Patents Examined by Minh H. Chau
  • Patent number: 6779935
    Abstract: An impact line printer comprising a print ribbon wound on a pair of spools for traversal in two directions across a plurality of print hammers having tips for impacting the print ribbon to print on a media. A permanent magnet having two pole pieces having pole piece ends in adjacent relationship to the print hammers retains the print hammers until a coil in associated relationship with each pole piece releases the magnetic retention of the hammers. A magnetically permeable extension is longitudinally adjacent each hammer which acts as a magnetic shunt to permit more rapid printing rates and higher impacts. The extensions conduct and shunt magnetic flux from the hammers through the longitudinally adjacent extensions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2004
    Assignee: Printronix, Inc.
    Inventor: John W. Gemmell
  • Patent number: 6773177
    Abstract: A method and system for position-aware freeform printing in which a source image space in a source medium and a target image space in a target medium are specified. A selected image in the source image space is copied and/or optionally processed and transferred to the target image space. A controller captures the selected source image and stores the image in a memory. The image is optionally processed and the processed and optionally formatted image is output. The controller may format the processed image to fit into the target image space by controlling the rendering of the processed image onto the target medium as the printing device is moved over the target image space in a freeform direction. The controller predicts the freeform direction that the print head will travel by detecting the motion previously traveled and adjusting the image to compensate for the predicted freeform direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2004
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Laurent Denoue, Lester D. Nelson, Elizabeth F. Churchill, William N. Schilit, Gene Golovchinsky
  • Patent number: 6773175
    Abstract: The CMY axes are taken radialy about an origin on a plane. By this plane, a color represented using two colors among CMY can be expressed. A space is generated by adding a K axis perpendicular to the CMY plane. The color in this space is a color having black added to the color of the generated CMY plane. The required color is covered in this space. Color conversion is conducted with a table in which a point on this space and the L*a*b* space are set in correspondence.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2004
    Assignee: Minolta Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Toshitsugu Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 6767149
    Abstract: A laser beam printer including a front face. The front face defines an opening for allowing attaching/detaching a paper feed cassette, an opening for allowing attaching/detaching a process unit, and an opening allowing manual paper feed. Accordingly, the laser beam printer has excellent operability since it allows the user to perform any operation from its side. At the same time, valuable space at the lateral and upper sides of the laser beam printer is available for effective use.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2004
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaishi
    Inventor: Hideo Yoshihara
  • Patent number: 6768319
    Abstract: Error in a process variable measurement due to leakage conductance in an industrial process control transmitter is compensated by identifying capacitance deviations &dgr;CH and &dgr;CL based on leakage conductance for each of the capacitive sensors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2004
    Assignee: Rosemount Inc.
    Inventor: Rongtai Wang
  • Patent number: 6752081
    Abstract: A method of adjusting dampening-solution feed of an offset printing press by a control device includes determining a required dampening-solution demand for a first calibration printing form with a known minimum percent area coverage and for a second calibration printing form with a known maximum percent area coverage at a calibration speed, and storing the dampening-solution demand in the control device as interpolation reference points; determining a percent area coverage lying between the maximum and the minimum percent area coverage of the calibration printing forms of a printing form to be used for a forthcoming print job, and passing the determined percent area coverage on to the control device; determining by the control device the dampening-solution demand required for the forthcoming print job with the printing form provided for the purpose at the calibration speed, by interpolating between the interpolation reference points; determining a printing-speed dependent characteristic curve of the dampening
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2004
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Martin John Callahan, Wolfgang Schönberger
  • Patent number: 6752553
    Abstract: A recording apparatus has a feeding unit for storing and feeding a recording medium, a recording unit for recording information on the recording medium having been fed from the feeding unit, and a discharging unit for discharging outside the recording medium having been transported through the recording unit. In the recording apparatus, a warping part for warping the recording medium and supporting parts for supporting both side edges of the recording medium warped by the warping part are formed on a guide member disposed downstream of the recording unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2001
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2004
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Satoshi Fujioka
  • Patent number: 6752548
    Abstract: In a printer having a function of automatically finding out a paper feeder satisfying the condition that the paper size specified in print data and the paper size set in the printer match and then printing, if they match and it is made impossible to find out any paper feeder in which paper remains although print data processing is not complete (paper error state), the user can change the paper size set in the printer and if the paper size is changed to the correct size (print enable state), the printing is continued.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2004
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Osamu Azami
  • Patent number: 6736560
    Abstract: A removing member which rotates while being in contact with the periphery of a rotating member for conveying a sheet of paper that rotates while being in contact with a printed side of a sheet of paper is provided. When undried ink on the printed side is transferred to the periphery of the rotating member at the time of conveying the printed sheet, the undried ink is thinly spread in a part where the periphery of the rotating member and the periphery of the removing member come into contact with each other and therefore dried quicker. The removing member removes a part of the ink from the periphery of the rotating member. Consequently, the printed sheet is prevented from being smudged by the re-transfer. Since double-side printing or multicolor printing can be started before the ink on the printed side of the printed sheet of paper is completely dried, the work efficiency of the double-side printing or multicolor printing is improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 21, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 18, 2004
    Assignee: Tohoku Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Yusuke Nemoto
  • Patent number: 6729238
    Abstract: A method for printing a conductive coating on an electronic unit by means of tampon printing is provided. During the tampon printing phase, a tampon pad is moved in small movements in one or more directions in relation to the electronic unit. The movements are made while the tampon pad is in contact with the surface to be printed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2004
    Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Publ)
    Inventors: Per Holmberg, Lars Eriksson
  • Patent number: 6715423
    Abstract: An image of a design pattern of wallpaper stored in a data base (DB) is viewed by a user computer of a user who is a general consumer or a contractor from a server computer provided in a head office of a wallpaper manufacturer through the Internet. Further, upon accepting an order of wallpaper from the user who saw the image by the user computer, the server computer fetches the image of the design pattern from the DB. A wallpaper printer then prints the image on a wallpaper sheet, thereby manufacturing the wallpaper desired by the user. The produced wallpaper is delivered to the user who gave out the order by, for example, a door-to-door delivery service.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 6, 2004
    Assignees: Olympus Corporation, Olympus ProMarketing, Inc.
    Inventors: Toru Fujii, Nobuo Saida
  • Patent number: 6709176
    Abstract: A schedule view is displayed in a print server. In the schedule view, print-jobs are displayed with rectangular shapes having lengths corresponding to printing time and color (or pattern) corresponding to its state, and the print-jobs are arranged and displayed in the order of prints to which the print-jobs are allocated. It is possible to intuitively grasp relative magnitude of a load of each printer by the length of a job graph, and an absolute amount of the load of each printer converted into a printing time by a displayed time scale. In addition to this, details of a job which is being processed, details of a selected job, and a state of each printer are also displayed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2004
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsuya Gotoh, Hajime Takahashi, Keiji Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 6702490
    Abstract: A recording medium station 53 includes sheet set portions to which rolls of toner sheets 4′ with cover films 6 stuck thereto and rolls of image receiving sheets 2′ with cover films 6 stuck thereto are set, and cover film winding-up portions located close to the sheet set portions. Those sheet set portions and the cover film winding-up portions are disposed along the circumferential outer surface of the recording medium station 53. An end of the cover film 6 slightly stripped off the recording medium is fixed to the wind-up shafts 12, and the cover film 6 stripped off the recording medium set to the medium setting shafts 10 is wound up with a wind-up shaft 12. The stripped cover film 6 is wound up with the wind-up shafts 12.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2004
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Yoshiharu Sasaki
  • Patent number: 6684778
    Abstract: There is provided a printing press with a sheet-turning-over-mechanism for turning over a printing sheet, enabling the printing press to be selectively operable in a one-sided printing mode and a double-sided printing mode. The printing press includes a controller which, when any failure stops any one of steps of a mode switching operation for switching the printing press from the one-sided printing mode to the double-sided printing mode or vice versa, stores the information representative of a state of the mode switching operation at the moment of the stop due to the failure, and when a normal operable state is restored from the failure, resumes the mode switching operation from a step of the mode switching operation indicated by the operational state stored therein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 3, 2004
    Assignee: Ryobi, Ltd.
    Inventor: Masamichi Sasaki
  • Patent number: 6655277
    Abstract: In a rotary printing machine, in particular a web-fed rotary printing machine, having at least one printing unit including a plurality of printing-unit cylinders, of which at least one can be brought into and out of operative connection with at least one functional unit which is associated with a function needed to operate the printing unit, is provided with a drive device and is fitted on a linear guide device, a high level of operating convenience and working accuracy being achieved by the functional unit being assigned a positioning device, which has a controller which can be fed with at least one position-dependent signal which can be generated by means of a sensor arrangement associated with the functional unit and by which the drive device can be controlled.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2003
    Assignee: MAN Roland Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventor: Peer Dilling
  • Patent number: 6616361
    Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus using ink to be discharged from a plurality of ink discharge ports of a recording head comprises a holding unit for holding the recording head for recording on a recording sheet; a conveyor for conveying the recording sheet; and a recording sheet supporting member arranged at the position to face the recording head. The recording sheet supporting member is provided with a supporting surface to support the non-recording surface of the recording sheet, and is arranged in a direction intersecting the conveying direction of the recording sheet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2003
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Noriyuki Sugiyama
  • Patent number: 6616362
    Abstract: A modular printer having a media take-up assembly module, a support block assembly module, a printhead assembly module, a stepper motor assembly module and a display assembly module is provided. A support body having a plurality of recesses formed on an internal wall of the modular printer is also provided. Each of the recesses is configured to receive and align one of the modular printer assemblies with the other modular printer assemblies. Each of the assemblies is configured as a module which can be easily accessed and quickly secured to or detached from the support body. The support body is adapted to receive assembly modules for both thermal ink printers and ribbon ink printers such that the modular printer can be easily converted from one to the other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 9, 2003
    Assignee: Datamax Corporation
    Inventors: William M. Bouverie, Mark Hitz, Chris Christensen
  • Patent number: 6609844
    Abstract: A portable printer for printing on a roll of paper or label stock is provided having automatic print alignment with the width of the roll. The portable printer has a housing having a compartment for receiving the roll, a cover to access the roll, and a centering mechanism for the roll. The centering mechanism has two rotatable spindle members in the compartment engageable with the opposing ends of the roll's tubular core, and a pair of racks each coupled to one of the spindle members, and to each other by a gear, to enable each of the spindle members to move in opposite directions with respect to a center between the spindle members. The position of centering mechanism is optically, magnetically, or electro-mechanically encoded and a sensor reads the encoded position of the centering mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2003
    Assignee: ZIH Corp.
    Inventors: Steven F. Petteruti, Majid Amani, Gregory J. Klein, Richard J. Preliasco, Anna H. Doyle, Robert A. Petteruti
  • Patent number: 6607318
    Abstract: The technique of producing a printing on a foil in a thermal printing operation during a packaging operation in which the foil is used as a packaging foil or as an information foil sheet to be applied to or below a wrap around or packaging foil for packaging a product being an organic or inorganic product. The examples of products relevant in the present context are unlimited ranging from toys, cosmetics, consumer products, foodstuffs, drugs etc. In general, any product which is to be packed in a foil or to be applied with an information printing after the product has been included in a separate package may be relevant in the present context. High speed printing and packaging operations in which the foil on which the printing is to be applied is moved at a speed up to several hundred millimetres per second.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2003
    Assignee: Easyprint A/S
    Inventors: Christian Jørgensen, Torben Svensson, Kristian Vang Jørgensen, Ernst R. Thorsager Olesen, Tim Nielsen
  • Patent number: 6601513
    Abstract: A motor control method and apparatus for stopping an object moved by a motor accurately at a predefined target position, shortening the time period required in stop control, in which the motor is driven at a first (high) speed up to a distance from the target position adequate for stop control and then is sequentially braked to a predetermined speed lower than the first speed, driven at a second (low) speed up to a distance from the target position equal to the stopping distance, and braked to a stop. The method and apparatus are used in a time recorder. An impact printing apparatus is also disclosed with printing pin actuation timing correction dependent upon scanning speed or platen shape, striking duration timing dependent upon scanning rate, or printing pin actuation timing dependent upon stored shift amounts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2003
    Assignee: Seiko Precision, Inc.
    Inventor: Kenji Ozawa