Patents by Inventor Masao MIMOTO

Masao MIMOTO 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).

  • Patent number: 11872807
    Abstract: A roller pair includes lower and upper rollers that contact each other at a conveyance path. A platen is located downstream of the roller pair in the conveyance path, and has an end facing toward a surface. A recording head faces the platen from above and ejects ink to a sheet. A movement mechanism moves the platen and the lower roller in conjunction with movement of a tray in a drawing direction such that: the end of the platen moves from a first support position at which the platen supports a sheet to a first lower position at which the platen is separated farther downward from the recording head than at the first support position; and the lower roller moves from a contact position at which the lower roller contacts the upper roller to a second lower position at which the lower roller is separated downward from the upper roller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 16, 2024
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoshi Miyase, Masao Mimoto
  • Patent number: 11850848
    Abstract: A liquid discharging apparatus, having a head with nozzles, a scanning assembly, a conveyer, and a controller, is provided. The controller is configured to conduct actions including a conveying action and a scanning action. The scanning action includes a forward scanning action and a backward scanning action, in each of which a deceleration distance is longer than an acceleration distance. The controller is configured to determine, prior to conducting the forward scanning action, whether a deceleration range corresponding to the deceleration distance in the forward scanning action coincides with a discharging range in the forward scanning action. In a case where the controller determines that the deceleration range coincides with the discharging range, the controller is configured to conduct the backward scanning action, without conducting the forward scanning action, based on partial image data being a part of the image data corresponding to the forward scanning action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Masao Mimoto
  • Patent number: 11787199
    Abstract: There is provided an image recording apparatus including: a conveyer; a carriage; a recording head; a memory; and a controller. The controller is configured to cause the conveyer to convey a recording medium in a conveyance direction such that dot recording ranges are partially overlapped with each other in the conveying operation. In a case that a predetermined condition is fulfilled, the controller is configured to cause the recording head to record a dot including a correcting portion by correcting discharge, and in a case that the predetermined condition is not fulfilled, the controller is configured to cause the recording head to record the dot including the correcting portion by ordinary discharge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Masao Mimoto, Tsuyoshi Ito
  • Patent number: 11669705
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a print execution section and a controller. The print execution section includes a printing head which has nozzles for discharging ink of specified color, the nozzles being aligned in a first direction; a head driver which drives the printing head to discharge the ink of the specified color thereby forming dots of the specified color on a printing medium; and a conveyor which conveys the printing medium relative to the printing head in any direction of the first direction and a second direction intersecting with the first direction. The controller is configured to: acquire object image data; generate a plurality of pieces of dot data, which represent formation states of the dots of the specified color, for a plurality of pixels by using the object image data; and print a printing image on the printing medium by using the plurality of pieces of dot data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2023
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Masao Mimoto, Tsuyoshi Ito
  • Patent number: 11663432
    Abstract: A printer includes a printing device including a print head, a first moving device, and a second moving device, and a controller. The controller is configured to generate first partial-dot-data by executing a first generating process with respect to first partial-image data and generate second partial-dot-data by executing a second generating process with respect to second partial-image-data. In the second generating process, the controller determines a degree of reduction in density by the second generating process to a first degree of reduction in a first case where a particular condition including a code condition that is satisfied when the second partial-image includes at least a portion of a code image is satisfied, and determine the degree of reduction in density by the second generating process to a second degree different from the first degree of reduction when the second partial-image does not include the code image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2023
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Tsuyoshi Ito, Masao Mimoto
  • Publication number: 20230102944
    Abstract: There is provided an image recording apparatus including: a conveyer; a carriage; a recording head; a memory; and a controller. The controller is configured to cause the conveyer to convey a recording medium in a conveyance direction such that dot recording ranges are partially overlapped with each other in the conveying operation. In a case that a predetermined condition is fulfilled, the controller is configured to cause the recording head to record a dot including a correcting portion by correcting discharge, and in a case that the predetermined condition is not fulfilled, the controller is configured to cause the recording head to record the dot including the correcting portion by ordinary discharge.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 5, 2022
    Publication date: March 30, 2023
    Inventors: Satoru ARAKANE, Masao MIMOTO, Tsuyoshi ITO
  • Patent number: 11554583
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a print execution section and a controller. The print execution section includes: a printing head having nozzles arranged in a first direction; a head driver that drives the printing head to discharge ink from the nozzles thereby forming dots on a printing medium; and a movement mechanism that moves the printing medium relative to the printing head in any of the first direction and a second direction intersecting with the first direction. The controller obtains a piece of object image data, generates, by using the object image data, a plurality of pieces of dot data indicating formation states of the dots for pixels, and prints a printing image by causing the print execution section to execute discharge of the ink and movement of the printing medium by use of the pieces of dot data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Masao Mimoto, Tsuyoshi Ito
  • Patent number: 11541668
    Abstract: When a specified image is recorded while ranging over a boundary between a first dot recording range and a second dot recording range, a controller of an image recording apparatus judges whether or not a predetermined condition is fulfilled, the predetermined condition including at least one of a first condition which relates to a duty and a second condition which relates to a positional deviation in a scanning direction of a landing position of a liquid. If the predetermined condition is fulfilled, the dot belonging to a correcting portion is formed by correcting discharge in which the liquid in a discharge amount smaller than a set discharge amount is discharged. If the predetermined condition is not fulfilled, the dot belonging to the correcting portion is formed by ordinary discharge in which the liquid in the set discharge amount is discharged.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2023
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Masao Mimoto, Tsuyoshi Ito
  • Patent number: 11491800
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes: a print execution section and a controller. The print execution section includes: a printing head having nozzles, an ink having a specified color being discharged from the nozzles; a head driver which drives the printing head to form dots having the specified color on a printing medium by discharging the ink having the specified color from the nozzles; and a movement mechanism which moves the printing medium relative to the printing head. The controller is configured to: obtain object image data; generate, by using the object image data, a plurality of pieces of dot data indicating formation states of the dots having the specified color, for a plurality of pixels; and print a printing image by causing the print execution section to execute discharge of the ink having the specified color and movement of the printing medium by use of the pieces of dot data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Masao Mimoto, Tsuyoshi Ito
  • Patent number: 11465409
    Abstract: A controller acquires image recording data for recording a plurality of passes; determines a first movement distance of a carriage for recording each of the plurality of passes; determines a non-usage ratio that is a ratio of a number of unused nozzles in a last pass of the plurality of passes to a total number of the plurality of nozzles arranged in a conveyance direction; determines a second movement distance in a particular pass which is recorded before the last pass, the second movement distance being a movement distance of the carriage assuming that the particular pass is recorded without using nozzles of a first ratio smaller than or equal to the non-usage ratio; and in response to determining that the second movement distance is shorter than the first movement distance, performs image recording of the particular pass without using the nozzles of the first ratio.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yasuo Ono, Tsuyoshi Ito, Masao Mimoto, Satoru Arakane, Hirotoshi Maehira
  • Publication number: 20220250381
    Abstract: A liquid discharging apparatus, having a head with nozzles, a scanning assembly, a conveyer, and a controller, is provided. The controller is configured to conduct actions including a conveying action and a scanning action. The scanning action includes a forward scanning action and a backward scanning action, in each of which a deceleration distance is longer than an acceleration distance. The controller is configured to determine, prior to conducting the forward scanning action, whether a deceleration range corresponding to the deceleration distance in the forward scanning action coincides with a discharging range in the forward scanning action. In a case where the controller determines that the deceleration range coincides with the discharging range, the controller is configured to conduct the backward scanning action, without conducting the forward scanning action, based on partial image data being a part of the image data corresponding to the forward scanning action.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 3, 2022
    Publication date: August 11, 2022
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Satoru ARAKANE, Masao MIMOTO
  • Patent number: 11407243
    Abstract: An image forming system, having a recording head, a sheet conveyer, an inverting mechanism, and a controller, is provided. The sheet conveyer conveys a sheet in a sheet-conveying direction. The sheet is nipped at nipping points located at positions upstream and downstream in the sheet-conveying direction with respect to a discharging position. The inverting mechanism inverts the sheet from a first side to the second side. The controller determines an initial arrangement of the sheet in the sheet conveyer where image-forming on the second side starts, and controls a length of a period between time, when image-forming on the first side of the sheet in the posture with the first side facing the recording sheet is completed, and time, when the image-forming on the second side of the sheet inverted and refed to the sheet conveyer starts, based on the determined initial arrangement of the sheet in the sheet conveyer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Ito, Masao Mimoto, Yasuo Ono, Satoru Arakane, Hirotoshi Maehira
  • Patent number: 11407242
    Abstract: When an image recording apparatus records an specific image over a boundary between a first dot formation range where dots are to be formed in a preceding recording operation of two consecutive recording operations and a second dot formation range where dots are to be formed in a subsequent recording operation of the two consecutive recording operations, the apparatus sets, as a correction portion, an end portion in a scanning direction of a specific region including at least one of a first boundary region adjacent to the second dot formation range and a second boundary region adjacent to the first dot formation range in the specific image, and forms the dot placed at the correction portion by discharging liquid of a discharge amount smaller than the discharge amount set for a dot element corresponding to the dot from nozzles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Masao Mimoto, Kengo Noda, Shohei Ichikawa, Yoshimitsu Taniguchi, Tsuyoshi Ito
  • Patent number: 11409477
    Abstract: There is provide an image processing apparatus including a carriage with a recording head and a sensor mounted thereon, a conveyer, and a controller. The controller carries out: acquiring a recording data, a front edge margin, and a tail edge margin, determining whether or not at least one of first and second reference values is less than a threshold value, and a positioning process. When at least one of the first and second reference values is less than the threshold value, then the controller carries out: a front edge detecting process, a first recording preparation process, and a recording process. When at least one of the first and second reference values is not less than the threshold value, then the controller carries out: a second recording preparation process, and the recording process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Hirotoshi Maehira, Masao Mimoto, Tsuyoshi Ito, Yasuo Ono
  • Patent number: 11305551
    Abstract: A control device for a printing execution unit including a printing head, a head drive unit, and a movement unit, wherein, in a case where a non-character object region is located at an upstream end of a partial region which is configured to be printed by a first partial printing: dots are formed in a first overlap region by both the first partial printing and a second partial printing, the first overlap region including the upstream end of the partial region, wherein, in a case where a character region is located at the upstream end of the partial region, dots are formed in a second overlap region by both the first partial printing and the second partial printing, the second overlap region including the upstream end of the partial region, and wherein a length of the second overlap region is shorter than a length of the first overlap region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hirotoshi Maehira, Tsuyoshi Ito, Masao Mimoto, Yoshimitsu Taniguchi, Shohei Ichikawa, Kengo Noda
  • Publication number: 20220016900
    Abstract: A printer includes a printing device including a print head, a first moving device, and a second moving device, and a controller. The controller is configured to generate first partial-dot-data by executing a first generating process with respect to first partial-image data and generate second partial-dot-data by executing a second generating process with respect to second partial-image-data. In the second generating process, the controller determines a degree of reduction in density by the second generating process to a first degree of reduction in a first case where a particular condition including a code condition that is satisfied when the second partial-image includes at least a portion of a code image is satisfied, and determine the degree of reduction in density by the second generating process to a second degree different from the first degree of reduction when the second partial-image does not include the code image.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2021
    Publication date: January 20, 2022
    Inventors: Arakane SATORU, Tsuyoshi ITO, Masao MIMOTO
  • Publication number: 20210402798
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a print execution section and a controller. The print execution section includes a printing head which has nozzles for discharging ink of specified color, the nozzles being aligned in a first direction; a head driver which drives the printing head to discharge the ink of the specified color thereby forming dots of the specified color on a printing medium; and a conveyor which conveys the printing medium relative to the printing head in any direction of the first direction and a second direction intersecting with the first direction. The controller is configured to: acquire object image data; generate a plurality of pieces of dot data, which represent formation states of the dots of the specified color, for a plurality of pixels by using the object image data; and print a printing image on the printing medium by using the plurality of pieces of dot data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 15, 2021
    Publication date: December 30, 2021
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Satoru ARAKANE, Masao MIMOTO, Tsuyoshi ITO
  • Publication number: 20210300025
    Abstract: A controller acquires image recording data for recording a plurality of passes; determines a first movement distance of a carriage for recording each of the plurality of passes; determines a non-usage ratio that is a ratio of a number of unused nozzles in a last pass of the plurality of passes to a total number of the plurality of nozzles arranged in a conveyance direction; determines a second movement distance in a particular pass which is recorded before the last pass, the second movement distance being a movement distance of the carriage assuming that the particular pass is recorded without using nozzles of a first ratio smaller than or equal to the non-usage ratio; and in response to determining that the second movement distance is shorter than the first movement distance, performs image recording of the particular pass without using the nozzles of the first ratio.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 25, 2021
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    Inventors: Yasuo ONO, Tsuyoshi ITO, Masao MIMOTO, Satoru ARAKANE, Hirotoshi MAEHIRA
  • Publication number: 20210300076
    Abstract: A roller pair includes lower and upper rollers that contact each other at a conveyance path. A platen is located downstream of the roller pair in the conveyance path, and has an end facing toward a surface. A recording head faces the platen from above and ejects ink to a sheet. A movement mechanism moves the platen and the lower roller in conjunction with movement of a tray in a drawing direction such that: the end of the platen moves from a first support position at which the platen supports a sheet to a first lower position at which the platen is separated farther downward from the recording head than at the first support position; and the lower roller moves from a contact position at which the lower roller contacts the upper roller to a second lower position at which the lower roller is separated downward from the upper roller.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 19, 2021
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    Inventors: Satoshi MIYASE, Masao MIMOTO
  • Publication number: 20210300059
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes: a print execution section and a controller. The print execution section includes: a printing head having nozzles, an ink having a specified color being discharged from the nozzles; a head driver which drives the printing head to form dots having the specified color on a printing medium by discharging the ink having the specified color from the nozzles; and a movement mechanism which moves the printing medium relative to the printing head. The controller is configured to: obtain object image data; generate, by using the object image data, a plurality of pieces of dot data indicating formation states of the dots having the specified color, for a plurality of pixels; and print a printing image by causing the print execution section to execute discharge of the ink having the specified color and movement of the printing medium by use of the pieces of dot data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2021
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    Inventors: Satoru ARAKANE, Masao MIMOTO, Tsuyoshi ITO