Seiko Epson Corporation

Screen Holdings Co., Ltd.

Toshiki Usui

Takahiro Katakura

Tomoaki Abe

Noriaki Okazawa

Kohei Kitahara

Keiichi Mukaiyama

Tsuyoshi Kitahara

Yasuhiko Kosugi

Masahiko Yoshida

Satoru Hosono

Kazunaga Suzuki

Koji Morikoshi

Kaoru Momose

Kiyoomi Mitsuki

Yoshio Miyazawa

Toshiyuki Yamagata

Naoki Yonekubo

Minoru Usui

Fujio Akahane

Takeo Seino

Noboru Asauchi

Shinri Sakai

Kazuhiko Hara

Yuji Tanaka

Yoshikatsu Yamamoto

Yasushi Kishida

A liquid ejecting apparatus performs gradation expression with multiple gradation levels by ejecting liquid droplets onto a medium. In the liquid ejecting apparatus, a period in which a first drive circuit outputs a second drive waveform as a first drive signal at least partially overlaps a period in which a second drive circuit outputs a fourth drive waveform as a second drive signal; a period in which the first drive circuit outputs a third drive waveform as the first drive signal does not overlap the period in which the second drive circuit outputs the fourth drive waveform as the second drive signal; and in a drive cycle, the first drive circuit outputs a first drive waveform as the first drive signal, subsequently outputs the second drive waveform as the first drive signal, and then outputs the third drive waveform as the first drive signal.

Liquid ejecting apparatus

A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a liquid ejecting unit including at least one pressure chamber filled with a reactive ink, at least one nozzle communicating with the pressure chamber, a supply channel through which the reactive ink is supplied to the pressure chamber, and an elastic compliance film forming a portion of the supply channel; a piezoelectric element that changes a capacity of the pressure chamber when an electric signal is supplied to the piezoelectric element; and a flexible wiring substrate at which a signal wire for supplying the electric signal to a connection terminal of the piezoelectric element is formed. The elastic compliance film is formed of a para-aramid resin. The connection terminal and the signal wire are electrically connected to each other by solder.

Liquid ejecting apparatus and liquid ejecting head

A liquid ejecting device includes: a piezoelectric element that is deformed by applying at least one drive waveform among a plurality of drive waveforms to the piezoelectric element, the plurality of drive waveforms including a first drive waveform and a second drive waveform; a cavity that is filled with a liquid and is increased or decreased in internal pressure due to deformation of the piezoelectric element; a nozzle that communicates with the cavity, and ejects the liquid as a liquid droplet; and a selection section that selects at least one drive waveform from the plurality of drive waveforms, the liquid droplet including a first liquid droplet ejected when the first drive waveform has been selected, and a second liquid droplet ejected when the second drive waveform has been selected, an ejection volume of the first liquid droplet being almost equal to an ejection volume of the second liquid droplet.

Liquid ejecting device, head unit, and liquid ejecting method

A printer controller outputs plural drive signals including respective series of drive pulses, the timing points of which are different from one another, to a head control unit side, and outputs a multiplexed signal resulting from multiplexing change signals corresponding to the respective drive signals to a head control unit side, and the head control unit includes a control signal demultiplexing unit which demultiplexes the multiplexed signal into the change signals corresponding to respective nozzle rows, and an actuator control unit which, on the basis of each of the demultiplexed change signals, selects one of the drive pulses included in one of the drive signal which corresponds to the demultiplexed change signal, and applies the selected drive pulse to a piezoelectric element included in one of the nozzle rows which corresponds to the drive signal corresponding to the demultiplexed change signal.

Liquid ejection apparatus and control method for liquid ejection apparatus

A fluid ejecting apparatus includes a drive element that performs a driving operation when a drive waveform is applied thereto and causes a nozzle to eject fluid. A drive signal generating unit generates a first drive signal having a first drive waveform at a front section of a predetermined period and a second drive waveform at a rear section thereof. A second drive signal has a third drive waveform at a front section of the predetermined period and a fourth drive waveform at a rear section thereof. A control unit applies the first drive waveform to the drive element, which then performs a first operation, applies the fourth drive waveform to the drive element, which then performs a second operation, and applies the second drive waveform to the drive element after applying the third drive waveform thereto, so that the drive element performs a third operation.

Fluid ejecting apparatus and fluid ejecting method

The printing method includes the following steps of: preparing a printing apparatus that includes an element that is driven in order to form a dot, a first drive signal generation section that generates drive signals for driving the element, and a second drive signal generation section that generates drive signals for driving the element; at a certain timing, forming a dot of a predetermined size by generating a first drive signal with the first drive signal generation section and by generating a second drive signal that is different from the first drive signal with the second drive signal generation section; and at a separate timing, forming a dot of the predetermined size by generating the first drive signal with the second drive signal generation section. With this printing method, the first drive signal generation section and the second drive signal generation section can be made to generate an equal amount of heat.

Printing method, printing system and storage medium having program recorded thereon

A liquid ejecting apparatus includes: a head having a nozzle; a pressure-changing unit for changing pressure of liquid in the nozzle in such a manner that the liquid is ejected from the nozzle; a level-data setting unit for setting a selected level data from a plurality of level data, based on an ejecting data; a driving-signal generator for generating a first driving signal and a second driving signal; and a driving-pulse generator for generating a driving pulse based on the selected level data and the first driving signal and the second driving signal. The first driving signal and the second driving signal are periodical signals having a same period. The first driving signal includes a first large-drop pulse-wave and a third large-drop pulse-wave. The second driving signal includes a second large-drop pulse-wave. The first large-drop pulse-wave, the second large-drop pulse-wave and the third large-drop pulse-wave have a same waveform, and appear in that order at regular intervals.

A printing apparatus of this invention includes: an output section that has a predetermined number of output terminals, and that outputs pixel data from each of the output terminals respectively; a cable that has the predetermined number of transmission lines for transmitting the pixel data that are outputted from the predetermined number of the output terminals respectively; a head that can eject a plurality of colors of inks, and that has nozzle groups for the respective colors of the inks; and a plurality of head controllers that cause the ink to be ejected from the nozzle groups based on the pixel data, a plurality of the head controllers each being provided corresponding to each of the colors of the inks. Wherein the number of the output terminals is larger than the number of the colors of the inks, and at least one of the head controllers causes the ink to be ejected from the nozzle group of a corresponding color, based on the pixel data transmitted via two or more of the transmission lines.

Printing apparatus, printing method and method of manufacturing printing apparatus

The invention achieves efficient use of generation circuits of drive signals COM. The invention provides a liquid ejection method that includes:

Liquid ejection apparatus and liquid ejection method

Printing method, printing system, and storage medium having program recorded thereon

The negative influence of noise is reduced. A liquid ejection head control method involves (A) simultaneously generating a first drive signal and a second drive signal in a particular period, (B) generating a plurality of first timing pulses and a plurality of second timing pulses, and (C) causing an operation of an element in the liquid ejection head and that performs at least an operation for causing liquid to be ejected. The first drive signal has a plurality of first waveform sections whose voltages change from a reference voltage, follow voltage change patterns determined in correspondence with operations to be performed by the element, and then return to the reference voltage. The second drive signal has a plurality of second waveform sections whose voltages change from the reference voltage, follow voltage change patterns determined in correspondence with operations to be performed by the element, and then return to the reference voltage. The first timing pulse corresponding to a first waveform section that is different from a particular first waveform section and that is generated subsequently after the particular first waveform section, and the second timing pulse corresponding to a second waveform section that is different from a particular second waveform section and that is generated subsequently after the particular second waveform section, are generated at different timings, in an overlap period between generation periods of the reference voltage, one of the generation periods being from a generation end timing of the voltage change pattern in the particular first waveform section to a generation start timing of the voltage change pattern in the different first waveform section, the other generation period being from a generation end timing of the voltage change pattern in the particular second waveform section to a generation start timing of the voltage change pattern in the different second waveform section. The element operates in response to application of either one of the first waveform section and the second waveform section to the element at a timing prescribed by either one of the first timing pulse and the second timing pulse.

Liquid ejection head control method and liquid ejection head control apparatus

A printing method that can suppress drops in voltage due to discharging of piezo elements is achieved. A printing method includes: generating a drive signal for driving a piezo element by selecting, based on print data, either a first original drive signal having a unit signal for defining the start to the end of an operation of causing the piezo element to eject ink by changing a voltage of the piezo element using a first reference voltage as a reference, or a second original drive signal having a unit signal for defining the start to the end of an operation of causing the piezo element to eject ink by changing the voltage of the piezo element using a second reference voltage as a reference; ejecting ink using the piezo element by applying the generated drive signal thereto to charge/discharge the piezo element; and charging the piezo element so that the voltage thereof attains either the first or second reference voltage during a predetermined period during which neither the first nor the second original drive signal is selected.

Printing method, printing apparatus, printing system, and storage medium

A liquid ejection method includes generating drive signals including ejection pulses, and applying the ejection pulses to an element that performs an operation for causing a liquid to be ejected. The element is provided corresponding to a nozzle. The nozzle causes the liquid to be ejected toward a targeted object. The generated drive signals are a first drive signal and a second drive signal. The first and second drive signals are generated simultaneously. The first drive signal includes a first ejection pulse for causing a liquid to be ejected to a targeted object, and the second drive signal includes a second ejection pulse for causing the liquid that has thickened in viscosity to be ejected outside the targeted object. When the nozzle is located above the targeted object, the first ejection pulse is applied to the element, and when the nozzle is located outside the targeted object, the second ejection pulse is applied to the element.

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Nagano-ken, Japan

Toshiki Usui