Device for inspecting print material, method of inspecting print material, and program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9937706-B2
Application number	US-201715423443-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 2, 2017
Priority date	Aug 27, 2014
Publication date	Apr 10, 2018
Grant date	Apr 10, 2018

Abstract

This object is solved by a device for inspecting a print material, including evaluation value acquisition means for inspecting a plurality of print materials and acquiring an evaluation value indicating quality of each print material, allowed-number-of-failed-product acquisition means for acquiring an allowed number of failed products among the plurality of print materials, determination criterion determination means for determining a determination criterion in which the number of failed products is equal to or smaller than the allowed number of failed products and a sum of evaluation values of passed products becomes a highest-quality value, pass and fail determination means for determining pass or fail of each print material on the basis of the determination criterion and the evaluation value of each print material, and output means for outputting a determination result of the pass and fail determination means.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device for inspecting a print material, comprising:
evaluation value acquisition means for acquiring an evaluation value indicating quality of each print material of a plurality of print materials;
allowed-number-of-failed-product acquisition means for acquiring an allowed number of failed products among the plurality of print materials;
determination criterion determination means for determining a determination criterion in which the number of failed products is equal to or smaller than the allowed number of failed products and a sum of evaluation values of passed products becomes a highest-quality value;
pass and fail determination means for determining pass or fail of each print material on the basis of the determination criterion and the evaluation value of each print material; and
sorting means for sorting and separating passed products and failed products.

2. The device for inspecting a print material according to claim 1 ,
wherein the evaluation value acquisition means acquires the evaluation value of each print material on the basis of visibility of streak of each print material.

3. The device for inspecting a print material according to claim 1 ,
wherein the evaluation value acquisition means acquires an evaluation value of each print material on the basis of the visibility of contamination of each print material.

4. The device for inspecting a print material according to claim 1 ,
wherein the evaluation value acquisition means acquires an evaluation value of each print material on the basis of the visibility of unevenness of each print material.

5. The device for inspecting a print material according to claim 1 ,
wherein the evaluation value acquisition means acquires an evaluation value of each print material on the basis of the visibility of the lack of characters of each print material.

6. The device for inspecting a print material according to claim 1 ,
wherein the evaluation value acquisition means acquires an evaluation value of each print material on the basis of a viewpoint of at least one of visibility of streak of each print material, visibility of contamination of the print material or visibility of unevenness of the print material, and a viewpoint of visibility of a lack of characters of each print material, and sets a weight of the viewpoint of the lack of the characters to be relatively greater than a weight of the viewpoint other than the lack of the characters to acquire the evaluation value of each print material in a case where a plurality of print materials are print materials in which characters are important.

7. The device for inspecting a print material according to claim 1 ,
wherein the determination criterion determination means determines, as a determination criterion, an evaluation value at which print materials corresponding to the allowed number of failed products from a low-quality print material among the plurality of print materials arranged in an evaluation order are determined to be failed.

8. The device for inspecting a print material according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a display for displaying information on at least one of passed products and failed products.

9. The device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a computer which executes a program to cause the computer to execute the acquiring of the evaluation value, the acquiring of the allowed number of failed products, the determining of the determination criterion, and the determining of the pass or fail of each print material.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable tangible medium having a program that causes a computer to execute a method of inspecting a print material, the method comprising:
an evaluation value acquisition step of inspecting a plurality of print materials and acquiring an evaluation value indicating quality of each print material;
an allowed-number-of-failed-product acquisition step of acquiring an allowed number of failed products among the plurality of print materials;
a determination criterion determination step of determining a determination criterion in which the number of failed products is equal to or smaller than the allowed number of failed products and a sum of evaluation values of passed products becomes a highest-quality value;
a pass and fail determination step of determining pass or fail of each print material on the basis of the determination criterion and the evaluation value of each print material; and
an output step of outputting a determination result in the pass and fail determination step.

11. A device for inspecting print material, comprising:
a computer which executes a program to cause the computer to execute:
setting a number of waste sheets allowed in a print job and a waste sheet condition;
calculating an evaluation value of a print material based on type, visibility, length, area and number of image defects; and
determining a pass and fail determination criterion in which the number of waste sheets is equal to or smaller than a predetermined number of sheets and a sum of evaluation values of passed print materials becomes a maximum value according to the waste sheet condition; and

a waste sheet sorting unit which sorts passed print materials and waste sheets based on the pass and fail determination criterion.

12. The device of claim 11 , wherein the computer executes a program to cause the computer to further execute:
acquiring an original print image;
performing raster image processor (RIP) processing on the acquired original print image;
dividing and reading a print material printed on the basis of the original print image, into a plurality of divided and read images; and
converting the plurality of divided and read images into the same color space in order to compare the original print image with each of the plurality of divided and read images.

13. The device of claim 12 , wherein the computer executes a program to cause the computer to further execute:
performing an alignment process on the original print image and each of the plurality of divided and read images;
removing a variation in an image signal at a low frequency of each of the plurality of divided and read images;
comparing each of the plurality of divided and read images with the original print image, and calculating a difference of image signals between corresponding pixels;
setting a defect evaluation reference value for detecting an image defect from each of the plurality of divided and read images;
detecting an image defect of each of the plurality of divided and read images based on the defect evaluation reference value; and
storing a type, visibility, length, area, and number of the detected image defect,
wherein the calculating of the evaluation value comprises calculating the evaluation value based on the stored type, visibility, length, area and number of image defects.

14. The device of claim 13 , wherein the original print image comprises original data of an image printed on a print material in a print job.

15. The device of claim 13 , wherein the detecting of the image defect comprises detecting an image defect of each of the plurality of divided and read images from the defect evaluation reference value and the calculated difference of image signals.

16. The device of claim 13 , wherein the detecting of the image defect comprises extracting a type, visibility, length, area, and number of detected image defects.

17. The device of claim 13 , wherein the detecting of the image defect comprises detecting at least one of a streak, a contamination, an unevenness, and a character lac

Assignees

• Fujifilm Corp

Inventors

• Yamazaki Yoshirou

Classifications

• B65H2511/52

  Defective operating conditions · CPC title

• G07D7/2075

  Setting acceptance levels or parameters · CPC title

• B41J29/393

  Devices for controlling or analysing the entire machine {; Controlling or analysing mechanical parameters involving printing of test patterns} · CPC title

• B41F33/0036 Primary

  Devices for scanning or checking the printed matter for quality control · CPC title

• G01N21/93

  Detection standards; Calibrating {baseline adjustment, drift correction} · CPC title