Patent ID: 8342636

Claim:
A discharge rate control apparatus of an ink-jet printer that is configured with a plurality of print heads arranged adjacently in a nozzle array direction, each of said print heads having a plurality of nozzles in an application width direction, said discharge rate control apparatus comprising: a coating article that has a non ink-absorbent characteristic and that has a film formed on a surface thereof by discharging an ink from the plurality of print heads; a film thickness measuring means for measuring a film thickness of the film that is formed on the surface of the coating article along the application width direction and at a position corresponding to an ink discharge position of each of said plurality of nozzles so as to detect a variation in an ink discharge rate of the ink for each of the nozzles; a discharge rate correcting means for correcting the ink discharge rate from each of the nozzles by increasing or decreasing the discharge rate based on a difference between a target film thickness and the film thickness at the ink discharge position of each of the nozzles measured by said film thickness measuring means so as to cancel the difference; and a storage means for storing correction data for correcting the discharge rate of the ink of each of the nozzles by increasing or decreasing the discharge rate with said discharge rate correcting means, wherein said storage means is configured to store the correction data for each of the plurality of print heads.