Abstract: When an inkjet printer includes suction means for sucking the outside air into the inkjet printer, a heated recording medium is rapidly cooled by the air flowing in a vicinity of a discharge port for the recording medium. This causes fluctuations in surface temperature, resulting in degraded image quality. Accordingly, the inkjet printer has both a configuration capable of directly sucking, into a carriage, the outside air sucked into an apparatus, and a configuration of preventing the air from passing through an inside of the carriage. Thus, a temperature of the inside of the carriage can be reduced effectively. In order to prevent a reduction in temperature of the recording medium in the vicinity of the discharge port, a heater is arranged so as to increase a heating capacity of heating. Through temperature control on the heater based on a temperature of a region that is easily reduced in temperature, a local reduction in temperature of the recording medium is suppressed.

Abstract: An inkjet printer includes a print head that moves in a main scanning direction for ejecting ink from a nozzle, and a wiper blade that moves in a direction intersecting with the main scanning direction for wiping a nozzle surface of the print head on which the nozzle is formed. The wiper blade includes a wiping portion for effectively wiping the print head, and the nozzle surface has a wiping area divided into plural sections each having a width of the effective wiping portion and being partially overlapped with one another in the main scanning direction. When the print head is wiped by the wiper blade, the print head moves in the main scanning direction and the effective wiping portion is arranged at a wiping position corresponding to any one of the plural sections, and the print head is wiped at least twice while the wiping position is changed.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus has rotatable members for rotatably retaining respective ones of flanges mounted to opposite ends of a roll sheet, and placement stages on which the roll sheet is to be placed and on which respective ones of the rotatable members are mounted. Racks are mounted to respective ones of the placement stages for undergoing movement to move the placement stages relative one another to vary a distance between the placement stages. A pinion is arranged between the racks for undergoing rotation to move the racks, and a potentiometer whose resistance value varies in accordance with a distance between the placement stages undergoing movement with rotation of the pinion is provided. An A/D converter outputs a value based on a resistance value of the potentiometer. A calculation device calculates a width of the roll sheet based on the value output from the A/D converter. A memory stores the calculated width of the roll sheet.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus has a photosensitive drum, a charger for uniformly charging a surface of the drum, an optical head for irradiating the surface of the drum with light to change a charging state of the drum surface, and a developing device for causing a toner to adhere on the surface of the drum in accordance with the charging state. The charger has a grid with two wire fixing portions each provided with two grooves, a first discharge wire fitted in one of the two grooves of each wire fixing portion, and a second discharge wire fitted in the other of the two grooves of each wire fixing portion. The two grooves of each wire fixing portion are arranged relative to the grid so that the first and second discharge wires are arranged parallel to one another along a substantial center in a width direction of the grid.

Abstract: Provided is an image forming apparatus which uses a separation claw to separate a recording medium from a photosensitive member without damaging the recording medium even when the recording medium is thin. The employed separation claw fixed to a frame is a flattened plate made of a resin. The separation claw is gradually tapered toward a leading end thereof, and is provided with a slit from the apex toward the frame . The separation claw is not gradually tapered in a thickness direction and has a constant thickness. A plurality of separation claws are fixed to the frame in a length direction of the photosensitive drum so that the recording medium can be separated regardless of the sheet size. The frame is moved to easily adjust the positional relationship between the photosensitive drum and the separation claws.

Abstract: An inkjet printer has an ink jet head mounted on a carriage for ejecting ink onto a recording medium. A heater is arranged in the casing and above the ink jet head for heating the ejected ink. A first intake fan is mounted on the casing for feeding outside air into the casing. A second intake fan is mounted on the carriage for taking the fed outside air directly into the carriage so that the temperature inside the carriage can be set close to the temperature of the outside air to enable stable ejection of ink. Air fed into the casing is discharged to the outside through an exhaust duct passing through the casing and disposed at a position spaced from the print surface of the recording medium to prevent a decrease in temperature of the recording medium and ejection failure of the ink.

Abstract: An optical printer head has an array of lenses that project light emitted by an array of LEDs onto a charged photosensitive drum to form a latent image on the drum surface. A resin film adhered to the exposed surfaces of the lenses prevents chemical reaction between nitric acid, formed as a consequence of ozone produced during electric charging of the photosensitive drum, and alkali components on the surfaces of the lenses thereby preventing clouding of the lens surfaces and dimming of the projected light. The resin film has a thickness of 10 to 100 microns and may be formed of polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene terephthalate or polymethyl meta acrylate.

Abstract: In an inkjet printer having a structure in which a plurality of mounting structural portions for coupling a carriage to a Y-rail in a movable manner are provided on one side of the carriage, in order to improve image quality by preventing deterioration in landing accuracy of ink along with high-speed movement of the carriage, a weight is mounted on another side of the carriage so as to suppress vibration of the carriage and deterioration in landing accuracy of ink along with the vibration of the carriage. Thus, the image quality is improved.

Abstract: A conveyor has drive and driven shafts mounted to undergo rotation, a transmitting member transmitting a rotational drive of the drive shaft to the driven shaft in synchronization relative one another, an elastic conveying member looped around the drive and driven shafts for conveying an object, and a guide portion arranged between the drive and driven shafts. The guide portion has rotators, receiving portions receiving respective ones of the rotators, openings communicating with through-holes of the conveying member, communication portions communicating with the openings and positioned so that each of the rotators is arranged between respective adjacent pairs of the communication portions, and connection members communicating with the openings via the communication portions. The connection members are configured for connection to a suction device for drawing air from the openings through the respective communication portions to draw by suction the conveyance object toward the conveying member.

Abstract: An ink vehicle having a vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer resin produced by suspension polymerization. In the production of the ink vehicle, the vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer resin is partially dissolved in a solvent in a state in which an undissolved gel-like component of the vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate copolymer resin is present in the resin. An external force is applied to the solvent containing the gel-like component to dissolve the gel-like component in the solvent.

Abstract: Provided is an image forming apparatus which uses a separation claw to separate a recording medium from a photosensitive member without damaging the recording medium even when the recording medium is thin. The employed separation claw fixed to a frame is a flattened plate made of a resin. The separation claw is gradually tapered toward a leading end thereof, and is provided with a slit from the apex toward the frame . The separation claw is not gradually tapered in a thickness direction and has a constant thickness. A plurality of separation claws are fixed to the frame in a length direction of the photosensitive drum so that the recording medium can be separated regardless of the sheet size. The frame is moved to easily adjust the positional relationship between the photosensitive drum and the separation claws.

Abstract: A medium holding apparatus holds a medium to be transferred in a printer. A pair of holding members are mounted to undergo movement and are configured to continuously hold respective end sections of the medium in a width direction of the medium during transfer of the medium in the printer. A support structure supports the pair of holding members so that the pair of holding members are permitted to advance and retract in the width direction of the medium in accordance with positions of the end sections of the medium in the width direction.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus is configured to use ink containing volatile components. A recording head has nozzles for discharging the ink and a temperature sensor that detects the temperature of the ink in the nozzles. A control portion is configured to control the recording head to perform idle drive operations which causes microvibration of an ink meniscus in each of the nozzles, to perform preliminary discharge operations to discharge the ink from the plurality of nozzles, and to change a number of times of performing the idle drive operations and a number of times of performing the preliminary discharge operations according to the temperature of the ink detected by the temperature sensor.

Abstract: Inside a charger for uniformly charging a surface of a photosensitive drum, a wire to which high voltage is applied is stretched. The duration of life of the wire is shorter than that of the photosensitive drum. Therefore, even when other parte are normal, a process cartridge needs to be replaced. In view or this, the charger is removably mounted to the process cartridge, and further, a plurality of wires are arranged inside the charger. Thus, power is selectively fed to the wires depending on the mounting position to the process cartridge. Power is fed only to the selected wire, and hence replacement with a new charger is unnecessary.

Abstract: A transport apparatus transports a recording medium fed from a feeding roll and wound up onto a take-up roll. A transport roller is arranged in a path between the feeding roll and the take-up roll. A first tension bar is arranged in a path between the transport roller and the take-up roll to apply tension to the recording medium in a first direction different from a transport direction of the recording medium. A second tension bar is arranged in a path between the first tension bar and the take-up roll to apply tension to the recording medium in a second direction different from the first direction. The first and second tension bars apply tension to the recording medium in the first and second directions so that the recording medium is tightened by the first and second tension bars and the tightened recording medium is wound up onto the take-up roll.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus has a sub tank that supplies ink from an ink cartridge to an ink jet head carried by a reciprocating carriage. The sub tank has an ink container formed of two opposed resin films welded together around their peripheries, and resin sheet members are attached to the ink container over the weld portion for expanding the ink container and restoring it to its original shape after the ink container is deformed by ink flowing in or out of the ink container. The sheet members may be polyimide tape strips or the like that have higher resilience than the material of the ink container and prevent plastic deformation of the ink container due to expansion and compression thereof as ink flows in and out of the ink container.

Abstract: An image forming and cutting apparatus has an inkjet head with a first coupling member having a hole, a cutting head with a second coupling member having a hole, and a coupling pin that is received by the holes of the coupling members to couple the first and second coupling members to each other. The coupling pin has first and tapered portions with a columnar portion interposed therebetween. The hole of the first coupling member has a tapered surface for receiving the first tapered portion, and the hole of the second coupling member has a tapered surface portion and a columnar surface portion for receiving the second tapered portion and the columnar portion, respectively.

Abstract: A printing device connects to at least one client computer via a network. The printing device includes a storage section that stores image formats for general-purpose image format data. A control section converts page description language (PDL) data sent via the network from the at least one client computer into pixel map format data, converts the pixel map format data into general-purpose image format data based on one of the image formats stored in the storage section, and sends via the network to the at least one client computer the general-purpose image format data together with a source information file containing source information indicating the source of the PDL data. A memory section stores the pixel map format data obtained through the conversion performed by the control section. A printer prints the pixel map format data.

Abstract: In a color reading apparatus for successively reading respective red, green, and blue colors in each line while a document is continuously conveyed to a plurality of line sensor units arranged in a zigzag manner, the line sensor units are arranged with a distance equal to or shorter than a unit of line to prevent a color shift. When read data of the plurality of line sensor units in a conveying direction are to be combined, image data shifted by the number of lines corresponding to distances between the line sensor units in the conveying direction are set as first combination candidates. A color code and a line code are added to each of the data. Image data having the same color code and the same line code are combined. According to the image reading apparatus structured as described above, it is possible to obtain data capable of reproducing read data for each color on the same line without errors.

Abstract: To position a storage medium simply/reliably. An ink bag unit is structured so as to be attachable to and detachable from a tray. When ink runs out, a new ink bag unit can be used by being mounted on the tray. An adapter portion holds a storage device that stores data regarding the ink. The adapter portion is inserted into an adapter insertion portion of the tray, whereby a position of the storage device in the ink cartridge is definitely determined. As described above, with regard to the ink cartridge, the tray can be used as a piece of equipment of a printing apparatus over and over again, and the ink bag unit can be distributed as a consumable article. Further, because the storage device is mounted to the adapter portion, connection between the printing apparatus and the storage device can be achieved reliably and easily when the ink cartridge is mounted to the printing apparatus.