A liquid discharge apparatus includes: a head including a pressure chamber and a nozzle, the head configured to discharge a liquid in the pressure chamber from the nozzle; circuitry configured to generate a drive waveform including multiple drive pulses to be applied to the head, the drive waveform successively including, in time series: a non-discharge pulse that does not cause the head to discharge the liquid from the nozzle; a latter discharge pulse after the non-discharge pulse, the latter discharge pulse including a contraction waveform element that contracts the pressure chamber to discharge the liquid from the nozzle; and a contraction waveform including the contraction waveform element that contracts the pressure chamber.

A system includes a print head including multiple nozzles formed in a bottom surface of the print head. The nozzles are configured to eject a liquid onto a substrate. The system includes a gas flow module configured to provide a flow of gas through a gap between the bottom surface of the print head and the substrate. The gas flow module can include one or more gas nozzles configured to inject gas into the gap. The gas flow module can be configured to apply a suction to the gap.

A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a liquid ejecting portion which has a nozzle that ejects liquid, and a flushing receptive body which receives the liquid that is ejected in a flushing operation in which the liquid is ejected from the nozzle, the flushing receptive body including a receiving member that is able to receive the liquid, a receiving member holding portion which holds the receiving member, and a fixing member with conductivity that fixes the receiving member to the receiving member holding portion by contacting the receiving member and has a mesh form portion that forms an adhesion surface to which the ejected liquid is adhered with the receiving member in the flushing operation, in which the fixing member is electrically grounded.

A waveform selecting process includes selecting one of a plurality of kinds of driving waveforms for each of a plurality of dot elements, based on a density value set to each of the plurality of dot elements in image data. The waveform selecting process includes, for a dot element array of each of the plurality of ejection ports: determining whether a dot element corresponding to a target dot has a second density value and determining whether a subsequent dot element corresponding to a subsequent dot has a first density value and, when both determinations are positive, setting the dot element corresponding to the target dot as a correction-target dot element, the subsequent dot being subsequent to the target dot in the formation order; and selecting one of a first driving waveform and a second driving waveform as a driving waveform of a correction-target dot element.

A liquid ejecting apparatus comprises a liquid ejecting head having a drive element that is driven in accordance with a drive signal to eject liquid droplets from a nozzle. The drive signal comprises a first drive waveform including a first contraction waveform to eject a first liquid droplet and a second drive waveform including a second contraction waveform to eject a second liquid droplet which merges with the first liquid droplet before the first liquid droplet lands onto a medium. The first contraction waveform includes a first segment waveform along which the potential changes, a second segment waveform along which the potential is kept, and a third segment waveform along which the potential changes. The second contraction waveform includes a fourth segment waveform along which the potential changes, a fifth segment waveform along which the potential is kept, and a sixth segment waveform along which the potential changes.

An automated system and method to reduce satellites when using multi-ejection waveforms by ejecting single, fewer, and/or different sized ejection drops at the trailing edge of text and lines modifies ejection waveforms to minimize droplet satellites. The system includes a printer that may eject single, fewer, and/or different sized ejection drops at the trailing edge of text and lines to reduce the satellites trailing from these features. The approach can be used in both a binary printing mode (e.g., single drop size per pixel) and a greyscale printing mode (e.g., multiple drop sizes per pixel). Further, the printer may be a 2D or 3D printer within the inkjet technology.

Methods of ejecting droplets containing a non-Newtonian fluid by an acoustic droplet ejector can include applying a tone burst of focused acoustic energy to a fluid reservoir containing a non-Newtonian fluid at sufficient amplitude to effect droplet ejection according to a tone burst pattern. The tone burst pattern may include three discrete tone burst segments, the first tone burst segment having greater duration than the second and third segments, and third segment having greater duration than the second segment. The exact durations and amplitudes of the tone burst segments can be tuned to influence the ejection properties.

A method of ink jet printing using an ink jet imaging device including a plurality of nozzles arranged for expelling droplets of an ink by actuation of an ink channel includes the steps of: a) providing a bit map of a spit pattern comprising an arrangement of refresh dots to be printed by each of the plurality of nozzles; and d) printing the bitmap of the spit pattern. The spit pattern includes a plurality of clusters of refresh dots, each cluster including at least two sequential refresh dots expelled from a single nozzle. A spit pattern for use in such a method is disclosed.

Methods of ejecting droplets containing a non-Newtonian fluid by an acoustic droplet ejector can include applying a tone burst of focused acoustic energy to a fluid reservoir containing a non-Newtonian fluid at sufficient amplitude to effect droplet ejection according to a tone burst pattern. The tone burst pattern may include three discrete tone burst segments, the first tone burst segment having greater duration than the second and third segments, and third segment having greater duration than the second segment. The exact durations and amplitudes of the tone burst segments can be tuned to influence the ejection properties.

A liquid ejection head includes a nozzle, a pressure chamber that is capable of storing liquid and communicates with the nozzle, a volume of the chamber being variable to eject the liquid from the nozzle, an actuator configured to vary the volume in response to a drive signal, and a drive circuit configured to generate the signal. The chamber has one of states including a steady state in which the volume is unchanged, an expanded state in which the volume is expanded, a first contracted state in which the volume is contracted, and a second contracted state in which the volume is further contracted. The drive signal comprises a first waveform for transitioning from the steady state to the first contracted state, a second waveform for transitioning from the first to second contracted states, and a third waveform for transitioning from the second contracted state to the steady state.