Patents Examined by Kajli Prince
  • Patent number: 8497892
    Abstract: An exposure apparatus includes a light source that emits a plurality of light beams, a substrate on which the light source is mounted, a positioning member provided on a housing and being in contact with a positioning surface provided around the light source to position the light source with respect to the housing in an optical axis direction, the housing accommodating an optical system that guides the light beams, and an attachment member attached to the housing and including a portion that extends in a direction substantially perpendicular to the optical axis direction and that is bent over, an end of the bent portion being attached to the substrate such that the positioning surface around the light source is urged against the positioning member and the substrate is attached to the housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2010
    Date of Patent: July 30, 2013
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Katsuhiko Nakaie
  • Patent number: 8485632
    Abstract: An inkjet head according to an aspect of the invention may include: a flow path plate having a plurality of ink chambers; a nozzle plate having a plurality of nozzles connected to the ink chambers in order to eject ink in the ink chambers to the outside; and a temperature control unit having a heat exchange passage in at least one of the flow path plate and the nozzle plate in order to control temperature of the ink.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2013
    Assignee: Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Chang Sung Park, Jae Woo Joung, Ji Han Kwon
  • Patent number: 8480198
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an ejection head having a plurality of nozzle arrays arranged in an orthogonal direction to an array direction thereof, a carriage on which the ejection head is loaded, and a moving unit that moves the carriage. The image forming apparatus further includes a control unit that controls the moving unit and the ejection head such that, when flushing is to be performed while the image is formed on a sheet as the carriage reciprocates, a liquid is ejected to an image forming region of the sheet from the plurality of nozzle arrays, the liquid is ejected to a first receiving area from a first nozzle array group disposed adjacent to an outward side, and the liquid is ejected to a second receiving area from a remaining second nozzle array group excluding the first nozzle array group and disposed adjacent to a homeward side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2013
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Katsuhiko Nishizaka
  • Patent number: 8474940
    Abstract: An image recording apparatus including: a controller including a position storing section storing a first position which is a position of a recording portion at a point in time earlier by a rotation required period than a point in time when the recording portion is positioned at a second position at which ejection of liquid droplets has been completed, the rotation required period being a period from a point in time when a drive command is outputted to a second motor for rotating a feeding roller to a point in time when an amount of the rotation of the feeding roller reaches a preset threshold amount; and a drive command outputting section configured to output the drive command to the second motor when the position of the recording portion has reached the first position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2013
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kenji Samoto
  • Patent number: 8465117
    Abstract: A fluid ejecting apparatus includes a head that is provided with a first-nozzle-row and a second-nozzle-row, a platen that is provided with a plurality of convex-portions, and a control unit repeats an operation of ejecting fluid from the nozzles moving in two directions of a forward-path and a backward-path. The control unit adjusts the ejecting time such that, at the medium of the convex-portions, an amount-of-deviation in the movement-direction of the dots formed on the forward-path and the backward-path by the first-nozzle-row is less than an amount-of-deviation of the dots formed on the forward-path and backward-path by the second-nozzle-row. In the ejection operation, and such that the position in the movement-direction of the dots formed by the second-nozzle-row is a position opposite to the side on which the head moves in the movement-direction with respect to the position in the movement-direction of the dots formed by the first-nozzle-row.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 18, 2013
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Akito Sato, Tomohiro Yuda, Takahide Miyashita, Naoki Sudo, Mai Kubota, Bunji Ishimoto
  • Patent number: 8459761
    Abstract: A recording apparatus that records onto recording paper includes: a main case housing a noise source that generates noise when printing is carried out; a scanner space portion that is within the main case but that is independently separate from a housing space portion of the noise source; and a communication tube portion that communicates between the housing space portion and the scanner space portion. An inner surface area that intersects with the axial direction of the communication tube portion at the inner surface of the scanner space portion is formed of a document platform glass whose surface density is higher than that of the material of which the other wall surface areas are formed in the inner surface of the scanner space portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2013
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Toshinori Hiraide
  • Patent number: 8454109
    Abstract: An image forming device has: a droplet ejecting head that ejects droplets with respect to a recording medium and can form dots of plural diameters; and a control unit that, on the basis of image data expressing a tone value of each pixel in an image to be formed on the recording medium, controls sizes of droplets ejected from the droplet ejecting head such that, in a case in which the tone value is within a predetermined tone range, first dots, whose diameter is greater than a predetermined diameter, are formed at a recording rate that satisfies a predetermined formula, and second dots, whose diameter is less than or equal to the predetermined diameter, are formed between the first dots at a recording rate corresponding to the tone value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2013
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Hiroyuki Shibata
  • Patent number: 8437582
    Abstract: Input light, such as from an optical sensor or stimulus-wavelength converter, includes one or more light or dark sub-bands. The input light is transmitted, such as through a transmissive layer or transmission component, to obtain effects due to transmission with lateral variation. A detector can, for example, obtain spectral information or other photon energy information about the sub-bands due to lateral variation. For each light or dark sub-band, a transmission component can, for example, provide a respective light or dark spot, and spot position can be used to obtain spectral information such as absolute wavelength or wavelength change. A photosensing component can sense or detect transmitted light or output photons, such as with a photosensor array or a position-sensitive detector. Circuitry can use photosensed quantities to obtain, e.g. a differential signal or information about time of wavelength change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2013
    Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated
    Inventors: Peter Kiesel, Oliver Schmidt
  • Patent number: 8414196
    Abstract: A fiber optic connector is disclosed for use with both a hardened fiber optic adapter and a non-hardened fiber optic adapter. The connector includes a connector housing having an end defining a plug portion. The plug portion includes first and second sets of retaining features for retaining the connector. The first and second retaining feature sets retain the connector within the hardened and unhardened adapters respectively. A threaded member can be included on the connector to threadingly engage and connect the connector to the hardened adapter. A sliding lock can be included on the connector to lock the connector to the non-hardened adapter when slid into a locking position. The sliding lock can be mounted to the threaded member. The sliding lock can include protrusions that engage and lock the non-hardened adapter when in the locking position thereby locking the non-hardened adapter to the connector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2010
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2013
    Assignee: ADC Telecommunications, Inc.
    Inventors: Yu Lu, Randy Reagan, Craig M. Standish
  • Patent number: 8388091
    Abstract: A tray 2 includes a holder 10 into which a golf ball is to be set. The holder 10 has: in an upper surface thereof and a lower surface thereof, openings 46 and 48 from which parts of the golf ball are exposed, respectively; and a contact portion 52 that comes into contact with the golf ball to fix in place the golf ball. The holder 10 is invertible. Preferably, the tray 2 further includes a base plate 12 on which the holder 10 is mounted. The base plate 12 has a stopper 72 that comes into contact with the golf ball set into the holder 10. The golf ball is fixed to the holder 10 such that the position of the center of the golf ball is caused to agree with the position of the center of the holder 10 in a thickness direction thereof due to this contact.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 31, 2009
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2013
    Assignee: SRI Sports Limited
    Inventors: Noriyuki Matsui, Masaaki Amasaki
  • Patent number: 8380025
    Abstract: Liquid crystal waveguides for dynamically controlling the refraction of light. Generally, liquid crystal materials may be disposed within a waveguide in a cladding proximate or adjacent to a core layer of the waveguide. In one example, portions of the liquid crystal material can be induced to form refractive or lens shapes in the cladding that interact with a portion (e.g. evanescent) of light in the waveguide so as to permit electronic control of the refraction/bending, focusing, or defocusing of light as it travels through the waveguide. In one example, a waveguide may be formed using one or more patterned or shaped electrodes that induce formation of such refractive or lens shapes of liquid crystal material, or alternatively, an alignment layer may have one or more regions that define such refractive or lens shapes to induce formation of refractive or lens shapes of the liquid crystal material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 19, 2013
    Assignee: Vescent Photonics, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael H. Anderson, Scott D. Rommel, Scott R. Davis
  • Patent number: 8369669
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for imaging using a double-clad fiber is described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2013
    Assignee: The General Hospital Corporation
    Inventors: Brett E. Bouma, Guillermo J. Tearney, Dvir Yelin
  • Patent number: 8360544
    Abstract: In a printing device includes a plurality of heads corresponding to black K ink and colored inks C, M, and Y, wherein the heads are extended in a direction orthogonal to a conveying direction of a medium and are disposed in parallel from the upstream side to the downstream side, and ink droplets are discharged and deposited on the medium in order from the heads while the medium is being conveyed, a print condition setting method includes the steps of setting an order in accordance with the extent of concentration irregularity in the composite colors RGB; and creating, within the discharge order of the inks, the most separation of discharge order between the two colored inks that manifest the composite color having the greatest concentration irregularity, and inserting K ink between the discharge orders of the two colored inks that manifest the composite colors having the second greatest concentration irregularity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2013
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Naoki Kayahara
  • Patent number: 8348368
    Abstract: A method for arraying head assemblies of an inkjet printer and an apparatus used for the method that can reduce a period of time taken to array the head assemblies after the head assemblies are mounted in the inkjet printer by adjusting height and rotation center of each of the head assemblies before the head assemblies are mounted in the inkjet printer, and can improve array precision of the head assemblies by adjusting a position in the X direction and a rotation angle of each of the head assemblies having already adjusted height and rotation center after the head assemblies are mounted in the inkjet printer, by adjusting a position in the Y direction of each of the head assemblies and can control an ink spray time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: Samsung SDI Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Minhyung Kim, Sangyoung Jin, Sangchul Seo
  • Patent number: 8348375
    Abstract: One of the two flow passages branches from one of two ink cartridges to one of the two discharging portions and one of the two individual discharging portions. The other flow passage branches from the other ink cartridge to the other discharging portion and the other individual discharging portion. A ratio of frequency of use of each of the discharging portions, Ra, and frequency of use of each of the individual discharging portions, Rb, satisfies Ra:Rb=1:½.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Manabu Munakata
  • Patent number: 8348376
    Abstract: A printer includes first and second ejecting sections of which positions of nozzles are different from each other in a sub scanning direction, and an ejecting section group. The ejecting section group includes first and second individual ejecting sections of which the positions of the nozzles are same in the sub scanning direction. When a frequency of ejecting the liquid using the first and second ejecting sections and the first and second individual ejecting sections are Ra, Rb, Rc and Rd, the first mode in which Ra:Rb:Rc:Rd is 1:1:1:0, a second mode in which Ra:Rb:Rc:Rd is 1:1:0:1 and a third mode in which Ra:Rb:Rc:Rd is 1:1:0.5:0.5 are selected on the basis of the residual amounts of the ink.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2013
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Manabu Munakata
  • Patent number: 8326101
    Abstract: An optimized planar optical router consisting of two stages performing stationary imaging between an input waveguide and a set of output waveguides has advantages of reduced size, larger number of channels and minimal loss variation in each passband. The new router is an optimized M×N imaging arrangement including two waveguide gratings and n waveguide lenses connected between the principal zones of the two gratings. The largest values of N are realized by using a combination of two techniques that increase N without increasing the size of the two gratings. One technique increases N for a given number n of lenses and, the other, increases n. In one embodiment, each lens produces a periodic sequence of passbands, all transmitted from a particular input waveguide to the same output waveguide, whereas, in a second embodiment, the above passbands are transmitted to different output waveguides. In both cases, the loss caused by secondary images is substantially reduced by including secondary lenses.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2010
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Inventor: Corrado Pietro Dragone
  • Patent number: 8322838
    Abstract: An inkjet printer includes: an ink reservoir; a printhead having an ink inlet and an ink outlet; an upstream ink conduit connected to the ink inlet; a downstream ink conduit connected to the ink outlet; and a pressure-regulating chamber. The pressure-regulating chamber includes: an inlet port connected to the ink reservoir via a supply conduit; an outlet port connected to the upstream ink conduit; a vent open to atmosphere; and a float valve for maintaining a set level of ink in the pressure-regulating chamber. The float valve includes: an arm pivotally mounted about a pivot; a float mounted at one end of said arm; and a valve head connected to the arm for sealing engagement with a valve seat at the inlet port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: Zamtec Limited
    Inventors: Kia Silverbrook, David Jeremy Low
  • Patent number: 8317286
    Abstract: A method for performing duplex printing enables increased throughput in an indirect printing system. The method includes measuring a coverage parameter for image data to be printed, and transforming operation of the printer from a first printing process timing sequence to a second printing process timing sequence in response to the coverage parameter exceeding a predetermined threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Cynthia J. Ryan, Paul J. McConville, Brent E. Fleming, Jeffrey R. Kohne, Walter S. Harris, Trevor J. Snyder
  • Patent number: 8317289
    Abstract: An imaging device includes print media and a plurality of ink jets for ejecting drops of substantially clear ink onto the print media. One of the print media and the substantially clear ink has a fluorescent characteristic and the other of the print media and the substantially clear ink is substantially non-fluorescent. The imaging device includes a fluorescence sensor having (i) a light emitter for illuminating the print media and the drops of substantially clear ink ejected onto the media by the plurality of ink jets with light of an activating wavelength, and (ii) a light detector for detecting a fluorescence intensity of light received from the print media and the drops of substantially clear ink ejected onto the media in an emission wavelength. A controller is configured to modify an operating parameter of the imaging device based on the fluorescence intensity detected by the sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Michelle N. Chrétien, Peter Gordon Odell