EP1717035B1 - Procédé d'impression et imprimante adaptée à la réalisation de ce procédé - Google Patents

Procédé d'impression et imprimante adaptée à la réalisation de ce procédé Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1717035B1
EP1717035B1 EP06112807A EP06112807A EP1717035B1 EP 1717035 B1 EP1717035 B1 EP 1717035B1 EP 06112807 A EP06112807 A EP 06112807A EP 06112807 A EP06112807 A EP 06112807A EP 1717035 B1 EP1717035 B1 EP 1717035B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
ink
volume
ink chamber
transducer
nozzle
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.)
Not-in-force
Application number
EP06112807A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP1717035A1 (fr
Inventor
Hermanus M.A. Wijshoff
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.)
Canon Production Printing Netherlands BV
Original Assignee
Oce Technologies BV
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
Application filed by Oce Technologies BV filed Critical Oce Technologies BV
Priority to EP06112807A priority Critical patent/EP1717035B1/fr
Publication of EP1717035A1 publication Critical patent/EP1717035A1/fr
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP1717035B1 publication Critical patent/EP1717035B1/fr
Not-in-force legal-status Critical Current
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical

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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
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/135—Nozzles
    • B41J2/14—Structure thereof only for on-demand ink jet heads
    • B41J2/14201—Structure of print heads with piezoelectric elements
    • B41J2/14233—Structure of print heads with piezoelectric elements of film type, deformed by bending and disposed on a diaphragm
    • 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
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/015—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process
    • B41J2/04—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand
    • B41J2/045—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand by pressure, e.g. electromechanical transducers
    • B41J2/04501—Control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits, control circuits
    • B41J2/04581—Control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits, control circuits controlling heads based on piezoelectric elements
    • 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
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/015—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process
    • B41J2/04—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand
    • B41J2/045—Ink jet characterised by the jet generation process generating single droplets or particles on demand by pressure, e.g. electromechanical transducers
    • B41J2/04501—Control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits, control circuits
    • B41J2/04588—Control methods or devices therefor, e.g. driver circuits, control circuits using a specific waveform

Definitions

  • the present invention pertains to a method for transferring ink to a receiving material using an inkjet printer having an ink chamber with a nozzle and an electromechanical transducer in cooperative connection with the ink chamber, comprising actuating the transducer to generate a pressure wave in the ink chamber to expel a volume of ink from the nozzle, the pressure wave being such that it induces splitting of the said volume in a first and second ink droplet.
  • the invention pertains to a printhead that is suitable for applying this method, as well as a printer that is provided with this printhead.
  • Such a method is known from the United States patent US 6,406,116 .
  • an inkjet printer is disclosed of the piezo type.
  • Such a printer comprises an ejection printhead having multiple substantially closed ink cambers, each having an inlet for feeding liquid ink into the chamber and a nozzle for ejecting ink droplets from this chamber.
  • Each of the ink chambers is in operative connection with a piezoelectric element.
  • each of these piezoelectric elements is in contact with a corresponding ink chamber.
  • the element is capable of deforming by the application of a voltage (called actuating) and this way implements an extremely high-speed conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy.
  • Such deformation serves to suddenly change the volume of the ink chamber, thus inducing a pressure wave in this chamber.
  • a pressure wave can serve to expel a volume of ink from the nozzle.
  • This ejection method enables creation of ink dots on the receiving material having different areas of coverage. This enables on its turn a plurality of different densities to be expressed with regard to each picture element (pixel), thus ensuring smooth tone expression and improving overall image quality, especially in the low tone image areas.
  • the known method has an important disadvantage.
  • the quantity of ink that is expelled per ink ejection is substantially the same as compared to the prior art.
  • each droplet will hit the receiving material at substantially the same location.
  • the ultimate densities of the picture elements do not differ that much from the densities would the volume of ink not have been splitted.
  • the problem of low duty restrictions of many receiving materials i.e. a low upper limit in the quantity of ink absorbable per unit area
  • the known printing method Namely, the same amount of ink is still jetted onto the receiving material per ink ejection.
  • This method makes use of the recognition that the part of the ink volume that is, or is going to become the second droplet (i.e. the droplet being closest to the nozzle itself) can be retracted back into the ink chamber by adequately reducing the pressure at the nozzle.
  • This pressure reduction should not be imposed too early in order to prevent that the first droplet is also retracted back into the ink chamber, nor should it be imposed too late, i.e. at a time where the second droplet can no longer be retracted.
  • the method according to the present invention has the important advantage that the first droplet can be selected to be the only droplet (of this particular ink ejection) that is actually ejected in order to become part of the image on the receiving medium.
  • the invention further relies on the feature that the pressure wave is such that the volume of ink experiences a supercritical acceleration in the direction of the receiving material.
  • the initial volume of ink that is induced to be expelled from the ink chamber is accelerated such that the surface tension of the ink is no longer capable of keeping the volume completely together.
  • a supercritical acceleration provides for relatively large speed differences within the volume of ink, the speed differences being such that the forces to split the volume are no longer balanced by the surface tension forces.
  • the advantage of a supercritical acceleration is that the speed differences are relatively high when the volume of ink is still in or at least near the nozzle. This means that the step of retracting the second droplet is relatively easy.
  • the second droplet i.e.
  • Satellite drops can also appear when the pressure increase at the nozzle is very high as the result of specific reflections of the pressure wave at the nozzle location. It is for example known that if the piezoelectric element is located somewhat distant from the nozzle, this can give rise to such reflections.
  • the ink that is being used is substantially free of solvent.
  • Such an ink comprises for example less than 5% of solvent, preferably even less than 2%. This provides for the advantage that substantially all jetted ink is incorporated in the ultimate image.
  • Inks comprising solvents such as water based inks, suffer from the need to evaporate the solvent.
  • Inks that are substantially free of solvent, such as hot melt inks or many UV-curable inks do not require the evaporation of solvent.
  • such inks typically have a relatively high viscosity (typical 10 mPa.s at operating temperature) which severely reduces the amount of freedom in applying adequate pressure waves to expel droplets of these inks.
  • the present invention also pertains to an inkjet printhead for transferring ink to a receiving material, the head comprising an ink chamber with a nozzle and an electromechanical transducer in cooperative connection with the said ink chamber, and a driving unit for controlling the actuation of the transducer, said driving unit being programmed such that it is capable of actuating the transducer to generate a pressure wave in the ink chamber to expel a volume of ink from the nozzle, the pressure wave being such that it induces splitting of the said volume in a first and second ink droplet, characterised in that the driving unit is further capable of actuating the transducer such that the volume of ink that is forced to be expelled from the ink chamber experiences a supercritical acceleration in the direction of the receiving material, and after that to actuate the transducer to retract the second droplet back into the ink chamber.
  • a printer that is provided with such a printhead is also part of the present invention.
  • Fig. 1 diagrammatically illustrates an inkjet printer.
  • the printer comprises a roller 1 for supporting a receiving material 2, for example a sheet of paper or a transparent sheet, and to move it along the scanning carriage 3.
  • This carriage comprises a support member 5 on which the four printheads 4a, 4b, 4c and 4d are fixed.
  • Each printhead is provided with ink of its own colour, in this case respectively cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black (K).
  • the printheads are specially designed for jetting solvent free ink.
  • the heads are heated by a heater that comprises heating means 9 disposed at the back of each printhead 4 and on the support member 5.
  • the heating means ensure that the temperature of the printheads is high enough to provide for an adequate (low) viscosity of the ink in the ink chambers.
  • the printhead itself is at least partly made of materials with excellent heat conduction such that it is possible for the heater to substantially uniformly heat the ink in the ink chambers (not shown). Temperature sensors (not shown) are also provided for.
  • the printheads are kept at the correct temperature via a control unit that is incorporated in controller 10, by means of which the heating means can be individually actuated in dependence on the temperature measured by the sensors. Since the printheads are subjected to many heating and cooling cycles, the materials of which the printheads are made are well matched with respect to their thermal expansion coefficients. Next to this, all mechanical connections are designed to be able and resist the tensions that are due to the temperature changes.
  • the roller 1 is rotatable about its axis as indicated by arrow A.
  • the receiving material can be moved in the sub-scanning direction (X-direction) with respect to the support member 5 and hence also with respect to the printheads 4.
  • the carriage 3 can be moved in reciprocation by suitable drive means (not shown) in a direction indicated by the double arrow B, parallel to the roller 1.
  • the support member 5 is moved over the guide rods 6 and 7. This direction is termed the main scanning direction or Y-direction.
  • each printhead 4 comprises a number of print elements each provided with an ink chamber (not shown) having their own nozzle 8.
  • the nozzles form for each printhead one row which extends perpendicularly to the axis of roller 1 (sub-scanning direction).
  • the number of ink chambers per printhead will be many times larger and the nozzles distributed over two or more rows.
  • Each ink chamber is provided with an electromechanical transducer (not shown) whereby the pressure in the ink duct can be suddenly increased so that an ink drop is ejected through the nozzle of the associated chamber in the direction of the receiving material.
  • a means of this kind comprises, for example, a piezo-electric element. These means can be energised image-wise via an associated electric drive circuit (not shown). In this way an image built up from ink drops can be formed on receiving material 2.
  • said receiving material or a part thereof is (imaginarily) divided up into fixed locations which form a regular field of pixel rows and pixel columns.
  • the pixel rows are perpendicular to the pixel columns.
  • the resulting separate locations can each be provided with one or more ink drops.
  • the number of locations per unit length in the directions parallel to the pixel rows and pixel columns is termed the resolution of the printed image, for example indicated as 400 x 600 d.p.i. ("dots per inch").
  • a (part-)image built up from ink drops forms on the receiving material, at least on a strip of a width of the length of the nozzle row.
  • Figure 2 schematically shows a portion of the piezo-electrically driven inkjet printhead 3.
  • the portion depicted in figure 2 comprises four ink chambers 11 that under operating conditions contain the printing ink, in this case an adequately liquified hot melt ink.
  • an outlet 17 is provided, which extends between the ink chamber and a nozzle 8 provided for in front end 13 of the ink jet head.
  • the ink chamber 11 is connected to an ink supply reservoir 14 which serves to supply the ink chambers with new ink.
  • the individual ink chambers are connected to the ink supply reservoir via an inlet 15.
  • Each of the ink chambers 11 is connected to a piezoelectric transducer.
  • This transducer can be actuated whereupon it shrinks or expands.
  • pressure waves can be generated in the ink as is commonly known in the art, e.g. from US patent 4,688,048 (reference is hereby made to all figures and corresponding description of that US patent).
  • a droplet of ink can be jetted out of the nozzle.
  • the actuation itself i.e. how the piezoelectric element is deformed, is controlled by a driving unit comprising a pulse generator and controlling hard- and software, which unit is incorporated in controller 10 (see figure 1 ).
  • ink reservoir 14 After the ejection of an ink droplet, the same amount of ink is fed from ink reservoir 14 to the corresponding ink chamber.
  • the small opening 12 of inlet 15 almost completely prevents the generated pressure waves to propagate to neighbouring ink chambers via the common ink supply reservoir.
  • FIG. 3 diagrammatically shows a pressure variation at the nozzle of an ink chamber.
  • Graph 20 shows the pressure P in the nozzle (Y-axis, arbitrary units) as a function of the time t (X-axis, arbitrary units).
  • Segment A of graph 20 reflects the minimal negative pressure P in an ink chamber which is at rest. This minimal negative pressure prevents ink from dripping out of the nozzle.
  • segment B the pressure is suddenly decreased by shrinking the corresponding piezo-electric transducer. After that, it can be seen that the pressure is increased in section C.
  • This relatively strong and sudden pressure increase induces a supercritical acceleration of a volume of ink that is present in the nozzle.
  • This pressure increase is followed by a big decrease of the pressure in segment D. This decrease takes care of retraction of the trailing part the accelerated ink volume.
  • the pressure is brought back again to its initial value in segment E.
  • Figure 4 shows the droplet forming process when applying the pressure variations as depicted in figure 3 .
  • segment A in graph 20 it can be seen that the meniscus 30 of the ink in the nozzle 17 of ink chamber 11 is somewhat concave due to the slight negative pressure in the ink chamber.
  • segment B this meniscus is retracted into the ink chamber due to the sudden pressure decrease. This affects mainly the ink volume 35 at the nozzle 17.
  • This pressure decrease is followed by a supercritical acceleration in segment C. Due to this supercritical acceleration, ink volume 35 is expelled out of nozzle 17 and splitting of the volume 35 in two parts 36 and 37 is induced.
  • the first part 36 has a somewhat lower speed than the second part 37.
  • segment D a very large pressure decrease is provided for which retracts part 36 almost completely back into the ink chamber.
  • Part 37 has gained already so much speed that the surface tension of the ink can not overcome the moment of inertia of this part 37 which thus becomes an individual ink droplet 37.
  • segment E the pressure is brought back to its initial value which enables the meniscus of the ink to take its starting position again. The result of this process is that a relatively small droplet of hot melt ink is jetted out of the nozzle.

Landscapes

  • Particle Formation And Scattering Control In Inkjet Printers (AREA)

Claims (6)

  1. Procédé pour transférer de l'encre sur un matériau de réception (2) en utilisant une imprimante à jet d'encre ayant une chambre d'encre (11) avec une buse (8) et un capteur électromécanique (16) en raccordement coopératif avec la chambre d'encre, comportant l'actionnement du capteur pour générer une augmentation de pression relativement puissante et soudaine dans la chambre d'encre afin d'expulser un volume d'encre de la buse, caractérisé en ce que le capteur est actionné de sorte que le volume de l'encre qui doit être expulsée de la chambre d'encre subit une accélération supercritique dans la direction du matériau de réception, suscitant des différences de vitesse relativement importantes dans le volume d'encre, induisant ainsi le partage dudit volume en une première (37) et une seconde partie (36), ce qui fait que la première partie (37) devient une goutte d'encre satellite d'attaque en face de la deuxième partie (36) qui peut devenir une gouttelette d'encre principale, après quoi le capteur est actionné pour induire une diminution de pression très importante dans la chambre d'encre, rétractant ainsi la deuxième partie dans la chambre d'encre, laquelle deuxième partie serait devenue la gouttelette principale si la diminution de pression très importante n'avait pas été induite.
  2. Procédé selon la revendication 1, caractérisé en ce que l'encre est sensiblement dépourvue de solvant.
  3. Procédé selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans lequel l'augmentation de pression générée relativement puissante et soudaine fournit une augmentation de pression au niveau de la buse qui est trop élevée ou qui augmente trop vite en raison d'une section transversale de buse trop petite par rapport à la section transversale de la chambre d'encre de sorte que la première partie (37) dudit volume devient une gouttelette satellite d'attaque.
  4. Procédé selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, dans lequel un ménisque de l'encre dans la chambre d'encre est rétracté trop rapidement avant de générer l'augmentation de pression soudaine de sorte que la première partie (37) dudit volume devient une gouttelette satellite.
  5. Tête d'impression à jet d'encre (4a - 4d) servant à transférer de l'encre sur un matériau de réception (2), la tête comprenant une chambre d'encre (11) avec une buse (8) et un capteur électromécanique (16) en raccordement coopératif avec ladite chambre d'encre, et une unité d'entraînement pour contrôler l'actionnement du capteur, ladite unité d'entraînement étant programmée de sorte qu'elle peut actionner le capteur pour générer une augmentation de pression relativement puissante et soudaine dans la chambre d'encre afin d'expulser un volume d'encre de la buse, caractérisée en ce que l'unité d'entraînement peut en outre actionner le capteur de sorte que le volume de l'encre qui doit être expulsée de la chambre d'encre subit une accélération supercritique dans la direction du matériau de réception, suscitant des différences de vitesse relativement importantes dans le volume d'encre, induisant ainsi le partage dudit premier volume en une première (37) et une seconde partie (36), ce qui fait que la première partie (37) devient une goutte d'encre satellite d'attaque en face de la deuxième partie (36) qui peut devenir une gouttelette d'encre principale, et après cela, actionner le capteur pour induire une diminution de pression très importante dans la chambre d'encre, rétractant ainsi la deuxième partie dans la chambre d'encre, laquelle deuxième partie serait devenue la gouttelette principale si la diminution de pression très importante n'avait pas été induite.
  6. Imprimante dotée d'une tête d'impression selon la revendication 5.
EP06112807A 2005-04-28 2006-04-20 Procédé d'impression et imprimante adaptée à la réalisation de ce procédé Not-in-force EP1717035B1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP06112807A EP1717035B1 (fr) 2005-04-28 2006-04-20 Procédé d'impression et imprimante adaptée à la réalisation de ce procédé

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP05103516 2005-04-28
EP06112807A EP1717035B1 (fr) 2005-04-28 2006-04-20 Procédé d'impression et imprimante adaptée à la réalisation de ce procédé

Publications (2)

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EP1717035A1 EP1717035A1 (fr) 2006-11-02
EP1717035B1 true EP1717035B1 (fr) 2010-12-01

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* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8186790B2 (en) 2008-03-14 2012-05-29 Purdue Research Foundation Method for producing ultra-small drops

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* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
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US6629741B1 (en) * 1999-03-11 2003-10-07 Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. Ink jet recording head drive method and ink jet recording apparatus
US6513894B1 (en) 1999-11-19 2003-02-04 Purdue Research Foundation Method and apparatus for producing drops using a drop-on-demand dispenser

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