Ink-jet recording apparatus
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsKoichiro Jinnai, Masanori Horike, Kyuhachiro Iwasaki, Yutaka Kodama
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Abstract
A voltage is applied to a plurality of electromechanical transducers mounted on a plurality of nozzles, respectively, so that a meniscus may be formed at the nozzle tip. One or more opposing electrodes or rear transducers are disposed in opposed relationship with a predetermined number of nozzles, respectively, the number of the opposing electrodes or rear transducers being less than that of the nozzles. When one of the opposing electrodes or rear transducers which is in opposed relationship with the nozzle whose transducer is applied with a voltage is applied with a voltage, an ink drop is issued. The opposing electrodes are applied with a voltage in a time-division manner.
Claims7
A multiple nozzle ink jet printing apparatus, comprising:
- a plurality of ink jet nozzles;
- a corresponding plurality of electromechanical transducers, each transducer being coupled to a corresponding nozzle to selectively apply sufficient pressure to ink therein to cause the ink to form a convex meniscus extending out of the corresponding nozzle, said ink being contained within said nozzle in the absence of a print signal applied to the corresponding transducer;
- and
- supplemental ink ejection means for applying sufficient force to said meniscus to cause said meniscus to form an ink drop, and to propel said ink drop toward a recording surface, said supplemental ink ejection means affecting only the ink associated with a nozzle or nozzles having a convex meniscus extending therefrom.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.