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.

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.

An ejection apparatus includes an ejection head configured to eject a droplet from an ejection port on an ejection port surface, a droplet detection unit configured to detect arrival of the droplet ejected from the ejection port at a predetermined position, an acquisition unit configured to acquire information about an ejection speed that is a moving speed of the droplet detected by the droplet detection unit, and a determination unit configured to determine subsequent timings for acquiring an ejection speed by the acquisition unit, based on the ejection speed acquired by the acquisition unit at a preceding timing of the subsequent timings.

A liquid discharge apparatus includes a liquid discharge unit, a position detector, and circuitry. The liquid discharge unit has a liquid discharge port and discharges a liquid from the liquid discharge port toward an object. The position detector detects a position of the liquid discharge unit relative to the object. The circuitry calculates a movement trajectory of the liquid discharge unit based on the position of the liquid discharge unit detected by the position detector. Further, the circuitry performs a first operation of causing the liquid discharge unit to move along the movement trajectory without discharging the liquid and performs a second operation of causing the liquid discharge unit to move along the movement trajectory while discharging the liquid to the object after the first operation.

There is provided a liquid discharge apparatus including: a liquid discharge head; a relative movement mechanism performing relative movement between the liquid discharge head and a medium; a velocity signal output circuit; and a controller performing a constant velocity discharge operation and an acceleration/deceleration discharge operation. In the constant velocity discharge operation, the controller determines a discharge timing based on information about a representative value of relative velocity obtained based on a plurality of pieces of preceding velocity information. Further, in the acceleration/deceleration discharge operation, the controller obtains approximate information in which a change in the relative velocity is approximated based on distribution of the relative velocity, and the controller determines a discharge timing based on the approximate information.

A printing system for printing images formed of pixels on a substrate, the system comprising a print system arranged where printheads traverse a substrate, the print system arranged to receive a sequence of print actuation requests in order to print each pixel of an image upon the substrate, the print system having an acceptable rate for the sequence of print actuation requests, the system configured whereby if presented with an actuation period of less than the minimum actuation period then the presented rate of print actuation requests is adjusted by altering the actuation event and/or the discarding of stripe data, to minimise print defects.

A droplet ejection apparatus including a droplet deposition head, actuating circuitry and head controller circuitry. The droplet deposition head having an array of actuating elements and a corresponding array of nozzles. The actuating circuitry applies drive waveforms to the actuating elements causing the ejection of fluid in the form of droplets through the array of nozzles and onto deposition media, which are moved relative to the droplet deposition head. The head controller circuitry is configured to receive an input set of ejection data, generate a series of sub-sets of ejection data based on the input set, and send the series of sub-sets of ejection data to the actuating circuitry. The actuating circuitry is further configured so as to, for each sub-set of ejection data, apply drive waveforms to the actuating elements such that they repeatedly eject droplets from one or more nozzles, thus depositing successive rows of droplets. The one or more nozzles and the sizes of the droplets ejected therefrom are determined by the current sub-set of ejection data. Each of the one or more nozzles ejecting droplets with a substantially constant frequency of 1/T. The apparatus is further configured to receive deposition media speed data, which indicates the current speed of relative movement of the head with respect to the deposition media. The apparatus is further configured such that the head switches from ejecting droplets in accordance with a current sub-set of ejection data to ejecting droplets in accordance with a consecutive sub-set of ejection data in the series at a time determined in accordance with the media speed data, with the time interval between starting ejecting droplets in accordance with successive sub-sets of ejection data varying inversely with the current speed of relative movement of the droplet deposition head.

A liquid discharge apparatus includes a substrate stage configured to move while holding a substrate, a discharge unit including nozzles for discharging a liquid, a control unit configured to control the discharge unit to discharge the liquid from the discharge unit, and a position acquisition unit configured to acquire a position of a movement target object at a predetermined timing while the substrate stage or the discharge unit is moved as the movement target object. The control unit controls a discharge timing for discharging the liquid from the discharge unit, based on a difference between the position of the movement target object acquired by the position acquisition unit at the predetermined timing and a target position of the movement target object at the predetermined timing.

It is possible to perform formation of a first pattern, a second pattern, a third pattern and a fourth pattern, a control unit is configured to execute first control and second control or first control and third control, the first control of forming a first patch in which the first and third patterns are disposed without performing conveyance operation, the second control of forming a second patch in which the first and second patterns are disposed and a third patch in which the third and fourth patterns are disposed and the third control of forming a fourth patch in which the first and fourth patterns are disposed and a fifth patch in which the second and third patterns are disposed.

A liquid ejecting head of a side shooter type includes a plate including a plurality of nozzles arranged along a first direction and an actuator with a plurality of pressure chambers arranged along the first direction. Each pressure chamber communicates with a corresponding one of the nozzles. The actuator further includes dummy chambers, each of which is between two otherwise adjacent pressure chambers. Common chambers are provided in the actuator. The pressure and dummy chambers are arranged between the common chambers. The end portions of the pressure chambers are connected to a common chamber. The width of the end portions of each of the pressure chambers is less than the width of a portion of the pressure chamber between the end portions.