Printing apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9764549-B2
Application number	US-201615179564-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 10, 2016
Priority date	Jun 29, 2015
Publication date	Sep 19, 2017
Grant date	Sep 19, 2017

Abstract

A printing apparatus including a discharge head that performs scanning movement with respect to a print medium and discharges ink to a surface of the print medium, a signal output unit which includes a reference scale in which optical density changes stepwise along a scanning movement direction of the discharge head and a reading unit that optically reads the reference scale and outputs a signal according to the optical density and in which the reference scale and the reading unit move relatively with each other along with the movement of the discharge head, and a stain detection unit that detects stain of the signal output unit based on a detection result of a strength level of the signal.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A printing apparatus comprising:
a discharge head that performs scanning movement with respect to a print medium and discharges ink to a surface of the print medium;
a signal output unit including a reference scale in which optical density changes stepwise along a scanning movement direction of the discharge head and a reading unit that optically reads the reference scale and outputs a signal according to the optical density, the reference scale and the reading unit moving relatively with each other along with the movement of the discharge head;
a stain detection unit that detects stain of the signal output unit based on a detection result of a strength level of the signal; and
a signal history holding unit that holds information related to a history of change in the strength level of the signal.

2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the stain detection unit detects the strength level of the signal by converting the signal into a multi-valued data of three values or more.

3. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a setting history holding unit that holds information related to a history of a print setting; and
an evaluation unit that evaluates a correlation between the print setting and the stain based on the information held by the signal history holding unit and the information held by the setting history holding unit.

4. The printing apparatus according to claim 3 , further comprising:
a notification unit that notifies a user of a print setting that is evaluated to be highly correlated with the stain by the evaluation unit.

5. The printing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein
the notification unit notifies a user of a print setting whose correlation with the stain is lower than that of the current print setting.

6. The printing apparatus according to claim 3 , further comprising:
an estimation unit that estimates a service life of the signal output unit in printing based on one print setting, based on an evaluation result of the evaluation unit.

7. The printing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein
the setting history holding unit integrates an operation amount of the discharge head under a print setting for each print setting.

8. The printing apparatus according to claim 3 , further comprising:
a displacement detection unit that detects a displacement of the discharge head based on a detection result of a variation timing of the signal during a period in which the discharge head performs scanning movement,
wherein the setting history holding unit holds the number of times of occurrence of detection error of the displacement in the displacement detection unit for each print setting.

9. The printing apparatus according to claim 3 , further comprising:
a support unit that supports the print medium to face the discharge head,
wherein a setting of a gap between the support unit and the discharge head can be changed, and
the information held by the setting history holding unit includes information related to the gap between the support unit and the discharge head.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Kimoto Yoshiyuki

Classifications

• B41J2/04586 Primary

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

• B41J2/125

  Sensors, e.g. deflection sensors {(nozzle clogging detection for cleaning reasons B41J2/16579; detection for compensation for failed nozzles B41J2/2139)} · CPC title

• B41J3/4078

  Printing on textile · CPC title

• B41J19/207 Primary

  Encoding along a bar · CPC title

• B41J11/0095

  Detecting means for copy material, e.g. for detecting or sensing presence of copy material or its leading or trailing end · CPC title