According to one embodiment, a liquid ejection head includes a pressure chamber that contains a liquid, an actuator to change the pressure in the pressure chamber according to an applied drive signal, and a drive circuit to apply a first drive signal to the actuator when a single droplet is to be ejected from the pressure chamber and a second drive signal to the actuator when two or more droplets are to be ejected in series from the pressure chamber. The first drive signal has a first auxiliary pulse before a first ejection pulse. The second drive signal has a second auxiliary pulse before the first ejection pulse. A pulse width of the first auxiliary pulse is greater than a pulse width of the second auxiliary pulse.

A head unit includes a plurality of ejection portions that include a first ejection portion and a second ejection portion, a determination portion that determines a liquid ejection state of the first ejection portion and determines a liquid ejection state of the second ejection portion, and a storage portion that includes a first storage region storing first determination information indicating a determination result for the first ejection portion from the determination portion, and a second storage region storing second determination information indicating a determination result for the second ejection portion from the determination portion.

A head unit control device that controls a head unit including a plurality of ejection portions that includes a first ejection portion and a second ejection portion and a determination portion that determines a liquid ejection state of the first and second ejection portion, and includes a reception portion that receives, as one data set, determination result information including first determination information indicating a determination result of the liquid ejection state of the first ejection portion from the determination portion and second determination information indicating a determination result of the liquid ejection state of the second ejection portion from the determination portion, and ejection portion information including information indicating the number of the plurality of ejection portions included in the head unit, from the head unit, and an ejection control portion that controls the plurality of ejection portions based on the one data set received by the reception portion.

A print head includes: an integrated circuit apparatus that switches whether or not to supply drive signals to a plurality of piezoelectric elements, and includes a first circuit block that switches whether or not to supply the drive signal, a second circuit block that switches whether or not to supply the drive signal, a third circuit block that switches whether or not to supply the drive signal, a fourth circuit block, and a first buffer area, a second buffer area, and a third buffer area in which no circuit element is located, in which the first buffer area is located between the first circuit block and the fourth circuit block, the second buffer area is located between the second circuit block and the fourth circuit block, and the third buffer area is located between the third circuit block and the fourth circuit block.

There is provided head including: nozzle configured to discharge liquid by energy generating element; signal generator configured to generate, based on first and second data representing first and second driving waveform, time division multiplex signal including first and second portions of the first driving waveform, and third and fourth portions of the second driving waveform; and separator configured to separate first or second driving waveform signal representing the first or second driving waveform from the time division multiplex signal. The energy generating element is configured to be driven by the first or second driving waveform signal. In the time division multiplex signal, the third portion is aligned between the first and second portions and the second portion is aligned between the third and fourth portions. The time division multiplex signal is capable of transmitting the first and second data via single signal line.

Provided is a liquid discharging apparatus including a drive signal output circuit outputting a drive signal that displaces between a first potential and a second potential, and a discharging portion including a piezoelectric element that is driven based on the drive signal and discharging liquid, in which the drive signal output circuit includes a modulation circuit that outputs a modulation signal obtained by modulating a base drive signal that is a base of the drive signal, an amplification circuit that outputs an amplified modulation signal obtained by amplifying the modulation signal, and a demodulation circuit that includes a capacitor and outputs the drive signal obtained by demodulating the amplified modulation signal, the first potential is 25 V or higher, and the capacitor is a surface mounting component including a laminated portion in which a resin thin film layer and a metal thin film layer are laminated.

The present invention discharges ink from a plurality of inkjet heads and is used when performing drive whereby one droplet or a plurality of droplets are discharged onto and united on one pixel. A drive signal includes a drive waveform comprising N number (N being an integer of at least 2) of drive waveform elements and is configured so as to fulfil the relationship 1.1 Tc≤Ts≤1.4 Tc, when Tc is the natural vibration cycle determined from the inkjet head structure and Ts is the time from the start point of the drive waveform to the start point of the subsequent drive waveform. As a result, velocity deviation caused by the resonant frequency of a piezoelectric actuator driving the inkjet head can be suppressed when driving an inkjet head using multiple gradations.

A grayscale inkjet printing method including the steps of: a) supplying a pigmented inkjet ink to a grayscale print head having nozzles with an outer nozzle surface area smaller than 500 μm.sup.2 and having an acoustic resonance period ARP of not more than 5.5 μs; and b) applying a voltage wave form for ejecting pigmented inkjet ink from a nozzle of the grayscale print head within one jetting cycle; wherein the pigmented inkjet ink has a viscosity of at least 3.8 mPa.Math.s at jetting temperature and a shear rate of 1,000 s.sup.−1; wherein the voltage wave form for ejecting the largest ink droplet includes, in chronological order, a first ejecting pulse having an amplitude A1 and a second ejecting pulse having an amplitude A3 with the amplitude A1 complying with the relationship: 0.50×A3<A1<1.40×A3; and wherein a time period between the end time of the first ejecting pulse and the end time of the second ejecting pulse defines an idle time period including no other ejecting pulse, the time period having a duration between 1.5 to 2.5 times the acoustic resonance period ARP; and wherein any non-ejecting pulse having an amplitude A2 present during the idle time period complies with the relationship: A2≤0.15×A3. An inkjet printing system is also disclosed.

A jet parameter generation system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure includes a data acquisition section, and a parameter generation section for generating a predetermined jet parameter, using a predetermined analytical method of taking a predetermined input parameter as an explanatory variable and taking a predetermined jet parameter as an objective variable. The parameter generation section determines which one of a first standard for setting a voltage value with which a drop volume of the liquid to be a reference is obtained and a second standard for setting a voltage value with which an ejection speed of the liquid to be a reference is obtained is to be selected, selects a first explanatory variable group when determining to select the first standard, while selecting a second explanatory variable group when determined to select the second standard, and uses the predetermined analytical method using just selected one of the first explanatory variable group and the second explanatory variable group to thereby generate the predetermined jet parameter.

A liquid droplet discharge apparatus includes: a metallic discharge head configured to discharge a liquid droplet onto a print medium; an electrode arranged facing the discharge head; a voltage source configured to generate a potential difference between the discharge head and the electrode; a current detection part configured to detect a current flowing between the discharge head and the electrode; and a controller. The controller is configured to calculate a volume of the liquid droplet based on a current value detected by the current detection part, in a case that the liquid droplet is discharged from the discharge head in a state that the potential difference is generated between the discharge head and the electrode by the voltage source.