Patents by Inventor Satoru Arakane

Satoru Arakane 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: 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: 20220314607
    Abstract: There is provided a printing device, which includes a print engine provided with an ejection head configured to eject droplets of ink introduced from a container containing the ink and configured to perform printing using the ink droplets on a recording sheet, and a controller. The controller is configured to automatically set a drive signal pattern defining a signal pattern to drive the ejection head in accordance with contract information concluded for the printing device or for a use by a user of the printing device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 29, 2022
    Publication date: October 6, 2022
    Inventors: Masahiro HAYASHI, Satoru ARAKANE, Tomohiro NODSU
  • Publication number: 20220314671
    Abstract: A control system is configured such that a carriage that a processing head is mounted is driven by a motor and reciprocates. The motor is controlled by a controller. The controller reciprocates the carriage by selecting a control mode as a target mode based on temperature information related to temperature of the motor and controlling the motor in the target mode. The controller selects the target mode to be applied to the control of the motor for each of particular work units. The target mode is selected from a group of particular control modes. Each control mode in the group of particular control modes is a control mode in which a maximum temperature, which is estimated based on the temperature information, when the control of the motor using the selected control mode would be executed until the processing is completed, is less than a reference value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2022
    Publication date: October 6, 2022
    Inventors: Masahiro HOGA, Shohei ICHIKAWA, Satoru ARAKANE, Eisuke TAKAHASHI
  • Publication number: 20220314666
    Abstract: In a control system, a controller is configured to determine presence or absence of an obstructed area within the intermediate section, and control movement of the moving body in accordance with a selected one of controlling methods including a first and a second control methods. The first control method causes the moving body to move at a first constant speed in the processing section defined within the intermediate section and at a second constant speed faster than the first constant speed in at least a part of a non-processing section within the intermediate section and other than the processing section, the first control method being selected when the obstructed area is absent. The second control method causes the moving body to move at the first constant speed in the processing section and the non-processing section, the second control method being selected when the obstructed area is present.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2022
    Publication date: October 6, 2022
    Inventors: Satoru ARAKANE, Masahiro HOGA, Shohei ICHIKAWA, Eisuke TAKAHASHI
  • Publication number: 20220250384
    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 determine whether the nozzles are to be flushed in a moving action which accompanies a discharging action, if the controller determines the nozzles are not to be flushed in the moving action, conduct the moving action to move the head at a first acceleration rate; if the controller determines the nozzles are to be flushed in the moving action, determine whether a distance between a flushing range and a discharging range is greater than or equal to a predetermined distance; and if the controller determines the distance is greater than or equal to the predetermined distance, conduct the moving action to move the head at a second acceleration rate and control the head to discharge liquid for flushing the nozzles.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 3, 2022
    Publication date: August 11, 2022
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Satoru ARAKANE, Yasuhiro NAKANO, Shin HASEGAWA, Shotaro IIDA
  • 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: 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
  • Publication number: 20220242126
    Abstract: A controller of a liquid ejection device obtains a temperature of a head after recording and before a pre-cap flushing and determines a pre-cap flushing voltage based on the temperature. Then, the controller outputs the pre-cap flushing voltage to the head in the pre-cap flushing process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 27, 2022
    Publication date: August 4, 2022
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Satoru ARAKANE, Shotaro IIDA
  • Patent number: 11400734
    Abstract: There is provided image recording apparatus including: memory and controller. The controller is configured to store, in the memory, first identification information for identifying recorded image and minimum margin value being a minimum value of partial image margins of recorded partial images. The controller is configured to obtain second identification information for identifying image-to-be-recorded. In a case that second identification information is same as first identification information stored, the controller is configured to determine whether the minimum margin value is smaller than threshold or not, and then: in a case that the minimum margin value is smaller than threshold, the controller is configured to derive an edge position of the sheet, and then execute ejection based on the derived edge position; and in a case that the minimum margin value in not smaller than threshold, the controller is configured to execute the ejection without deriving the edge position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Satoru Arakane
  • Patent number: 11383527
    Abstract: A head unit includes: X (X?2) of first type nozzles configured to discharge a first type liquid droplet, and W (1?W<X) of a second type nozzle configured to discharge a second type liquid droplet. The head unit generates first data forming a first dot pattern and indicating a preceding first type dot area as an area in which the first type liquid droplet is to be discharged, and a preceding second type dot area as an area in which the second type liquid droplet is to be discharged; and second data for forming a second dot pattern and indicating a succeeding first type dot area as an area in which the first type liquid droplet is to be discharged, and a succeeding second type dot area as an area in which the second type liquid droplet is to be discharged.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Satoru Arakane
  • Patent number: 11358404
    Abstract: A printer includes a head having nozzles, a carriage with the head mounted thereon, a carriage motor to move the carriage along a scanning direction, an encoder including a scale having reference marks formed thereon along a particular direction, and a sensor to detect the reference marks while moving relative to the scale along with movement of the carriage along the scanning direction, and a controller configured to perform liquid discharging to control the head to discharge liquid from the nozzles toward a recording medium while performing feedback control of the carriage motor based on velocity information such that the carriage moves at a target velocity along the scanning direction, the velocity information representing a carriage velocity based on detection results of the sensor, and interrupt the liquid discharging when the carriage velocity exceeds an overshoot threshold higher than the target velocity during the liquid discharging.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Kuwayama, Satoru Arakane, Kenji Kawamoto, Shoji Sato, Shoko Ota
  • Patent number: 11351777
    Abstract: A conveyer conveys an ejection target in a conveyance direction along a conveyance path including a facing position facing a nozzle surface of a liquid ejection head. A distance sensor outputs a distance signal that changes depending on a distance between the nozzle surface and a surface of the ejection target. A controller performs: receiving the distance signal outputted from the distance sensor and positional information relating to a position of the ejection target on the conveyance path; and during ejecting liquid from the nozzle to record an image on the ejection target, changing at least one of a determination condition and a coefficient based on the positional information, the determination condition being a condition for determining whether to interrupt recording of the image by referring to the distance signal, the coefficient being multiplied by a value of the distance signal when determining whether to interrupt recording.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shoji Sato, Satoru Arakane
  • Patent number: 11351800
    Abstract: There is provided an image recording apparatus including an image recording head; a scanner; a conveyer; and a controller. The controller is configured to execute first and second recording modes in which the controller causes the image recording head to accelerate to first and second velocities, to move at the first and second velocities, and then to decelerate from the first and second velocities, while causing the image recording head to record the image at least during moving at the first and second velocities, respectively. In a case that the controller has determined, based on printing data, that the image is to be recorded during a first velocity changing period, the controller executes the second recording mode. The first velocity changing period includes a first acceleration and deceleration periods in which the image recording head accelerates and decelerates, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Satoru Arakane
  • Publication number: 20220169035
    Abstract: A controller includes a print controller configured to cause the print execution engine to convey the print medium in a conveying direction and execute a plurality of partial printings. The print controller causes the print execution engine to execute first and second partial printings. On a print medium, first and second target ranges on which printing is to be performed by the first and second partial printings, respectively, form an overlapping range. The first and second target ranges include first and second non-overlapping ranges, respectively, that do not overlap the second and first target ranges, respectively. The print controller generates print data based on non-overlapping range data and overlapping range data. The generating the print data includes increasing a density of at least a portion of the image to be printed in the overlapping range as compared with a density of the images to be printed in the non-overlapping ranges.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 22, 2021
    Publication date: June 2, 2022
    Inventor: Satoru ARAKANE
  • Patent number: 11331931
    Abstract: A liquid droplet discharge apparatus includes: a conveyor which conveys a recording medium in a sub-scanning direction; a head unit including first-kind nozzles and at least one second-kind nozzle; a moving device configured to move the head unit in a main scanning direction intersecting with the sub-scanning direction; and a controller. The controller executes: a first data generation process for generating a first data being used for forming a first image; a second data generation process for generating a second data being used for forming a second image; and a forming process for forming dots by controlling the head unit, the moving device, and the conveyor based on the first data and the second data to discharge liquid droplets on the recording medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Hirotoshi Maehira
  • Patent number: 11318755
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a print execution section and a controller. The print execution section includes: a printing head having nozzles from which ink is discharged; a main-scan section configured to execute main-scan in which the printing head moves along a main-scan direction relative to a printing medium; and a sub-scan section configured to execute sub-scan in which the printing medium moves along a sub-scan direction relative to the printing head. The controller obtains object image data indicating an object image formed by pixels, generates pieces of partial printing data by processing the object image data in an order from a downstream side toward an upstream side in the sub-scan direction, and causes the print execution section to execute, a plurality of times, the sub-scan and partial printing in which ink is discharged from the printing head during the main-scan by use of the pieces of partial printing data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Tsuyoshi Ito, Hirotoshi Maehira
  • Patent number: 11312140
    Abstract: There is provided a liquid ejection apparatus including: a liquid ejection head that includes nozzles; a signal output circuit that outputs a signal that varies depending on whether at least part of the nozzles includes a discharge-defective nozzle; and a controller. The controller is configured to discharge a liquid on a medium by using a partial discharge mode; perform determination, for at least one nozzle included in the nozzles based on the signal from the signal output circuit, about whether the discharge-defective nozzle is included therein; and set, based on the signal from the signal output circuit, the part of the nozzles not to include the discharge-defective nozzle when the liquid is discharged from the liquid ejection head on the medium by using the partial discharge mode and when the controller has determined that the discharge-defective nozzle is included in the nozzles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Satoru Arakane
  • Patent number: 11279157
    Abstract: There is provided an image recording apparatus including: a conveyor; a carriage; a recording head; and a controller. In a case that a moving direction in the scanning direction of the carriage in one of the two continuous recording passes is same as a moving direction in the scanning direction of the carriage in the other of the two continuous recording passes, the controller is configured to make a length in the conveyance direction of the overlap area to be a first length. In a case that the moving direction in the scanning direction of the carriage in the one of the two continuous recording passes is different from the moving direction in the scanning direction of the carriage in the other of the two continuous recording passes, the controller is configured to make the length in the conveyance direction of the overlap area to be a second length.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Satoru Arakane
  • Publication number: 20220063267
    Abstract: A liquid discharging apparatus includes: a channel unit having a nozzle and an individual channel; an actuator applying pressure to liquid in the individual channel to discharge the liquid from the nozzle; a driving circuit electrically connected to the actuator and supplying driving signal to the actuator; and a controller. In a case of determining that a single-sided recording is to be executed, the controller supplies the driving signal corresponding to each of gradation values for each of pixels when discharging the liquid toward one of a first surface and a second surface of a recording medium; in a case of determining that the double-sided recording is to be executed, the controller supplies the driving signal corresponding to each of the gradation values for each of the pixels when discharging the liquid toward the first surface and when discharging the liquid toward the second surface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2021
    Publication date: March 3, 2022
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Tomoya Kondo