Fault tolerance for two yuan nozzle of an integrated print head

摘要

A printing head is disclosed which provides redundant printing nozzles and redundant drive circuitry, allowing individual faulty nozzles to be electronically replaced. The redundant actuators must be at physically different positions than the faulty actuators. The system disclosed herein ensures that a dot is printed by a redundant actuator in the same location that the faulty actuator would have printed the dot. This is achieved by providing an electronic signal delay, and arranging the actuators so that they are displaced in the scan direction only. A memory containing a map of faulty actuators is also provided, along with a means of routing print data directed at a faulty actuator to the corresponding redundant actuator.