Printing apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9302477-B2
Application number	US-201414208917-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2014
Priority date	Mar 27, 2013
Publication date	Apr 5, 2016
Grant date	Apr 5, 2016

Abstract

Provided is a printing apparatus including a head and a control unit. The head ejects, onto a printing medium, an image forming liquid for forming an image and an ancillary liquid ancillary to forming of the image performed by the image forming liquid. The control unit performs control so as to cause the head to perform a first operation of ejecting the image forming liquid onto a first region of the printing medium, and a second operation of ejecting the ancillary liquid onto a second region of the printing medium, the second region being different from the first region. Further, the control unit performs control so as to cause the head to perform the second operation in an anterior pass and perform the first operation in a posterior pass.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A printing apparatus comprising:
a head configured to eject, onto a printing medium, an image forming liquid for forming an image and an ancillary liquid ancillary to forming of the image performed by the image forming liquid, wherein the head is configured to move in a first direction and a second direction intersecting the first direction; and
a control unit configured to perform control so as to cause the head to perform a first operation of ejecting the image forming liquid onto a first region of the printing medium, and a second operation of ejecting the ancillary liquid onto a second region of the printing medium, the second region being different from the first region,
wherein the control unit controls the head to perform the second operation during each anterior pass of the head and perform the first operation during each posterior pass of the head.

2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit includes a calculation unit for calculating a coverage ratio of the image on the printing medium on the basis of image data corresponding to the image, and in the case where the coverage ratio is smaller than or equal to a threshold value, the control unit performs control so as to cause the head to also eject the ancillary liquid to the first region.

3. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the control unit is capable of selectively performing a plurality of modes which are mutually different in an amount of ejection of the ancillary liquid in the second operation.

4. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a measurement portion configured to measure humidity of the printing medium,
wherein, in the case where a result of the measurement performed by the measurement portion is smaller than or equal to a threshold value, the control unit performs control so as to cause the head to increase an amount of ejection of the ancillary liquid.

5. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, in the case where there exists a region which is the second region and is to be detached after subjected to printing of the image, the control unit performs control so as to cause the head not to perform the second operation on the region to be detached.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Toya Akihiro

Classifications

• B41J2/2117

  Ejecting white liquids · CPC title

• B41J2/2114 Primary

  Ejecting specialized liquids, e.g. transparent or processing liquids (B41J2/211 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B41J2/07 Primary

  characterised by jet control (B41J2/205 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B41J2/2128

  by means of energy modulation (control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits or control circuits B41J2/04501) · CPC title