Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Norimasa Sohgawa

Satoru Tobita

Tomohiko Kohda

Shinichi Hatanaka

Ryo Kasahara

Ryohta Matsufuji

Masanori Hirano

Hiroshi Nishimura

Hiroki Takahashi

Satomi Araki

Ryuuta Katoh

Shinichiroh Osanai

Yasuhiro Watanabe

A droplet discharging apparatus that discharges liquid droplets from one or more nozzles based on drive waveforms, includes a memory and a processor configured to execute generating, as the drive waveforms, a first drive waveform, and a second drive waveform to change a drive voltage without discharging the liquid droplets; and controlling to output one set of drive waveforms including a predetermined number of instances of the first drive waveform and one instance of the second drive waveform.

Droplet discharging apparatus and driving waveform control method

A liquid discharge head includes a connector component, a head unit, and a relay module component. The connector component is electrically connectable to a drive board. Ink from an ink chamber is supplied to the head unit. The relay module component is between the connector component and the head unit. The relay module component is detachable from the connector component and the head unit. The relay module component includes a channel to supply the ink supplied from the ink chamber to the head unit.

Liquid discharge head and liquid discharge apparatus

A liquid discharging apparatus includes a nozzle hole configured to discharge liquid; a liquid chamber provided so as to communicate with the nozzle hole; a piezoelectric element configured to change a pressure applied to the liquid in the liquid chamber to discharge the liquid from the nozzle hole; a driving waveform generation circuit configured to generate a driving waveform signal during a discharge control period having a predetermined cycle, to apply a driving waveform voltage to the piezoelectric element; a switch configured to selectively supply, to the piezoelectric element, a waveform included in the driving waveform signal; and a controller configured to perform voltage setting control for applying a predetermined voltage to the piezoelectric element, in a case where a non-discharge control period, having a predetermined cycle, causes the piezoelectric element to change by a voltage greater than or equal to an allowable voltage.

Liquid discharging apparatus and image forming system

A liquid discharge head includes a nozzle plate including a plurality of nozzles to discharge liquid, a plurality of individual chambers communicating with the plurality of nozzles, respectively, a supply-side channel communicating with the plurality of individual chambers, and a collection-side channel communicating with the plurality of individual chambers. The collection-side channel includes a first channel arranged in a first direction along a surface of the nozzle plate, a second channel communicating with the first channel, the second channel arranged in a second direction across the surface of the nozzle plate, and a branch channel branched from the first channel and connected to the second channel, the branch channel arranged in a third direction across the surface of the nozzle plate.

Liquid discharge head, liquid discharge device, and liquid discharge apparatus

A liquid discharge apparatus that includes a liquid discharge head including a nozzle discharging liquid onto a recording medium and a pressure generating unit generating pressure by a change in a drive waveform of the liquid, a drive waveform generating unit generating the drive waveform applied to the pressure generating unit, and a waveform selection unit selectively masking a part of the drive waveform and selecting a pulse of the drive waveform, wherein the drive waveform includes at least one discharge pulse and a micro-drive pulse for causing a change in meniscus so that the liquid is not discharged at a point where the liquid is not discharged on the recording medium, wherein the micro-drive pulse is disposed at a head of a discharge cycle of the drive waveform, and wherein the micro-drive pulse is disposed at an integer multiple of a natural vibration cycle Tc of the liquid chamber.

Liquid discharge apparatus and method for controlling liquid discharge

A liquid tank includes a tank body configured to store a liquid to be supplied to a liquid discharge head, a first container, a second container, a partition dividing an interior of the tank body into the first container and the second container, a communication path disposed in the tank body, the communication path connecting the first container and the second container, a liquid inlet communicating with the first container, a liquid outlet disposed at a position lower than the communication path, the liquid outlet communicating with the second container, a first connection port communicating with the first container, the first connection port disposed lower than the liquid inlet and configured to be connected to a supply port of the liquid discharge head, and a second connection port communicating with the second container, the second connection port disposed at a position lower than the liquid outlet.

Liquid tank, liquid circulation device, and liquid discharge apparatus

A liquid discharge apparatus includes a liquid discharge head and a pattern printer. The liquid discharge head includes a plurality of nozzles to discharge liquid. The pattern printer drives the liquid discharge head to print a plurality of adjacent rectangular patterns under different drive conditions. The adjacent rectangular patterns are a reference pattern and an adjustment pattern.

Liquid discharge apparatus

A drive waveform generating device includes circuitry configured to generate a drive waveform to be applied to a pressure generation element of a liquid discharge head. The drive waveform including a first waveform and a second waveform continuous in time series with the first waveform. The first waveform includes a falling element to lower a potential from an intermediate potential to a lower potential lower than the intermediate potential, a raising element to raise the potential from the lower potential to a higher potential higher than the intermediate potential, and a potential holding element to hold the higher potential. The second waveform includes a raising element to raise the potential from the intermediate potential to a raised potential higher than the intermediate potential, a potential holding element to hold the raised potential, and a falling element to lower the potential from the raised potential to the intermediate potential.

Drive waveform generating device, liquid discharge apparatus, and head driving method

A liquid discharge head includes a plurality of nozzles, a plurality of individual liquid chambers, a common liquid chamber, a deformable damper, and a damper chamber. The plurality of nozzles is arrayed in a nozzle array direction, to discharge liquid. The plurality of individual liquid chambers is communicated with the plurality of nozzles. The common liquid chamber supplies liquid to the plurality of individual liquid chambers. The deformable damper constitutes part of a wall face of the common liquid chamber. The damper chamber is disposed along the nozzle array direction with the damper interposed between the damper chamber and the common liquid chamber. The damper chamber extends to an outer area in the nozzle array direction than an individual liquid chamber of the plurality of individual liquid chambers at each end in the nozzle array direction.

Fluid tanks for providing a print fluid to a printhead. In one embodiment, the fluid tank includes a first reservoir configured to contain a print fluid, and a second reservoir configured to contain the print fluid. The fluid tank further includes a first Input/Output (I/O) port configured to fluidly couple with a printhead to allow the print fluid to flow into or out of the first reservoir, and a second I/O port configured to fluidly couple with the printhead to allow the print fluid to flow into or out of the second reservoir. The fluid tank further includes a flexible membrane between the first reservoir and the second reservoir configured to flex to create a pressure difference between the first reservoir and the second reservoir.

Fluid tank with flexible membrane for a flow-through printhead

A device to discharge liquid includes a liquid discharging head to discharge the liquid and a drive waveform generating device to generate and output a drive waveform including continuous multiple drive pulses to discharge the liquid from the liquid discharging head that are continuously arranged in chronological order to form a single droplet. The continuous multiple drive pulses include an inflation waveform element to inflate an individual liquid chamber of the liquid discharging head and a contraction waveform element to contract the inflated individual liquid chamber to discharge the liquid. When the wave element between the continuous multiple drive pulses is determined as the holding wave element between pulses, the voltage held by the holding waveform element is higher than the initial voltage of the inflation waveform element of the first drive pulse and the ending voltage of the contraction waveform element of the last drive pulse.

Device to discharge liquid and head driving method

An image processing apparatus includes an acquiring unit, an identifying unit, and a correcting unit. The acquiring unit acquires input data including shape data on a concave-convex area having a convex part and a concave part and image data of an image formed on the concave-convex area. The identifying unit identifies an uneven area which is within a bottom surface of the concave part and is continuous with a wall surface connecting the bottom surface and a convex surface of the convex part. The correcting unit corrects the image data so that the brightness of a first image area in the uneven area stacked with multiple dots and the brightness of a second image area continuous with the first image area become about the same.

Image processing apparatus, non-transitory computer-readable medium, and image processing method

An image processing apparatus that outputs print data to a recording apparatus including a recording unit that causes each of a plurality of nozzles to eject droplets to record dots on a recording medium, the image processing apparatus comprises: an acquiring module that acquires image data for an image to be formed by the recording unit; a determining module that determines whether or not the image data is laminated image data formed of a plurality of layers; and a generating module that generates, when the image data is the laminated image data, the print data that assigns nozzles for recording dots corresponding to respective pixels of the laminated image data such that a specific nozzle for recording dots that correspond to pixels at an identical pixel position in the laminated image data varies from one layer to another.

Image processing apparatus, computer-readable recording medium, and image processing method to form an image of improved quality

An image forming apparatus includes a shape information acquisition unit configured to acquire shape information indicating a shape of a three-dimensional object on which an image forming process is to be performed; a surface determination unit configured to determine a plurality of surfaces from which the three-dimensional object is constructed, based on the shape information; and an output image information generation unit configured to generate surface image information and join region image information. The surface image information is information on images to be formed on the respective surfaces. Each image is of a region obtained by cutting an end of the corresponding surface by a predetermined amount. The join region image information is information on an image to be formed on a join region between the adjacent surfaces.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Norimasa Sohgawa