Patent ID: 7914096
Filing Date: 2011-03-29
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
1. A method of correcting landing positions of liquid droplets jetted from a recording head, comprising: a forming step of forming, on a water-repellent surface of a water-repellent sheet member, one or more adjustment patterns for correcting shifts in the landing positions of the liquid droplets, wherein the one or more adjustment patterns comprise plural liquid droplets that are separated from each other while maintaining a hemispheric shape without permeating into the water-repellent sheet member, and the water-repellent surface having a water-repellent property is formed on at least a part of a surface of the water-repellent sheet member; a detecting step of detecting the one or more adjustment patterns by irradiating light onto the one or more adjustment patterns from a light emitting unit and receiving specular reflection light from the one or more adjustment patterns with a light receiving unit; and a correcting step of correcting, based on a detection result obtained by detecting the one or more adjustment patterns at the detecting step, the shifts in the landing positions of the liquid droplets that are jetted from the recording head, wherein each of the one or more adjustment patterns includes an adhering region and includes a separating region, the adhering region is occupied by the plural liquid droplets landing on the water-repellent surface, the separating region in each of the one or more adjustment patterns separates the plural liquid droplets from each other in said each of the one or more adjustment patterns formed on the water-repellent surface, and the separating region separating the plural landed liquid droplets from each other has an area smaller than an area of the adhering region occupied by the plural landed liquid droplets such that the plural liquid droplets are separated from each other and are close to each other in each of the one or more adjustment patterns and an amount of specular reflection light reflecting from the one or more adjustment patterns is reduced as compared to that of specular reflection light reflecting from other portions of the water-repellent surface.