1. An inkjet recording apparatus comprising:
an upstream conveying unit that includes a conveying roller and a pinch roller that is in contact with the conveying roller at a position that is displaced downstream of the conveying roller in a conveying direction of a sheet;
a recording head disposed downstream of the upstream conveying unit, the recording head having a liquid discharge port surface on which discharge ports for discharging liquid therefrom are arranged;
a carriage that supports the recording head and scans in a direction that intersects the conveying direction;
a platen that supports the sheet at a position at which the platen faces the recording head;
a downstream conveying unit that is disposed downstream of the carriage and that conveys the sheet; and
a control unit that moves the carriage so that the liquid discharge port surface of the recording head is positioned outside a side edge of the sheet when a trailing end of the sheet passes a nip between the conveying roller and the pinch roller.
2. The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1,
wherein the control unit moves the carriage so that a liquid discharge port surface of the recording head and a portion of the carriage that is substantially at the same height as the liquid discharge port surface of the recording head are positioned outside the side edge of the sheet when the sheet is conveyed and the trailing end of the sheet passes the upstream conveying unit.
3. The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1,
wherein the platen is disposed below the nip between the conveying roller and the pinch roller.
4. The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1,
wherein, when the carriage scans to perform recording immediately after the trailing end of the sheet has passed the nip between the conveying roller and the pinch roller, the control unit shifts a used region of the liquid discharge ports in the conveying direction from a region used when the carriage scans to perform recording immediately before the trailing end of the sheet passes the nip, and
wherein the control unit makes a conveying amount by which the sheet is conveyed between a scan by the carriage performed immediately before the trailing end of the sheet passes the nip and a scan by the carriage performed immediately after the trailing end of the sheet has passed the nip be larger than a conveying amount immediately therebefore.
5. An inkjet recording apparatus that performs recording by using a recording head having a liquid discharge port surface on which discharge ports for discharging liquid therefrom are arranged, the inkjet recording apparatus comprising:
an upstream conveying unit that is disposed upstream of the recording head and that includes a conveying roller and a pinch roller;
a carriage that supports the recording head and scans in a direction that intersects a conveying direction of a sheet;
a platen that supports the sheet at a position at which the platen faces the recording head, the position being located below a nip between the conveying roller and the pinch roller;
a downstream conveying unit that is disposed downstream of the carriage and that conveys the sheet; and
a controller that moves the carriage so that scanning by the carriage to perform recording with the recording head and conveying of the sheet by the upstream conveying unit and the downstream conveying unit are alternately performed,
wherein, when the carriage scans to perform recording immediately after a trailing end of the sheet has passed the nip between the conveying roller and the pinch roller, the control unit shifts a used region of the liquid discharge ports downstream in the conveying direction from a region used when the carriage scans to perform recording immediately before the trailing end of the sheet passes the nip, and
wherein the control unit makes a conveying amount by which the sheet is conveyed between a scan by the carriage performed immediately before the trailing end of the sheet passes the nip and a scan by the carriage performed immediately after the trailing end of the sheet has passed the nip be larger than a conveying amount immediately therebefore, and
wherein, when the trailing end of the sheet passes the nip between the conveying roller and the pinch roller, the control unit moves the carriage so that the liquid discharge port surface of the recording head is positioned outside a side edge of the sheet.
6. The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 5,
wherein the control unit moves the carriage so that a liquid discharge port surface of the recording head and a portion of the carriage that is substantially at the same height as the liquid discharge port surface of the recording head are positioned outside the side edge of the sheet when the sheet is conveyed and the trailing end of the sheet passes the upstream conveying unit.
7. An inkjet recording apparatus comprising:
an upstream sheet conveying unit that includes a conveying roller and a pinch roller that is in contact with the conveying roller at a position that is displaced downstream of the conveying roller in a conveying direction of a sheet;
a recording head disposed downstream of the upstream conveying unit, the recording head having a liquid discharge port surface on which discharge ports for discharging liquid therefrom are arranged;
a carriage that supports the recording head and reciprocatingly scans in a direction that intersects the conveying direction of the sheet;
a platen that supports a non-recording surface of the sheet at a position at which the platen faces the recording head, the position being located below a nip between the conveying roller and the pinch roller;
a downstream conveying unit that is disposed downstream of the recording head, the downstream conveying unit including an eject roller and a spur roller, conveying the sheet, and ejecting the sheet on which an image has been recorded to the outside of the inkjet recording apparatus; and
a control unit that moves the carriage, in a case where an image forming operation is temporarily finished before a trailing end of the sheet passes the nip between the conveying roller and the pinch roller and the image forming operation is restarted after the sheet is conveyed further and the trailing end of the sheet has passed the nip between the conveying roller and the pinch roller, so that the liquid discharge port surface of the recording head is positioned outside a side edge of the sheet while the sheet is being conveyed until the trailing end of the sheet passes the nip between the conveying roller and the pinch roller.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method of depositing a layer on a substrate, comprising:
determining a target process condition selected from a target ionization voltage, a target pressure, and a target resistivity, within a chamber of an expanding thermal plasma generator for plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition of a coating on a substrate; the generator comprising a cathode, replaceable cascade plate and anode with concentric orifice; and
replacing the cascade plate with another plate having a configured orifice to effect the identified target process condition; and
generating a plasma at the target process condition by providing a plasma gas to the plasma generator and ionizing the plasma gas in an arc between cathode and anode within the generator and expanding the gas as a plasma onto a substrate in a deposition chamber.
2. The method of claim 1, comprising determining a target ionization voltage applied to the plasma gas within the generator and replacing the cascade plate with another plate having an orifice configured to effect the target ionization voltage.
3. The method of claim 1, comprising determining a target ionization voltage applied to the plasma gas within the generator and replacing the cascade plate with another plate having an orifice configured with a straight wall length to effect the target ionization voltage.
4. The method of claim 1, comprising determining a target pressure of the plasma gas within the generator and replacing the cascade plate with another plate having an orifice configured to effect the target pressure.
5. The method of claim 1, comprising determining a target pressure of the plasma gas within the generator and replacing the cascade plate with another plate having an orifice configured with a straight wall length to effect the target pressure.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising injecting a reactant gas into the plasma within the generator.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising injecting a reactant gas into the plasma within the generator, determining a target resistivity for the plasma and replacing the cascade plate with another have having an orifice configured to effect the target resistivity.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising injecting a reactant gas into the plasma within the generator, determining a target resistivity for the plasma and replacing the cascade plate with another having an orifice configured with a straight wall length to effect the target plasma resistivity.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the another cascade plate orifice has a length of 1 mm to less than 20 mm.
10. The deposition apparatus of claim 1, wherein the another cascade plate orifice has a length of 1.5 mm to 10 mm.
11. The deposition apparatus of claim 1, wherein the another cascade plate orifice has a length of 2 mm to 8 mm.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein the substrate is a thermoplastic substrate.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein the thermoplastic is a polycarbonate.
14. The method of claim 1, wherein the plasma is an argon or argon-oxygen-organosiloxane plasma.
15. The method of claim 1, wherein the plasma is generated to deposit successive coatings on the substrate.
16. The method of claim 1, wherein the substrate is planar.
17. The method claim 1, wherein the substrate is curved.