EP0025707A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Jet drop copying apparatus and method
Assignee: Eastman Kodak Co
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Filing: 1980-09-12
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2000-09-12
Abstract
Abstract A jet drop copying apparatus has a print head (18) which directs a row of jets (66) towards a print sheet (16) mounted on a rotating drum (17). The row of jets extend substantially across the full width of the print sheet and are operated under control of a printing controller (67) to print a series of tracts extending circumferentially along the sheet. The jets are shifted laterally in synchronism with the drum rotation such that each jet is moved a distance equal to the width of one printing track during one rotation of the drum. The shifting continues until a solid print has been obtained. Means (42,43,45,80, 11, 81, 13) are provided for illuminating a narrow strip extending across a document (15) to be copied and projecting an image of the illuminated strip upon a row (14) of photodetectors. Longitudinal image scanning proceeds in synchronism with the rotation of the printing drum, and there is a lateral shifting of the image in synchronism with the shifting of the jet printing tracks.
Inventors
- 👤 Suresh C. Paranjpe
- 👤 Arthur Cox
- 👤 Burton W. Scott
- 👤 Eugene Nodov
- 👤 Richard Sutera
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-27 16:21
CPC Classifications
H; H04; H04N; H04N1/00; H04N1/024; H04N1/028; H04N1/02815; H04N1/02845; H04N1/0285; B; B41; B41J; B41J2/00; B41J2/005; B41J2/01; B41J2/135; B41J2/145; B41J2/155; H04N1/0287; H04N1/04; H04N1/113; H04N1/19; H04N1/191; H04N1/1911; H04N1/1912
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 18
Claim 1
Independent Claim
365 words
Jet drop copying apparatus comprising document support means (19) for supporting an original document to be copied, illumination means (42,43,45) for illuminating said document, imaging means (80,11,81,13) for observing at least a portion of said document and projecting an image of the viewed area upon an image plane, an image scanner (36) for causing cyclical scanning movement of said image across said image plane, a photodetector array (14) positioned within said image plane and comprising a series of photodetectors (23) for sensing the light levels of said image at spaced positions extending along said image plane, printing control means (67) connected to said photodetectors for generating printing control signals in response to light levels sensed by said photodetectors, copy support means (17) for supporting a print receiving member, a jet printing head (18) operable under control of said printing signals for projecting drops of printing liquid toward a series of laterally spaced positions on said print receiving member, printing drive means (34) operating in synchronism with said image scanner to produce cyclical relative movement between said jet drop printing head and said copy support means in a direction perpendicular to the direction of extent of said printing head, and print shifting means (31,32,33) for shifting said printing positions in the lateral direction; chracterized in that said photodetector array is fixed in space relative to said document and further characterized in that image shifting means (13,35) are provided for progressively producing relative lateral hifting move- ment between said photodetectors (23) and said image, said image shifting means operating in synchronism and in correspondence with the shifting movement of said printing head (18), said shifting movement having an operating cycle such that said image is shifted an amount equal to the viewing width of one of said photodetectors during one cycle of said image scanning movement and said printing head is shifted a distance equal to the printing width of one of said printing tracks during one operating cycle of said printing drive means (34), said shifting movement continuing until all parts of said image have been swept past one or another of said photodetectors and a complete copy thereof has been printed by said printing head.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
365 words
Jet drop copying apparatus comprising document support means (19) for supporting an original document to be copied, illumination means (42,43,45) for illuminating said document, imaging means (80,11,81,13) for observing at least a portion of said document and projecting an image of the viewed area upon an image plane, an image scanner (36) for causing cyclical scanning movement of said image across said image plane, a photodetector array (14) positioned within said image plane and comprising a series of photodetectors (23) for sensing the light levels of said image at spaced positions extending along said image plane, printing control means (67) connected to said photodetectors for generating printing control signals in response to light levels sensed by said photodetectors, copy support means (17) for supporting a print receiving member, a jet printing head (18) operable under control of said printing signals for projecting drops of printing liquid toward a series of laterally spaced positions on said print receiving member, printing drive means (34) operating in synchronism with said image scanner to produce cyclical relative movement between said jet drop printing head and said copy support means in a direction perpendicular to the direction of extent of said printing head, and print shifting means (31,32,33) for shifting said printing positions in the lateral direction; chracterized in that said photodetector array is fixed in space relative to said document and further characterized in that image shifting means (13,35) are provided for progressively producing relative lateral hifting move- ment between said photodetectors (23) and said image, said image shifting means operating in synchronism and in correspondence with the shifting movement of said printing head (18), said shifting movement having an operating cycle such that said image is shifted an amount equal to the viewing width of one of said photodetectors during one cycle of said image scanning movement and said printing head is shifted a distance equal to the printing width of one of said printing tracks during one operating cycle of said printing drive means (34), said shifting movement continuing until all parts of said image have been swept past one or another of said photodetectors and a complete copy thereof has been printed by said printing head.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
101 words
Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the illumination means comprises means (42, 43) for creating an elongated beam of illuminating light, means (45) for directing said beam of light toward the document support means (19) to create an illuminated strip extending laterally across the document, and an illumination scanner (38, 45) for scanning the beam of light across the document in synchronism with the scanning motion of the image scanner (36), so that the light reflected from the illuminated strip is directed toward an imaging window (26) which is stationary within the image plane and centered upon tne photodetectors(23).
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
51 words
Apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the image shifting means comprises refraction means (13) positioned in the optical path of the imaging means for controlling the projection angle of said path, and image shifting drive means (35) for rotating the refraction means to produce said relative movement.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
28 words
Apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that the image shifting drive means (35) rotates the refraction means (13) about an axis substantially perpendicular to said optical path.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
39 words
Apparatus according to claim 4, characterized in that the image scanner comprises reflection means (11) positioned within the optical path of the imaging means, and means (36) for rotating the reflection means about an ax.is parallel to the strip.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
74 words
Apparatus according to claim 2, 3, 4 or 5, characterized in that the illumination means comprises a source (43) of illuminating light and a curved illumination reflector (42) for collecting said light and forming the illumination beam; and further characterized in that the illumination scanner comprises a flat illumination reflector (45) placed in the path of said beam and means (38) for rotating the flat illumination reflector about an axis parallel to the strip.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
31 words
Apparatus according to any preceding claim 2 to 6, characterized in that there are two illumination arrangements, each comprising an aforesaid illumination means (42, 43) and an aforesaid illumination scanner (45).
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
21 words
Apparatus according to claim 7, characterized in that said illumination arrangements face each other from opposite sides of the document (15).
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
38 words
Apparatus according to any preceding claim, characterized in that the copy support means comprises a cylindrical drum (17) and further in that the printing drive means comprises motive means (34) for rotating the drum about its cylindrical axis.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
33 words
Apparatus according to claim 9, characterized . in that the print shifting means comprises means (31) for reciprocating the print head (18) back and forth along a line parallel to the drum (17).
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
42 words
Apparatus according to claim 5, characterized in that the imaging means comprises a collimating lens (80) positioned between the reflection means (11) and the document support means and an imaging lens (81) positioned between the reflection means and the photodetector array (14).
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
35 words
Apparatus according to claim 11, characterized in that the imaging means distorts the light passing therethrough in an amount which partially corrects image distortion inherently produced by the rotating motion of the reflection means (11).
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
28 words
Apparatus according to claim 11 or 12, characterized in that the image shifting means (13) is positioned between the imaging lens (81) and the photodetector array (14). -
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
47 words
Apparatus according to any preceding claim, characterized in that the image shifting means comprises a refractive glass plate (13) perpendicular to the optical path of the imaging means and a stepping motor (35) for rotating the glass plate about an axis also perpendicular to said optical path.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
29 words
Apparatus according to claim 14, characterized in that the image shifting means comprises motion reducing means (89 - 93) between the stepping motor (35) and the glass plate (13).
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
257 words
Method of document reproduction characterized by the steps of: (1) directing an elongated beam of light toward a document (15) and illuminating a narrow strip (20) extending laterally thereacross, (2) repetitively illuminating all parts of the document by scanning the beam of light longitudinally therealong, (3) projecting an image of the document towards an image plane, (4) scanning the image longitudinally across the image plane in synchronism with the scanning of the light beam, so that images of all illuminated strips of the document are sequentially projected upon a fixed imaging window (26) within the imaging plane, (5) detecting the light levels at laterally spaced positions along the imaging window and generating printing control signals corresponding thereto, (6) producing relative lateral shifting between the spaced positions and the image, so that the printing control signals sequentially represent information content at side-by-side positions on the document, (7) projecting drops (66) of printing liquid toward a series of laterally spaced printing positions on a printing sheet (16) under the printing control of the printing control signals, (8) producing cyclical relative longitudinal movement between the drops and the printing sheet in synchronism with the longitudinal scanning of the light beam, (Claim 16 cont'd) (9) producing relative lateral shifting movement between the drops and the printing sheet in synchronism with the relative lateral shifting between the spaced positions and the image, and (10) continuing aforesaid steps until all portions of the document have been scanned repetitively by the light beam, detected once within the imaging window, and reproduced by the drops.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
60 words
A method according to claim 16, characterized in that plurality of copies of the document are reproduced in sequence upon a plurality of printing sheets; the direction of relative lateral shifting movement between the spaced positions and the image and the direction of relative lateral shifting movement between the drops and the printing sheet being reversed for each new copy.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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