Patent ID: 8888216
Filing Date: 2014-11-18
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
1. A liquid ejection apparatus, comprising: a liquid ejection head including an ejection opening which ejects a liquid, a supply passage which supplies the liquid to the ejection opening, and an actuator which applies an energy to the liquid inside the supply passage; a drive unit which selectively supplies an ejection drive signal and a non-ejection drive signal to the actuator, the ejection drive signal being a signal whereby the actuator is driven so as to eject the liquid from the ejection opening, the non-ejection drive signal being a signal whereby the actuator is driven to an extent that no liquid is ejected from the ejection opening; a print controller which causes the drive unit to supply the ejection drive signal to the actuator based on image data; a non-ejection drive controller which causes the drive unit to supply at least one non-ejection drive signal to the actuator within a non-ejection drive period which is a period at a trailing end portion of a non-ejection period between ejection of the liquid and the next ejection of the liquid from the ejection opening, when the non-ejection period is equal to or longer than a predetermined length, based on the image data; and an environment measurement unit which measures at least one of the temperature and the humidity, wherein the non-ejection drive controller controls the drive unit so that the length of a blank period is varied based on at least one of the temperature and the humidity measured by the environment measurement unit, the blank period being a period between a point of supplying a final non-ejection drive signal within the non-ejection drive period and the trailing end of the non-ejection period, so that the length of the blank period is set to be increased with one of a decrease in the temperature and an increase in the humidity and the length of the blank period is set to be decreased with one of an increase in the temperature and a decrease in the humidity.