Patents Examined by Allister Primo
  • Patent number: 8139999
    Abstract: A glue container receiving hot-melt adhesive, an applicator roll, an apparatus casing, and disposed therein, a cooling unit and its control unit, for cooling a post-cover-sheet-processed sheaf, are provided. The control unit is configured to halt the cooling unit when adhesive is being applied to a sheaf with the applicator roll, and to actuate it after adhesive application. The control unit: (1) cools the apparatus casing interior by actuating the cooling unit when a sheaf is conveyed toward a glue application position; (2) halts the cooling unit when adhesive is being applied to a sheaf conveyed into the glue application position; and (3) reactivates the cooling unit after adhesive application. Thus controlling the apparatus-internal temperature appropriately in applying a hot-melt adhesive to a sheaf, and binding the sheaf together with a cover, etc. enables secure binding adhesion in a short time frame, without bookbinding defects such as missing leaves.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: Nisca Corporation
    Inventors: Katsumasa Takagi, Hiroyuki Sorita, Norihiro Ohno, Jun Kondou, Kazuyuki Kubota
  • Patent number: 8139997
    Abstract: An image formation device includes an image formation unit, a paper feed unit, a paper discharge unit and a guide unit. The image formation unit prints an image on a recording paper conveyed along an image formation path. The paper feed unit feeds the recording paper to the image formation unit along a paper feed path. The paper discharge unit discharges the recording paper along a paper discharge path. The guide unit is disposed adjacent to a branching point where the paper feed path and the paper discharge path diverge. The guide unit includes a first guide portion and second guide portion. The first guide portion is disposed above the paper feed path and below the paper discharge path and guides the recording paper along the paper feed path and the paper discharge path. The second guide portion is disposed above the paper discharge path and guides the recording paper along the paper discharge path. The first guide portion and the second guide portion are formed integrally.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Noriyuki Shimizu
  • Patent number: 8135330
    Abstract: A image recording device includes a sheet feeding unit, an image recording unit, a first feeding control unit, a determination unit, and a recording control unit. The sheet feeding unit feeds a sheet member along a sheet feeding path in a sheet feeding direction. The image recording unit records an image on the sheet member and defines a recordable area which is an area for forming the image on the sheet member. The first feeding control unit controls the sheet feeding unit to feed the sheet member to an entry position before the image recording unit starts to record the image on the sheet member. The determination unit determines whether the sheet member located at the entry position has a skew. The recording control unit controls the image recording unit to record the image on the sheet member based on a determination result of the determination unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2012
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kenta Horade
  • Patent number: 8131167
    Abstract: An image processing apparatus and image processing method for preventing a paper jam in print output are provided. First, when printing is instructed, it is judged whether paper jam exists. Next, when occurrence of paper jam is recognized based on the judgment, information related to an object is obtained. Next, when a paper jam occurs, the information is added to information of each object. Additionally, when each object is reused, it is judged whether there is a possibility that a paper jam will occur again, based on the information added.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Osamu Iinuma
  • Patent number: 8131204
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a single-sided image forming unit that forms an image on a first side of a sheet and discharges the sheet in a predetermined discharge state, a first double-sided image forming unit that forms an image of an even page on a first side of the sheet, reverses the sheet on which the even page is formed, conveys the reversed sheet to an image forming unit, forms an image of an odd page on a second side of the sheet, and discharges the sheet in a predetermined discharge state, and a second double-sided image forming unit that forms an image of an even page on the second side of the sheet and an image of an odd page on the first side of the sheet and discharges the sheet in a predetermined discharge state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2012
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masatoshi Kadota
  • Patent number: 8126386
    Abstract: A sheet feeder includes a sheet feed roller provided at a position of the upstream side of an aligning roller along the sheet conveying direction, a clutch to transmit and cut off the driving force from a driving source to rotate the feed roller, a rotary shaft connected to the clutch in the rotatable state, a torque limiter provided on the rotary shaft, and an inertial member provided to the rotary shaft via the torque limiter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2012
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kazuhiro Hara
  • Patent number: 8096241
    Abstract: A method for controlling cut-off registration in a printing press having printed webs includes applying print control marks which are invisible to the human eye to the printed webs; passing the webs pass through cut-off register control actuators; assembling the webs into a bundle for cut-off; scanning the webs with sensors to determine the actual positions of the marks; comparing the actual positions with desired positions of the marks; and generating signals for the cut-off register control actuators based on the comparison.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2012
    Assignee: manroland AG
    Inventor: Eduard Steinbacher
  • Patent number: 8099037
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: an image forming section which forms an image on a sheet; a conveyance section which conveys the sheet to the image forming section, having a registration roller, a plurality of loop forming rollers which cause the sheet to form a loop, provided upstream of the registration roller in a sheet conveyance direction and arranged in a direction perpendicular to the sheet conveyance direction, a skew detection sensor which detects a skew of the sheet, and a conveyance roller provided upstream of the loop forming roller; and a control section which controls a driving of the conveyance section. The control section controls independently each of the plurality of loop forming rollers based on the detected result of the skew detection sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2012
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Tetsu Sekine, Satoshi Ogata, Yujiro Ishida
  • Patent number: 8086163
    Abstract: One embodiment of a sheet transport apparatus is provided with a sheet transport path for transporting a sheet in a predetermined transport direction, a reflective type optical sensor in which light irradiated from a light-emitting portion to a transported sheet is reflected and reflected light from the sheet is received by a light-receiving portion to detect a presence/absence of the sheet, an irradiated light adjustment portion that adjusts a light amount of the light-emitting portion, a non-image region locating portion that detects an image state on a sheet to locate a non-image region of the sheet, and a control portion that adjusts the light amount of the light-emitting portion by controlling the irradiated light adjustment portion based on a measured value on the non-image region located by the non-image region locating portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2011
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Fuminori Miyoshi
  • Patent number: 8045914
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes: a fixing unit which fixes toner image on a sheet by heat; a first portion in which the sheet on which the toner image is fixed by the fixing unit is fed; a second portion in which the sheet on which the toner image is fixed by the fixing unit is fed; and a fan provided between the first portion and the second portion and for cooling the sheet in the first portion and the sheet in the second portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kato, Motoyasu Muramatsu
  • Patent number: 8042462
    Abstract: A sliding T-shirts printing pallet comprises a main body, two sliding arm plates, and two stretching bump portions. Each of two sliding arm plates is connected to a shoulder blade side of the main body and to slide along the shoulder blade side. The two stretching bump portions are for flattening an armpit portion of the T-shirts. The front surfaces of the two sliding arm plates are aligned with the front surfaces of the parallelogram top portion and the rectangular bottom portion of the main body so as to form a single plane. Each of the two sliding arm plates defines first and second latch position when the sliding arm plate is slid upward or downward respectively. The sleeve side is roughly aligned with the flank sides of the rectangular bottom portion of the main body when the sliding arm plates are at the first latch position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2011
    Inventor: Johnny Un Hyong Kim
  • Patent number: 8036588
    Abstract: In an image forming apparatus including an image forming section which forms an image on a sheet and a conveyance section which conveys the sheet to the image forming section, the conveyance section includes: a registration roller, a plurality of loop forming rollers which cause the sheet to form a loop, provided upstream of the registration roller in a sheet conveyance direction and arranged in a direction perpendicular to the sheet conveyance direction, a skew detection sensor which detects a skew of the sheet, and a conveyance roller provided upstream of the loop forming roller; and a control section which controls independently each of the plurality of loop forming rollers based on the detected result of the skew detection sensor. The conveyance roller is swung in the direction perpendicular to the sheet conveyance direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2011
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Yujiro Ishida, Tetsu Sekine
  • Patent number: 8032070
    Abstract: To provide an image forming apparatus and a double-sided printing method for the image forming apparatus that can prevent occurrence of an image failure by providing a sheet retracting mechanism in a conveying path of an automatic double-sided printing device and preventing occurrence of temporary stop near a high-temperature fixing device during a double-sided printing operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2011
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Yoshikazu Suzaki
  • Patent number: 8019237
    Abstract: A system and method for avoiding paper jams and possible shutdown in an image forming device by automatically executing a series of re-feed cycles for a sheet of image receiving media in a multi pass image forming device. The sheet transport section of the image forming device includes a hold section and a sensor associated with the hold section to provide input to a control unit to execute one or more re-feed cycles based on a failure to sense a sheet of image receiving media in the hold section at an appropriate time in operation of the image forming device. The control unit also controls a hold duration for the sheet of image receiving media at the hold section to synchronize a final feed of the sheet of image receiving media with the operation of the marker unit in the image forming device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2011
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventor: Henry T. Bober
  • Patent number: 8001900
    Abstract: A home position sensor, which constitutes a portion of a home position storage unit, stores a home position by means of previously detecting the position of a printing cylinder cam. Accordingly, a printing cylinder comes to a stop at a plate replacement position at the time of replacement of a plate even when the printing cylinder cam does not pass by the home position sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2011
    Assignee: RYOBI Ltd.
    Inventors: Kenta Kimura, Takahiko Nakamura
  • Patent number: 8000616
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus to which a paper handling unit is connected thereto is provided. The image forming apparatus detects the size of a sheet in a direction in which the sheet is conveyed for image formation. The image forming apparatus outputs sheet size mismatch information indicating that the size of the sheet does not match a predetermined size to the paper handling unit before a size detecting operation thereof has been completed detecting the trailing edge of the sheet is greater than the predetermined size.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Eiichiro Teshima, Tatsuto Tachibana, Ryuichi Yoshizawa, Kazuhisa Maruyama, Atsuya Takahashi, Akihiro Nakamura, Kaoru Sato
  • Patent number: 7991306
    Abstract: A sheet transport apparatus of the present invention includes sheet transport means that transports a sheet, an actual position detecting device that detects an actual position of the sheet based on the rotation of a rotating member that is driven to rotate by the sheet transported by the sheet transport means, and a controller that controls a sheet transport speed of the sheet transport means depending on a difference between the actual position of the sheet which is detected by the actual position detecting device and a predicted position of the sheet which is calculated based on the sheet transport speed of the sheet transport means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2011
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Seiji Shibaki
  • Patent number: 7971526
    Abstract: Facetted impression elements are disclosed. The impression elements can be located, for instance, on an anvil roll and may be used during an embossing or bonding process. The impression elements include at least two chamfered surfaces that at least partially surround the top surface. The chamfered surfaces are at an angle to the top surface that lower and reduce drag that may occur between the impression element and a sheet of material as the impression element enters and exits the sheet. In one embodiment, the impression element includes a first chamfered surface having an angle of from about 5° to about 40° and a second chamfered surface having an angle of from about 40° to about 70°.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2011
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy J. Blenke, Daniel R. Schlinz
  • Patent number: 7970339
    Abstract: A bookbinding apparatus, having a sheet bundle storing device to store a sheet bundle, a grasping device to grasp the sheet bundle stored in the sheet bundle storing device, a square spine forming device to form a square spine, wherein a pair of forming members bend a coversheet bonded onto a back section of the sheet bundle grasped by the grasping device, a pressure force controlling device to vary a pressure force of the pair of forming members to press a bending section of the coversheet in accordance with bookbinding conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2011
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Kiyoshi Hata
  • Patent number: 7963710
    Abstract: The printer includes a printing unit 12 that performs printing on each of a label L1 and a second raw sheet M2 on the way of feeding out a first raw sheet M1, which is temporarily stuck with labels L1 on a release liner S, and a second raw sheet M2 having no adhesive layer; a peeling unit 13 that peels off the label L1 from the release liner S; first and second holding units 15, 16 that hold a label sheet L2 formed via a cutting unit 14; and a laminating unit 17 that laminates the label L1 and the label sheet L2 with each other so that the reverse surface of the printed surface of the label sheet L2 faces the adhesive layer side of the label L1 are provided. The label L1 laminated with the label sheet L2 is stuck onto an adherend W in a state that the adhesive layer is exposed in a closed loop state in an entire area of the periphery of the label sheet L2.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2011
    Assignee: Lintec Corporation
    Inventors: Kenji Kobayashi, Akira Dangami