A method and system include controlling, by a control unit, a printer to form one or more tactile features on a surface of a component. Said controlling includes varying a speed of a print head of the printer to vary one or more attributes of the one or more tactile features. In at least one example, said varying the speed includes varying the speed of the print head of the printer during a single pass of the print head in relation to the surface of the component.

A high precision printing method taking into consideration the variance in the thickness of a printing target. An ink-jet printing method, including: (i) measuring a distance between a printing target and at least one nozzle; (ii) measuring a flying speed and a flying angle of an ink(a) discharged from the at least one nozzle; (iii) printing a test substrate with an ink to identify a location on which an ink(b) is spotted, and calculating a thickness-related displacement that is a displacement from the location on which the ink is spotted, based on a thickness difference between the printing target and the test substrate from results obtained in Step (i), and the flying speed and the flying angle of the ink(a) obtained in Step (ii); and (iv) discharging an ink(c) from the at least one nozzle to achieve actual printing of the printing target with the ink(c) while correcting the thickness-related displacement.

A printing apparatus includes an ejecting head that ejects ink droplets onto a surface of a printing medium (paper roll), a carriage on which the ejecting head is mounted, a platen that faces the ejecting head and supports the printing medium, a detector plate provided in the carriage and is displaced in accordance with an external force applied in response to contact with the printing medium, and an encoder that measures a displacement amount of the detector plate and outputs an output value corresponding to the displacement amount.

A liquid ejection apparatus to eject liquid droplets includes an inkjet head that is an ejection head including a plurality of nozzles and a plurality of driving elements, a driving signal outputter, an ejection nozzle setter, and a timing setter to set timing at which the driving elements receive a driving signal. The driving signal outputter outputs, in common, a voltage change signal being a signal whose voltage changes with passage of time, as at least a part of the driving signal, to the plurality of nozzles. The timing setter individually sets, for each of the driving elements, a time period during which the driving elements receive the voltage change signal. The nozzles respectively eject liquid droplets by inkjet technology according to the driving signal in which the time period to receive the voltage change signal is individually set.

To more appropriately carry out printing at high precision even when a gap distance is large. A printing apparatus includes an inkjet head, a main scan driver, and a controller, where the controller sets a moving speed of the inkjet head according to a gap distance, and sets the moving speed in a main scanning operation so that an entering angle at a time of landing of the ink droplet on a medium becomes smaller than or equal to 45 degrees with respect to at least a position where the gap distance becomes the largest in a region of the medium to become a target of the main scanning operation.

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.

To more appropriately carry out printing at high precision even when a gap distance is large. A printing apparatus includes an inkjet head, a main scan driver, and a controller, where the controller sets a moving speed of the inkjet head according to a gap distance, and sets the moving speed in a main scanning operation so that an entering angle at a time of landing of the ink droplet on a medium becomes smaller than or equal to 45 degrees with respect to at least a position where the gap distance becomes the largest in a region of the medium to become a target of the main scanning operation.

An inkjet printer includes a carriage motor that moves a carriage, a carriage driving part that drives the carriage motor, a control value calculating part that calculates a total control value (Wt) composed with a control value for a feedback control and a control value for a feedforward control, which are respectfully referred as a feedback control value (Wb) and a feedforward control value (Wf), and an abnormality judging part that judges whether an abnormality has occurred to the carriage movement based on whether a proportional component (Wp) of the feedback control value has exceeded a threshold value.

To more appropriately carry out printing at high precision even when a gap distance is large. A printing apparatus includes an inkjet head, a main scan driver, and a controller, where the controller sets a moving speed of the inkjet head according to a gap distance, and sets the moving speed in a main scanning operation so that an entering angle at a time of landing of the ink droplet on a medium becomes smaller than or equal to 45 degrees with respect to at least a position where the gap distance becomes the largest in a region of the medium to become a target of the main scanning operation.

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.