A droplet ejection apparatus including a droplet deposition head, actuating circuitry and head controller circuitry. The droplet deposition head having an array of actuating elements and a corresponding array of nozzles. The actuating circuitry applies drive waveforms to the actuating elements causing the ejection of fluid in the form of droplets through the array of nozzles and onto deposition media, which are moved relative to the droplet deposition head. The head controller circuitry is configured to receive an input set of ejection data, generate a series of sub-sets of ejection data based on the input set, and send the series of sub-sets of ejection data to the actuating circuitry. The actuating circuitry is further configured so as to, for each sub-set of ejection data, apply drive waveforms to the actuating elements such that they repeatedly eject droplets from one or more nozzles, thus depositing successive rows of droplets. The one or more nozzles and the sizes of the droplets ejected therefrom are determined by the current sub-set of ejection data. Each of the one or more nozzles ejecting droplets with a substantially constant frequency of 1/T. The apparatus is further configured to receive deposition media speed data, which indicates the current speed of relative movement of the head with respect to the deposition media. The apparatus is further configured such that the head switches from ejecting droplets in accordance with a current sub-set of ejection data to ejecting droplets in accordance with a consecutive sub-set of ejection data in the series at a time determined in accordance with the media speed data, with the time interval between starting ejecting droplets in accordance with successive sub-sets of ejection data varying inversely with the current speed of relative movement of the droplet deposition head.

A printing system for printing images formed of pixels on a substrate, the system comprising a print system arranged where print-heads traverse a substrate, the print system arranged to receive a sequence of print actuation requests in order to print each pixel of an image upon the substrate, the print system having an acceptable rate for the sequence of print actuation requests, the system configured whereby if presented with an actuation period of less than the minimum actuation period then the presented rate of print actuation requests is adjusted by altering the actuation event and/or the discarding of stripe data, to minimise print defects.

Provided are a position detection device, a printing apparatus equipped with the position detection device and a position detection method which make it possible to set an original point on a deviation-free appropriate position with no need of highly accurate adjustment of built-in positions of a linear encoder and an original point sensor. In a case where a point that low-to-high switching of an output from a scale sensor is detected is set as a light transmission timing, a point that high-to-low switching of the output is detected is set as a light shielding timing and an output change point that an original point sensor detects is set as a detection timing, in a duration time D1 which lasts from the detection timing to a first light transmission timing which is the closest to the detection timing and a duration time D2 which lasts from the detection timing to a first light shielding timing which is the closest to the detection timing, when the duration time D1>the duration time D2, a position of a moving body which is obtained at a second light transmission timing is set as an original point and when the duration time D1<the duration time D2, the position of the moving body which is obtained at a second light shielding timing (the first light shielding timing) is set as the original point.

An inkjet printing apparatus includes a printhead in which a plurality of ejection ports that eject ink are formed, a carriage mounted with the printhead and reciprocated in a predetermined direction, a conveyance unit to convey a print medium, a platen to support, at a printing position, the conveyed print medium, and an obtaining unit to obtain information regarding a distance from an ejection port surface of the printhead to the print medium at positions in the predetermined direction. The apparatus controls an ink ejection timing in accordance with the information regarding the obtained distance and information corresponding to the number of passes of printing, which is the number of times of moving the carriage to print the image in a unit area of the print medium.

A droplet ejection apparatus comprising: a droplet deposition head comprising an array of actuating elements and a corresponding array of nozzles; actuating circuitry, configured to apply drive waveforms to said actuating elements, thereby causing the ejection of fluid in the form of droplets through said array of nozzles onto deposition media, which are moved relative to the head; and head controller circuitry, configured to: receive an input set of ejection data; generate a series of sub-sets of ejection data based on the input set; and send said series of sub-sets of ejection data to said actuating circuitry; wherein the actuating circuitry is further configured so as to, for each sub-set of ejection data, apply drive waveforms to said actuating elements such that they repeatedly eject droplets from one or more nozzles, thus depositing successive rows of droplets, the one or more nozzles and the sizes of the droplets ejected therefrom being determined by the current sub-set of ejection data, each of the one or more nozzles ejecting droplets with a substantially constant frequency of 1/T; wherein the apparatus is configured to receive deposition media speed data, which indicates the current speed of relative movement of the head with respect to the deposition media; and wherein the apparatus is configured such that the head switches from ejecting droplets in accordance with a current sub-set of ejection data to ejecting droplets in accordance with a consecutive sub-set of ejection data in the series at a time determined in accordance with said media speed data, with the time interval between starting ejecting droplets in accordance with successive sub-sets of ejection data varying inversely with the current speed of relative movement of the head.

A controller for operating a print head is described, which controller is designed to shift the activation points in time of the print head for printing of different lines of a print image on a recording medium relative to the line signal points in time, said line signal points in time being dependent on the transport velocity of the recording medium, such that the print head is operated with quantized operating frequencies from a set of predefined quantized operating frequencies. The print quality of the print head may thus be increased.

Described herein are bioprinters comprising: one or more printer heads, wherein a printer head comprises a means for receiving and holding at least one cartridge, and wherein said cartridge comprises contents selected from one or more of: bio-ink and support material; a means for calibrating the position of at least one cartridge; and a means for dispensing the contents of at least one cartridge. Further described herein are methods for fabricating a tissue construct, comprising: a computer module receiving input of a visual representation of a desired tissue construct; a computer module generating a series of commands, wherein the commands are based on the visual representation and are readable by a bioprinter; a computer module providing the series of commands to a bioprinter; and the bioprinter depositing bio-ink and support material according to the commands to form a construct with a defined geometry.

A liquid ejecting head of a side shooter type includes a plate including a plurality of nozzles arranged along a first direction and an actuator with a plurality of pressure chambers arranged along the first direction. Each pressure chamber communicates with a corresponding one of the nozzles. The actuator further includes dummy chambers, each of which is between two otherwise adjacent pressure chambers. Common chambers are provided in the actuator. The pressure and dummy chambers are arranged between the common chambers. The end portions of the pressure chambers are connected to a common chamber. The width of the end portions of each of the pressure chambers is less than the width of a portion of the pressure chamber between the end portions.

There is provided an image recording apparatus including: a head; a driving element; a controller configured to output, to the driving element, a driving signal having a first voltage level or a second voltage level greater than the first voltage level; and a moving mechanism causing one of the recording medium and the head to move relative to the other of the recording medium and the head. The controller sets the voltage level of the driving signal to be the first voltage level in a case that the controller causes the head to move relative to the recording medium at the first velocity; and the controller sets the voltage level of the driving signal to be the second voltage level in a case that the controller causes the head to move relative to the recording medium at the second velocity.

An ink-jet recording apparatus, including: a recording head including a first nozzle communicating with a first chamber storing a first ink and a second nozzle communicating with a second chamber storing a second ink whose viscosity change rate differs from the first ink; and a controller configured to determine a drive voltage to be a first voltage and determine voltage application timings for the respective first and second nozzles to be a first timing when estimated viscosity of the first ink is lower than a first viscosity and to determine the drive voltage to be a second voltage higher than the first voltage, determine the voltage application timing for the first nozzle to be the first timing, and determine the voltage application timing for the second nozzle to be a second timing different from the first timing when the estimated viscosity is equal to or higher than the first viscosity.