Patents Examined by Alexander C Witkowski
  • Patent number: 8876238
    Abstract: An image recording apparatus, including: a first head for ejecting first liquid for recording; a second head for ejecting second liquid; and a controller. The controller selects, based on the image data, one of waveforms for ejecting the first liquid for each pixel and supplies, to the first-liquid ejection head, a drive signal based on the selected waveform. The controller selects, based on the image data, one of the of waveforms for ejecting the second liquid for each pixel and supplies, to the second-liquid ejection head, a drive signal based on the selected waveform. The controller determines whether recording of a test pattern using the second liquid is required, and when the recording of the test pattern using the second liquid is required, selects the waveform such that the first liquid is not ejected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2014
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Katsuaki Suzuki
  • Patent number: 8870365
    Abstract: A printing system includes one or more lineheads disposed opposite a first side of a print media and at least one vacuum assembly having a vacuum manifold disposed opposite a second side of the print media. The linehead or lineheads has one or more print zones where a liquid or ink is deposited onto the first side of the print media. The vacuum manifold is aligned with a non-print zone of each linehead and outputs a vacuum force proximate to the second side of the print media such that at least a portion of the second side of the print media is deflected away from the lineheads. The printing system can also include another component, such as a dryer, disposed over the print media and laterally adjacent to the linehead. Another vacuum manifold can be disposed adjacent to the second side print media between the linehead and the component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2014
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Randy D. Vandagriff, Michael J. Piatt, Harsha S. Bulathsinghalage, W. Charles Kasiske, Jr.
  • Patent number: 8864300
    Abstract: This disclosure discloses a label producing apparatus comprising: an apparatus housing; a roll holder arranged on said apparatus housing that detachably mounts thereon a tape roll winding a label producing tape; an optical detecting device that optically detects a plurality of detection mark formed at a predetermined interval along a peripheral direction of a detected body provided so as to rotate at an angular velocity in coordination with an angular velocity of said tape roll on a side of said tape roll mounted to said roll holder or on a side of said apparatus housing; a residual amount identifying portion that identifies a residual tape amount of said tape roll based on a detection result of said optical detecting device; and a residual amount related information output portion that outputs residual amount related information related to said residual tape amount identified to a display device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 21, 2014
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hidekazu Ishii, Takahiro Miwa, Naoki Tanjima, Tsutomu Kato
  • Patent number: 8857977
    Abstract: A process of ink jet printing on a variety of substrates and an apparatus for performing that process. In which process: a primer is applied to a substrate material; ink is ink jet printed onto the primed substrate; a characteristic relating to print quality is evaluated; the composition of the primer is adjusted in dependence on the evaluated characteristic relating to print quality; and the adjusted primer composition is applied to the substrate material and ink is ink jet printed onto the primed substrate material to give a printed product.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 7, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Sun Chemical B.V.
    Inventors: Alexander Grant, Nigel Anthony Caiger
  • Patent number: 8857978
    Abstract: A paper conveyance device for a printing device that prints information using a printhead on conveyed continuous paper R, including a paper conveyance mechanism that holds and conveys the continuous paper to the print area of the printhead, and a guide unit that has two guide surfaces facing the conveyed continuous paper. The guide unit has a plurality of ribs that are disposed to at least one of the two guide surfaces with a specific gap therebetween in the direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction, protrude to the continuous paper side, and extend in the conveyance direction. The rib located in the middle of the width of the conveyed continuous paper being the longest of the plural ribs in the conveyance direction, and the length in the conveyance direction of the other ribs becoming gradually shorter with proximity to the sides of the continuous paper width.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 14, 2014
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Toshiyuki Mitsuya
  • Patent number: 8840212
    Abstract: According to one example of the present invention there is provided a printing system for printing on a substrate supported on a substrate support. The printing system comprises a plurality of substrate support sections each having an array of orifices selectively in fluid communication with a vacuum source. A controller is configured to apply vacuum pressure from the vacuum source to different ones of the substrate support sections in accordance with a vacuum activation program.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2014
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Industrial Printing Ltd.
    Inventors: Arkady Palarya, Liran Orevi
  • Patent number: 8840239
    Abstract: An image forming device is provided. The image forming device includes: a forming component that forms an index, at a formation position, on a recording medium that is conveyed in a first direction and passes the formation position; an acquiring component that acquires measurement results, from a measuring component, of a width, along a second direction that intersects the first direction, of the recording medium; and a formation control component that carries out control that causes the index to be formed by the forming component at a position that is at one end portion side, along the second direction, of the recording medium, and that is apart, along the second direction and by a distance corresponding to the width acquired by the acquiring component, from a formation reference position that is set at another end portion side, along the second direction, of the recording medium, is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2014
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Megumi Yasuda
  • Patent number: 8833932
    Abstract: A recording apparatus, including: a support portion; a recording portion; a first casing; a second casing; a positioning mechanism: a restricting mechanism configured to be selectively placed in one of: a restricted state in which a pivotal movement of the second housing is restricted; and a non-restricted state in which the pivotal movement of the second housing is not restricted, and an interlocking mechanism configured to move one of a guide pin and a guide hole in conjunction with the restricting mechanism, such that the guide pin and the guide hole are selectively placed at one of: an engaged state in which the guide pin and the guide hole engage each other when the restricting mechanism is in the restricted state; and a non-engaged state in which the guide pin and the guide hole do not engage when the restricting mechanism is in the non-restricted state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2014
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masayuki Okumura
  • Patent number: 8836738
    Abstract: A drive control method for a media processing device prevents increasing the media production time even when a printhead cleaning process is performed before the printing process. When a media production command is input, the preprocessing time required until the printing process starts is calculated based on the media production command. If the total of the preprocessing time plus the time passed since the last cleaning process is greater than or equal to a specified time, the cleaning process is started. If the elapsed time will reach the specified time after the media production command is output and before the printing process starts, the cleaning process runs parallel to the write process. Increasing the media production time by the time required for the cleaning process is thus prevented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2014
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Yasufumi Yokoyama, Shoji Shima, Koji Hashimoto
  • Patent number: 8827437
    Abstract: A printing method includes preprocessing a substrate by irradiating the substrate in a heated state with an activation light beam, and printing, after the preprocessing, a predetermined pattern on the substrate by ejecting a droplet to the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2014
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Toshihiro Yokozawa, Masahiro Ido
  • Patent number: 8814343
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes the following elements. A carriage allows a head ejecting liquid which is curable by light irradiation to move in the moving direction intersecting the transporting direction in which a medium is transported. A precuring light source, provided for the carriage, radiates light for precuring to dots formed by applying the liquid ejected from the moving head onto the medium. A full curing light source is provided for the carriage so as to be located downstream of the precuring light source in the transporting direction. The full curing light source radiates light for full curing to the dots which have been irradiated with light for precuring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Hiroyuki Onishi
  • Patent number: 8794756
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes: a upstream roller pair arranged on the upstream side of a printing head with respect to a direction in which a sheet is conveyed; and a downstream roller pair arranged on the downstream side of the printing head with respect to the direction, wherein each of the upstream roller pair and the downstream roller pair includes a first roller and a second roller configured to hold the sheet therebetween. In both of the upstream roller pair and the downstream roller pair, a rotation shaft of the second roller is provided to be situated on the downstream side of a rotation shaft of the first roller with respect to the direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shigeru Toriihara, Kengo Nieda, Toshiki Takeuchi, Koichiro Kawaguchi, Ryosuke Sato
  • Patent number: 8783855
    Abstract: An image recording device includes a suction part that suctions a medium supported on a medium support part via suction holes, the medium being suctioned by at least two air-blowing parts, and a control part that stops one of the air-blowing parts during an action preceding the conveying action, whereby a first mode in which a first suction force is applied by the suction part on the medium is switched to a second mode in which a second suction force that is lower than the first suction force is applied by the suction part on the medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Akihiro Toya
  • Patent number: 8770733
    Abstract: Disclosed is an inkjet ink which provides a high-quality image in that whitening of the recorded image film is inhibited, durability of the image is good, and there is no banding, and the like; inkjet injection stability and ink shelf life are excellent; and head maintenance returnability is excellent. Also disclosed are a method for producing an inkjet printed product using the same, and a method for producing a water-based inkjet ink. This inkjet ink comprises at least a) a pigment, b) a polymer dispersant comprising polyethylene oxide groups having an acid value of less than 50 mgKOH/g (c) acrylic copolymer resin, and (d) at least one water-soluble organic solvent selected from glycol ethers and 1,2-alkanediols having 4 or more carbons.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Konica Minolta IJ Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Hidenobu Ohya, Manabu Kaneko, Masami Kato
  • Patent number: 8757791
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus including an image forming device to form an ink image on a recording sheet, a discharger to discharge the sheet bearing the ink image in a face-down manner, and a stacker to stack the discharged sheet thereon. The stacker includes a first surface to deform a rear end portion of the sheet, and a second surface which has a surface to press a front end portion of the sheet and is slanting so as to rise in the sheet discharging direction. The first and second surfaces are arranged such that the first surface or an extended surface thereof intersects at an angle with the second surface or an extended surface thereof to form an intersection line and such that when the front edge of the recording sheet reaches the second surface, the rear edge of the recording sheet has not yet been discharged by the discharger.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 24, 2014
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Akiyoshi Tanaka, Yoichi Ito, Kuniyori Takano
  • Patent number: 8746871
    Abstract: An image formation device includes an inkjet head that ejects ink onto a sheet, IR heaters that dry the ink ejected on the sheet, and warm air heaters between the IR heaters. At the IR heaters, a peak wavelength of infrared rays is set to be less than or equal to 1.2 ?m. By adjusting temperature of the IR heaters and temperature and wind speed of the warm air heaters, during an initial stage of drying in which a moisture content derived from ink at the sheet is greater than or equal to 4.0 g/m2, heating is carried out under a condition that a paper surface temperature of the sheet becomes less than or equal to 100° C., and, after the moisture content derived from ink at the sheet becomes lower than 4.0 g/m2, heating is carried out such that the paper surface temperature of the sheet exceeds 100° C.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 10, 2014
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Yuhei Chiwata
  • Patent number: 8740336
    Abstract: An ink jet printing apparatus and an ink jet printing method, whereby high-permeation ink and low-permeation ink are employed to prevent a reduction in optical density is provided. The ink jet printing apparatus controls ejection of ink from print heads, so that only low-permeation ink is ejected onto the edge area of a print medium that is adjacent to a non-printing area, and this time, high-permeation ink is not employed. Further, the ink jet printing apparatus controls ejection of ink from the print heads, so that both low-permeation ink and high-permeation ink are employed for the non-edge area that is adjacent to the edge area, and to perform printing, the low-permeation ink is ejected onto the non-edge area prior to the high-permeation ink.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yasunori Fujimoto, Masato Kawakami, Takeshi Honma
  • Patent number: 8740377
    Abstract: Certain embodiments provide an imprint recipe creating device comprising first to fifth creation units. The first creation unit creates inside-standard-shot information by use of filling amount information and residual film thickness information. The second creation unit creates first inside-substrate-surface information by use of shot position information, edge information, and the inside-standard-shot information. The third creation unit creates first correction information by use of unevenness information indicating unevenness in a substrate and unevenness distribution information indicating variations in depth of the unevenness inside the substrate surface. The fourth creation unit creates second correction information by use of post-process information indicating the variations in processing size. The fifth creation unit synthesizes the first inside-substrate-surface information, the first correction information and the second correction information, to create second inside-substrate-surface information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2014
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Shinji Mikami, Ryoichi Inanami
  • Patent number: 8727528
    Abstract: An inkjet recording medium and a coating composition for forming an inkjet recording medium. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, an inkjet recording medium is disclosed comprising an inkjet-receptive coating on a paper substrate. The inkjet-receptive coating contains a synergistic combination of pigments, binder and a multivalent metal salt such that the inkjet recording medium exhibits improved inkjet print properties, particularly when printed with a high speed inkjet printer using pigmented inks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: Newpage Corporation
    Inventor: Charles E. Romano, Jr.
  • Patent number: 8727463
    Abstract: An image recording apparatus includes: a transport unit that transports a medium, which includes a recording material one side of which is a recording layer for an image and the other side of which is an adhesive layer and also includes a separating material covering the adhesive layer, along a transport path using a plurality of transport rollers; a recording unit that records an image on the medium; and a heating unit that fixes the image recorded on the medium. In the image recording apparatus, there are sequentially provided two units of the transport rollers in the transport path, the two transport rollers respectively make contact with different surfaces of the medium, and the outer diameter of one of the transport rollers is different in size from the outer diameter of the other of the transport rollers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Takahito Sanekata