US 12,103,299 B2
Printing apparatus and printing method
Eishin Yoshikawa, Nagano (JP)
Assigned to Seiko Epson Corporation, Tokyo (JP)
Filed by SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP)
Filed on Jun. 21, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/807,870.
Claims priority of application No. 2021-103913 (JP), filed on Jun. 23, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0410597 A1, Dec. 29, 2022
Int. Cl. B41J 11/00 (2006.01); B41J 2/21 (2006.01); C09D 4/06 (2006.01); C09D 11/322 (2014.01); C09D 11/54 (2014.01)
CPC B41J 11/00212 (2021.01) [B41J 2/2107 (2013.01); B41J 11/00214 (2021.01); C09D 4/06 (2013.01); C09D 11/322 (2013.01); C09D 11/54 (2013.01)] 7 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A printing apparatus comprising:
an ejection head including
a first nozzle row configured to eject, toward a recording medium, a first liquid containing a photopolymerization initiator that initiates a polymerization reaction of a polymerizable compound by irradiation with light and
a second nozzle row configured to eject, toward the recording medium, a second liquid containing the polymerizable compound and a color material and not containing the photopolymerization initiator;
a driving unit configured to change relative positions of the ejection head and the recording medium; and
an irradiation unit configured to irradiate, with the light, the recording medium onto which the first liquid and the second liquid are deposited, wherein
the first liquid and the second liquid are ejected from the ejection head so that the second liquid overlaps the first liquid on a surface of the recording medium and
a distance between the irradiation unit and the first nozzle row is longer than a distance between the irradiation unit and the second nozzle row, wherein
the driving unit is configured to change, in a main scanning direction, a relative position of the ejection head with respect to the recording medium and, when the first liquid and the second liquid are not ejected from the ejection head toward the recording medium, change a relative position of the recording medium with respect to the ejection head in a feeding direction that is a direction from upstream toward downstream and intersects the main scanning direction,
the irradiation unit and the second nozzle row are disposed downstream of the first nozzle row in the feeding direction,
the irradiation unit and the second nozzle are arranged in the main scanning direction such that the irradiation unit and the second nozzle overlap each other as viewed in the main scanning direction, and such that the irradiation unit is in a position for irradiation toward the second liquid deposited onto the recording medium, and
in one main scan of the ejection head relatively moving in the main scanning direction, an area of the recording medium configured to be irradiated by the irradiation unit
includes an area on which the second nozzle row is configured to eject the second liquid, and
does not include an area on which the first nozzle row is configured to eject the first liquid.