Ink jet printing apparatus and recovery method for a print head thereof

摘要

The invention provides a printing apparatus and a recovery method therefore which can minimize ink consumption in a recovery process for a print head of the apparatus. The invention has a control unit to cause a print head to eject ink from nozzles arrayed on the print head so as to recover ink ejecting function of the nozzles, and a specification unit to specify a set print mode selected from among a plurality of print modes. The print modes define number and position of nozzles in use for printing an image. The control unit executes a first preliminary ejection process before or after printing an image on a print medium. The first preliminary ejection process has selectively ejecting ink from both of the nozzles in use selected by the currently set print mode and the unused nozzles in the vicinity of the nozzles in use.

主权项

1. An ink jet printing apparatus comprising:
a conveying unit configured to convey a print medium in a first direction; a print head having a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink which are arrayed in a second direction intersecting with the first direction; and a preliminary ejection unit configured to cause the print head to eject ink from a plurality of nozzles so as to perform a preliminary ejection operation, wherein in a case where a range of nozzles of the print head to be used in a subsequent print operation is included in a range of nozzles of the print head used in a previous print operation, the preliminary ejection unit causes the print head to perform a first preliminary ejection operation in which ink is ejected from the nozzles to be used in the subsequent print operation, and in a case where the range of nozzles of the print head to be used in the subsequent print operation exceeds the range of nozzles of the print head used in the previous print operation, the preliminary ejection unit causes the print head to perform a second preliminary ejection operation in which ink is ejected from nozzles that will be newly used in the subsequent print operation, the amount of the ink ejected from each of the nozzles in the second preliminary ejection operation being greater than the amount of the ink ejected from each of the nozzles in the first preliminary ejection operation.