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JP-2026075353-A - Recording device

JP2026075353AJP 2026075353 AJP2026075353 AJP 2026075353AJP-2026075353-A

Abstract

[Problem] To provide a recording device that can use power capacity more efficiently. [Solution] A recording device that records an image on a recording medium by ejecting ink while moving the recording head in a second direction intersecting the first direction relative to the recording medium, comprising a power supply that supplies power to the recording head, and a control means that controls the number of nozzles used for recording from among the multiple nozzles constituting the nozzle row based on the upper limit of the power that the power supply can supply to the recording head, wherein the control means is capable of performing a first control that performs recording using all the nozzles in the nozzle row, and a second control that performs recording using some of the nozzles in the nozzle row, wherein in the second control, recording is performed in a partial region which is a region obtained by shrinking the scanning region, which is the region that can be recorded by the first control, in the first direction. [Selection Diagram] Figure 7

Inventors

  • 沖田 寿夫

Assignees

  • キヤノン株式会社

Dates

Publication Date
20260508
Application Date
20241022

Claims (14)

  1. A recording device comprising a recording head having a nozzle row in which a plurality of nozzles are arranged in a first direction, and an image is recorded on a recording medium by ejecting ink while moving the recording head in a second direction intersecting the first direction relative to the recording medium, A power supply that provides power to the recording head, A control means that controls the number of nozzles used for recording from among the plurality of nozzles constituting the nozzle row, based on the upper limit of the power that the power supply can supply to the recording head, It has, The control means is A first control that performs recording using all of the nozzles in the nozzle row, A second control that performs recording using some of the nozzles in the nozzle row, It is possible to perform, In the second control, the recording device is characterized in that it performs recording in a partial region which is a region obtained by reducing the scanning region, which is a region that can be recorded by the first control, in the first direction.
  2. The recording device according to claim 1, wherein the control means performs recording by the second control if the power required to perform recording by the first control exceeds the upper limit.
  3. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control means determines the width of the partial region in the first direction such that the power required to perform recording by the second control is less than or equal to the upper limit value.
  4. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control means determines the width of the partial region in the first direction such that the power required to perform recording by the second control is maximized within a range that does not exceed the upper limit.
  5. The recording device according to claim 1, wherein the width of the partial region in the first direction in the second control is greater than 50% of the width of the scanning region in the first direction.
  6. The recording device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the control means divides the scanning area into a plurality of sections in the second direction, and if the power required to perform recording by the first control exceeds the upper limit in any of the sections, recording is performed by the second control.
  7. The recording device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the control means divides the partial region into a plurality of sections in the second direction, and determines the width of the partial region in the first direction such that the power required to perform recording by the second control in all of the plurality of sections is less than or equal to the upper limit value.
  8. The recording device according to claim 6, wherein the control means calculates the number of dots from which ink is ejected from the nozzle for each section, and determines that the power required to record in that section exceeds the upper limit if the calculated number of dots exceeds a threshold.
  9. The recording head has a plurality of nozzle rows spaced apart in the second direction, The recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the control means divides the scanning area into a plurality of sections in the second direction, and when the recording head is in any position in the second direction, if the sum of the power required across the plurality of nozzle rows to perform recording by the nozzles of the nozzle row corresponding to each of the plurality of nozzle rows by the first control exceeds the upper limit, the recording apparatus performs recording by the second control.
  10. The recording head has a plurality of nozzle rows spaced apart in the second direction, The recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the control means divides the partial region into a plurality of sections in the second direction, and determines the width of the partial region in the first direction such that, regardless of the position of the recording head in the second direction, the sum of the power required across the plurality of nozzle rows to perform recording by the nozzles of the nozzle row corresponding to each of the plurality of nozzle rows by the second control in the section corresponding to that section is less than or equal to the upper limit value.
  11. The recording apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the control means determines that if the total number of dots from which ink is ejected from the nozzles of the nozzle row corresponding to a section in the recording head at a position corresponding to each of the plurality of nozzle rows exceeds a threshold, the total power required to record the section at a position corresponding to each of the plurality of nozzle rows exceeds the upper limit.
  12. A plurality of heaters are provided in each of the plurality of areas that define the surface of the recording head on which the nozzle is provided, A detection means for detecting the temperature of each of the aforementioned multiple areas, The system further comprises a temperature control means that controls the heater based on the temperature detected by the detection means, The temperature control means is When the control means performs the first control, it performs a third control to control the heater so that all of the multiple areas reach the target temperature. When the control means performs the second control, the area including the nozzle used for recording is designated as the first area, and the area including the nozzle not used for recording is designated as the second area, and a fourth control is performed to turn off the heater in the second area, or to control the heater by setting the target temperature of the second area lower than the target temperature of the first area. The recording device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the control means increases the upper limit value by the difference between the power required to perform the third control and the power required to perform the fourth control.
  13. The system further includes a storage means for storing the cumulative number of discharges for each of the plurality of nozzles, The control means can select, in the second control, a first setting which sets the partial region to a region including the upstream end of the scanning region in the first direction, and a second setting which sets the partial region to a region including the downstream end of the scanning region in the first direction. The recording device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the control means selects the setting that has a larger total cumulative number of discharges from the nozzles included in the region other than the partial region from among the first setting and the second setting.
  14. The system further includes a storage means for storing the cumulative number of discharges for each of the plurality of nozzles, The control means can select, in the second control, a first setting which sets the partial region to a region including the upstream end of the scanning region in the first direction, and a second setting which sets the partial region to a region including the downstream end of the scanning region in the first direction. The recording device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the control means selects the setting of the first setting and the second setting that has a larger maximum value of the cumulative number of discharges of the nozzle included in the area other than the partial area.

Description

This invention relates to a recording device. In inkjet recording devices utilize a recording head that integrates multiple recording elements, including ink ejection ports and liquid channels. Depending on the content of the image data being recorded, there is a distribution in the recording dot density at the recording location, and the power required to drive the head and the amount of data recorded vary according to the recording dot density. To ensure consistent recording regardless of these power fluctuations, it is necessary to equip the device with a high-capacity power supply and circuits capable of handling the input and output of this high-capacity power supply, anticipating cases where the recording dot density is high and the power requirement is large. This results in a large and expensive recording device. On the other hand, in typical recording, high-density recording, which utilizes the maximum recording capacity of the head, accounts for only a small fraction of the total; the majority is low-density recording, and therefore the power required is not large. Therefore, various methods have been proposed to control the recording method according to the number of recording dots within a certain range, thereby limiting the amount of electricity used per unit time. This allows for high-speed recording while compensating for recording quality even in high-density recording areas, in the case of typical image data. For example, one method involves dividing the image data of the area that can be recorded in a single scan of the recording head (scanning area) into multiple parts, and then scanning the same scanning area multiple times with the recording head (Patent Document 1). Furthermore, Patent Document 2 describes dividing the scan into multiple passes or reducing the carriage movement speed when the density of the print data is high and the number of times the recording element is driven in each scan exceeds the power supply capacity. This aims to maximize power supply capacity while suppressing power costs and reducing throughput. Special Publication No. 6-47290Japanese Patent Publication No. 2005-224955 This figure shows the configuration around the recording head of the recording device in the embodiment.This is an internal block diagram of the recording device in the embodiment.This figure shows the dot counting method using the dot counting unit of the embodiment.This figure shows the monitor area in the recording medium of the example.This figure shows the nozzle rows of each color in the recording head of the embodiment.This diagram shows the positional relationship of the blocks corresponding to each colored nozzle row of the recording head in the embodiment.This figure shows the case where the width of the monitor area in the Y direction is m dots.This figure shows the case where the width of the monitor area in the Y direction is m-n dots in the embodiment.This flowchart shows the recording control for the example.This diagram shows the area division when performing temperature control in the example.This figure shows the setting of the recording area, including the downstream end in the Y direction of the scanning area in the embodiment.This figure shows the setting of the recording area, including the upstream end in the Y direction of the scanning area in the embodiment.This is a diagram showing the recording head of the embodiment. The embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the attached drawings. Note that the following embodiments are not limiting to the present invention, and not all combinations of features described in these embodiments are essential to the solution of the present invention. The same reference numerals are used for identical components, and their descriptions are omitted. In the following description, the direction in which the recording head 10 moves relative to the recording medium (main scanning direction, second direction) is the X direction, the direction in which the recording medium is transported in the recording device 100 (sub-scanning direction, first direction) is the Y direction, and the vertical direction is the Z direction (see Figure 1). The first direction (Y direction) is parallel to the arrangement direction of the nozzles 11 in each of the multiple nozzle rows 12 provided on the recording head 10 (see Figure 5). The first direction and the second direction intersect (orthogonal in the embodiment). Referring to Figures 1 and 13, the inkjet recording device 100 of this embodiment will be described. The recording device 100 includes an automatic feeding unit 101, a transport unit 103, and a recovery unit 108. The automatic feeding unit 101 automatically feeds recording media such as paper into the main body of the device. The transport unit 103 guides the recording media, dispensed one by one from the automatic feeding unit 101, to a predetermined recording position, and also guides the recor