Patent ID: 8714674

Claim:
A continuous printing system comprising: a printhead including: a nozzle; and a jet control element including: a continuous heater element positioned to surround the nozzle; a plurality of three or more electrical contacts in electrical communication with the continuous heater element, the plurality of three or more electrical contacts defining a plurality of three or more continuous heater element portions that are actuatable with sufficient independence so as to control jet steering, the number of the continuous heater element portions equaling the number of electrical contacts; and a controller configured to apply a first waveform to at least one of the plurality of three or more electrical contacts to affect at least one of the plurality of independently actuatable continuous heater element portions and a second waveform to at least one of the remaining plurality of three or more electrical contacts, wherein one of the first or second waveforms is applied in response to jet steering data and the other of the first or second waveforms is applied in response to print content data.