Patent ID: 8651632
Filing Date: 2014-02-18
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
1. A method of printing comprising; providing liquid under pressure sufficient to eject liquid jets through a plurality of nozzles of a liquid chamber, the plurality of nozzles being disposed along a nozzle array direction, the plurality of nozzles being arranged into a first group and second group in which the nozzles of the first group and second group are interleaved such that a nozzle of the first group is positioned between adjacent nozzles of the second group and a nozzle of the second group is positioned between adjacent nozzles of the first group; providing a drop formation device associated with each of the plurality of nozzles; providing input image data; providing each of the drop formation devices with a sequence of drop formation waveforms to modulate the liquid jets to selectively cause portions of the liquid jet to break off into one or more pairs of drops traveling along a path using a drop formation device associated with the liquid jet, each drop pair separated on average by a drop pair period, each drop pair including a first drop and a second drop one of which is a print drop and one of which is a non-print drop and to selectively cause portions of the liquid jet to break off into one or more third drops traveling along the path separated on average by the same drop pair period using the drop formation device, the third drop being larger than the first drop and the second drop and is a non-print drop in response to the input image data; providing a group timing delay device to shift the timing of the drop formation waveforms supplied to the drop formation devices of nozzles of one of the first group or the second group so that the print drops formed from nozzles of the first group and the print drops formed from nozzles of the second group are not aligned relative to each other along the nozzle array direction; providing a charging device including: synchronizing the charging device with the drop formation device and the group timing delay device to produce a print drop charge state on the print drop of the drop pair, a first non-print drop charge state on the non-print drop of the drop pair, and a second non-print drop charge state on the third drops, the first non-print drop charge state and second non-print drop charge state being substantially different from the print drop charge state; providing a deflection device; causing drops having the print drop charge state and the non-print drop charge states to travel along different paths using the deflection device; providing a catcher; and intercepting non-print drops of the drop pair and third drops using the catcher while allowing print drops of the drop pair to continue to travel along a path toward a receiver.