Patents by Inventor Hidenori Usuda

Hidenori Usuda has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20120274697
    Abstract: A fluid ejecting apparatus includes a drum that rotates while holding a medium on its outer periphery, a head that ejects a fluid on to the medium held on the periphery of the drum, a fixing section that fixes the fluid ejected on to the medium by the head, a measuring section that measures a diameter of the drum, and a controller that varies an ejection timing of the fluid ejected from the head in accordance with variation in the diameter of the drum measured by the measuring section.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2012
    Publication date: November 1, 2012
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Hidenori USUDA, Hideo NORO, Toshio KUMAGAI, Shinichi KAMOSHIDA
  • Publication number: 20120256997
    Abstract: A recording apparatus includes a transportation mechanism that transports a recording material, a recording head that discharges photoactive liquids, a light irradiation section that irradiates the discharged photoactive liquids with light, and a failure detection section that detects failure of light emitting devices in the light irradiation section. This recording apparatus executes recording by masking a nozzle opening which corresponds to a failed light emitting device, when the failure detection section detects the failure.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 6, 2012
    Publication date: October 11, 2012
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hidenori Usuda
  • Publication number: 20120249632
    Abstract: A recording apparatus includes a light irradiation unit including a light emitting element row having therein a plurality of light emitting elements aligned in the same direction as a nozzle row, and a fault detection unit that detects whether there is a fault in each of the light emitting elements. The light emitting elements apply light to a photoreactive liquid discharged onto a recording target material. The light irradiation unit includes a plurality of the light emitting element rows arranged therein. When the fault detection unit detects a fault in a light emitting element, operation enters a fault mode where the light emitting element row to which the faulty light emitting element belongs is turned off and recording is performed with the remaining light emitting element rows.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2012
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hidenori USUDA, Shinichi KAMOSHIDA, Takayuki KAWAKAMI
  • Patent number: 8240792
    Abstract: A fluid ejecting apparatus includes a drum that rotates while holding a medium on its outer periphery, a head that ejects a fluid on to the medium held on the periphery of the drum, a fixing section that fixes the fluid ejected on to the medium by the head, a measuring section that measures a diameter of the drum, and a controller that varies an ejection timing of the fluid ejected from the head in accordance with variation in the diameter of the drum measured by the measuring section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Hidenori Usuda, Hideo Noro, Toshio Kumagai, Shinichi Kamoshida
  • Patent number: 8240840
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes an array of nozzles and a light-emitting portion that emits ultraviolet light. A control portion alternately and repetitively transports a medium in a transporting direction relative to the nozzles. The control portion forms a dot group in the transporting direction on the medium by ejecting a liquid toward the medium from the nozzles. The control portion also performs a light-emitting operation every time the control portion forms a dot group. The light-emitting operation is performed by causing the light-emitting portion to emit the ultraviolet light toward the dot group to cure the dot group. During the light-emitting operation, at least one of two ends of the dot group in the transporting direction is exposed to the ultraviolet light at a time later than the time at which a midsection of the dot group in the transporting direction is exposed to the ultraviolet light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Hidenori Usuda, Toshio Kumagai
  • Patent number: 8240837
    Abstract: A fluid ejecting apparatus includes: a fluid ejecting unit that ejects a colored fluid and a colorless fluid toward a fluid ejection target medium; an irradiating unit that irradiates ultraviolet rays onto a fluid that lies on or over the fluid ejection target medium so as to cure the fluid; and a controlling unit that controls the fluid ejecting operation of the fluid ejecting unit and the ultraviolet ray irradiating operation of the irradiating unit. The controlling unit performs control so that the colorless fluid is ejected on an image that is made of the colored fluid that landed on the fluid ejection target medium. After the start of the agglomeration of the colorless fluid that landed on the image, the controlling unit performs control so that ultraviolet rays are irradiated onto the colorless fluid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Hidenori Usuda, Toshio Kumagai, Kazutoshi Fujisawa
  • Publication number: 20120176436
    Abstract: A recording apparatus includes: a recording head that discharges ink onto a recording target medium from a nozzle; a first moving unit that moves at least one of the recording target medium and the recording head; a first radiating unit that is disposed at the opposite side to the recording head with respect to the recording target medium and radiates electromagnetic waves that cure the ink; and a second moving unit that moves at least one of the recording target medium and the first radiating unit, and a control unit that controls driving of the recording head, the first moving unit, the first radiating unit, and the second moving unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 9, 2012
    Publication date: July 12, 2012
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hidenori USUDA, Shinichi KAMOSHIDA
  • Publication number: 20120176437
    Abstract: A recording apparatus includes: a transporting section that transports a recording target medium in a transporting direction; a recording head that discharges ink to the recording target medium from a nozzle; and a radiating unit that is disposed further downstream than the recording head in the transporting direction, at the same side as the recording head with respect to the recording target medium, and radiates electromagnetic waves that cure the ink, wherein the radiating unit irradiates to a range wider than the recording target medium in the a first direction crossing the transporting direction, and a portion that radiates the electromagnetic waves in the radiating unit is divided into a plurality of blocks in the first direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 10, 2012
    Publication date: July 12, 2012
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Hidenori USUDA
  • Publication number: 20120147077
    Abstract: A fluid ejecting apparatus repeats an ejecting operation which ejects a fluid from nozzles while a first nozzle row and a second nozzle row move in a movement direction with respect to a medium and a relative movement operation in which the first nozzle row, the second nozzle row and the medium relatively move to the nozzle row direction, and repeatedly performs the ejecting operation so as to include the ejecting operation which does not perform a control which changes the movement distance in the movement direction of the first nozzle row and the second nozzle row according to a position of an end in the movement direction of the image when a main image and a background image are formed to be overlapped on the medium at different ejecting operations.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 14, 2011
    Publication date: June 14, 2012
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hidenori Usuda
  • Publication number: 20120127237
    Abstract: A recording apparatus includes a first nozzle for ejecting a first type of liquid for base coating onto a recording target medium and a second nozzle for ejecting a second type of liquid onto a base formed as a result of the base coating. A distance between the first nozzle and the recording target medium is shorter than a distance between the second nozzle and the recording target medium.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2011
    Publication date: May 24, 2012
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hidenori USUDA, Shinichi KAMOSHIDA
  • Patent number: 8177314
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a head which discharges color inks and into which clear ink that prevents the head from being clogged and white ink are selectively filled. A selection portion communicates either of a white or a clear ink container with the head. A controller executes a first switching from a second filled state where the head is filled with clear ink to a first filled state where the head is filled with white ink by shifting from a state where the clear ink container is communicated with the head to a state where the white ink container is communicated with the head. A second switching is executed from the first filled state to the second filled state by shifting from a state where the white ink container is communicated with the head to a state where the clear ink container is communicated with the head.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2010
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Hidenori Usuda, Koji Harada, Yoshiaki Shimizu, Toshio Kumagai, Shinji Hirata
  • Publication number: 20120081446
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes first liquid ejecting nozzles that eject first liquid; a second liquid ejecting nozzle that ejects second liquid which is different from the first liquid; and a control unit which performs control of ejection of the first liquid from the first liquid ejecting nozzles and ejection of the second liquid from the second liquid ejecting nozzles. The control unit has a first mode of performing control to form flushing dots by ejection from the first liquid ejecting nozzles on a recording medium, the ejection not being based on image data, form background dots by ejection from the second liquid ejecting nozzle on the flushing dots, the ejection being based on the image data, and form image dots by ejection from the first liquid ejecting nozzles on the background dots, the ejection being based on the image data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2011
    Publication date: April 5, 2012
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Hidenori Usuda, Seiya Sato, Shinichi Kamoshida, Koichiro Miyazaki
  • Publication number: 20120069073
    Abstract: A fluid ejecting apparatus includes: a fluid ejecting unit that ejects a colored fluid and a colorless fluid toward a fluid ejection target medium; an irradiating unit that irradiates ultraviolet rays onto a fluid that lies on or over the fluid ejection target medium so as to cure the fluid; and a controlling unit that controls the fluid ejecting operation of the fluid ejecting unit and the ultraviolet ray irradiating operation of the irradiating unit. The controlling unit performs control so that the colorless fluid is ejected on an image that is made of the colored fluid that landed on the fluid ejection target medium. After the start of the agglomeration of the colorless fluid that landed on the image, the controlling unit performs control so that ultraviolet rays are irradiated onto the colorless fluid.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 30, 2011
    Publication date: March 22, 2012
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hidenori USUDA, Toshio KUMAGAI, Kazutoshi FUJISAWA
  • Publication number: 20120019579
    Abstract: An apparatus includes: a main image nozzle group that forms a main image; a background image nozzle group which has nozzles of a number greater than the main image nozzle group for forming a background image of the main image, and has a first nozzle group situated to one side in a predetermined direction; and a second nozzle group situated to the other side in the predetermined direction, ejects fluid from the main image nozzle group to a first region on which the main image is formed on the medium to form dots, forms dots formed by ejecting fluid from the first nozzle group and dots formed by ejecting fluid from the second nozzle group, in a second region on which an image is formed using fluid forming the background image on the medium and the main image is not formed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 19, 2011
    Publication date: January 26, 2012
    Applicant: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Hidenori Usuda, Mitsuaki Yoshizawa
  • Publication number: 20110141174
    Abstract: An apparatus includes: a first nozzles for ejecting first fluid are lined up in a predetermined direction; a second nozzles for ejecting second fluid are lined up in a movement direction; and a control unit which sets a first method of when formation of a main image with the first fluid by a nozzle group of a part of the first nozzle row and formation of a background image with the second fluid by a nozzle group of a part of the second nozzles are performed to overlap the main image and the background image with each other on the medium, in a case where one of the nozzle group of the part of the first nozzles and the nozzle group of the part of the second nozzles is positioned closer to the other direction side of the predetermined direction than the other nozzle group to perform the image formation on a predetermined area of the medium in advance of the other nozzle group.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 14, 2010
    Publication date: June 16, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hidenori Usuda, Yoshihiko Matsuzawa, Mitsuaki Yoshizawa
  • Publication number: 20110141173
    Abstract: An apparatus includes: a first nozzles for ejecting a first fluid are lined up in a predetermined direction; a second nozzles for ejecting a second fluid are lined up in the predetermined direction; and a control unit performs an ejecting operation of ejecting fluid from the nozzles, wherein the control unit forms an image on a medium in one of a first mode of forming a main image with the first fluid and a second mode of forming the main image and a background image with the second fluid to be overlapped, forms the main image using a certain nozzle group in the first nozzles when the main image is formed in the first mode, and forms the main image using the same nozzle group as the certain nozzle group when the main image is formed in the second mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 13, 2010
    Publication date: June 16, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hidenori Usuda, Yoshihiko Matsuzawa, Yuji Hatanaka, Bunji Ishimoto, Tsuyoshi Sano, Mitsuaki Yoshizawa
  • Patent number: 7950785
    Abstract: A method of controlling a liquid droplet ejection apparatus includes: a pressure detecting step of detecting whether the pressure inside a functional liquid tank is below a lower-limit pressure of a working pressure or not; a step of confirming, when the pressure inside the functional liquid tank is below the lower-limit pressure, whether a functional liquid droplet ejection head is in imaging operation or not; and a pressurization control step of, upon confirmation that the functional liquid droplet ejection head is not in imaging operation, pressurizing the functional liquid tank to an upper-limit pressure of the working pressure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2011
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Hidenori Usuda, Kazumi Aruga
  • Publication number: 20110109673
    Abstract: The printing device including: a first setting unit configured to set printing mode of a main image and to set either front-surface printing mode for printing a background image on the medium and then printing the main image on the background image or rear-surface printing mode for printing the main image on the medium and then printing the background image on the main image; and a second setting unit configured to set a printing mode of an additional image printed in association with the printing of the main image and to set either front-surface printing mode for printing a background image for the additional image on the medium and then printing the additional image on the background image for the additional image or rear-surface printing mode for printing the additional image on the medium and then printing the background image for the additional image on the additional image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 8, 2010
    Publication date: May 12, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hidenori Usuda, Mitsuaki Yoshizawa
  • Publication number: 20110102488
    Abstract: Provided is a printing device including: nozzles which discharge a first aqueous ink for printing a main image; nozzles which discharge a second aqueous ink for printing a background image; and a control unit which controls printing of an image on a medium having an aqueous ink absorption property based on one selected from a first mode for printing the main image using the first aqueous ink and a second mode for superposing and printing the main image using the first aqueous ink and the background image using the second aqueous ink, wherein the amount of first aqueous ink dischargeable per unit area of the medium when the main image is printed on the medium in the second mode is less than that when the main image is printed on the medium in the first mode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2010
    Publication date: May 5, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hidenori Usuda, Mitsuaki Yoshizawa
  • Publication number: 20110012956
    Abstract: An ink-jet recording apparatus includes an ink-jet recording head having a nozzle from which ink is ejected on the basis of print data, an ink-receiving unit that receives the ink ejected from the nozzle, and a surface-tension-depressant-solution supplying unit that supplies a liquid composition containing a surface tension depressant to the ink-receiving unit when the ink is ejected from the nozzle into the ink-receiving unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 15, 2010
    Publication date: January 20, 2011
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takayoshi Kagata, Tsuyoshi Sano, Hidenori Usuda