CN-122003659-A - Computer-implemented method, system, computer program and computer-readable medium for generating operating parameters of a printing device

Abstract

The invention relates to a computer-implemented method (100) for automatically generating (GEN 1 ) operating parameters of a printing apparatus comprising a coating module, an ink support device and an ink regeneration device, the method (100) comprising receiving at least one print quality score and/or at least one print quality metric, the print quality score and the print quality metric characterizing the print quality of a printing element printed by the printing apparatus, automatically generating (GEN 1 ) adjusted operating parameters of the coating module using the at least one print quality score and/or using the at least one print quality metric.

Inventors

• T. Palmieri
• C. STOLLER
• R. Stobb
• M. Pfister

Assignees

• 阿尔莫

Dates

Publication Date

20260508

Application Date

20241004

Priority Date

20231004

Claims (20)

1. 1. A computer-implemented method (100) for automatically generating (GEN 1 ) operating parameters of a printing apparatus (1) comprising a coating module (7), an ink support device (5) and an ink regeneration device, the method (100) comprising: -receiving at least one print quality score (Sc i ) and/or at least one print quality measure (Pm i ), the print quality score (Sc i ) and the print quality measure (Pm i ) characterizing the print quality of a printing element (25) printed by the printing device (1); -automatically generating (GEN 1 ) an adjusted operating parameter (Z adj ) of the coating module (7) using the at least one print quality score (Pm i ) and/or using the at least one print quality metric (Pm i ).
2. 2. The method (100) according to claim 1, wherein the printing device (1) comprises at least one controller configured to control at least one component of the coating module (7), and wherein the method (100) further comprises the step of automatically adjusting at least one operating parameter (Z adj ) by means of the controller.
3. 3. The method (100) according to claims 1 to 2, wherein the generated at least one adjusted operating parameter (Z adj ) comprises the thickness of an ink layer applied to the ink support device (5).
4. 4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the generated at least one adjusted operating parameter (Z adj ) comprises the speed of the ink support device (5).
5. 5. The method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the printing apparatus (1) further comprises at least one support element for supporting the ink support device (5) on an inner surface of the ink support device (5).
6. 6. The method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the coating module (7) comprises a squeeze ink roller and an active element pressing the squeeze ink roller onto an outer surface of the ink support device (5), and wherein the adjusted parameters of the coating module (7) comprise at least one pressure parameter related to a pressure applied by the active element to the squeeze ink roller.
7. 7. The method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein at least one print quality score (Sc i ) and/or at least one print quality metric (Pm i ) is generated using a human-machine interface.
8. 8. The method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein at least one print quality score (Sc i ) and/or at least one print quality metric (Pm i ) is calculated by processing the digitized image (110) of the printing element (25).
9. 9. The method (100) of claim 8, wherein at least one print quality metric (Pm i ) is calculated by processing the digitized image (110) of the printing element (25) and by processing a reference image (210) of the printing element (25).
10. 10. The method (100) according to any one of claims 1 to 9, further comprising: -receiving (REC 1 ) a digitized image (110) of at least one printing element (25) by means of a first communication interface (111), said digitized image (110) comprising a plurality of digitized patterns (Dp 1, …, Dp n ) distributed in a plurality of regions of interest (Ri 1 ,…,Ri n ); the following steps are performed by at least one calculator (112): Extracting (EXT 1 ) at least one first value of interest (Va i1 ) from at least one of the plurality of regions of interest (Ri 1 ,…,Ri n ); Calculating at least one print quality score (Sc i ) and/or calculating at least one print quality measure (Pm i ) by: -extracting (EXT 2 ) at least one second value of interest (Va i2 ) different from the first value of interest (Va i1 ), and calculating (CLC 1 ) the print quality score (Sc i ) using the first value of interest (Va i1 ) and using the second value of interest (Va i2 ), and/or; -calculating (CLC 2 ) the print quality metric (Pm i ) using the first value of interest (Va i1 ) and using at least one reference value (Vr i ).
11. 11. The method (100) of claim 10, comprising: -receiving (REC 2 ) a reference image (210) comprising a plurality of reference patterns (Dp ref1 ,…,Dp refn ) distributed in a plurality of reference regions of interest (Ri ref1 ,…,Ri refn ); -extracting (EXT 3 ) said reference value (Va i ) from at least one of said plurality of reference regions of interest (Ri ref1 ,…,Ri refn ); -calculating (CLC 2 ) at least one print quality metric (Pm i ) using the first value of interest (Va i1 ) and using the extracted reference value (Va i ), Wherein the calculated print quality metric (Pm i ) is used to automatically generate an adjusted operating parameter (Z adj ).
12. 12. The method (100) according to any one of claims 10 to 11, comprising the step of extracting a plurality of reference values (Vr 1 ,…,Vr n ) from the plurality of regions of interest (Ri ref1 ,…,Ri refn ) to calculate a plurality of print quality metrics (Pm i ), and wherein the plurality of calculated print quality metrics (Pm 1 ,…,Pm i ) are used to generate the adjusted operating parameter (Z adj ).
13. 13. The method (100) according to any one of claims 10 to 12, wherein the first value of interest (Va i1 ) and the second value of interest (Va i2 ) are extracted from a same region of interest of the plurality of regions of interest (Ri 1 ,…,Ri n ).
14. 14. The method (100) according to any one of claims 10 to 13, comprising extracting a plurality of values of interest (Va 1 ,…,Va i ) from at least two different regions of interest of the plurality of regions of interest (Ri 1 ,…,Ri n ), and wherein the adjusted operating parameter (Z adj ) is generated using the plurality of values of interest (Va 1 ,…,Va i ).
15. 15. The method according to any one of claims 10 to 14, comprising automatically generating at least one predicted print quality score (MS Ci ) and/or at least one predicted print quality metric (MPm i ) by a machine learning algorithm (ML i ) using at least one digitized image (110) as input data to the machine learning algorithm (ML i ).
16. 16. The method (100) of claim 15, wherein the plurality of training digitized images (110 ") are labeled according to an expected human rating of print quality for the plurality of training digitized images (110") of the training machine learning algorithm (ML i ).
17. 17. A system (1000) comprising at least one computer (112) and at least one communication interface (111), the system (1000) comprising hardware means and/or software means to perform the steps of the computer-implemented method (100) according to any of claims 1 to 16.
18. 18. The system (1000) according to claim 17, further comprising at least one optical detection device (26) for detecting the printing element (25).
19. 19. Printing apparatus (1) comprising a coating module (7), an ink support device (5) and an ink regeneration device, and comprising a calculator configured to perform any step of the method according to any one of claims 1 to 16.
20. 20. Printing apparatus (1) according to claim 19, further comprising at least one support element for supporting the ink support device (5) on an inner surface of the ink support device (5).

Description

Computer-implemented method, system, computer program and computer-readable medium for generating operating parameters of a printing device Technical Field The invention relates to a method for automatically generating operating parameters of a printing device. The invention also relates to a system, a computer program and a computer readable medium thereof. Background A thermal transfer printer or printing apparatus is a machine that produces an image by melting ink from a film (ink ribbon) of ink supply film donner and by transferring selected portions of the melted ink to a thermal transfer image receiving sheet or material (substrate) at selected locations. Such printers typically include a print head and a roller to hold and unwind the ink ribbon onto the roller. In fact, in these types of printers, the ribbon is mounted on a rigid core so as to be unwound during the printing operation. Therefore, the ink supply film is limited in length, including both ends, and should be discarded after use. Handling of such a tape is facilitated by the presence of the core. Another type of printing apparatus uses an endless belt that is continuously coated and exposed to a print head. In such a printing apparatus, an endless belt is conveyed such that one portion of the endless belt is exposed to the print head and another portion of the endless belt is dedicated to the "ink regeneration operation", whereby a new uniform and flat ink layer can be applied to the endless belt. The unprinted ink remaining on the endless belt after one printing can be recovered to renew the coating for the next printing. Thus, multiple print cycles/recoating cycles can be run without changing the endless belt. Printing presses of this type are described in patent applications WO2022/128946, WO2022/128941 and WO 2022/128929. For all types of printers, print quality assessment is critical to ensure optimal readability or decoding by a user using the appropriate equipment, as well as to ensure the integrity of the information encoded therein. Therefore, it is critical to verify whether predefined print quality criteria are met. When this is not the case, the method to overcome this problem is to adjust the parameters of the printing apparatus. These parameters may include parameters related to the ink ribbon itself, such as its dimensions or mechanical properties, parameters related to the ink layer, such as its thickness or chemical composition, parameters related to the configuration of the printing apparatus, such as the predetermined speed of the roller during the printing operation, such as the drive roller, or the settings of the print head. Prior art solutions typically involve subjective assessment of printing, where print quality is visually assessed by an operator based on relevant print characteristics. Those prior art methods have several drawbacks. The first drawback is that manual evaluation may lack accuracy because it is based on subjective evaluation by the operator, which may result in different print quality evaluations that vary from operator to operator. Another disadvantage of the prior art methods for print quality assessment is that they do not only not allow to assess the cause of poor print quality (e.g. parts of the printer that cause poor print quality) but they also do not allow to quantify the impact of different parameters on the overall print quality. As a result, this prior art method can incur considerable costs due to the cost of time required to iteratively adjust the parameters until the target quality is reached, or due to the cost of replacing the printer in order to avoid stopping the printing operation for too long. The prior art documents describe methods of generating and/or adjusting printer parameters to improve print quality, for example patent applications US20230305763 and US20190212955. However, the methods described in the prior art for print quality assessment are not suitable for generating adjusted parameters to improve the print quality of more complex printing devices, such as thermal transfer printing devices, for example the devices described in patent application WO 2022/128929. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method, a system, a computer program product and a computer readable medium that limit the above drawbacks. Disclosure of Invention According to a first aspect, the invention relates to a computer-implemented method for automatically generating operating parameters of a printing apparatus comprising a coating module, an endless belt and an ink reproduction device, the method comprising: Receiving at least one print quality score and/or at least one print quality metric, said print quality score and said print quality metric characterizing the print quality of a printing element printed by the printing device; The adjusted operating parameters of the printing apparatus are automatically generated using the at least one print quality score and/or using the