Bidirectional color printing using multipass printmodes with at least partially swath-aligned inkjet printheads
US6142605A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 4, 1997 |
| Grant date | Nov 7, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 4, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC B)Performing Operations; Transporting
- CPC primaryB41J19/142
- WIPO fieldTextile and paper machines
- WIPO sectorMechanical engineering
Abstract
The method enables swath-type bidirectional printing without hue shift, using plural scanning multiple-inkjet printheads (holding inks of different colors respectively) and printing-medium advance orthogonal to the scan axis. Inking is calculated and implemented for each position in the grid independently. Images appear as a pixel grid of columns and rows both spaced--i.e. in both the scan and media-advance directions--more finely than 300 dpi. In one aspect of the invention, both these resolutions are the same, and equal to the nozzle spacing. At least some of the nozzles are overlapping and respectively aligned along the advance axis, to be capable of printing on adjacent rows during a single pass. In another aspect of the invention, the nozzle arrays only partially overlap, so as to use significantly fewer than the total number of nozzles in each array. As to this second aspect of the invention, in each nozzle array the method uses a number of nozzles that is fewer than the total nozzle complement by a certain number that is preferably at least fifteen, more preferably thirty, and ideally roughly sixty nozzles.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.