The invention provides pneumatic shuttering of a focused or collimated aerosol particle stream. The aerosol stream can be collimated by an annular sheath of inert or non-inert gas. The apparatus propagates a sheathed aerosol stream through a series of aerodynamic lenses along the axis of a flow cell. The final lens is typically positioned above a substrate, so that direct material deposition is provided. A substantially perpendicularly-flowing gas external to the aerodynamic lens system is used to redirect the particle stream away from the flow axis and through an exhaust port, thereby shuttering the collimated aerosol stream. The pneumatic shutter enables printing of discreet structures, with on/off shuttering times of approximately 1 to 100 milliseconds.

The remaining amounts of inks in tanks are obtained, and, based on the obtained results, whether direction for printing an image next is to be inverted with respect to a set direction. This can reduce a difference in ink remaining amount between the tanks corresponding to print heads.

A continuous ink jet print head (10), including: an ink droplet generator (116) configured to emit an ink droplet (158) along an undeflected droplet flight path (30); a charge electrode (118) configured to impart a charge to the ink droplet; deflector plates (120A, 120B) adjacent the undeflected droplet flight path, downstream from the charge electrode, and configured to deflect the ink droplet to a deflected droplet flight path that lies within a range of deflected flight paths bounded by at least deflected droplet flight path and a most deflected droplet flight path; a gutter (122) configured to receive an ink droplet traveling along the undeflected droplet flight path; and an ink buildup sensor (102) configured to detect an accumulation of ink (140) relative to a droplet flight path disposed within the range of deflected flight paths.

A valve comprises an orifice plate (1) having one or more orifices (4) through which a fluid may flow, and one or more piezo-electric elements (2). Each element (2) has a face positioned to contact the orifice plate at an orifice. Each element has a first state in which it abuts the plate to prevent flow of fluid through the associated orifice and a second state in which the face is spaced from the plate to allow flow through the associated orifice. A controller (50) selectively applies a first voltage to an elements to cause it to adopt the first state and applies a second voltage to the one or more elements to cause the elements to adopt the second state.

A printing apparatus on a print support includes a print head to print on said print support a print material; a feed device to feed the print material to the print head; and a recirculating unit to generate a recirculation of the print material through the print head and having a first container of the print material placed upstream of the print head, a second container of the print material placed downstream of the print head, a first recirculating sub-unit to generate a first flow of the print material from the first container to the print head and the second container, and a second recirculating sub-unit to transfer the print material from the second container to the first container, wherein the first and second containers are both maintained under two distinct negative pressures.

A continuous inkjet printer (50) has an ink droplet generator (52) and a controller (58) that varies a modulating voltage applied to the ink droplet generator (52) and measures corresponding breakup times of a jet of ink into ink droplets to obtain a portion of a characteristic of breakup time against modulating voltage. The controller (58) obtains a variation range, varies the modulating voltage over the variation range to obtain the portion of the characteristic, calculates a gradient from the portion of the characteristic, compares the gradient with a predetermined gradient and, depending on whether the calculated gradient is less than or greater than the predetermined gradient, generates an adjusted variation range that is displaced in a first sense or a second, opposite sense, respectively, relative to the variation range.

Provided is an inkjet recording device, including a print head that includes a head base including: a nozzle from which ink is ejected; charging electrodes that charge the ink ejected from the nozzle; deflection electrodes that deflect the ink charged by the charging electrodes; and a gutter that collects ink not used in printing, and a head cover included in the head base, wherein the head base has a first horizontal uneven side portion, an oblique uneven side portion, and a second horizontal uneven side portion.

A valve comprises an orifice plate (1) having one or more orifices (4) through which a fluid may flow, and one or more piezo-electric elements (2). Each element (2) has a face positioned to contact the orifice plate at an orifice. Each element has a first state in which it abuts the plate to prevent flow of fluid through the associated orifice and a second state in which the face is spaced from the plate to allow flow through the associated orifice. A controller (50) selectively applies a first voltage to an elements to cause it to adopt the first state and applies a second voltage to the one or more elements to cause the elements to adopt the second state.

A continuous ink jet print head (10), including: an ink droplet generator (116) configured to emit an ink droplet (158) along an undeflected droplet flight path (30); a charge electrode (118) configured to impart a charge to the ink droplet; deflector plates (120A, 120B) adjacent the undeflected droplet flight path, downstream from the charge electrode, and configured to deflect the ink droplet to a deflected droplet flight path that lies within a range of deflected flight paths bounded by at least deflected droplet flight path and a most deflected droplet flight path; a gutter (122) configured to receive an ink droplet traveling along the undeflected droplet flight path; and an ink buildup sensor (102) configured to detect an accumulation of ink (140) relative to a droplet flight path disposed within the range of deflected flight paths.

An embodiment of this invention solves memory shortage that occurs in enlargement processing of an image because a web application holds data of an image or the like not as binary data but as character string data. In the embodiment, a processor in an information processing apparatus executes a program including a first program layer with an instruction set to be interpreted and executed by the processor and a second program layer with an instruction set interpreted in advance by a unit other than the processor in the following way. That is, the first program layer draws an image, and divides and enlarges the drawn image using a memory. Image data of each of a plurality of images obtained by the division and enlargement is output from the second program layer to an external device.