPC title

• B41J2/2139 Primary

  Compensation for malfunctioning nozzles creating dot place or dot size errors (generating single droplets or particles on demand by pressure, e.g. electromechanical transducers B41J2/045) · CPC title

• B41J25/001 Primary

  Mechanisms for bodily moving print heads or carriages parallel to the paper surface · CPC title