Patent ID: 11970000
Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
Field: Textile and paper machines (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 6:
7. A liquid discharge method to be executed by a liquid discharge apparatus including a plurality of liquid discharge units to discharge liquid to form an image on a recording medium, the plurality of liquid discharge units including a first liquid discharge unit and a second liquid discharge unit disposed downstream from the first liquid discharge unit in a moving direction of the recording medium, the method comprising:
capturing a first image of the recording medium at a position corresponding to the first liquid discharge unit;
capturing a second image of the recording medium at a position corresponding to the second liquid discharge unit;
detecting a movement amount of the recording medium in the moving direction, based on the first image and the second image, the movement amount of the recording medium performed by a drive roller disposed downstream from the plurality of liquid discharge units in the moving direction;
determining a discharge timing of the second liquid discharge unit with respect to discharge of the first liquid discharge unit, based on the movement amount and a clock signal corresponding to an image forming condition,
wherein the clock signal is an electric signal that regularly oscillates, and wherein a cycle of the clock signal is adjusted according to image forming conditions, and
wherein an image capturing period of the first image capturing unit is represented by the following expression,

U≤(π×φ/V)/10,

where U represents the image capturing period, π represents a circular constant, φ represents a diameter of the drive roller, and V represents a moving speed of the recording medium.