Patents Examined by Kendrick X Liu
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Patent number: 11014371Abstract: The image recording apparatus has a head, a tank, a case that receives a cartridge, and a controller. When the cartridge is installed in the case of the image recording apparatus, the liquid in the cartridge flows to the tank by a difference between a liquid level in the cartridge and a liquid level in the tank. The controller controls a display to display a first notification indicating an ink cartridge based on receiving a first signal output from a sensor when a liquid level in an ink chamber reached a specific position. The controller, after receiving the first signal from the sensor, counts a count value indicating an amount of discharged liquid from the head. Further, the controller, in response to the count value reaching a first threshold, controls the display to display a second notification.Type: GrantFiled: December 23, 2019Date of Patent: May 25, 2021Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHAInventor: Kenta Horade
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Patent number: 11007802Abstract: A liquid discharge apparatus includes a liquid discharge head configured to discharge a liquid, a carriage configured to movably hold the liquid discharge head, an attachment part displaceably attached to the carriage, and a holder connected to the attachment part. The holder holds at least one of a cable and a tube connected to the liquid discharge head.Type: GrantFiled: January 14, 2020Date of Patent: May 18, 2021Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.Inventor: Takeshi Sekikawa
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Patent number: 11007796Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a heater, a first temperature sensor, a second temperature sensor, and processing circuitry. The heater is configured to heat a medium on which an image is formed. The first temperature sensor is configured to measure a temperature of the heater. The second temperature sensor is configured to measure a temperature of a region heated by the heater. The processing circuitry is configured to control the temperature of the heater. The processing circuitry is configured to control the heater based on a comparison between a measured temperature of the first temperature sensor and a first threshold value, and a comparison between a measured temperature of the second temperature sensor and a second threshold value.Type: GrantFiled: September 24, 2019Date of Patent: May 18, 2021Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.Inventors: Osamu Kizaki, Junji Nakai, Masafumi Yamada, Shizuho Katahira
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Patent number: 10994553Abstract: A printing apparatus on a print support includes a print head to print on said print support a print material; a feed device to feed the print material to the print head; and a recirculating unit to generate a recirculation of the print material through the print head and having a first container of the print material placed upstream of the print head, a second container of the print material placed downstream of the print head, a first recirculating sub-unit to generate a first flow of the print material from the first container to the print head and the second container, and a second recirculating sub-unit to transfer the print material from the second container to the first container, wherein the first and second containers are both maintained under two distinct negative pressures.Type: GrantFiled: October 23, 2017Date of Patent: May 4, 2021Inventor: Sergio Ferrari
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Patent number: 10987951Abstract: Examples described herein include a print media edge repair system that includes a first repair element disposed adjacent to a media handling path to repair a leading edge of a sheet of print media as the sheet of print media moves into a position relative to a printing system associated with the print media edge repair system. The print media repair system may also include a second repair element disposed opposite the first repair element across the media handling path to repair a trailing edge of the sheet of print media as the sheet of print media moves into the position relative to a printing system.Type: GrantFiled: January 2, 2020Date of Patent: April 27, 2021Assignee: HP SCITEX LTD.Inventors: Yuval Dim, Alex Veis
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Patent number: 10987935Abstract: A fluidic ejection cartridge and protective tape therefor. The fluidic ejection cartridge has a cartridge body for an organic solvent-based fluid having a cover closing a first end thereof, an ejection head on a second end thereof opposite the first end, and side walls attached to the first and second ends between the first and second ends, wherein the side walls comprise a first side wall, a second side wall opposite the first side wall, a first end wall attached to the first and second side walls, and a second end wall opposite the first end wall attached to the first and second side walls. A removable tape is attached to a nozzle plate of the ejection head and to a portion of the first side wall, wherein the removable tape comprises a polymeric backing film and a platinum-cured silicone adhesive.Type: GrantFiled: January 14, 2020Date of Patent: April 27, 2021Inventors: Paul W. Dryer, David C. Graham, Sean T. Weaver
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Patent number: 10981396Abstract: A thermal head of the present disclosure includes a substrate 7, a heat generating unit 9, an electrode, a covering layer 27, and a covering member 29. The heat generating unit 9 is positioned above the substrate 7. The electrode is positioned above the substrate and connected to the heat generating unit 9. The covering layer 27 covers at least a part of the electrode when viewed in plan. The covering member 29 is positioned on the covering layer 27. The covering layer 27 has an upper surface 27a and a lateral surface 27b that is positioned on a side of the heat generating unit 9. An arithmetic-average surface roughness Ra of the lateral surface 27b is higher than an arithmetic-average surface roughness Ra of the upper surface 27a.Type: GrantFiled: March 29, 2018Date of Patent: April 20, 2021Assignee: KYOCERA CORPORATIONInventor: Yoichi Moto
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Patent number: 10981393Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes: a recording head that ejects liquid; a pressurizing mechanism that supplies the liquid under pressure; a valve-mechanism provided between the pressurizing mechanism and the recording head, the valve-mechanism including a liquid storage chamber storing the liquid supplied under pressure, a pressure chamber that is provided closer to the recording head than to the liquid storage chamber and stores the liquid, and a valve body that moves in a valve opening direction according to a negative pressure in the pressure chamber to communicate the liquid storage chamber with the pressure chamber; and a pressure control section controlling a pressure of the liquid supplied from the pressurizing mechanism to the valve-mechanism. The pressure control section controls the pressure of the liquid that is supplied under pressure by the pressurizing mechanism to the liquid storage chamber, to move the valve body in the valve opening direction.Type: GrantFiled: October 18, 2019Date of Patent: April 20, 2021Assignee: Seiko Epson CorporationInventor: Hiroki Miyajima
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Patent number: 10967637Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a liquid ejecting head configured to eject a liquid onto a medium; a maintenance unit that performs a maintenance operation for the liquid ejecting head; a mounting mechanism in which is mounted a waste liquid container that houses a portion of the liquid discharged as a waste liquid from the liquid ejecting head; and an access area that is provided vertically below a transport path along which the medium is transported and that is accessible from an apparatus front side, which is a downstream side in a transport direction in which the medium is transported, the mounting mechanism including a housing portion that houses the waste liquid container and being disposed so that a mounting port for mounting the waste liquid container in the housing portion opens to the access area.Type: GrantFiled: February 8, 2019Date of Patent: April 6, 2021Assignee: Seiko Epson CorporationInventors: Hiromichi Nakashima, Hitotoshi Kimura
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Patent number: 10967651Abstract: A printer includes a printer housing, which includes a plurality of outer surfaces including a bottom surface opposed to an installation surface, and has a recording paper receiving portion configured to receive recording paper through an opening portion; a printer cover, which is coupled to the printer housing, and is configured to openably cover the opening portion; a printer display device, which is removably mounted to the outer surface, of the plurality of outer surfaces, other than the bottom surface, and is configured to display predetermined information; and a connection cable, which is connected between the printer housing and the printer display device, and is configured to communicate at least data related to the predetermined information. The printer display device has a cable groove in which the connection cable is fitted and received.Type: GrantFiled: November 27, 2019Date of Patent: April 6, 2021Assignee: SEIKO INSTRUMENTS INC.Inventor: Kazuyuki Aizawa
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Patent number: 10960683Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an oscillator configured to oscillate a laser beam, an irradiation portion configured to radiate the laser beam oscillated by the oscillator to an outside, a light absorption unit configured to absorb the laser beam and to convert the laser beam to heat, and a control unit. The control unit is configured to control, in an irradiation state, the irradiation portion to press the irradiation portion against a workpiece with first pressing force via the light absorption unit and irradiate the workpiece with the laser beam. The control unit is configured to control, in a non-irradiation state, the radiation portion to press the irradiation portion against the workpiece with second pressing force smaller than the first pressing force via the light absorption unit, or to separate the irradiation portion from the light absorption unit so as to set the second pressing force to zero.Type: GrantFiled: December 2, 2019Date of Patent: March 30, 2021Assignee: DGSHAPE CORPORATIONInventor: Tsutomu Kuno
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Patent number: 10960672Abstract: A printer includes a main power supply switch to drive a controller, and a sub-power supply switch to enable printing on a recording medium. The controller includes a memory that stores a turn-on frequency of turning on of the sub-power supply per a unit time in a predetermined period of a predetermined first duration, a calculator that calculates a sum of the turn-on frequency in a predetermined second duration for each of predetermined second durations starting at different start times, in the predetermined period, a specifier that specifies, as a specified start time, a start time of the predetermined second duration for which the sum calculated by the calculator is at a maximum, and a cleaner that performs a cleaning operation of discharging ink from at least the nozzles at the specified start time.Type: GrantFiled: January 14, 2020Date of Patent: March 30, 2021Assignee: ROLAND DG CORPORATIONInventor: Ryota Yamada
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Patent number: 10960680Abstract: A printing device includes an ink container, an ink in the ink container, the ink containing an aqueous clear ink and an aqueous color ink and a heating device configured to heat a substrate, wherein the relationship is satisfied, |SCL?SC|?5 mN/m, where SCL represents the surface tension of the aqueous clear ink and SC represents the surface tension of the aqueous color ink, wherein the printing device has a low gloss printing and a high gloss printing mode, wherein the heating device heats the substrate while satisfying the relationship: Tlow>Thigh, where Tlow represents the temperature of the substrate in a low gloss printing region in which the aqueous clear ink is printed in the low printing mode and Thigh represents the temperature of the substrate in a high gloss printing region in which the aqueous clear ink is printed in the high printing mode.Type: GrantFiled: November 29, 2019Date of Patent: March 30, 2021Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.Inventors: Hiroaki Takahashi, Kiminori Masuda, Mio Akima
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Patent number: 10953656Abstract: A liquid discharge head includes a nozzle plate including a plurality of nozzles to discharge liquid, a plurality of individual chambers communicating with the plurality of nozzles, respectively, a supply-side channel communicating with the plurality of individual chambers, and a collection-side channel communicating with the plurality of individual chambers. The collection-side channel includes a first channel arranged in a first direction along a surface of the nozzle plate, a second channel communicating with the first channel, the second channel arranged in a second direction across the surface of the nozzle plate, and a branch channel branched from the first channel and connected to the second channel, the branch channel arranged in a third direction across the surface of the nozzle plate.Type: GrantFiled: February 7, 2019Date of Patent: March 23, 2021Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.Inventors: Yasuhiro Watanabe, Norimasa Sohgawa
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Patent number: 10946684Abstract: A printed material of the present invention is a printed material including a recording medium, a color material layer, and a fine irregular layer functioning as an outermost layer in this order; the color material layer contains a pigment; the fine irregular layer contains spherical particles having a specific average particle diameter; the spherical particles are present in a thickness direction of the fine irregular layer; and the surface of the fine irregular layer has convex portions having an average height of 0.04 to 0.15 ?m and an image definition C(2) is 50% or more.Type: GrantFiled: November 29, 2018Date of Patent: March 16, 2021Assignee: Canon Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Ryohei Goto, Fumihiro Goto, Yohei Iwasaki, Tomoko Suzuki
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Patent number: 10948844Abstract: A controller which causes a light emitting element to continuously perform minute emission for a plurality of dots in a level in which toner is not attached to a non-image section on an image bearing member is provided. The controller controls a first driving current for an image section and controls a second driving current used to perform the minute emission by the light emitting element in the non-image section several times in one job. In the image section, a driving current obtained by adding the first driving current to the second driving current is supplied so that the light emitting element emits light.Type: GrantFiled: June 19, 2019Date of Patent: March 16, 2021Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHAInventors: Kiyoto Toyoizumi, Masaru Shimura, Shinsuke Kobayashi, Hideo Nanataki, Shinji Katagiri, Yasunari Watanabe, Hideaki Hasegawa, Masahiro Tambo
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Patent number: 10947491Abstract: A microfluidic print head of a printer has a distal face, an injection channel, a suction channel, a groove, and a light source or an optical waveguide. The injection channel is configured to inject an ink onto a substrate and leads onto the distal face by an injection opening The suction channel is configured to suck up the ink and leads onto the distal face by a suction opening. The groove is defined on the distal face and into which the suction opening leads.Type: GrantFiled: August 3, 2018Date of Patent: March 16, 2021Assignees: CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE, INSTITUT CURIE, SORBONNE UNIVERSITEInventors: Laurent Malaquin, Jean Louis Viovy, Sandrine Souleille, Xavier Dollat, Victor Fournie
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Patent number: 10933631Abstract: An ink-jet head driving circuit includes: PMOS transistors each of which has an Nwell area, a drain terminal and a source terminal, the PMOS transistors connected to a piezoelectric element for jetting ink from a nozzle; and an NMOS transistor connected to the drain terminals of the PMOS transistors. The source terminals and Nwell areas of the PMOS transistors are connected respectively to power sources, and voltage of one of the power sources connected to the Nwell area of each of the PMOS transistors is equal to or higher than the highest voltage of the power sources connected to the source terminals of the PMOS transistors.Type: GrantFiled: April 29, 2019Date of Patent: March 2, 2021Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHAInventor: Toru Yamashita
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Patent number: 10933654Abstract: According to the present disclosure, an isotropic structural colour printing process is provided. The process comprising (a) providing an ink composition comprising ink particles (such as polymeric particles (e.g. polystyrene), metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) (e.g. ZIF-8)) in a liquid reagent; and (b) depositing the ink composition onto a surface of a substrate (e.g. anodic aluminium oxide membrane, photo papers). Due to capillary action and/or absorption of the liquid reagent, the ink particles form an amorphous arrangement of structures that lead to isotropic structural colour. In the preferred embodiment, the ink particles may further be coated with a catechol group (such as polydopamine). An apparatus for detecting a target substance in the gaseous phase, wherein the apparatus comprises a nanostructure capable of exhibiting a change in isotropic structural colour when one or more molecules of the target substance are entrapped as an indication that the target substance is present, is also provided.Type: GrantFiled: December 21, 2017Date of Patent: March 2, 2021Assignee: NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITYInventors: Hongwei Duan, Ling Bai
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Patent number: 10933652Abstract: A liquid circulation device includes a housing having an outlet and an inlet, a circulation unit configured to convey liquid out of the housing through the outlet and recover liquid into the housing through the inlet, a liquid supplying unit configured to supply liquid into the housing, an air conveying unit configured to convey air into and out of the housing, a level detecting unit configured to detect a level of the liquid in the housing, a pressure sensing unit configured to detect a pressure of the air in the housing, and a control unit configured to control a pressure of the liquid in the housing by controlling the liquid supplying unit or the air conveying unit, based on the level and the pressure of the air.Type: GrantFiled: November 5, 2019Date of Patent: March 2, 2021Assignee: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHAInventor: Hiroyuki Ishikawa