The purpose of the present invention is to suppress variance in the print quality of an inkjet recording device. In order to solve the above problem, the present invention is an inkjet recording device of a charge control type equipped with two or more nozzles which are disposed side by side in a print head, the inkjet recording device being characterized by the following: having a control unit for performing print control independently for each of a plurality of printing configurations; the control unit having an input unit whereby current values of print elements of each of the printing configurations can be periodically checked, and having an output unit whereby the print elements during a subsequent print can be modified; and in that the control unit further adjusts each of the nozzles for every print so as to cause the charging voltage, deflecting voltage, and ink pressure of the subsequent print to approach a reference value.

Under a condition in which bowed printing occurs, a horizontal shift is suppressed to improve print quality. Following a program stored in a ROM 12, an MPU 10 generates video data for charging print particles according to print contents data stored in a RAM 11. Based on the print contents data, the MPU 10 detects a letter to be printed last, and when the letter to be printed last is printed to end a print operation, generates video data so that based on the video data, a non-print charge voltage driving non-print particles to an extent that they do not fly over a gutter 25 is applied to non-print particles. The number of the non-print particles subjected to the non-print charge voltage is determined by the MPU 10, based on the distance from a print head 2 to a print subject 30, a letter height preset value, etc. A character signal generating circuit 18 generates the non-print charge voltage, based on the video data, and applies the generated the non-print charge voltage to a charging electrode 22.

Under a condition in which bowed printing occurs, a horizontal shift is suppressed to improve print quality. Following a program stored in a ROM 12, an MPU 10 generates video data for charging print particles according to print contents data stored in a RAM 11. Based on the print contents data, the MPU 10 detects a letter to be printed last, and when the letter to be printed last is printed to end a print operation, generates video data so that based on the video data, a non-print charge voltage driving non-print particles to an extent that they do not fly over a gutter 25 is applied to non-print particles. The number of the non-print particles subjected to the non-print charge voltage is determined by the MPU 10, based on the distance from a print head 2 to a print subject 30, a letter height preset value, etc. A character signal generating circuit 18 generates the non-print charge voltage, based on the video data, and applies the generated the non-print charge voltage to a charging electrode 22.

A method for forming at least one plurality of printed dots on a surface, with help of at least one plurality of drops generated by a printhead of a continuous inkjet printer. The method comprises, for each plurality of printed dots: deciding, whether all drops of the at least one plurality of drops are protected from perturbations due to the air resistance or whether at least one drop of the at least one plurality of drops is not protected from the perturbations; generating and charging each drop of the at least one plurality of drops according to whether it is protected from the perturbations or not protected from the perturbations; and printing the at least one plurality of drops on the surface.

A method for forming at least one plurality of printed dots on a surface, with help of at least one plurality of drops generated by a printhead of a continuous inkjet printer. The method comprises, for each plurality of printed dots: deciding, whether all drops of the at least one plurality of drops are protected from perturbations due to the air resistance or whether at least one drop of the at least one plurality of drops is not protected from the perturbations; generating and charging each drop of the at least one plurality of drops according to whether it is protected from the perturbations or not protected from the perturbations; and printing the at least one plurality of drops on the surface.

A liquid jet printing apparatus is provided having a nozzle for emitting a stream of liquid droplets toward a substrate, a charging section for providing an electrical charge to liquid droplets and a pair of electrically conductive deflection plates for creating an electrical field capable of deflecting the liquid droplets to a desired location on the substrate, wherein a resistor is provided between a power source and the electrical field to limit current from the power source during electrical arcing between the deflection plates, thereby minimizing disruption to the electrical field and minimizing electromagnetic pulses.

The current at a deflection electrode 23, 25 of an electrostatic deflection continuous inkjet printer 127 is monitored. If the current reaches a level higher than normal for a clean print head but below the current required to trigger an automatic shutdown, a warning is generated. The warning indicates that an automatic shutdown is likely to follow unless the print head is cleaned. This allows the operator to shut the printer down in a planned manner for cleaning. The warning may be provided at the printer 127 or it may be provided by an external system 121, 129 which allows personnel who are not at the printer to be alerted. The monitoring may be done by the printer or information about the deflection electrode current may be provided to an external system 121, 129 that performs the monitoring.

A system (93) monitors the break-up phase of an electrostatic deflection continuous ink jet printer to identify phase instability likely to be caused by a partial blockage of the jet-forming device (17). It ignores alternations between adjacent phase positions and brief unrepeated periods of phase disruption. Preferably it ignores phase changes caused by changes in other operational parameters of the printer, such as variations in ink pressure. Monitoring may be done in the printer (99) or in an external system (93), (95).

The invention provides an inkjet marking apparatus and an inkjet marking system enabling it to remotely perform maintenance management including a print head cleaning process and the like. There is disclosed an inkjet marking apparatus equipped with a print head including a nozzle which spouts out ink while the ink turns into particles, a charging electrode which gives charge to ink particles spouted out, a deflecting electrode which deflects the charged ink particles, and a gutter which collects non-used ink; a main unit equipped with an ink supply path to supply ink in an ink container to the print head, an ink collection path to collect ink not used for printing into the ink container, a solvent supply path to supply a solvent in a solvent container to the ink container, and flow rate regulators which regulate flows of the ink and the solvent in these respective paths; a main unit controller which controls operation of the flow rate regulators in the main unit and the print head; and a head receptacle unit including a head holding part to set and hold the print head secured in place and a print head detector which detects that the print head has been set secured in place, wherein the main unit controller starts jetting of the ink from the nozzle when a preset start time comes, provided that it is detected that the print head has been set secured in the head receptacle unit.

An integrated fluid ejection and spectroscopic sensing system may include a fluid ejector to eject a droplet of fluid through an ejection orifice towards a deposition site, a sensor array, a dispersive element to project light onto the sensor array. The dispersive element, the sensor and the fluid ejector are joined as part of an integrated unit.