Complex Engineering for Complex Challenges
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In this presentation given at TheIJC USA in Chicago, Meteor's Jonathan Wilson explores the challenges we face with regard to inkjet printing: Inkjet is no stranger to complex engineering, from printheads to ink delivery systems and drive electronics. The growing demand for high speed, single pass industrial inkjet systems in a myriad of applications presents ever more tricky challenges including cross web calibration, mottling and nozzle out detection/compensation. Tackling these issues requires a multi-disciplinary approach, uniting skills from hardware, software and color management to successfully exceed reliability and print consistency requirements.
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Complex Engineering for Complex Challenges
- 1. Complex Engineering for Complex Challenges Jonathan Wilson Meteor Inkjet Stepping Up Inkjet Consistency and Reliability
- 2. “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking” Henry Ford Consistency Reliability Cost
- 3. • Complexity • Partiality • Multidisciplinary • Interdependence
- 5. Media / Ink issues /Chaining / Mottling Colour drift / Cross Web Density Variation Head to Head Variation Stitch lines Nozzle Failure / Blocked / Misfire C O M P L E X I T Y
- 6. Go back, Inkjet is just too hard. Evolution of Modern Inkjet Engineers
- 8. Media / Ink issues /Chaining / Mottling Colour drift / Cross Web Density Variation Head to Head Variation Stitch lines Nozzle Failure / Blocked / Misfire C O M P L E X I T Y Screening Colour Management Voltage & Waveform adjustments Stitch Masks Head Masks Detection & Compensation
- 10. Replace a print head Change the Substrate You Start all over again!
- 11. Partiality
- 12. Nozzle out Detection Cross Web Calibration Screening StitchingNozzle out Compensation Masking Waveform and Voltage adjustments Colour Management Process Data Path Process Data Path DFE Data Path
- 13. Compensates for varying drop size from different nozzles in a printhead - “smile” or “frown” characteristic. Software scans test image and creates a modified screen which compensates for the variation in print density Screen covers full print width (not just a tile) Cross Web Calibration
- 14. Detection using drive electronics Different electrical responses from normal and blocked nozzles Detection using camera feedback Print test pattern – easy to detect nozzle-outs Compare camera image with print image Compensation in drive electronics Use adjacent working nozzles, or nozzles in different colour planes Compensation via screening Modify screen to compensate for missing nozzles Real-time correction Nozzle our Detection and compensation
- 15. Eliminates banding Stitch masks compensate for sub-pixel alignment errors between adjacent print heads Adjacent heads overlapped by a small number of nozzles Mask used to determine whether a pixel in the overlap region is printed by one head or the other Random or user-specified stitch-masks can be used Similar process used to hide errors between adjacent swaths in a scanning printer Masking & Stitching – Electronics & Data Path
- 17. Nozzle out Detection Cross Web Calibration Screening Stitching Nozzle out Compensation Masking Waveform and Voltage adjustments Colour Management DFE Level Process Data Path Process Process Process Process Process
- 18. Global Graphics Software & Meteor Inkjet Multidisciplinary approach to create an Interdependent system
Editor's Notes
- This is a real problem for print, someone is always watching, the press operator, the buyer, the recipient. This is no different with industrial applications, someone will be watch to ensure the output is correct. As we try and take Inkjet into new markets and compete against existing processes the perception of Inkjet’s reliability and consistency (Quality) will be call into question. There are a number of key factors for establishing quality, today I want to talk about three, well two and how the third is directly impacted.
- For Inkjet there are a number of barriers to achieving the quality we desire, this means working with a multi disciplinary team across fields as divers as chemistry, Physics, Electronics, Colour Science, Software engineering, Mechanical engineering and much more. Often the approach taken by an Inkjet OEM is fragmented depending upon their skill sets, their external and internal relationships, most organisations cannot unify this approach and end up with areas that will ultimately affect the quality of the output. There are many barriers to achieving sustainable quality when creating an Inkjet device, often there is a trade of between Cost, Reliability and Consistency
- This is where a complex problem comes head to head with complex engineering….. There are already a number of mechanisms by which we as inkjet developers can start to address the problems of consistency and reliability, the downside is that in isolation each can have implications for the other. You re-screen, you need to change your colour management, you change the waveform or adjust the voltages you need to change you colour management, you
- The problem with disparate systems is that you enter the loop of infinite adjustment where cause becomes affect and affect
- There is a bias in the systems we use to control output, they tend to favour their own idea of operation and because of this they tend to operate independently of each other. In a complex system with many layers of operational control this is a problem, the loop of infinite adjustment is the outward expression of this system
- The complex problem needs a tool set that spans the specialities, that integrates from one to another to minimise the infinite loop of adjustment
- The complex problem needs a tool set that spans the specialities, that integrates from one to another to minimise the infinite loop of adjustment