Apparatus and method for drop size modulated ink jet printing
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsRonald F. Burr, Eric C. Segerstrom, Christine M. Greb, John M. Wiltse, Joseph D. Hart
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Abstract
An apparatus and method provide on-demand drop volume modulation by utilizing a single transducer driving waveform to drive an ink jet. The driving waveform includes at least a first portion and a second portion that each excites a different modal resonance of ink in an ink jet orifice to produce ink drops having different volumes. A control signal is applied to the driving waveform to actuate the selected portion of the waveform to eject the desired ink drop volume for a given pixel. The control signal also cancels the non-selected portion(s) of the waveform to avoid extraneous excitation of the transducer.
Claims24
An apparatus for ejecting fluid drops from an orifice, the apparatus comprising:
- a pressure chamber in fluid communication with the orifice;
- a transducer coupled to the pressure chamber;
- a driving waveform applied to the transducer, the driving waveform having at least a first portion and a second portion wherein the second portion of the driving waveform includes at least two positive pulses separated by a negative pulse;
- and
- a control signal applied to the driving waveform, the control signal including an actuation component that enables either the first portion of the driving waveform or the second portion of the driving waveform to actuate the transducer to eject a fluid drop.
A method of ejecting a plurality of ink drops from an orifice of an ink jet printer to a plurality of pixels, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a pressure chamber in fluid communication with the orifice;
- coupling a transducer to the pressure chamber;
- generating a transducer driving waveform comprising at least a first portion and a second portion;
- selecting for a given pixel to eject either a first drop having a first volume or a second drop having a second volume different from the first volume;
- if the first drop is selected for the given pixel, applying the first portion of the driving waveform to the transducer to eject the first drop;
- if the second drop is selected for the given pixel, applying the second portion of the driving waveform to the transducer to eject the second drop;
- and
- skipping at least one cycle of the driving waveform between the step of ejecting the first drop and the step of ejecting the second drop.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.