An inkjet print head includes an ejection unit having a liquid chamber for holding an amount of liquid, a electromechanical transducer operatively coupled to the liquid chamber for generating a pressure wave in the amount of liquid and a nozzle in fluid communication with the liquid chamber for enabling a droplet of the amount of liquid to be ejected through the nozzle. A method for detecting an operating state of the ejection unit includes the consecutive steps of actuating the electromechanical transducer to generate a pressure wave in the liquid; actuating the electromechanical transducer to suppress a residual pressure wave in the liquid; sensing an amplitude of the residual pressure wave in the liquid; and based on the result of the sensing step determining that the ejection unit is (i) in an operative state if the amplitude of the residual pressure wave is below a threshold or (ii) in a malfunctioning state if the amplitude of the residual pressure wave is above the threshold.

A pattern formation device, a liquid ejection device, and an electrical fault detection method capable of detecting electrical fault of a liquid ejection head on the basis of an analysis result of an electrical fault detection pattern are provided. An electrical fault detection pattern having an arrangement of dot arrays satisfying an arrangement condition with an arrangement of a plurality of ejection elements in a liquid ejection head is formed by ejecting liquid from a liquid ejection head in which M rows of ejection element groups in which a plurality of ejection elements are arranged in a first direction are arranged in a second direction intersecting the first direction, and M is an integer equal to or greater than 2.

Forming functional layers including functional material in application regions by applying ink to the application regions then drying the ink, which contains the functional material, by causing nozzles to be scanned relative to the substrate along the row direction while, among the nozzles, only use-nozzles that are not selected as a defective nozzle eject the ink, the nozzles being arranged in the column direction over the substrate and including a nozzle selected in advance as a defective nozzle. Among the nozzles, when applying the ink, at least one reserve nozzle is present, a reserve nozzle being a nozzle that is not one of the use-nozzles, is not selected as the defective nozzle, passes over the application region, and does not eject the ink.

An image forming apparatus includes: an ink-jet head including a storage that stores phase transition ink, the ink jet head forms an image on a recording medium by ejecting the phase transition ink; and one or more hardware processors. The one or more hardware processors change a driving condition of the ink jet head for a case of ejecting the phase transition ink on a basis of a first reading result of a pattern image formed by the ink-jet head; estimate occurrence of a state change of the phase transition ink in the storage when the driving condition that is changed satisfies a predetermined condition; and determine whether a lifetime of the ink jet head is over in accordance with whether the occurrence of the state change is estimated.

A liquid ejection device includes a head driving unit that generates a first driving voltage and a second driving voltage in which whether or not there is ejection of liquid from a first ejection element in a case where the first driving voltage alone is applied to the first ejection element that is a detection target of a short circuit between ejection elements is different from whether or not there is ejection of liquid from the first ejection element in a case where the first driving voltage and the second driving voltage are applied to the first ejection element, supplies the first driving voltage to the first ejection element, and supplies the second driving voltage to the second ejection element suspected of a short circuit with the first ejection element.

A fluidic die includes fluid chambers, each including an electrode exposed to an interior of the fluid chamber and each having a corresponding fluid actuator operating at a high voltage. The fluidic die further includes monitoring circuitry, operating at a low voltage relative to the fluid actuator, to monitor a condition of each fluid chamber, for each chamber the monitoring circuitry including a connection structure and a select transistor and a pulldown transistor connected to the electrode via the connection structure. The connection structure and select and pulldown transistors together structured to form electrically conductive paths with electrical resistances to protect at least the select transistor from fault damage if the high voltage fluid actuator short-circuits to the electrode.

A control circuit includes a memory interface and a power interface. The control circuit is configured to: read out identifiers and voltage values from a memory via the memory interface, the memory storing the identifiers and the voltage values associated with the identifiers, the identifiers identifying actuators for jetting liquid, the voltage values corresponding to values of voltages to be supplied to the actuators; based on the voltage values, associate each of the identifiers with one of power circuits; detect whether failure occurs in any of the power circuits via the power interface communicated with the power circuits each changeable in output voltage; and based on detection of the failure occurring in any power circuits, associate specified identifiers with a non-failure power circuit in which the failure does not occur, the specified identifiers associated with a failure power circuit in which the failure is detected.

A image forming apparatus includes: a device that detects abnormality of an image caused by abnormality of a nozzle in an inkjet head and a correcting device that performs correction by making a part of a plurality of nozzles non-ejectable based on a detection result of the abnormality and by compensating for it by another nozzle. The correcting device includes a plural non-ejection correcting device that performs correction by making two or more nozzles non-ejectable with respect to one abnormal nozzle and a single non-ejection correcting device that performs correction by making one abnormal nozzle non-ejectable with respect to the one abnormal nozzle. After a plural non-ejection correction is performed by making a nozzle group belonging to a nozzle range of a region including abnormality and including an abnormal nozzle non-ejectable, a single non-ejection correction is performed by making the abnormal nozzle non-ejectable.

In order to solve a problem that the skew width of a clock when data is transmitted to printheads changes depending on the characteristics of and variations in the respective printheads integrated in a printing apparatus or the operation mode of the printing apparatus, in embodiments of the present invention, clock skew is adjusted based on a detection result by an error detection circuit integrated in each printhead when the data is transmitted to the printhead. This makes it possible to adjust skew in accordance with the characteristics of the respective printheads or a status change at the time of a printing operation.

A droplet ejection apparatus includes, a droplet ejection head, wherein the droplet ejection head includes a nozzle communicated with a pressure chamber, a first piezoelectric element configured to pressure liquid in the pressure chamber so as to cause a droplet to be ejected, and a second piezoelectric element capable of pressuring the liquid in the pressure chamber, a first drive waveform generation unit configured to generate a first drive waveform to be applied to the first piezoelectric element, a second drive waveform generation unit configured to generate a second drive waveform to be applied to the second piezoelectric element, and a control unit configured to apply the second drive waveform to the second piezoelectric element after the first piezoelectric element is driven due to the applied first drive waveform. Residual vibration of the liquid in the pressure chamber is suppressed by a vibration caused by the second piezoelectric element.