Responsive To Condition Patents (Class 347/23)
  • Patent number: 9108444
    Abstract: Multiple suction holes are formed in a conveyance belt of a conveyor device. A suction unit is arranged on one of surfaces of the conveyance belt. The suction unit includes a unit case. The unit case includes a plurality of cells arranged side by side in the width direction of the conveyance belt and in a conveyance direction of paper. A fan is provided in each of the plurality of cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 26, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2015
    Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.
    Inventor: Kenichi Satake
  • Patent number: 9108409
    Abstract: The invention prevents inconveniences from being caused by ejection failure and unintended mixing of different colors. To this end, the invention performs preliminary ejection of ink after a wiping action to sweep mist adhering to a face of a printing head, in which an ejection opening is formed. Moreover, the amount of ink to be wastefully consumed by the preliminary ejection after the wiping is reduced. To this end, the number of preliminary ejections is regulated. The degree of adherence of mist to the ejection-opening-formed face depends on the amount of printing (the number of printed sheets, the number of ink ejections for printing, or the like). So, at the time of the preliminary ejection after the wiping, the number of ink ejections in the preliminary ejection is regulated in accordance with the amount of printing that has been done since the last wiping action.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 18, 2015
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kazuo Suzuki, Kazuhiko Sato, Taku Yokozawa, Yosuke Ishii
  • Patent number: 9085177
    Abstract: In the case where a preliminary discharge operation is always performed at a position that is spaced apart from a recording area, the time taken for a recording head to be moved to a preliminary discharge position is increased, and this results in a decrease in throughput. In the case where it is determined that a leading end or a trailing end of a recording medium is located on a platen, positions at which the distance from an end of a recording medium to a recording head with respect to a moving direction is not smaller than a threshold are determined as preliminary discharge positions, and the recording head is controlled to perform a preliminary discharge operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 21, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroaki Komatsu, Masaya Uetsuki, Toshimitsu Danzuka, Masataka Kato, Tsuyoshi Ibe, Asako Tomida
  • Patent number: 9073329
    Abstract: There is provided a liquid droplet jetting apparatus, including: a liquid droplet jetting head in which a plurality of nozzles and a plurality of individual channels are formed; a purge mechanism; a judgment mechanism which judges whether or not a defective nozzle in which a jetting failure occurs is included in purge target nozzles; a heating mechanism which heats a liquid in the plurality of individual channels; and a controller which controls the purge mechanism and the heating mechanism. In a case that the judgment mechanism judges that the defective nozzle is included in the purge target nozzles, the controller controls the heating mechanism and the purge mechanism to heat the liquid in a part of the plurality of individual channels, which include an individual channel communicating with the defective nozzle, and to execute the purge operation for the purge target nozzles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroto Sugahara, Hirofumi Kondo, Shohei Koide, Hiromitsu Mizutani
  • Patent number: 9073343
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: a plurality of nozzles that include a normal nozzle which is normal in ejection of liquid droplets and an abnormal nozzle which is abnormal in ejection of liquid droplets; a storage unit in which nozzle information capable of determining a non-ejection nozzle which does not eject liquid droplets at the time of image forming is stored to correspond to each of a plurality of different conditions; and a control unit that performs a control based on the nozzle information corresponding to at least one of the conditions related to the image forming such that liquid droplets are not ejected from the non-ejection nozzle, and performs a control based on the image information such that liquid droplets are ejected from the nozzles except the non-ejection nozzle among the plurality of nozzles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Toshinobu Hamazaki, Shinji Seto
  • Patent number: 9033441
    Abstract: In accordance with an embodiment, an ink-jet printer includes a first black record head, a second black record head, a color record head, a black maintenance unit, a color maintenance unit and a controller. The black maintenance unit configured to maintain the first black record head. The color maintenance unit configured to maintain the second black record head and the color record head. The controller executes the maintenance of the black maintenance unit and the maintenance of the color maintenance unit at different timings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kazuhiko Ohtsu, Atsushi Kubota
  • Patent number: 9028040
    Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus including: a liquid ejection head and ejection openings; a tank; an air communication device; a supply channel; a return channel; a supply device; an adjusting device; and a controller, wherein the controller performs a liquid circulation control by controlling: the adjusting device such that a channel resistance value of the return channel is less than a predetermined maximum value; and the supply device to supply the liquid into the inside channel, wherein, when the liquid is circulated by the liquid circulation control, the controller starts a liquid discharge control for discharging the liquid by making the channel resistance value larger than that in the liquid circulation control, and wherein the controller controls the air communication device such that an inside of the tank is interrupted from the ambient air in at least a part of a period of the liquid circulation control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shuichi Tamaki, Hiroshi Taira, Akira Shinoda
  • Patent number: 9028041
    Abstract: An electronic device includes: a device body; a power supply circuitry which supplies electric power to the device body; and a real-time clock which measures a current time. The power supply circuitry includes: a transformer which converts electric power input to a primary side of the transformer and outputs the converted power to a secondary side of the transformer; a switching element disposed on the primary side to perform switching of a current to be supplied to the primary winding; and a switching controller disposed on the primary side. The real-time clock is disposed on the primary side to receive electric power. The device body includes: a main controller disposed on the secondary side to control the electronic device that receives electric power on the secondary side; and a circuit which couples the main controller and the real-time clock to allow communication therebetween in an electrically insulated state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Koichi Kondo
  • Patent number: 9004643
    Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus includes: a head including an ejection face inclining an ejection opening region having ejection openings; a capping unit for selectively establishing a sealing state or an open state; an air supply opening and an air discharge opening; a humidification unit for performing a humidifying maintenance; a recording control unit for performing image recording; and a flushing control unit for performing flushing. The flushing control unit controls the head to perform the flushing such that an amount of the liquid discharged from each of a discharge-side ejection-opening group and a supply-side ejection-opening group is greater than that of the liquid discharged from the other ejection-opening group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takashi Ito
  • Patent number: 9004644
    Abstract: When it is determined that jamming of a recording medium has occurred and an image to be formed on the recording medium is a color image, a liquid ejection apparatus performs recovery action for first nozzle of a first liquid ejection head ejecting black liquid and second nozzles of second liquid ejection heads ejecting color liquid which is not black, after the jamming of the recording medium is resolved. On the other hand, when the image to be formed on the recording medium is a monochrome image, the liquid ejection apparatus performs the recovery action for the first nozzles of the first liquid ejection head.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 14, 2015
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masashi Ohhashi
  • Patent number: 8998376
    Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus includes: a head having ejection-opening groups and ejection-passage groups; caps for covering the respective ejection-openings groups; and suction passages connecting between the interiors of the respective caps and a sucking device. A method of manufacturing the liquid ejection apparatus includes: a step of classifying, as a first group, an ejection-opening group corresponding to an ejection-passage group having a resistance value not less than a first value and classifying, as a second group, another ejection-opening group corresponding to an ejection-passage group having a resistance value less than the first value; and a step of assigning at least one suction passage having a resistance value less than a second value to the ejection-opening group as the first group and assigning another at least one suction passage having a resistance value not less than the second value to the ejection-opening group as the second group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2015
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hideki Hayashi, Keita Sugiura, Yuki Takagi, Jiro Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 8998361
    Abstract: A recording apparatus is provided, including a recording head, a transport mechanism which has an adjusting mechanism configured to adjust a spacing distance between recording media upstream from the recording head, a discharge control unit configured to control the recording head so that a liquid is discharged when discharge ports face the recording medium and configured to control the recording head so that at least one of discharge flushing and non-discharge flushing is performed when the discharge ports are positioned between the two recording media, and a measuring mechanism which is arranged upstream from the recording head to measure the spacing distance between the recording media. The adjusting mechanism is configured to adjust the next spacing distance between the recording media depending on the spacing distance between the recording media measured by the measuring mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2015
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Tomoyasu Yabuki
  • Publication number: 20150091976
    Abstract: A controller of an inkjet recording apparatus executes, after receiving a recording instruction, first flushing by controlling a recording head to idly eject ink toward a cap from which the ink is discharged by a pump to a detachable waste ink tank. After executing the first flushing, the controller executes image recording by controlling a conveying unit and a recording head to repeat a unit action in which the recording head ejects ink onto a recording medium conveyed by a predetermined line feed length in a conveying direction. After detecting arrival of a flushing timing during the image recording both when a threshold time elapses and when one of repeated unit actions is completed, the controller executes second flushing by controlling the recording head to idly eject ink toward a fixed ink receiving member.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 9, 2014
    Publication date: April 2, 2015
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Shunsuke Mizutani
  • Patent number: 8991970
    Abstract: A printing device or discharge test device comprising a head that includes a nozzle discharging liquid to a medium, a temperature obtaining section that obtains a temperature related to the head, a missing-dot detecting section that detects whether or not the liquid is discharged from the nozzle, and a control section that controls the head and the missing-dot detecting section. When the temperature obtained is within a first temperature range, the head is configured to discharge the liquid to the medium and whether or not the liquid is discharged from the nozzle is detected. No such detection is made at other temperatures. When the temperature obtained is outside the first temperature range and within a second temperature range, the head is configured to discharge the liquid to the medium, and when the temperature obtained is outside the second temperature range, the liquid is not discharged to the medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Sukehiro Ito
  • Patent number: 8991972
    Abstract: A movable member configured to move when a liquid ejecting apparatus is inclined from a posture to be taken when ejecting liquid upon receipt of an action of the gravitational force and a memory unit configured to store the fact that the movable member is moved in response to abutment with the moved movable member are provided and the presence or absence of the movement of the movable member is acquired after the power has been turned ON. Accordingly, a change of the posture of the liquid ejecting apparatus in a power OFF state can be determined after the fact after the power has been turned ON.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Takeshi Tanaka
  • Patent number: 8985736
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an ink jet head, having a pressure chamber, a flow path and a nozzle, which ejects ink in the pressure chamber through the nozzle, a first tank connected to the flow path, a supply unit which supplies ink in the first tank to the pressure chamber through the flow path, a second tank connected to the flow path, a discharge unit which moves ink in the pressure chamber to the second tank through the flow path, and a control section which activates the supply unit and the discharge unit so that ink in the pressure chamber is discharged to the second tank by the discharge unit, ink in the first tank is charged to the pressure chamber by the supply unit and the liquid surface of ink supplied to the pressure chamber is projected from the nozzle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2015
    Assignee: Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hideyuki Akaba, Hideaki Nishida
  • Publication number: 20150077466
    Abstract: A liquid droplet ejection apparatus including a head 1 in which a plurality of ink chambers 11 are aligned in one or both of an X direction and a Y direction, liquid droplets are ejected from nozzles 12, and printing is carried out in a print region of a recording medium based on print data, wherein the ink contains a dispersion medium and solid particles having higher specific gravity than that of the dispersion medium, and the liquid droplet ejection apparatus includes a flushing device that performs a flushing operation when the head 1 is present in a non-print region in such a manner that an amount of liquid droplets ejected from the nozzle 11b placed at an end portion in an alignment direction becomes larger than an amount of liquid droplets ejected from the nozzle 11a placed in a central portion in the alignment direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 18, 2014
    Publication date: March 19, 2015
    Inventor: Ryohei KOBAYASHI
  • Patent number: 8976410
    Abstract: According to one example, there is provided a method of controlling a printing system. The method comprises: obtaining a print job to print on a substrate; obtaining a value of a factor material to an undesirable condition occurring; determining a quantity of printing fluid to be deposited on a substrate when printing a portion of the print job; determining, based on the obtained value and the determined quantity of printing fluid to be deposited, whether the undesirable condition is likely to occur whilst printing the portion of the print job; and temporarily reducing the throughput of the printing system whilst printing the portion of the print job where it is determined that the undesirable condition is likely to occur whilst printing the portion of the print job.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Marina Cantero Lázaro, Joan Albert Jorba Closa, Antonio Gracia Verdugo
  • Patent number: 8976405
    Abstract: A printing apparatus comprising a storage unit having a driving unit, determines whether or not access to the storage device is required with reception of data; determines whether or not a predetermined period of time has elapsed after transition to a first operation state; in a case where the predetermined period of time has elapsed, obtains, as an estimation time, a period of time until next reception of data that requires access to the storage device based on history information; and causes the printing apparatus to transition from the first operation state to a second operation state in a case where the estimation time exceeds a threshold of a period of time decided based on an amount of power consumption for when the driving unit is driven, and maintain the printing apparatus in the first operation state in a case where the estimation time does not exceed the threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takuhiro Ogushi
  • Publication number: 20150062239
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes an ejection head capable of ejecting a solution, a rotating member having an outer surface capable of receiving the solution ejected from the ejection head, and a scraper that wipes off the solution adhering to the outer surface by sliding along the outer surface when the rotating member rotates, the rotating member carrying out a first rotational operation of rotating after flushing, in which the ejection head ejects the solution toward the outer surface, has been performed, and a second rotational operation of rotating from when the first rotational operation ends to when the next flushing is executed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 19, 2014
    Publication date: March 5, 2015
    Inventors: Toshihiko Wakabayashi, Kazuyuki Fujioka
  • Patent number: 8955945
    Abstract: An image forming device includes a drive transfer device that selectively transmits a driving force of a first drive source to one of liquid feed pumps, a suction part of a maintenance recovery device and an air-vent opening part. The air-vent opening part is arranged to have a maximum driving-force transmission path leading to the drive transfer device among the liquid feed pumps, the suction part and the air-vent opening part. The maintenance recovery device, the drive transfer device and the liquid feed pumps are arranged in order in a sheet transport direction. The suction part of the maintenance recovery device and the drive transfer device are arranged on opposite sides of a cap of the maintenance recovery device in the sheet transport direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 17, 2015
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Atsushi Miwa, Tomohiro Sawai, Isamu Kubo
  • Patent number: 8936335
    Abstract: There is provided a flush box in an area other than a recording area in an end portion of a range in which a recording head can be driven in a main scanning direction. A control circuit performs control such that it is determined whether or not a flag is turned on for flushing operation in step S3; in a case where the flag is turned on, in step S4, it is determined whether final path is already finished or is about to be finished; when it is determined that the recording head is on the final path, in step S5, it is determined whether or not the stop position is on the side of the flush box. Then, maintenance operation is started in step S6 and paper feeding operation is executed in step S7 only when the stop position is on the side of the flush box. In addition, only the paper feeding operation is executed in step S7 when the stop position is on a side opposite to the side of the flush box.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 20, 2015
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Shunya Fukuda
  • Patent number: 8926053
    Abstract: A recording apparatus includes: a recording unit; an adjustment-chart output unit that outputs an adjustment chart for adjusting deviation of a print position between a first dot and a second dot that are formed for images on a recording medium at different timings with a print head; and an ejection-position adjusting unit that records a plurality of combinations, each containing a reference pattern for reference of an image position and adjustment patterns that are deviated from the reference pattern in a stepwise manner such that the deviation amounts are shifted by M-times of a deviation amount corresponding to the recording resolution, receives selection of an adjustment pattern closest to the reference pattern from the outside, obtains an adjustment value based on the adjustment pattern of the selected combination, sets the adjustment value as a new adjustment value, and adjusts an ejection position of the print head.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 6, 2015
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Limited
    Inventor: Shinichi Hatanaka
  • Publication number: 20150002578
    Abstract: User concerns caused by a time lag between issuing a command for a specific operation and the start of the specific operation are reduced without reducing the accuracy of ejection problem detection by a nozzle check process. The nozzle check execution unit of an inkjet printer monitors if a cut button is pressed while a nozzle check process is in progress, interrupts the nozzle check process if the button is pressed, and after the cutting process ends, resumes the nozzle check process and checks the nozzles that have not been tested for ejection problems.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 18, 2014
    Publication date: January 1, 2015
    Inventor: Motohiro NAKAMAKI
  • Patent number: 8911045
    Abstract: A control section of a printing device has a print instruction receiving section configured to receive print instructions to a printing medium including a plurality of pages, and an ink use analyzing section configured to analyze image forming dots formed on each page and to output each of ink use information and ink non-use information for each page. The control section is configured to acquire the ink non-use information of a given first page of continuous pages of the plurality of pages and the ink use information of a second page that is a next page of the first page, and to determine to use ink, that is not used in the first page shown by the ink non-use information and is used in the second page shown by the ink use information, at least for flushing dots to the first page.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 16, 2014
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Akito Sato
  • Patent number: 8888236
    Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus includes: a carriage which is movable in a forward direction from one end to the other end; a recording head provided in the carriage and having a plurality of nozzle groups from which the ink is discharged; an ink receiver provided at a side of the one end including a flushing position and configured to receive the ink discharged by a flushing operation; and a controller configured to control operations of the carriage and the recording head. In a case that the carriage is moved in the forward direction, the controller executes: an acceleration process for accelerating the carriage; a selecting process for selecting at least one nozzle group for which the flushing operation is performed; a flushing process for performing the flushing operation for the nozzle group selected in the selecting process during the acceleration process; and a recording process for recording the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 18, 2014
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Isao Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 8882239
    Abstract: In a method for determining a maintenance performance of a maintenance unit of an inkjet printing system, the inkjet system comprises an inkjet print head having an orifice surface, the orifice surface comprising an orifice, which orifice is in fluid communication with an ink chamber. The method comprises operating the maintenance unit to perform a maintenance operation on the orifice surface of the inkjet print head and detecting the presence of a wiper element or amount of ink over the orifice by detecting a pressure wave in the ink chamber and analyzing the detected pressure wave to determine the maintenance performance of the maintenance unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2014
    Assignee: Oce-Technologies B.V.
    Inventors: Mark Miedema, Bastiaan J. H. Middelbos
  • Patent number: 8882227
    Abstract: A liquid discharge apparatus, comprising: a transportation unit that transports a medium; a head that includes a first nozzle array on which nozzles for discharging a first liquid are arrayed, and a second nozzle array on which nozzles for discharging a second liquid are arrayed; and a controller that controls the transportation unit and the head based on print data, wherein, in a case where the printing of the print data is designated to be performed without forming the printing dots of the first liquid on the medium, the controller causes the head to discharge the second liquid from the second nozzle array to form the printing dots of the second liquid on the medium, and causes the head to discharge the first liquid from the first nozzle array to form the flushing dots of the first liquid on the medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2013
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2014
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Akito Sato, Satoshi Yamazaki, Keiko Yamada, Yuko Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 8882232
    Abstract: When performing at least one of preliminary ejection or a suction unit as a countermeasure against adhering ink that accumulates in the portion where preliminary ejection is performed, the preliminary ejection amount and suction speed of the suction unit are optimized. An inkjet print apparatus that prints by using a printing head for ejecting ink, comprising: an ejecting unit; a sucking unit; a measuring unit that measures an elapsed time after the sucking unit is performed; and a control unit that control ejection by the ejecting unit or sucking by the sucking unit according to the elapsed time measured in the measuring unit; wherein as the elapsed time becomes longer, the amount of ink that is ejected to the ink receiving unit in the ejecting unit is increased or a suction speed at which the ink is sucked in the sucking unit is increased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Ibe, Masaya Uetsuki, Kazuo Suzuki, Toshimitsu Danzuka, Masataka Kato, Asako Tomida, Hiroaki Komatsu
  • Patent number: 8882240
    Abstract: An inkjet printing apparatus and a print head recovery method are provided according to which, in an environment in which dust (e.g., paper dust) is easily attached to the periphery of an ejection port of a print head, the print head is subjected to a recovery operation depending on the level of the attached dust. The inkjet printing apparatus has a cutter unit for cutting a print medium and a recovery unit for performing the recovery operation by wiping the ejection port formation portion at which the ejection port is formed of the print head while sucking the ejection port formation portion. When the passing number showing how many times the cut part of the print medium cut by the cutter passes the printing position is equal to or higher than a threshold value, the recovery means subjects the print head to the recovery operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Susumu Hirosawa, Hidehiko Kanda, Yutaka Kano, Kentarou Muro
  • Patent number: 8870340
    Abstract: Systems and methods selectively remove flush drops from a plurality of ink drops ejected by a print engine when printing data for a print job. One embodiment comprises a control system of a printing system. The control system receives a flush pattern for flushing an ink jet print engine of the printing system, and receives a sheetside bitmap for printing to a print medium. The control system merges the flush pattern and the sheetside bitmap to generate a composite sheetside bitmap. The control system directs the print engine to eject a plurality of ink drops toward the print medium based on the composite sheetside bitmap, and identifies a subset of the ink drops based on the flush pattern. The control system then directs a drop deflection system of the printing system to selectively prevent the subset of ink drops from impinging the print medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 28, 2014
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd
    Inventors: Stuart J. Boland, Sean K. Fitzsimons, Scott Johnson, William Edward Manchester, Casey E. Walker
  • Patent number: 8851618
    Abstract: An ejection complement process is performed during which both a usual ejection failure and a sudden ejection failure can be appropriately coped with, without being accompanied by a frequent maintenance process. In a case wherein sequential printing is not currently being performed, the first detection process is performed with a high accuracy while being accompanied by the maintenance process, and in a case wherein sequential printing is currently being performed, the second detection process that requires only a small process load is performed at a predetermined timing without being accompanied by the maintenance processing. At this time, when the number of ejection failed nozzles detected in the second ejection process has reached a predetermined value or greater, the maintenance process is performed, and only the information for the ejection failed nozzle, detected in the second detection process, is reset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Minoru Teshigawara, Yoshiaki Murayama, Susumu Hirosawa, Takatoshi Nakano, Takuya Fukasawa
  • Patent number: 8851660
    Abstract: There is provided a method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head in which a plurality of recording element substrates used for discharging ink are appropriately arranged onto a support substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masao Furukawa
  • Publication number: 20140292906
    Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus includes: a head having ejection-opening groups and ejection-passage groups; caps for covering the respective ejection-openings groups; and suction passages connecting between the interiors of the respective caps and a sucking device. A method of manufacturing the liquid ejection apparatus includes: a step of classifying, as a first group, an ejection-opening group corresponding to an ejection-passage group having a resistance value not less than a first value and classifying, as a second group, another ejection-opening group corresponding to an ejection-passage group having a resistance value less than the first value; and a step of assigning at least one suction passage having a resistance value less than a second value to the ejection-opening group as the first group and assigning another at least one suction passage having a resistance value not less than the second value to the ejection-opening group as the second group.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 20, 2014
    Publication date: October 2, 2014
    Applicant: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hideki HAYASHI, Keita SUGIURA, Yuki TAKAGI, Jiro YAMAMOTO
  • Patent number: 8836738
    Abstract: A drive control method for a media processing device prevents increasing the media production time even when a printhead cleaning process is performed before the printing process. When a media production command is input, the preprocessing time required until the printing process starts is calculated based on the media production command. If the total of the preprocessing time plus the time passed since the last cleaning process is greater than or equal to a specified time, the cleaning process is started. If the elapsed time will reach the specified time after the media production command is output and before the printing process starts, the cleaning process runs parallel to the write process. Increasing the media production time by the time required for the cleaning process is thus prevented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2014
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Yasufumi Yokoyama, Shoji Shima, Koji Hashimoto
  • Patent number: 8827392
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes heating portions for heating liquid, a liquid ejecting head for ejecting the liquid heated by the heating portions, and a maintenance device for performing maintenance of the liquid ejecting head by causing the liquid to be discharged from the liquid ejecting head through sucking operation. The maintenance device performs a first suction for cleaning the liquid ejecting head by causing the head to discharge the liquid, waits until liquid is heated by the heating portions, and then performs a second suction with a suction force weaker than that of the first suction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2014
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Atsushi Yoshida, Hiroyuki Ito
  • Publication number: 20140240392
    Abstract: Systems and methods selectively remove flush drops from a plurality of ink drops ejected by a print engine when printing data for a print job. One embodiment comprises a control system of a printing system. The control system receives a flush pattern for flushing an ink jet print engine of the printing system, and receives a sheetside bitmap for printing to a print medium. The control system merges the flush pattern and the sheetside bitmap to generate a composite sheetside bitmap. The control system directs the print engine to eject a plurality of ink drops toward the print medium based on the composite sheetside bitmap, and identifies a subset of the ink drops based on the flush pattern. The control system then directs a drop deflection system of the printing system to selectively prevent the subset of ink drops from impinging the print medium.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2013
    Publication date: August 28, 2014
    Inventors: Stuart J. Boland, Sean K. Fitzsimons, Scott Johnson, William Edward Manchester, Casey E. Walker
  • Patent number: 8814343
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes the following elements. A carriage allows a head ejecting liquid which is curable by light irradiation to move in the moving direction intersecting the transporting direction in which a medium is transported. A precuring light source, provided for the carriage, radiates light for precuring to dots formed by applying the liquid ejected from the moving head onto the medium. A full curing light source is provided for the carriage so as to be located downstream of the precuring light source in the transporting direction. The full curing light source radiates light for full curing to the dots which have been irradiated with light for precuring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Hiroyuki Onishi
  • Patent number: 8817301
    Abstract: A printing system having a printer comprising two printheads, sensors for determining a position of a rolled receiver media in the printer, and rollers for starting a multi-page print job using either one of the printheads based on the position of the rolled receiver media in the printer. A second page of the print job is printed before a first page of the print job in response to the position of the rolled receiver media in the printer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Kodak Alaris Inc.
    Inventors: John Emmanuel Wright, Alex David Horvath, Robert Fredric Mindler
  • Patent number: 8814322
    Abstract: An inkjet recording apparatus includes a recording head that includes a discharge port face on which a plurality of discharge ports for discharging ink is formed, a cap configured to cap the discharge port face, a suction recovery unit configured to suck ink from the recording head via the cap, and a control unit configured to control the suction recovery unit so that a suction amount changes based on elapsed time from when the discharge port face is capped by the cap, in a state where ink discharged from the recording head is present, wherein the control unit controls the suction recovery unit so that the suction amount decreases as the elapsed time increases when the elapsed times does not exceed a first time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Akihisa Saikawa
  • Patent number: 8794737
    Abstract: An inkjet printing apparatus is provided that is capable of suppressing an increase in discarded ink by a restore operation of a restore unit. The apparatus is an inkjet printing apparatus that prints an image using a print head having a plurality of ejecting ports for ejecting ink and includes a restore unit that restores the ink ejection function of the print head, and a control unit that controls the restore unit so as to perform a restore operation depending on a parameter involving a growth rate of air bubbles existing inside the print head that is filled with ink.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroshi Taira, Kiichiro Takahashi, Akiko Maru, Tsukasa Doi
  • Patent number: 8770705
    Abstract: Disclosed is a droplet discharge detection device including a head array unit in which plural nozzles are arranged in a line; a light emitter configured to emit a light beam in a direction in which the nozzles are arranged, wherein the light emitter is disposed at a first end portion of the head array unit and the light emitter has an aperture for limiting a diameter of a light beam; and a light receiver configured to receive a scattered light beam of the light beam generated by a droplet, wherein the light receiver is disposed at a second end portion of the head array unit, the second end portion being opposite to the light emitter of the head array unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Takeshi Mochizuki
  • Patent number: 8770708
    Abstract: An inkjet printer including: a print head for printing by discharging ink droplets from nozzles; a recovery process unit that executes a print head recovery process; a clock unit that counts time; a print operation measuring unit that acquires printing frequency per unit time; and a memory unit that memorizes the printing frequency per unit time; wherein the recovery process unit executes the print head recovery process based on the printing, frequency per unit time in the memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Hirotaka Miyabayashi, Masashi Fujikawa
  • Patent number: 8764155
    Abstract: A method of controlling a maintenance operation of an inkjet printhead in an inkjet printer, the method includes providing at least one parameter of the maintenance operation as a function of humidity condition; receiving data corresponding to a current outdoor humidity condition; determining a humidity condition corresponding to the current outdoor humidity condition; and controlling the maintenance operation, wherein the at least one parameter is determined in accordance with the determined humidity condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2014
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Frederick Allen Donahue, Brian Gray Price, Gary Alan Kneezel
  • Patent number: 8733882
    Abstract: A method of controlling a printer 1 that cuts recording paper according to a paper cut command after printing print data received from a host computer 80 on the recording paper 10. If the paper cut command is received while performing an automatic clogged nozzle detection process on the inkjet head 17 after printing ends (S1: Yes), the automatic clogged nozzle detection process is interrupted (S2), and the cutting process is performed (S3).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2012
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2014
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Shingo Yudasaka, Toshiyuki Sugimoto
  • Patent number: 8727487
    Abstract: When a jam detector detects jamming, forced discharging from a head and wiping of an ejection surface are performed after a recording medium jammed is removed from a conveyor. When the count on a jam counter matches with any of one or more thresholds, at least the number of times the wiping is executed after the jammed recording medium is removed from the conveyor is greater than that executed when the count on the jam counter does not match with any of one or more thresholds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2014
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kosuke Nukui
  • Patent number: 8721036
    Abstract: A method of controlling a maintenance operation of an inkjet printhead in an inkjet printer, the method includes providing at least one parameter of the maintenance operation as a function of humidity condition; providing a table of average humidity conditions for a geographic locale in which the printer is located; providing a current date; determining a humidity condition corresponding to the current date; and controlling the maintenance operation, wherein the at least one parameter is determined in accordance with the determined humidity condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Frederick Allen Donahue, Brian Gray Price, Gary Alan Kneezel
  • Patent number: 8721028
    Abstract: A method of controlling a maintenance operation in an inkjet printer, the method includes detecting that ink supply connection to a printhead has been interrupted; detecting that ink supply connection to the printhead has been restored; measuring a time interval between the interruption and the restoration of the ink supply connection to the printhead; and selecting a level of the maintenance operation, depending upon a length of the time interval.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2014
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Dwight John Petruchik, Charles Francis Scaglione
  • Patent number: 8714689
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus that forms an image on a recording sheet by discharging ink droplets from nozzles provided in a print head on the recording sheet includes: a light emitting unit that generates detection light intersecting a discharge path of the ink droplets; a discharge signal output unit that outputs a discharge signal used to discharge the ink droplets from a detection target nozzle; a first light receiving unit that receives scattered light generated by irradiating the ink droplets with the detection light and outputs a first detection signal; a second light receiving unit that receives the detection light having passed through the discharge path of the ink droplets without irradiating the ink droplets and outputs a second detection signal; a determination unit that determines whether the detection target nozzle is a defective nozzle; and a correction unit that corrects a determination result of the determination unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2014
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Limited
    Inventor: Kimito Abe
  • Patent number: 8708451
    Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus includes a head for ejecting liquid, a cap unit for sealing an ejection surface of the head, a humidified air supply mechanism for performing a humidifying operation; a forcible discharge mechanism for performing a forcible discharge operation of forcibly discharging liquid from the ejection ports, a measuring unit for measuring a lapse time after a power supply becomes off and until the power supply becomes on, and a control unit for controlling the humidifying operation when the power supply becomes off, and controlling the forcible discharge operation when the power supply becomes on. When the power supply becomes on, the control unit controls the humidifying operation before performing the forcible discharge operation based on whether the lapse time measured by the measuring unit exceeds a predetermined time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takashi Ito