Patents Examined by Lisa M. Solomon
  • Patent number: 9463633
    Abstract: A liquid-consuming apparatus includes: a tank including a liquid storage chamber which stores a liquid, an inlet formed in a surface of the tank, and an outlet through which the liquid from the liquid storage chamber flows; a cap which is movable between a first position and a second position; a cover which is movable relative to the tank between a closed position and an open position; and a holding member which is connected to the cap and which holds the cap at the second position. The cap at the second position or the holding member is configured to obstruct a movement of the cover from the open position to the closed position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yoshinori Osakabe, Tomohisa Higuchi
  • Patent number: 9463943
    Abstract: A transporting device which transports a belt-shaped base material by considering a longitudinal direction of the base material as a transporting direction, includes a first driving roller which transports the base material in the transporting direction; a second driving roller which is disposed to be closer to a downstream side of the transporting direction than the first driving roller, and transports the base material in the transporting direction; an inter-roller transporting path which is provided between the first driving roller and the second driving roller, and through which the base material is transported in a state where the base material is suspended in a direction of gravity and bent; and a tension applying portion which suctions a bent part of the base material from a lower side in the direction of gravity, and applies tension to the base material on the inter-roller transporting path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Shinji Kawakami
  • Patent number: 9458335
    Abstract: UV-curable ink formulations are provided that are capable of being cured under low-energy conditions, such as with a conventional mercury vapor lamp operating at half or less of the lamp's nominal wattage. Methods for forming a printed ink image on a substrate using the ink are also provided, which permit maintenance of relatively high line speeds while consuming less energy due to the use of lower-wattage lamp settings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: Donald D. Sloan
    Inventor: Donald D. Sloan
  • Patent number: 9457581
    Abstract: There is provided a tank including: a wall defining a liquid storage chamber, the wall including: an upper wall defining an upper end of the liquid storage chamber, a lower wall defining a lower end of the liquid storage chamber, and an erected wall between the upper wall and the lower wall and through which the liquid inside the liquid storage chamber is visible from outside of the tank; an inlet penetrating through the upper wall or the erected wall; and an outlet, wherein the lower wall includes an upper stage wall making contact with the erected wall; a lower stage wall located at a position separated and away from the erected wall and below the upper stage wall; and a connecting wall connecting the upper and lower stage walls; and the outlet is disposed below the upper stage wall.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Akinori Igarashi
  • Patent number: 9457571
    Abstract: Examples of fluid ejection apparatuses and methods for making fluid ejection apparatuses are described. An example method may include forming a fluid feed slot in a bulk layer of a substrate, forming a plurality of ink feed channels in at least an epitaxial layer of the substrate, each of the ink feed channels fluidically coupled to the fluid feed slot, and forming a plurality of drop generators over the substrate such that the epitaxial layer of the substrate is between the plurality of drop generators and the bulk layer and such that the each of the drop generators is fluidically coupled to the fluid feed slot by at least one of the ink feed channels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2016
    Assignee: HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P.
    Inventors: Ning Ge, Chaw Sing Ho, Adam L. Ghozeil, Michael W. Cumbie
  • Patent number: 9447295
    Abstract: Use of a radiation curable composition as printing ink for ink-jet printing, wherein the radiation curable composition comprises N-vinyloxazolidinone of formula (I) in which R1 to R4 independently from each other are a hydrogen atom or an organic radical having not more than 10 carbon atoms.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: BASF SE
    Inventors: Erhard Guenther, Radwan Abdallah, Giovanni Dandola, Dagmar Pascale Kunsmann-Keitel, Edouard Loisel
  • Patent number: 9451706
    Abstract: A system and method is used to optimize print parameters in the printing of functional electronic materials and integrated objects. The method employs a grid pattern to determine drop spacing and further assigns priority to various features to be printed, separating features into layers to be printed. The most critical layers being printed with higher resolution and greater accuracy, the less critical layers being printed at lower resolution.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center Incorporated
    Inventors: Tse Nga Ng, Ping Mei, Steven E. Ready
  • Patent number: 9446618
    Abstract: A system for performing substrateless and/or local donor Laser Induced Forward Transfer (LIFT), comprising a reservoir (9) comprising at least one opening; and an energy source configured to deliver energy to a donor material within said reservoir. In preferred embodiments of the invention, the energy source is a pulsed laser. This system enables deposition of material by LIFT without any need for a donor substrate. Methods of substrateless and local donor LIFT are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: PHOTON JET LTD
    Inventor: Aryeh Batt
  • Patent number: 9446595
    Abstract: There is provided an ink jet printing apparatus that does not give poor usability to users and a method for controlling the same. To achieve this, in recovery processing performed multiple times to recover an ejection state, in a case where a printing instruction is inputted, the recovery processing is suspended in an amount smaller than an amount required for recovery, depending on an amount of ink in an ink tank.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2016
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kei Takarabe, Akiyoshi Sahara, Toshiyuki Kuroda, Atsushi Takahashi, Kei Kosaka, Tomoyuki Tenkawa
  • Patent number: 9440432
    Abstract: In an image recording device, in a case where a J-th nozzle (H2 [3]) of a certain image recording head (H2) among plural image recording heads (H1, H2) is in a discharge defect state, a dot size of an image recording droplet discharged from a J-th nozzle (H1 [3]) of an image recording head (H1) other than the image recording head (H2) is changed to a size within dot sizes used in normal image recording in a high-speed image recording mode, which is larger than a dot size of an image recording droplet to be discharged from the discharging nozzle (H2 [3]). In a low-speed image recording mode, the dot size of the image recording droplet discharged from the discharging nozzle (H1 [3]) is changed to a size which is larger than the largest dot size among dot sizes used in the normal image recording.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Jun Yamanobe
  • Patent number: 9443171
    Abstract: A method for printing with a printhead, comprising: generating a first imaging matrix comprising cells each containing information related to the ink to be deposited on a corresponding area of the print medium; on the basis of said first matrix, generating a second imaging matrix, comprising cells each containing information related to the ink drops to be deposited on a corresponding area of the print medium; wherein some cells of the second matrix are prioritized and for some of them the information related to the ink drops depends on a cell of the first matrix that corresponds to a different area of the print medium than the area of said prioritized cell of the second matrix; such that upon printing, nozzles of the printhead associated with some prioritized cells fire ink that in the first matrix is associated with areas of the print medium corresponding to non-prioritized cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
    Assignee: HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P.
    Inventors: Marti Rius Rossell, Peter Morovic
  • Patent number: 9434848
    Abstract: The present disclosure is directed to a process black ink composition for digital offset printing including a cyan colorant including a cyan pigment, a magenta colorant including a magenta pigment and a yellow colorant including a yellow pigment, wherein the process black ink composition includes a total amount of pigment of at least about 15 wt %, a photo-initiator, a dispersant, and a curable ink vehicle component including at least one component selected from a curable monomer or a curable oligomer wherein the process black ink composition comprises a ratio of the cyan colorant to the yellow colorant of 0.70-0.80:1.0 and a ratio of the magenta colorant to the yellow colorant of 0.90-0.80:1.0, and wherein the process black ink composition does not comprise carbon black. Methods of preparing the present process black ink composition and using the process black ink composition are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
    Assignee: XEROX CORPORATION
    Inventors: Marcel P. Breton, C. Geoffrey Allen, Biby E. Abraham, Carolyn Moorlag, Mihaela Maria Birau, Aurelian Valeriu Magdalinis
  • Patent number: 9434165
    Abstract: An inkjet printer including a printhead with a fluid ejection chip and an associated method of forming is described. The fluid ejection chip includes a substrate, a plurality of groups of drive elements formed on the substrate, and a plurality of fluid ejection devices disposed on the substrate. Each group of drive elements includes at least two drive elements electrically coupled in parallel. Each fluid ejection device of the plurality of fluid ejection devices is electrically coupled with a respective group of the plurality of groups of drive elements so that the plurality of drive elements selectively activate the plurality of fluid ejection devices for causing fluid to be expelled from the printhead in accordance with image data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
    Assignee: FUNAI ELECTRIC CO., LTD.
    Inventors: John Glenn Edelen, Nicole Semler, Michael Marra
  • Patent number: 9434183
    Abstract: An inkjet printer including a feeding device configured to feed a sheet in a feeding direction, a platen configured to support the sheet, a recording device configured to eject ink on the sheet, contacting members configured to contact the sheet, a detector configured to detect an end portion position of the sheet in a width direction, and a controller configured to control the feeding device and the recording device is provided. The contacting members are arranged at intervals in the width direction, and the controller performs a suppression process in which at least one of the feeding device and the recording device is controlled to suppress a contact of the sheet with the recording device when the end portion position detected by the detector is a position between the two adjacent contacting members.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2016
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Kenta Horade
  • Patent number: 9428658
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an aqueous sublimation transfer ink composition. The sublimation transfer ink composition comprises a polysaccharide. The present invention further relates to a method of preparing said ink composition. The present invention also relates to a method for providing an image onto a receiving medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2016
    Assignee: OCE-TECHNOLOGIES B.V.
    Inventors: Ronald M. J. Hofstra, Mark A. M. Leenen
  • Patent number: 9421800
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a moving portion that moves a printing medium, with the moving portion capable of being mounted to the image forming apparatus, an image forming portion that ejects ink droplets to the printing medium that is moved by the moving portion and forms an image thereon, and a reference portion mounted to the image forming apparatus. In addition, a positioning portion forces the moving portion, mounted to the image forming apparatus, to abut against the reference portion so that a distance between the moving portion and the image forming portion is a predetermined distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2016
    Assignee: CANON FINETECH INC.
    Inventors: Takahiro Okuda, Takehiro Sato
  • Patent number: 9415605
    Abstract: The laser marking apparatus includes: a laser device; a first conveying portion that conveys an illuminated object to at least a region illuminated by a laser beam through the laser device; a second conveying portion, provided on an upstream side of the first conveying portion, able to convey the illuminated object in a direction that is essentially perpendicular to that of the first conveying portion; a switching mechanism, provided between the first conveying portion and the second conveying portion, which switches a conveyance destination of the illuminated object to the first conveying portion or the second conveying portion; and an imaging portion, provided in a vicinity of the second conveying portion, that captures an image of the illuminated object that is conveyed by the second conveying portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: NIDEC COPAL CORPORATION
    Inventor: Tomohisa Ugajin
  • Patent number: 9409395
    Abstract: An inkjet printing apparatus and a method of making gratings are provided. The inkjet printing apparatus comprises a base; a platform provided on the base configured to carry a substrate to be processed to linearly move in a first direction on the surface of the base; and a printhead assembly provided above the platform, wherein the printhead assembly includes a printhead support and a plurality of printheads provided on a side of the printhead support facing the platform, each of the plurality of printheads is provided with a nozzle, and the printhead assembly can move linearly in the first direction. The present invention is adaptable to using inkjet printing technology to make gratings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: BOE TECHNOLOGY GROUP CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Yanbing Wu
  • Patent number: 9409421
    Abstract: In accordance with one embodiment, a printer apparatus comprises a main body section configured to include a first printer cover; an opening and closing unit configured to include a second printer cover which is fixed to be rotatable with respect to the main body section; a print head configured to be held by the main body section; a platen roller configured to be held by the opening and closing unit and arranged at a position opposite to the print head in a closing state of the second printer cover; and a platen roller moving mechanism configured to move the platen roller away from the position opposite to the print head in an opening state of the second printer cover.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Ooi In Seng, Toshiharu Sekino
  • Patent number: 9409424
    Abstract: A printing device comprising: a housing; a printing mechanism; a receiving portion for receiving a supply of image receiving medium; a cutting mechanism for cutting the image receiving medium; a drive mechanism for driving the cutting mechanism during a cutting operation; wherein the cutting mechanism comprises a blade holder removably attachable in the printing device; and said drive mechanism comprises at least one of a drive member or engaging portion for engaging with a respective other of at least one drive member or engaging portion of said blade holder; wherein said drive member is configured to be received in said engaging portion when said blade holder is in the printing device, and wherein said drive member and engaging portion are configured to permit said blade holder to be inserted in said printing device when said blade holder is moved in a direction of insertion, and to permit said blade holder to be removed from said printing device when said blade holder is moved in a direction of removal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: DYMO
    Inventor: Kris Vandermeulen