Patent ID: 6550883
Filing Date: 2003-04-22
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
A hardcopy apparatus comprising:a movable carriage carrying a printhead; a drive device arranged to advance a print medium through said apparatus, said printhead being arranged to deposit ink on said print medium in a print zone as the carriage moves in passes across said print medium; a detector for detecting the amount of ink I1 deposited in a preceding printing pass and/or detecting the amount of ink I2 to be deposited in a succeeding printing pass; and a control device, wherein said detector is connected to said control device and said control device controls the time kâ€²i between successive passes in accordance with the formula: kâ€²i=ki(1âˆ’ci(Iâˆ’I0)) where ki is a basic interpass drying time which is a constant for a particular type of print media;I is I1 or I2 or a suitable function of the two values; I0 is reference amount of ink deposited; and ci is a positive empirically-determined constant.