Patents Examined by Shih-Wen Hsieh
  • Image forming apparatus
    Patent number: 6523929
    Abstract: According to an image forming apparatus, a simple arrangement is used to switch the transmission of drive forces, produced by drive sources that are used in common by multiple drive mechanisms, without depending on the movement of a carriage, for example. The drive force produced by a line feed (LF) motor to drive feed rollers is transmitted to a pump cam in a recovery system via a pendulum drive force transmission mechanism, which is provided at one end close to the feed rollers. And the drive force produced by another motor to drive paper supply rollers is transmitted via the same pendulum drive force transmission mechanism to the paper supply rollers, or to a blade holder and a cap holder in the recovery system. Therefore, the transmission of the drive forces can be switched by controlling the rotational directions of the motors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2003
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shoichi Kan, Yasutsugu Saijo, Masahito Yoshida, Nozomu Nishiberi, Masaya Shinmachi
  • Ink jet printer with cleaning mechanism using laminated polyimide structure and method cleaning an ink jet printer
    Patent number: 6523930
    Abstract: A self-cleaning ink jet printer with cleaning mechanism and method of cleaning the ink jet printer. The printer comprises a print head having a surface thereon surrounding a plurality of ink ejection orifices. The orifices are in communication with respective ones of a plurality of ink channels formed in the print head. A solvent delivering canopy is constructed from alternating stacked layers of polyimide and stainless steel sheets with internal geometries, one on top of each other, thus creating internal fluidic passageways. The canopy is connected to a manifold body and has a passageway alignable with the surface. Contaminant residing on the surface is entrained in the solvent when a wiper blade loosens contaminant from the surface. Per an applied vacuum, the canopy vacuums the solvent and entrained contaminant from the surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2003
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Todd R. Griffin, Ravi Sharma, John R. Debesis, Robert J. Green, Jr., Larry L. Lapa, Edwin A. Mycek
  • Error-proof service station installation
    Patent number: 6520619
    Abstract: A removable service module in a printer service station periodically interacts with a print cartridge, and is sized for proper installation in a matching service carriage slot. Upper and lower boundary guides on the service carriage prevent an unmatched or wrongly positioned service module from fitting through a slot entrance and becoming seated into a completed mounting position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2003
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company
    Inventors: Antoni Murcia, Xavier Bruch, Christopher Taylor, Eric Joseph Johnson
  • Method of servicing a pen when mounted in a printing device
    Patent number: 6517184
    Abstract: A method of servicing a pen comprising a printhead, having a plurality of nozzles, mounted in an inkjet printing device, comprising a servicing area and a drop detector comprising the following steps performing a drop detection on the printhead to check if any of the nozzles of the printhead are malfunctioning; storing the result of the more recent drop detection operation, together with the results of the previous drop detections to keep a history of the health status of each nozzle; deciding whether or not to execute a recovery service in the servicing area to attempt to recover the current malfunctioning nozzles, based on the more recent status of the nozzles and on the history of the health status of the nozzles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 18, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 11, 2003
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company
    Inventors: Xavier Bruch, Xavier Girones, Antoni Murcia, Christopher Taylor, Ramon Vega
  • Ink jet print head with capillary flow cleaning
    Patent number: 6513903
    Abstract: The present invention resides in a self-cleaning printer with a print head having an orifice plate defining an ink jet orifice, a cleaning orifice and a drain orifice. The orifice plate further defines an outer surface between the orifices. A source of pressurized cleaning fluid is connected to the cleaning orifice and a fluid return is connected to the drain orifice for storing used cleaning fluid. A cleaning surface is disposed adjacent to and separate from the outer surface to define a capillary fluid flow path from the cleaning orifice across the ink jet orifice and to the drain orifice. During cleaning, the source of pressurized cleaning fluid discharges a flow of a cleaning fluid into the capillary fluid flow path and pressurized cleaning fluid from the capillary flow path passes through the drain orifice and into the fluid return.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2003
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Ravi Sharma, Gilbert A. Hawkins
  • Preliminary discharge acceptor mechanism and printing apparatus provided with the preliminary discharge acceptor mechanism
    Patent number: 6511153
    Abstract: A printing apparatus on which a liquid jet head having a nozzle array made up of a plurality of nozzles is mounted to conduct printing operation, the printing apparatus includes a preliminary discharge acceptor port which receives a discharge liquid not used for the printing operation from the nozzles of the liquid jet head, wherein a length of the preliminary discharge acceptor port along the arranging direction of the nozzle array is shorter than the length of the liquid jet head along the arranging direction of the nozzle array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2003
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Tetsuya Ishikawa
  • INK SUPPLY FOR IMPULSE INK JET SYSTEM, SAID INK SUPPLY INCLUDING A CAP HAVING THREADED PERIPHERY, AND A VALVE SUPPORTED BY THE CAP, WHEREIN A PROJECTION EXTENDS FROM A SURFACE OF THE CAP INTO AN INK RESERVOIR
    Patent number: 6511154
    Abstract: An ink supply comprises an ink container having an opening for releasing ink and a valve member and a mechanism for biasing the valve member so as to prevent the flow of ink from the container when the ink supply is not mounted on a supply base. The ink jet system includes an ink reservoir, a cover enclosing the reservoir, and a neck having a threaded inner surface engaging the ink supply when the ink supply is inserted within a first opening within the neck The cover has a second opening that is concentric with and below the neck and the first opening to permit ink to flow from the ink supply, through the second opening and into the reservoir.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 18, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2003
    Assignee: Illinois Tool Works, Inc.
    Inventors: John F. Niedermeyer, Viacheslav B. Maltev, Robert Rogers
  • Cleaning ink jet printheads and orifices
    Patent number: 6511155
    Abstract: Cleaning apparatus for cleaning debris from orifices in an ink jet printhead nozzle plate includes a structure defining a cleaning cavity between two horizontally contacting rollers where cleaning liquid is loaded, agitated, and dynamically sealed in the cavity trough the rotation of the rollers. A relative movement is also provided between the nozzle plate and the cleaning structure so that the nozzle plate can be positioned above the cleaning cavity with the rotating rollers. The nozzle plate is spaced a small distance from the flow of the cleaning liquid that the cleaning fluid fills this small distance. The flow causes the cleaning fluid to engage the nozzle plate and remove debris from the nozzle plate and orifice nozzles. After the cleaning cycle has ended the cleaning fluid is discarded.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2003
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Werner Fassler, Marcello Fiscella, David A. Bartman, John Meyers
  • Ink jet color printer and relative method of operation
    Patent number: 6511148
    Abstract: An ink jet color printer (10) comprises a printer body (15) having a casing with a rear wall (17) provided with a slot (13) in which an interchangeable, disposable type paper cassette (18) containing printing media with given common characteristics is removably inserted; the paper cassette bears are at least 5-bit binary (19) indicating the characteristics of the printing media it contains inside and which is read by the electronic controller (21) of the printer so as to automatically select the optimum printing mode in relation to the specific characteristics of the printing media, thus avoiding mistakes on the part of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2003
    Assignee: Olivetti Tecnost S.p.A.
    Inventors: Alberto Colombi, Attilio De Ambrogio
  • Ink jet printer and cleaning blade and method of cleaning
    Patent number: 6511151
    Abstract: An ink jet printer with wiper blade cleaning mechanism, and method of cleaning. A print head surface includes a plurality of ink ejection orifices. A solvent delivering wiper has a first passageway therethrough alignable with the surface. The first passageway delivers a liquid solvent to the surface to flush contaminant from the surface. The wiper also includes a plurality of wicking channels alignable with the surface and a second passageway in communication with the wicking channels. A vacuum pump is in communication with the second passageway for vacuuming the solvent and entrained contaminant from the surface, along the wicking channels and through the second passageway.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2003
    Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
    Inventors: Todd R. Griffin, Charles F. Faisst, Jr., Ravi Sharma
  • Ink jet printer, an initialization control method therefor, and a data recording medium
    Patent number: 6511150
    Abstract: An ink jet printer capable of performing an appropriate initialization process when power is turned on again when a cleaning process is in progress when the power is suddenly interrupted by a power failure or disconnection of the power cord. The present invention comprises a maintenance unit for an ink jet head; a memory 103; a power interruption detector 105 for detecting interruption of power supply to the printer; a storage controller 100 for storing a current operating status of the maintenance unit to the memory 103 when the power interruption detector 105 detects interruption of the power supply; and an initialization controller 100 for reading the maintenance unit operating status stored to the memory 103 when printer power is turned on, and performing different initialization operations according to the operating status.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 28, 2003
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Satoshi Yoda, Atsushi Nishioka, Mitsuaki Teradaira
  • Ink-jet printing apparatus and recovery processing method of ejection port
    Patent number: 6508533
    Abstract: An ink-jet printing apparatus, a cap and an ejection recovery method can satisfactorily perform a recovery process for respective ejection openings having different ink flow resistances and permit down-sizing. The ink-jet printing apparatus includes a printing head having a plurality of ejection openings, a cap for covering the ejection opening face where a plurality of ejection openings of the printing head are formed, and a recovery unit for suctioning ink from the ejection openings covered by the cap. The ink-jet printing apparatus also includes a sealing member for sealing predetermined ejection openings among the plurality of ejection openings provided within the cap.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 21, 2003
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Akira Tsujimoto, Junji Shimoda, Tadayoshi Inamoto, Isao Kimura, Aya Yoshihira, Kiyomitsu Kudo, Tooru Suzuki
  • Synchronously stimulated continuous ink jet head
    Patent number: 6505920
    Abstract: An ink jet print head for a continuous ink jet printer includes an orifice plate defining an elongated array of ink jet orifices, an ink manifold for supplying ink to the orifices in the orifice plate, and a shear mode piezoelectric transducer mechanically coupled to the orifice plate for vibrating the orifice plate sufficiently uniformly along the length of the array of ink jet orifices to achieve synchronous stimulation. The use of a shear mode piezoelectric transducer eliminates mode cross coupling thereby allowing high frequency stimulation in long ink jet print heads.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 14, 2003
    Assignee: Scitex Digital Printing, Inc.
    Inventor: Hilarion Braun
  • Ink jet recording apparatus and discharge restoration method
    Patent number: 6502919
    Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a restoration device for executing restoration of a discharge opening through which ink is discharged for recording; an openable cover for covering a recording device relevant to the recording; a detecting device for detecting whether said cover is in an open state or a close state; a switch provided in a position in which said switch is covered with said cover when said cover is in the close state and can be turned on when said cover is in the open state; and a control device for controlling the execution of the restoration of said discharge opening by said restoration device, if said detecting device detects that said cover is in the open state, and said switch is turned on.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2003
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takayuki Tanabe
  • Ink jet recording apparatus with dedicated wiping members
    Patent number: 6499824
    Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus with a carriage having a first liquid discharge unit with first liquid discharge openings and a second liquid discharge unit with second liquid discharge openings, the first liquid discharge unit and the second liquid discharge unit arranged for performing discharge when the carriage is moving, a first wiping member for wiping the first liquid discharge unit surface when the carriage is stopped at a first stopping position, and a second wiping member for wiping the second liquid discharge unit surface when the carriage is stopped at a second stopping position which is different from the first stopping position, wherein wiping by the first wiping member and the second wiping member is performed by movement of the respective wiping member along a direction different from the carriage movement direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2002
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Tetsuhiro Nitta
  • Wiping apparatus for an ink jet printer
    Patent number: 6497473
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a wiping apparatus for an ink jet printer, which apparatus prevents the area surrounding the wiping apparatus from being contaminated by ink. The wiping apparatus reduces the amount of ink splashed on the surroundings when a wiper is out of the lower part of a cartridge. The apparatus comprises a housing having an upper part which is open, a cartridge which can be moved from one side to another side in an upper part of the housing, a nozzle for ejecting ink and provided on one side of the cartridge, a wiper installed on an upper part of the housing and made of an elastic material for cleaning the nozzle, a holding unit for holding the wiper and rotatable in a direction of the nozzle when the wiper is bent in one direction for cleaning the nozzle, and an operation unit which operates the holding unit and is provided to move together with the cartridge.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2002
    Assignee: SamSung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Dong-Hun Kim
  • Ink jet printer and printing system using the same
    Patent number: 6494560
    Abstract: When ink is sucked from the nozzles during a cleaning process, a rubber cap having a plural number of small spaces independently operable for ink suction is applied to a print head, and only the small space associated with a clogged nozzle of those nozzles of the print head is connected to a suction pump. A user looks up in advance the number and location of a clogged nozzle, judges the cause of the clogging of the nozzle on the basis of the number and location of the clogged nozzle, and selects a suitable type of cleaning process, a selective cleaning (based on the specified-nozzle suction) or a conventional cleaning (based on the all-nozzle suction).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2002
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Tatsuya Seshimo, Hikonosuke Uwai
  • Printing apparatus and method for controlling the same
    Patent number: 6494561
    Abstract: A printing apparatus free from the problem of vibration due to a head maintenance process when a recording head is maintained in the middle of a recording operation. The printing apparatus performs control so that a recording medium is conveyed subsequent to a head maintenance process, when the recording head is maintained in the middle of a recording operation. Even if the position of the recording medium suffers from an error due to the vibration of the apparatus in the course of the maintenance of the recording head, the error in the recording medium position is eliminated by conveying the recording medium in succession to the maintenance. A disturbance-free high-quality image is thus recorded on the recording medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2002
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hiroshi Yoshino
  • Image forming method and apparatus therefor
    Patent number: 6491365
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus prevents foreign matter, such as dust or the like, from being sucked into an ink passage from an ejection opening when a liquid ejection head ejecting a liquid is elevated from an image forming position to a recovery process position located above the image forming position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2002
    Assignee: Canon Aptex
    Inventor: Youichi Sonobe
  • Ink jet recording apparatus
    Patent number: 6491370
    Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus has a recording head 22 having pressure chambers to which ink is supplied, pressure generation elements for generating pressure in the pressure chambers, and nozzle orifices 8 communicating with the pressure chambers for jetting ink drops, a cap 24 for sealing a nozzle face 40 of the recording head 22 while defining an internal space therein, and a suction pump for giving negative pressure to the internal space of the cap 24, and the cap 24 contains a cover member 33 for covering all nozzle orifices 8 with the cap 24 sealing the nozzle face 40, whereby bubbles occurring in the internal space of the cap 24 are prevented from adhering to the nozzle face 40 and entering the nozzle orifices 8 and a print failure is prevented from occurring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2002
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Kaoru Momose