JP3376113B2 - Ink jet printer and print system capable of printing on fabrics and paper sheets, ink used in the system, and method of manufacturing articles manufactured using the system - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an inkjet printing apparatus for printing on plain paper or OHP paper (translucent sheet having an ink receiving layer) under standard printing conditions, and a printing method using the apparatus. The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an inkjet printed material obtained by the method, and more particularly to a printer and a printing system capable of recording ink on plain paper and cloth.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the widespread use of copiers, word processors, information processing equipment such as computers, and communication equipment, an ink jet type image forming equipment has become popular as one of the image forming (recording) devices for these equipment. I'm doing it. This type of device performs digital ink recording on plain paper as a reference of a recording medium using a recording head,
Based on the black ink amount of plain paper, the black ink amount of plain paper is 2 for a translucent sheet having an ink receiving layer.
A device having a doubled OHP print mode is the mainstream.

On the other hand, in recent years, an ink jet device dedicated to textile printing using an ink jet technique has been put into practical use, and an ink jet recording head dedicated to textile printing has been adopted to produce high-definition print cloth. This type of inkjet device is an industrial textile printing device, and is not a device that allows a user to easily and precisely print as desired. For example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 61-55277, which relates to an inkjet printing method, the application of which is limited to an industrial printing field, a compound which is substantially non-dyeing to a dye is 0 to a cloth material. Ink bleeding on the cloth is prevented by the cloth for inkjet dyeing containing 1 to 50% by weight.

On the other hand, there is an application that enables recording on fabrics in a printer for ink jet recording on plain paper. This is due to the applicant of the present application and is referred to in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-53492. This has a viscosity of 1 Pa at 25 ° C for fabrics.
The step of forming a recording liquid receiving layer of s or more, superimposing it on a commercially available report paper, immediately mounting it on an inkjet printer, inkjet printing, and iron-fixing the print cotton, and then receiving liquid with a neutral detergent And a step of obtaining a printed matter from which is removed. This application is also an improvement of the ink receiving layer of cloths, which is capable of improving resolution and forming an image having a density without blurring or bleeding.

Further, there is Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-61183 which discloses an invention for improving the fabric itself by making a difference between the medium such as plain paper and the fabric as a medium. In this publication, when performing inkjet printing,
In order to increase the surface density of the cloth, the problem is to increase the residual ratio of the dye on the print on the cloth, and the entire cloth or the surface to be printed is coated with a non-dyeing polymer compound to form a film, Further, an invention is provided in which a non-printing surface side of the cloth opposite to the surface to be printed is again coated with a polymer compound to form a film to prevent the outflow of ink, thereby increasing the residual rate of ink on the cloth. Disclosure.

[0006]

In the industrial printing in the above-mentioned prior art, the head mechanism and the apparatus itself for ink jet printing on the cloth should be a dedicated printing machine which is set according to the characteristics of the cloth used. The ink used could also be prepared exclusively (for example, a reactive dye) according to the ink receiving layer of the cloth. In addition, in industrially performed printing, it is not necessary to perform inkjet printing on plain paper, and thus it is possible to use the apparatus under free printing conditions.

A characteristic feature common to the above-mentioned prior arts is that the ink diffusion in the cloth is suppressed by the ink receiving layer, but this also concentrates the ink at a predetermined position to maintain the density of the image formed by the ink. The only improvement was the image quality.

However, a commercially available printer, which is mainly set to a plain paper or the like by using the inkjet technology, can print the color image data transferred from the host device or the like with high precision, that is, a so-called inkjet printing device field. It is effective as a small and low-priced color inkjet printing apparatus, and the ink for forming an image is prepared by using a dye or pigment based on plain paper such as a direct dye. Further, in the OHP print mode as a selection mode in a commercially available printer that is set mainly for plain paper or the like, a mode in which twice the amount of ink is printed on a plain paper per predetermined area for black enhancement. There is only one that has. Therefore,
Although the image quality of the print on the cloth in the commercially available printer, which is mainly configured by the conventional paper such as the plain paper as in JP-A-62-53492, is excellent at the application level of this publication, the cloth is also excellent. It does not provide high density and high image quality suitable for.

The inventors of the present invention have noticed that the conventional image quality level is significantly improved, and in a commercially available printer that is mainly set to paper such as plain paper, the high density and high image quality suitable for a cloth are obtained. It is a main object of the present invention to provide an inkjet printer and a printing system capable of printing on fabrics and paper sheets that can achieve the above, an ink used in the system, and a method for producing an article manufactured using the system. .

Specifically, by taking advantage of the characteristics of conventional general-purpose ink jet printers, a user can easily attach a cloth to the cloth and draw a high-definition image to develop a technology for printing on paper and cloth. With the print of
It is used by ordinary users by eliminating the factors that are different from ordinary paper, as well as the ink absorption state associated with the fiber structure and surface shape of both, and the purpose of coloring, and without increasing the size of the printing device or increasing the cost. Provided as a general-purpose printing device.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems, and does not require special operations for a commercially available printer that is set mainly for paper such as plain paper instead of improving the ink receiving layer of cloth. In addition, by providing effective printing conditions for the ink absorption state due to the fiber structure and the surface shape in printing on the fabric and the coloring, the fabrics that can maximize the characteristics of inkjet printing And a paper sheet printing system.

In particular, the present invention improves the image quality by using a color ink different from the black ink of the cloth, and provides effective printing conditions even for the printing of the cloth with the color ink which is not the conventional idea. By doing so, it is possible to provide a cloth and paper sheet printing system that can maximize the characteristics of inkjet printing.

Further, according to the present invention, while improving the image quality of the print on the cloth by utilizing the standard of the standard paper of the commercially available printer which is set mainly for the paper such as the plain paper, By providing more appropriate printing conditions, a better fabric and paper sheet printing system is provided.

Furthermore, the present inventors have made a new discovery while improving the image quality of the print on the cloth by utilizing the standard of standard of a commercially available printer, which is mainly set for plain paper and the like. It was found that the peculiar phenomenon of the cloth, that is, the cloth suddenly deformed in the vicinity of the limit of the acceptance of the ink, and exhibited a large wavy state that was unexpected from the behavior of conventional paper. . Although this achieves an improvement in the density of image quality, since the fabric itself fixes a large wavy state, the quality of the final article is degraded. Therefore, solving this new problem is one of the other objects of the present invention.

[0015]

To solve the above problems, the present invention provides an ink jet head having a plurality of nozzles arranged on a print medium along a main scanning direction different from the arrangement direction of the plurality of nozzles. A main scanning unit that relatively scans the print medium, and a sub-scanning unit that relatively moves the print medium with respect to the inkjet head in a sub-scanning direction different from the main scanning direction. In an inkjet printer that performs printing by ejecting ink from the nozzles to the print medium during scanning of the inkjet head by the scanning unit, a predetermined area that can be printed by one scan of the inkjet head by the main scanning unit The main scanning means scans the inkjet head a plurality of times, In each of the above, the print data corresponding to the predetermined area is printed with the print data thinned according to the set thinning rate, the divided print control means, the thinning rate in the printing operation by the divided print control means, and the predetermined area. Control means for setting the number of times of the plurality of scans for the print mode corresponding to the type of the print medium, and plain paper print corresponding to the case where plain paper is used as the print medium as the print mode. It is possible to set a mode and a fabric print mode corresponding to the case where a fabric is used as the print medium,
Print mode setting means for setting the plain paper print mode with priority over the cloth print mode and for setting the cloth print mode in place of the plain paper print mode; and the control means for the cloth print mode. In order to increase the amount of ink ejected to the predetermined area in the plain paper print mode,
The thinning rate of the print operation by the divided print control unit is set higher than that in the plain paper print mode, and the number of times of scanning of the predetermined area by the main scanning unit is set to be greater than that in the plain paper print mode. By providing an inkjet printer characterized by being set so as to increase the number of prints, it was possible to achieve an improvement in image quality density suitable for cloth by utilizing a mode in which printing is performed on plain paper under predetermined printing conditions. In particular, by using the color ink print condition in which the color ink print condition in which the color ink of a color different from black in the first priority print mode is ejected and printed is changed to the high quality print condition, the conventional idea is obtained. By providing effective printing conditions even for the printing of the cloth with the color ink, which was not the case, it was possible to provide the cloth and paper sheet printing system capable of maximizing the characteristics of the inkjet printing.

Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a main scanning means for relatively scanning a print medium with an ink jet head having a plurality of nozzles arranged in a main scanning direction different from the arrangement direction of the plurality of nozzles. A sub-scanning unit that moves the print medium relative to the inkjet head along a sub-scanning direction different from the main scanning direction, during the scanning of the inkjet head by the main scanning unit. In an inkjet printing system that uses an inkjet printer for performing printing by ejecting ink from the nozzles onto the print medium, printing is performed by a single scan of the inkjet head by the main scanning unit. The ink jetting is performed by the main scanning unit on a possible predetermined area. A plurality of scans of the print head, and in each of the plurality of scans, divided print control means for performing printing with print data obtained by thinning out print data corresponding to the predetermined area at a set thinning rate, and the divided print control. Control means for setting the thinning rate in the printing operation by the means and the number of times of the plurality of scans for the predetermined area according to the print mode corresponding to the type of the print medium, and the print mode as the print mode. A plain paper print mode corresponding to the case of using plain paper as a medium and a fabric print mode corresponding to the case of using a cloth as the print medium can be set,
Print mode setting means for setting the plain paper print mode with priority over the cloth print mode and for setting the cloth print mode in place of the plain paper print mode; and the control means for the cloth print mode. In order to increase the amount of ink ejected to the predetermined area in the plain paper print mode,
The thinning rate of the print operation by the divided print control unit is set higher than that in the plain paper print mode, and the number of times of scanning of the predetermined area by the main scanning unit is set to be greater than that in the plain paper print mode. By providing an inkjet printing system that is characterized by setting so as to increase the image quality, the image quality of the print on the fabric can be used by using the standard paper standard of the commercially available printer that is mainly set for plain paper. While making improvements, it is possible to preferentially provide more suitable printing conditions for the type of cloth, and thus it is possible to achieve both superior cloth and paper sheet printing.

An effective and specific content for the present invention is an ink jet printing system capable of ejecting a plurality of colors of ink, and the amount of ink ejected onto the print medium is at least one of the plurality of colors of ink. Of the inks ejected in the inkjet printing system capable of ejecting the inks of the plurality of colors, the ejection amount of the black ink to the print medium is set to the ejection amount of the inks of other colors. An inkjet printing system characterized by being set as described above. According to this, while maintaining the form of the ink jet system which has been mainly intended for paper or OHP film in the past, in addition to this, since it has one or more kinds of print modes for the cloth, the ink jet system is more than ever before. The scope of application of the system can be expanded.

In the present invention, the cloth used as the printing medium is not limited to the material, the weave, and the thickness.
Includes all woven, non-woven and other fabrics. By the way, there are many kinds of fibers constituting the cloth, from natural fibers to synthetic fibers, and the ink absorbency of each is also various. Therefore, as described in the above-mentioned problem point, it is not possible to unambiguously determine the amount of ink to be ejected, even though it is large. In addition, when applying inkjet to textile printing, the image (pattern) to be drawn
However, it is not always preferable to print at a high density. Furthermore, when the image (design) is not a single color but a multicolor, it is possible that the shades may be different for each color. Therefore, even when printing on a fabric with an inkjet,
One type of print mode is provided in the category of cloth, and it is substantially impossible to cover all in that mode.
Here, in the case of a multicolor image, if the shade differs for each color,
Although it is possible to express with a conventionally known method of area gradation such as dither, if the number of gradations is increased, the resolution becomes low, and it takes time to process the image signal. Since this may occur, it may be insufficient when the image becomes dense.

From the above, in order to adapt the ink jet system to various kinds of cloth, it may be insufficient to simply set one kind of cloth print mode separately from the paper, and more kinds of cloth may be used. It is more preferable that the print mode for use can be set. Moreover, the present inventors have found that it is more preferable to be able to appropriately and automatically switch one or more types of these print modes for cloth. Furthermore, depending on this content, it is possible to share a part with the conventional print mode,
Therefore, the level of the system could be easily improved without increasing the size and cost of the system.

When ink jet printing is realized, the image is composed of dots, so the image is handled digitally. Therefore, the digital conversion of the image signal,
Alternatively, there is a host computer in an inkjet printing system that is processed to generate a signal for ejecting ink to an inkjet head. Therefore, it is possible for the system to switch the setting of the cloth print mode on the host computer together with the transmission of the image signal. Especially in recent years, in the field of computers, GUI (Graphical User In
Such a system form is effective because the terface environment has been developed and bidirectional communication with the printer is becoming possible.

On the other hand, it is possible to change the setting of the cloth print mode described above even in the ejection control portion of the ink jet head, and therefore it is also possible to perform it on the device for performing the printing operation. In this case, compared to the case of using the host computer, there is an advantage that the actual print image can be immediately switched while checking.

Further, among the matters described above, in the case where the shade is intentionally expressed for each color, it is effective to be able to appropriately set the ink ejection amount for each color. Generally, in the case of expressing a multicolor image, it can be realized by using four kinds of colors of black, cyan, magenta and yellow. Therefore, at least one of the four colors can be set by increasing the driving amount. In particular, when the density of black is higher than that of other colors, vividness is likely to appear clearly in an image, so it is effective to set black so as to be applied to other colors.

Next, in the printing method suitable for the present invention, the cloth print mode described above thins out the image data to be printed in accordance with a predetermined image data array, and in the main scanning direction in accordance with the thinned image data. By ejecting ink while reciprocally moving the inkjet head, and each time the reciprocating movement of the inkjet head is performed once, the print medium is sequentially conveyed at a distance equal to or less than a predetermined nozzle row length. An inkjet printing system characterized by forming images.

Now, the printing operation corresponding to the conventional general plain paper or coated paper will be described with reference to FIG. 2, and the advantages of the present invention will be described. According to the present invention, since the image to be printed is mainly a color image image rather than a character expressed in a single color from the point of printing on a cloth, in the case of such an image print, multi-pass printing is performed. Printing is often done. In printing a color image image, various elements such as color developability, gradation and uniformity are required as compared with printing of characters. Particularly regarding uniformity, in an ink jet head in which a plurality of nozzles are arranged, a slight variation in the nozzle unit caused by a difference in manufacturing process causes a variation in the ejection amount of ink ejected from each nozzle when printing. This affects the ejection direction, and eventually causes the image quality to deteriorate as uneven density of the printed image. A specific example thereof will be described with reference to FIGS. 21 and 22. Figure 21
In (A), reference numeral 91 is an ink jet head formed by arranging a plurality of nozzles.
It is assumed that each of the nozzles 92 is composed of individual nozzles 92. Reference numeral 93 is an ink droplet ejected from the nozzle 92, and it is ideal that ink is ejected in a regular direction with a regular ejection amount as shown in this figure. If such ejection is performed, dots of uniform size are landed on the paper surface as shown in FIG. 21 (B), and a uniform image with no density unevenness is obtained as a whole. (Fig. 21
(C)). However, in reality, as described above, each nozzle has variations, and if printing is performed in the same manner as described above, the nozzles will be different as shown in FIG. The size and direction of the ejected ink droplets vary, and the ink droplets land on the paper surface as shown in FIG. According to this figure, the surface of the paper cannot be completely filled with the landed ink droplets in the main scanning direction of the inkjet head, and there are periodically blank areas, or conversely dots are unnecessarily formed. They overlap each other, or white lines appear in the center of this figure. The collection of dots landed in such a state has the density distribution shown in FIG. 22C with respect to the nozzle array direction, and as a result, these phenomena cause the density distribution to be seen by human eyes. Perceived as uneven.

Therefore, the following method has been devised as a countermeasure against the uneven density. The method will be described with reference to FIGS. 23 and 24. 21 and 2 according to this method.
The inkjet head 91 is scanned three times in order to complete the print area shown by 2, but the half area of the unit of 4 pixels is completed in two passes. In this case, the 8 nozzles of the inkjet head are divided into a group of 4 upper nozzles and 4 lower nozzles. The dots printed by one nozzle by one scan are thinned out about half of the prescribed image data according to a certain predetermined image data array (hereinafter referred to as "print mask"). And 2
At the time of the second scanning, dots are embedded in the remaining half of the image data, and printing of a 4-pixel unit area is completed.
The printing method described above will be referred to as "divided printing method" below.
Called. If such a divided printing method is performed, even if the same ink jet head as that used in FIG. 22 is used, the effect on the print image unique to each nozzle is reduced by half, so the printed image is shown in FIG. ), The black streaks and white streaks as seen in FIG. 22B become less noticeable. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 23C, the density unevenness is considerably reduced as compared with the case of FIG.

When performing such printing, the image data is divided in a manner that fills each other according to a certain arrangement at the time of the first scanning and the second scanning, but this image data arrangement (thinning pattern) was previously used. As shown in FIG. 24, it is the most general to use a pixel that has a zigzag pattern for each vertical and horizontal pixel. Therefore, in the unit print area (here, in units of 4 pixels), printing is completed by the first scan for printing the zigzag lattice and the second scan for printing the inverse zigzag lattice. FIGS. 24A to 24C show how printing of a certain area is completed when the staggered and reverse staggered patterns are used.
As in the case of 3, the description is made using an inkjet head having 8 nozzles. First, in the first scan, the bottom 4
A nozzle is used to print a staggered pattern (hatched dots) (FIG. 24A). Next, in the second scanning, the paper is fed by 4 pixels (1/2 of the head length) to print an inverted zigzag pattern (dots without hatching) (FIG. 24 (B)). In the third scan, the paper is fed again by 4 pixels (1/2 of the head length),
The staggered pattern is printed again (FIG. 24 (C)).
In this manner, the paper feed in units of 4 pixels and the printing of the staggered pattern and the reverse zigzag pattern are alternately performed in this manner to complete the print area in units of 4 pixels for each scan. As described above, by completing printing with two different types of nozzles in the same area, it is possible to obtain a high-quality image without density unevenness.

At the same time, since the density of the ink printed on the cloth becomes low, the penetration of the ink in the depth direction is reduced, and the effect of improving the surface density can be expected. From this, the printing method described individually can be expected to have a great effect on fabric printing.

As described above, in this drawing, the print is completed in the same region by scanning twice, but the effect of the divided print method appears as the number of divisions increases. Even in the printing apparatus described above, 1
If the number of pixels to be printed in each scan is further halved and the width of the paper feed scan is set to 2 pixels (1/4 of the head length), an image is completed by four types of nozzles in the same scanning direction. It is possible to obtain a smooth and good image in a higher density state.

Conventionally, for paper, OHP paper, etc., the deviation of the landing position due to variations in the ejection direction of the individual nozzles of the ink jet head, the order of ink ejection for each color during color recording, and the forward and backward paths for bidirectional printing. Is different in
That was greatly influenced by the image quality. In other words, when overlapping ink or drawing fine lines dot by dot, the image formation is disturbed due to the deviation of the landing position in the reciprocal movement, and when the inks of different colors are overlapped on the same portion, the order of impact is reversed. The colors of the mixed colors were different. On the other hand, it is still difficult to accurately control the landing position of each ejected ink in the printing apparatus and to appropriately control the penetration of the ink in the printing apparatus. Prints were common.

On the other hand, when the inventors of the present invention studied the behavior of ink-jet printing on cloth, it became clear that the above-mentioned problems hardly occur. In other words, regardless of the order of ink injection,
The ink that has landed on the cloth is always spread evenly from the landing position and absorbed in the cloth. In addition, it was found that the reciprocal printing on the fabric is also effective for shortening the time because the dot diameter becomes large and the landing accuracy of the fabric print does not require such a severe impact. As a result, the present invention has been achieved.

That is, as compared with the case of printing on conventional paper or the like, the restrictions on the above-mentioned division printing method are remarkably reduced in the case of cloth, so that this division printing method can be further developed. Therefore, it is possible to apply all kinds of print masks depending on the type of cloth to be used, and it is also possible to freely overprint ink at the same place and arbitrarily set the image density. As a result, it is possible to achieve high image quality of prints on cloth and wide application. Therefore, when the print mask is properly determined and the cloth print mode is entered, 100% or 200
%, 300%, 400%, 500%, etc., so that ink can be ejected freely.

On the other hand, the above-mentioned new problem in the present invention, that is, the fabric is abruptly deformed in the vicinity of the limit of the acceptance of the ink, which is a large amount which cannot be expected from the behavior of the conventional paper. As a condition for solving the problem of causing the wavy state, the mode for printing on the cloth is more than the standard printing condition of plain paper for the color ink and is 3 times or less (optimally 2 times or less). With respect to the black ink, it is preferable to set the standard cloth print mode in which four times or less (optimally three times or less) of the standard printing condition for plain paper is set as the maximum ink amount given per unit area.

Further, as a preferable condition of the ink used in the present invention, an aqueous ink containing a surfactant, the content of the surfactant being less than the critical micelle concentration with respect to the ink, and the interface Ink for an ink jet printing system, characterized in that the surfactant is contained so that the concentration is higher than the critical micelle concentration for the water when the activator is applied to the water, and the ink for an ink jet printing system. An ink for an inkjet printing system is characterized in that a reactive dye is used as a contained coloring material. The use of these inks makes it possible to replace a plurality of types of ink tanks that respectively store a plurality of types of inks for inkjet printing systems, depending on the fabric used.

As an ink used in an ink jet system, an ink having a high permeation speed and less boundary bleeding has been developed in recent years for the purpose of obtaining a good image on plain paper on the market. On the other hand, when printing with a general ink that has been known in the past, the penetration speed of the ink is slow on many plain papers on the market, and it is unnecessary for dots to be printed simultaneously at the same time. Color mixture occurs. For this reason, it is known that bleeding occurs at the boundary of different colors, resulting in deterioration of the quality of the printed image. Especially for graphs such as graphic images, parts of tables, and drawn pictures,
Since it is often the case that a part of the printed surface is filled, the use of the above-mentioned ink exerts a synergistic effect with the setting of the recording conditions of the present invention, and the influence of this deterioration in quality can be improved.

Further, depending on the plain paper, the unevenness of the permeation state on the paper surface may be caused by the filled portion (hereinafter, this portion is "solid").
(Referred to as)) may be impaired or partial whitening may occur. It is said that this is due to the non-uniformity of the surface. Also, this allows the ejected ink droplets to penetrate into the paper surface selectively, so that the gaps between the fibers that make up the paper, the sizing agent, and other thinly water-repellent portions are selectively permeated, so that the dot shape is true. There is also the problem of non-circular, star-shaped, non-uniform shapes. Such problems could not be dealt with by using conventional ink unless the paper was coated with a special coating.
Most of such coated papers are expensive, and since the distribution channels are limited, it is not so common.

However, it is a promising solution to improve the permeation power and the permeation speed to plain paper by adding the surfactant of the present invention under the preferable conditions to the ink.

If the amount of the surfactant added is too large, the viscosity in the vicinity of the nozzle portion will increase significantly due to evaporation or the like in a low humidity environment, and the discharge recovery will deteriorate significantly. Further, as the surface tension is lowered to the limit and the viscosity is increased, the converging property of the ink droplets is deteriorated, the droplets are not converged into one after ejection, and the main droplets and the subsequent minute droplets (satellite) are not formed. Occurs. The generation of the minute droplets causes many problems such as deterioration of character quality and impaired linearity of ruled lines. Furthermore, since the viscosity of the ink itself increases, the time until the ink is refilled after ejection also increases.

In order to satisfy all of the above problems, it is necessary to pay attention to the critical micelle concentration of the surfactant with respect to the ink and the water and adjust the concentration to an appropriate range. According to Japanese Patent Application No. 5-164845 by the same applicant as the present invention, the concentration of the surfactant is desired to be as high as possible from the viewpoint of promoting penetration.
From the viewpoint of preventing bleeding and maintaining the uniformity of stickiness, it is practically important that the concentration is higher than the critical micelle concentration in water. Above, it is disclosed that it is important that the content of the surfactant in the ink is lower than the critical micelle concentration, and these concentrations are limited.

From the matters described above, the super-penetrating ink containing the above-mentioned surfactant is very effective for the ink jet printing system capable of recording ink on plural media, which is an important object of the present invention. The present inventors have found that, and it has been found that the present invention can be realized very effectively when applied to the fabric print mode. In addition, the amount of ink applied to the cloth may be larger than that of paper, etc., so that with normal ink, the speed of ink absorption into the cloth, which is the medium, will decline. Before it is absorbed by the ink, color mixing with adjacent ink droplets occurs, which is recognized as a boundary blur in the output image. In order to prevent this, the number of times of multi-scan is increased and printing is performed while drying little by little, or a waiting time of the carriage is set for each scanning to wait for ink absorption before printing again. A method can be considered, but in any case, since it takes time to promote drying, the time required for image output is significantly inferior to other print media. From this, too, if a super permeable ink containing a surfactant is applied, it can be absorbed and dried instantly, and it is not necessary to perform the above method for drying the ink, and a good density can be obtained. Obtainable. The addition of penetrability with a surfactant increases the ink absorbency into the yarns that make up the fabric, and has the new advantage that the fibers near the fabric surface can be uniformly dyed. It is also possible to prevent the ink from excessively passing through, and it can be said that the super-penetrating ink containing a surfactant is suitable for the fabric print mode.

In addition to this, the use of the reactive dye, which is often used in the conventional printing technique, as the coloring material contained in the ink also makes it possible to widely apply the cloth print mode to various cloths. It turned out to be even more effective. In the case of an ink using this reactive dye, the direct fixing property is low, but by subjecting the cloth to an alkali treatment, it reacts with the -OH group in the cellulose fiber,
It is possible to obtain a clear hue having high wet fastness on the cloth. Further, any appropriate ink can be used as long as it has a required color material, and thus the ink is not limited to a dye and may include a pigment.

As described above, if several kinds of inks can be used, it is possible to properly match the inks to the cloth to be used, store a plurality of kinds of inks that can be used in the form of ink tanks, and replace them appropriately. However, it is an important configuration for the inkjet printing system of the present invention. All of these various inks do not necessarily have the same composition in the four colors used for color, and two or more kinds of inks may be used separately for each color and mixed in the inkjet system. For example, black is the normal penetrating ink that is also used for paper, and other colors, namely cyan, magenta, and yellow, are super-penetrating inks that contain a surfactant, and all the colors are the same. Even in the amount, it is possible to make the density of black to be relatively higher than that of the other colors so that the black remains near the surface of the cloth.

On the other hand, the various inks listed above are not only suitable for printing fabrics, but are also generally effective for other print media. Therefore, in the inkjet printing system of the present invention, the ink itself can be appropriately selected at the same time as the print mode according to the print medium.

Subsequently, as an application invention of the present invention, utilizing the characteristics of the above-mentioned invention, it is directly printed on the cloth medium for printing or printed on another transfer medium, and then the print image is transferred to the cloth. It is a method for producing an inkjet printed product, which comprises performing any one of the above.

Here, in the case of further printing directly on the printing cloth medium, the printing cloth medium is subjected to a stiffening treatment prior to printing so as to have a Clark stiffness of 10 or more and 400 or less. In addition, the printing cloth medium contains a dye fixing agent having a polarity prior to printing, and the image is fixed to the printing cloth medium simultaneously with the printing operation, or It is characterized in that after the printing is finished using the printing cloth medium, the print image is fixed with a dye fixing agent having a polarity.

In addition to these, the print image is fixed by heat treatment or moist heat treatment after the printing is finished using the print cloth medium, and the print cloth medium is washed after the print image is fixed. It is a method for producing an inkjet printed product, which is characterized by performing a treatment.

In the ink jet printing system according to the present invention, it is possible to directly print on various commercially available cloths, but in this case, the conventional ink jet printing apparatus is used to print on the cylindrical platen roller on the print medium. Although the member that presses the cloth is once released and the print medium is manually mounted and then the pressing member is pressed again, the platen roller and the cloth are closely attached to each other, but the method of mounting is often used. With such a printing device, it was possible to convey and print on almost all fabrics, but since the fabric is mounted manually, it is possible to align the fabric and the conveying direction by skewing, or to wind and convey without wrinkling. Difficult and high-definition inkjet printing can be difficult. Further, it is difficult to stabilize the transportability due to deterioration of pressing force due to repeated use of the release mechanism, and there is a problem that the mounting operation itself is inferior in operability. Therefore, it is preferable to apply an automatic mounting mechanism to the conveying means, which is becoming mainstream in inkjet printers in recent years, to the inkjet system of the present invention. In this case, in order to attach the cloth as it is, the cloth itself is so-called "stiffness" like paper (hereinafter, this "stiffness" is referred to as "stiffness" for the cloth).
There will be no difficulty).

In order to realize the mounting of the cloth on the automatic mounting mechanism, in the invention by the same applicant as the present inventors, in Japanese Patent Application No. 5-108226 and Japanese Patent Application No. 5-230369, the rigidity of the cloth is set. The details of flattening and flattening are disclosed. Also in the inkjet printing system of the present invention, applying the stiffened fabric is a very effective configuration for realizing high-definition printing and stable conveyance. Therefore, the present invention is also characterized in that the cloth is subjected to a stiffening treatment so that the Clark stiffness is 10 or more and 400 or less. Note that the Clark stiffness here is a value represented by the Clark method defined in JIS-P8143.

In addition to the above, among the above-mentioned stiffening treatments, those performed by using a sizing agent such as carboxymethyl cellulose, polyvinyl alcohol, acrylamide, starch, tragacanth gum, guar gum, etc. are used after the completion of ink jet printing. The sizing agent is removed by washing to restore the texture of the fabric. In order to prevent the deterioration of the image due to the outflow of the dye at the time of this cleaning, generally, the cloth is subjected to a cationization treatment and a dyeing control treatment such as a fixing agent before the printing. However, this method alone may not be sufficient depending on the ink used, more specifically, the dye used and the method of ejecting the ink. For this reason, it is effective to add a treatment with a dye fixing agent to the cloth.

The treatment with the dye fixing agent mentioned here is because the dye contained in the ink used for printing the cloth as a coloring material is generally a dye having an ionic property,
It is preferred to add polar material to the fabric. The treatment on the cloth has an action of aggregating the dye by ionic bonds during or after printing to improve the fixing property of the dye to the fibers constituting the cloth. Therefore, the treatment on the cloth may be performed before or after printing. As the polar material for this treatment, for example, a water-soluble cationic polymer such as polyallylamine salt, polyallylsulfone, or dityldiallylammonium chloride, an anionic polymer such as a vinyl acetate polymer, or a modified compound rubber can be used. . They may be dissolved or dispersed in a solvent such as water or alcohol, or may be impregnated or laminated by a technique such as dipping, coating, spraying or the like on a cloth in an emulsion state. In particular, in the case of treating after inkjet printing, it is more effective to increase the viscosity of the treatment liquid or to perform treatment with a non-aqueous system in order to avoid bleeding and running of the dye before aggregation.

Since these treatment agents can be removed by washing, the texture of the original fabric is not impaired with respect to the printed fabric medium. Further, in order to improve the washing fastness of the image after this treatment, the fabric medium after printing is subjected to a chemical color-fixing treatment, a heat treatment such as ironing, or a steam treatment of steam heat such as a steamer. It is also effective to improve the fixing property of. Of course, it may be accompanied by heating the fabric medium at the time of printing with the inkjet printing system.

In addition to the above, known methods for pretreatment of fabrics can also be applied to the present invention as required. As an example of such pretreatment, the cloth is made to contain an alkaline substance, a water-soluble polymer, a synthetic polymer, a water-soluble metal salt, a substance selected from urea and thiourea, etc. Is. Representative examples of these substances are given below.

As the alkaline substance, alkali metal hydroxides such as sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide, mono,
Examples thereof include amines such as di and triethanolamine, carbonic acid or alkali metal bicarbonate such as sodium carbonate, potassium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate. Furthermore, there are organic acid metal salts such as calcium acetate and barium acetate, and ammonia and ammonia compounds. Also, sodium trichloroacetate, which becomes an alkaline substance under steaming and dry heat, can be used. Particularly preferred alkaline substances are sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate used for dyeing reactive dyes.

Examples of the water-soluble polymer include starch substances such as corn and wheat, cellulosic substances such as carboxymethyl cellulose, methyl cellulose and hydroxyethyl cellulose, sodium alginate, gum arabic,
Examples thereof include polysaccharides such as locust bean gum, tragacanth gum, guar gum and tamarind seeds, protein substances such as gelatin and casein, and natural water-soluble polymers such as tannin-based substances and lignin-based substances.

As the synthetic polymer, polyvinyl alcohol compounds, polyethylene oxide compounds,
Examples thereof include acrylic acid-based water-soluble polymers and maleic anhydride-based water-soluble polymers. Among these, polysaccharide polymers and cellulose polymers are preferable.

Examples of the water-soluble metal salts include compounds such as halides of alkali metals and alkaline earth metals, which produce typical ionic crystals and have a pH of 4 to 10. Representative examples of such compounds include alkali metal compounds such as sodium chloride, sodium sulfate, potassium chloride and sodium acetate, and alkaline earth metal compounds include calcium chloride and magnesium chloride. Etc. Of these, salts of sodium, potassium and calcium are preferable.

In these pretreatments, the method of incorporating the above substances and the like into the cloth is not particularly limited, but examples of the method usually performed include a dipping method, a pad method, a coating method and a spray method.

Further, after the ink jet printing is completed, a conventionally known method can be applied to obtain a printed matter in order to subsequently carry out a fixing step of the coloring material in the ink such as dye on the fiber. For example, when alkali treatment is performed as pretreatment, there are steaming method, HT steaming method, thermofix method and the like, and when the cloth which has been previously alkali treated is not used, alkali pad steam method, alkali blotch steam method Method, alkali shock method, alkali cold fix method, etc.

On the other hand, in the case of producing a printed matter by printing on another transfer medium and then transferring the print image to the cloth, the mirror image of the desired image is once printed on the other transfer medium. After that, the printed surface is brought into contact with the cloth, and the mirror image formed on the transfer medium is transferred or penetrated into the cloth by a physical or chemical pressure bonding process. In such a case, as a special printing method for the cloth, not only the adjustment of the ink ejection amount but also the structure for forming a special mirror image is required. As the transfer medium used here,
It suffices that the ejected ink is held appropriately and that the transfer is performed promptly at the time of transfer to the cloth. It is possible to configure by forming an ink holding layer consisting of. Regarding the means for transferring the image from the transfer medium to the cloth, after superposing the two, pressurization, heating, laser irradiation, dissolution removal of the ink holding layer with a solvent, and the like, and combinations of these methods are known. By using the means, it is possible to perform pressure transfer or melt transfer.

Therefore, the print mode for cloth is
The above-mentioned transfer system may be added. In particular, in the transfer method according to the above, since the medium actually transferred from the transfer medium does not have to be limited to the cloth, it is effective to have an independent mode in order to expand the range of the image expression medium.

Finally, a fifth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the inkjet printed product produced by the above means is further cut and / or sewn to obtain a final processed product. Is a manufacturing method. The printed matter produced by the ink jet printing system described so far can be finally handled in the same manner as the conventional printed matter, and thus can be freely cut and sewn.

In any case, according to the present invention, one or more kinds of cloth print modes for forming an image on the cloth, and a switching means capable of appropriately selecting the one or more kinds of cloth print modes are used for other prints. At least one is different from the print condition of the mode for printing on the medium, so that it is possible to freely express the image not only on the existing print medium but also on the cloth. It is possible to provide an inkjet printing system capable of performing the above. The inkjet printing system to which this inkjet technology is applied can be applied not only for industrial purposes, but also for a wide range of hobby fields of general households. A more specific configuration of the present invention can be understood from the examples below.

[0062]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 5 shows a schematic structure of a printing portion in an ink jet printing system capable of color printing used in the present invention. In this figure, 701 is a head cartridge. These are composed of an ink tank group 703 containing four color inks, that is, black, cyan, magenta, and yellow, respectively, and an inkjet head group 702 connected to the ink tanks of the respective colors. In this figure, K, C, M, and Y described in the ink tank group 703 are black, cyan, and
It shows that each color ink of magenta and yellow is contained.

1 in this inkjet head group 702
FIG. 6 shows a state of a plurality of nozzle rows arranged on one ink jet head for ejecting ink of one color from the z direction, and 81 is each nozzle arranged on this one ink jet head. In FIG. In this figure, the ejection ports 801 or nozzles are arranged in parallel along the y-axis, but they may have some inclination on the xy plane in this figure, for example. In this case, ink is ejected from each nozzle at different timings while the head moves in the traveling direction x, and printing is performed.

Referring again to FIG. 5, reference numeral 704 is a conveyance roller, and together with the auxiliary roller 705, the print medium 7
The print medium 708 is rotated in the directions of arrows i and j in the drawing while holding down 08, and the print medium 708 is fed in the y direction at any time. A feeding roller 706 feeds the print medium and, like 704 and 705, print medium 7
It also plays a role in controlling 08. Reference numeral 707 denotes a carriage that supports four ink cartridges and moves them together with printing. This is to stand by at the home position (h) at the position shown by the alternate long and short dash line in the figure when not printing or when performing the recovery operation of the inkjet head.

Before the start of printing, the carriage 707 located at the home position h in the figure ejects ink from the plurality of ejection openings 801 on the inkjet head group 702 while moving in the x direction when a print start command arrives. ,
The width d is printed on the print medium surface. When the data printing is completed up to the end of the print medium, the carriage moves in the -x direction and returns to the original home position h,
Print again in the x direction. Alternatively, in the case of reciprocal printing, the next printing is also performed at the stage of moving in the -x direction. From the end of the first printing to the start of the second printing, the conveyance roller 704 and the auxiliary roller 705 rotate in the arrow directions i and j to convey the medium in the y direction by a predetermined width. In this way, the data print on one print medium is completed by repeating the carriage scanning and medium conveyance. In this inkjet printing system, when switching to the fabric print mode, ink is ejected up to 200%, which is twice the ink ejection amount of 100% when functioning in the plain paper print mode which is the first priority print mode. It is set to drive in.

Before explaining the operation of the cloth print mode, the structure of the inkjet head group 702 to be used will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8, and then the general inkjet print system used in this embodiment will be described. The typical ink will be explained.

FIG. 7 is an exploded view showing the structure of one ink jet head in the ink jet head group 702. In this figure, one end of the wiring board 1080 is mutually connected to the wiring portion of the heater board 1081, and the other end of the wiring board 1080 is provided with electric and heat for receiving electric signals from the inkjet printing apparatus main body. A plurality of pads corresponding to the energy converter are provided. As a result, the electric signal from the inkjet printing apparatus main body is supplied to each electric / thermal energy converter. The metal support 1082 that supports the back surface of the wiring board 1080 on a flat surface serves as a bottom plate of the inkjet head unit. Holding spring 1
Reference numeral 083 denotes a region in the vicinity of the ink ejection port of the grooved top plate 1084 provided with a groove for forming a nozzle, which is bent to have a substantially U-shaped cross section in order to exert an elastic pressing force on the line. This portion has a claw, a claw hooked by using an escape hole provided in the base plate, and a pair of rear legs for receiving a force acting on the spring by the base plate. Due to this spring force, the wiring board 1080 is attached by pressing the grooved top plate 1084. The wiring board 1080 can be attached to the metal support 1082 by pasting with an adhesive or the like. On the other hand, the ink supply pipe 108
A filter 1086 is provided at the end of 5. The ink supply member 1087 is formed by molding, and the grooved top plate 1084 is also integrally formed with the orifice plate portion 1880 and a flow path leading to each ink supply port. To fix the ink supply member 1087 to the metal support 1082, two pins (not shown) on the back surface side of the ink supply member 1087 are projected through the two holes 1088 of the support 1082, respectively, and these are heat-sealed. This is easily done by doing. At this time, the gap between the orifice plate portion 1880 and the ink supply member 1087 is sealed, and further passes through the groove 1089 provided in the metal support body 1082 to connect the orifice plate portion and the metal support body 1082 front end portion. Completely seal the gap between them.

FIG. 8 shows a four-head integrated ink jet cartridge 7 in which the above-mentioned four head units 1174 capable of ejecting inks of four colors of black, cyan, magenta and yellow are integrally assembled in a frame 1170.
The structure of No. 02 is shown. The four inkjet heads are mounted in the frame 1170 at predetermined intervals, and the resists in the nozzle row direction are also fixed in an adjusted state. In this case, the mutual landing position accuracy between colors is improved by adjusting using the mechanical reference surface of the inkjet head. Alternatively, the ink jet head may be temporarily fixed to the frame and then actually ejected, and the mutual landing positions between the colors may be directly adjusted based on the data obtained by measuring the landing positions to further improve the accuracy. Reference numeral 1171 is a frame cover, and 1173 is a connector for connecting pads provided on the wiring substrate 1080 of the four inkjet heads and electrical signals from the inkjet printing apparatus main body. Assembling the four inkjet heads in addition to the handling advantages,
As described above, it is effective in improving the mutual landing position accuracy between the heads, but also has a great effect in that the number of signal line connections with the inkjet printing apparatus main body can be reduced. For example, a signal line common to four inkjet heads such as a GND line can be shared on the connector board 1172 to reduce the number of lines, and an integrated circuit board is provided to perform time-division driving for each inkjet head. If this is done, it is possible to share the print signal line. Such a reduction in the number of electrical connections is effective in a device having a large number of signal lines such as a color machine or a multi-nozzle high speed machine.

The general inks used in the ink jet printing system in this embodiment are as follows. Ink (A), ink (B) and ink (C) in the order of black, cyan, magenta and yellow respectively. ), And the components are shown as ink (D).
Unless otherwise specified,% is based on weight.

Ink (A): for black (solvent) triethylene glycol 7.0% hexanetriol 7.0% isopropyl alcohol 1.5% (surfactant) ethylene oxide adduct of acetylene glycol 0.01% ( Product name: Acetylenol EH, Kawaken Fine Chemicals Co., Ltd. (Dye) Food Black 2 3.0% (remaining amount) Water-Ink (B): For cyan (Solvent) Same as ink (A) (Surfactant ) Same as ink (A) (Dye) Direct Blue 199 2.5% (remaining amount) Water-Ink (C): for magenta (Solvent) Same as ink (A) (Surfactant) Same as ink (A) (Dye) Direct Red 227 2.5% (remaining amount) Water Ink (D): For yellow (Solvent) Same as ink (A) (Surfactant) In Same as (A) (dye) Direct Yellow 86 1.5% (remaining amount) Water Next, the operation of printing the cloth of this embodiment is shown in FIG. 1 and the ordinary plain paper shown in FIG. Description will be made while comparing with a printing operation corresponding to coated paper. In this example,
An image is completed by four multi-pass prints according to the divided print method described above. In this example, cotton is used as the cloth.

FIG. 2 shows a state in which coated paper or plain paper is printed in this embodiment. The number of nozzles of the ink jet head used in this embodiment is 32.
And, normally, 4-pass unidirectional printing, media feed amount is 32/4
= 8 nozzles. In each print scan, printing is performed according to the print mask shown in this figure, and a medium feed scan for 8 nozzles is performed for each print scan. The print masks from the first print scan to the fourth print scan are in a complementary relationship with each other, and the print of the unit image area is completed only after the print scan and the medium feed scan are performed four times. Become. These print masks are set in advance in the printing apparatus, and the logical product between the data of this print mask and the image data is taken during the scanning of the print to obtain the actual print data.

On the other hand, FIG. 1 shows the state in which printing is performed on the cloth. In this mode, the image is completed by a total of eight print scans and four medium feed scans. . Printing is performed with a pair of reciprocal recording scans, such as a first print scan and a second print scan, and a third print scan and a fourth print scan. They use the same print mask and do not include a media feed scan between both print scans. Therefore, in these two continuous scans, the ink is ejected to the same pixel by the reverse scan of the forward and backward passes. After this continuous two reciprocating two print scans, a medium feed scan with a width of 8 nozzles is entered, and the print of the unit image area is completed for the first time after a total of eight print scans.

In FIG. 1, as much as 200% of ink is ejected, twice as many print scans are required as compared with the normal print mode of FIG. However, since printing is performed by reciprocating scanning here, the number of times the carriage is scanned and the time required for printing are the same as in FIG. On the other hand, in FIG. 2 as well, if the second and fourth print scans are performed in the backward direction, the print time can be further shortened. However, with ordinary coated paper or plain paper, reciprocal printing causes image deterioration. It is easy to become. In the ink jet printing apparatus used in this embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the heads of four colors are arranged in parallel in the carriage movement direction, that is, in the main scanning direction. I will end up. In such a case, it has been confirmed that the tint of the color-mixed portion varies depending on the order in which ink colors are printed on the print surface. Further, in the current printing apparatus, it is still difficult to accurately control the landing position during the forward printing and the landing position during the returning printing, and it is known that such landing position deviation causes deterioration of ruled lines and character quality. ing. In order to prevent the above adverse effects, the unidirectional printing as shown in FIG. 2 is set in the normal print mode.

By applying the method for printing on cloth as described above, it becomes possible to print a good image on cloth as well as ordinary plain paper and coated paper. In addition, compared with plain paper, the fabric has larger surface irregularities on the surface to be printed, and the ink penetrates and spreads after being ejected. Since the influence of the change in color tone and the deviation of the ink landing position is relatively small, the conventional printing mechanism can sufficiently perform the reciprocal printing. Therefore, no special mechanism is newly added for the fabric and the cost is not increased.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 3 shows a print state in which the print scan is the same as that in FIG. 1 but only black is larger than the other colors and the ink ejection amount is 400%. Using this printing method, cotton is printed as in the first embodiment.

In this figure as well, although the image is completed by eight reciprocating print scans, the print mask used in each print scan is decimated to 50%. The same print mask is used for the first, second, third, and fourth total of four print scans, and ink is landed four times on the same pixel to achieve 400% ink ejection.

By setting the ejection amount for each color of the ink, in particular, by setting the ejection amount of the black ink to be large, a black image appears more clearly and a clear image can be obtained on the cloth. In general, as an image seen by human eyes, the darker the density of black, the sharper and sharper it looks. Therefore, by adopting the above-mentioned structure, the image becomes more sharp.

(Third Embodiment) In FIG. 4, as in the second embodiment, it is desired that the amount of black ink ejected is larger than that of the other colors.
This is an example when the cloth used is thin. In this case, if the amount of ink ejected is 400% as in Example 2, the ejected ink may reach the back side of the fabric and further exceed the ink receiving ability of the fabric itself. This promotes bleeding at the boundary between black and other colors, and also contaminates the printing device with ink that reaches the back of the fabric, and even the next fed fabric. It can happen. Further, when the amount of ejected ink is large, the volume increase of the fabric in that portion is likely to be larger, which easily causes the wavy state of the fabric medium. Therefore, the duty of the ink ejection amount is adjusted to 300% to avoid these adverse effects.

In this drawing, the image is completed by four print scans in a reciprocating manner, but the print mask used in each print scan is thinned to 75%. By completing the scan with the printmask as shown in this figure, 3 inks are applied to equal pixels.
The ink has been ejected to achieve an ink ejection amount of 300%.

Even if such an ink ejection amount is set, the thickness of the cloth used is thin, so that the printed image is not inferior to that in the case of the above-described second embodiment, and a sufficiently black color is obtained. It is possible to express brilliant and vivid things. Further, since it is possible to suppress the occurrence of the wavy state of the fabric medium, it is possible to prevent the harmful effects such as the destruction of the inkjet head. Note that the print masks described so far are merely examples, and other mask patterns can be applied as long as each ink ejection amount can be achieved.

(Example 4) The composition of the ink is such that the content of the surfactant is less than the critical micelle concentration for the ink and higher than the critical micelle concentration for the water when given to the water. Use the one prepared by. These are designated as ink (E), ink (F), ink (G), and ink (H) shown below.

Ink (E): for black (solvent) glycerin 7.5% thiodiglycol 7.5% (surfactant) ethylene oxide adduct of acetylene glycol 1.0% (trade name: acetylenol EH, Kawa Ken Fine Chemical Co., Ltd. (Stabilizer) Urea 7.5% (Dye) Food Black 2 4.0% (remaining amount) Water-Ink (F): For cyan (Solvent) Same as ink (E) ( Surfactant) Same as ink (E) (Stabilizer) Same as ink (E) (Dye) Direct Blue 199 3.5% (remaining amount) Water-Ink (G): For magenta (Solvent) Ink (E Same as () (surfactant) same as ink (E) (stabilizer) same as ink (E) (dye) Direct Red 227 3.5% (remaining amount) water-ink (H): for yellow (solvent) ) Same as ink (E) (Surfactant) Same as ink (E) (Stabilizer) Same as ink (E) (Dye) Direct Yellow 86 2.5% (remaining amount) Water Each of the four ink tank groups 703 shown in FIG. 5 is accommodated by color and is replaced with the ink tank used in the first embodiment. FIG. 9 shows the ink tank replacement means here. In FIG. 9, reference numeral 701 is a head cartridge in which four heads are integrated, and is composed of an inkjet head 702 and an ink tank group 703 composed of four ink jet heads 7031 to 7034.
And an ink supply pipe is provided for each head,
In this figure, 7021 is representatively shown for only one color. Also, four ink tanks 7031
To 7034 are arbitrarily replaceable, and are connected to the inkjet head 702 by an engagement guide and a pressing means on the carriage. Each of the ink tanks 7031 to 7034 has an ink holding member made of a porous body housed therein.
02, the filter 70 at the tip of the ink supply pipe
By press contacting with 21, the connection is made mechanically. After the combination, the ink is forcibly supplied and filled from the replaced ink tanks 7031 to 7034 using the suction recovery pump (not shown) of the ink jet head in the ink jet printing apparatus main body.

Applying such a replacement ink tank to the printing apparatus not only allows the type of ink to be replaced arbitrarily, but also when the type of ink is fixed This makes it possible to replenish ink immediately.

Using this ink jet printing system, hemp was made to perform the printing operation by the printing method shown in FIG. Although hemp has a lower moisture absorption rate than the cotton used in Example 1, the ink having a high permeability is used, and therefore, the printed image is similar to that in Example 1 and is free from image deterioration such as bleeding. Very good, none at all.

(Embodiment 5) Of the four types of ink used in Embodiment 4, only black is changed to ink (I) shown below.

Ink (I): for black (solvent) glycerin 5.0% thiodiglycol 5.0% isopropyl alcohol 4.0% (stabilizer) urea 5.0% (dye) Food Black 2 3. 0% (remaining amount) water Using these inks, only the ink jet head used for black has a large ejection port area, and the ejection amount is set to be twice the amount of other colors. Consider some black enhancement. Specifically, with an inkjet head of 360 dpi, black is set to 80 ng / dot, and cyan, magenta, and yellow are set to 40 ng / dot. Other conditions were the same as in Example 1, and the printing operation was performed. In this way, by applying ink only for black and not using a surfactant, the character quality and density of black can be emphasized more than other colors.

As described above, the ink containing the surfactant has excellent ink absorbability. This prevents bleeding at the boundary between different colors of the color image and improves the throughput, so it can be said that the ink is suitable for fabric printing with a large amount of printing. However, as compared with ink (I) that does not contain a surfactant, it spreads in a large circle on the printed surface of the fabric, so it cannot be said that the resolution of ruled lines and character quality is very good. .

In such a case, a better image can be drawn on the cloth by applying the ink and the ejection amount which emphasize the density and resolution only for black as in this example.

Even in print media other than ordinary cloth,
Since color is bleeding at the border and black is becoming more and more popular in pursuit of density and resolution, it is easily expected that high density and high resolution will be required for fabric prints in the near future. . In particular, in fabric printing, black is often required to have a depth (concentration). In this case, by applying an ink whose permeation rate is suppressed, the concentration of the ink that permeates along the fiber is reduced. Can be compensated. In such a case, as shown in this example, black is set to 80 ng / dot, cyan, magenta,
By adopting a structure in which yellow is 40 ng / dot, desired high density and high resolution images can be obtained even in fabric printing.

Further, when two or more types of ink are used as in this example, it may be difficult to mix them adjacent to each other due to the difference in properties of the inks. In such cases, unless you apply a special printing method for printing on paper,
Ink may repel each other at the boundary, and white smear may occur. However, in the case of the fabric print, since the regular absorption of the fabric into the fibers is prioritized, such a harmful effect is unlikely to appear even without special measures.

Example 6 Next, an example in which a reactive dye is used as a coloring material of an ink composition for improving the effect of a printed image in a fabric print will be described. The reactive dye used here is a water-soluble azo dye, anthraquinone dye, phthalocyanine dye or the like which is widely used in the dyeing of fibers or the conventional printing method. These reactive dyes have a water-soluble group such as a sulfonic acid group or a carboxyl group in their structure, and a group capable of reacting with the hydroxyl group or amino group of the fiber to form a covalent bond with the fiber, for example, dichlorotriazine. Group, monochlorotriazine group,
Trichloromethyl Billiton spermidine group, monochlorobenzene difluoro kink spermidine group, chlorobenzothiazole group, di chlorpyrifos da Zon group, dichloride Lucino quinoxaline group, an epoxy group, 3-carboxypropyl pyridinium niobium triazine group, -SO ₂ CH ₂ CH ₂
OSO ₃ H, -SO ₂ NHCH ₂ CH ₂ OSO ₃ H,-
_{NHCOCH 2 CH 2 OSO 3 H,} -NHCOCH 2 C
_{H 2 Cl, NHCOCH = CH 2} , -SO 2 CH = CH
_{2, -CH 2 NHCOCl = CH 2} , NHCOCBr =
_{CH 2, -NHCOCH 2 Cl, -NHCH} 2 OH, -
It has PO3H and the like.

Specific examples include inks (J) to (M) shown below.

Ink (J): for black (solvent) thiodiglycol 24.0% diethylene glycol 11.0% (dye) C.I. I. Reactive Black 39 10.0% (remaining amount) Water Ink (K): for cyan (solvent) Same as ink (J) (dye) C.I. I. Reactive Blue 72 10.0% (remaining amount) Water / Ink (L): For magenta (Solvent) Same as ink (J) (Dye) C.I. I. Reactive Red 24 10.0% (remaining amount) Water-Ink (M): For Yellow (Solvent) Same as Ink (J) (Dye) C.I. I. Reactive Yellow 85 10.0% (remaining amount) Water An ink using these reactive dyes (hereinafter, this ink is referred to as “reactive ink”) is shown in FIG. After being accommodated in the ink tanks 703 corresponding to the respective colors, the ink jet heads 702 are combined with each other and the cloth print mode is set. As the cloth to be used, silk treated with alkali by a known method is prepared, and the printing operation is started. The printed fabric is 1
A steam heat-controlled at 02 ° C. is used for 8 minutes to perform heat-moisture treatment to react the dye with —OH groups in the fiber. After that, the unreacted dye was washed off with water to obtain a clear printed matter.

(Embodiment 7) Next, an ink jet printing apparatus having a structure shown in FIG. 10 will be described as a modification of the ink jet printing apparatus described above.
The configuration of the present embodiment is a configuration in which the head configuration of the inkjet printing apparatus of FIG. According to the present embodiment, the series of print scans for completing an image, which has been described in the first to sixth embodiments up to now, is set as the first stage, and after the completion of the first stage, the print medium is printed several times. The print area to be further completed after the feed scan is the print scan of the second stage performed by the inkjet head 1301. At this time, the multi-pass printing described above may or may not be performed in both the first step and the second step. If the ink ejection amount is set to 200%, 100% printing is performed in the first step, and 100% printing is newly performed in the second step. For example, print scanning can be efficiently distributed in two printing steps. .

In such a case, the ink jet print head of the first stage has four colors of black, cyan, magenta and yellow, while the second stage head has four colors of black, red, green and blue. But it's okay. For example, with such a configuration, it is possible to handle red, green, and blue, which have always required a double ink ejection amount, in an amount equivalent to the other four colors, so that the ink ejection amount of the entire image is averaged. It becomes possible to do.

Further, according to the present embodiment, after the drying is promoted for several times of the print scan and the paper feed scan,
Since the printing in the second stage is performed, it is possible to promote the improvement of the density, and it becomes easier to further suppress the occurrence of bleeding between different colors. Further, since the amount of ink to be printed at the same time in the color mixing portion can be reduced, it is possible to suppress excessive permeation of ink, and it can be said that the configuration of the present embodiment is suitable for printing fabric.

Further, in the above-described embodiments, only the first-stage printing is performed, so that the connecting position of each image area appears every 16 nozzles, but in the present embodiment, the second-stage printing is added. Therefore, the position of the head in the y direction can be set in advance so that the connecting portion appears at a position different from the connecting portion in the first stage. By doing so, the effect of the multi-pass printing on the joint line described above is further improved.

As described above, according to this embodiment,
The degree of freedom in fabric printing can be further increased by using the inkjet printing apparatus having the configuration shown in FIG. 21 and giving it as one of the print modes of the inkjet printing apparatus in advance.

In order to achieve the object of the present invention, applying the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Nos. 5-164845 and 5-108226 to this embodiment as well as the above-mentioned embodiments. Of course, it is effective.

(Embodiment 8) In any of the above embodiments, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 9, the nozzle groups for ejecting ink of each color are arranged in the main scanning direction. As described above, in the case of printing a color image, it is also possible to adopt an integral structure in which the nozzle rows of each color are linearly arranged in the sub-scanning direction as shown in FIG. In this inkjet head, 16 nozzles are used for black and 8 nozzles are used for cyan, magenta, and yellow, and the nozzles are arranged in parallel in the vertical direction on one inkjet head. Further, FIG. 12 shows a print state in the fabric print mode when this ink jet head is used.
By using a 50% thinning mask as the same ink ejection, and repeating the paper feed with a width of 2 nozzles, black ejects 400% of ink in 8 reciprocating scans, and cyan, magenta, and yellow eject 200 ink in 4 reciprocating scans. The image is sequentially completed for each color as a% ink injection. In this figure, a state where 1 dot ink is applied to 1 pixel is a white circle (100%), a state where 2 dots are applied is a black circle (200%), 3 dots are diagonal lines (300%), 4 dots are x marks (400%). %).

When the color nozzles are arranged in parallel in the vertical direction (sub-scanning direction, that is, the feeding direction of the print medium) as in this embodiment, the print mask is left as it is in the 100% print mode other than the fabric print. There is a method of doubling the paper feed amount, or a method of making the print mask 25% while keeping the paper feed width fixed. Further, when black emphasis is not performed, adjustment by the paper feed amount cannot be performed, so there is also a method of halving the thinning rate of the print mask only in the black nozzle portion or actually halving the print nozzle itself.

In this embodiment, since the inks of the respective colors are sequentially overlapped, it is easy to suppress the occurrence of bleeding between different colors. Further, since the amount of ink to be printed at the same time in the color mixing portion can be reduced, it is possible to suppress excessive permeation of ink, and it can be said that the configuration of the present embodiment is suitable for printing fabric.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the ink jet head having the structure shown in FIG.
By giving the printing method shown in 2 above, in which the amount of ejected ink is larger than usual, as one of the print modes of the inkjet printing apparatus in advance, it is only necessary to select the print mode in the fabric printing, and to print on a normal plain paper or coat. As a print medium such as paper or OHP paper, appropriate density and image quality can be obtained.

Even when the ink jet head having such a form is applied, the switching of the print mode and the type of ink shown in the above-described embodiment can be performed in the same manner.

(Embodiment 9) FIG. 13 shows an example of the structure of a printing portion in the case of an ink jet printing system capable of automatic mounting. In addition, the structure of the fabric medium for printing when using this system, and the method for performing ink-jet printing by these,
This is shown in FIGS. 14 and 15.

The ink jet printing method of this embodiment is shown in FIG.
3 and FIG. 14 briefly. Apply the pre-treatment (ink dyeing control treatment) suitable for inkjet ink and base fabric to plain paper (bottom paper) with adhesive layer on the surface that is easy to peel off. A cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium 1707 to be attached is prepared, and a pair of conveying rollers (conveying driving roller 1) that is a means for conveying the print medium in the inkjet printing apparatus is prepared.
703 and the conveyance driven roller 1704) are set on the upstream side in the conveyance direction. When the inkjet printing is prepared, that is, the recovery process of the inkjet head and the setting of the image data are performed, and the printing process is started, first, the transport driving roller 1703 and the transport driven roller 1704 that is driven by the transport driving roller 1703 start to rotate, and the transport driving roller 1704 is started. The cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium 1707 having the tip end abutting on the 1703 is drawn into the pressing portion of the rotating conveying roller pair, so that the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium 1707 is automatically attached to the conveying means. To be done. At this time, the surface of the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium 1707 in contact with the transport drive roller 1703 is configured to be the surface of the lower paper side 1601 similar to the plain paper which is often used in the inkjet printing apparatus. Therefore, stable conveyance can be performed.

Also, the plain paper 1601 of the cut sheet-like cloth medium for printing which is conveyed and driven, and the base cloth 1602 which is the print surface and is pressed against the conveying driven roller and conveyed by an ink absorbing adhesive layer 1603. Since they are attached to each other, the lower sheet can be stably conveyed by the conveying drive roller, so that it is possible to obtain a conveying property that enables highly accurate inkjet printing. In addition, as described above, in synchronization with the conveyance of the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium, the inkjet printing unit provided on the conveyance path operates, and the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium is placed on the base cloth. Printing according to image data (printing)
Is done. After the printing is completed, the printed cut sheet fabric print medium discharged from the inkjet printing device by the conveying means is naturally dried, and if necessary, the dye fixing process is performed by heating etc., and then the lower sheet is peeled off. The ink jet printed base cloth is subjected to a cleaning treatment and then naturally dried again to obtain a cut sheet-shaped print cloth.

The base fabric 1602 in this embodiment is made of cotton 100.
% Dough. In this embodiment, when the 100% cotton fabric is cut and processed into a cut sheet, the transportability is further stabilized when it comes into contact with the transport driven roller, and the texture of the fabric after printing (discrimination between horizontal and vertical fabrics) is improved. For the purpose of simplification and further improvement of the economical efficiency of the number of sheets to be taken from the original fabric, the rectangle is formed by substantially matching the texture and the four sides of the cut sheet.

Next, the specific processing of the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium will be described. First, the dyeing control process of the base cloth was performed by using the following processing liquid (P) prepared according to the ink on the base cloth 1602 and using a screen of 100 mesh and a solid pattern with a Timmer type printing machine. It was impregnated and dried at 100 ° C. for 2 minutes. Here, the ink having the composition shown in Example 6 was used. Next, the adhesive layer is provided by uniformly coating the plain paper 1601 with the treatment liquid (Q) shown below using a doctor knife coater. Although it depends on the thickness of the base cloth and the amount of ink applied during inkjet printing, it is possible to absorb the ink that has oozing out without being absorbed by the base cloth and prevent the ink from spreading unintentionally in the base cloth. The layer 1603 preferably has excellent ink absorbency. The bonding of the base cloth which has been subjected to the dyeing control treatment and the plain paper provided with the adhesive layer was carried out by heating two rubber rollers to 80 ° C. and pressure bonding.

Treatment liquid (P) Urea 10% Sodium hydrogen carbonate 3% Sodium metanitrobenzene sulfonate 1% Water 86% Treatment liquid (Q) Polyvinyl alcohol 20% Water 80% Then, the fabric medium thus prepared Is cut in accordance with the direction of the grain using a slit cutter. However, if it is possible to distinguish the direction of the grain and the angle when cutting into a cut sheet shape, the material of the base fabric
Depending on the application, a certain angle to the texture, for example 45
You may incline. In this embodiment, a slit 1604 is formed in the plain paper as the lower sheet at the same time as or before or after the cutting to facilitate peeling after printing. In order to obtain the same effect, the adhesive layer 1603 is not provided on the entire surface so as not to impair the transportability, and a non-bonding portion is provided at the rear end portion or a non-bonding portion is provided along the transport direction. And so on. In this way, the fabric medium for printing is completed.

In this embodiment, with respect to the base fabric of 100% cotton,
Clarke rigidity was adjusted by changing the basis weight and papermaking direction of the lower paper, and the transportability test was conducted. A light-weight paper having a basis weight of 20 g / m ² or less was used as a lower paper, and a conveyance test was conducted using a cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium having a Clark stiffness of 8 which was obtained by laminating in a lateral direction with low stiffness. Frequent occurrence of wrinkles in transportation and occurrence frequency of defects relating to transportability were 48/50 as a whole, so it was determined to be unpractical. On the other hand, in the case of the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium having a Clark stiffness of 12 obtained by laminating the above lightweight papers in the machine direction having high stiffness, the conveyance failure is drastically reduced to 10/50, and the degree of the failure itself is slightly small. There was no fatal defect such as wrinkles during transportation. In addition, the Clarke stiffness of the cut sheet-shaped printing fabric medium in the cross grain direction and the grain direction made using the light weight paper having the basis weight of 38 g / m ² is 20 and 39, respectively, and no defects occurred in the transport test. Good transportability was obtained. Therefore, in order to stabilize the transportability in the inkjet printing apparatus and enable automatic mounting, it has been found that the base cloth having a small rigidity may be improved to have the Clark rigidity of 10 or more by bonding the base cloth with the lower paper. . The upper limit and the lower limit of the Clark's stiffness depend on the configuration of the inkjet printing apparatus, but are preferably 400 or less, more preferably 20 to 300 so as to adjust the pressure-sensitive adhesive layer / base paper according to the base fabric. Has been selected.

The limit of Clark stiffness is related to the angle of the paper feed tray for dropping and the angle with the printing direction,
If it is too small, it becomes difficult to feed the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium to the pressure contact portion due to its own weight and the driving force of the conveyance driving roller received at the tip portion. On the other hand, if it is too large, it is difficult to straighten the tip of the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium by using the peripheral surface of the conveyance drive roller to correct the non-linearity such as curling. became. Further, even when the pressure roller is manually pressed against the pressure contact portion without depending on the paper feed tray, it is necessary to hold it along the peripheral surface of the conveyance roller, and for that reason, the above range of rigidity is preferable. found.

In the present embodiment, the print medium is in the form of a cut sheet, but it may be in the form of so-called continuous paper such as roll paper or roll fold paper. In any case, appropriate measures can be taken in transportation, distribution, storage and the like. For example, in the case of a cut sheet, in order to suppress changes in print characteristics (dyeing characteristics) during distribution and storage, it may be provided in a paper box after being placed in an aluminum deposition bag with a zipper. You can and the purpose
Depending on the application, simple packaging such as moisture-proof paper may be applied.

Washing after the ink jet printing may be carried out by washing with a commercially available neutral detergent, but a fixing agent or the like may be used in order to further improve the dyeing property, and cut in the form of tablets or sheets. It may be provided, for example, by enclosing it in a sheet-shaped printing cloth medium. Further, in order to further improve the dyeing property, it is preferable to add a heat treatment with an iron or the like prior to washing.

Referring again to FIG. 13, the carriage 17
There are 4 of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow in 06.
An integrated printhead cartridge 1702 in which four ink tanks 1701 filled with dark and light color inks and four printheads 1174 for ejecting four color inks are integrated are mounted. In this embodiment, the feeding tray 1 is inclined for stable automatic mounting.
705 is provided, and the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium 1707 is simply inserted along the feeding tray so that the leading end of the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium 1707 can be properly brought into contact with the transport driving roller 1703. By rotating the transport drive roller 1703 in this state, the leading end of the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium 1707 is correctly guided to the pressure contact portion of the transport roller pair, and does not cause skewing or wrinkling. It is automatically attached to a certain pair of transport rollers. In the present embodiment, as described above, the cut sheet-like printing cloth medium is cut in accordance with the texture of the cloth, so that a stable image can be printed in the direction of the predetermined texture, and the printing cloth is cut out and used for patchwork or the like. When it is used, it is possible to align the pattern of the printing and the texture, so that high-quality creation without distortion can be performed. When there is no feed tray, the leading end of the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium may be aligned with the pressure contact portion of the transport driving roller and the transport driven roller, and the transport driving roller may be rotationally driven. The cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium according to the present invention has the same conveyance characteristics as the plain paper as described above, and other known paper feed resist adjusting mechanism or the like can be applied.

Reference numeral 1703 denotes a conveyance driving roller, which holds the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium 1707 automatically attached together with the conveyance driven roller 1704 while keeping the arrow r in the figure.
, And the print medium 1707 is sent at any time. The carriage 1706 stands by at a home position (not shown) when not printing or when performing recovery work of the inkjet head.

Before the start of printing, the carriage 1706 at the position shown in the figure (home position) moves along the carriage guide shaft 1708 when a print start command comes, and at a timing based on the read signal from the linear encoder. By ejecting four colors of ink from each nozzle on the print head 1174 according to a print signal, printing is performed with a width of d on the print medium.
By this printing scan, ink is deposited in the order of black ink, cyan ink, magenta ink, and yellow ink on the print medium to form dots. When the printing of the data is completed up to the end of the print medium, the carriage returns to the original home position and prints the next line again. From the time when this first printing is completed to the time when the second printing is started, the conveyance drive roller 1703 is
The print medium having a width of d is conveyed by rotating. In this manner, data is printed on one print medium by repeating printing for the print width d of the print head and carrying the print medium for each scan of the carriage. When the printing is completed, the sheet is ejected by the conveying means, and at the same time, the platen 1709, which formed a flat print surface at the time of printing, is inclined in the ejection direction to assist the ejection of the rear end portion. A means such as a spur roller may be provided on the downstream side of the printing unit in order to assist the discharge and to stably press the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium in the printing unit.

In these configurations, in addition to the print mode for the fabric, the operability of the fabric to be printed is also taken into consideration at the same time, so that the print on the fabric can be enjoyed more easily.

(Embodiment 10) In this embodiment, the cut sheet-like print is made by adjusting the rigidity for improving the transportability of the cloth not by laminating the lower paper but by treating the cloth itself with a stiffening agent. An example of obtaining a fabric medium for use is shown. Similar to the ninth embodiment, the target Clark stiffness is a value that can be applied to an inkjet printing apparatus that can be automatically mounted. The Clark stiffness is 10 or more and 400 or less, preferably 20 or more and 30 or less.
It was set to 0 or less.

In order to improve the rigidity of the fabric itself, the treatment liquid (R) containing the following sizing agent is used. As a specific treatment method, a cloth (cotton is used in this example) is once impregnated in the treatment liquid (R), and then, under a constant load, between two rollers rotating while contacting each other. Then, the cloth is sandwiched and squeezed to remove excess processing liquid. It is then dried at 100 ° C. for 2 minutes to give a fabric with a certain stiffness. The Clarke stiffness of the obtained treated cloth was 70, and a good carrying property was obtained by carrying out a carrying test with the inkjet printing apparatus shown in Example 9, and then the general ink shown in Example 1 was used. It was used and printed. As a result, a high-definition image could be obtained.

Treatment liquid (R) Sodium alginate 5% Water 95% Subsequently, washing is performed to remove the sizing agent from the printed fabric, but at this time, the dye in the printed image is fixed to the fabric. To this end, the entire surface of the image of this cloth was coated with the following treatment liquid (S) using a doctor blade, and then dried at 50 ° C. for 30 minutes. Although the treatment liquid (S) is in an aqueous solution state, since it has a relatively high viscosity, the dye forming an image is not washed away when the treatment liquid is applied.

Treatment liquid (S) Polyallylamine hydrochloride 30% Water 70% After that, the original cotton texture is obtained by washing with warm water of about 40 ° C. for 5 minutes in a household washing machine, drying and ironing. It was possible to make it a printed matter to have.

In this structure, unlike the tenth embodiment, no different member is attached to the fabric medium, so that the printing convenience is further improved.

(Embodiment 11) In this embodiment, in addition to the automatic mounting of the cut sheet print medium as shown in FIG. 16,
An example of an inkjet printing apparatus equipped with an automatic feeding mechanism is shown. In addition, in the present embodiment, a mechanism for improving the dyeing ratio by heating the print fabric medium after inkjet printing is also provided. Further, an operation panel 1910 having a print mode selection mechanism and the like is provided so that the printing method of the inkjet printing unit is improved and it can be adapted to a thick cut sheet cloth print medium.

The feeding mechanism in this embodiment can also feed the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium shown in the above-mentioned ninth and tenth embodiments. As described above, the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium is pre-processed for controlling the dyeing of the ink, and like the carrying mechanism, driving the feeding member in contact with the print surface side can improve the carrying property and the feeding property. It is not preferable in terms of printing characteristics. That is, although the feeding drive member, which is the driving side of the feeding member generally used in the inkjet printing apparatus, is an elastic member such as a rubber material, the rubber material and the pretreated cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium are used. When the printed surface is frictionally slid, the ink receiving property of the sliding part changes and a feeding trace occurs,
On the contrary, when the pretreatment agent is gradually transferred to the rubber material, the feeding failure may occur due to the reduction of the friction coefficient. Therefore, in this embodiment, the feeding drive member is limited to the back surface (non-print surface) side of the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium. Since the cut sheet-shaped printing fabric medium shown in Example 10 of the present invention has improved transportability without using a lower sheet, there is a pretreatment agent on the back side as well, but From the viewpoint of protection, the back surface may be further subjected to a transfer prevention treatment. Alternatively, the pretreatment agent that may be transferred may be removed by performing a sliding friction treatment on the back surface in advance in a roll state before cutting without using a special treatment agent.

The feeding mechanism in the present embodiment includes a feeding driving rubber roller 1902 which is rotatably driven as needed, and a feeding holding plate 1901 which holds the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium in a laminated state and moves up and down as necessary. A separation pad 190 that separates the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium that is laminated by abutting on the leading end of the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium.
3 and a feeding guide 1 for feeding the separately fed cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium to a pair of conveying rollers
And 904.

In accordance with the feeding signal, first, the feeding holding plate 190
1 rises, and the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium 1707 and the feeding drive rubber roller 1902, which are stacked and held with the back surface facing upward on the feeding and holding plate by the pressing force of the spring member provided on the feeding and holding plate. Pressed. When the feeding drive rubber roller is rotationally driven in the feeding direction in that state, the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium is fed by frictional motive force on the back surface. At this time, a frictional sliding force is also generated between the cut sheet-shaped print cloth media that are stacked, so that the cut sheet-like print cloth medium that is in contact with the feeding drive rubber roller is dragged to the lower side. Will be sent at the same time. At the same time, when the leading ends of the plurality of cut sheet-shaped printing cloth media that have started to be fed in layers approach the separation pad 1903 having high frictional force,
Since it is stopped from the lower side, only one sheet is fed while passing over the separation pad. The cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium that has been separated and fed reaches the pressure contact portion of the pair of conveying rollers that are being driven to rotate by the feeding driving roller 1902 that is still rotating through the feeding guide, and is automatically conveyed to the conveying rollers. It is installed. The feeding and holding plate 1901 descends at a timing when automatically attached, and the feeding force of the feeding drive roller 1902 is no longer transmitted to the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium. At this time, the feeding drive roller And the feeding operation is completed. In this embodiment, since the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium is turned upside down by the feeding guide portion and turned upside down, when the back side of the feeding section is the upper side, it passes through the pair of conveying rollers. The print side is on the top. Therefore, the ink ejection direction of the ink jet printing unit is downward. Although the ink ejection direction is somewhat different depending on the inkjet printing method, it is preferably in the range from the downward direction to the lateral direction, and may be sent out in that direction by a feeding guide. Further, the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium once fed on the back side may be turned upside down using a mechanism similar to a double-sided printing unit used in a recent copying machine or the like.

In any case, the important constitution for separating and feeding the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium by the feeding mechanism of the present embodiment is feeding driving from the back side of the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium. It is limited to the configuration. Therefore, a known method other than the separation pad method of this embodiment, for example, a claw separation method can be applied, and the feeding drive member may be pressed against the back side of the printing surface. Since the automatic feeding mechanism applies some frictional sliding force to the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium as described above, it is necessary to set the Clark stiffness of the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium to a slightly high value, preferably 25.
It has been found that the feeding characteristics are stabilized by adjusting the range to 300 or less.

The inkjet printing operation itself is shown in FIG.
Since the configuration and operation are almost the same as those of the embodiment shown in FIG. 5, description thereof will be omitted. However, in this embodiment, a heating means is provided on the downstream side of the inkjet printing unit, and if necessary, a cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium. It has a structure that can be heat-treated. As the heating means, basically any heating mechanism conventionally known in the field of printers, copying machines and the like can be applied, but it is possible to obtain a sufficient effect for improving the dyeing rate which is the objective of this embodiment. It should be configured in. In addition, it is more preferable that the heating conditions can be appropriately adjusted and selected according to the configuration of the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium, the material and the thickness of the cloth, and the like. In this embodiment, an infrared heater 1905 with a reflective shade is used as the main heating means,
Energization is controlled under predetermined heating conditions in synchronization with the above-described conveyance operation of the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium accompanying inkjet printing. When heating directly from the print side, uneven heating may occur depending on the color distribution of the print pattern.
Ink evaporation unevenness may occur, so in the present embodiment, heating is performed from the back surface side. But,
Depending on the configuration and heating conditions of the heating means, direct heating from the printing surface side or heating from both sides may be performed, or a contact heating method using a heating plate or the like may be used.
In this embodiment, as an auxiliary structure of the infrared heating system, a blower (not shown) is provided so as to prevent heat and vapor from staying near the heating section and to perform stable heating control. Is causing the flow of. Further, in this embodiment, since the infrared heating is performed from the back surface, the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium with the lower sheet shown in the embodiment 9 is
In order to increase the infrared absorption efficiency of the bottom paper that becomes the heat receiving surface,
Infrared absorption characteristics may be improved by using black paper for the bottom paper, and those with increased thermal conductivity by using additives for the bottom paper and adhesive layer, transportability and feeding It is also possible to use as thin as possible in consideration of the transferability.

In the ink jet printing apparatus capable of transporting the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium shown in this embodiment, the ink injection amount can be adjusted and selected according to the thickness and material of the cloth. When printing on plain paper, the maximum amount of ink is limited in terms of reduced resolution, bleeding between colors, strike-through, and increased fixing time. In general, the maximum ejection amount of is set to about 16 to 28 nl / mm ^{2 in} the case of water-based ink. However, in the case of printing (printing) on a cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium as in the present invention, depending on the material and thickness of the cloth and pretreatment conditions, there are cases where more ink can be received. is there. Therefore, in this embodiment, high-density printing is performed at a printing speed lower than the printing speed corresponding to the printing frequency, for example, double-density printing is performed at a printing speed of 1/2, or the same print area is overprinted by a plurality of print scans. Inkjet head drive control to increase the amount of ink ejected,
For example, in a thermal inkjet head, it is possible to increase the amount of ejected ink as necessary by raising the heat retention temperature or performing multi-pulse driving. In this embodiment, when the print mode is designated as thick cloth on the operation panel 906, 300% of all colors are printed in the same print area by three times of overlapping printing, and when thin cloth is designated, all colors are 200%, and normal. All 100 colors on paper
% I try to print. Therefore, the optimum printing conditions can be selected according to the cloth, the inside of the yarn can be sufficiently dyed, and a deeply printed cloth can be obtained.

As described above, since the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium is printed by using the ink jet printing apparatus having the feeding mechanism, the heating mechanism and the driving amount increasing mechanism, the operability, the dyeability, and the It has become possible to perform simple inkjet printing with a deeper color depth.

(Embodiment 12) In the present embodiment, the fabric print mode is set on the screen of the host computer by the printer driver as shown in FIG. 17. Here, the fabric print mode is used. By selecting, the identification signal is sent from the host computer to the inkjet printing apparatus, and the corresponding printing mode is automatically changed in the inkjet printing apparatus accordingly. Here, when “cloth” is selected as the print paper in advance, the print mode described in the second embodiment is automatically set. Further, in the printing section, the distance between the surface on which the ink ejection ports of the inkjet head are arranged and the surface of the print medium (hereinafter referred to as “head-paper distance”) is extended by 0.5 mm at the same time. The reason why the distance between the head and the paper is made longer than when using another print medium is as follows.

That is, as described above, in the case of the cloth, the ink receiving amount is large. However, in addition to this, the cloth, especially the natural fiber, generally tends to increase or decrease its moisture absorption depending on the humidity of the surrounding air. Therefore, when printing is performed in the print mode set here, if the humidity of the surrounding environment is high and there are many black areas in the image, the amount of water in the cloth in the printed area may be considerably high. I can say. As a result, the cloth itself expands in volume, so that the flatness of the printed surface is disturbed, and the cloth itself tends to be wavy. When this waving phenomenon occurs, the non-printed surface, that is, the back surface side of the cloth is supported by the platen, so the cloth that has expanded in volume tends to be lifted up toward the inkjet head on the opposite side. If the amount of lifting is large, they will collide with each other during scanning of the inkjet head, which will lead to destruction of the inkjet head. In order to avoid this, it is important to increase the head-paper distance at the same time when the fabric print mode is set. However, increasing the distance between the head and paper leads to deterioration of landing accuracy. However, as described above, in the case of cloth, the dot diameter is originally large and the texture of cloth print is not so severe. Considering that no landing accuracy is required, increasing the distance between the head and the paper causes no practical problem. The head-paper distance can be changed manually or automatically by a known method such as mechanically switching on the carriage with a lever or the like.

With these arrangements, the ink jet printing apparatus itself need not be aware of any operation other than the mounting of the cloth, and all the optimum settings for printing can be automatically performed on the host computer. it can. Therefore, it is effective in that the user is not made aware of the settings under various situations.

(Embodiment 13) FIG. 18 shows a state in which, after printing an image on a cloth in an ink jet printing apparatus, the portions are sequentially sent out and ejected from the ink jet printing apparatus at the discharge port. This is an example of an apparatus in which a spur 709 is provided in order to regulate the vertical movement of the fabric medium. Since this spur 709 is normally provided in order to prevent the print medium from moving up and down and colliding with the inkjet head portion, it is not necessary to apply a particularly large force, and it is not necessary to press the entire surface. Since it can perform its function, it is configured so that it is held at a certain interval and is almost pressed by point contact. Such a configuration is a very effective means because it is possible to realize stable conveyance of a medium with a simple mechanism in a general-purpose printing apparatus that can use various print media. When this printing device is applied to the printing of cloth, when the actual print operation is started after setting the cloth print mode as described above, the front end of the print medium is preliminarily fed by a fixed amount, An operation is performed in which the entire area passes through the contact portion of the spur, and thereafter, ink ejection from the inkjet head is started. Here, the amount of movement of the front end of the print medium, that is, the distance s in FIG. 18, is determined by the printing apparatus used, but since it is generally more effective to install this spur near the ejection portion of the print head, it is It is about 50 mm. In this embodiment, this distance s is set to 40 mm. This operation was not particularly necessary when using plain paper or an OHP sheet in the past, but in the case of cloth, it has properties such as high hygroscopicity and weak bending, This is very effective from the viewpoint of ensuring stable and reliable transport. However, in the case where the fabric is in the form of a cut sheet, it is necessary to cut the length in excess of this length in advance in consideration of the idle feed amount of this tip. Even in this case, considering that most of the processing is performed by sewing after printing on the cloth, even if it is a cut sheet, its size does not need to be an accurate fixed shape, It does not hinder.

(Embodiment 14) FIGS. 19 and 20 show a system in which the print mode in the ink jet textile printing apparatus is set to various settings according to the cloth used and the image quality in order to print on various cloths. The flow of the selection is shown. When performing these various settings, as described in the twelfth embodiment, the setting can be made from the printer driver in the host computer, but in addition to that, the panel on the inkjet textile printing apparatus as described in the eleventh embodiment is also possible. It is also possible to set with a switch.

First, a desired image is created on the host computer, and then a print signal for the image is sent from the host computer to the ink jet printing apparatus. At this time, the print mode setting as shown in FIG. 17 is displayed as in the twelfth embodiment. Normally, when "Cloth" is selected in the "Paper" column, that is, in the type of print medium column, the operation mode setting for fabric printing as shown in FIG. 19 is performed next. When this transition is made, it becomes possible to select a fine print mode different from the conventional printing of paper or the like, and it is possible to carry out any appropriate printing according to the cloth and image to be used. . Hereinafter, these flows will be described in order with reference to FIG. 19 and optionally together with FIG.

After shifting to the operation mode setting for cloth printing, the kind of cloth to be used first is selected and set in the flow of "selection of cloth type" to "print mode setting section" in FIG. Here, based on the information stored in advance in the ROM, the non-volatile memory, or the like, it is uniquely determined as the default value of the print mode that determines the ink ejection amount of each color according to the selected cloth type. At the same time, the scanning method of the inkjet head and the idling amount of the medium front end are set. Among these settings, regarding the type of cloth, as shown in FIG. 20, standard cloth, thick cloth, thin cloth, dense cloth,
It is constructed so that it can be selected from the woven cloth. Note that among these, the factors related to the determination of the print mode are the size of the fibrous body forming the fabric and the density of the aggregate thereof, and therefore are not directly affected by the presence or absence of the stiffening described in the above description. Therefore, in this selection, the stiffening state is not included in the options. Also, the default values of the print mode are all emphasized in black for high image quality.

Next, the various print modes set by these are transferred to the print mode control unit 103, and the print mode is incorporated in the image signal. Within this path, a print mode changing unit 105 is provided so that the print mode can be further changed as needed. Here, the print mode setting unit 1
With respect to the default value of the print mode described in No. 02, it is possible to arbitrarily change the ink ejection amount of each color, the scanning method of the inkjet head, and the front end idling amount of the print medium. The change in the ink ejection amount will be described with reference to FIG. 20. For each fabric type, a light color mode is provided by canceling black emphasis and reducing the ink ejection amount of all colors,
It shows a flow that enables the output image to be formed into various forms according to the wishes of the user. For example, with standard cloth, CMY is usually 200% and Bk is 300%, but when this black enhancement is released, it is changed to 200% for CMY and 200% for Bk.
Further, when the light color mode is set, 100 is set in CMY.
%, Bk can be changed to 100%. In the case of thin cloth, CMY is normally 100% and Bk is 200%.
It is changed to 100% for MY and 100% for Bk.

Through the control process described above, even if various print mode settings are provided, the types of print modes to be defined are divided into several groups, and the print modes for conventional paper etc. Therefore, even if the number of print modes set by the user increases, there is no problem that the size of the entire apparatus is increased or the cost is significantly increased. Further, in FIG. 20 described so far, the transition to the light color mode is not shown for the thin cloth and the coarse woven cloth, but when the black emphasis is cancelled, the ink ejection amount of all colors is 100%. This is because it cannot be lowered further than this. If these ejection amounts are reduced below 100%, dots for image formation are partially lost, which causes a problem in image formation.

After forming the desired image on the cloth to be used through the process described above, after determining the print mode, these signals are transferred to the printer operation setting section in FIG. Specifically, here, the image signals are stored in a buffer, and signals for controlling the amount of ink ejected, the scanning method of the inkjet head, the tip end blank feed amount, etc. are sent to the printer control circuit. It is something to do. These processes start the actual operation of the print part. At this time,
As described above, in the case of the cloth, it is easy to be affected by the cockling, so that it has been mentioned that the distance between the head and the paper is increased. An instruction display section 106 is connected to inform the user of an instruction to this point and an actual operation mode together with the print operation. As a method of displaying these information, any method can be used whether it is on the screen of the host computer or on the panel provided in the printing apparatus.

In the above description, the case of making various changes such as the change of the print mode will be specifically described with an example thereof. First, when changing the print mode, the value originally set as the default value is set with the most general material among all the cloths, so the material of the cloth used has changed. In some cases, it is provided because there may be cases where these various settings are not appropriate. The reason is that it may be preferable to change the above-mentioned initial setting depending on the content of the image to be printed even if the material of the cloth used does not change. In such cases,
Intentionally changed the ink ejection amount of each color against the default value,
That is, it can be reduced. When it is desired to change from the default value, for example, when the “Change setting” column in FIG. 17 is selected, a list of types that can be changed on the currently selected paper (fabric here) is displayed. The setting may be changed. For example, when printing an image with a uniform color tone, there is no need to increase the amount of black to be impressed, so even if standard cloth is used, black emphasizing should be canceled. There is. Further, when using a cloth that is made rigid by sticking paper on the back surface, the tip end is relatively stable against the cockling, and therefore, the tip end idling can be canceled before use. As described above, the print mode is set appropriately for various kinds of fabrics in advance, but the setting can be easily switched according to the purpose of the user.

Incidentally, with respect to releasing the front end of the print medium, this mode can be utilized when the length of the cloth used is short or when it is desired to express an image on the entire cut sheet cloth. It is needless to say that the case of executing the mode of releasing the front end idling is limited to the case where there is no problem in conveying the print medium described in the thirteenth embodiment.

In the embodiment described above,
The method of controlling the number of ink droplets ejected per pixel by multi-pass printing for each print mode in changing the amount of ejected ink has been described. But 1
The method of adjusting the amount of ink ejected to a pixel is not limited to this. Even if only one ink droplet is ejected, the object of the present invention can be achieved by controlling the amount of the ink droplet itself. It is known that in the normal inkjet method, the ejection amount (the amount of ink droplets) increases as the temperature of the inkjet head itself used for it increases. Therefore, also in the present invention, when the print mode for cloth is set, if the print mode is set so as to print with the head temperature higher than usual, the print sequence is the same as other print modes. And, with respect to throughput, it becomes possible to obtain a print fabric having a somewhat high density. However, the ejection capacity of the inkjet head is also limited, and even with such a temperature control means, it is actually difficult to eject an amount of ink equivalent to two ink drops at one time. Therefore, it can be said that such a method is an effective method in the case of a cloth in which the amount of ejected ink is less than twice, that is, the cloth has an appropriate value between 100 and 200%.

With such a method, fine adjustment of 1 dot or less is possible. Therefore, if the printing method of the above-described embodiments and this method are combined, 200% is obtained.
It is also possible to print with a more optimal ink ejection amount for a printing cloth medium that requires the above ink ejection amount. Moreover, this method not only increases the ejection amount of each color, but also specially increases
This is also effective when you want to emphasize only the colors. Also in this case, an appropriate amount of correction can be performed by adjusting only the black head to a higher temperature than the other heads. Normally, such a method of ejecting a large ink drop at once causes poor fixability of the ink on the cloth, which easily causes image defects such as bleeding at different color boundaries, but it is adopted in the present invention. If you print with highly penetrating ink,
It is possible to avoid such an image adverse effect.

According to this structure, in addition to a conventional print medium such as paper, a single ink jet printing apparatus can be used.
A new printing medium such as cloth is added in the same row, and the printing method settings can be changed arbitrarily according to the user's preference when printing on this cloth. It enables complex color expression.

(Embodiment 15) FIG. 25 shows various print modes of the ink jet printing apparatus classified by print medium and listed. In this,
In addition to the ink ejection amount described in the above description of the embodiments, the printing method, that is, the inkjet head scanning method is also mentioned at the same time. Here, each of K, C, M, and Y is the same as the ink color abbreviation described in the first embodiment.

As is clear from this table, in plain paper most commonly used in ink jet printers, the amount of ink of each color ink is set to 100%, and the printing method is set to 50% reciprocating scan (2 pass) of the mask. To do. For this mode, in order to enhance the high image quality, that is, black, the above scanning is repeated once more, so that the total of 2
The driving amount is 200% in both directions. On the other hand, except for black, it is necessary to leave 100% implantation in these two reciprocations (4 passes), so the mask is 25
% Has been switched to.

Further, in the case of OHP paper, accuracy is required for the image quality due to the usage of enlarging the image by projection. For this reason, black emphasis is performed as standard, and in order to further eliminate variations in ink landing position,
A 25% mask is used, and the number of scans is increased accordingly. On the other hand, in the case of coated paper, the color development of the ink is high, so black enhancement is not always necessary, but since the spread of each dot at the time of ink landing can be controlled more uniformly than in plain paper, it can be compared with CMY of OHP paper. Higher image quality is achieved by the same scanning.

The same idea can be applied to these print media even in the case of cloth. However, since it is necessary to increase the amount of ejected ink, the number of scans of the inkjet head needs to be 4 reciprocations (8 passes). In the case of cloth, since the amount of ink ejected is relatively large with respect to other print media,
The amount of heat stored in the inkjet head that accompanies the printing operation also increases relatively quickly. Therefore, it is better to shorten the operation interval of the recovery operation that is generally performed conventionally. Especially in this regard, it is effective for suction recovery from the correlation between the heat storage amount and residual bubbles,
It is effective to store the cumulative number of ejected dots and set the timing of the suction operation based on this.

In this way, in the ink jet printing apparatus capable of printing on the cloth, when the cloth printing is carried out, in addition to setting the optimum amount of ink,
At the same time, optimal switching of the scanning method of the inkjet head is also a feature of the present invention, which is an important part.

The present invention has been described more specifically with reference to various embodiments. When the inkjet printing method is adopted, the present invention is provided with a means for generating thermal energy as energy used for ejecting ink, and the thermal energy causes a change in the state of the ink. The excellent effect can be brought about by using the ink jet head and the printing apparatus of the bubble jet method proposed by Canon Inc. This is because such a method can achieve high density and high definition printing.

Regarding its typical structure and principle, see, for example, US Pat. Nos. 4,723,129 and 4,740.
What is done using the basic principles disclosed in 796 is preferred. This method is a so-called on-demand type,
It can be applied to any of the continuous type, but especially in the case of the on-demand type, the print information is printed on the electrothermal converter arranged corresponding to the sheet holding the ink or the liquid path. By applying at least one drive signal that provides a rapid temperature rise over nucleate boiling, causing heat energy to be generated in the electrothermal converter, causing film boiling on the heat-acting surface of the inkjet head. As a result, bubbles can be formed in the ink that correspond one-to-one to this drive signal, which is effective. Ink is ejected through the ejection openings by the growth and contraction of the bubbles to form at least one droplet. If this drive signal is made to have a pulse shape, the growth and contraction of the bubbles are immediately and appropriately performed, so that it is possible to achieve ink ejection with excellent responsiveness.
More preferable. As the pulse-shaped drive signal, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,463,359 and 4,345,262 are used.
Those described in the specification are suitable. If the conditions described in US Pat. No. 4,313,124, which is an invention relating to the temperature rise rate of the heat acting surface, are adopted, more excellent printing can be performed.

As the constitution of the ink jet head, in addition to the combination constitution of the discharge port, the liquid passage, and the electrothermal converter (the linear liquid passage or the right-angled liquid passage) as disclosed in the above-mentioned respective specifications. The present invention also includes configurations using US Pat. No. 4,558,333 and US Pat. No. 4,459,600, which disclose a configuration in which a heat acting portion is arranged in a bending region. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-123670 discloses a configuration in which a common slit is used as a discharge portion of the electrothermal converter for a plurality of electrothermal converters, and an opening for absorbing a pressure wave of thermal energy is provided. The effect of the present invention is effective even if the configuration corresponding to the ejection portion is disclosed in JP-A-59-138461.
That is, according to the present invention, printing can be surely and efficiently performed regardless of the form of the inkjet head.

In addition, it goes without saying that the ink jet head can be constructed according to the form of the printing apparatus.
For a so-called line printer type, the ejection ports may be arranged over a range corresponding to the width of the print medium. Further, as the serial type inkjet head as in the above example, the inkjet head fixed to the apparatus main body or mounted on the apparatus main body enables electrical connection with the apparatus main body and supply of ink from the apparatus main body. The present invention is also effective when a replaceable chip-type inkjet head or a cartridge-type inkjet head in which an ink tank is integrally provided in the inkjet head itself is used.

Further, it is preferable to add a discharge recovery means for the ink jet head, a preliminary auxiliary means and the like as the constitution of the printing apparatus of the present invention because the effects of the present invention can be further stabilized. Specific examples thereof include a capping unit for the print head, a wiping unit, a pressurizing or sucking unit, an electrothermal converter or a heating element other than this, or a preparatory heating unit for heating. The heating means and the preliminary discharge means for performing discharge different from the print can be mentioned.

In addition, in the above-described embodiments of the present invention, the ink is described as a liquid, but an ink that solidifies at room temperature or lower and that softens or liquefies at room temperature is used. Alternatively, in the inkjet method, the temperature of the ink itself is adjusted within the range of 30 ° C. or higher and 70 ° C. or lower to generally control the temperature of the ink so that the viscosity of the ink is within the stable ejection range. It is also possible to use a liquid ink when applied. In addition, in order to positively prevent the temperature rise due to thermal energy from being used as the energy for changing the state of the ink from the solid state to the liquid state, or to prevent the evaporation of the ink, the ink is solidified and heated in the standing state. You may use the ink liquefied by. In any case, the ink is liquefied by application of heat energy according to the print signal, and the liquid ink is ejected, or the one that has already started to solidify when reaching the print medium,
The present invention is also applicable to the case of using an ink which has a property of liquefying only when heat energy is applied. For such ink, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 54-56847 discloses,
Alternatively, as described in JP-A-60-71260, it may be configured to face the electrothermal converter in a state of being held as a liquid or a solid in the concave portion or through hole of the porous sheet. . In the present invention, the most effective one of the various inks described above is the one that executes the film boiling method described above.

In addition, the present invention may be used as an image output terminal of information processing equipment such as a computer, or may be in the form of a copying machine combined with a reader or the like.

The printed matter selected according to the present invention described above is then cut into a desired size, and the cut pieces are subjected to steps such as sewing, bonding and welding to obtain a final processed product. It can be applied to dresses such as dresses, dresses, ties, swimwear, duvet covers, sofa covers, handkerchiefs, and curtains. For the method of processing cloth by sewing etc. to make clothes and other daily necessities, please refer to known books such as "Latest Knit Sewing Manual" (published by Senyi Journal) and monthly magazine "Soen" (published by Bunka Publishing Bureau). Many are listed.

[0161]

As described above, according to the present invention, one or more kinds of cloth print modes and a switching means for appropriately selecting one or more kinds of cloth print modes are provided for other print media. The system is designed so that at least one of the printing conditions and the printing condition of the printing can be different, and the amount of ink and the method of driving the ink can be variously set according to the print mode for this cloth. It is now possible to obtain high-definition print fabrics with high surface density freely and in a short time even for personal use, which is not a printing device of the above.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of a fabric print mode.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of print modes for plain paper and coated paper.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a black emphasizing mode during fabric printing.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of another embodiment of a fabric print mode.

FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view showing an outline of a printing unit in an inkjet printing system applicable to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an ejection port array of an inkjet head used in an example of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view showing a configuration example of an inkjet head applicable to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an exploded perspective view showing a configuration example of a color inkjet head applicable to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a separation type tank according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a schematic perspective view showing another example of the configuration of the printing unit in the inkjet printing system applicable to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of another form of inkjet head applicable to the present invention.

12 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of a fabric print mode when the inkjet head of FIG. 11 is used.

FIG. 13 is a schematic side cross-sectional view that is applicable to the present invention and schematically shows a printing unit in an inkjet printing system capable of automatically mounting a printing medium.

FIG. 14 is a perspective view showing a configuration example of a cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium applicable to the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram illustrating a method of printing using the cut sheet-shaped printing cloth medium of FIG. 14;

FIG. 16 is a schematic side sectional view showing an outline of a printing unit in an inkjet printing system that is applicable to the present invention and is capable of automatically mounting and automatically feeding a print medium.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of a display when a fabric print mode is selected on the host computer.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram when the front end of the print medium is idly fed in the fabric print mode.

FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram when setting various print modes in the inkjet print system of the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating the flow of various print mode settings in FIG. 19;

FIG. 21 is an explanatory diagram of an ideal form at the time of inkjet printing.

FIG. 22 is an explanatory diagram of an actual form at the time of inkjet printing.

FIG. 23 is an explanatory diagram of a division printing method in inkjet printing.

FIG. 24 is an explanatory diagram of a correction process of a divided printing method in inkjet printing.

FIG. 25 is an explanatory diagram of various print modes in the inkjet print system of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

701,1301 head cartridge 702 inkjet head group 703 ink tank 704 transport roller 705 Auxiliary roller 706 Feed roller 707 carriage 708 print media 801 outlet 1601 Plain paper as a carrier 1602 Base cloth 1603 adhesive layer 1703 transport drive roller 1704 Transport driven roller 1707 Cut sheet cloth print medium 1910 Operation panel

(72) Inventor Yuji Akiyama 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Shoji Koike 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Masahiro Haruta 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (56) Reference JP-A-3-146354 (JP, A) JP-A-4-4155 (JP, A) JP 5-318770 (JP, A) JP 2-61183 (JP, A) JP 5-245722 (JP, A) JP 3126268 (JP, B2) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl . ⁷ , DB name) B41J 2/01 B41J 2/21 B41M 5/00 D06P 5/00

Claims (23)

(57) [Claims] 1. A main scanning unit that relatively scans an inkjet head, in which a plurality of nozzles are arranged, with respect to a print medium in a main scanning direction different from the direction in which the plurality of nozzles are arranged, and the print medium. A sub-scanning unit that moves the sub-scanning unit relative to the inkjet head in a sub-scanning direction different from the main scanning direction, and the sub-scanning unit moves the nozzle from the nozzle while the main scanning unit scans the inkjet head. In an inkjet printer that performs printing by ejecting ink onto a print medium, the main scanning unit scans the inkjet head a plurality of times with respect to a predetermined area that can be printed by one scan of the inkjet head. With each of the multiple scans,
Divided print control means for printing with print data thinned out according to a set thinning rate for the print data corresponding to the predetermined area, the thinning rate in the printing operation by the divided print control means, and the plurality of times for the predetermined area. The number of times of scanning, the control means for setting according to the print mode corresponding to the type of the print medium, as the print mode, a plain paper print mode corresponding to the case of using plain paper as the print medium,
A fabric print mode corresponding to the case where a fabric is used as the print medium can be set, the plain paper print mode is prioritized over the fabric print mode, and the fabric print is replaced with the plain paper print mode. A print mode setting unit for setting the mode, the control unit, in the cloth print mode, the divided print control unit so that the amount of ink ejected to the predetermined region is larger than that in the plain paper print mode. The thinning rate of the printing operation is set to be higher than that in the plain paper print mode, and the number of times the main scanning unit scans the predetermined area multiple times is set to be greater than that in the plain paper print mode. An inkjet printer characterized in that. 2. The printing is performed by ejecting inks of black and a plurality of different colors respectively, and the cloth print mode is based on the amount of ink ejected when printing is performed according to the print data.
The ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein a magnification of an ink amount ejected when printing is performed under the control of the control unit is higher for the black ink than for each of the plurality of different color inks. 3. In the cloth print mode, black that makes the magnification of the ink amount ejected when printing is performed under the control of the control unit is equal for the black ink and each of the plurality of different color inks. The inkjet printer according to claim 2, further comprising highlighting means. 4. The fabric print mode can be set to a plurality of modes in which the amount of ink ejected to the predetermined region is made to correspond to each of a plurality of types of fabrics. The inkjet printer described in 1. 5. A main scanning unit that relatively scans an inkjet head having a plurality of nozzles arranged on a print medium along a main scanning direction different from the arrangement direction of the plurality of nozzles, and the print medium. A sub-scanning unit that moves the sub-scanning unit relative to the inkjet head in a sub-scanning direction different from the main scanning direction, and the sub-scanning unit moves the nozzle from the nozzle while the main scanning unit scans the inkjet head. Using an inkjet printer to print by ejecting ink to the print medium,
In an inkjet printing system for performing printing on the print medium, while the main scanning unit scans the inkjet head a plurality of times with respect to a predetermined area that can be printed by one scanning of the inkjet head by the main scanning unit, In each of the multiple scans,
Divided print control means for printing with print data thinned out according to a set thinning rate for the print data corresponding to the predetermined area, the thinning rate in the printing operation by the divided print control means, and the plurality of times for the predetermined area. The number of times of scanning, the control means for setting according to the print mode corresponding to the type of the print medium, as the print mode, a plain paper print mode corresponding to the case of using plain paper as the print medium,
A fabric print mode corresponding to the case where a fabric is used as the print medium can be set, the plain paper print mode is prioritized over the fabric print mode, and the fabric print is replaced with the plain paper print mode. A print mode setting unit for setting the mode, the control unit, in the cloth print mode, the divided print control unit so that the amount of ink ejected to the predetermined region is larger than that in the plain paper print mode. The thinning rate of the printing operation is set to be higher than that in the plain paper print mode, and the number of times the main scanning unit scans the predetermined area multiple times is set to be greater than that in the plain paper print mode. An inkjet printing system characterized by: 6. The printing is performed by ejecting inks of black and a plurality of different colors respectively, and the cloth print mode is based on the amount of ink ejected when printing is performed according to the print data.
The inkjet printing system according to claim 5, wherein a magnification of an ink amount ejected when printing is performed under the control of the control unit is higher for the black ink than for each of the plurality of different color inks. . 7. In the cloth print mode, black for making the magnification of the ink amount ejected when printing is performed under the control of the control means to be the same for the black ink and each of the plurality of different color inks. 7. The inkjet printing system according to claim 6, further comprising highlighting canceling means. 8. The fabric print mode can be set to a plurality of modes in which the amount of ink ejected to the predetermined region is made different for each of a plurality of types of fabrics. The inkjet printing system described in 1. 9. The ink used in the inkjet printing system according to claim 5, wherein the ink is a water-based ink containing a surfactant, and the content of the surfactant is the ink. For the inkjet printing system, characterized in that the surfactant is contained so that the surfactant concentration is less than the critical micelle concentration for water and is higher than the critical micelle concentration for the water when the surfactant is given for water. ink. 10. The ink for an inkjet print system according to claim 9, wherein a reactive dye is used as a coloring material contained in the ink for the inkjet print system. 11. The ink according to claim 10, wherein a plurality of types of ink tanks respectively containing a plurality of types of inks for an inkjet printing system are made replaceable according to a cloth to be used. Inkjet printing system. 12. The inkjet printing system according to claim 5, which prints directly on a fabric medium for printing, or prints on another transfer medium, and then transfers the print image to the fabric. And a method for manufacturing an inkjet printed product. 13. The ink jet print according to claim 5, wherein the cloth medium for printing is subjected to a stiffening treatment prior to printing so as to have a Clark stiffness of 10 or more and 400 or less. system. 14. The fabric is woven 10 prior to printing.
The inkjet printer according to claim 1, wherein the inkjet printer is subjected to a stiffening treatment so as to have a Clark stiffness of 400 or less. 15. The printing cloth medium contains a dye fixing agent having a polarity prior to printing, and the image is fixed to the printing cloth medium at the same time as the printing operation. Item 13. A method for manufacturing an inkjet print according to Item 12. 16. The production of an ink jet print product according to claim 12, wherein the print image is fixed with a dye fixing agent having a polarity after the printing is finished using the printing cloth medium. Method. 17. The method for producing an inkjet print according to claim 12, wherein the print image is fixed by heat treatment or wet heat treatment after the printing is finished using the printing fabric medium. 18. The method for producing an inkjet printed article according to claim 17, wherein the fabric medium for printing is washed after fixing the print image. 19. A method for producing an inkjet printed article, which comprises cutting and / or sewing the inkjet printed article according to claim 18 to obtain a final processed product. 20. An ink jet head in which a plurality of nozzles are arranged for each of a plurality of color inks is arranged along a main scanning direction different from the arrangement direction of the plurality of nozzles.
A main scanning means for scanning relative to the print medium,
A sub-scanning unit that moves the print medium relative to the inkjet head in a sub-scanning direction different from the main scanning direction, and the sub-scanning unit is configured to scan the inkjet head by the main scanning unit. In an inkjet printer that performs printing by ejecting ink from nozzles onto the print medium, a plurality of inkjet heads are provided by the main scanning unit to a predetermined area that can be printed by one scan of the inkjet head by the main scanning unit. While scanning once, in each of the plurality of scans,
Divided print control means for printing with print data thinned out according to a set thinning rate for the print data corresponding to the predetermined area, the thinning rate in the printing operation by the divided print control means, and the plurality of times for the predetermined area. Control means for setting the number of times of scanning according to the print mode corresponding to the type of the print medium, and as the print mode, the relative priority mode of the printer, the color ink of a color different from the black ink on the plain paper. In the first priority print mode in which the maximum amount of ink given per unit area is used as the respective reference printing conditions, and in the mode in which printing is performed on the cloth, twice the reference printing condition for the color ink is set to the black ink. 3 times the standard printing condition is given per unit area At least one of the reference cloth print mode with a large ink amount and the maximum ink amount given per unit area of the color ink or the black ink in the reference cloth print mode is changed according to the cloth type according to the cloth type. The selected cloth print mode for performing printing, and print mode setting means for setting the selected cloth print mode in place of the reference cloth print mode, wherein the control means is configured to set the predetermined area in the selected cloth print mode. In order to increase the amount of ink discharged to the plain paper print mode, the thinning rate of the printing operation by the divided print control unit is set higher than that in the plain paper print mode, and the main scanning unit performs the thinning rate. Select the number of scans for the specified area from the plain paper print mode. Inkjet printer, wherein the set to a number. 21. A main scanning unit that relatively scans an inkjet head having a plurality of nozzles with respect to a print medium along a main scanning direction different from an arrangement direction of the plurality of nozzles; and the print medium. A sub-scanning unit that relatively moves the inkjet head in a sub-scanning direction different from the main scanning direction with respect to the inkjet head,
In an inkjet printer that prints by ejecting ink from the nozzles onto the print medium during scanning of the inkjet head by the main scanning unit, a predetermined area that can be printed by one scan of the inkjet head by the main scanning unit On the other hand, while scanning the inkjet head a plurality of times by the main scanning means, in each of the plurality of scans,
Divided print control means for printing with print data thinned out according to a set thinning rate for the print data corresponding to the predetermined area, the thinning rate in the printing operation by the divided print control means, and the plurality of times for the predetermined area. And a control means for setting the number of times of scanning in accordance with a print mode corresponding to the type of the print medium, and as a print mode, as a relative priority mode of the printer, performing printing on OHP paper under standard print conditions. The priority print mode, a fabric print mode in which at least one of the reference print conditions of the first priority print mode is printed on the fabric under a print condition of a higher image quality than the reference print condition, and a fabric print mode The 1st priority print mode is set with priority and the 1st priority print mode is set. Print mode setting means for setting the cloth print mode instead of the mode, wherein the control means sets the amount of ink ejected to the predetermined region in the cloth print mode to be larger than that in the plain paper print mode. , The thinning rate of the printing operation by the divided print control means is set higher than that in the plain paper print mode, and the number of times the main scanning means scans the predetermined area a plurality of times is set to the plain paper print mode. Inkjet printer characterized by setting to be more than. 22. A main scanning unit that relatively scans an inkjet head, in which a plurality of nozzles are arranged, with respect to a print medium in a main scanning direction different from the direction in which the plurality of nozzles are arranged; A sub-scanning unit that relatively moves the inkjet head in a sub-scanning direction different from the main scanning direction with respect to the inkjet head,
In an inkjet printer that prints by ejecting ink from the nozzles onto the print medium during scanning of the inkjet head by the main scanning unit, a predetermined area that can be printed by one scan of the inkjet head by the main scanning unit On the other hand, while scanning the inkjet head a plurality of times by the main scanning means, in each of the plurality of scans,
Divided print control means for printing with print data thinned out according to a set thinning rate for the print data corresponding to the predetermined area, the thinning rate in the printing operation by the divided print control means, and the plurality of times for the predetermined area. Control means for setting the number of times of scanning according to the print mode corresponding to the type of the print medium, and as the print mode, a relative priority mode of the printer for performing printing on plain paper under reference print conditions. Priority printing mode, print conditions changed to high-quality printing conditions in which the amount of ink applied per predetermined area to the black ink of the standard printing conditions of the first priority printing mode and the color ink of a color different from the black ink are increased So that it has a Clark stiffness of 10 or more and 400 or less A cloth printing mode for performing printing on fabric comprising the dye fixing agent having a processing is performed and the polarity, the first
Print mode setting means for setting a cloth print mode in place of the priority print mode, wherein the control means makes the amount of ink ejected to the predetermined region larger than the plain paper print mode in the cloth print mode. As described above, the thinning rate of the printing operation by the divided print control unit is set higher than that in the plain paper print mode, and the number of times of scanning of the predetermined area by the main scanning unit is set to the plain paper print mode. Inkjet printer characterized by setting to be more than the mode. 23. A host computer, which is connected to the ink jet printer of claim 22 and produces an image signal to be printed, on a predetermined area for the black ink and the color ink of a color different from the black ink on the host computer. The ink jet printing system is characterized in that the upper limit of the ink ejection amount can be changed and set within four times the reference printing condition of the first priority print mode.