Abstract: An ink-jet printing head and an ink-jet printing apparatus can reduce fluctuation of density of an ink ejected from each nozzle by ejecting ink of different densities from the same nozzle without varying size of an ink droplet, or by controlling ejection of a mixture ink, in which a plurality of inks are mixed, for forming an image. The ink-jet printing head includes a plurality of ejection openings for ejecting ink, a plurality of ink passages communicated with the plurality of ejection openings, ink ejecting energy generating elements provided in the plurality of ink passages, a mixing liquid chamber connected to the plurality of ink passages in common, a plurality of individual liquid chambers supplying ink to the mixing liquid chamber, and a valve mechanism provided between the individual liquid chamber and the mixing liquid chamber and controlling supply amount of the inks supplied from the individual liquid chambers.

Abstract: The present invention allows the detection of ink in a printing head that can be widely applied to various printing systems by significantly simplifying its configuration. There are a heater for supplying an energy to eject ink, a driver for driving the heater, and a detection electrode capable of detecting a voltage variation that arises between the heater and the driver and that depends on the driving of the heater. Furthermore, an insulating film that covers the surface of the detection electrode protects the detection electrode from chemical or physical change. Furthermore, a reference element group or a reference unit that produces a signal as a reference of the detection signal avoids the influence of noise. Furthermore, an energy-generating element and another signal source improve the accuracy of ink detection. A drive pulse which is insufficient to eject ink may be supplied to the heater to improve the accuracy of ink detection.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus is provided which can detect ink in a print head highly precisely with a simple construction. The apparatus includes: a detection electrode to detect, through the ink on the ink jet print head board, a voltage change between print elements and drive elements which is produced as the print elements are driven; a periodical driver to drive the print elements at a predetermined drive frequency; a voltage detector to periodically detect an output voltage of the detection electrode at a timing corresponding to the drive frequency; and a state check device to check an ink ejection state of the ink jet print head according to a result of the detection by the voltage detector.

Abstract: In order to deposit a liquid for improving fixing ability and water resistance of an ink at an optimal position in an appropriate amount, to maximize an effect of the liquid, and to easily generate a driving data for ejecting the liquid, low resolution printing data for respective of four printing heads is read out from a frame memory. A logical sum of the printing data is calculated by an OR circuit. Then, the logical sum is processed by a look-up table to generate the driving data for the liquid ejecting head corresponding to high resolution.

Abstract: Each of pixels of recorded image is formed by a plurality of dots composed with ink droplets ejected from a plurality of different orifices at individual different main-scannings. With this recording process, the variation of ink ejection characteristics between a plurality of orifices in a recording head can be reduced in forming pixels.

Abstract: An ink-jet printing head and an ink-jet printing apparatus can reduce fluctuation of density of an ink ejected from each nozzle by ejecting ink of different densities from the same nozzle without varying size of an ink droplet, or by controlling ejection of a mixture ink, in which a plurality of inks are mixed, for forming an image. The ink-jet printing head includes a plurality of ejection openings for ejecting ink, a plurality of ink passages communicated with the plurality of ejection openings, ink ejecting energy generating elements provided in the plurality of ink passages, a mixing liquid chamber connected to the plurality of ink passages in common, a plurality of individual liquid chambers supplying ink to the mixing liquid chamber, and a valve mechanism provided between the individual liquid chamber and the mixing liquid chamber and controlling supply amount of the inks supplied from the individual liquid chambers.

Abstract: In an ink jet printer, formation time of processing for generating data for providing a treatment liquid for improving fixing or water resistance of an ink by insolubilizing or coagulating a color material in the ink is reduced. For this purpose, to perform HV conversion for raster data for image data related to printing, processing for temporarily storing image data and processing of rewriting the HV conversion result are performed in a same sequence. For example, a treatment liquid data formation register having the same structure as an HV conversion register is provided. This register is masked to a pattern according to a treatment liquid composition on a printing medium and is made corresponding to data bits of the HV conversion register. Print data accessed by the HV conversion register is located in relation to the access, thereby forming the treatment liquid data simultaneously.

Abstract: An ink-jet printing head and an ink-jet printing apparatus can reduce fluctuation of density of an ink ejected from each nozzle by ejecting ink of different densities from the same nozzle without varying size of an ink droplet, or by controlling ejection of a mixture ink, in which a plurality of inks are mixed, for forming an image. The ink-jet printing head includes a plurality of ejection openings for ejecting ink, a plurality of ink passages communicated with the plurality of ejection openings, ink ejecting energy generating elements provided in the plurality of ink passages, a mixing liquid chamber connected to the plurality of ink passages in common, a plurality of individual liquid chambers supplying ink to the mixing liquid chamber, and a valve mechanism provided between the individual liquid chamber and the mixing liquid chamber and controlling supply amount of the inks supplied from the individual liquid chambers.

Abstract: Each of pixels of recorded image is formed by a plurality of dots composed with ink droplets ejected from a plurality of different orifices at individual different main-scannings. With this recording process, the variation of ink ejection characteristics between a plurality of orifices in a recording head can be reduced in forming pixels.

Abstract: An ink-jet printing head and an ink-jet printing apparatus can reduce fluctuation of density of an ink ejected from each nozzle by ejecting ink of different densities from the same nozzle without varying size of an ink droplet, or by controlling ejection of a mixture ink, in which a plurality of inks are mixed, for forming an image. The ink-jet printing head includes a plurality of ejection openings for ejecting ink, a plurality of ink passages communicated with the plurality of ejection openings, ink ejecting energy generating elements provided in the plurality of ink passages, a mixing liquid chamber connected to the plurality of ink passages in common, a plurality of individual liquid chambers supplying ink to the mixing liquid chamber, and a valve mechanism provided between the individual liquid chamber and the mixing liquid chamber and controlling supply amount of the inks supplied from the individual liquid chambers.

Abstract: A low-cost printing apparatus and printing control method through which the absence or presence of an ink tank and ink can be determined accurately regardless of the surrounding environment. The printing apparatus obtains the difference between a first signal, which is obtained from light received by a light-receiving element (16) in a case where a light reflecting surface (41) and an optical prism (42) are irradiated with light, and a second signal, which is obtained from light received by the light-receiving element (16) in a case where the light reflecting surface (41) and optical prism (42) are not irradiated with light, compares the difference with a predetermined threshold value and determines whether or not ink is present and/or whether or not the ink tank is present, based upon the result of the comparison.

Abstract: A low-cost printing apparatus and printing control method through which the absence or presence of an ink tank and ink can be determined accurately regardless of the surrounding environment. The printing apparatus obtains the difference between a first signal, which is obtained from light received by a light-receiving element (16) in a case where a light reflecting surface (41) and an optical prism (42) are irradiated with light, and a second signal, which is obtained from light received by the light-receiving element (16) in a case where the light reflecting surface (41) and optical prism (42) are not irradiated with light, compares the difference with a predetermined threshold value and determines whether or not ink is present and/or whether or not the ink tank is present, based upon the result of the comparison.

Abstract: Precision of detecting existence/non-existence of a liquid container and a liquid level in the container is improved even if the detection is performed by a single sensor, or even if the S/N ratio of the detection is low, the detected results can be discriminated from one another. For this, a concave polyhedron is provided in the center of the bottom surface of an optical prism in order to reduce the amount of light reflected on the bottom surface of the optical prism and returned to a photoreceptor. Moreover, a reflection curved surface having a quadratic surface e.g. spherical surface or paraboloid, is provided on the bottom surface of an ink tank, for reflecting light emitted by an optical unit consisting of a light emission device and a photoreceptor.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus is provided which can detect ink in a print head highly precisely with a simple construction. The apparatus includes: a detection electrode to detect, through the ink on the ink jet print head board, a voltage change between print elements and drive elements which is produced as the print elements are driven; a periodical drive means to drive the print elements at a predetermined drive frequency; a voltage detection means to periodically detect an output voltage of the detection electrode at a timing corresponding to the drive frequency; and a state check means to check an ink ejection state of the ink jet print head according to a result of the detection by the voltage detection means.

Abstract: In the present invention, the minimum necessary consumption of ink can recover the channel miss state of the plurality of nozzles. The present invention provides a recovery processing method of an ink jet printing apparatus for forming images using a print head having a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink droplets. The method comprises a first step for detecting channel miss state of said plurality of nozzles, and a second step for executing at least one of different recovery processes depending on the channel miss states of said plurality of nozzles detected in the first step.

Abstract: The present inventions allow the detection of ink in the printing head by significantly simplified their configurations and on which various printing systems can be widely applied. There are a heater for supplying an energy to ejecting ink, a driver for driving heater, and a detection electrode capable of detecting a voltage variation between the heater and the driver to be occurred depending on the driving of the heater. Furthermore, an insulating film that covers the surface of the detection electrode prevents a chemical or physical change from the detection electrode. Furthermore, a reference element group or a reference unit that produces a signal as a reference of the detection signal avoids the influence of noise. Furthermore, an energy-generating element and another signal source improve the accuracy of ink-detection. A drive pulse which is insufficient to ejecting ink may be supplied to the heater to improve the accuracy of ink-detection.

Abstract: An electrophotographic image-forming method has a contact charging step of charging the surface of an electrophotographic photosensitive member; an electrostatic latent image forming step of forming an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the electrophotographic photosensitive member charged; a developing step of developing the electrostatic latent image formed into a toner image; and a transfer step of transferring the toner image formed by the development from the electrophotographic photosensitive member to a transfer material, the developing step serving also as a cleaning step for collecting a toner remaining on the electrophotographic photosensitive member after transfer.

Abstract: A recording apparatus records at a higher resolution than the resolution of input image data. A half toning processor performs a halftoning process at each pixel of the input image to get multi level data from the input image data. A data producer produces pattern data corresponding to the pixel of the input image based on the multi level data. Data for a plurality of different patterns is produced for at least one value of the multi level data.

Abstract: A recording head is provided with a plurality of recording elements. In the recording head, the number of record data can be counted accurately, following high-speed recording operation by counting only the number of drive data input via one signal line by means of a counter, from drive data input to two shift registers via signal lines according to a clock signal.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus includes an edge detection unit that detects the positions of pixels in one pixel line in which data changes from 0 to 1 in accordance with the data serially converted from ORed data in a state where the data representing OR of each recording data on each ink color, and a discharge control data formation unit that forms fixing process driving data including data 1 at a given ratio to AND data obtainable by operating AND between the serially converted data from the ORed data and the detection output from the edge detection unit.