Abstract: An ink jet pen supply cartridge having a spring biased ink reservoir with a visual indication of remaining ink quantity. The reservoir tends to collapse laterally as the ink supply decreases due to differential pressure exerted thereto. The spring-reservoir is contained in a rigid cartridge and a pair of flexible tape members are cemented or welded, one to each side of the spring-reservoir, and extend generally parallel toward a narrow end surface of the cartridge at which they overlap and can be viewed through a window. The overlapping relationship of the tape members provide ink quantity indicia which change as the spring-reservoir collapse draws them past each other.

Abstract: An ink expelling restoring device and method capable of reliably restoring the ink-expelling restoring capability of an ink jet type recording head and coping with the case where the ink supply is exhausted during the ink-expelling restoring process. The inventive ink-expelling restoring device for an ink jet printer includes a capping member for capping the front face of a recording head, an ink-residual quantity detector for checking the residual quantity of ink, and blade member for wiping the front face of the recording head. The ink expelling capability restoring operation is carried out by a sequence of a wiping operation, ink-suction operation, and flushing operation. The residual-quantity detector checks the residual quantity of ink during the operation of restoring the ink-expelling capability. When the residual quantity of ink is smaller than a preset quantity, the ink suction operation is stopped. The recording head is capped with the capping member after the flushing and wiping operations.

Abstract: The image forming apparatus according to the present invention is connectable to an external device through a communication line, and includes an image forming device for forming an image on paper and a device for setting specified set conditions in the image forming device. The image forming apparatus performs image forming operation corresponding to the set conditions, and further includes a receiving device for receiving a control signal from the communication line and a transmission device for transmitting the set conditions through the communication line in response to reception of the control signal.

Abstract: A device for detecting a quantity of remaining ink includes first and second electrodes provided in an ink supply passage which connects an ink tank for storing an ink to a recording head for emitting the ink, and a detection means for detecting a resistance between the first and second electrodes. The second electrode is provided in the ink supply passage in an area relatively close to the recording head, whereas the first electrode is provided in the ink supply passage in an area relatively far from the recording head with the second electrode therebetween. The second electrode is maintained at the same potential as that of a substrate which constitutes the recording head and on which emission energy generating elements driven to emit the ink are disposed, whereas the first electrode is maintained at a potential different from that of the second electrode. Consequently, the amount of remaining ink can be detected by measuring changes in the resistance between the first and second electrodes.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus having a unit for charging the surface of an image carrier uniformly with electricity, a unit for forming an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the image carrier charged electrically, a unit for developing the electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the image carrier to thereby form a toner image and a means for transferring and fixing the toner image to a transfer member. The developing unit includes a developing roller which is disposed so as to contact the image carrier.

Abstract: A toner image is transferred from an electrostatographic imaging member to an image receiving substrate. A biased transfer member in the form of a roller or a belt forms a nip with the imaging member. A compliant intermediate transport member passes through the nip for receiving a toner image from the imaging member. The intermediate transport member is preferably semiconductive, and self-discharges in less than one second. In a preferred process for transferring the toner image to a conductive conformable intermediate, both the intermediate transport member and the biased transfer roller are conductive.