US 12,145,363 B2
Liquid ejection apparatus
Yuki Watanabe, Matsumoto (JP); Akira Miyagishi, Shiojiri (JP); and Akinori Taniuchi, Matsumoto (JP)
Assigned to SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION, (JP)
Filed by SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP)
Filed on Sep. 21, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/949,304.
Claims priority of application No. 2021-154345 (JP), filed on Sep. 22, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2023/0089063 A1, Mar. 23, 2023
Int. Cl. B41J 2/045 (2006.01)
CPC B41J 2/04588 (2013.01) [B41J 2/04581 (2013.01); B41J 2/04596 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A liquid ejection apparatus comprising:
a pressure chamber;
a first flow path through which a liquid is supplied to the pressure chamber;
a second flow path through which a liquid is discharged from the pressure chamber;
a nozzle that branches off from the second flow path and ejects a liquid;
a drive element that is configured to give pressure fluctuations to a liquid in the pressure chamber according to a drive signal;
a drive signal generation unit that is configured to generate the drive signal; and
a controller that is configured to control a supply of the drive signal to the drive element so that a target period is either an ejection period during which a liquid is ejected from the nozzle or a non-ejection period during which a liquid is not ejected from the nozzle per unit period of a predetermined cycle based on print data, wherein
the drive signal includes
an ejection pulse that drives the drive element so as to cause, in the pressure chamber, a pressure fluctuation of a strength with which a liquid is ejected from the nozzle and
a non-ejection pulse that drives the drive element so as to cause, in the pressure chamber, a pressure fluctuation of a strength with which a liquid is not ejected from the nozzle, wherein
when a time length that is q times or more ½ of a natural vibration cycle of a meniscus of a liquid in the nozzle is set as a predetermined time length where q is an integer of one or more,
the controller
supplies the ejection pulse to the drive element in a case in which the target period is the ejection period,
supplies neither the ejection pulse nor the non-ejection pulse to the drive element in a case in which the target period is the non-ejection period and an elapsed time length from the last ejection period before the target period is less than the predetermined time length, and
dose not supply the ejection pulse but supplies the non-ejection pulse to the drive element in a case in which the target period is the non-ejection period and the elapsed time length is equal to or longer than the predetermined time length.