Image recording device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9440432-B2
Application number	US-201615072358-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 17, 2016
Priority date	Sep 20, 2013
Publication date	Sep 13, 2016
Grant date	Sep 13, 2016

Abstract

In an image recording device, in a case where a J-th nozzle (H 2 [3 ]) of a certain image recording head (H 2 ) among plural image recording heads (H 1 , H 2 ) is in a discharge defect state, a dot size of an image recording droplet discharged from a J-th nozzle (H 1 [3 ]) of an image recording head (H 1 ) other than the image recording head (H 2 ) is changed to a size within dot sizes used in normal image recording in a high-speed image recording mode, which is larger than a dot size of an image recording droplet to be discharged from the discharging nozzle (H 2 [3 ]). In a low-speed image recording mode, the dot size of the image recording droplet discharged from the discharging nozzle (H 1 [3 ]) is changed to a size which is larger than the largest dot size among dot sizes used in the normal image recording.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image recording device comprising:
an image recording unit that includes a plurality of image recording heads in which each head includes the same number of a plurality of discharging nozzles that discharge an image recording droplet;
an image processing unit that converts an input image into dot data configured by dots of two or more sizes;
a data transmitting unit that transmits the dot data from the image processing unit to the image recording unit;
an image recording mode control unit that controls the image recording unit so that an image is recorded in at least two image recording modes where image recording speeds are different from each other;
a discharge state reading unit that reads discharge states of the plurality of discharging nozzles; and
a dot data change unit that changes, when the discharge state reading unit detects a discharge defect of a first discharging nozzle which is a J-th discharging nozzle among the plurality of discharging nozzles of one image recording head among the plurality of image recording heads, a dot size of an image recording droplet discharged from a second discharging nozzle which is a J-th discharging nozzle of at least one image recording head other than the image recording head including the first discharging nozzle to a first size larger than a dot size of an original image recording droplet to be discharged from the first discharging nozzle in a case where an image is recorded in a first mode where an image recording speed is fast among the image recording modes, and changes the dot size of the image recording droplet discharged from the second discharging nozzle to a second size which is larger than the largest dot size among the dot sizes in a case where the image is recorded in a second mode where the image recording speed is slower than that in the first mode among the image recording modes.

2. The image recording device according to claim 1 ,
wherein where a period of a waveform for creating an image recording droplet of the second size is represented as λDa, a period of a waveform for creating an image recording droplet of the largest dot size is represented as λD, a discharge time interval of the first and second discharging nozzles in the first mode where the image recording speed is fast is represented as TH, and a discharge time interval of the first and second discharging nozzles in the second mode where the image recording speed is slow is represented as TS, the period λDa, the period λD, the discharge time interval TH and the discharge time interval TS are in a relationship of TS>λDa>TH>λD.

3. The image recording device according to claim 1 ,
wherein in a case where the image is recorded in the first mode, the dot data change unit changes a dot size of an image recording droplet discharged from at least one of a third discharging nozzle which is a (J−1)-th discharging nozzle and a fourth discharging nozzle which is a (J+1)-th discharging nozzle of the image recording head having the first discharging nozzle to the first size.

4. The image recording device according to claim 1 ,
wherein in the case where the image is recorded in the second mode, the dot data change unit changes at least one of dot sizes of image recording droplets discharged from a third discharging nozzle which is a (J−1)-th discharging nozzle and a fourth discharging nozzle which is a (J+1)-th discharging nozzle of the image recording head having the first discharging nozzle to a dot size which is equal to or smaller than the second dot size.

5. The image recording device according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a discharge timing control unit that controls timings when the image recording droplets are discharged from the plurality of discharging nozzles,
wherein in a case where the first discharging nozzle and a fifth discharging nozzle which is a (J−1)-th or (J+1)-th discharging nozzle among a plurality of discharging nozzles of one image recording head among the plurality of image recording heads, which discharges an image recording droplet for impacting a position consecutive to a position to be impacted by an image recording droplet to be discharged from the first discharging nozzle, are in a discharge defect state, the discharge timing control unit performs a control for shifting a discharge timing of a sixth discharging nozzle capable of allowing an image recording droplet to impact positions to be impacted by image recording droplets to be discharged from the first discharging nozzle and the fifth discharging nozzle from an original discharge timing to a discharge timing in a case where the first discharging nozzle and the fifth discharging nozzle are not in the discharge defect state.

Assignees

• Fujifilm Corp

Inventors

• Yamanobe Jun

Classifications

• B41J2/04508

  aiming at correcting other parameters · CPC title

• B41J2/0451 Primary

  for detecting failure, e.g. clogging, malfunctioning actuator · CPC title

• B41J2/2121

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

• B41J2/07

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

• B41J2/04506

  aiming at correcting manufacturing tolerances · CPC title