Liquid discharge apparatus, control method of liquid discharge apparatus, and device driver, and printing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9427959-B2
Application number	US-201514849872-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 10, 2015
Priority date	Sep 10, 2014
Publication date	Aug 30, 2016
Grant date	Aug 30, 2016

Abstract

The degree of thickening of ink for each of nozzles based on dot pattern data is calculated based on a thickening value Z(n+1)=Z(n)×a×bs s ×bm m ×bl l , and information the dot pattern data corresponding to the nozzle, which indicates that small dots are formed in when the thickening value is equal to or greater than a threshold is replaced with information indicating that middle dots which are larger than the small dots are formed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A liquid discharge apparatus comprising:
a liquid discharge head that includes a plurality of nozzles, discharges a liquid from the nozzles by driving of an actuator, and then forms dots with impacted liquids on an impacted object;
a driving waveform generation circuit that generates a driving waveform for driving the actuator; and
a control circuit that controls discharging of the liquid by the liquid discharge head based on discharge data including information indicating a size of a dot formed on the impacted object,
wherein the control circuit calculates a degree of thickening of the liquid for each of the nozzles, and discharges relatively large dots compared to small dots to an area on which relatively the smallest dots are supposed to be formed from the nozzles based on the discharge data when the degree of thickening of the liquid in the nozzle becomes a predetermined state which is determined in advance.

2. The liquid discharge apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein when n is set to a natural number including 0, Z (0) is set to a constant indicating an initial value of the degree of thickening, a is set to a constant which is determined based on liquid characteristics, bs, bm, and bl are set to constants respectively relating to the small dot, a middle dot which is larger than the small dot, and a large dot which is larger than the middle dot, and s, m, and l are set to numbers of discharged ink droplets of each of the small dot, the middle dot, and the large dot during an n-th discharge period, the degree of thickening in a predetermined discharge period is represented by the following Expression
Z ( n+ 1)= Z ( n )× a×bs s ×bm m ×bl l .

3. A control method of a liquid discharge apparatus which includes a liquid discharge head that includes a plurality of nozzles, discharges a liquid from the nozzles by driving of an actuator, and then forms dots with impacted liquids on an impacted object; a driving waveform generation circuit that generates a driving waveform for driving the actuator; and a control circuit that controls discharging of the liquid by the liquid discharge head based on discharge data including information indicating a size of a dot formed on the impacted object, the method comprising:
calculating degree of thickening of a liquid for each of the nozzles; and
discharging relatively large dots compared to small dots to an area on which relatively the smallest dots are supposed to be formed based on the discharge data from the nozzles when the degree of thickening of the liquid in the nozzle becomes a predetermined state which is determined in advance.

4. A device driver that is executable in a host apparatus which is communicably connected to a liquid discharge apparatus that includes a plurality of nozzles, discharges a liquid from the nozzles by driving of an actuator, and then forms dots with impacted liquids on an impacted object, the device driver causing the host apparatus to execute:
generating discharge data which includes information indicating a size of dots formed on an impacted object from job data for causing the liquid discharge apparatus to execute a liquid discharge operation;
calculating degree of thickening of a liquid based on the discharge data for each of the nozzles; and
replacing information of the discharge data corresponding to the nozzles, which indicates that relatively smallest dots are formed with information indicating that dots which are larger than small dots are formed when the degree of thickening of the liquid in the nozzle becomes a predetermined state which is determined in advance.

5. A printing system that is formed of a host apparatus and a liquid discharge apparatus which is communicably connected to the host apparatus,
wherein the liquid discharge apparatus includes a liquid discharge head that includes a plurality of nozzles, discharges a liquid from the nozzles by driving of an actuator, and then forms dots with impacted liquids on an impacted object; and a driving waveform generation circuit that generates a driving waveform for driving the actuator,
wherein the driving waveform generation circuit generates a driving waveform in accordance with a size of a dot which is formed on the impacted object, and
the host apparatus executes a device driver relating to a liquid discharging operation in the liquid discharge apparatus, and
wherein the device driver causing the host apparatus to execute:
generating discharge data including information indicating the size of the dots formed on the impacted object from job data for causing the liquid discharge apparatus to execute a liquid discharge operation;
calculating degree of thickening of a liquid based on the discharge data for each of the nozzles; and
replacing information indicating that relatively smallest dots are formed in the discharge data corresponding to nozzles with information indicating that dots which are larger than small dots are formed when the degree of thickening of the liquid in the nozzle becomes a predetermined state which is determined in advance.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Zhang Junhua

Classifications

• B41J2/04541 Primary

  Specific driving circuit · CPC title

• B41J2/04586

  controlling heads of a type not covered by groups B41J2/04575 - B41J2/04585, or of an undefined type · CPC title

• B41J2/04581 Primary

  controlling heads based on piezoelectric elements · CPC title

• B41J2/04596

  Non-ejecting pulses · CPC title

• B41J2/04588

  using a specific waveform · CPC title