Recording method and apparatus for presuming characteristics of temperature sensors

• US 6,024,430 A
• Filed: 03/10/1997
• Issued: 02/15/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Koitabashi, Noribumi, Nishikori, Hitoshi, Sugimoto, Hitoshi, Nagoshi, Shigeyasu, Hirabayashi, Hiromitsu, Matsubara, Miyuki, Uetuki, Masaya
• Primary Examiner(s): Barlow, John
• Assistant Examiner(s): HALLACHER, CRAIG ALAN
• Application Number:
  US08/813,303
• Time in Patent Office: 1,072 Days
• Field of Search: 347/14, 347/17, 347/19, 347/49, 347/85-87
• US Class Current: 347/17
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04528 aiming at warming up the head
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/0454 involving calculation of temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04563 detecting head temperature; Ink temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04565 detecting heater resistance
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04573 Timing; Delays
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/0458 controlling heads based on heating elements forming bubbles
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04588 using a specific waveform
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04591 Width of the driving signal being adjusted
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04598 Pre-pulse
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/17546 electronically
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/195 for monitoring ink quality
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2002/14379 Edge shooter
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 25/34 Bodily-changeable print heads or carriages

Abstract

An ink jet recording apparatus can obtain characteristics of temperature sensors precisely in a short time by detecting that a new recording head is installed and presuming the characteristics of the temperature sensors of the recording head.

Claims

1. A recording apparatus having a recording head mounted thereon for recording, said recording head comprising means for generating thermal energy for recording and a temperature sensor for outputting an output value corresponding to detected temperature, said apparatus comprising:

mounting means for removably mounting a mounted recording head;

head detecting means for detecting that said mounted recording head has been replaced on said mounting means with a replacement recording head;

presuming means for presuming characteristics of said temperature sensor of said replacement recording head mounted on said mounting means based on a time-based change of the output value from said temperature sensor when replacement of said mounted recording head is sensed by said head detecting means; and

correcting means for correcting a value based on the output value from said temperature sensor by processing data including the characteristics presumed by said presuming means.

2. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said correcting means corrects the value based on the output value of said temperature sensor by at least initially processing said presumed characteristics.

3. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising characteristic detecting means for detecting the characteristics of said temperature sensor of said replacement recording head by processing the presumed characteristics.

4. An apparatus as set forth in claim 3, wherein said correcting means corrects the value based on the output value of said temperature sensor by using detected characteristics detected by said detecting means.

5. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising an environment sensor for detecting an ambient temperature of said recording apparatus, said environment sensor for detecting the temperature independently of said temperature sensor of said replacement head.

6. An apparatus as set forth in claim 5, wherein said presuming means presumes characteristics of said temperature sensor on a basis of temperature changes of said recording head detected by said temperature sensor in a fixed time and an ambient temperature detected by said environment sensor.

7. An apparatus as set forth in claim 6, wherein said recording head comprises a plurality of head portions which are integrated.

8. An apparatus as set forth in claim 7, wherein said temperature sensor comprises a plurality of temperature sensors and each of said plurality of head portions has one of said temperature sensors mounted thereon, and said presuming means uses an average value of the temperature change of each said head portion detected by said plurality of temperature sensors as a temperature change of said recording head.

9. An apparatus as set forth in claim 7, further comprising means for supplying plural different color inks to said recording head, wherein each of said plurality of head portions performs recording with a different color.

10. An apparatus as set forth in claim 6, wherein said presuming means causes a detecting operation of a temperature change of said recording head to be effected when a status of said recording apparatus changes during detecting the temperature change of said recording head.

11. An apparatus as set forth in claim 6, further comprising an indicating portion interconnected with said presuming means for indicating a status of said recording apparatus.

12. An apparatus as set forth in claim 11, wherein said indicating portion flickers during operation of said presuming means.

13. An apparatus as set forth in claim 12, wherein said presuming means uses an average value of a temperature change of said recording head in a period as long as a half of a flickering period of said indicating member, as a temperature change of said recording head.

14. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said recording head comprises an electrothermal transducer for generating thermal energy to create bubbles in ink to displace and eject the ink.

15. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising means for supplying plural different color inks to said recording head, wherein said recording head records with a plurality of colors.

16. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said mounting means comprises a carriage on which said recording head is mounted.

17. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1, further comprising feeding means for feeding a recording medium on which said recording head records images.

18. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said recording apparatus comprises a copy machine.

19. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said recording apparatus comprises a facsimile.

20. An apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein said recording apparatus is connected to a computer terminal.

21. A recording method of recording with a recording head mounted in a recording apparatus to record images, said recording head comprising means for generating thermal energy and a temperature sensor for outputting an output value corresponding to detected temperature, said method comprising the steps of:

removably mounting a mounted recording head;

detecting that said mounted recording head has been replaced with a replacement recording head;

presuming characteristics of said temperature sensor on said replacement recording head based on a time-based change of the output value from said temperature sensor when replacement of said mounted recording head is sensed in said detecting step; and

correcting a value based on the output value from said temperature sensor by processing data including the presumed characteristics.

22. A method as set forth in claim 21, wherein the value based on the output value of said temperature sensor is corrected by at least initially processing said presumed characteristics in said correcting step.

23. A method as set forth in claim 21, further comprising the step of detecting characteristics of said temperature sensor of said replacement recording head by processing the presumed characteristics.

24. A method as set forth in claim 23, wherein, in said correcting step, the value based on the output value of said temperature sensor is corrected by processing detected characteristics detected in said characteristics detecting step.

25. A method as set forth in claim 24, further comprising the step of detecting an ambient temperature of said recording apparatus independently of said temperature sensor of said replacement head.

26. A method as set forth in claim 25, wherein, in said presuming step, the characteristics of the temperature sensor are presumed on a basis of a temperature change of said recording head detected by said temperature sensor in a fixed time and a detected ambient temperature.

27. A method as set forth in claim 26, wherein said recording head comprises a plurality of head portions being integrated.

28. A method as set forth in claim 27, wherein said temperature sensor comprises a plurality of temperature sensors and each of said plurality of head portions has one of said temperature sensors mounted thereon, and the temperature change of said recording head in said presuming step is an average value of temperature changes of said head portions detected by said plurality of temperature sensors.

29. A method as set forth in claim 27, further comprising the step of supplying plural different color inks to said recording head, wherein each of said plurality of head portions records images with a different color.

30. A method as set forth in claim 26, wherein in the presuming step, a detecting operation is effected for a temperature change of said recording head when a status of said recording apparatus changes during detection of the temperature change of said recording head.

31. A method as set forth in claim 26, further comprising the step of indicating a status of said recording apparatus.

32. A method as set forth in claim 31, wherein, in said indicating step, an indicating member is flickering during execution of said presuming step.

33. A method as set forth in claim 32, wherein in said presuming step, a temperature change of said replacement recording head is an average value of a temperature change of said replacement recording head in a period as long as a half of a flickering period of said indicating member.

34. A method as set forth in claim 21, wherein said recording head comprises an electrothermal transducer for generating thermal energy to create bubbles in ink to displace and eject the ink.

35. A method as set forth in claim 21, further comprising a step of supplying plural different color inks to said recording head, wherein said recording head records with a plurality of colors.

36. A recording apparatus having a recording head for recording, said recording head comprising means for generating thermal energy for recording and a temperature sensor for outputting an output value corresponding to detected temperature, said apparatus comprising:

presuming means for presuming characteristics of the temperature sensor of the recording head based on a time-based change of the output value from the temperature sensor;

correcting means for correcting a value based on the output value from the temperature sensor by processing data including the characteristics presumed by said presuming means; and

control means for controlling the recording head based on the value of the temperature sensor as corrected by said correcting means.

37. An apparatus as set forth in claim 36, further comprising a mounting portion for the recording head, wherein presumption by said presuming means is effected when the recording head is mounted in said mounting portion.

38. An apparatus as set forth in claim 36, further comprising an environment sensor for detecting an ambient temperature of said recording apparatus, said environment sensor detecting the temperature independently of the temperature sensor of the recording head and supplying the ambient temperature to said presuming means.

39. An apparatus as set forth in claim 38, wherein said presuming means presumes the characteristics of the temperature sensor based on temperature changes of the recording head detected by the temperature sensor in a fixed time and the ambient temperature detected by said environment sensor.

40. An apparatus as set forth in claim 36, wherein the recording head comprises an electrothermal transducer for generating thermal energy to create bubbles in ink to displace and eject the ink.

41. An apparatus as set forth in claim 36, further comprising feeding means for feeding a recording medium on which the recording head records images.

42. A recording method of recording with a recording head mounted in a recording apparatus to record images, the recording head comprising means for generating thermal energy and a temperature sensor for outputting an output value corresponding to detected temperature, said method comprising the steps of:

presuming characteristics of the temperature sensor of the recording head based on a time-based change of the output value from the temperature sensor;

correcting a value based on the output value from the temperature sensor by processing data including the characteristics presumed in said presuming step; and

controlling the recording head to record based on the characteristics of the temperature sensor as corrected in said correction step.

43. A method as set forth in claim 42, further comprising the step of mounting the recording head in a mounting portion, wherein said presuming step is effected when the recording head is mounted in said mounting step.

44. A method as set forth in claim 42, further comprising the step of detecting an ambient temperature of the recording apparatus with an environment sensor, the environment sensor detecting the ambient temperature independently of the temperature sensor of the recording head, wherein the ambient temperature is used in said presuming step.