A high-quality image is printed with reduced bleeding in colors that may appear at a boundary between a black image and a color image. A head for ejecting black ink and a head for ejecting color ink perform three times of scanning while feeding is carried out therebetween for moving the printing medium by four pitches of ejection openings arranged on the heads, different ejection openings are caused to correspond to a scanning area, which corresponds to the four pitches, and multi-pass printing is performed to complete printing on the area. The black head completes printing of the black image, and then, the color head completes printing of the color image adjacent to the black image. The arrangement of ejection openings is determined so that between last scanning for completing printing of the black image and the first scanning for printing of the color image, scanning with no performing printing exists.

Ink jet printing apparatus and ink jet printing method

A method is disclosed of printing an area of a substrate in a plurality of passes using curable ink, the method comprising depositing a first pass of ink on the area, partially curing ink deposited in the first pass, depositing a second pass of ink on the area, and fully curing the ink on the area. The method finds particular application in the field of inkjet printing, and can afford the advantage of better wetting of ink on the substrate deposited by a previous pass and reducing the problem of ink spreading.

Printing with ink

An image recording apparatus comprises a transfer unit having a transfer surface for holding a recording medium and transferring the recording medium held on the transfer surface, a recording head opposed to the transfer unit and recording images on the recording medium transferred by the transfer unit, a suction-force changing unit drawing the recording medium, a support member providing at substantially the same height as the transfer surface of the transfer unit and supporting the suction-force changing unit, and a suction unit drawing the recording medium to a surface of the support member, via the suction-force changing unit.

Image recording apparatus

A printer head with overlapping nozzles. A plurality of head chips are formed in an array pattern on the printer head wherein a plurality of nozzles are associated with each head chip. Nozzles associated with one head chip and nozzles associated with an adjacent head chip partly overlap to form an overlapped area. When an ink-ejecting mechanism drives across a print object, the nozzles of the one head chip and the nozzles of the adjacent head chip respectively eject inks which are mixed in the overlapped area to reduce dot density differences on the print object.

Printer and printer head

In general, in one aspect, the invention features a method for driving a droplet ejection device having an actuator, including applying a multipulse waveform that includes two or more drive pulses to the actuator to cause the droplet ejection device to eject a single droplet of a fluid, wherein a frequency of the drive pulses is greater than a natural frequency, fj, of the droplet ejection device.

High frequency droplet ejection device and method

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce color drift and inconsistencies in density without decreasing a recording speed of an image. SOLUTION: Respective inkjet recording heads 231-234 having respective ink ejection ports with similar recording characteristics are provided. Cyan ink is used for the recording head 231; magenta ink is used for the recording head 232; yellow ink is used for the recording head 233; and black ink is used for the recording head 234. When a white recording paper sheet is used as a recording medium, it is considered that a color difference between chromatic colors, that is, cyan, magenta and yellow and the color of the recording paper sheet is great, and it is considered that a color difference between an achromatic color, that is, black and the color of the recording paper sheet is small. Accordingly, the recording heads 231-233 using chromatic ink are arranged in such a manner that reference surfaces are directed downward, and the recording head 234 using achromatic ink is arranged in such a manner that a direction is reversed so that a reference surface can be directed upward. Thus, a just inverse relationship is established between the recording characteristics of the recording heads using the chromatic ink and those of the recording head using the achromatic ink. COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

An ink jet head having ink chambers, energy-generating elements provided in the ink chambers, respectively, and ink outlet ports communicating with the ink chambers, respectively. The ink jet head may be left unused for a time longer than a predetermined time, with a meniscus formed in each ink outlet port. In this case, a drive pulse is applied to each energy-generating element several times, thereby forcing the ink outwards from the ink outlet port and increasing a surface area of the ink from a surface area of the meniscus. Then, a negative pressure is applied in each ink chamber, thereby drawing the ink back toward the ink chamber, thus forming a meniscus again in the ink outlet port. In this condition, a drive pulse is applied to the energy-generating element, thus ejecting an ink droplet from the ink outlet port to record data.

Method and apparatus for driving an ink jet head

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent deterioration of image quality incident to a variation in ejection volume or ejection velocity of ink being ejected from a nozzle in a multi-drop system where the dot diameter is varied depending on the number of liquid drops. SOLUTION: A number of liquid drops converting circuit converts image data according to a conversion table. More specifically, when data corresponding to unstable two liquid drops comes for a nozzle (3) on the second line, the number of liquid drops converting circuit converts a corresponding basic value of "0" on the conversion table into a value "1" or "3" corresponding to stabilized number of liquid drops above or below a basic value "2" to be set essentially. It is converted to a basic value "3", for example. When data of "2" corresponding to two liquid drops comes again for the nozzle (3) on the fifth line, it is converted to "1". When data of "2" corresponding to two liquid drops comes for the nozzle (3) on the seventh line, it is converted to "3". In other words, data corresponding to unstable two liquid drops is converted alternately into a value corresponding to an upper or lower stabilized number of liquid drops. COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Ink jet recorder

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To execute a recording operation stably by solving the choked state of an ink ejecting hole certainly without unnecessarily consuming an ink in a preliminary drive after being left for a long time. SOLUTION: In the case the apparatus is left for time longer than preset tolerable time with an ink meniscus formed in an ink ejecting hole 5, a driving pulse is given to an energy generating element for a plurality of times for gradually pushing out the ink in the ink ejecting hole to the outside of the ink ejecting hole such that the surface area of the gas-liquid interface of the ink pushed outside the ink ejecting hole becomes larger than the surface area of the formed meniscus according to the repeated application for a predetermined times. Thereafter, with the inside of an ink room in a negative pressure state, the ink is returned into the ink room for forming a meniscus again in the ink ejecting hole. By applying a driving pulse for recording to the energy generating element in this state, ink droplets 12a are ejected out of the ink ejecting hole. COPYRIGHT: (C)2000,JPO

Method and apparatus for driving ink-jet head

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a color inkjet recorder which improves a recording image quality by visually reducing density irregularities and prevents a process delay even when the number of head modules in a head unit increases SOLUTION: When an image signal is inputted, a region detecting section 61 detects whether it is a signal corresponding to an end region of the head module or a signal corresponding to a non end region, and at the same time, a signal value detecting section 62 detects whether or not it is a low gradation signal by comparing a signal value of the image signal with a predetermined threshold Based on the judgment, a conversion table control section 63 receives from a color conversion table 523a, a color conversion table special for ends when it is the signal of the end region and it is not the signal of the low gradation, or a color conversion table special for non ends when it is the end region and low gradation signal and when it is the non end region signal A color conversion process section 64 carries out a color conversion process for the image signal on the basis of the color conversion table COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Megumi Shimizu

Papers

Image recording apparatus

Method and apparatus for driving an ink jet head

Ink jet recorder

Method and apparatus for driving ink-jet head

Color inkjet recorder