The time required for cleaning an inkjet head is shortened. A printing device can clean an inkjet head by a first cleaning method that simultaneously suctions ink from the plural heads H of the inkjet head, or a second cleaning method that suctions ink from plural heads H of the inkjet head one by one, and the control unit sets the method of cleaning the inkjet head to either the first cleaning method or the second cleaning method.

There is provided a liquid discharge apparatus including: a liquid discharge head which includes a channel structure provided with a nozzle and a liquid channel, a driving element, and a driving unit; a light emitting part; a liquid receiving part receiving light passed through or reflected by the meniscus; and a controller. The controller controls the driving unit to apply at least one of several kinds of meniscus driving signals to the driving element in a state that the light emitting part emits the light to the nozzle, thereby vibrating the meniscus in the nozzle, and is configured to determine a recovery operation from among several kinds of recovery operations which have mutually different liquid discharge amounts to be discharged from the nozzle, on the basis of an amount of light which is received by the light receiving part in the case of vibrating the meniscus of the liquid.

A liquid ejection apparatus comprises a liquid ejection head, a nozzle cap, and a suction pump. The liquid ejection head includes first nozzles, second nozzles, and an ejection surface in which the first nozzles and the second nozzles are formed. The nozzle cap includes a first cap section for covering the first nozzles, a second cap section for covering the second nozzles, a communication section connected with the first cap section and the second cap section, a suction port for being connected with the suction pump, and an atmosphere communication port for communication with atmosphere. At least one of the suction port and the atmosphere communication port is provided at non-connection end portions which are end portions in the one direction of the first cap section and the second cap section and are not connected with the communication section.

Provided are a head maintenance system, a printing system, and a head maintenance method with which preferable washing of a nozzle surface can be realized and a damage to the nozzle surface can be suppressed. The head maintenance system includes: a wiping device (3) including a wiping sheet (10) for wiping a nozzle surface (52) of an ink jet head (50); a relative movement device (2, 3) that relatively moves the ink jet head and the wiping sheet; and a pressing device (18, 56) that presses the wiping sheet against the nozzle surface, in which the wiping device includes the wiping sheet having a value of linearity of compression in a range of 0.3 or more and less than 0.6, the linearity of compression being measured using a compression tester.

In an embodiment, a method of maintaining nozzles in a print-ready condition includes determining image content to be printed in an upcoming print swath, and for each ink color present within the image content, constructing an inked portion of an associated spit bar adjacent to the upcoming print swath to include the present ink color. For each ink color not present within the image content, an empty portion of an associated spit bar is constructed adjacent to the upcoming print swath.

A printer is configured to continue printing during maintenance of at least one printhead in the printer. The printer includes a plurality of printheads that each eject drops that overlap with adjacent drops ejected by another printhead. At least one printhead is selected for maintenance, moved to a position for performance of a maintenance operation, and returned to the position from which it was originally moved, while the remaining printheads continue to eject drops. The newly serviced printhead is returned to the position from which it was originally moved.

An inkjet printing apparatus includes a transport speed detector for detecting transport speed of a printing medium, an inkjet head having a plurality of discharge portions for discharging ink droplets from the discharge portions for printing, and a flushing controller for carrying out discrete flushing from the discharge portions. For an acceleration area of the printing medium where the transport speed detector detects an increase in transport speed before printing, a first discharge rate is set as discharge rate of the ink droplets per unit time for the discharge flushing. For a constant speed area of the printing medium where the transport speed detector detects a substantially constant transport speed during printing, a second discharge rate lower than the first discharge rate is set as discharge rate of the ink droplets per unit time for the discharge flushing.

Examples include a method for operating a printing device comprising a specific pen. The method comprises receiving future specific pen firing data related to a plurality of upcoming successive print jobs and collecting historical specific pen firing data. The method further comprises determining a level and timing of servicing of the specific pen in function of both of the received future specific pen firing data and of the collected historical specific pen firing data.

A method of identifying inoperable ejectors in a printhead includes operating a plurality of ejectors in the printhead to form a printed test pattern on an image receiving surface while the printhead and image receiving surface remain stationary. The method also includes generating image data of the printed test pattern, identifying rows of marks in the printed test pattern, and identifying an inoperable ejector in the printhead that corresponds to a missing mark in one row of marks that corresponds to one ejector in a row of ejectors in the printhead.

A print strategy periodically inserts sacrificial print media, such as a small number of sacrificial sheets of paper into a print job to exercise underused print head jets and prevent nozzle dry-up and/or degraded jetting integrity. This can be implemented with sacrificial sheets out of a tray used by a current print job or from another paper tray housing, for example, the widest stock currently installed in the image forming device. Jets that need to be exercised can be determined by using Feed-Forward image content from the Image Path, and those jets are exercised to print ink on the sacrificial sheet(s). The sacrificial sheet may be diverted to a bypass tray as scrap. Without the need for a purge cycle, or a cycle-down, the image forming device can continue seamlessly to the next print job without performance loss from using the previously under-used print head jets.