Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.

Screen Holdings Co., Ltd.

Kuniharu Okuda

Takaharu Yamamoto

Shigeo Murakami

Keiji Hatano

Nobuhito Kohara

An image recording apparatus includes a plurality of recording heads arranged in a staggered configuration in a width direction. Adjacent ones of the recording heads have respective adjacent nozzles for ejecting ink droplets onto positions adjacent to each other in the width direction on a recording medium. For recording an image, a correction area rate less than a dot area rate of an input mage in a recording position of each of the adjacent nozzles is calculated from the dot area rate. Then, ink droplets are ejected from each of the adjacent nozzles in accordance with the correction area rate. As a result, the amounts of ink droplets ejected from the adjacent nozzles are limited. For a recording process using a head unit including the recording heads arranged in a staggered configuration, this suppresses the occurrence of unevenness in density due to an undesirable flow or bleeding of ink at the boundary between recording regions of the recording heads.

Apparatus for and method of recording image

In a first printing process in Steps S through S , ink supply is controlled so that a measured printed density (Vn) is approximately equal to a first target density (V ). This provides a uniform amount of ink remaining on ink rollers after the first printing process. Thereafter, in a second printing process in Steps S through S , printing is performed using a second target density (V ) lower than the first target density (V ). This provides a slightly reduced, uniform amount of ink remaining on the ink rollers. Thus, a novel method of presetting ink is provided which facilitates the formation of a distribution of the new amount of ink at the beginning of the next printing operation and which stabilizes the early start of printing.

Method of presetting ink

A printing apparatus having ink feeders for selectively feeding inks to a plurality of image areas on a plate or plates mounted on a plate cylinder. A plate cylinder supports, peripherally thereof, a single plate having a first and a second image areas. A plurality of cams are rotatable synchronously with the plate cylinder, and are arranged in positions laterally of the plate cylinder corresponding to the image areas. A plurality of ink rollers are arranged circumferentially of the plate cylinder for contacting a surface of the plate to feed ink to the image areas. A plurality of ink roller support arms rotatably support the ink rollers. An ink roller support arm swing mechanism includes cam followers for contacting the cams to swing the ink roller support arms successively, with rotation of the cams, between an ink feeding position in which the ink rollers contact the surface of the plate and a retracted position in which the ink rollers are separated from the surface of the plate. A water applying roller contacts the surface of the plate to feed dampening water to the image areas and is supported by water applying roller support arms on a water applying roller support arm swing mechanism having cam followers for contacting the cams to swing the water applying roller support arms, with rotation of the cams, between an dampening water feeding position in which the water applying roller contacts the surface of the plate and a retracted position in which the water applying roller is separated from the surface of the plate.

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Kyoto, Japan

Kuniharu Okuda