An inkjet head driving method includes applying a voltage signal having a combined drive waveform that includes unit drive waveforms to a pressure generator and causing a nozzle to jet ink droplets such that the droplets land on a medium as one droplet. Each unit drive waveform includes a first pulse waveform for jetting a droplet and a second pulse waveform for pulling back the jetted droplet. The first and second pulse waveforms each include an expansion part for expanding a pressure chamber and a following contraction part for contracting the chamber. The combined drive waveform includes a first unit drive waveform and a following second unit drive waveform. A voltage amplitude of the contraction part of the second pulse waveform in the second unit waveform is greater than that of the contraction part of the second pulse waveform in the first unit drive waveform.

Systems and method of maintaining a uniform temperature distribution in an inkjet head. The inkjet head includes a plurality of ink channels that jet droplets of a liquid material onto a medium using piezoelectric actuators. A temperature controller includes a non-jetting pulse generator that provides non-jetting pulses to one or more of the piezoelectric actuators to generate heat. The non-jetting pulses cause the piezoelectric actuators to actuate without jetting a droplet from its corresponding ink channel.

There is provided a method for controlling driving of an inkjet head including recording elements each including a nozzle and a driving element. The method includes a pulse width setting step. In this step, when a predetermined number of ink droplets ejected according to the predetermined number of driving pulses are made to land in the same pixel range, the predetermined number of first driving pulses each having a pulse width longer than a reference pulse width and the predetermined number of second driving pulses each having a pulse width shorter than the reference pulse width are combined for each of the recording elements and obtained combinations are respectively output to the recording elements. The predetermined number is two or more.

An information processing apparatus used to determine a waveform of a drive pulse applied to a drive element provided in a liquid discharge head for discharging a liquid includes a first reception unit that receives an input of first information regarding a first setting item for determining the waveform of the drive pulse, a second reception unit that receives an input of second information regarding a second setting item different from the first setting item for determining the waveform of the drive pulse, and a third reception unit that collectively receives the inputs of the first information and the second information from information stored in advance.

An inkjet head includes a pressure chamber storing ink, a nozzle communicating with the chamber, an actuator ejecting the ink through the nozzle by changing a volume of the chamber, and a circuit outputting a drive signal to the actuator with a drive waveform having a cycle based on a number of gradation levels being used for printing. When printing is performed using three or more gradation levels, the circuit outputs the signal that has a multi-drop drive waveform including two or more first waveforms for ejecting first to (n−1)-th droplets of the ink where n is equal to or greater than 3, a second waveform for ejecting an n-th droplet of the ink, and an intermediate time between the first waveform for ejecting the (n−1)-th droplet and the second waveform for ejecting the n-th droplet. The intermediate time is longer than a time between two adjacent first waveforms.

A liquid ejection device includes a head having a nozzle, an element causing the nozzle to eject liquid, a reservoir configured to store the liquid to be supplied to the nozzle, and a controller. The controller is configured to change a drive signal to drive the element based on a quantity of the liquid stored in the reservoir.

In at least one embodiment, a number of nozzle rows in a first area on a side of one end of a first substrate closest to one end of a print head is set to be lower than a number of nozzle rows on a central side of the print head relative to the first area, and energy for driving the element on the first substrate is set to be larger than energy for driving the element on a second substrate on the central side of the print head relative to the first substrate to set a dot to be formed on the recording medium by ink discharged from a nozzle in the first area to be larger than a dot to be formed on the recording medium by ink discharged from a nozzle in the second substrate.

A liquid discharge method of discharging a liquid from a nozzle of a liquid discharge head by applying a drive pulse to a drive element of the liquid discharge head includes an acquisition step of acquiring a state of a dot formed on a recording medium by the liquid discharged from the nozzle, as a recording condition, and a driving step of applying the drive pulse that varies depending on the recording condition acquired in the acquisition step, to the drive element. The drive pulse may include a first potential, a second potential different from the first potential, and a third potential different from the first potential and the second potential. The second potential may be to be applied after the first potential, and the third potential may be to be applied after the second potential.

A liquid discharge apparatus includes: a liquid discharge head configured to discharge a liquid from a nozzle, the liquid discharge head including: a liquid chamber communicating with the nozzle; a pressure generator configured to deform the liquid chamber to apply pressure to the liquid in the liquid chamber; and circuitry configured to apply a drive signal to the pressure generator to drive the pressure generator, the drive signal including at least one drive pulse. The drive pulse includes: an expansion element to expand the liquid chamber to a first volume; a holding element to hold the first volume of the liquid chamber expanded by the expansion element for a predetermined time; and a contraction element to contract the liquid chamber from the first volume held by the holding element to a second volume.

In one example in accordance with the present disclosure, a fluidic die is described. The fluidic die includes a number of zones. Each zone includes a number of sets of fluidic devices. Each fluidic device includes a fluid chamber and a fluid actuator disposed in the chamber. Each fluidic device also includes a sensor to sense a characteristic of the zone and an adjustment device. The adjustment device 1) delays a firing signal received from a previous zone as it passes by each set of fluidic devices and 2) adjusts the firing signal as it enters the zone based on a sensed characteristic.