LIQUID-DROPLET EJECTING APPARATUS, METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE SAME, AND NONVOLATILE STORAGE MEDIUM STORING PROGRAM FOR CONTROLLING THE APPARATUS

• US 20120194590A1
• Filed: 01/31/2012
• Published: 08/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Brother Industries Limited)
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Brother Industries Limited)
• Inventors: Suzuki, Katsuaki
• Granted Patent: US 9,403,391 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 347/14
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 29/38 Drives, motors, controls or automatic cut-off devices for the entire printing mechanism

Abstract

A liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus including: a head configured to eject liquid onto a recording medium; a curl-amount calculating section configured to calculate a curl amount of the recording medium on the basis of a location of at least one evaluation region on the recording medium and calculated amount of the liquid and the calculated number of liquid droplets to be ejected for the at least one evaluation region; and a curl suppressing section configured to change the evaluation ejection data for the at least one evaluation region on the basis of the calculated curl amount of the recording medium so as to change the amount of the liquid and/or the number of the liquid droplets to be ejected onto at least the at least one evaluation region on the recording medium to suppress the curl of the recording medium.

Claims

1. A liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus comprising:

at least one liquid-droplet ejection head configured to eject liquid onto a recording medium;

a liquid-droplet-ejection-data storage section configured to store liquid-droplet ejection data based on which the at least one liquid-droplet ejection head ejects a plurality of liquid droplets to form an image on the recording medium;

a liquid-droplet-ejection-head controlling section configured to control the at least one liquid-droplet ejection head on the basis of the liquid-droplet ejection data;

a liquid calculating section configured to calculate an amount of the liquid and the number of liquid droplets to be ejected for each of at least one evaluation region that is defined on the recording medium, the liquid calculating section being configured to calculate the amount of the liquid and the number of the liquid droplets on the basis of evaluation ejection data as liquid-droplet ejection data corresponding to the at least one evaluation region among the liquid-droplet ejection data;

a curl-amount calculating section configured to calculate an amount of a curl of the recording medium on the basis of a location of the at least one evaluation region and the amount of the liquid and the number of the liquid droplets to be ejected for the at least one evaluation region which have been calculated by the liquid calculating section, the curl being produced by the ejection of the liquid droplets on the recording medium; and

a curl suppressing section configured to change the evaluation ejection data on the basis of the amount of the curl of the recording medium calculated by the curl-amount calculating section when a processing for suppressing the curl of the recording medium is required, the curl suppressing section being configured to change the evaluation ejection data so as to change at least one of the amount of the liquid and the number of the liquid droplets to be ejected onto at least the at least one evaluation region on the recording medium to suppress the curl of the recording medium.

2. The liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, where the amount of the curl calculated by the curl-amount calculating section is greater than a predetermined threshold, the curl suppressing section judges that the processing for suppressing the curl of the recording medium is required.

3. The liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the curl suppressing section is configured to change the evaluation ejection data so as to reduce the amount of the liquid to be ejected onto the at least one evaluation region by reducing at least one of the number of the liquid droplets and a size of the liquid droplet to be ejected onto at least the at least one evaluation region on the recording medium.

4. The liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the curl suppressing section is configured to change the evaluation ejection data such that the number of the liquid droplets to be ejected onto at least the at least one evaluation region on the recording medium is reduced and such that a size of the liquid droplet to be ejected onto at least one unit area included in the at least one evaluation region is increased.

5. The liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus according to claim 4, wherein each of the at least one unit area is an area defined by a resolution of the image to be formed on the recording medium, such that one liquid droplet is ejected onto each of the at least one unit area.

6. The liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a liquid-droplet-ejection-data producing section configured to produce the liquid-droplet ejection data on the basis of image data based on which the image is formed on the recording medium,

wherein the liquid calculating section is configured to calculate the amount of the liquid and the number of the liquid droplets at a point in time when the liquid-droplet ejection data produced by the liquid-droplet-ejection-data producing section is transmitted to the liquid-droplet-ejection-data storage section.

7. The liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus according to claim 6,

wherein each of the at least one evaluation region is constituted by at least one of a plurality of blocks defined by dividing, into a plurality of areas, an area on the recording medium on which the image is to be recorded, and

wherein the liquid calculating section is configured to calculate an amount of the liquid and the number of liquid droplets to be ejected onto the at least one of the plurality of blocks, at a point in time when all liquid-droplet ejection data corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of blocks among the liquid-droplet ejection data produced by the liquid-droplet-ejection-data producing section has been transmitted.

8. The liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the liquid calculating section is configured to calculate the amount of the liquid and the number of the liquid droplets to be ejected onto the at least one evaluation region, at a point in time when the liquid calculating section has calculated an amount of the liquid and the number of liquid droplets to be ejected onto all the plurality of blocks constituting the at least one evaluation region.

9. The liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the curl suppressing section is configured to control the liquid-droplet-ejection-data producing section to produce the liquid-droplet ejection data again such that at least one of the amount of the liquid and the number of the liquid droplets to be ejected onto at least the at least one evaluation region on the recording medium is changed.

10. The liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a pseudo multi-tone processing section configured to execute a pseudo multi-tone processing for the liquid-droplet ejection data so as to change at least one of the amount of the liquid and the number of the liquid droplets to be ejected onto at least the at least one evaluation region on the recording medium,

wherein the curl suppressing section is configured to control the pseudo multi-tone processing section to execute the pseudo multi-tone processing for the liquid-droplet ejection data when the liquid-droplet ejection data is transmitted from the liquid-droplet-ejection-data storage section to the liquid-droplet-ejection-head controlling section.

11. The liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the curl-amount calculating section is configured to calculate the amount of the curl of the recording medium by using correlation information that represents a relationship between (i) the amount of the liquid and the number of the liquid droplets to be ejected onto at least the at least one evaluation region on the recording medium and (ii) the amount of the curl of the recording medium.

12. The liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the at least one evaluation region is a plurality of evaluation regions,

wherein the liquid calculating section is configured to calculate the amount of the liquid and the number of the liquid droplets to be ejected for each of the plurality of evaluation regions, and

wherein the curl-amount calculating section is configured to calculate amounts of the curl of the recording medium respectively for the plurality of evaluation regions and determine a largest one of the amounts of the curl as the amount of the curl of the recording medium.

13. The liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the plurality of evaluation regions respectively have a plurality of patterns different from one another.

14. A method for controlling a liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

at least one liquid-droplet ejection head configured to eject liquid onto a recording medium; and

a liquid-droplet-ejection-data storage section configured to store liquid-droplet ejection data based on which the at least one liquid-droplet ejection head ejects a plurality of liquid droplets to form an image on the recording medium, the method comprising;

on the basis of evaluation ejection data as liquid-droplet ejection data corresponding to at least one evaluation region defined on the recording medium among the liquid-droplet ejection data, calculating an amount of the liquid and the number of liquid droplets to be ejected for each of the at least one evaluation region;

calculating an amount of a curl of the recording medium on the basis of a location of the at least one evaluation region and the calculated amount of the liquid and the calculated number of the liquid droplets to be ejected for each of the at least one evaluation region, the curl being produced by the ejection of the liquid droplets on the recording medium;

changing the evaluation ejection data on the basis of the calculated amount of the curl of the recording medium when a processing for suppressing the curl of the recording medium is required, so as to change at least one of the amount of the liquid and the number of the liquid droplets to be ejected onto at least the at least one evaluation region on the recording medium to suppress the curl of the recording medium; and

controlling the at least one liquid-droplet ejection head on the basis of the changed evaluation ejection data.

15. A nonvolatile storage medium storing a program for controlling a liquid-droplet ejecting apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

at least one liquid-droplet ejection head configured to eject liquid onto a recording medium; and

a liquid-droplet-ejection-data storage section configured to store liquid-droplet ejection data based on which the at least one liquid-droplet ejection head ejects a plurality of liquid droplets to form an image on the recording medium, the program being designed to comprise;

on the basis of evaluation ejection data as liquid-droplet ejection data corresponding to at least one evaluation region defined on the recording medium among the liquid-droplet ejection data, calculating an amount of the liquid and the number of liquid droplets to be ejected for each of at least one evaluation region;

calculating an amount of a curl of the recording medium on the basis of a location of the at least one evaluation region and the calculated amount of the liquid and the calculated number of the liquid droplets to be ejected for each of the at least one evaluation region, the curl being produced by the ejection of the liquid droplets on the recording medium; and

changing the evaluation ejection data on the basis of the calculated amount of the curl of the recording medium when a processing for suppressing the curl of the recording medium is required, so as to change at least one of the amount of the liquid and the number of the liquid droplets to be ejected onto at least the at least one evaluation region on the recording medium to suppress the curl of the recording medium.