JP2019171674A - Recording device and data processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus and a data processing method capable of performing data processing at a throughput regardless of the inclination of a nozzle array. A recording apparatus that performs recording by discharging ink from a recording head having a plurality of nozzles onto a recording medium conveyed performs the following data processing. That is, the image data read from the first buffer storing the input image data is rearranged by using the internal buffer of the image processing means in accordance with the inclination of the nozzle rows of the plurality of nozzles with respect to the recording medium conveyance direction. . Then, the reordered image data is output as print data to a second buffer used to output the print data to the printhead. [Selection] Fig. 22

Description

  The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and a data processing method, and more particularly to a recording apparatus and a data processing method using, for example, a recording head according to an ink jet system for recording.

  Inkjet recording apparatuses are in increasing demand in a wide range of industrial fields as relatively simple and excellent recording means, and there is a demand for higher recording speed and recording of higher quality images.

  Now, when the print head is mounted on the carriage, if the nozzle row is tilted from the normal arrangement due to an attachment error or the like, the position where the ink lands on the print medium deviates from the initially assumed position. As a result, the image quality of the recorded image deteriorates. In order to cope with such a problem, a method of changing image data read from a recording buffer in accordance with the inclination of a nozzle row has been conventionally known as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-228707.

JP 2004-9489 A

  However, the method disclosed in Patent Document 1 has a problem that the number of times of reading data is increased depending on the inclination of the nozzle row as compared with the case of the normal inclination. For example, in a multi-recording apparatus having a full-line recording head in which nozzle rows are arranged in the direction perpendicular to the recording medium conveyance direction and the recording width is the same as the width of the recording medium, the required throughput increases and the number of data readings increases. If it increases, there is a possibility that the required throughput cannot be satisfied.

  In addition, in a serial type recording apparatus that performs recording by reciprocating scanning of the recording head, the number of nozzles of the recording head is increased as the recording resolution is improved, and the required throughput is increased. There is a problem.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and an object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus and a data processing method capable of processing data with a throughput irrespective of the inclination of the nozzle array.

  In order to achieve the above object, the recording apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration.

  That is, a recording apparatus that performs recording by ejecting ink to a recording medium from a recording head having a plurality of nozzles, and a first conveying unit that stores the input image data. And a storage means including a second buffer for storing recording data to be output to the recording head, and the plurality of image data read from the first buffer in the transport direction of the recording medium by the transport means And an image processing means for rearranging the rearranged image data as the recording data to the second buffer according to the inclination of the nozzle row of the nozzles. And

  According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a data processing method for a recording apparatus that performs recording by ejecting ink from a recording head having a plurality of nozzles to a transported recording medium. The image data read from the first buffer for storing the image data is rearranged using the internal buffer of the image processing means according to the inclination of the nozzle array of the plurality of nozzles with respect to the conveyance direction of the recording medium, and the rearranged The data processing method is characterized in that data processing is performed to output the image data as recording data to a second buffer used for outputting to the recording head.

  According to the present invention, there is an effect that data processing can be performed with a throughput irrespective of the inclination of the nozzle row.

1 is a side sectional view showing a structure of a recording apparatus including a recording head that is a typical embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a control configuration of the recording apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1. It is the time chart which showed the output signal from the rotary encoder attached to the axis | shaft of the conveyance motor which drives a conveyance roller. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the encoder signal processing part incorporated in the conveyance control part. 4 is a time chart showing two signals output from a head transfer timing signal generation unit 2001. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a RAM 204. FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically illustrating the inclination of a nozzle row of a recording head. FIG. 6 is a table showing, as a table, how many dots are shifted in the recording medium conveyance direction as one group for every 8 nozzles in the nozzle row that are continuous with respect to the shift amount, as compared to the case where each group has no shift. is there. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image recorded by the recording apparatus 1. FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a state in which attention is paid to a certain nozzle row when the image illustrated in FIG. 9 is recorded on a recording medium. FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically showing the contents of recording data transferred from the head I / F 206 to the recording head when the image shown in FIG. 9 is recorded. It is a figure which shows a mode that paid attention to a certain nozzle row at the time of recording the recording data shown in FIG. 11 on a recording medium. 4 is a diagram illustrating a format of image data stored in a buffer 501. FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an order in which the image processing controller 205 reads and processes image data from a buffer 501. It is a figure which shows notion vertically and horizontally (HV conversion) notionally. It is a figure which shows a mode that the image data in which vertical / horizontal conversion was performed are stored in a buffer. It is a figure which shows the mode of the recording by a time division drive. It is a figure explaining the data storage process of the place (nozzles 0-15) of inclination values 0 and 1, and the area | region 1, 33, 65 .... It is a figure explaining the data storage process of the part (nozzles 48-63) of inclination values 6 and 8, and the area | region 4, 36, 68, .... It is a figure explaining the data storage process of the location (nozzles 112-127) of inclination values 15 and 17, and the area | regions 8, 40, 72, 104, .... FIG. 21 is a diagram showing a state in which data in areas “1” to “96” is written in a buffer 504 by the method described with reference to FIGS. It is a figure which shows the format of the data stored in the buffer 502 of RAM. FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically illustrating a detailed configuration of a full line recording head.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described more specifically and in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  In this specification, “recording” (sometimes referred to as “printing”) is not limited to the case of forming significant information such as characters and graphics, but may be significant. It also represents the case where an image, a pattern, a pattern, etc. are widely formed on a recording medium, or the medium is processed, regardless of whether it is manifested so that humans can perceive it visually. .

  “Recording medium” refers not only to paper used in general recording apparatuses but also widely to cloth, plastic film, metal plate, glass, ceramics, wood, leather, and the like that can accept ink. Shall.

  Further, “ink” (sometimes referred to as “liquid”) should be interpreted widely as in the definition of “recording (printing)”. Therefore, by being applied on the recording medium, it is used for formation of images, patterns, patterns, etc., processing of the recording medium, or ink processing (for example, solidification or insolubilization of the colorant in the ink applied to the recording medium). It shall represent a liquid that can be made.

  Further, “nozzle (sometimes referred to as“ recording element ”)” collectively refers to an ejection port or a liquid path communicating with the nozzle and an element that generates energy used for ink ejection unless otherwise specified. Shall.

  An element substrate (head substrate) for a recording head to be used below does not indicate a simple substrate made of a silicon semiconductor but indicates a configuration in which each element, wiring, and the like are provided.

  Further, the term “on the substrate” means not only the element substrate but also the surface of the element substrate and the inside of the element substrate near the surface. In addition, the term “built-in” as used in the present invention is not a term indicating that each individual element is simply arranged separately on the surface of the substrate, but each element is manufactured in a semiconductor circuit. It shows that it is integrally formed and manufactured on an element plate by a process or the like.

<Recording device equipped with a full-line recording head (FIG. 1)>
FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing an internal configuration of an ink jet recording apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a recording apparatus) which is a typical embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the Y direction indicates the horizontal direction, the X direction (perpendicular to the paper surface) indicates the arrangement direction of a plurality of nozzles provided in the ink jet recording head (hereinafter, recording head) 8, and the Z direction indicates the vertical direction.

  The recording apparatus 1 is a multifunction machine including a printing unit 2 and a scanner unit 3, and can perform various processes relating to a recording operation and a reading operation individually or in conjunction with the printing unit 2 and the scanner unit 3. The scanner unit 3 includes an ADF (automatic document feeder) and an FBS (flatbed scanner), and reads a document automatically fed by the ADF and reads a document (scanned) mounted on a document table of the FBS by a user. )It can be performed. In this embodiment, a multifunction machine having both the print unit 2 and the scanner unit 3 is described as an example. However, the scanner unit 3 may be omitted. FIG. 1 shows a state in which the recording apparatus 1 is in a standby state in which neither a recording operation nor a reading operation is performed.

  In the print unit 2, a first cassette 5 </ b> A and a second cassette 5 </ b> B for accommodating a recording medium (cut sheet) S are detachably installed on the bottom of the casing 4 in the vertical direction. A relatively small recording medium up to A4 size is accommodated in the first cassette 5A, and a relatively large recording medium up to A3 size is accommodated in the second cassette 5B. Near the first cassette 5A, a first feeding unit 6A for separating and feeding the stored recording media one by one is provided. Similarly, a second feeding unit 6B is provided in the vicinity of the second cassette 5B. When a recording operation is performed, the recording medium S is selectively fed from one of the cassettes.

  The transport roller 7, the discharge roller 12, the pinch roller 7a, the spur 7b, the guide 18, the inner guide 19 and the flapper 11 are transport mechanisms for guiding the recording medium S in a predetermined direction. The conveyance rollers 7 are arranged on the upstream side and the downstream side of the recording head 8 in the conveyance direction of the recording medium, and are driven by a conveyance motor (not shown). The pinch roller 7 a is a driven roller that rotates while nipping the recording medium S together with the conveying roller 7. The discharge roller 12 is disposed on the downstream side of the conveyance roller 7 in the conveyance direction of the recording medium, and is driven by a conveyance motor (not shown). The spur 7b sandwiches and conveys the recording medium S together with the conveying roller 7 and the discharge roller 12 disposed on the downstream side of the recording head 8 with respect to the conveying direction of the recording medium.

  The guide 18 is provided in the conveyance path of the recording medium S and guides the recording medium S in a predetermined direction. The inner guide 19 has a side surface curved by a member extending in the y direction, and guides the recording medium S along the side surface. The flapper 11 is a member for switching the direction in which the recording medium S is conveyed during the double-side recording operation. The discharge tray 13 is a tray for stacking and holding the recording medium S discharged by the discharge roller 12 after the recording operation is completed.

  The recording head 8 is a full-line recording head that can perform color recording by ejecting four colors of ink in accordance with an inkjet method. In this full-line recording head, a plurality of ejection openings (nozzles) for ejecting ink according to the recording data are arranged in the amount corresponding to the width of the recording medium S along the y direction in FIG.

  FIG. 23 is a diagram schematically showing a detailed configuration of the full-line recording head.

  As shown in FIG. 23, the full-line recording head (hereinafter referred to as the recording head) will be described in detail. A head substrate having eight nozzle rows composed of 512 nozzles corresponds to the width of the recording medium S. It has a configuration in which 15 pieces are arranged. The nozzles in each nozzle row are arranged at an interval of 1/600 inch, and in the adjacent nozzle rows, the nozzles in each nozzle row are shifted by 1/2 pitch in the nozzle arrangement direction, and each nozzle is staggered. It is arranged to become. The nozzle row for one ink color is composed of a pair of two adjacent nozzle rows, so the recording resolution in the y direction is 1200 dpi for one ink color.

  The fifteen head substrates are basically arranged so that the nozzle arrangement direction of each substrate is a direction (line direction) perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the recording medium S. However, in practice, the nozzle arrangement direction of all 15 head substrates is not necessarily aligned accurately in the line direction, and the head substrate is inclined with respect to the line direction.

  When the recording head 8 is in the standby position, the ejection port surface 8a of the recording head 8 is capped by the cap unit 10 as shown in FIG. When performing the recording operation, the orientation of the recording head 8 is changed by the print controller 202 described later so that the ejection port surface 8 a faces the platen 9. The platen 9 is constituted by a flat plate extending in the y direction, and supports the recording medium S on which the recording operation is performed by the recording head 8 from the back side.

  The ink tank unit 14 stores ink of four colors (for example, yellow, magenta, cyan, and black) supplied to the recording head 8. The ink supply unit 15 is provided in the middle of the flow path connecting the ink tank unit 14 and the recording head 8, and adjusts the pressure and flow rate of the ink in the recording head 8 to an appropriate range. Here, the circulation type ink supply is adopted as the ink supply method, and the ink supply unit 15 adjusts the pressure of the ink supplied to the recording head 8 and the flow rate of the ink recovered from the recording head 8 to an appropriate range. .

  The maintenance unit 16 includes a cap unit 10 and a wiping unit 17, which are operated at a predetermined timing to perform maintenance on the recording head 8.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control configuration in the recording apparatus 1.

  Control of the recording apparatus 1 is performed mainly by the cooperation of a print engine unit 200 that controls the printing unit 2, a scanner engine unit 300 that controls the scanner unit 3, and a controller unit 100 that controls the entire recording apparatus 1. Realized. The print controller 202 controls various mechanisms of the print engine unit 200 in accordance with instructions from the main controller 101 of the controller unit 100. Various mechanisms of the scanner engine unit 300 are controlled by the main controller 101 of the controller unit 100.

  Details of the control configuration will be described below.

  In the controller unit 100, a main controller 101 constituted by a CPU controls the entire recording apparatus 1 according to a program and various parameters stored in the ROM 107 while using the RAM 106 as a work area. For example, when a print job is input from the host device 400 via the host I / F 102 or the wireless I / F 103, predetermined image processing is performed on the image data received by the image processing unit 108 in accordance with an instruction from the main controller 101. Apply. Then, the main controller 101 transmits the image data subjected to image processing to the print engine unit 200 via the print engine I / F 105.

  The recording device 1 may acquire image data from the host device 400 via wireless communication or wired communication, or may acquire image data from an external storage device (such as a USB memory) connected to the recording device 1. Also good. A communication method used for wireless communication or wired communication is not limited. For example, Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) (registered trademark) or Bluetooth (registered trademark) is applicable as a communication method used for wireless communication. As a communication method used for wired communication, USB (Universal Serial Bus) or the like can be applied. For example, when a read command is input from the host device 400, the main controller 101 transmits this command to the scanner unit 3 via the scanner engine I / F 109.

  The operation panel 104 is a mechanism for the user to input and output to the recording apparatus 1. The user can instruct operations such as copying and scanning, set a print mode, and recognize information of the recording apparatus 1 via the operation panel 104.

  In the print engine unit 200, a print controller 202 configured by a CPU controls various mechanisms provided in the printing unit 2 while using the RAM 204 as a work area according to programs and various parameters stored in the ROM 203. When various commands and image data are received via the controller I / F 201, the print controller 202 temporarily stores them in the RAM 204. The print controller 202 causes the image processing controller 205 to convert the stored image data into recording data so that the recording head 8 can be used for the recording operation. When the recording data is generated, the print controller 202 causes the recording head 8 to execute a recording operation based on the recording data via the head I / F 206. At this time, the print controller 202 drives the feeding units 6A and 6B, the conveyance roller 7, the discharge roller 12, and the flapper 11 shown in FIG. In accordance with an instruction from the print controller 202, the recording operation by the recording head 8 is executed in conjunction with the conveying operation of the recording medium S, and printing processing is performed.

  FIG. 3 is a time chart showing an output signal from a rotary encoder (not shown) attached to the shaft of the transport motor that drives the transport roller 7.

  As shown in FIG. 3, two encoder signals (A phase and B phase signals) having a phase shift of (1/4) with respect to each other are output according to the conveyance amount of the recording medium. The B phase signal has a phase relationship that is 90 degrees behind the A phase signal. The A phase and B phase signals output from the rotary encoder are input to the transport control unit 207.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an encoder signal processing unit built in the transport control unit 207.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the A-phase and B-phase signals input to the encoder signal processing unit 2000 are input to the head transfer timing signal generation unit 2001 and the position counter 2002. The position counter 2002 monitors the A phase signal, and the position counter value is incremented at every rising edge of the A phase signal. This position counter value is provided to the head transfer timing signal generation unit 2001.

  FIG. 5 is a time chart showing two signals output from the head transfer timing signal generation unit 2001.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the head transfer timing signal generation unit 2001 sends a head transfer permission signal and a head transfer trigger to the head I / F 206 based on the input A-phase and B-phase signals and the position counter value. Output. The head I / F 206 transfers the recording data for one line to the recording head 8 when the head transfer trigger becomes ‘H’ when the head transfer permission signal is ‘H’.

  In the example shown in FIG. 5, when the head transfer permission signal is “H”, the head transfer trigger is “H” 24 times, so the head I / F 206 reads the recording data for a total of 24 lines from the RAM 204. Then, transfer to the recording head 8. In this embodiment, the position counter 2002 is incremented for each rising edge of the A phase signal, but the increment timing may be for each falling edge or the target may be a B phase signal.

  Here, one line refers to a line-like image recorded on a recording medium when recording is performed by giving an ink ejection opportunity to each nozzle of the full-line recording head 8 once. One line of recording data refers to recording data necessary for one line of recording.

  FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the RAM 204.

  As shown in FIG. 6, a buffer 501 and a buffer 502 are provided in the RAM 204, and image data received via the controller I / F 201 is stored in the buffer 501. The recording data converted from the image data by the image processing controller 205 is stored in the buffer 502.

  Returning to FIG. 2 and continuing the description, the head carriage control unit 208 changes the orientation and position of the recording head 8 in accordance with an operation state such as a maintenance state or a recording state of the recording apparatus 1. The ink supply control unit 209 controls the ink supply unit 15 so that the pressure of the ink supplied to the recording head 8 falls within an appropriate range. The maintenance control unit 210 controls operations of the cap unit 10 and the wiping unit 17 in the maintenance unit 16 when performing a maintenance operation on the recording head 8.

  In the scanner engine unit 300, the main controller 101 controls hardware resources of the scanner controller 302 while using the RAM 106 as a work area according to programs and various parameters stored in the ROM 107. Thereby, various mechanisms provided in the scanner unit 3 are controlled. For example, when the main controller 101 controls hardware resources in the scanner controller 302 via the controller I / F 301, a document loaded on the ADF by the user is conveyed via the conveyance control unit 304, and is detected by the sensor 305. Read. Then, the scanner controller 302 stores the read image data in the RAM 303.

  The print controller 202 can cause the recording head 8 to execute a recording operation based on the image data read by the scanner controller 302 by converting the image data acquired as described above into recording data. .

  Hereinafter, the recording data processing executed by the print engine unit as described above will be described.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram schematically showing the inclination of the nozzle array of the recording head.

  As shown in FIG. 7, in this embodiment, the nozzle row is inclined by 3.7 ° with respect to the y direction. In the example shown in FIG. 7, one head substrate is taken up. In this case, since the nozzles are arranged in 512 nozzles at a resolution of 600 dpi, the length from end to end of the nozzle row is about 21.67 mm. Therefore, it means that there is a deviation of 21.67 mm × sin (3.7 °) ≈1.40 mm with respect to the conveyance direction at both ends of the nozzle row.

  FIG. 8 is a table showing how many dots are displaced in the recording medium conveyance direction as one group for every eight nozzles in the nozzle row with respect to the amount of deviation as compared to the case where each group has no deviation. It is a figure. In the example shown in FIG. 8, the resolution is converted to 1200 dpi. In FIG. 8, the “inclination value” is a deviation amount in the transport direction of a group of nozzles (generated by the inclination of the nozzle row).

  FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image recorded by the recording apparatus 1.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a state in which attention is paid to a certain nozzle row when the image shown in FIG. 9 is recorded on a recording medium.

  In FIG. 10, when the recording medium is transported to the position where the left end portion of the nozzle row is the recording start position, the head I / F 206 starts to transfer recording data to the recording head 8. That is, at this position, the head transfer permission signal shown in FIG. 5 becomes ‘H’. Since the recording head 8 normally receives and records the recording data corresponding to all the nozzles in the nozzle array, the head I / F 206 similarly stores some recording data corresponding to all the nozzles in the nozzle array. Need to transfer.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram schematically showing the contents of recording data transferred from the head I / F 206 to the recording head when the image shown in FIG. 9 is recorded.

  As shown in FIG. 11, 80 lines of null data are added to the recording data on the leading end side and the trailing end side in the recording medium conveyance direction. As shown in FIG. 8, since the maximum inclination value is “66”, if null data for 66 lines is added, null data is assigned to the right end of the nozzle row and the null data is transferred to the recording head 8. It becomes possible to do. However, as will be described later, since the format of the image data stored in the buffer 501 is a set of 16 lines in the transport direction, the additional amount as null data is 80 lines, which is an integer multiple of 16. To do.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a state in which attention is paid to a certain nozzle row when the recording data shown in FIG. 11 is recorded on a recording medium.

  By adding null data for 80 lines as described above, as shown in FIG. 12, when the recording medium is transported to the place where the left end portion of the nozzle array is the recording start position, all the data in the nozzle array Recording data can be transferred to the nozzles. The null data may be added to the top of the image data by the image processing unit 108, or the print controller 202 prepares null data in advance in the buffer 501 of the RAM 204 and offsets the write address of the image data. You may make it make it.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a format of image data stored in the buffer 501.

  As shown in FIG. 13, the data grouped by 16 lines in the transport direction are arranged continuously in the y direction (nozzle arrangement direction). In FIG. 13, data corresponding to nozzle 0 in the nozzle row is data stored at addresses + 0h, + 01h, + 400h, and + 401h. Similarly, data corresponding to nozzle 1 is stored at addresses + 2h, + 03h, + 402h, and + 403h. Data. When the image processing controller 205 reads image data from the buffer 501, it is assumed that 256 bits (16 × 16) are read out so that the reading efficiency does not decrease. That is, the image data read from the address + 0h by one access is image data for 0 to 15 lines from nozzle 0 to nozzle 15. Although FIG. 13 shows the image data storage area for one nozzle row, the buffer 501 actually stores the image data storage area for the number of nozzle rows of the recording head 8, that is, 8 × 15 = 120 nozzle rows. Are equipped as well.

  FIG. 14 is a diagram showing the order in which the image processing controller 205 reads and processes image data from the buffer 501. A square in FIG. 14 indicates 16 × 16 which is an access unit of the image processing controller 205. The numbers in the boxes are the access order of the image processing controller 205. When the nozzle row is inclined as shown in FIG. 7 and each nozzle has the inclination value shown in FIG. 8, the start position of the image data transferred to the recording head 8 during the recording data processing is also determined by the nozzle. It depends on. Therefore, it is necessary to change the location read by the image processing controller 205 from the buffer 501 in accordance with the inclination value.

  Next, details of internal processing of the image processing controller 205 will be described.

  The image processing controller 205 that has read the image data from the buffer 501 first executes vertical / horizontal conversion (HV conversion) to facilitate subsequent processing.

  FIG. 15 is a diagram conceptually showing vertical / horizontal conversion (HV conversion).

  When vertical / horizontal conversion (HV conversion) is executed, the image data arranged in the conveyance direction of the recording medium in the RAM 204 is rearranged into image data arranged in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction as shown on the left side of FIG. It is done. In this embodiment, the direction perpendicular to the transport direction is the nozzle arrangement direction of the recording head. This conversion process is executed in units of a predetermined amount of data. In the example shown in FIG. 15, if the unit is 16 dots × 16 dots and 1 dot is 1 bit, 16 bits × 16 bits (= 256 bits). Executed in units. That is, the processing unit of HV conversion is equal to the reading unit of image data from the buffer 501 by one access.

  FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a state in which image data that has been subjected to vertical / horizontal conversion is stored in a buffer.

  As shown in FIG. 16, the image data after the vertical / horizontal conversion is performed on the 13th to 15th line images in a buffer (first internal buffer) having a capacity of 512 × 3 bits provided in the image processing controller 205. Stored data. On the other hand, image data with corrected inclination is stored in a buffer 504 (second internal buffer) having a capacity of 512 × 48 bits provided in the image processing controller 205. The image data of the 13th to 15th lines are stored in the buffer 503 in order to process the data one downstream side with respect to the conveyance direction of the recording medium (pointing to the area “33” for the area “1” in FIG. 14). This is for use in cases. The storage of the image data of the 13th to 15th lines in the buffer 503 is executed for all the nozzles in the nozzle array of the recording head.

  Next, image data processing for correcting inclination and a method for storing data in the buffer 504 will be described.

  First, a method for correcting a minute inclination of less than one line will be described.

  In this embodiment, for the purpose of reducing the peak power consumption, the nozzle array of the recording head 8 is divided into groups of 16 consecutive nozzles, and the 16 nozzles are time-division driven to 16 within one line for recording. The method is adopted.

  FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a state in which recording is performed using time-division driving after correcting a minute inclination of less than one line.

If the recording head is driven in a time-sharing manner, as shown in FIG. 17, some of the recording data used for time-sharing the nozzles in each group to 16 is used to record in the next line, thereby giving 1 For example, in FIG. 17, in a portion where a correction value is described in FIG. 17, the recording data used for recording divided by 16 hours on the first line is originally recorded. Among them, the recording data for the first 4 dots is used for recording on the next second line. Similarly, among the recording data originally used for recording by dividing the 16th time on the second line, the recording data for the four dots recorded first is used for recording on the next third line. In this example, when recording on the second line, only necessary recording data is extracted from the recording data on the first line and the recording data on the second line.

  FIG. 18 is a diagram for explaining the data storage processing of the slope values 0 and 1, that is, nozzles 0 to 15 (see FIG. 8), and FIG. 14 shows the areas 1, 33, 65. Note that, since the image data shown in FIGS. 18 to 20 are continuously converted in the conveyance direction of the recording medium on the recorded image, the image data that has been subjected to the vertical / horizontal conversion and the image data stored in the buffer 503 are the same. The image data are collectively shown. Further, the size in the y direction of the image data shown in FIG. 18 is 16 bits, but the inclination value takes a different value for every 8 nozzles.

  Step 1 in FIG. 18 shows the processing of the leading edge of the image, that is, the region “1” (FIG. 14). There is no image data stored in the buffer 503 at the leading edge of the image, and it is displayed in a shaded manner in the figure. For an area with an inclination value of 1 (left 8 × 16 bit area), the first to fifteenth lines (shaded portions) of the image data subjected to vertical / horizontal conversion are written into the buffer 504. Of these, the data for the first line and the fifteenth line are written in the buffer 504 in order to correct a slight inclination of less than one line. For an area with an inclination value of 0 (right 8 × 16 area), data having the same number of lines as an area with an inclination value of 1 is written into the buffer 504. Accordingly, the 0th to 14th lines (shaded portions) of the image data that has been subjected to vertical / horizontal conversion is written into the buffer 504. Of these, the data of the 0th line and the 15th line are only written in the buffer 504 in order to correct a slight inclination of less than 1 line. In addition, in Step 1, the data of the 13th to 15th lines in the region “1” (FIG. 14) is stored in the buffer 503.

  Step 2 in FIG. 18 shows the processing of the region “33” (FIG. 14). In Step 2, for the area where the slope value is 1 (left 8 × 16 bit area), the data stored in the buffer 503 in Step 1 is the 15th line data and the 0th to 15th lines of the data that has been subjected to the vertical / horizontal conversion. (Dot part) is written into the buffer 504. Of these, the 15th line data in the buffer 503 and the 15th line data after vertical / horizontal conversion are corrected to a minute inclination of less than one line, so only a part is written into the buffer 504.

  For the area where the slope value is 0 (the right 8 × 16 area), the 14th to 15th lines of the data stored in the buffer 503 in Step 1 and the data that has not been written to the buffer 504, The 0th to 14th lines (dot portions) are written into the buffer 504. Of these, the 14th line data of the buffer 503 and the 14th line data after vertical / horizontal conversion are corrected to a minute inclination of less than one line, so only a part is written into the buffer 504.

  The processing for the area “65” (FIG. 14) is performed in the same manner as for the area “33” (FIG. 14).

  FIG. 19 illustrates the data storage processing of the slope values 6 and 8, that is, the nozzles 48 to 63 (see FIG. 8), and FIG. 14 illustrates the areas 4, 36, 68,... (Numbers are not illustrated in FIG. 14). It is a figure to do.

  Step 1 in FIG. 19 shows the processing of the leading edge of the image, that is, the region “4”. There is no data stored in the buffer 503 at the leading edge of the image, and it is displayed in a shaded manner in the figure. For an area with an inclination value of 8 (an 8 × 16 bit area on the left side), the 8th to 15th lines (shaded area) of the data that has undergone vertical / horizontal conversion are written into the buffer 504. Of these, the data for the 8th and 15th lines are only written in the buffer 504 in order to correct a slight inclination of less than 1 line. For an area with an inclination value of 6 (right 8 × 16 bit area), data having the same number of lines as the area with an inclination value of 8 is written into the buffer 504. Therefore, the sixth to thirteenth lines (shaded portions) of the vertically and horizontally converted data are written into the buffer 504. Of these, the data for the 6th and 13th lines are only written in the buffer 504 in order to correct a slight inclination of less than 1 line. In addition, in Step 1, the data of the 13th to 15th lines in the area “4” are stored in the buffer 503.

  Step 2 in FIG. 19 shows the processing of the region “36”. In the area where the slope value is 8 (the 8 × 16 bit area on the left side), the data of the 15th line that has not been written to the buffer 503 of the data stored in the buffer 503 in Step 1 and the data that has undergone vertical / horizontal conversion The 0th to 15th lines (dot portions) are written into the buffer 504. Of these, the 15th line data in the buffer 503 and the 15th line data after vertical / horizontal conversion are corrected to a minute inclination of less than one line, so only a part is written into the buffer 504. In the area where the slope value is 6 (the right 8 × 16 bit area), among the data stored in the buffer 503 in Step 1, the 13th to 15th lines that have not been written in the buffer 504 and the vertical / horizontal converted data The 0th to 13th lines (dot portions) are written into the buffer 504. Of these, the 13th line data in the buffer 503 and the 13th line data after vertical / horizontal conversion are corrected to a minute inclination of less than one line, so only a part is written into the buffer 504.

  The processing for the area “68” is performed in the same manner as for the area “36”.

  FIG. 20 shows data storage processing at the inclination values 15 and 17, that is, nozzles 112 to 127 (see FIG. 8), and in FIG. 14, areas 8, 40, 72, 104,... (Numbers not shown in FIG. 14). It is a figure explaining about.

  Step 1 in FIG. 20 shows the processing of the leading edge of the image, that is, the region “8”. As described with reference to FIGS. 18 to 19, the data written to the buffer 504 at Step 1 decreases as the slope value increases. In the area “8”, there is no data to be written to the buffer 504 as shown in Step 1 of FIG. However, the data of the 13th to 15th lines are stored in the buffer 503.

  Step 2 in FIG. 20 shows processing for the region “40”. For the region where the slope value of Step 2 is 17 (the region of 8 × 16 bits on the left side), the 1st to 15th lines (dot portions) of the vertically and horizontally converted data are written into the buffer 504. Of these, the data for the first line and the fifteenth line are written in the buffer 504 in order to correct a slight inclination of less than one line. For the area with the slope value of 15 (the right 8 × 16 bit area), the 15th line that was not written to the buffer 504 among the data stored in the buffer 503 in Step 1 and the 0 to 0 of the vertically and horizontally converted data The 13th line (dot portion) is written into the buffer 504. Of these, the 15th line data in the buffer 503 and the 13th line data after vertical / horizontal conversion are corrected to a minute inclination of less than one line, so only a part is written into the buffer 504.

  Similarly to Step 1, the data of the 13th to 15th lines of the area 40 are stored in the buffer 503 also in Step 2.

  Step 3 in FIG. 20 shows processing for the region “72”. In Step 3, in the area where the slope value is 17 (the 8 × 16 bit area on the left side), the 15th line data not written in the buffer 504 among the data stored in the buffer 503 in Step 2 is sent to the buffer 504. Written. In addition, the 0th to 15th lines (X shaded portion) of the vertically and horizontally converted data are also written to the buffer 504.

  Of these, the 15th line data in the buffer 503 and the 15th line data after vertical / horizontal conversion are corrected to a minute inclination of less than one line, so only a part is written into the buffer 504. In the area where the slope value is 15 (8 × 16 bit area on the right side), the data stored in the buffer 503 in Step 2 is not written to the inner buffer 504, and the 0th line of the vertical / horizontal converted data is 0. The ˜13th line (X shaded portion) is written into the buffer 504. Of these, the 13th line data in the buffer 503 and the 13th line data after vertical / horizontal conversion are corrected to a minute inclination of less than one line, so only a part is written into the buffer 504.

  The subsequent area processing is performed in the same manner as for the area “72”.

  FIG. 21 is a diagram showing a state where data in the areas “1” to “96” shown in FIG. 14 is written in the buffer 504 by the method described with reference to FIGS.

  The data written in the buffer 504 is then written in the buffer 502 of the RAM 204.

  FIG. 22 is a diagram showing a format of data stored in the buffer 502 of the RAM 204.

  As shown in FIG. 22, the recording data stored in the buffer 502 is stored so that addresses are continuous in the line direction in consideration of data transfer to the recording head 8 performed in units of lines. Therefore, data reading from the buffer 504 is also performed in line units. On the other hand, the format of the image data stored in the buffer 501 is organized for 16 lines in the transport direction as shown in FIG. For this reason, image data cannot be newly read from the buffer 501 unless recording data for at least 16 lines is written from the buffer 504 to the buffer 502. Therefore, if 16 lines of data are written in the entire area of the buffer 504, the recording data is written in the buffer 502.

  In FIG. 21, the portion surrounded by a thick line indicates the data for 16 lines. According to this embodiment, when the data storage process for the areas “1” to “96” is executed, the data for 16 lines is displayed. Is written. Therefore, when data up to region 96 is written into buffer 504, 16 lines of data are read and written into buffer 502. As a result, an empty area for 16 lines is generated in the buffer 504, so that data for 16 lines (areas 97 to 192) is newly read sequentially from the buffer 501, and after the inclination correction processing is executed, the data is written to the buffer 504. Include.

  Thereafter, writing of data for 16 lines to the buffer 502, reading of data from the buffer 501, execution of inclination correction processing, and writing to the buffer 504 are repeated.

  Therefore, according to the embodiment described above, a buffer is provided in the image processing controller, and the image data is temporarily stored in this buffer to perform the inclination correction processing. Therefore, the number of accesses to the external RAM can be reduced. it can. As a result, it is possible to execute the tilt correction accompanying the tilt of the recording head at a higher speed, and to avoid a decrease in the total throughput.

  Since the image processing controller 205 sequentially processes the image data of each nozzle row, unlike the buffer 501, the buffer 503 and the buffer 504 include only the above-described areas. When it is desired to increase the processing speed of the image processing controller 205, the image processing controller 205 may be provided in the plurality of engine units 200.

  Further, in the embodiment described above, each nozzle has the inclination value shown in FIG. 8 based on the inclination shown in FIG. 7, but even for an inclination different from FIG. A correction value may be determined for each nozzle, and data to be written to the buffer may be determined according to the determined inclination value. The buffer 501 has an area where image data for 120 nozzle rows can be stored. However, when processing is performed sequentially in a certain unit, the buffer 501 may have a smaller area for the number of nozzle rows. Good.

  Further, in the embodiment described above, an example using a full-line recording head having 15 head substrates, in which the nozzle arrangement direction of each head substrate is aligned in one direction, and the recording width is increased has been described. This is not a limitation. For example, the present invention can be applied to a serial type recording apparatus in which a small number of head substrates of about 1 to 2 are built in a recording head, the recording head is mounted on a carriage, and recording is performed by reciprocating the carriage. It is.

1 recording device, 8 recording head, 101 controller unit, 105 cassette,
200 Print Engine Unit, 202 Print Controller, 204 RAM,
205 Image processing controller, S recording medium (cut sheet)

Claims (11)

A recording apparatus that performs recording by discharging ink to a recording medium from a recording head having a plurality of nozzles,
Conveying means for conveying the recording medium;
Storage means comprising a first buffer for storing input image data, and a second buffer for storing recording data to be output to the recording head;
The image data read from the first buffer is rearranged using an internal buffer according to the inclination of the nozzle row of the plurality of nozzles with respect to the conveyance direction of the recording medium by the conveyance means, and the rearranged image data is recorded as the recording data. An image processing means for outputting the data to the second buffer as data. The image processing means includes
Conversion means for converting the image data into HV in units of a predetermined data amount in the transport direction and a direction perpendicular to the transport direction;
A first internal buffer of the internal buffers for storing image data that has been HV converted by the conversion means;
Correction processing means for performing correction processing according to the inclination;
The recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a second internal buffer among the internal buffers in which the image data corrected by the correction processing unit is written.   3. The recording according to claim 2, wherein the image processing means further includes an output means for outputting the image data subjected to the correction processing from the second internal buffer to the second buffer as recording data. apparatus. The first buffer further stores null data according to the slope;
The data reading unit from the first buffer to the image processing means is the same as the HV conversion processing unit by the converting means,
The output means has a predetermined amount of data in the transport direction and the second internal buffer outputs the correction data when the correction processing corresponding to all the nozzles in the nozzle array direction of the recording head is completed. Output recorded data,
The recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the second buffer stores recording data output so that addresses are continuous in a nozzle array direction of the recording head.   The recording apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the null data is added to the image data as data corresponding to a position further ahead of a leading end of an image to be recorded in the conveyance direction of the recording medium.   6. The information on the tilt is configured by configuring the plurality of nozzles as a plurality of groups for each of a predetermined number of continuous nozzles and setting the information for each of the plurality of groups. The recording apparatus according to claim 1. The recording head is a full line recording head having a recording width corresponding to the width of the recording medium;
The full-line recording head has a recording width corresponding to the width of the recording medium by disposing a plurality of head substrates having a plurality of nozzles in the nozzle arrangement direction of the plurality of nozzles. The recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6. The storage means is provided corresponding to each of the plurality of head substrates,
The recording apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the image processing unit executes the rearrangement of the image data in units of a plurality of the head substrates.   The recording apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a driving unit that drives the plurality of nozzles in a time-sharing manner.   The driving means performs the time-division driving as a part of recording data used for recording one line as recording data used for recording the next line according to the information on the inclination. The recording apparatus according to claim 9. A data processing method for a recording apparatus that performs recording by ejecting ink from a recording head having a plurality of nozzles to a recording medium conveyed,
The image data read from the first buffer storing the input image data is rearranged using the internal buffer of the image processing means according to the inclination of the nozzle row of the plurality of nozzles with respect to the conveyance direction of the recording medium, A data processing method comprising: performing data processing for outputting rearranged image data as recording data to a second buffer used for outputting to the recording head.