Patents by Inventor Kenji MATOBA

Kenji MATOBA 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: 20230415479
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes: a discharging head discharging, onto a print medium, at least one ink among a printing ink, a base layer ink and a protective layer ink; an obtaining section obtaining information regarding a shape of the print medium; and a controller. The controller executes an ink amount increasing processing by controlling a discharging operation of the discharging head so as to increase an amount per unit area of the at least one ink with respect to a ridge line present area including a ridge line as a boundary between one print surface and the other print surface which are adjacent to each other in the print medium than another area different from the ridge line present area, based on the information regarding the shape of the print medium obtained by the obtaining section.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 11, 2023
    Publication date: December 28, 2023
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: KENJI MATOBA, ATSUSHI ITO
  • Patent number: 11472200
    Abstract: A liquid discharge apparatus includes: a head, a radiation unit, a movement mechanism, and a controller. The controller is configured to: acquire a radiation distance for each of a plurality of areas defined on a surface of a recording medium; control the movement mechanism and the head to discharge the liquid to the surface of the recording medium; and control the radiation unit to radiate the light onto the plurality of the areas of the recording medium so that the longer the radiation distance for each of the plurality of areas, the stronger a light emission intensity of each of the plurality of light sources which faces each of the plurality of areas in the first direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kenji Matoba, Atsushi Ito, Haruhisa Takayama, Kenichi Naruse, Masahiro Noda, Hiroyuki Tsujihara
  • Publication number: 20210300074
    Abstract: A liquid discharge apparatus includes: a head, a radiation unit, a movement mechanism, and a controller. The controller is configured to: acquire a radiation distance for each of a plurality of areas defined on a surface of a recording medium; control the movement mechanism and the head to discharge the liquid to the surface of the recording medium; and control the radiation unit to radiate the light onto the plurality of the areas of the recording medium so that the longer the radiation distance for each of the plurality of areas, the stronger a light emission intensity of each of the plurality of light sources which faces each of the plurality of areas in the first direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2021
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    Inventors: Kenji Matoba, Atsushi Ito, Haruhisa Takayama, Kenichi Naruse, Masahiro Noda, Hiroyuki Tsujihara
  • Patent number: 10291061
    Abstract: A charger mounting a rechargeable battery includes a switcher configured to switch transmission status of electric power through cables connected to an upstream port and/or downstream port, and a discharger configured to consume the electric power by discharging. The controller is configured to control, depending on charged quantity of the rechargeable battery and request information for feed/reception of the electric power, the switcher and the discharger to execute one of: at least one of charging the rechargeable battery with the electric power received from one of the power source, the upstream charger and the downstream charger through a cable, and consuming the electric power as received by the discharger; and at least one of transmitting the electric power of the rechargeable battery to one of the upstream charger and the downstream charger through a cable, and consuming the electric power of the rechargeable battery by the discharger.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2019
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kenji Matoba
  • Publication number: 20180278080
    Abstract: A charger mounting a rechargeable battery includes a switcher configured to switch transmission status of an electric power through cables connected to an upstream port and/or downstream port, and a discharger configured to consume the electric power by discharging. The controller is configured to control, depending on charged quantity of the rechargeable battery and request information requesting for feed/reception of the electric power, the switcher and the discharger to execute one of: at least one of charging the rechargeable battery with the electric power received from one of the power source, the upstream charger and the downstream charger through the cable, and consuming the electric power as received by the discharger; and at least one of transmitting the electric power of the rechargeable battery to one of the upstream charger and the downstream charger through the cable, and consuming the electric power of the rechargeable battery by the discharger.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 29, 2017
    Publication date: September 27, 2018
    Inventor: Kenji Matoba
  • Patent number: 8814321
    Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus includes: a head having an ejection face; a humid-air supplier including a storage portion for storing humidification liquid containing water and a non-volatile component and configured to perform a humidifying operation in which humid air humidified by the humidification liquid is supplied into a space near the ejection face; and an indicator obtainer configured to obtain an indicator indicating a concentration of the non-volatile component in the humidification liquid in the storage portion. The humidifying operation is performed after the ejection space is switched to the sealed state. An amount of the humid air and/or an amount of water of the humid air to be supplied in the humidifying operation is increased with increase in the concentration indicated by the indicator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yoichiro Shimizu, Kenji Matoba
  • Patent number: 8540329
    Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus includes a valve which adjusts the flow rate of a recording liquid in a return passage connecting an outflow opening with a tank, a pump which supplies the recording liquid from the tank to the internal passage via the supply passage, a detecting unit which detects an operating state of the pump, and a calculating unit which calculates the viscosity of the recording liquid. The calculating unit calculates the viscosity of the recording liquid based on the operating state of the pump detected by the detecting unit, while the recording liquid in the tank circulates so as to serially pass through the supply passage, the internal passage, and the return passage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2013
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kenji Matoba
  • Patent number: 8496314
    Abstract: Liquid ejecting apparatus including conveyor belt driven by driving device for feeding recording medium on which liquid is ejected by liquid-ejecting head to print image according to stored image data, medium attraction portion disposed in opposition to the conveyor belt and having two electrodes to attract the recording medium to the conveyor belt, variation amount estimating portion to estimate, during printing of the image and on the basis of the stored image data, amount of variation of volume of the liquid to be deposited in subject area of the recording medium which includes a gap-opposition area opposed to gap formed between the two electrodes, and sheet feeding control portion configured to control the driving device to change drive force for driving the conveyor belt, so as to restrict variation of feeding speed of the recording medium by the conveyor belt, during excessive variation period during which the estimated amount of variation of the liquid exceeds upper limit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2013
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kenji Matoba
  • Publication number: 20110242178
    Abstract: Liquid ejecting apparatus including conveyor belt driven by driving device for feeding recording medium on which liquid is ejected by liquid-ejecting head to print image according to stored image data, medium attraction portion disposed in opposition to the conveyor belt and having two electrodes to attract the recording medium to the conveyor belt, variation amount estimating portion to estimate, during printing of the image and on the basis of the stored image data, amount of variation of volume of the liquid to be deposited in subject area of the recording medium which includes a gap-opposition area opposed to gap formed between the two electrodes, and sheet feeding control portion configured to control the driving device to change drive force for driving the conveyor belt, so as to restrict variation of feeding speed of the recording medium by the conveyor belt, during excessive variation period during which the estimated amount of variation of the liquid exceeds upper limit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2011
    Publication date: October 6, 2011
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Kenji MATOBA
  • Publication number: 20110128313
    Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus includes a valve which adjusts the flow rate of a recording liquid in a return passage connecting an outflow opening with a tank, a pump which supplies the recording liquid from the tank to the internal passage via the supply passage, a detecting unit which detects an operating state of the pump, and a calculating unit which calculates the viscosity of the recording liquid. The calculating unit calculates the viscosity of the recording liquid based on the operating state of the pump detected by the detecting unit, while the recording liquid in the tank circulates so as to serially pass through the supply passage, the internal passage, and the return passage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 1, 2010
    Publication date: June 2, 2011
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Kenji MATOBA
  • Publication number: 20100079775
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image forming portion which includes a nozzle surface having at least one nozzle and which is configured to form an image on a recording medium by ejecting ink toward the recording medium through the at least one nozzle, a feeding portion which includes a feeding surface on which the recording medium is placed and which is configured to feed the recording medium toward the image forming portion in a feeding direction, and a detecting portion which is configured to detect a state of lift of the recording medium relative to the feeding surface. The detecting portion includes a contact portion which is contactable with at least a part of a portion of the recording medium that is in the state of lift and a sensing portion which senses that the recording medium and the contact portion contact with each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 3, 2009
    Publication date: April 1, 2010
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Kenji MATOBA
  • Publication number: 20040162737
    Abstract: When an agreement such as a patent agreement, etc. is concluded between companies, contents of the agreement are registered to an agreement contents database. If a money balance occurs in accompaniment with the agreement, balance data is associated with data of the contents of the agreement, and registered to a balance database. A document relevant to the agreement, such as a memorandum of understanding, etc. is put into image data, and stored in an agreement relevant document database. A user can view the contents of the agreement contents database, the balance database, and the agreement relevant document database within the scope of an access right, if he or she is permitted to use the system. Additionally, since agreements are managed in a centralized manner, achievements such as a balance of an entire company, a balance of each division, etc., which accompany an agreement, can be easily calculated as statistical data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 9, 2004
    Publication date: August 19, 2004
    Applicant: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Sekio Ikeda, Tadao Asamizu, Isao Ohide, Aki Nagano, Naoko Sato, Kenji Matoba