The Components of Inkjet Print Engines Getting to First Print (and … · 2018. 9. 25. · •Kyocera KJ4A-TA 20kHz x 10 heads (600dpi/50m/min) •CMYK+W UV inks (2 heads per colour)

www.globalinkjetsystems.comCopyright 2006/14

The Components of Inkjet Print Engines

Getting to First Print (and Beyond) Debbie Thorp, Business Development Director

ESMA - The Inkjet Conference

September 2014


Introduction

• Abstract: An inkjet print engine consists of many components, including printheads, ink supply, electronics, drivers and image processing software. This presentation will take a step by step approach to reach “first print”. The focus will be on the electronics and software.

• An example system

• Single pass label printer

• Kyocera KJ4A-TA 20kHz x 10 heads (600dpi/50m/min)

• CMYK+W UV inks (2 heads per colour) • Ink system with no flow on CMYK and recirculation on White ink

• Variable data capability• Barcodes, images – every label different

• Zero gap, overlap capability

Application Requirements


(Simplified) Single Pass Label Printer


Printheads

Inks

Ink Supply System

Wiring, cabling, encoder,

PSUs

Datapath ElectronicsPC &

Drivers

Transport System

RIP and Image

Processing

User Interface

EMC & Grounding Mechanical

Mounts

Curing System


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Print Manager Boards

TCP/IP

High Speed PDF RIP Head Interface Boards

User Interfaces

Colour Variable RIP

3rd Party Control

Print Server

Peripheral Control

Utilities & Tools

Ink Supply System

3rd Party RIP


Getting Started – Initial Integration

Print Manager Board

Printheads

Ink System

PC & Software

Power Supplies &

Cabling 24V 24VLVDS USB 3.0

Software Installer

Ethernet 24V

ElectronicsInk System Controller

Head Interface Board

Header TankBulk Ink Storage


Inside a Typical GIS Head Interface Board

HIB Control (printhead dependent)

• PMB Communications

• Printhead Data Communications

• Greyscale, Binary and Multi-drop

• Waveform Configuration

• Waveform Generation

• Temperature Monitoring

• PID Temperature Control

• Remote Firmware Upgrade

• Printhead PROM I/O

• Power Control and Sequencing

• Fault Detection & Diagnostics

• Overdrive Protection

• Etc….

High Speed Communications

PC

B a

nd

Pri

nth

ead

Pow

er S

up

plie

s

Wav

efo

rm

Am

plif

icat

ion

HIB Control

He

ater

C

on

tro

l

I2C

In

terf

ace

Pro

gram

min

g

Dia

gno

stic

s

Ener

gy R

eco

very

Test

ing

Pri

nth

ead

Co

mm

un

icat

ion

s

Wav

efo

rm

Ou

tpu

t

Power Management

High Speed Communications

Power Management

Wav

efo

rm

Am

plif

icat

ion

Ener

gy R

eco

very

Pri

nth

ead

Co

mm

un

icat

ion

s

Wav

efo

rm

Ou

tpu

tH

eat

er

Co

ntr

ol


USB 3.0

Hig

h S

pee

d C

om

mu

nic

atio

ns

(wit

h H

IBs)

Print Go and Product

Detect Daisy Chain

Print Go I/O

Encoder I/O

Power Management

Mai

n P

ow

er

Sup

plie

s

On-board High Speed RAM

PMB Control

Testing

Testing

An

cilla

ry P

ow

er

Sup

plie

s

Programming

Inside a Typical GIS Print Manager Board

PMB Control

• PC Communications

• HIB Communications

• 1-4GB RAM Management

• Static and Streaming Data Management

• Encoder Quadrature Filtering

• Print Go Queue Management

• HIB Offset Management

• Daisy Chain Management

• Diagnostics

• Remote Upgrade

• Power Supply Control

• Print Mode Support

• Etc..D

iagn

ost

ics


Ink Supply System – Flow Modes

• No flow or recirculating?

• CMYK – no flow

• W – low flow recirculating

PrintheadPrinthead

Low Flow Adjustable Flow

Printhead

No Flow


Ink Supply System

• Header tank design• Ink capacity • Physical size

• Proximity to each other• Printhead width

• Space• Weight issues• Heating

• In-line• Built into header tank • No heating

• Degassing• Materials compatibility• Number of printheads• Stationary or moving


Header Tank Designs – End Shooter

Integrated Header Tank• Single unit• Compact• Fully sealed• Smaller ink capacity

Modular Header Tank• Controllable height• Cost effective design• Large ink capacity• Optional heater• Ease of maintenance

Printhead

Modular Header Tank

Printhead

Integrated Header Tank

21


Header Tank Designs - Recirculating

Modular Header Tank• Controllable height• Cost effective design• Large ink capacity • Optional heater• Ease of maintenance

Integrated Header Tank• Single unit• Compact• Fully sealed• Smaller ink capacity

Printhead

Integrated Header Tank

Printhead

Modular Header Tank

22


Ink System – Independent or Shared Pressure Control

Printhead

CPrinthead

MPrinthead

Y

P1

Printhead

K

Independent Pressure Control

Printhead

C

P1

Printhead

M

P2

Printhead

Y

P3

Printhead

K

P4

Shared Pressure Control


Ink Supply Systems – Options

Printhead

CPrinthead

MPrinthead

Y

P1

Printhead

KPrinthead

W

P2

Shared pressure control on CMYK no flow: independent pressure control and low flow recirculation on W


Ink Supply System - Options

Independent pressure control for all inks – CMYK no flow and low flow recirculation on W

Printhead

C

P1

Printhead

M

P2

Printhead

Y

P3

Printhead

K

P4

PrintheadW

P5


System Configuration

• Configure all aspects of the printer• Physical Configuration

• Number of inks, head alignment etc.

• Printhead Parameters

• Waveform setting

• Greyscale mode

• Temperature Settings

• Monitoring


• Stitches can massively improve output quality

• Different applications benefit from different strategies

• Single pass labelling – media stretch (white show through); head alignment etc.

17X & Y Dither2-D Density

“Flat” Stitch

50% Stitch

1-D Gradient

Digital Stitching Strategies - examples

Print Direction

X& Y Dither

P1

P2

Stitching Strategies


Exploring Stitching Strategies

No Stitch 50% Stitch

2D XY Dither Stitch 1D Gradient Stitch


Stitching Strategies – Understanding Errors

Jetting ErrorAlignment Error

Density ErrorNo Error


Starting to print

Print Manager Board

Printheads

Ink System

PC & Software

Power Supplies &

Cabling 24V 24VLVDS USB 3.0 Ethernet 24V

ElectronicsInk System Controller

Head Interface Board

Header TankBulk Ink Storage


Loading an Image – User Interface

• Input file format

• Bitmap (BMP, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, GIF)

• PDF/PDT VT/EPS

• Other e.g. Gerber, DXF

• Static data

• Variable data

• CSV, TCP/IP, Database

• Barcodes (1D,Composite,2D)

• Text files, serial numbers, date & time

• From simple to complex……..


Variable Data - Example


Zero Gap and Overlap

• Meeting application requirements

• Overlap Printing is a technique ideally suited for combining traditional printing with inkjet

• Traditional printing techniques can have zero gap between plates but to add inkjet printed content a hardware print go with close to or zero gap is required.

• Overlap printing solves this issue allowing small inter-label gaps, zero gaps and even negative inter-label gaps or ‘overlap’

Hardware Print Go Trigger Point

Label Size and

Shape

Inter-Label Gap


RIP Options

24

• Depending on the application – makes sure RIP meets your needs (now and future)

• Number of inks

• Different levels of variability to support different needs

• Speciality modes also available such as Static RIP + Sub-Image; Mixed Printhead capability; Curved Surface capability

Option RIP (no PDF) RIP with PDF RIP with PDF/VT

Static Variable Static Variable

Bitmaps (JPG/BMP/TIFF/PNG/GIF)

Yes Yes Yes

Barcodes (1D/2D/Composite) Static Variable Static Variable Variable

Serial Numbers Static Variable Static Variable Variable

Text Fields Static Variable Static Variable Variable

Maximum Image Size 1 billion pixels 1 billion pixels 1 billion pixels

Colour Management Yes (CMYK + Halftone) Yes (CMYK + Halftone) Yes (CMYK + Halftone)

PDF / EPS Support No Yes Yes Multipage

Ink Limiting and Linearisation Yes Yes Yes

Ink Sets Supported Spot and Process (8) Spot and Process (8) Spot and Process (8)

Screening Yes Yes Yes


Print Manager Board

Colour Separation, Management and

Linearization – Real time

Binary and Grey Level Screening – Real time

Stitching & Multipass

Head Interface BoardPrintheads

Variable Data RIPLayout & Design

Data Source

Design File

Swathe Generation

Full Colour Variable Data Image Pipeline


Supplier RIP

Single Pass Integration

C# C++ VB

TCP/IP

SupplierUser Interface

1/2/4 bpp 1/4 bpp

GIS Print Server

Motion System GIS Ink System GIS Data Path Electronics

OEMUser Interface

3rd Party RIP

PDF RIP

PDF/EPS 1D/2D Text/date time


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Print Manager Boards

TCP/IP

High Speed PDF RIP Head Interface Boards

User Interfaces

Colour Variable RIP

3rd Party Control

Print Server

Peripheral Control

Utilities & Tools

Ink Supply System

3rd Party RIP


The Final Result

Kyocera KJ4A-TA 600dpi 50m/min Fujifilm StarFire SG1024 400dpi


Global Inkjet Systems LimitedThe Jeffreys BuildingCowley RoadCambridge CB4 0DS

Tel: +44 (0)1223 426 595

Web: www.globalinkjetsystems.com

Nick Geddes, [email protected]

Debbie Thorp, Business Development [email protected]

Contacts

http://www.globalinkjetsystems.com/

Documents

The Components of Inkjet Print Engines Getting to First Print (and … · 2018. 9. 25. · •Kyocera KJ4A-TA 20kHz x 10 heads (600dpi/50m/min) •CMYK+W UV inks (2 heads per colour)