Raster Graphics Inc.

Gus A Adriancen

David Albertalli

Donald R Billet

Larry Capps

The present invention is generally directed to providing drop volume normalization of the ink jet nozzles in an ink jet printing operation to alleviate and/or eliminate banding effects due to imprecise placement of ink drops on the printed sheet and variations in the volume of drops produced by different ink jet nozzles of the print device. Exemplary embodiments relate to a method and apparatus for controlling a print device having at least one ink jet nozzle by adjusting an offset control of a power supply used to control drop volume of the at least one ink jet nozzle. In a print device configured with piezoelectric ink jet nozzles, the output drop volume of the nozzle can be controlled within a predetermined range by adjusting the voltage supplied to the ink jet nozzle. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, this offset control of drop volume will result in a change to output ink velocity as well. Accordingly, exemplary embodiments of the present invention further compensate a firing time of the at least one ink jet nozzle as a function of the offset control to account for a change in output ink velocity of the at least one ink jet nozzle.

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Gus A Adriancen