Various examples of systems and methods are provided for three-dimensional (3D) printing of reactive materials. In one aspect, among others, a system includes a droplet generation assembly comprising a first printhead coupled to a first reservoir of reactive material and a second printhead coupled to a second reservoir of reactive material, the first and second printheads configured to produce jets of reactive material droplets; a jet alignment assembly configured to adjust orientation of the first and second printheads to align the jets of the reactive material droplets for intersection at a collision point; and a motion control assembly configured to adjust positioning of the first and second printheads and a platform configured to position a deposition location at the collision point.

A droplet discharge apparatus includes a control device, a discharge device, and a measuring device. The control device sets conditions for a recording medium or a process using droplets. The discharge device discharges the droplets onto the recording medium. The measuring device measures landing positions of the droplets on the recording medium. The control device calculates a correction amount based on the landing positions, stores the correction amount for each of the conditions, and correct a timing at which the discharge device performs discharge with correction amounts that match the conditions, to correct the landing positions.

A method of printing an image from a printhead module having a plurality of horizontal nozzle rows. The method includes the steps of: allocating first dot data for an image line of the image to nozzles in a main row portion of a first nozzle row; allocating second dot data for the image line to nozzles in a dropped row portion of the first nozzle row; sending the first and second dot data to the printhead module and firing respective droplets. Some bits of the first dot data correspond to pixels of the image line aligned with the dropped row portion, and some bits of the second dot data correspond to pixels of the image line aligned with the main row portion.

Misalignment of printing positions is reduced in a print head that circulates an ink between a printing apparatus and the print head in a case where the misalignment is apt to change dynamically along with heat deformation. To this end, printing element substrates in the print head are adjusted to a target temperature and then a liquid is circulated through the print element substrates. After thermal expansion of the print head reaches a steady state, an amount of misalignment of printing positions in a direction of conveyance of the print head is obtained by using a test pattern printed by using printing elements. Further, a correction value for correcting the misalignment of the printing positions is set based on the obtained amount of misalignment of the printing positions.

Misalignment of printing positions between print heads associated with thermal expansion is reduced without increasing a data processing load. To this end, printing element substrates in a reference head and an adjustment target head are adjusted to a target temperature, and a liquid is circulated through the print element substrates. After thermal expansion of the reference head and the adjustment target head reaches a steady state, a first printing region being a printing region of the reference head and a second printing region being a printing region of the adjustment target head in a longitudinal direction are obtained from an image printed by using all printing elements. Then, used regions to be used for actual printing are set among the printing elements arranged on the reference head and the adjustment target head based on the first printing region and the second printing region.

A recording device includes a recording head including a first nozzle group that ejects a first ink and a second nozzle group that ejects a second ink having a color different from that of the first ink, a moving unit that relatively moves the recording head and a medium in a moving direction intersecting with a nozzle alignment direction, and a control unit. The recording head includes a first nozzle range in which a distance between the first nozzle group and the second nozzle group in the moving direction is a first distance and a second nozzle range in which the distance is a second distance greater than the first distance. In a case in which recording is performed on a medium using nozzles belonging to the second nozzle range, when recording is performed with a secondary color through ejection of the first ink and the second ink.

A liquid discharge head includes first and second groups of nozzles and first and second groups of actuators corresponding to the first and second groups of nozzles, respectively, and a head drive circuit. The head drive circuit is configured to receive a sequence of input data portions including first and second data portions, and select a setting mode between a first setting mode, in which the first group of actuators is driven based on the first input data portion and the second group of actuators is driven based on the second input data portion, and a second setting mode, in which the second group of actuators is driven based on the first input data portion and the first group of actuators is driven based on an input data portion that is after the first data portion in the sequence.

A liquid discharge device includes: a transporter to transport a recording medium in a transport direction by using a rotating body; a first detector to detect a first measure of detection indicating an amount of rotation of the rotating body; a second detector to detect a second measure of detection based on a pattern on the recording medium identified by image-capturing the recording medium, the second measure of detection indicating a position of the recording medium in the transport direction, a transport speed of the recording medium in the transport direction, or a combination of the position and the speed; a corrector to calculate a second timing by correcting a first timing based on the second measure of detection, the first timing being for discharging a liquid determined based on the first measure of detection; and a discharger to discharge the liquid to the recording medium at the second timing.

A method of generating alignment data for a printhead. The method includes the steps of: printing a calibration pattern using the printhead, the calibration pattern including rows of spaced apart fiducials, each fiducial having a plurality of concentric shapes representing a code sequence; imaging the fiducials at a first resolution to generate imaged fiducials; cross-correlating a template fiducial with the imaged fiducials at a plurality of different displacement s relative to each imaged fiducial, the template fiducial having a configuration matching the imaged fiducials; determining a two-dimensional set of cross-correlation values for each imaged fiducial, each set of cross-correlation values indicating a center of a respective fiducial; and generating alignment data for the printhead using the sets of cross-correlation values.

A head driving device includes a recording head, an input-and-output interface, and circuitry. The recording head includes a plurality of nozzles and a plurality of pressure generating elements corresponding to the plurality of nozzles. The input-and-output interface is configured to acquire correction information generated based on a chart image of a specific pattern for correcting a deviation amount of a landing position of each of the plurality of nozzles. The circuitry is configured to set the correction information acquired by the input-and-output interface and perform correction processing for correcting the deviation amount of the landing position on a driver for each of the plurality of nozzles of the recording head, in accordance with the correction information.