Liquid ejection head and method of driving the same

摘要

A liquid ejection head includes a plurality of ejection orifices, liquid chambers, piezoelectric actuators, and driving units, and a control unit. Each ejection orifice ejects liquid, each liquid chamber communicates individually with an ejection orifice, each piezoelectric actuator is disposed individually for a liquid chamber and generates energy to eject liquid, and each driving unit individually drives a piezoelectric actuator. The control unit controls each driving unit to output a first voltage pulse to eject liquid or a second voltage pulse to vibrate a meniscus of liquid in a state in which the meniscus is held in a liquid chamber. The control unit selects ejection orifices used to eject liquid and controls to output the first voltage pulse to them, and selects ejection orifices not used to eject liquid and controls to output the second voltage pulse to them to perform respective concurrent recording and recovery operations.

主权项

1. A liquid ejection head comprising:
a plurality of ejection orifices, wherein each ejection orifice is configured to eject liquid through the ejection orifice; a plurality of liquid chambers, wherein each liquid chamber is configured to communicate liquid individually with a corresponding ejection orifice; a plurality of piezoelectric actuators, wherein a piezoelectric actuator is disposed individually for a corresponding liquid chamber and configured to generate energy to eject liquid through the corresponding ejection orifice; a plurality of driving units, wherein a driving unit is configured to individually drive a corresponding piezoelectric actuator; and a control unit configured to control the plurality of driving units so that a driving unit outputs, to a corresponding piezoelectric actuator, a first voltage pulse or a second voltage pulse, wherein the first voltage pulse drives a corresponding piezoelectric actuator to eject liquid through the corresponding ejection orifice and the second voltage pulse drives a corresponding piezoelectric actuator to vibrate a corresponding meniscus of liquid such that the meniscus vibrates within the corresponding liquid chamber in a state in which the meniscus is held within the liquid chamber and causes the meniscus to protrude out of the ejection orifice without ejecting liquid after the vibrating of the meniscus has stopped, wherein the control unit selects, from the plurality of ejection orifices, one or more ejection orifices used to eject liquid and controls driving units corresponding to the selected ejection orifices such that these driving units output the first voltage pulse to thereby perform a recording operation, and, concurrently, the control unit controls driving units corresponding to ejection orifices that are not used to eject liquid such that these driving units output the second voltage pulse to thereby perform a recovery operation concurrently with the recording operation.