Patent ID: 8573075

Claim:
A liquid droplet discharging apparatus comprising: a functional liquid droplet discharging head; a first workpiece stage and a second workpiece stage each configured to support a workpiece thereon; an inspection stage disposed between the first workpiece stage and the second workpiece stage, and configured to receive an inspection discharge of a liquid from the functional liquid droplet discharging head; an image formation area in which an image forming operation is executed by discharging the liquid from the functional liquid droplet discharging head onto the workpiece mounted on one of the first and second workpiece stages while causing relative movement between the functional liquid droplet discharging head and the one of the first and second workpiece stages in a movement direction; a first inspection area and a second inspection area that are arranged with the image formation area being disposed therebetween along the movement direction so that a discharge inspection of the functional liquid droplet discharging head is selectively executed in the first inspection area and the second inspection area by image recognition; a first workpiece exchange area and a second workpiece exchange area that are arranged with the first inspection area, the image formation area, and the second inspection area being disposed therebetween along the movement direction so that the workpieces are selectively supplied to and removed from the first workpiece stage and the second workpiece stage in the first workpiece exchange area and the second workpiece exchange area, respectively; a first image recognizing section disposed in the first inspection area, and configured to execute the image recognition with respect to a result of the inspection discharge to the inspection stage in the first inspection area; a second image recognizing section disposed in the second inspection area and configured to execute the image recognition with respect to a result of the inspection discharge to the inspection stage in the second inspection area; and a stage moving mechanism configured to move the inspection stage to the second inspection area when the first workpiece stage is selectively moved between the image formation area and the first workpiece exchange area, and to move the inspection stage to the first inspection area when the second workpiece stage is selectively moved between the image formation area and the second workpiece exchange area.