A continuous ink jet printing apparatus with nozzles having different diameters

摘要

An apparatus for printing an image is provided. The apparatus includes a print head with nozzles of differing diameters. This allows multiple printing drop sizes for multi-level printing, thus achieving higher print quality at the same resolution. Additionally, each nozzle is operable to selectively create a stream of ink droplets having a plurality of volumes. The apparatus also includes a droplet deflector having a gas source. The gas source is positioned at an angle with respect to the stream of ink droplets and is operable to interact with the stream of ink droplets thereby separating ink droplets into printing and non-printing paths. <IMAGE>