EP1164027B1 - Imprimante à jet d'encre munie d'un dispositif destiné à éviter les mouvements de courroie indésirables - Google Patents

Imprimante à jet d'encre munie d'un dispositif destiné à éviter les mouvements de courroie indésirables Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1164027B1
EP1164027B1 EP01000014A EP01000014A EP1164027B1 EP 1164027 B1 EP1164027 B1 EP 1164027B1 EP 01000014 A EP01000014 A EP 01000014A EP 01000014 A EP01000014 A EP 01000014A EP 1164027 B1 EP1164027 B1 EP 1164027B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
belt
ink
jet printer
ink jet
guiding means
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Lifetime
Application number
EP01000014A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP1164027A2 (fr
EP1164027A3 (fr
Inventor
Bart Verhoest
Hilbrand Vanden Wyngaert
Dirk De Ruijter
Bart Verlinden
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Agfa NV
Original Assignee
Agfa Graphics NV
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Priority claimed from EP00200622A external-priority patent/EP1127698B1/fr
Application filed by Agfa Graphics NV filed Critical Agfa Graphics NV
Priority to EP07101580A priority Critical patent/EP1780028B1/fr
Priority to EP01000014A priority patent/EP1164027B1/fr
Publication of EP1164027A2 publication Critical patent/EP1164027A2/fr
Publication of EP1164027A3 publication Critical patent/EP1164027A3/fr
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP1164027B1 publication Critical patent/EP1164027B1/fr
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J3/00—Typewriters or selective printing or marking mechanisms characterised by the purpose for which they are constructed
    • B41J3/60—Typewriters or selective printing or marking mechanisms characterised by the purpose for which they are constructed for printing on both faces of the printing material
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J11/00—Devices or arrangements  of selective printing mechanisms, e.g. ink-jet printers or thermal printers, for supporting or handling copy material in sheet or web form
    • B41J11/007—Conveyor belts or like feeding devices
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J29/00—Details of, or accessories for, typewriters or selective printing mechanisms not otherwise provided for
    • B41J29/02—Framework
    • B41J29/023—Framework with reduced dimensions

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for printing images; the invention especially concerns the printer configuration.
  • the invention is particularly suitable for ink-jet printing using a belt for conveying an image receiving substrate.
  • transport of the image receiving substrate in one or the other stage of the printing process proceeds by a belt, c.q. a vacuum belt.
  • E.g. US-A-4 469 026 discloses a printer having a sheet fed and drum transport assembly. Ink is applied to a sheet while it is transported by the drum. Subsequently, the receiving substrate is detached from the drum and conveyed by a vacuum belt past a dryer.
  • Patent application WO 99/11 551 discloses a printer wherein sheets are transported by a vacuum drum.
  • a simplex printer has one vacuum drum, while a duplex printer uses two counter-rotating drums.
  • a duplex printer a first image is printed on one side of a paper sheet while the sheet is on the first drum; then the paper is fed to the second drum so that the first printed image contacts the second drum, and a second image is printed on the opposite side of the paper.
  • the printer can also be used to print on a continuous web instead of on separate sheets.
  • Printers wherein the image receiving substrate passes the printhead while it is carried by a belt can have problems with keeping the "throw distance" - i.e. the distance that the ink has to travel between the ink application means, for instance an ink-jet nozzle, and the receiving substrate - constant while such a belt can show movement to and away from the printhead, vertical movement. It is also possible that, during operation of the printer, such a belt not only shows a vertical movement, but also some lateral movement, so that the registering of colour selection of the image to be printed on the receiving substrate is not as good as it should be.
  • US-A-5 966 145 it is disclosed to support the belt underneath the printhead so as to avoid the movement to and away from the printhead.
  • the support is in sliding contact with the belt and does not add to the tensioning of the belt, so that problems with wear of the belt due to the sliding contact exist and since the supports do not add to the tension of the belt, the problems of vibration sill exist.
  • a monochrome printer In a monochrome printer, the problem of misregistering is less important and it may be sufficient to have an high quality printer when the "throw distance" is kept constant.
  • a multicolour printer using a short belt, it may be that the undesired vertical movement does not exist and that only means for avoiding undesired lateral movement of the belt are necessary.
  • a multicolour printer using a longer belt it may that means have to be incorporated for avoiding both the vertical movement and the lateral movement of the belt.
  • the 'throw-distance' is the distance that the ink has to travel between the ink application means, for instance an ink-jet nozzle, and the receiving substrate.
  • the belt may move slightly towards or away from the ink application means during the ink application, due to disturbances in the movement of the belt. This movement causes the throw-distance to change over time, and this changing "throw distance" results in lower print quality.
  • FIG 1 a means to minimise and even avoid the undesired movement of the belt to and from the printhead, i.e. the vertical movement is shown.
  • a belt (14), carrying an image receiving substrate (20) moves in the direction of arrow A over a first and second roller (13, 15), each of said rollers having an axis (13a, 15a).
  • a guiding means (18) is placed at the location where ink is applied onto the receiving substrate (20) in such a way that the belt passes between the guiding means and an ink ejection means (11) (further on indicated by the wording "printhead").
  • the guiding means (18) is placed so that the belt is pushed towards the printhead (11) away from the position (14a) it would have when no guiding means is present.
  • the guiding means creates a bulge, d, in the belt, elevating the belt from the position the belt would have without guiding means towards the printhead (11).
  • the guiding means (18) is preferably designed so as to avoid sliding contact between the belt and the guiding means, therefore include any kind of rotatable member. But most preferably it includes a small roller (with diameter smaller than the diameter of the rollers (13, 15)), with an axis substantially parallel to the axis of rollers (13, 15) in Fig. 1a.
  • the guiding means (18) may guide the belt over convex arc covering an angle, ⁇ , between 0 and 90 °, both limits included. It is preferred that it guides the belt over a small convex arc covering an angle of e.g. 1° to 5°, or even smaller than 1°.
  • said angle ⁇ is such that 15" ⁇ ⁇ ⁇ 5 °.
  • This angle is shown in figure 1b (an enlargement of part of figure 1a, the numericals in figure 1b have the same meaning as those in figure 1a).
  • a proposal of a guiding means not according to the claimed invention can very beneficially be designed to incorporate at least two rollers that are placed quite close together so that on top of the two rollers the belt is kept in a straight line.
  • a printhead with several rows of nozzles can be accommodated above the guiding means and the throw distance for each of the rows of nozzles is kept constant, since the belt and the image receiving substrate on it are in a straight line under the rows of nozzles.
  • Such guiding means are shown in figure 2, wherein a portion of a full colour printer, incorporating a belt (14) and guiding means (18a, 18b, 18c and 18d) is shown.
  • the belt (14) passes over guiding means (18a, 18b, 18c and 18d) in the direction of arrow A.
  • Each of the guiding means comprises two rollers ((21a, 22a),(21b, 22b), (21c, 22c), (21d, 22d)), said rollers having a radius R1 and R2.
  • the radii of the rollers are only shown for guiding means 18a.
  • the rollers in the guiding means are coupled to each other by a coupling means (23a, 23b, 23c and 23d) said coupling means being connected to a support (25a, 25b, 25c and 25d) so as to be movable around a connection means (24a, 24b, 24c and 24d).
  • the supports (25a, 25b, 25c and 25d) are placed on a frame (26) in the printer so as to keep the belt (14) tensioned by each of the guiding means (18a, 18b, 18c and 18d) and to create 4 straight portions in the belt .
  • a printhead (11a, 11b, 11c and 11d) is positioned so that the nozzle plate of the printhead, having one or more arrays of nozzles, is parallel to each of said straight portions of the belt.
  • the rollers (21a, 22a, 21b, 22b, 21c, 22c, 21d, 22d) in the guiding means ((18a, 18b, 18c and 18d) can have a different or an equal diameter depending on the needs of the design of the printer.
  • the diameter of the rollers and the distance between the axis of the two rollers (18a) is adapted so as to have a good compromise between the length of the straight portion of the belt between points P1 and P2, the risk that the belt gets a vertical movement in that straight portion and the extension of the rows of nozzles in the nozzle plate.
  • the distance between the two axis is larger than (R1 + R2) and smaller than 2 times (R1 + R2).
  • the tightening means are vacuum applicators; a first vacuum applicator is located downstream and adjacent to the guiding means and a second vacuum applicator is located upstream and adjacent to the guiding means; the forces exerted by both vacuum applicators on the belt tighten the belt against the guiding means.
  • the tightening means may be located anywhere along the belt and provide an adequate belt tension in the complete belt, while the guiding means have protruding positions as shown in figure 1a and 2. This second embodiment may be combined with the first one, i.e. vacuum applicators may be used to tighten the belt in the second embodiment.
  • the roller may have flanges at both ends (as shown in figure 3) and more than one roller may have one or two flanges, it is sufficient for avoiding undesired lateral movement of the belt that one roller has one flange, since it is possible by making a judicious choice of the angle ⁇ to force the belt against the single flange.
  • the size of the angle ⁇ is chosen so as to force the belt against the flange for avoiding lateral movement of the belt and so as to avoid too much friction of the belt against that flange.
  • the sign of the angle ⁇ can be positive as well as negative and determines which flange is touched by the belt. Further on in this text when the size of angle ⁇ is mentioned, it is mentioned without its sign as its absolute value,
  • FIG 3 this is schematically illustrated.
  • a first roller (13) has flanges (13b) a both ends and is placed so as to be not parallel with the second roller (15).
  • the line 13c shows the position of the first roller when it would be placed parallel.
  • the first roller deviates from the parallelism with the second one over an angle ⁇ , chosen such that 15" ⁇
  • ⁇ is chosen such that 15" ⁇
  • the flanges (13b) on the first roller can be separate from the roller and simply clipped over the roller, or can be an integral part of the roller, when the roller is machined so as to have flanges incorporated directly.
  • the form and height of the flanges is dictated by the belt, the tension on the belt, etc. and can easily be adapted to fulfil their purpose : forcing the belt against one of flanges and thus keeping it moving in the direction of arrow A, without undesired lateral movement.

Landscapes

  • Ink Jet (AREA)
  • Handling Of Sheets (AREA)
  • Delivering By Means Of Belts And Rollers (AREA)

Claims (5)

  1. Imprimante à jet d'encre comprenant :
    - un moyen d'éjection d'encre (11) ;
    - une courroie (14) pour transporter un substrat de réception (20) devant ledit moyen d'éjection d'encre (11) dans une direction A ;
    - un moyen de guidage arrangé à l'opposé dudit moyen d'éjection d'encre (11) de telle sorte que ladite courroie (14) passe entre ledit moyen de guidage et ledit moyen d'éjection d'encre (11) ;
    caractérisé en ce que ledit moyen de guidage comprend un galet unique (18) pour créer une saillie (d) dans ladite courroie (14), ladite saillie (d) s'étendant en direction dudit moyenne d'éjection d'encre (11) de façon à obtenir une distance de projection constante.
  2. Imprimante jet d'encre selon la revendication 1, comprenant en outre un moyen de serrage pour garantir un contact entre ladite courroie (14) et ledit galet unique (18).
  3. Imprimante jet d'encre selon la revendication 2, dans laquelle ledit moyen de serrage englobe un premier applicateur de vide disposé en position adjacente et en amont dudit galet unique (18) et un deuxième applicateur de vide disposé en position adjacente et en aval dudit galet unique (18).
  4. Imprimante jet d'encre selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans laquelle ledit galet unique (18) guide ladite courroie (14) par-dessus un arc convexe formant un angle β choisi de telle sorte que 15° ≤ β ≤ 5°.
  5. Imprimante jet d'encre selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans laquelle ledit moyen d'éjection d'encre (11) est une tête d'impression à largeur de page.
EP01000014A 2000-02-23 2001-02-13 Imprimante à jet d'encre munie d'un dispositif destiné à éviter les mouvements de courroie indésirables Expired - Lifetime EP1164027B1 (fr)

Priority Applications (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP07101580A EP1780028B1 (fr) 2000-02-23 2001-02-13 Imprimante à jet d'encre équipée pour éviter les mouvements latéraux non souhaités de la ceinture
EP01000014A EP1164027B1 (fr) 2000-02-23 2001-02-13 Imprimante à jet d'encre munie d'un dispositif destiné à éviter les mouvements de courroie indésirables

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP00200622A EP1127698B1 (fr) 2000-02-23 2000-02-23 Imprimante compacte et procédé
EP00200622 2000-02-23
EP01000014A EP1164027B1 (fr) 2000-02-23 2001-02-13 Imprimante à jet d'encre munie d'un dispositif destiné à éviter les mouvements de courroie indésirables

Related Child Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP07101580A Division EP1780028B1 (fr) 2000-02-23 2001-02-13 Imprimante à jet d'encre équipée pour éviter les mouvements latéraux non souhaités de la ceinture

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP1164027A2 EP1164027A2 (fr) 2001-12-19
EP1164027A3 EP1164027A3 (fr) 2003-08-13
EP1164027B1 true EP1164027B1 (fr) 2007-05-02

Family

ID=26071883

Family Applications (2)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP07101580A Expired - Lifetime EP1780028B1 (fr) 2000-02-23 2001-02-13 Imprimante à jet d'encre équipée pour éviter les mouvements latéraux non souhaités de la ceinture
EP01000014A Expired - Lifetime EP1164027B1 (fr) 2000-02-23 2001-02-13 Imprimante à jet d'encre munie d'un dispositif destiné à éviter les mouvements de courroie indésirables

Family Applications Before (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP07101580A Expired - Lifetime EP1780028B1 (fr) 2000-02-23 2001-02-13 Imprimante à jet d'encre équipée pour éviter les mouvements latéraux non souhaités de la ceinture

Country Status (1)

Country Link
EP (2) EP1780028B1 (fr)

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
NL2032611B1 (en) * 2022-07-27 2024-02-05 Canon Kk A printer with a definition roller for an endless belt

Families Citing this family (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US7118103B2 (en) 2003-04-14 2006-10-10 Heidelberger Druckmaschinen Ag Device for conveying sheets through a printing machine

Family Cites Families (13)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
GB1189311A (en) * 1966-07-04 1970-04-22 Tmm Research Ltd Textile Yarn or Filament Advancing Roller Arrangement
US4469026A (en) 1979-09-20 1984-09-04 Ibm Corporation Method and apparatus for controlling drying and detaching of printed material
NL8303239A (nl) * 1983-09-21 1985-04-16 Rapistan Van Der Lande Bv Transportbaan.
NL192678C (nl) * 1987-03-12 1997-12-02 Rapistan Van Der Lande Bv Bandtransporteur.
JP2576508B2 (ja) * 1987-06-11 1997-01-29 三菱電機株式会社 サ−マルプリンタ
US4795154A (en) * 1987-06-25 1989-01-03 Ideal Loisirs Continuous slot racing system
JP3016924B2 (ja) * 1991-10-02 2000-03-06 キヤノン株式会社 記録装置
JP3201674B2 (ja) 1993-03-26 2001-08-27 キヤノン株式会社 インクジェットプリント方法およびインクジェットプリント装置
JP2750269B2 (ja) * 1993-12-20 1998-05-13 キヤノン株式会社 シート搬送装置及びシート仕分け収納装置
JPH08156353A (ja) * 1994-10-07 1996-06-18 Canon Inc プリント装置
US5712672A (en) 1995-04-03 1998-01-27 Xerox Corporation Recording sheet transport and effluents removal system
US5992994A (en) * 1996-01-31 1999-11-30 Hewlett-Packard Company Large inkjet print swath media support system
EP1231172A1 (fr) 1997-09-04 2002-08-14 Xaar Technology Limited Tambours à dépression pour impression et imprimantes duplex

Cited By (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
NL2032611B1 (en) * 2022-07-27 2024-02-05 Canon Kk A printer with a definition roller for an endless belt

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
EP1164027A2 (fr) 2001-12-19
EP1780028A3 (fr) 2007-05-09
EP1164027A3 (fr) 2003-08-13
EP1780028B1 (fr) 2008-06-04
EP1780028A2 (fr) 2007-05-02

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