Bsc/Msc: Physics/ Datascience

Interpret and analyse printhead damage/jetting behaviour and cleanliness

Are you someone who wants to develop innovative ways to make a physical process measurable? Do you want to contribute to high‑tech and high‑quality printing? Then we are looking for you!

Background

During printing we monitor the jetting performance of a printhead and its nozzles in‑situ using two different techniques. First up is PAINt. PAINt measures the acoustic response of a nozzle. By doing so, we are able to determine the status in the nozzle, for instance air entrapment or dried in nozzles, during printing. The second method is to print test charts (NFD) and look at the performance on the paper. However, with these methods we still mis information about the status of the nozzle plate. This is often important information in getting to the root cause of issues that we try to solve at R&D.

The nozzle plate is the outer, flat, surface of the printhead where the nozzle is open to the air. Ideally this surface is clean, has anti wetting properties due to a coating and is undamaged. This is often not the case.

During printing, ink mist collects on the nozzle plate, in combination with dust or ink smeared on the printhead due to paper touching the printheads during printing. This all might result in jetting problems. Damage may occur in the form of scratches or wear of the anti‑wetting coating. After jetting, you may see certain fouling patterns which can give clues about the root cause of issues. For instance, very asymmetrical pollution around a nozzle.

To image the nozzle plate, a high‑resolution camera system (printhead inspector) is available. This system can record movies of dynamic flow behaviour out of the nozzle and make highly detailed images of the nozzle plate itself. We use this system internally to visualize jetting/ print issues. In exceptional cases, this system might also be used at the customer.

The printhead inspector is a tool used in the development of our printers. The system is able to generate a lot of data and is very flexible. However, using it and processing the results is very time consuming.

Your assignment

We would like to automate the processing of the images (and possibly movies) taken by the printhead inspector. We would like the processing to highlight interesting regions and give information about the state around the nozzles. Ideally, we would like to link different sources of nozzle data together in the form of PAINt and NFD and link problematic nozzles directly to information obtained with these sources of data. Additionally, we would like to understand what is seen so that we can solve the issues.

Your profile

Expected is an understanding of elementary physics and data science/image processing. A proactive mindset to get information from domain experts and share the progress of the tool is important as well.

In short:

• You are currently studying physics or data science
• You think it’s a challenge to develop something new for a subject with little to no literature on
• You want to design and perform your own experiments
• To be able to fulfil the assignment you need skills such as matlab/ python to process and visualize data. The aim is to help develop tooling that does so automatically
• You are available for 3 to 6 months for a minimum of 4 days per week

What’s in it for you?

• A challenging assignment with skilled coaching
• Internship/ Graduation compensation of €500,- per month
• Travel cost compensation if you don’t have an ‘OV‑weekcard’
• The possibility to network with professionals inside and outside your field of expertise, thanks to our diversity of disciplines which you will work with

What do we stand for?

We develop and manufacture high‑tech printing products and workflow software for the commercial printing market as part of Canon, a global leader in imaging technologies. With around 3,300 employees across three continents and our headquarters in Venlo, the Netherlands, we innovate to create high‑quality solutions that add color to the world.

Guided by the philosophy of Kyosei — living and working together for the common good — our culture is built on openness, collegiality, trust and stability. We empower our people to grow, take initiative, and make an impact. With our company values collaboration, innovation and ownership, we strive to bring out the best in each other, expand boundaries and feel empowered to take ownership of our work.

Further information about Canon Production Printing is available at cpp.canon.