Liquid discharging apparatus and liquid discharging method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9346265-B2
Application number	US-201414222094-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 21, 2014
Priority date	Mar 29, 2013
Publication date	May 24, 2016
Grant date	May 24, 2016

Abstract

There is provided a liquid discharging apparatus including: a first nozzle row and a second nozzle row in which nozzles for discharging liquid are lined up in a predetermined direction; and a control unit, in which the control unit, when a value of the input data of the image is at least in a partial range, obtains a corrected discharging rate which is a discharging rate smaller than a discharging rate in the non-overlapped region with respect to the value of the input data at least in the partial range of the input data, and discharges the liquid from the nozzles of the first nozzle row and the second nozzle row depending on the corrected discharging rate, and a predetermined recording duty which is a recording duty higher than a recording duty in the non-overlapped region, in the overlapped region.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A liquid discharging apparatus comprising:
a first nozzle row in which nozzles for discharging liquid are lined up in a predetermined direction;
a second nozzle row in which nozzles for discharging liquid are lined up in a predetermined direction, and which is disposed by forming an overlapped region in which an end portion of one side in the predetermined direction is overlapped with an end portion of the other side in the predetermined direction of the first nozzle row; and
a control unit which discharges liquid from nozzles in the overlapped region and a non-overlapped region which is a region other than the overlapped region, depending on a discharging rate of liquid acquired based on input data of an image, and a recording duty for discharging the liquid,
wherein the control unit, when a value of the input data of the image is at least in a partial range of the input data, obtains a corrected discharging rate which is a discharging rate smaller than a discharging rate in the non-overlapped region with respect to the value of the input data at least in the partial range of the input data, and discharges the liquid from the nozzles of the first nozzle row and the second nozzle row in the overlapped region depending on a value of a correction of increasing the corrected discharging rate with a predetermined recording duty which is a recording duty higher than a recording duty in the non-overlapped region,
wherein the nozzles discharge liquid droplets having a plurality of sizes to form dots having a plurality of dot sizes, and the corrected discharging rate is an amount related to a dot generation rate for each dot size,
wherein, to further decrease the discharging rate in the overlapped region than that in the non-overlapped region at least in a partial range of the input data, is to further decrease the dot generation rate for each dot size in the overlapped region than that in the non-overlapped region at least in a partial range of the input data.

2. The liquid discharging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the predetermined recording duty is constant regardless of the value of the input data.

3. The liquid discharging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the liquid is discharged from the nozzles based on dot data obtained by acquiring the corrected dot generation rate and performing a half-tone process with respect to the acquired corrected dot generation rate, the corrected dot generation rate for each dot being calculated by multiplying the dot generation rate for each dot size by a value representative of the recording duty for each dot.

4. The liquid discharging apparatus according to claim 3 ,
wherein a mask having a blue noise property or a green noise property is used as a dither mask of the half-tone process.

5. The liquid discharging apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the discharging rate before acquiring the corrected discharging rate in the overlapped region is the discharging rate acquired by multiplying a predetermined coefficient by the discharging rate in the non-overlapped region.

6. A liquid discharging method for discharging liquid from a liquid discharging apparatus including a first nozzle row in which nozzles for discharging liquid are lined up in a predetermined direction, and a second nozzle row in which nozzles for discharging liquid are lined up in a predetermined direction, and which is disposed by forming an overlapped region in which an end portion of one side in the predetermined direction is overlapped with an end portion of the other side in the predetermined direction of the first nozzle row, the method comprising:
receiving input data of an image;
when a value of the input data of the image is at least in a partial range of the input data, obtaining a corrected discharging rate which is a discharging rate smaller than a discharging rate in the non-overlapped region with respect to the value of the input data at least in the partial range of the input data; and
discharging the liquid from the nozzles of the first nozzle row and the second nozzle row in the overlapped region depending on a value of a correction of increasing the corrected discharging rate with a predetermined recording duty which is a recording duty higher than a recording duty in the non-overlapped region, the nozzles discharging liquid droplets having a plurality of sizes to form dots having a plurality of dot sizes, and the corrected discharging rate is an amount related to a dot generation rate for each dot size; and,
wherein to further decrease the discharging rate in the overlapped region than that in the non-overlapped region at least in a partial range of the input data by decreasing the dot generation rate for each dot size in the overlapped region than that in the non-overlapped region at least in a partial range of the input data.

7. A liquid discharging apparatus comprising:
a first nozzle row in which nozzles for discharging liquid are lined up in a predetermined direction;
a second nozzle row in which nozzles for discharging liquid are lined up in a predetermined direction, and which is disposed by forming an overlapped region in which an end portion of one side in the predetermined direction is overlapped with an end portion of the other side in the predetermined direction of the first nozzle row; and
a control unit which discharges liquid from nozzles in the overlapped region and a non-overlapped region which is a region other than the overlapped region, depending on a discharging rate of liquid acquired based on input data of an image, and a recording duty for discharging the liquid,
wherein the control unit, when a value of the input data of the image is at least in a partial range of the input data, obtains a corrected discharging rate which is a discharging rate smaller than a discharging rate in the non-overlapped region with respect to the value of the input data at least in the partial range of the input data, and discharges the liquid from the nozzles of the first nozzle row and the second nozzle row in the overlapped region depending on a value of a correction of increasing the corrected discharging rate with a predetermined recording duty which is a recording duty higher than a recording duty in the non-overlapped region,
wherein the liquid is discharged from the nozzles based on dot data obtained by acquiring the corrected dot generation rate and performing a half-tone process with respect to the acquired corrected dot generation rate, the corrected dot generation rate for each dot being calculated by multiplying the dot generation rate for each dot size by a value representative of the recording duty for each dot,
wherein a mask having a blue noise property or a green noise property is used as a dither mask of the half-tone process.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Tanase Kazuyoshi
• Takahashi Toru
• Wada Hiroshi
• Kondo Takamitsu

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

• B41J2202/21

  Line printing · CPC title

• B41J2/07 Primary

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

• B41J2/2121

  characterised by dot size, e.g. combinations of printed dots of different diameter · CPC title