A printing platform includes a printing engine with one or more printheads arranged such that the ink drops are jetted vertically upwards against the action of gravity; and a substrate transportation system where the normal to the surface in contact with the substrate is parallel and with opposite direction to the travelling direction of the jetted ink drops. It is necessary to counteract the weight of the substrate during the printing process to avoid it from falling under the action of gravity. This is achieved through any of a mechanical element that interferes with the falling of the substrate and that keeps it in place; or a system that generates adhesion forces between the element that transmits the motion to the substrate, typically a conveyor belt, and the substrate through the action of electrostatic forces, an air pressure differential between both faces of the substrate, or any other suitable mechanism.

Provided are a valve unit, a printing apparatus, and a printing method capable of preventing sediment arising in the valve unit from flowing toward a discharge unit.

The valve unit is used in a printing apparatus including a reservoir unit that holds ink, a discharge unit configured to discharge the ink, and a flow channel that connects the reservoir unit to the discharge unit and through which the ink flows from the reservoir unit to the discharge unit. The valve unit is disposed partway along the flow channel, and includes: a first chamber that configured to communicate with the reservoir unit; a second chamber configured to communicate with the discharge unit; a switching valve that switches between allowing and cutting off a flow of ink from the first chamber to the second chamber; and an expelling unit configured to expel sediment from the second chamber by suctioning the sediment.

An inkjet printing apparatus includes a surface acoustic wave module including an inner passage and a surface acoustic wave generator around the inner passage; and an outflow passage connected to the surface acoustic wave module to discharge ink, where the outflow passage includes a first outflow passage connected to the inner passage to discharge first ink particles and a second outflow passage connected to the inner passage to discharge second ink particles having an average diameter smaller than that of the first ink particles, and the surface acoustic wave generator is closer to the second outflow passage than the first outflow passage.

An aerosol-based printing apparatus is provided capable of producing an aerosol stream at a constant rate and constant material deposition to a substrate to provide high-definition, high-resolution traces. The aerosol-based printing apparatus provides production, transport, and delivery of an aerosol stream at a constant rate for a period of time of at least 8 hours and other instances more than 24 continuous hours of constant operation. By inhibiting bulging and necking of the deposited trace, superior line width tolerances are achieved, and such tolerances are maintained for extended periods of time, thereby allowing for both the deposition of complex traces as well as consistent manufacture of duplicate articles that maintain the tolerances across a production ran. The accumulation of fluids in the aerosol and gas transport conduits are eliminated, thereby eliminating the need for purge or cleaning cycles and allowing for uninterrupted operation for a minimum of 24 hours.

A printer includes a head, a lamp, a first sensor, and a processor. The head is configured to eject photocurable ink onto the object to be printed. The lamp is configured to irradiate light onto the object to be printed. The first sensor is configured to detect a temperature inside the printer. The processor causes the first sensor to acquire the temperature inside the printer. The processor acquires, based on the print data, a duty ratio indicating a printing ratio when ejecting the ink onto an ejection region of the object to be printed. The processor increases a number of times of a flushing operation compared to a predetermined reference number of times, when the acquired duty ratio is a low duty ratio lower than a predetermined reference duty ratio, and the temperature detected by the first sensor is higher than a predetermined reference temperature.

The invention relates to a printing device (10) for printing a surface (12), in particular the surface (12) of a workpiece (11) made at least partly of wood, a wood material, synthetic material, composite material or the like, comprising an ink supply device (17) which has at least two ink containers (21), each holding a printing ink (19), and an ink feed system (24) by means of which the printing inks (19) can be supplied to at least one print head (18), in order to carry out a printing process with at least one of the printing inks (19), wherein a flushing device (32) is provided, by means of which at least the ink feed system (24) and/or the at least one print head (18) can be flushed with a flushing liquid (33) for a printing ink change, and to a method for changing printing inks (19) in a printing device (10).

Since ink is not heated at a protrusion connecting an ink supplying device and a print head chip or the like, the viscosity of the ink increases, and the fluidity may not be maintained in some cases. An inkjet printer 1 for solving the above problem includes an inkjet head 300 that ejects ink; a protrusion 310 provided to protrude from the inkjet head 300 and configured to circulate the ink to the inkjet head 300; and an ink flow path portion 6 that supplies the ink to the protrusion 310; where the ink flow path portion 6 includes an ink warming block 200 that heats the ink, and a conducting portion 210 that is formed in the ink warming block 200 itself or separately from the ink warming block 200 and through which heat from the ink warming block 200 is conducted is adjacently disposed outside the protrusion 310.

There is provided a liquid discharge apparatus including: a head including a nozzle configured to discharge a liquid, and a driver element configured to apply a pressure to the liquid; a tank configured to store the liquid; a circulation channel configured to circulate the liquid between the head and the tank; a pump; and a controller. The controller is configured to carry out: a non-discharge flushing process of performing a non-discharge flushing by driving the driver element such that the liquid is not discharged from the nozzle; a switching process of switching the pump between ON and OFF; and a determining process of determining a frequency of driving the driver element in the non-discharge flushing process according to a circulation flow amount of the liquid changing due to the switching of the pump between ON and OFF in the switching process.

Disclosed are example purge valve assemblies for a printing system and related methods. In an example, the purge valve assembly includes a valve body to couple to a carriage of the printing system. In addition, the purge valve assembly includes an actuator, an arm, and a diaphragm coupled to the arm and the valve body. The purge valve assembly is to transition between: a first position in which the actuator is disposed at an initial position and the diaphragm is extended outward from the valve body; and second position in which the actuator is translated along an axis from the initial position to slidingly engage with the arm to rotate the arm and depress the diaphragm toward the valve body.

A printing device includes a printing portion, a maintenance portion, and a controller. The printing portion includes an ejection head and prints using ink. The maintenance portion performs maintenance on the ejection head. The maintenance involves consumption of ink. The controller has a manual maintenance mode and an automated maintenance mode. In the manual maintenance mode, the controller executes a maintenance using the maintenance portion in response to a maintenance command signal based on a manual operation. In the automated maintenance mode, the controller automatically executes a maintenance using the maintenance portion in response to a maintenance execution condition being met. Based on control information acquired, the controller switches an operating mode of the printing device from a first operating mode of selectively executing the manual maintenance mode and the automated maintenance mode to a second operation mode of executing the automated maintenance mode without executing the manual maintenance mode.