JP-7856452-B2 - Drive circuit, liquid injection head, and liquid injection recording device

Inventors

• 佐賀 行弘
• 板木 亮洋

Assignees

• エスアイアイ・プリンテック株式会社

Dates

Publication Date

20260511

Application Date

20220308

Claims (8)

1. A circuit that outputs a drive signal for use with a liquid injection head having multiple nozzles, The system includes a signal generation unit that generates the drive signal for ejecting liquid from the nozzle based on image data defining the drive waveform, The signal generation unit has a waveform storage unit that stores a plurality of the drive waveforms, The aforementioned multiple nozzles are distinguished into multiple nozzle groups, The signal generation unit, Based on the image data, a predetermined drive waveform selected from a plurality of drive waveforms is adjusted for timing on a nozzle group basis, The drive signal is generated for each nozzle group so that the liquid is discharged at a different discharge timing for each nozzle group . The signal generation unit, One or more delay circuits perform the timing adjustment by delaying the discharge timing signal that defines the discharge timing on a nozzle group basis, Based on the image data and the discharge timing signal, the drive signal for each nozzle group is generated, and at least a portion of the signal generation circuit is connected in multiple stages. It has, In the aforementioned plurality of signal generation circuits, one or more delay circuits are individually arranged between the preceding and succeeding circuits to output a delayed signal for the discharge timing signal to the succeeding circuit. Drive circuit.
2. A circuit that outputs a drive signal for use with a liquid injection head having multiple nozzles, The system includes a signal generation unit that generates the drive signal for ejecting liquid from the nozzle based on image data defining the drive waveform, The signal generation unit has a waveform storage unit that stores a plurality of the drive waveforms, The aforementioned multiple nozzles are distinguished into multiple nozzle groups, The signal generation unit, Based on the image data, a predetermined drive waveform selected from a plurality of drive waveforms is adjusted for timing on a nozzle group basis, The drive signal is generated for each nozzle group so that the liquid is discharged at a different discharge timing for each nozzle group. The signal generation unit, One or more delay circuits perform the timing adjustment by delaying the discharge timing signal that defines the discharge timing on a nozzle group basis, Based on the image data and the discharge timing signal, the drive signal for each nozzle group is generated, and at least a portion of the signal generation circuit is connected in multiple stages. It has, In at least a portion of the preceding and succeeding circuits in the plurality of signal generation circuits, one or more delay circuits are arranged in a multi-stage connection, each delaying a delayed signal for the discharge timing signal to the succeeding circuit. Drive circuit.
3. The drive circuit according to claim 2 , wherein the plurality of delay circuits are individually arranged between all of the preceding and succeeding circuits in the plurality of signal generation circuits.
4. The drive circuit according to claim 2 , wherein the one or more delay circuits are individually arranged in a portion of the space between the preceding and succeeding circuits in the plurality of signal generation circuits.
5. The drive circuit according to any one of claims 1 to 4 , wherein the delay amount for the discharge timing signal can be arbitrarily adjusted by changing the frequency of the basic clock signal in the signal generation unit.
6. The drive circuit according to any one of claims 1 to 5 , wherein the delay circuit is configured to include a flip-flop circuit (F/F circuit).
7. A drive circuit according to any one of claims 1 to 6 , A liquid spray head comprising a spray unit having a plurality of nozzles that sprays the liquid based on the drive signal output from the drive circuit.
8. A liquid injection recording device comprising the liquid injection head described in claim 7 .

Description

This disclosure relates to a drive circuit, a liquid injection head, and a liquid injection recording device. Liquid injection recording devices equipped with liquid injection heads are used in various fields, and various types of liquid injection heads have been developed (see, for example, Patent Document 1). Japanese Patent Publication No. 2019-107860 This is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration example of a liquid injection recording device according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.Figure 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of various drive waveforms and the like stored in the waveform storage unit.This is a block diagram schematically representing a detailed configuration example of the signal generation unit and other components shown in Figure 1.This is a schematic block diagram showing an example configuration of the signal generation unit and other components in a liquid injection head related to a comparative example.This is a schematic diagram showing an example of the configuration of each drive waveform, etc., stored in the waveform storage unit of the comparative example.This is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of the correspondence between printed images, the number of drops, and image data related to a comparative example.This is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of the correspondence between printed images, the number of drops, and image data related to the embodiment.This is a schematic block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a signal generation unit and the like in a liquid injection head according to Modification 1.Figure 8 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration example of the delay circuit and other components.Figure 9 is a timing diagram illustrating an example of the operation of the delay circuit shown.This is a schematic block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the signal generation unit and other components in the liquid injection head according to Modification 2.This is a schematic block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the signal generation unit and other components in the liquid injection head according to Modification 3.This is a timing diagram illustrating an example of the operation of adjusting the delay amount in the liquid injection head according to Modification 4. The embodiments of this disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. The description will be in the following order. 1. Embodiment (Example of a case where a delay circuit is provided to output a delay signal individually to each signal generation circuit) 2. Modified Examples Modified Example 1 (An example where a delay circuit is individually placed between all the circuits of each signal generation circuit) Modification Example 2 (An example where delay circuits are individually placed between some of the circuits in each signal generation circuit) Modification 3 (Example where delay circuits are arranged in multiple stages between each signal generation circuit) Variation 4 (An example of adjusting the delay amount by changing the frequency of the basic clock signal) 3. Other variations <1. Embodiments> [Outline configuration of printer 5] Figure 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration example of a printer 5 as a liquid jet recording device according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. In the drawings used in this specification, the scale of each component has been appropriately changed to make each component recognizable. Printer 5 is an inkjet printer that uses ink 9 (described later) to record (print) images, characters, etc., onto a recording medium (for example, recording paper P shown in Figure 1). As shown in Figure 1, printer 5 mainly consists of an inkjet head 1 and a print control unit 2. Furthermore, the inkjet head 1 corresponds to one specific example of the "liquid jet head" in this disclosure, and the printer 5 corresponds to one specific example of the "liquid jet recording device" in this disclosure. Also, the ink 9 corresponds to one specific example of the "liquid" in this disclosure. (A. Printing control unit 2) The print control unit 2 supplies various types of information (data) to the inkjet head 1. Specifically, as shown in Figure 1, the print control unit 2 supplies print control signals Sc to the inkjet head 1 (such as the drive circuit 4, which will be described later). Furthermore, this print control signal Sc includes, for example, the image data Dp and ejection timing signal St (described later), as well as the power supply voltage (drive power supply) for operating the inkjet head 1. (B. Inkjet head 1) As shown by the dashed arrows in Figure 1, the inkjet head 1 is a head that records images, characters, etc., by ejecting droplet-shaped ink 9 onto the recording paper P from a plurality of nozzle holes Hn, which will be described later. As shown in Figure 1, this inkjet head 1