A printing apparatus, including a conveyor, a liquid ejection head with nozzles, a contact part to contact a surface of a recording medium and a controller, is provided. The controller executes printing processes including a first printing process with a first conveying action and a second printing process with a second conveying action. The controller obtains a length of a non-printing region in the recording medium, and in the second printing process, designates a nozzle within a contact range, in which the recording medium is maintained contacted by the contact part upon completion of the conveying action in a final printing process, to be a second nozzle, which is activated to print a most downstream part of the image. The longer the length of the non-printing region is, the closer nozzle closer to an upstream end of conveyance among the plurality of nozzles is designated to be the second nozzle.

The invention firstly relates to a print head of a continuous ink jet printer, comprising a first reservoir (12) and a second reservoir (22), arranged on either side of least one jet ejection nozzle (30, 30.sub.1-30.sub.n) to which they are connected, and a first actuator (16, 16.sub.1-16.sub.n) for applying a 1.sup.st pressure to the ink of the, or coming from the, 1.sup.st reservoir, and a second actuator (26, 26.sub.1-26.sub.n) for applying a 2.sup.nd pressure to the ink of the, or coming from the, 2.sup.nd reservoir, and a controller for controlling these first and second actuators, said controller being programmed to apply a variable difference between these 2 pressures.

The present invention addresses the problem of enabling a charge control-type inkjet printer to enable real-time control during an operation and to maintain optimal printing conditions while operating. This charge control-type inkjet printer is provided with: a printing head including a nozzle unit for discharging ink; a pressure reduction valve for adjusting the pressure of the ink to be supplied to the nozzle unit of the printing head; and an ink container for accommodating the ink to be supplied to the nozzle unit of the printing head, wherein an imaging unit is further provided which images an image of ink that is discharged from the nozzle unit and is in a particulate state.

A device for measuring the level in a reservoir of an inkjet printer, comprising: an electrode, which has a first end and an second end, and which is covered from the first end up to an intermediate level between the first end and the second end, with an electrically insulating coating, where the electrode has capacitive behavior for a level of liquid between the first end and the intermediate level, and resistive behavior beyond this, circuit for measuring a signal which is characteristic of capacitive behavior of the device, for a liquid level between the first end and the intermediate level, and for identifying resistive behavior of the device for a level of the liquid above the intermediate level, circuit for estimating or calculating, from the characteristic signal, a height of the liquid contained in the reservoir, for a liquid level between the first end and the intermediate level.

In order to make it possible to inform as apparatus handler through a simple, means of precautions to take in handling ink of the correct ID number when an inputted ink ID number is correct, this inkjet recording apparatus is provided with a print head having; a nozzle part, an ink container that houses ink supplied to the nozzle part, information reading unit for reading information that distinguishes the type of ink accompanying an ink supply container that supplies ink to the ink container, a determination unit for determining from the read information whether the ink housed in the ink supply container is the correct ink, a storage unit for storing ink-related information in correlation with the ink-type-distinguishing information, a stored-information extraction unit for extracting from the storage unit the ink-related information corresponding to the ink-type-distinguishing information read by the information reading unit when the ink is determined to be correct by the determination unit, and a display unit for displaying the ink-related information extracted toy the stored-information extraction unit on a screen.

A drop-on-demand printing method comprising performing the following steps in a printing head: discharging a first primary drop (x21A) of a first liquid to move along a first path; discharging a second primary drop (x21B) of a second liquid to move along a second path; controlling the flight of the first primary drop (x21A) and the second primary drop (x21B) to combine the first primary drop with the second primary drop into a combined drop (x22) at a connection point (x32) within a reaction chamber within the printing head so that a chemical reaction is initiated within a controlled environment of the reaction chamber between the first liquid of the first primary drop and the second liquid of the second primary drop; and controlling the flight of the combined drop (x22) at least by means of a stream of gas (x71A, x71B).

A drop-on-demand printing method comprising performing the following steps in a printing head: discharging a first primary drop (x21A) of a first liquid to move along a first path; discharging a second primary drop (x21B) of a second liquid to move along a second path; controlling the flight of the first primary drop (x21A) and the second primary drop (x21B) to combine the first primary drop with the second primary drop into a combined drop (x22) at a connection point (x32) within a reaction chamber within the printing head so that a chemical reaction is initiated within a controlled environment of the reaction chamber between the first liquid of the first primary drop and the second liquid of the second primary drop; and controlling the flight of the combined drop (x22) at least by means of a stream of gas (x71A, x71B).

An inkjet printhead assembly includes a repositionable shutter mechanism adapted to block a slot through which drops of ink ejected from the array of nozzles pass before they impinge on the print medium. The shutter mechanism includes a repositionable shutter blade extending in a cross-track direction having a pivot axis passing through first and second tabs affixed to its ends. A first slide mechanism component is pivotably attached to an end of an actuator rod, and a second slide mechanism component is rigidly attached to the repositionable shutter blade. An actuator is configured to translate the actuator rod, thereby pivoting the repositionable shutter blade about the pivot axis between a first pivot position where the shutter blade blocks the slot and a second pivot position where the shutter blade is moved away from the slot so that drops of ink can pass through the slot.

An inkjet printhead assembly includes a repositionable shutter mechanism adapted to block a slot through which drops of ink ejected from the array of nozzles pass before they impinge on the print medium. The shutter mechanism includes a repositionable shutter blade extending in a cross-track direction having a pivot axis passing through first and second tabs affixed to its ends. A first slide mechanism component is pivotably attached to an end of an actuator rod, and a second slide mechanism component is rigidly attached to the repositionable shutter blade. An actuator is configured to translate the actuator rod, thereby pivoting the repositionable shutter blade about the pivot axis between a first pivot position where the shutter blade blocks the slot and a second pivot position where the shutter blade is moved away from the slot so that drops of ink can pass through the slot.

An inkjet printhead assembly includes a repositionable shutter mechanism adapted to block a slot through which drops of ink ejected from the array of nozzles pass before they impinge on the print medium. The shutter mechanism includes an actuator rod having a first actuation feature, and a repositionable shutter blade extending in a cross-track direction having first and second tabs affixed to its ends. The first tab includes a second actuation feature that engages with the first actuation feature of the actuator rod. An actuator is configured to translate the actuator rod, thereby pivoting the repositionable shutter blade about the pivot axis between a first pivot position where the shutter blade blocks the slot and a second pivot position where the shutter blade is moved away from the slot so that drops of ink can pass through the slot.