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).

  • Publication number: 20220063263
    Abstract: A liquid discharging apparatus includes: a head having a plurality of nozzles; and a controller. The controller executes: a discharging processing of discharging liquid, from each of the nozzles toward a recording medium, in a liquid droplet amount which is selected for each of pixels from at least three kinds of liquid droplet amounts; and a total discharge amount calculating processing of calculating a total discharge amount of the liquid to be discharged from the nozzles in the discharging processing, based on the liquid droplet amount selected for each of the pixels and a discharge duty which is density of the liquid droplet per a unit area of the recording medium.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2021
    Publication date: March 3, 2022
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Tomohiro Nodsu
  • Publication number: 20220063275
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes: a head having nozzles; a conveyor configured to convey a recording medium; and a controller. The controller executes: a recording processing of conveying the recording medium by the conveyor and ejecting liquid from the nozzles with respect to the recording medium based on image data; a flushing processing of discharging the liquid from the nozzles with respect to a flushing area, based on flushing data different from the image data; and a first determining processing of determining, based on the image data, whether a time interval after completion of a first recording processing and until start of a second recording processing exceeds a threshold value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 13, 2021
    Publication date: March 3, 2022
    Inventor: Satoru Arakane
  • Publication number: 20220063307
    Abstract: There is provided a liquid discharge apparatus including: a head, a conveyer having a roller arranged at the downstream of the head according to a conveyance direction, and a controller. The controller is configured to carry out: a recording process, a first determining process to determine whether or not a predetermined time has elapsed since the recording process, a conveying process to convey a medium in if the first determining process determines that the predetermined time has elapsed, and a setting process to set a predetermined time based on a discharge amount of a liquid from a plurality of nozzles onto a recording area and a conveyance time for the conveyer to convey the medium from the recording area to the roller, before the first determining process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 3, 2021
    Publication date: March 3, 2022
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Shohei Ichikawa, Taichiro Kimoto, Yusuke Arai
  • Patent number: 11260671
    Abstract: A printer includes a print engine and a controller configured to, when a particular condition is satisfied, control the print engine to perform first partial printing to form first dots corresponding to a first portion of a target image without forming second dots corresponding to a second portion of the target image, perform sub scanning over a first distance after the first partial printing and before second partial printing, and perform the second partial printing to form the second dots without forming the first dots, and when the particular condition is not satisfied, control the print engine to perform the first partial printing to form at least a part of the first dots, perform the sub scanning over a second distance different from the first distance after the first partial printing and before second partial printing, and perform the second partial printing to form the second dots.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Tsuyoshi Ito, Hirotoshi Maehira
  • Patent number: 11254133
    Abstract: A printing apparatus is provided with a print head having at least a first type nozzles and a second type nozzles positioned on a first direction side with respect to the first type of nozzles and a controller. The controller is configured to perform a first ejection control with performing a main scanning. The first ejection control includes a control of performing flushing when the print head is in a first state where the second type of nozzles are located at a position corresponding to an ink receiver and the first type of nozzles are located at a position corresponding to the medium range, and a control of causing the first type nozzles to eject the ink toward the printing medium during a period where the ink is ejected from the second type of nozzles toward the ink receiver when the print head is in the first state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Satoru Arakane
  • Publication number: 20220016883
    Abstract: There is provided an image recording apparatus including: a conveyor, a recording head, a carriage and a controller. In a case that the controller causes a not less than two copies of a same image to be recorded, at a time of recording of a first copy of the not less than two copies, the controller generates first discharge data, obtains blank information, and performs the recording of the first copy by a multi pass recording based on the first discharge data, regardless of the blank information. At a time of recording of a second copy of the not less than two copies, the controller generates second discharge data and performs the recording of the second copy by at least one of a single pass recording and the multi pass recording, based on the second discharge data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2021
    Publication date: January 20, 2022
    Inventor: Satoru Arakane
  • Patent number: 11225085
    Abstract: A control device is configured to: control a main scanning device and a sub-scanning device to print partial images by single partial printing in a first case where a specific condition is not satisfied, the specific condition indicating that ink supply to a printing head may be delayed in a partial printing and determined for each of the partial image, control the main scanning device and the sub-scanning device to print the partial images by a plurality of partial printings including a first partial printing and a second partial printing in a second case where the specific condition is satisfied, and determine a first area of the partial image to be printed by the first partial printing and a second area of the partial image to be printed by the second partial printing by using a pixel value information, in the second case.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masashi Kuno, Shota Morikawa, Satoru Arakane, Shin Hasegawa, Yoshiharu Furuhata
  • Patent number: 11220105
    Abstract: There is provided a liquid discharge apparatus including a conveyer, a head, a carriage, and a controller. The controller is configured to: record an image on a recording medium by executing a recording operation and a conveyance operation; obtain discharge-defective nozzle information; set, as a plurality of specified nozzles, the discharge-defective nozzle and all the nozzles disposed at an upstream side in a conveyance direction from the discharge-defective nozzle, or the discharge-defective nozzle and all the nozzles belonging to the nozzle row and disposed downstream of the discharge-defective nozzle in the conveyance direction, based on the discharge-defective nozzle information obtained, and use any other nozzle than the specified nozzles in the recording operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Satoru Arakane
  • Publication number: 20210402814
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a head to discharge liquid, a carriage to support the head and reciprocate in a forward direction and a backward direction, and a controller. The controller executes a printing process to print one image in a plurality of copies by discharging the liquid from the head while moving the carriage in the forward direction and the backward direction, based on a print job for printing the one image in the plurality of copies, and a first determining process to determine a moving direction of the carriage for second and following copies, based on a moving result of the carriage in printing for the first copy in the printing process.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2021
    Publication date: December 30, 2021
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Satoru ARAKANE
  • 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
  • Patent number: 11203214
    Abstract: A printing apparatus, including a conveyor, a liquid ejection head with nozzles, a contact part to contact a surface of a recording medium and a controller, is provided. The controller executes printing processes including a first printing process with a first conveying action and a second printing process with a second conveying action. The controller obtains a length of a non-printing region in the recording medium, and in the second printing process, designates a nozzle within a contact range, in which the recording medium is maintained contacted by the contact part upon completion of the conveying action in a final printing process, to be a second nozzle, which is activated to print a most downstream part of the image. The longer the length of the non-printing region is, the closer nozzle closer to an upstream end of conveyance among the plurality of nozzles is designated to be the second nozzle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2021
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Satoru Arakane
  • Patent number: 11203206
    Abstract: There is provided an image recording apparatus, including: a conveyer; a recording head; a carriage; a signal output circuit; and a controller. When recording is performed by a multi-pass recording mode, when the number of defective-discharge nozzles is less than a predefined value, when a discharge-defective nozzle, in which a dot recording ratio using a first mask data is equal to or more than a threshold value, is included in nozzles, and when a discharge-defective nozzle, in which a dot recording ratio using a second mask data is equal to or more than the threshold value, is not included in the nozzles, the controller sets the second mask data as a used mask data and performs recording without a suction purge. In other cases, the controller sets the first mask data as the used mask data and performs a purge process before recording as needed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2021
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Satoru Arakane
  • Patent number: 11172073
    Abstract: An evaluation table includes: a first pixel value set; a second pixel value set next to and having a larger pixel value sum than the first pixel value set; a third pixel value set having a larger pixel value sum than the second pixel value set; a fourth pixel value set next to and having a larger pixel value sum than the third pixel value set; a fifth pixel value set having a larger pixel value sum than the fourth pixel value set; and a sixth pixel value set next to and having a larger sum than the fifth pixel value set. Each of a difference between pixel value sums of the first and second pixel value sets and a difference between pixel value sums of the fifth and sixth pixel value sets is larger than a difference between pixel value sums of the third and fourth pixel value sets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shota Morikawa, Satoru Arakane
  • Publication number: 20210339531
    Abstract: A liquid discharging apparatus includes a controller configured to execute: a recording processing, a first determining processing, a pre-recording flushing processing, a first flushing processing, and a second flushing processing. In a case that the controller determines, by the first determining processing, that the recording processing is to be executed in the second mode, the controller is configured to make a first flushing interval between the pre-recording flushing processing and the first flushing processing to be longer than a second flushing interval between the first flushing processing and the second flushing processing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2021
    Publication date: November 4, 2021
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Satoru ARAKANE, Shotaro IIDA, Shin HASEGAWA, Yasuhiro NAKANO
  • Patent number: 11161350
    Abstract: A control device is configured to cause a print execution unit to print an image by repetitively executing: partial printing of causing a print head to eject ink while causing a main scanning unit to perform the main scanning; and conveying processing of causing a conveyor to perform a conveyance, and the control device is configured to execute: selection processing of selecting one of first processing and second processing for printing an Nth band area when the Nth band area includes a blank pixel line extending in a second direction; and execution processing of executing the one of the first processing and the second processing, and in the selection processing, the control device is configured to: select the second processing when a total count condition is satisfied; and select the first processing when the total count condition is not satisfied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2021
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Ito, Yasuo Ono, Satoru Arakane
  • Patent number: 11135836
    Abstract: When image recording is performed using a multi-pass recording mode, and when a dot recording ratio for a thinned-out image to be recorded by a discharge-defective nozzle is equal to or more than a threshold value, the image recording is performed on a medium after a discharge operation. When image recording is performed using the multi-pass recording mode, and when the dot recording ratio is less than the threshold value, the image recording is performed on the medium without the discharge operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2021
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Satoru Arakane
  • Publication number: 20210303232
    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: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2021
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    Inventors: Satoru ARAKANE, Hirotoshi MAEHIRA, Masao MIMOTO, Tsuyoshi ITO, Yasuo ONO
  • Publication number: 20210300035
    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: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2021
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    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: 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