Patents Examined by Lisa Solomon
  • Patent number: 12291044
    Abstract: A transport device includes a transporting belt including an outer peripheral surface where a medium is placeable, the transporting belt being configured to transport the medium, a wiper blade including a tip portion configured to come into contact with the outer peripheral surface, and a base end portion located on an opposite side of the tip portion in an intersecting direction intersecting with the outer peripheral surface, the wiper blade being configured to wipe the outer peripheral surface, a contact portion made of resin and configured to support the base end portion by coming into contact with the base end portion, and a plurality of pressing units provided side by side in a width direction of the transporting belt, the plurality of pressing units being configured to press the base end portion via the contact portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2023
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2025
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Koji Sato
  • Patent number: 12285943
    Abstract: A printing system including a printing unit and an imaging unit is provided with: a defect detection unit that detects a defect included in a captured image; a defective nozzle position candidate extraction unit that extracts N position candidates as candidates for a position of a defective nozzle based on the position of the defect; a first correction unit that performs a defect correction process; and a defective nozzle identification unit that identifies the defective nozzle. The first correction unit performs the defect correction process while sequentially setting only N nozzles corresponding to the N position candidates one by one as a correction target nozzle. The defective nozzle identification unit identifies the defective nozzle based on the position of the defect detected by the defect detection unit based on the corrected image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2025
    Assignee: SCREEN HOLDINGS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Keiji Hatano, Satoru Kiyohara, Yusaku Ikeda
  • Patent number: 12280600
    Abstract: A method for manufacturing a refilled ink container includes: a first step of pouring a cleaning solution into a used ink container including a liquid flowing portion and a liquid accommodating portion through the liquid flowing portion to fill the liquid accommodating portion with the cleaning solution, the liquid flowing portion being configured to supply and discharge liquid; a second step of discharging the cleaning solution in the liquid accommodating portion through the liquid flowing portion together with a residue remaining in the liquid accommodating portion; and a third step of, after the second step, pouring refill ink into the ink container through the liquid flowing portion to fill the liquid accommodating portion with the refill ink.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2025
    Assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Noriyuki Fukasawa
  • Patent number: 12275855
    Abstract: A printing method contains applying a processing fluid to a fabric and applying an ink to the fabric to which the processing fluid has been applied, wherein the ink contains a pigment, a resin having a cross-linkable functional group, a pH regulator, and at least one member selected from a block isocyanate compound, a carbodiimide compound, and a polymer having an oxazoline group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2025
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tomohiro Hirade, Toshiyuki Kobashi, Makoto Kuronuma
  • Patent number: 12275247
    Abstract: A liquid discharge head includes a nozzle member. The nozzle member includes a nozzle, a deformable laminar member, and an electromechanical transducer. The nozzle discharges liquid. The deformable laminar member has an opening forming the nozzle. The electromechanical transducer is disposed around the opening. The nozzle member is warped with respect to a discharge-side plane of the nozzle member in a surrounding area of the nozzle when no voltage is applied to the electromechanical transducer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2025
    Assignee: RICOH COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Toshiaki Masuda, Keiji Ueda, Kaname Morita, Takahiko Kuroda, Naoko Kitaoka, Arata Suzuki
  • Patent number: 12275246
    Abstract: A liquid ejection head and a liquid ejection apparatus are designed to suppress separation of ejection modules from a support member. To this end, a liquid supply unit is aligned with respect to the support member to which the ejection modules are bonded. Moreover, in a connection unit of an ejection unit and the liquid supply unit, liquid connection units of the ejection unit are connected to be movable relative to the liquid supply unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2025
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tomoki Tsuji, Hiromasa Amma, Shingo Okushima, Takuya Iwano
  • Patent number: 12269265
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting head includes an introduction portion for introducing a gas supplied, a discharge portion for discharging the gas, and drive circuits provided in each of head chips, in which the drive circuits include a first drive circuit for driving the first head chip and a second drive circuit for driving the second head chip, a gas path through which the gas flows from the introduction portion to the discharge portion includes a first path coupled to the introduction portion, a second path coupled to the discharge portion, a first branch path coupling the first path and the second path, and a second branch path coupling the first path and the second path so as not to pass through the first branch path, the first drive circuit is disposed in the first branch path, and the second drive circuit is disposed in the second branch path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2025
    Assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yu Hasegawa, Hiroaki Okui, Eiichiro Watanabe, Yuma Fukuzawa
  • Patent number: 12269275
    Abstract: There is provided a liquid discharge apparatus including: a reservoir configured to store a liquid; a head in which a nozzle is opened; a liquid circulator including a negative pressure pump, the liquid circulator being configured to circulate the liquid between the reservoir and the nozzle; a negative pressure regulating valve configured to regulate communication between a gas layer of the reservoir and an atmosphere; and a controller configured to perform: obtaining a nozzle pressure in an area, of the liquid circulator, near the nozzle; and controlling the negative pressure regulating valve to open, in response to the nozzle pressure being less than a first threshold value that is a negative value and greater than a second threshold value that is less than the first threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2025
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hideki Hayashi, Itta Yamada
  • Patent number: 12269267
    Abstract: A bonding substrate is provided with nozzle communication channels that establish communication between pressure chambers and nozzles. Each nozzle communication channel includes a pair of first inner wall surfaces constituting wall surfaces in a first direction, and a pair of second inner wall surfaces constituting wall surfaces in a second direction being orthogonal to the first direction. At least one of the second inner wall surfaces includes an inclined surface being inclined such that a length of the nozzle communication channel becomes gradually shorter toward the nozzle. An angle of the inclined surface relative to a liquid ejecting surface where the nozzles are opened is smaller than an angle of the first inner wall surface relative to the liquid ejecting surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2025
    Assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Motoki Takabe, Yu Shiozawa
  • Patent number: 12257834
    Abstract: A liquid discharge device in which an inter-wiring region between a first wiring through which a first drive signal, and a second wiring through which a second drive signal propagates includes a wide inter-wiring region in which an inter-wiring distance between the first wiring and the second wiring is larger than a sum of a wire width of a fourth wiring and a minimum diameter of a via wiring, and a narrow inter-wiring region in which the inter-wiring distance is smaller than the sum of the wire width of the fourth wiring and the minimum diameter of the via wiring, and larger than a wire width of the via wiring, and a third wiring is not located in the narrow inter-wiring region between a virtual line coupling a first terminal and a second terminal, and the wide inter-wiring region, in the inter-wiring region of a first wiring layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Toru Kashimura
  • Patent number: 12257826
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a conveying unit which conveys a printing medium in a conveying direction; a printing unit which prints an image on the printing medium conveyed by the conveying unit; a processing unit which includes a processing member and which executes a processing action for processing the printing medium by moving the processing member while causing the processing member to contact the printing medium; and a controller. The controller executes a processing process for causing the processing unit to execute the processing action with respect to the printing medium by moving the processing unit from a first position to a second position in an intersecting direction; a first conveying process for causing the conveying unit to convey a processed printing medium in the conveying direction; and a first moving process for moving the processing unit from the second position to the first position after the first conveying process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kosuke Inuzuka, Yusuke Arai, Isao Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 12257837
    Abstract: In some examples, a fluidic die includes an arrangement of fluidic elements to dispense a fluid, where each fluidic element of the fluidic elements includes a fluidic actuator and a fluid chamber. The fluidic die includes an array of fluid feed holes in a plurality of dimensions to communicate the fluid with the fluidic elements, where each of multiple fluid feed holes along a first dimension of the plurality of dimensions is distinct from multiple fluid feed holes along a second dimension of the plurality of dimensions. The fluidic die includes circuit elements interspersed in regions between the fluidic elements along different axes of the fluidic die, where each circuit element of the circuit elements includes an active device. The fluidic elements and the circuit elements are formed on a common substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Eric T. Martin, James R. Przybyla, Garrett E. Clark
  • Patent number: 12240209
    Abstract: A liquid storage bag includes a bag configured to store a liquid and a feeder that feeds the liquid in the bag to an external component. The bag is formed of a film. The film includes a first base layer, a second base layer, and a first black layer located between the first base layer and the second base layer. The first black layer is formed of a black colorant filling a layer surface of the second base layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2025
    Assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naoki Naito, Yuji Aoki
  • Patent number: 12240236
    Abstract: A head includes: an attachment attached to a holder with a screw, the attachment having a through hole to which the screw is inserted, and the through hole having: a female screw having a valley and a crest; and a first concave having a diameter larger than a diameter of the valley of the female screw, the first concave opening toward the holder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2025
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Takeshi Miyazaki
  • Patent number: 12240237
    Abstract: In example implementations, a printhead die is provided. The printhead die includes a substrate, a chamber layer formed on the substrate, a plurality of printing fluid ejection chambers coupled to opposite sides of the chamber layer and along a length of the chamber layer, and a top hat layer formed on the chamber layer and the plurality of printing fluid ejection chambers. The chamber layer includes a void to store printing fluid. The top hat layer includes an initial unsupported top hat layer portion over the void, wherein the initial unsupported top hat layer portion comprises a first end that is narrower than a second end.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2025
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Vincent C. Korthuis, Huyen Pham, Tsuyoshi Yamashita
  • Patent number: 12233647
    Abstract: In some examples, a fluidic die includes an arrangement of fluidic elements to dispense a fluid, each fluidic element of the fluidic elements including a fluidic actuator and a fluid chamber. An array of fluid feed holes is arranged in a plurality of dimensions to communicate the fluid with the fluidic elements, where each of multiple fluid feed holes along a first dimension of the plurality of dimensions is distinct from multiple fluid feed holes along a second dimension of the plurality of dimensions. The fluidic die includes first circuit elements operable at a first power supply voltage, the first circuit elements interspersed in regions between the fluidic elements along different axes of the fluidic die.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2025
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Eric T. Martin, James R. Przybyla
  • Patent number: 12227012
    Abstract: An inkjet printing apparatus includes a print head including a plurality of nozzles, a cap, and a storing unit, and a control unit. The control unit controls the print head to start and perform an intra-standby preliminary discharge operation where a preliminary discharge operation to discharge ink into a cap is performed at predetermined time intervals during a standby period after the print head finishes a printing operation to print an image, continue the intra-standby preliminary discharge operation if an accumulated value of an amount of ink stored in a storing unit during the preliminary discharge operation is not greater than a threshold value, stop the intra-standby preliminary discharge operation if the stored accumulated value of the amount of ink is greater than the threshold value, and bring the print head into contact with the cap and terminating the standby period if the standby period exceeds a predetermined time period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2025
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yoshiaki Murayama, Sonoko Egawa
  • Patent number: 12208639
    Abstract: An illustrative heating section of a dye sublimation machine may utilize a plurality of configurable pyrometers. The pyrometers may take the corresponding temperature measurements remotely without interacting with any mechanical moving parts of the dye sublimation machine and therefore may be more robust against breakage. The pyrometers may be directed at the membrane covering the printed sheet and therefore may provide more accurate temperature measurements. Furthermore, the angular orientation of the pyrometers may be configured that may allow the pyrometers to dynamically measure the temperature of multiple spots in the heating section. In addition to the pyrometers in the heating section, a plurality of pyrometers may be provided to measure the temperature in the cooling section of the dye sublimation machine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2025
    Assignee: Sekisul Kydex, LLC
    Inventors: Jeffrey Humenick, Jym Kauffman, Rebecca Gallup
  • Patent number: 12208625
    Abstract: Provided is an image processing device coupled to a printing device that performs printing on a medium by ejecting ink having a plurality of colors, and configured to convert image data into ink amount data. The image processing device includes: an input unit configured to input a search condition; an acquisition unit configured to acquire a plurality of search values based on the search condition input by the input unit; a table storage unit storing a plurality of image conversion tables for converting the image data into the ink amount data; and a search unit configured to search the plurality of image conversion tables for a target image conversion table based on the plurality of search values acquired by the acquisition unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2025
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Katsuyuki Tanaka, Takuya Ono, Yuko Yamamoto, Takumi Shimomukai, Shotaro Matsuda
  • Patent number: 12208617
    Abstract: There is provided a head chip including: a first-nozzle; a second-nozzle; a first-pressure-chamber communicating with the first-nozzle; a second-pressure-chamber communicating with the first-nozzle; a third-pressure-chamber communicating with the second-nozzle; a fourth-pressure-chamber communicating with the second-nozzle; a first-piezoelectric-body generating a pressure in the first-pressure-chamber; a second-piezoelectric-body generating a pressure in the second-pressure-chamber; a third-piezoelectric-body generating a pressure in the third-pressure-chamber; a fourth-piezoelectric-body generating a pressure in the fourth-pressure-chamber; a first-individual-electrode coupled to the first-piezoelectric-body; a second-individual-electrode coupled to the second-piezoelectric-body; a third-individual electrode coupled to the third-piezoelectric-body; a fourth-individual-electrode coupled to the fourth-piezoelectric-body; a first-common-electrode commonly coupled to the first-piezoelectric-body and the third-pi
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2025
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Hiroaki Okui