Patents Examined by Ly Tran
  • Patent number: 7316474
    Abstract: The present invention provides a surface treatment apparatus containing a sheet heating unit for heating a sheet, a sheet cooling unit for cooling the sheet. The apparatus satisfying at least one of following conditions: (1) the apparatus transfers a surface quality of the contact member to a surface of the image recording layer and an interface of the thermoplastic resin layer facing the image recording layer of the sheet; (2) the apparatus further contains the contact member selecting unit which selects the contact member having a desired surface quality; (3) the apparatus further comprises a treatment control unit which controls treatment conditions of at least one of the sheet heating unit and the sheet cooling unit; and (4) the sheet heating unit includes a sheet preheating part preheating the sheet and the apparatus transfers a surface quality of the contact member to the sheet heated by the sheet preheating part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2008
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Setsuji Tatsumi, Hiroshi Ishizuka, Yasuhiko Kachi, Eiichi Kito
  • Patent number: 7226144
    Abstract: A printhead assembly for an inkjet printer includes an elongate carrier. A number of printhead modules are mounted on the carrier. Each printhead module includes an ink delivery assembly and a printhead chip mounted on the ink delivery assembly. Flexible printed circuit board assemblies are attached to the carrier and to respective printhead modules for carrying data and power to said modules. A pair of busbars is electrically connected to the flexible printed circuit board assemblies for carrying power to the flexible printed circuit board assemblies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2007
    Assignee: Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd
    Inventors: Kia Silverbrook, Tobin Allen King
  • Patent number: 7188925
    Abstract: A fluid ejection head of a fluid ejection device is provided, the fluid ejection head having a substrate, a fluid ejection die coupled with the substrate, an electromagnetic radiation-curable adhesive disposed on the substrate, and a cover coupled with the substrate via the electromagnetic radiation-curable adhesive, wherein the cover includes an opening configured to pass fluids ejected from the fluid ejection die, and wherein the cover is made at least partially of a material transparent to electromagnetic radiation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2007
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Benjamin H. Wood, III, Joseph E. Scheffelin, Noah Lassar, Mohammad Akhavain
  • Patent number: 7182456
    Abstract: A hand-held and/or hand-operated random movement printing device is controlled by at least one processor. The printing device provides a control to determine the position of an ink-jet print head assembly on a print medium. Specifically the assembly prints a pattern that it uses to determine its position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2007
    Inventor: Alex M. Walling
  • Patent number: 7114805
    Abstract: A recording apparatus for effecting recording on a recording material using a recording head, includes a part for effecting a recording operation, and a supporting member supporting the part. The supporting member has two bent portions for supporting opposite end portions of the part and a cut and bent portion between the two bent portions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2006
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takeji Niikura
  • Patent number: 7044570
    Abstract: The present invention provides an ink jet printing apparatus of a low-cost and simple construction which can detect with high reliability a gap between a print medium and a print head mounted on a carriage. The ink jet printing apparatus, which reciprocally moves in a predetermined scan direction the carriage holding the print head for ejecting ink onto the print medium, includes a gap changing mechanism for changing the gap between the print head held in the carriage and the print medium and a control unit for controlling a driving of the gap changing mechanism and a reciprocal movement of the carriage, wherein the control unit drives the gap changing mechanism and reciprocally moves the carriage to check the operation state of the gap changing mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2006
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Seiji Takahashi, Yasuhiko Ikeda, Hiroyuki Niimura, Kota Uchida
  • Patent number: 7036921
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a sheet conveying apparatus and method using a conveyance belt formed with a plurality of electrodes for attracting a sheet with electrostatic force. The electrodes are applied with a voltage changed along with the lapse of time for generating an attraction force, and the integral value of voltage applied to one electrode has a polarity different from that of the integral value of voltage applied to another adjacent electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 12, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2006
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Osamu Kanome
  • Patent number: 7004578
    Abstract: In a printing apparatus, such as a full-multi-type printing apparatus, if a heating device is used to heat a printing medium near a print head performing a printing operation by ejecting ink, the heating device is provided under a back surface of the printing medium located opposite to a face of the print head except for neighborhoods of ejection ports that eject printing material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2006
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hitoshi Tsuboi, Noribumi Koitabashi
  • Patent number: 6948794
    Abstract: A printhead re-capping assembly for a printer having a chassis, a platen assembly and a pagewidth printhead operatively mounted on the chassis to carry out a printing operation on print media passing over the platen assembly includes a base structure that is mounted on the chassis. At least one static solenoid is mounted on the base structure and is connected to an electrical power supply of the printer. A support member is actuable by the solenoid to be movable with respect to the chassis between an operative position and an inoperative position. A printhead capping member is mounted on the support member such that when the support member is in the operative position, the capping member engages the printhead to cap the printhead and when the support member is in the inoperative position, the capping member is disengaged from the printhead.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2005
    Assignee: Silverbrook Reserach PTY LTD
    Inventor: Kia Silverbrook
  • Patent number: 6938994
    Abstract: A method of operation of an inkjet printhead within a predetermined temperature range to print an image, wherein the printhead temperature is measured and if the temperature is below a predetermined threshold, the printhead is heated by pulses of energy to a desired temperature above the predetermined threshold temperature before printing. The actuators are displaceable thermal actuators and heating is controlled such that the pulses of energy are insufficient to cause ejection of fluid from the printhead.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2005
    Assignee: Silverbrook Research PTY LTD
    Inventor: Kia Silverbrook
  • Patent number: 6890065
    Abstract: An ink jet printhead assembly includes a heater chip having a backside with at least one cavity. A substrate is associated with the backside of the heater chip. Adhesive is at least partially disposed within the at least one cavity. The adhesive adheres the backside of the heater chip to the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2005
    Assignee: Lexmark International, Inc.
    Inventors: Paul Timothy Spivey, Carl Edmond Sullivan, Kent Lee Ubellacker
  • Patent number: 6874875
    Abstract: An ink tank cartridge includes a housing having a chamber defined by a set of side walls, a lid, and a first surface. An outlet port is formed in the first surface for communicating ink from the chamber. An ink receiving member for holding the ink is received in the chamber and is held in compression between the side walls. A substantial portion of the surface of the ink receiving member is compressed, preferably more than ?of the total surface. The ink receiving member is held uncompressed between the lid and the first surface. A method of assembling an ink cartridge includes providing a housing and a porous ink storage element. The ink storage element is compressed by a set of side walls defining a chamber formed in the housing. The ink storage element is compressed within a range of about 0.5%-50%.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2005
    Assignee: Nu-kote International, Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen A. Anderson, Bruce S. Jones
  • Patent number: 6869174
    Abstract: A printer and a method for printing a receiving material with such a printer, wherein the printer is provided with a printhead with a number of print elements from which individual ink drops can be transferred to a receiving material in accordance with a pattern, wherein the printer uses hot melt ink and also contains a selection means for the selection for a specific degree of gloss based on the selection of the pattern to be generated, which pattern is such that the ink acquires the said degree of gloss on the receiving material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2002
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2005
    Assignee: Océ-Technologies B.V.
    Inventor: Henry Faken
  • Patent number: 6851801
    Abstract: A recording material conveying device is provided with a pair of rotational members for conveying a recording material, and for one of the rotational members, an escape portion is formed for an opening portion of a bearing hole thereof and that satisfies a condition of ???, where an angle formed by the axial core of the axial member supporting the rotational member and the center of the bearing hole for bearing the axial member is ?, and an angle formed by the center of the bearing hole and the escape portion of the bearing hole is ?. With the structure thus arranged, it becomes possible to prevent a recording material from being damaged or stained, or be otherwise adversely affected, by use of an expeller rotational member, while performing a stabilized conveyance of a recording material without increasing costs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 8, 2005
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takeji Niikura
  • Patent number: 6848769
    Abstract: A present invention provides a liquid ejection head comprising a plurality of ejection openings arranged in the feeding direction of a printing medium and a plurality of ejection energy generating elements for generating energy used for ejecting liquid from the ejection openings disposed in correspondence to the ejection openings, and subjected to the scanning movement along the printing medium transverse to the feeding direction of the printing medium, wherein the ejection openings are divided into a plurality of groups arranged parallel to the scanning movement direction while alternately offset in this direction, so that the ink droplets ejected from ejection openings located at the opposite ends of the arrangement are prevented from deflecting to the center of the arrangement and from generating white streaks when the solid printing is carried out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2005
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Shuichi Murakami
  • Patent number: 6802603
    Abstract: The invention concerns a device for unlocking a compartment of an opening mechanism, comprising a frame, the compartment being designed to receive a paper roll, and being closed with a cover (10). The invention is characterised in that a lever (22) is mounted rotating on the cover (10) and comprises a manoeuvring part (24), the lever (22) comprising stop elements (30) capable of co-operating with the sides of the frame to cause the cover (10) to rotate relative to the frame when the lever (22) is rotated relative to the cover (10). The invention is applicable to opening mechanisms for thermal printing machines.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 29, 2002
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2004
    Assignee: Societe A.P.S. Engineering S.A.R.L
    Inventor: Denis Montagutelli
  • Patent number: 6722755
    Abstract: The objective of the present invention is to provide an ink-jet recording apparatus having a stable recovery means capable of absorbing discharged ink by a discharged ink holding means, preventing ink discharge openings from clogging and maintaining eject recovery performance. For that purpose the ink-jet recording apparatus is arranged as follows. A recording means having a plurality of nozzles and nozzle rows for ejecting ink, a reciprocatingly moving carriage on which the recording means is mounted, a recovery means for recovering or maintaining an ink eject status, and a discharged ink holding means for absorbing discharged ink from the recovery means and for keeping discharged ink from flowing out of the apparatus, where pigment ink and dye ink discharge openings are arranged closely so that both discharged inks are mixed so as to dissolve a stuck deposition of the pigment ink or to suppress the stuck deposition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2004
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Kenji Shigeno
  • Patent number: 6712456
    Abstract: Disclosed is an ink-jet recording head improving relative positional accuracy between a piezoelectric element and a pressure generating chamber to improve ink ejection characteristics and stability thereof, capable of arraying pressure generating chambers in high density, and reducing cross talk between the pressure generating chambers. Moreover, disclosed are a manufacturing method of the same and an ink-jet recording apparatus having the ink-jet recording head built therein. The ink-jet recording head comprises: a passage-forming substrate 10 having a pressure generating chamber 11 formed therein, which communicates with a nozzle orifice; and a piezoelectric element 300 formed of a thin film and by a lithography method in a region corresponding to the pressure generating chamber 11 via a vibration plate constituting a portion of the pressure generating chamber 11.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2004
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Akira Matsuzawa, Masato Shimada, Tetsushi Takahashi
  • Patent number: 6698878
    Abstract: A method and mechanism for cleaning a paper transport belt of undesirable ink deposits caused by ink-jet aerosol and printing overshoot operations uses a special cleaning medium. An absorbent material is positioned in the print zone of a hard copy apparatus to scrub the belt. An ink solvent is used to rehydrate dried ink. The scrubber can be in the form of consumable sheets or a continuous roll form.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2004
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Wesley Baxter Roche, Le Pham, Wade A. Powell, Steven P Downing
  • Patent number: 6695445
    Abstract: A printer is arranged to be self propelled for movement on a surface of a sheet on which printing is to take place. The printer is independently driven, while the sheet is held stationary, and does not have to be fed the sheet. The sheet can be oriented in a home position and indexed relative to a frame carrying the printer so that the printhead on the printer will print a line at a time perpendicular to the direction of travel of the frame.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2004
    Assignee: Primera Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Erick Hagstrom, Robert P. Cummins, Michael R. Tolrud