Liquid application apparatus and computer-readable storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9498985-B2
Application number	US-201514633940-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 27, 2015
Priority date	Feb 28, 2014
Publication date	Nov 22, 2016
Grant date	Nov 22, 2016

Abstract

A liquid application apparatus comprises: a pair of conveyor rollers including two rollers configured to rotate while pinching a recording medium thereby to convey the recording medium in a first direction; a liquid applicator configured to apply a liquid; and a controller configured to control driving of the pair of conveyor rollers and to control the liquid applicator. The controller executes a calculation process of calculating an estimated value of an amount of extraneous matter attached to the pair of conveyor rollers taking into account weighting data indicating a weighting given, based on an amount of paper dust, to each of areas on the recording medium which areas are arranged in a second direction crossing the first direction.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A liquid application apparatus comprising:
a pair of conveyor rollers including two rollers configured to rotate while pinching a recording medium thereby to convey the recording medium in a first direction;
a liquid applicator configured to apply a liquid; and
a controller configured to control driving of the pair of conveyor rollers and to control the liquid applicator; wherein
the controller executes a calculation process of calculating an estimated value of an amount of extraneous matter attached to the pair of conveyor rollers taking into account weighting data indicating a weighting given, based on an amount of paper dust, to each of areas on the recording medium which areas are arranged in a second direction crossing the first direction.

2. The liquid application apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a storage configured to store the weighting data, wherein
the controller executes the calculation process taking into account the weighting data read out from the storage.

3. The liquid application apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein:
the areas include two first areas which respectively include ends of the recording medium in the second direction, and a second area which does not include the ends; and
the weighting data is set so that values of the weightings of the two first areas are larger than a value of the weighting of the second area.

4. The liquid application apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein:
the second area includes a center of the recording medium in the second direction; and
the weighting data is set so that the values of the weightings of the two first areas are not less than twice the value of the weighting of the second area.

5. The liquid application apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a container configured to store one or more recording media;
a supply roller configured to forward a recording medium stored in the container to the pair of conveyor rollers; and
a separation member configured to separate a plurality of recording media forwarded by the supply roller by applying a frictional resistance to the recording media, wherein:
the areas include a third area which comes into contact with the separation member, and a fourth area which does not come into contact with the separation member; and
the weighting data is set so that a value of the weighting of the third area is larger than a value of the weighting of the fourth area.

6. The liquid application apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a storage configured to store a plurality of sets of the weighting data respectively for recording media of which lengths in the second direction are different from one another, wherein
the controller executes the calculation process taking into account one of the plurality of sets of the weighting data read out from the storage.

7. The liquid application apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the weighting data is set so that the longer the length of the recording medium in the first direction is, the larger a value of the weighting is.

8. The liquid application apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the controller further executes:
a first determination process of determining whether the estimated value calculated in the calculation process exceeds a first threshold value; and
an output process of outputting a signal for cleaning of the pair of conveyor rollers when the controller determines that the estimated value exceeds the first threshold value in the first determination process.

9. The liquid application apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein:
in the calculation process, the controller calculates the estimated value for each of the areas;
in the first determination process, the controller determines whether at least one of the estimated values calculated in the calculation process exceeds the first threshold value; and
the controller executes the output process when the controller determines that at least one of the estimated values exceeds the first threshold values in the first determination process.

10. The liquid application apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the controller further executes a decision process of deciding a correction value using which rotation rate of the pair of conveyor rollers is corrected, based on the estimated value calculated in the calculation process.

11. The liquid application apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein:
the controller further executes a second determination process of determining whether the estimated value calculated in the calculation process exceeds a second threshold value; and
the controller executes the decision process when the controller determines that the estimated value exceeds the second threshold value in the second determination process.

12. The liquid application apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the controller further executes:
a first determination process of determining whether the estimated value calculated in the calculation process exceeds a first threshold value;
an output process of outputting a signal for cleaning of the pair of conveyor rollers when the controller determines that the estimated value exceeds the first threshold value in the first determination process;
a second determination process of determining whether the estimated value calculated in the calculation process exceeds a second threshold value which is smaller than the first threshold value when the controller determines that the estimated value does not exceed the first threshold value in the first determination process; and
a decision process of deciding a correction value using which rotation rate of the pair of conveyor rollers is corrected, based on the estimated value calculated in the calculation process when the controller determines that the estimated value exceeds the second threshold value in the second determination process.

13. The liquid application apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the liquid applicator includes a recording liquid ejector positioned downstream of the pair of conveyor rollers in the first direction, the recording liquid ejector configured to eject a recording liquid.

14. The liquid application apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the liquid applicator includes a treatment liquid ejector positioned upstream of the pair of conveyor rollers in the first direction, the treatment liquid ejector configured to eject a treatment liquid which reacts with a recording liquid to aggregate or precipitate a component of the recording liquid.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for a controller of a liquid application apparatus,
the liquid application apparatus comprising: a pair of conveyor rollers including two rollers configured to rotate while pinching a recording medium thereby to convey the recording medium in a first direction; a liquid applicator configured to apply a liquid; and the controller configured to control driving of the pair of conveyor rollers and to control the liquid applicator,
the program causing the controller to execute a calculation process of calculating an estimated value of an amount of extraneous matter attached to the pair of conveyor rollers taking into account weighting data indicating a weighting given, based on an amount of paper dust, to each of areas on the recording medium which areas are arranged in a second direction crossing the first direction.

Assignees

• Brother Ind Ltd

Inventors

• Tsuboi Motohiro

Classifications

• B41J13/02 Primary

  Rollers (roller platens B41J11/04) · CPC title