Patents Examined by Michael Konczal
  • Patent number: 9821565
    Abstract: The invention is to provide a liquid ejecting head including a flow path member which allows a capacity of an air bubble chamber to be increased as much as possible and in which a filter is not clogged even when the variation of a liquid consumption amount is large, and a liquid ejecting apparatus including the flow path member. Alternatively, the invention is to provide a liquid ejecting head including a flow path member which allows a capacity of an air bubble chamber to be increased as much as possible while being miniaturized in a transporting direction and a liquid ejecting apparatus including the flow path member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2017
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Masahisa Nawano, Fumiya Takino
  • Patent number: 9821572
    Abstract: A printer according to an embodiment includes: a printer body including a supplying part that rotatably holds a roll-shaped sheet member; an opening and closing cover configured to open and close with respect to the printer body; a thermal head disposed on the printer body, the thermal head configured to print on the sheet member; a platen roller disposed on the opening and closing cover, the platen roller positioned at a location opposite to the thermal head and feeding the sheet member in a closed configuration; and a platen roller holding mechanism configured to attachably and detachably secure the platen roller to the opening and closing cover. The platen roller holding mechanism includes a label roll supporter that rotatably guides the roll-shaped sheet member in the supplying part. The label roll supporter includes a cross-sectional arc-shaped surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2017
    Assignee: SATO HOLDINGS KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Takeshi Obara
  • Patent number: 9821578
    Abstract: A tape printing apparatus or the like is provided, in which both smoothness and high positioning accuracy can be realized when a tape cartridge is attached and detached. The tape printing apparatus includes a cartridge mounting portion on which a tape cartridge having a core shaft portion disposed on an inner peripheral side of a wound print tape is detachably mounted, a positioning protrusion portion which protrudes from the cartridge mounting portion and engages with an inner peripheral portion of the core shaft portion of the mounted tape cartridge, and a plurality of conductive contactors which are provided in the positioning protrusion portion, in which the plurality of conductive contactors are equally disposed in a peripheral direction in the positioning protrusion portion, and bias an inner peripheral surface of the engaged core shaft portion toward the outside in a radial direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2017
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Hideki Sakano, Akihiro Shintani
  • Patent number: 9815281
    Abstract: An image forming agent storage member capable of being resupplied with an image forming agent is disclosed. The image forming agent storage member includes a housing, an image forming agent entry, and a fluid-discharge mechanism. The housing is for carrying the image forming agent. The image forming agent entry is disposed at one end of the housing. The fluid-discharge mechanism is disposed on a surface of the housing. When the image forming agent is injected into the housing via the image forming agent entry, a fluid inside the housing is discharged via the fluid-discharge mechanism. A digital machine includes the said image forming agent storage member is also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2017
    Assignee: Avision Inc.
    Inventor: Chia-Hsin Lin
  • Patent number: 9810741
    Abstract: Sampling for arc-fault detection, ground-fault detection, and grounded-neutral fault detection uses a single analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The arc-fault and ground-fault sampling occurs at regular sampling periods that are relatively short com pared to the time between them, thus allowing grounded-neutral fault sampling to occur before and/or after one of these sampling periods. A predefined event may be used to ensure the grounded-neutral fault sampling occurs immediately before and/or after one of the periodic sampling periods. The predefined event may be the expiration of a timer or the time for a sinusoidal signal in a ground fault sense circuit to make a predefined number of zero-crossings. This avoids interference between the arc-fault sampling, the ground-fault sampling and grounded-neutral fault sampling, allowing a single ADC to perform all samplings concurrently. The timing of the predefined event may be periodically reset to compensate for any changes due to temperature and/or over time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: Schneider Electric USA, Inc.
    Inventors: Issa Vignon Dramé, Randall James Gass
  • Patent number: 9802419
    Abstract: A liquid cartridge includes a first surface and a second surface facing a particular direction, with a liquid outlet through the first surface. A circuit board is mounted on the second surface, and a liquid detection mechanism including a light access portion extends above the second surface further than the circuit board in the particular direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Naoya Okazaki, Tetsuro Kobayshi, Hiroaki Takahashi, Kosuke Nukui, Akihito Ono, Mikio Hirano, Suguru Tomoguchi, Yutao Wang, Tomohiro Kanbe
  • Patent number: 9796183
    Abstract: An electrohydrodynamic inkjet printing device, including: a support part; a jet printing module; a substrate bearing and moving module; and a roll-to-roll thin film conveying module. The jet printing module is disposed on the support part and includes a nozzle for ejecting printing fluid onto a substrate for pattern printing. The substrate bearing and moving module is disposed on the support part, and fixedly bears a rigid substrate as the substrate for pattern printing, and drives the rigid substrate to move with respect to the jet printing module. The roll-to-roll thin film conveying module is disposed on the support part, and transfers a flexible thin film as the substrate for pattern printing, and drives the flexible film to move with respect to the jet printing module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2017
    Assignee: HUAZHONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Yongan Huang, Zhouping Yin, Ningbin Bu, Jiankui Chen, Yanqiao Pan, Yajiang Ding, Yongqing Duan
  • Patent number: 9789705
    Abstract: An ink jet recording method in which an image is formed by applying onto a recording medium a reaction liquid, an aqueous pigment ink containing an anionic polymer aggregatable by the reaction liquid and a resin-containing aqueous liquid containing an anionic polymer aggregatable by the reaction liquid to form an image, the method including the steps of applying the reaction liquid to the recording medium; applying the aqueous pigment ink to a surface of the recording medium to which the reaction liquid is applied by an ink jet method to form an image; and applying the resin-containing aqueous liquid to the image formed on the recording medium by the ink jet method. The surface tension of the resin-containing aqueous liquid is higher than the surface tension of the aqueous pigment ink.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2017
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Keiichirou Takeuchi, Koichiro Nakazawa, Fumihiro Goto, Eisuke Nishitani, Kanako Soma, Takumi Otani
  • Patent number: 9789694
    Abstract: An ink jet recording method comprising ejecting an ink from a recording head to record an image on a recording medium using an ink jet recording apparatus. The ink jet recording apparatus includes a main tank, a sub tank, and a recording head. The ratio of the maximum ink storage amount of the main tank to the maximum ink storage amount of the sub tank is 3.0 or more to 50.0 or less. The ink contains a pigment and a particular water-soluble organic solvent. The ratio of the water-soluble organic solvent content to the pigment content is 2.0 or more to 10.0 or less. The ink has a temperature at which the ratio of the viscosity of the ink in the recording head to the viscosity of the ink at a temperature of 25° C. is 0.8 or less.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2017
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Masashi Yamamoto, Tomohiro Yamashita, Soichi Nagai
  • Patent number: 9787116
    Abstract: A charging circuit including a transformer, a storage element, a switch element, a first resistor, and a current detection unit is provided. The transformer includes a primary coil and a secondary coil. The storage element is coupled to the secondary coil. The switch element is coupled to the primary coil. The first resistor is coupled to the primary coil. The current detection unit detects current flowing through the first resistor. When the current reaches a set current, the current detection unit sends a full signal to de-activate the switch unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2017
    Assignee: Nuvoton Technology Corporation
    Inventor: Cheng-Tao Li
  • Patent number: 9778289
    Abstract: A sample and hold circuit takes a sample of the current flowing through an inductor of a buck switched-mode power supply (SMPS) at substantially the middle of the low side portion (50 percent point during low side switch ON) of the pulse width modulation (PWM) period. This sample of the current through the SMPS inductor during the low side ON 50% point may be considered as the “average” or “DC output” current of the SMPS, and taken every time at precisely the same low side ON 50%. A constant current source and sink are used to charge and discharge a timing capacitor whose voltage charge is monitored by a high speed voltage comparator to provide precise sample timing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Scott Dearborn, Cliff Ellison
  • Patent number: 9768726
    Abstract: A magnetoresistive mixer, comprising a spiral coil, a bridge-type magnetoresistive sensor and a magnetic shielding layer, wherein the spiral coil is located between the bridge-type magnetoresistive sensor and the magnetic shielding layer. Four tunnel magnetoresistive sensor units forming the bridge-type magnetoresistive sensor respectively contain N array-type magnetic tunnel junction rows. The magnetic tunnel junction rows are connected in series, parallel, or combination of series and parallel connections to form two port structures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: MultiDimension Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Zhimin Zhou, James Geza Deak
  • Patent number: 9751347
    Abstract: A printer has a platen top unit fastened above the platen unit. The platen top unit is separate from the platen unit, and has first star wheels and second star wheels disposed on parallel horizontal frame members extending perpendicularly to the media conveyance direction above the platen surface. The first star wheels and second star wheels prevent the continuous paper conveyed over the platen surface from lifting away from the platen surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2017
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Taku Hirashima, Hironori Maekawa
  • Patent number: 9738083
    Abstract: A liquid cartridge is configured to be inserted into a liquid consuming apparatus in a first direction along a horizontal direction against an urging force directed in a second direction opposite the first direction, and thereby to be mounted to the liquid consuming apparatus. The liquid cartridge is configured to pivot about a pivot center in the liquid consuming apparatus. The liquid cartridge includes a lower face, and the lower face includes a first portion and a second portion which are positioned further in the second direction than the pivot center. The second portion is positioned further in the second direction than the first portion and is positioned further in the upward direction than the first portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yutao Wang, Naoya Okazaki, Tomohiro Kanbe
  • Patent number: 9739849
    Abstract: A magnetic field detecting device which comprises a magnetic impedance sensor including a magnetic impedance element 1 in which a pulse electrical current or a high frequency electrical current is applied from an oscillator 2 to an amorphous wire 10 and an alternate current or AC damped oscillation voltage, which is induced in a detecting coil 11 wound around the amorphous wire 10 and has a magnitude corresponding to an external magnetic field, is output, and an arbitrary magnetic field is applied to the amorphous wire by means of the magnetic field generated on the detecting coil 11 energized by connecting the detecting coil 11 to a voltage source or to a current source E through an impedance network 3 comprising of a resistor R or a coil L or a condenser C or comprising a combination of the resistor R, the coil L, and the condenser C.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: AICHI STEEL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Michiharu Yamamoto, Hideo Arakawa, Takeshi Kawano
  • Patent number: 9731532
    Abstract: In accordance with an embodiment, an image decoloring apparatus comprises a conveyance path configured to convey a sheet on which an image is formed with a coloring agent that is decolored by heat; a first heat roller configured to be arranged at the upstream side of the conveyance path; and a second heat roller configured to be arranged at the downstream side of the conveyance path. Each of the first heat roller and the second heat roller includes a cylindrical portion and a heat source. The thickness of the cylindrical portion constituting the first heat roller is larger than the thickness of the cylindrical portion constituting the second heat roller. In this way, the heat capacity of the first heat roller is also larger than the heat capacity of the second heat roller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignees: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA, TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroshi Katakura
  • Patent number: 9733382
    Abstract: In some embodiments, an apparatus and a system, as well as a method and an article, may operate to determine apparent resistivity values of the formation associated with each of several layers comprising a set of at least three layers; to determine a resistivity correction for a selected one of the layers based on at least one of the apparent resistivity value of the selected layer, the width of the selected layer, and the apparent resistivity values in layers of the set located above and below the selected layer in the set within which the apparent resistivity value was obtained; and to generate a dip corrected resistivity value associated with the selected layer, based on the resistivity correction. Methods described herein may operate without using inversion-based or filter-based methods of dip correction. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2017
    Assignee: HALLIBURTON ENERGY SERVICES, INC.
    Inventors: Ferhat Turker Celepcikay, Luis Emilio San Martin, Burkay Donderici
  • Patent number: 9724920
    Abstract: In an example implementation, a printhead includes a die sliver molded into a molding. The die sliver includes a front surface exposed outside the molding and flush with the molding to dispense fluid, and a back surface exposed outside the molding and flush with the molding to receive fluid. Edges of the die sliver contact the molding to form a joint between the die sliver and the molding.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Assignee: HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P.
    Inventors: Chien-Hua Chen, Michael W. Cumbie
  • Patent number: 9726639
    Abstract: An apparatus and method for detecting magnetic flux leakage in an object. The apparatus includes a frame assembly, a sensor bar and a U shaped magnetic circuit consisting of first and second magnet and steel pieces 44, 46 and 42 connecting the magnets. The sensor bar is connected to the frame assembly and includes a plurality of coils and at least one sensor operatively connected to at least one of the plurality of coils. The first magnet and the second magnets are connected steel pieces and to the frame assembly. They form a U shaped magnetic circuit which is completed by the steel plate being inspected. The sensor bar is placed between the tips of the U shaped magnetic circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2017
    Inventor: Jeffrey S. Rosenberg
  • Patent number: 9714989
    Abstract: A magnetic field sensor apparatus for determining two or three components of a magnetic field includes at least one Wheatstone bridge with two half-bridges, wherein each half-bridge includes at least two bridge resistors, and at least one of the two bridge resistors is a magnetic-field-sensitive resistor with respect to a magnetic field component in an X/Y magnetic field sensor plane. Arranged symmetrically between the two magnetic-field-sensitive bridge resistors is a ferromagnetic flux concentration element which generates magnetic field components which are anti-symmetric with respect to a Z magnetic field component oriented perpendicular to the X/Y magnetic field sensor plane and are in the X/Y magnetic field sensor plane. A coordinate aspect proposes a method for determining a two-dimensional or three-dimensional orientation of an external magnetic field by such a magnetic field sensor apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2017
    Assignee: SENSITEC GMBH
    Inventors: Sebastian Weber, Claudia Glenske, Uwe Loreit