Inkjet printing apparatus and control method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8985740-B2
Application number	US-201313804552-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 14, 2013
Priority date	Mar 28, 2012
Publication date	Mar 24, 2015
Grant date	Mar 24, 2015

Abstract

An inkjet printing apparatus includes a purge unit having a sheet member that purges ink deposited on an orifice face of a print head and a winding unit that winds the sheet member. By using the number of ink ejections executed between a first purge operation and a second purge operation, the amount of winding of the sheet member is controlled after the second purge operation is completed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An inkjet printing apparatus comprising:
a print head having at least one nozzle array disposed in an orifice face, the nozzle array including a plurality of nozzles is arranged in a first direction, the nozzles ejecting ink;
a scanning unit configured to scan the print head in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction;
a purge unit configured to perform a purging operation and including a sheet member configured to contact the orifice face and purge ink deposited on the orifice face
a winding unit configured to wind the sheet member thereon; and
a control unit configured to control, on the basis of the number of ink ejections from the print head executed between a first purging operation performed by the purge unit and a second purging operation subsequently performed after the first purging operation, an amount of winding of the sheet member by the winding unit after the second purging operation.

2. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein if a second number of ejections is greater than a first number of ejections, the control unit sets the amount of winding corresponding to the second number of ejections to an amount that is greater than the amount of winding corresponding to the first number of ejections.

3. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein ink on the orifice face is purged by the sheet member during a period of time when the print head is being scanned by the scanning unit.

4. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 3 ,
Wherein the print head includes a first nozzle array and a second nozzle array, and
wherein the control unit controls the amount of winding on the basis of a sum of the number of ink ejections from the first nozzle array and the number of ink ejections from the second nozzle array.

5. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a moving unit configured to move the purge unit in the first direction,
wherein ink on the orifice face is purged when the scanning unit is stopped in the vicinity of one end portion of the scanning area of the scanning unit by moving the moving unit.

6. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 5 ,
Wherein the print head includes a first nozzle array and a second nozzle array, and
wherein the control unit controls the amount of winding on the basis of a larger one of the number of ink ejections from the first nozzle array and the number of ink ejections from the second nozzle array.

7. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit multiplies the number of ink ejections by a distance coefficient determined in accordance with a distance between the orifice face of the print head and a recording medium to obtain a value corrected using the distance coefficient and controls the winding unit on the basis of the corrected value.

8. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a humidity measuring unit configured to measure a humidity around the inkjet printing apparatus,
wherein the control unit multiplies the number of ink ejections by a humidity coefficient determined in accordance with the humidity measured by the humidity measuring unit to obtain a value corrected using the humidity coefficient and controls the winding unit on the basis of the corrected value.

9. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the nozzle array is divided into a plurality of blocks each including a plurality of nozzles and driven so as to sequentially eject ink on a block basis, and
wherein the control unit multiplies the number of ink ejections by an ejection time difference coefficient determined in accordance with a time difference between ejection times of two adjacent nozzles to obtain a value corrected using the ejection time difference coefficient and controls the amount of winding on the basis of the corrected value.

10. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit multiplies the number of ink ejections by an ink ejection volume coefficient determined in accordance with an ink volume ejected from the nozzles per ejection to obtain a value corrected using the ink ejection volume coefficient and controls the amount of winding on the basis of the corrected value.

11. The inkjet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit multiplies the number of ink ejections by an ink type coefficient determined in accordance with the type of ink to obtain a value corrected using the ink type coefficient and controls the amount of winding on the basis of the corrected value.

12. A method for controlling an inkjet printing apparatus, the inkjet printing apparatus including a print head having at least one nozzle array disposed in an orifice face, where the nozzle array includes a plurality of nozzles that is arranged in a first direction and that eject ink, a scanning unit configured to scan the print head in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, a purge unit configured to perform a purging operation includes a sheet member configured to contact the orifice face and purge ink deposited on the orifice face
a winding unit configured to wind the sheet member thereon, the method comprising:
measuring the number of ink ejections from the print head executed between a first purging operation performed by the purge unit and a second purging operation subsequently performed after the first purging operation is performed; and
winding a predetermined amount of the sheet member using the winding unit after the second purging operation, the predetermined amount of the sheet member being set on the basis of a result of measuring the number of ink ejections.

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Ibe Tsuyoshi
• Uetsuki Masaya
• Suzuki Kazuo
• Danzuka Toshimitsu
• Kato Masataka
• Tomida Asako
• Komatsu Hiroaki

Classifications

• B41J2002/1655

  with wiping surface parallel with nozzle plate and mounted on reels, e.g. cleaning ribbon cassettes · CPC title

• B41J2/16535

  using wiping constructions (B41J2/16552 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B41J2/1652 Primary

  by driving a fluid through the nozzles to the outside thereof, e.g. by applying pressure to the inside or vacuum at the outside of the print head · CPC title

• B41J2/16526 Primary

  by applying pressure only · CPC title