Liquid ejection apparatus, control method for the same, and computer-readable storage medium

摘要

A liquid ejection apparatus includes a liquid ejection head, actuator units with actuators, a power supply that output a main voltage, and linear regulators that reduce the main voltage to drive voltages to be supplied to the relevant actuator units. When a voltage difference between the main voltage and drive voltage is greater than an allowable value for any of the actuator units, the apparatus controls a linear regulator so that the drive voltage supplied to at least one actuator unit is adjusted to a high drive voltage. A small ejection driving waveform is created as the driving waveform to be output to the actuators in the actuator unit to which the high drive voltage is supplied.

主权项

1. A liquid ejection apparatus comprising:
a liquid ejection head comprising a plurality of ejection openings from which a liquid is ejected, and a plurality of actuators, each of which corresponds to one of the plurality of ejection openings, each actuator being configured to eject the liquid from the ejection opening corresponding to each actuator; a storage device configured to store image data related to the image to be recorded on a recording medium; a power supply configured to output a main voltage; a plurality of linear regulators, each linear regulator corresponding to one of a plurality of actuator units, each actuator unit having at least one of the plurality of actuators, each linear regulator being configured to reduce the main voltage output from the power supply to a drive voltage used by the actuator unit corresponding to the linear regulator and supply the drive voltage to the actuator unit corresponding to the linear regulator; and a control device configured to:
calculate a viscosity of the liquid in the plurality of ejection openings corresponding to at least one actuator for each of the plurality of actuator units;determine, for each of the plurality of actuator units, the drive voltage which is output to the actuator unit corresponding to the linear regulator based on the viscosity of the liquid;judge whether a voltage difference between the drive voltage and the main voltage is greater than a first value for each of the plurality of actuator units;adjust the drive voltage to a higher drive voltage for each of the plurality of actuator units when the voltage difference is greater than the first value, in order to reduce the voltage difference to be equal to or lower than the first value;create a plurality of different types of driving waveforms based on the image data, each driving waveform having a voltage level corresponding to the drive voltage of the actuator unit in which the plurality of actuators are included,wherein different amounts of liquid are ejected from the plurality of ejection openings corresponding to the plurality of actuators according to the different types of driving waveforms, and a small ejection driving waveform, which is one of the plurality of different types of driving waveforms, is created and output to the actuator included in the actuator unit, among the plurality of actuator units, for which the drive voltage is adjusted to the higher drive voltage, and the small ejection driving waveform is used to eject a smaller amount of liquid than an amount of liquid ejected based on the driving waveforms created from the image data;control the plurality of linear regulators to supply the drive voltage or the higher drive voltage to the plurality of actuator units; andoutput the plurality of different types of driving waveforms to each of the plurality of actuators.