METHOD AND DEVICE FOR MONITORING AND/OR CORRECTING THE ALIGNMENT OF AN INK-JET PRINTER

摘要

To monitor the alignment of an ink-jet printer (1), a test pattern (4) can be printed on a substrate (3). According to the invention, the substrate (3) comprises a main substrate (31) and an auxiliary substrate (32), the normal patterns being printed on the main substrate (31) and test patterns being printed on the auxiliary substrate (32). In this case, the main substrate (31) and the auxiliary substrate (32) may be made from different materials. A printed test pattern (4) may, in digital form, be compared with an ideal test pattern (4'), and on the basis of this comparison a correction signal is transmitted in order to correct the alignment of the ink-jet printer (1). The correction is preferably carried out to some extent by varying the amplitudes of charging pulses (6) with which the droplets (2) are charged.