Method of controlling a printer and printer having at least one print bar

摘要

The invention relates to a method of controlling a printer, the printer having an array of nozzles which extends across a print zone of the printer, the method comprising the steps of: evaluating a nozzle status of the array of nozzles; printing a first swath across the print media in the print zone, wherein the array of nozzles is located in a first position during printing of the first swath; determining a second position of the array of nozzles for printing a second swath so that, under consideration of the determined nozzle status, the combined output of the first and second swaths meets a predetermined criterion; moving the array of nozzles to the determined second position and printing the second swath across the print media in the print zone.

主权项

1. A method of controlling a printer, the printer having an array of nozzles which extends across a print zone of the printer, the method comprising:
evaluating a nozzle status of the array of nozzles; printing a first swath across a print medium in the print zone, wherein the array of nozzles is located in a first position during printing of the first swath; determining a second position of the array of nozzles for printing a second swath so that, under consideration of the determined nozzle status, a combined output of the first and second swaths meets a predetermined criterion; moving the array of nozzles to the determined second position and printing the second swath across the print media in the print zone; wherein during evaluating a nozzle status, it is determined whether the nozzles of the nozzle array are firing properly or failing; and wherein, when the array of nozzles is moved in discrete steps, during evaluating a nozzle status, a list of failing nozzles is determined; and during determining the second position, all possible combinations of the first and the second positions of the array of nozzles are evaluated, the combinations are ranked according to the number of failing nozzles at the first position of the array of nozzles which are not replaced by properly firing nozzles at the second position of the array of nozzles, and a combination resulting in a lowest number of failing nozzles which are not replaced by properly firing nozzles is used for determining the first and second positions.