IIIH
US006712450B2
(12) United States Patent ao) Patent No.: us 6,712,450 B2
Nou (45) Date of Patent: Mar. 30,2004
US 2002/0180815 Al Dec. 5, 2002
Related U.S. Application Data
(63) Continuation of application No. PCT/JP99/06512, filed on Nov. 22, 1999.
(51) Int. C I. B41J 2/21
(52) U.S. CI 347/43; 347/15; 347/10
(58) Field of Search 347/43, 15, 16,
347/19, 10, 11, 14, 57
(56) References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
4,746,935 A * 5/1988 Allen 347/98
5,798,776 A * 8/1998 Uchiyama et al 347/43
6,270,180 Bl * 8/2001 Arakawa et al 347/14
6,533,393 Bl * 3/2003 Meyer et al 347/43
FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS
EP 0 730 246 Al 9/1996
Primary Examiner—Lamson Nguyen
(74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Armstrong, Kratz, Quintos,
Hanson & Brooks, LLP
An ink jet printer comprises a color head having a plurality of nozzles arranged on a head carrier, each of the plurality of nozzles injecting color ink particles by the drive of a piezoelectric element; and a monochrome head having a plurality of nozzles arranged the head carrier, each of the plurality of nozzles injecting monochrome ink particles by the drive of a piezoelectric element. Within a single scanning of the head carrier, a control unit switches the printing mode between a color printing mode by the color head and a monochrome printing mode by the monochrome head, to thereby provide a control of printing. For the color-printing mode, a multivalued intensity mode is set, and for the monochrome-printing mode, a high-resolution mode is set, where the resolution of the monochrome head is integer times the resolution of the color head.
21 Claims, 22 Drawing Sheets
