Patents Examined by John P Zimmermann
  • Patent number: 8353575
    Abstract: Provided is a nozzle sheet manufacturing method by which highly fine manufacture and low cost are achieved. The method for manufacturing a nozzle sheet to be used for an inkjet head for an inkjet printer is provided with a step of forming a first resin sheet on a patterned liquid repellent film on a first dummy substrate, a step of forming a first nozzle which penetrates the first resin sheet, and a step of peeling the first dummy substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2013
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc.
    Inventor: Yuko Yoshida
  • Patent number: 8353588
    Abstract: A drawing device includes a carriage, a base configured and arranged to mount a substrate, and a movement device configured and arranged to move the substrate and the carriage relative to each other in a first direction and a second direction intersecting the first direction. The carriage includes a plurality of types of droplet ejection head units and a plurality of ink-curing light irradiation sections. The droplet ejection head units are configured and arranged to respectively eject a plurality of types of photo-curing inks onto the substrate with the droplet ejection head units being aligned along a direction intersecting the second direction at a predetermined pitch. The ink-curing light irradiation sections are respectively disposed in positions adjacent to both sides of each of the droplet ejection head units in the second direction, and configured and arranged to cure the photo-curing inks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2013
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Kohei Ishida
  • Patent number: 8348415
    Abstract: A recording paper transportation path structure suppresses sagging of the recording paper fed from the nipping part of a pair of rollers to the platen surface of a vacuum platen, and can prevent a drop in paper feed precision. In a roll paper printer 1, the recording paper fed through the nipping part 52 of a paper feed roller 22 and a paper pressure roller 23 is fed along the contact plane P2 of the outside surface of the rollers 22 and 23 toward the platen surface 8a of the vacuum platen 8 at a slightly lower position. An inclined surface part 12b that slopes along the contact plane P2, an up-lifting surface part 12c that slopes down, and a protruding surface part 12d are formed contiguously to the upstream side at the upstream end part 8b of the platen surface 8a.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2010
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Norio Nagata
  • Patent number: 8348414
    Abstract: A printing apparatus capable of performing printing and cutting operations is presented. The printing apparatus including a supporting member for supporting a medium, an ink head comprising a nozzle for discharging ultraviolet light curable ink onto the medium and coupled to the guide rail in a freely moveable manner for moving the ink head in the second direction, a cutting head comprising a cutter for cutting the medium and coupled to the guide rail in a freely moveable manner for moving the cutting head in the second direction, and an ultraviolet light irradiation device coupled to the ink head for irradiating ultraviolet light onto the ultraviolet light curable ink discharged on the medium during the printing operation, wherein at least a portion of the medium is irradiated by the ultraviolet light after a region of the recording medium is cut by the cutter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: Roland DG Corporation
    Inventor: Harumichi Doo
  • Patent number: 8342675
    Abstract: An object of this invention is to provide a newspaper production system, having the structure of a system that is provided with a supply unit for a continuous web provided at an upstream side of a printing unit for printing on one surface and the other surface of a continuous web, and a processing unit for carrying out cutting and folding processing of a continuous web after printing at a downstream side, by making the area of an installation flat region for the printing unit for printing on one surface and the other surface of a continuous web, having an ink jet printing device group for printing one side of the continuous web and an ink jet printing device group for printing the other side of the paper sheet, small, and with which it is easy for a single person to carry out a newspaper production operation of monitoring the entire system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2013
    Assignee: Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuyuki Motojima, Taizou Abe
  • Patent number: 8333459
    Abstract: A printing device (10) including a substrate (22) having an aperture (20) extending therethrough, wherein the aperture includes a side wall and defines a liquid ink flow path, an ink firing chamber (24) fluidically connected to the aperture, and a coating positioned on the side wall of the aperture, the coating being impervious to etching by liquid ink, and wherein the coating is chosen from one of silicon dioxide, aluminum oxide, hafnium oxide and silicon nitride.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2012
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Rio Rivas, Jon A. Crabtree, Eric L. Nikkel, Siddhartha Bhowmik, Bradley D. Chung, Samson Berhane
  • Patent number: 8328333
    Abstract: One of an electric wiring substrate and a retaining member includes a section having an absorptance with respect to a laser beam, and the other one of the electric wiring substrate and the retaining member includes a section having a transmittance with respect to the laser beam. The electric wiring substrate and the retaining member are welded to each other by irradiation with a laser beam. At this time, the electric wiring substrate and the retaining member are welded to each other at least at a part of an outer peripheral section of the electric wiring substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Satoshi Oikawa
  • Patent number: 8322841
    Abstract: A printing apparatus has been developed that prints inkjet images on a continuous web with a configurable number of distinct ink colors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Joseph Herman Lang, Gregory Joseph Kovacs, Peter Gordon O'Dell, Jeffrey William Drawe
  • Patent number: 8322840
    Abstract: A pattern is formed by carrying out the steps of dropping curable ink linearly onto a substrate, curing the ink dropped onto the substrate, and depositing layers of ink by repeating a process of linearly dropping a predetermined amount of ink onto the cured ink and a process of curing the predetermined amount of ink. In the step of depositing layers of ink, the ink is dropped at dot pitch p that satisfies pmin?p when the ink is dropped at dot pitch p, and a minimum dot pitch for preventing the dropped ink from spreading beyond cured landing-position ink that is located at a landing position of the dropped ink is pmin.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Kazuaki Okamori
  • Patent number: 8317298
    Abstract: A printhead assembly includes a plurality of inkjet ejector arrays having corresponding ink receptacles. Each inkjet array is formed from a plurality of inkjet stack layers that are bonded to a single aperture layer, and the inkjet arrays are positioned with a predetermined alignment about a curved image receiving surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Trevor Snyder, Brent Rodney Jones
  • Patent number: 8317313
    Abstract: Printing systems, printing apparatuses and methods of forming images on media are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventor: Barry P. Mandel
  • Patent number: 8313190
    Abstract: A stripper blade system has been developed for high throughput inkjet printers. The stripper blade system includes a metallic blade having a leading edge that is less than 0.06 mm in thickness, a blade holder to which the metallic blade is mounted, and an actuator that is associated with the blade holder to move the metallic blade into and out of contact with an intermediate imaging member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2012
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Ruddy Castillo, Daniel J. McVeigh, Donald M. Bott, Barry P. Mandel
  • Patent number: 8306449
    Abstract: In a roller to affect a temperature of a print substrate in a digital printer, a hollow roll is mounted to a shaft. Channels are provided for a heat transport medium in the hollow wall. A roller shell of the hollow roll is comprised of arc-shaped segments extending over a width of the hollow roll. The segments end laterally in arms designed so that the arms of adjacent segments are connected to each other. The channels extend over the width of the hollow roll and are assembled respectively from the segments of the roller shell. A respective covering plate is clamped between the arms of the respective segments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2012
    Assignee: Océ Printing Systems GmbH
    Inventor: Juergen Stresau
  • Patent number: 8303104
    Abstract: An inkjet recording apparatus to print onto a surface of a recording medium includes an endless rotation conveyance member with a plurality of through-holes; a suction unit to suction the recording medium on the surface of the endless rotation conveyance member; an ink discharge head including ink discharge nozzles; a blank discharge ink receiver to receive ink through the through-holes; a control unit to make the ink discharge nozzles discharge ink at a predetermined timing; and a fixed plate along an inner surface of the endless rotation conveyance member, the fixed plate including an opening formed in a position corresponding to the ink discharge nozzles and a through-hole. The blank discharge ink receiver is disposed corresponding to the opening of the fixed plate and in close contact with the fixed plate so that an inside space of the blank discharge receiver becomes a substantially closed space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Takashi Miyagi
  • Patent number: 8287118
    Abstract: A method and apparatus a digital ink-jet printer are presented. A radiation-curable ink is continuously applies to successive locations on a substrate along a print line extending across the substrate. Concurrently with the continuous application of the radiation-curable ink along the print line, first curing radiation of a predetermined first intensity is continuously applied to the applied ink on the successive locations on the substrate along said print line, with a certain time delay, constant for all the locations on the substrate, between the applications of ink and to the first curing radiation. Second curing radiation of a predetermined second intensity is applied to the locations on the substrate a certain time period, constant for all the locations on the substrate, after the application of the first curing radiation to said locations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2012
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Gregory Rodin, Kobi Markovich
  • Patent number: 8277040
    Abstract: A printer has an exhaust path that rectifies the exhaust flow of a centrifugal fan for producing air flow through a vacuum platen. Exhaust from a centrifugal fan 30 tends to flow in the direction of rotation A of the blades due to inertia even after being discharged from the exhaust opening 39. The exhaust thus produces a curving exhaust current C. An exhaust duct 32 connected to the exhaust opening 39 of the centrifugal fan 30 therefore curves in the direction of rotation A of the blades so as to not impede the flow of the exhaust current C. As a result, turbulence inside the exhaust duct 32 is suppressed, and the exhaust current C is rectified. The exhaust from the centrifugal fan 30 can therefore flow smoothly, and a loss of exhaust flow can be suppressed. In addition, noise caused by the exhaust current C hitting the inside wall of the exhaust duct 32 can be suppressed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2012
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Tetsugo Ishida, Shun Oya
  • Patent number: 8267508
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, an ink jet recording apparatus includes: a guide rail extending in a first direction; an ink head that slidably engages with the guide rail and discharges an ultraviolet light curable ink toward a recording medium; a second head that slidably engages with the guide rail; a carriage that moves along the guide rail; a first connection mechanism that bridges the carriage and the ink head and detachably connects the carriage with the ink head; a second connection mechanism that detachably connects the carriage with the second head; and an ultraviolet light irradiation device that is attached to the ink head to move together with the ink head, that is positioned in front, in rear or below the first connecting mechanism when the carriage and the ink head are connected by the first connecting mechanism, and that irradiates the ultraviolet light curable ink discharged from the ink head on the recording medium with ultraviolet light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 18, 2012
    Assignee: Roland DG Corporation
    Inventor: Harumichi Doo
  • Patent number: 8262214
    Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus includes a guide rail extending in a first direction; an ink head that slidably engages with the guide rail and discharges an ultraviolet light curable ink toward a recording medium; an ultraviolet light irradiation device attached to the ink head to move together with the ink head and that irradiates ultraviolet light to the ink discharged on the recording medium; a second head that slidably engages with the guide rail; a carriage that moves along the guide rail; a first connection mechanism that detachably connects the carriage with the ink head; a second connection mechanism that detachably connects the carriage with the second head; and an irradiation prohibition mechanism that prohibits the irradiation by the ultraviolet light irradiation device based on a predetermined condition relating to a connection state between the carriage and the ink head caused by the first connection mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: LG Electronics Inc.
    Inventor: Harumichi Doo
  • Patent number: 8235520
    Abstract: A droplet discharge device includes a stage, a droplet discharge head, a movement unit and a light radiating unit. The droplet discharge head includes nozzles arranged to discharge droplets of photo-curable liquid material toward a drawing region of a workpiece. The movement unit is arranged to move the stage and the droplet discharge head relative to each other. The light radiating unit has a light emitting part capable of emitting light to an entire area of the drawing region and disposed on a side opposite from the surface of the workpiece on which the liquid material is applied. The light emitting part is arranged not to emit the light to the portion of the drawing region when the droplet discharge head is disposed at a position over the portion, and to emit the light to the portion when the droplet discharge head has moved away from the position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2012
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Toshihiro Ushiyama
  • Patent number: 7891751
    Abstract: A liquid discharge apparatus that is capable of setting a proper deflection amount for deflecting an ink discharge direction even when the distance between the ink discharge surface and the ink landing surface of print paper varies and method of using same. The liquid discharge apparatus includes a head in which a plurality of nozzle-incorporated ink discharge sections are arrayed, discharge direction deflection means for deflecting the discharge direction of an ink discharged from a nozzle of each ink discharge section in the direction of ink discharge section arrangement, distance detection means for detecting the distance between the ink discharge surface of the head and the ink landing surface of print paper, and discharge deflection amount determination means for determining the ink discharge deflection amount (discharge angle) to be provided by the discharge direction deflection means in accordance with the results of detection by the distance detection means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2011
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Soichi Kuwahara, Iwao Ushinohama, Manabu Tomita, Yuichiro Ikemoto