Patents Examined by Thinh Nguyen
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Patent number: 8870325Abstract: In an embodiment, a method of compensating for capacitance change in a piezoelectric element of a fluid ejection device includes sensing a current driving a piezoelectric element, determining from the current that capacitance of the piezoelectric element has changed, and altering a rise time of the current driving the piezoelectric element to compensate for the changed capacitance.Type: GrantFiled: April 28, 2011Date of Patent: October 28, 2014Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.Inventors: Peter Mardilovich, Jack Lavier
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Patent number: 8864265Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus includes a liquid ejection head including a plurality of ejection opening groups each constituted by two or more ejection openings and each forming one pixel by at least two liquid droplets ejected from the two or more ejection openings; a plurality of individual channels respectively connecting the plurality of ejection opening groups to a plurality of pressure chambers; a nozzle plate through which a plurality of nozzle holes extend; and an energy-applying portion applying energy to liquid in the plurality of pressure chambers, and a controller controlling the energy-applying portion. The controller controls the energy-applying portion in such a manner as to meet the following inequations: 0.85Ta?T?0.9Ta or 1.2Ta?T in a case of p/D?1.2, and 0.85Ta?T in a case of p/D>1.2.Type: GrantFiled: August 26, 2013Date of Patent: October 21, 2014Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Keita Hirai, Atsushi Hirota
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Patent number: 8857940Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus includes a liquid ejection head including a plurality of ejection opening groups each constituted by two or more ejection openings and each forming one pixel by at least two liquid droplets ejected from the two or more ejection openings of a corresponding one of the plurality of ejection opening groups; a plurality of individual channels respectively connecting the plurality of ejection opening groups to a plurality of pressure chambers; and an energy-applying portion applying energy to liquid in the plurality of pressure chambers, and a controller controlling the energy-applying portion. The controller controls the energy-applying portion to form one pixel by using at least a first drive signal whose ejection period is a first ejection period and a second drive signal whose ejection period is a second ejection period different from the first ejection period.Type: GrantFiled: August 26, 2013Date of Patent: October 14, 2014Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki KaishaInventor: Keita Hirai
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Patent number: 8851609Abstract: Curing processing is realized according to differences in absorption characteristics of activation light among inks and characteristics of layers to be formed with the inks. A scanning device reciprocally moves in a first direction an inkjet head including a first nozzle array ejecting a first ink and a second nozzle array ejecting a second ink; a relative movement device relatively moves a recording medium in a second direction with respect to the head; an ejection control device divides the nozzle array into regions in the second direction and controls ink ejection for each unit of the divided nozzle region; an activation light irradiation device irradiates the inks deposited on the medium with the activation light; an irradiation region dividing device divides an irradiation range into divided irradiation regions corresponding respectively to the divided nozzle regions; and a light quantity control device controls light quantities respectively for the divided irradiation regions.Type: GrantFiled: September 27, 2013Date of Patent: October 7, 2014Assignee: FUJIFILM CorporationInventor: Hirofumi Saita
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Patent number: 8851607Abstract: A printing apparatus includes (A) a head that discharges first ink and second ink having a color different from that of the first ink, (B) an optical sensor that includes a light source and a light receiving section, and (C) a controller. In the printing apparatus, when the controller corrects a discharge amount of the second ink, the controller causes the head to discharge the first ink to form a first pattern on a medium, causes the optical sensor to detect light reflected from the first pattern, causes the head to discharge the second ink to form a plurality of second patterns having different gradation values on the first pattern, and causes the optical sensor to detect light reflected from the second pattern.Type: GrantFiled: October 17, 2012Date of Patent: October 7, 2014Assignee: Seiko Epson CorporationInventor: Jun Hoshii
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Patent number: 8845061Abstract: An inkjet printer for determining drying time of a print swath of ink deposited on a sheet of media by use of a dual function alignment sensor operable in a first mode to provide an output response corresponding to an amount of bi-directional misalignment of dot placement by the plurality of nozzles sensed from scanning a printed alignment test pattern, and in a second mode to provide an output response corresponding to an amount of specular reflection received from the print swath of the printed image with the output response in the second mode being used to determine if the printed image is sufficiently dry to be moved.Type: GrantFiled: December 31, 2012Date of Patent: September 30, 2014Assignee: Funai Electric Co., Ltd.Inventors: John Thomas Writt, Jose Paul Sacoto Aguilar
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Patent number: 8845075Abstract: A mist collection device is adapted to collect a mist of liquid generated by ejecting the liquid from a plurality of nozzles in an ejection head, the mist collection device includes a suction section, a tube section, a collection part, an outlet section and a suction device. A suction port is formed in the suction section with the suction port being an opening having a length in an arrangement direction of the nozzles greater than a width in a direction perpendicular to the arrangement direction. The tube section is in communication with the suction section and having a hollow tube shape whose longitudinal direction is parallel to the arrangement direction. The collection part collects the mist by separating the mist from air suctioned by the suction section. The suction device is configured and arranged to generate an air flow flowing from the suction section to the collection part.Type: GrantFiled: December 16, 2013Date of Patent: September 30, 2014Assignee: Seiko Epson CorporationInventor: Norihiro Masuda
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Patent number: 8845060Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a printhead configured to array a nozzle array in which a plurality of nozzles for discharging ink are arrayed in the first direction, a reading unit configured to read, as a plurality of luminance values aligned in a nozzle arrayed direction, an inspection pattern formed by discharging ink from the plurality of nozzles of the printhead, a calculation unit configured to calculate a plurality of difference values each by calculating a difference between two luminance values spaced apart by a predetermined number of luminance values, and an analysis unit configured to analyze an ink discharge state in the plurality of nozzles based on the plurality of difference values.Type: GrantFiled: October 9, 2012Date of Patent: September 30, 2014Assignee: Canon Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Satoshi Azuma, Yoshiaki Murayama, Takuya Fukasawa, Minoru Teshigawara
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Patent number: 8836738Abstract: A drive control method for a media processing device prevents increasing the media production time even when a printhead cleaning process is performed before the printing process. When a media production command is input, the preprocessing time required until the printing process starts is calculated based on the media production command. If the total of the preprocessing time plus the time passed since the last cleaning process is greater than or equal to a specified time, the cleaning process is started. If the elapsed time will reach the specified time after the media production command is output and before the printing process starts, the cleaning process runs parallel to the write process. Increasing the media production time by the time required for the cleaning process is thus prevented.Type: GrantFiled: July 6, 2011Date of Patent: September 16, 2014Assignee: Seiko Epson CorporationInventors: Yasufumi Yokoyama, Shoji Shima, Koji Hashimoto
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Patent number: 8827403Abstract: A head unit is provided that includes a plurality of head groups having a first head and a second head in a direction which crosses a transport direction of a medium. Color difference is obtained which indicates difference in color between patches formed for each band using dots having the same dot diameter from among a plurality of patches based on the result of color measurement performed on a test pattern which includes the plurality of patches for each band, the plurality of patches being formed for each head group using dots having different dot diameters. The amount of first ink and the amount of second ink, which are respectively ejected from the first head and the second head which are included in all the head groups, are adjusted such that the dot diameter becomes the dot diameter which is determined based on the color difference.Type: GrantFiled: October 19, 2012Date of Patent: September 9, 2014Assignee: Seiko Epson CorporationInventors: Toru Miyamoto, Kimitaka Kamijo, Mitsuhisa Ando, Toru Takahashi, Takamitsu Kondo, Kazuyoshi Tanase, Hiroshi Wada
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Patent number: 8827404Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes: a plurality of liquid ejecting heads configured to eject liquids of a plurality of colors respectively from a plurality of ejection nozzles; an image data storage device configured to store image data with respect to an image to be recorded on a recording medium; a mode receiving device which receives one image quality mode from at least two image quality modes including a low image quality mode and a high image quality mode, as an image quality mode with respect to an image quality of the image; a control device configured to control the plurality of ejecting heads and generate a plurality of preliminary ejection data related to preliminary ejections for recovering ejection performances of the plurality of liquid ejecting heads for the plurality of liquid ejecting heads respectively.Type: GrantFiled: October 29, 2013Date of Patent: September 9, 2014Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki KaishaInventor: Yoshihiro Itogawa
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Patent number: 8827420Abstract: A printer includes a recording head having a nozzle forming surface formed with nozzles adapted to eject liquid; a wiper having an outer surface of a cylindrical surface shape capable of absorbing the ink attached to the nozzle forming surface; a motor that is driven, when moving the wiper in a direction in which the outer surface reaches the nozzle forming surface and in a direction in which the outer surface is separated from the nozzle forming surface, and is also driven when rotating the wiper; and a contact member coming into contact with the outer surface of the wiper rotated along with driving of the motor.Type: GrantFiled: February 25, 2013Date of Patent: September 9, 2014Assignee: Seiko Epson CorporationInventors: Shunichi Hizawa, Nobuhito Takahashi
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Patent number: 8814306Abstract: An inkjet printer is configured to capture image data of a bare rotating imaging surface and use the image data of the bare rotating imaging surface to remove noise from subsequent images of printed ink on the rotating imaging surface. A controller in the printer is configured to measure cross-correlations between margins in the bare rotating imaging surface image data and margins in the subsequent images of printed ink to identify areas of alignment between the image data of the bare rotating imaging surface and the subsequent images of printed ink. The data in the areas in the image data of the bare rotating imaging surface that are aligned with areas in the subsequent images are used to remove the background noise produced by structure in the rotating imaging surface.Type: GrantFiled: December 17, 2012Date of Patent: August 26, 2014Assignee: Xerox CorporationInventors: Howard A. Mizes, Jack T. LeStrange
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Patent number: 8814307Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a controller configured to adjust ink ejection amounts from nozzles in a downstream nozzle array on a basis of a bypassing air flow degree. The bypassing air flow degree is calculated based on an ejection density of ink ejected from nozzles in an upstream nozzle array on a recording medium and indicates a generation degree of a bypassing air flow generated when a transfer air flow generated by transfer of the recording medium bypasses a self-generated air flow generated by ink ejected from the nozzles in the upstream nozzle array. The downstream nozzle array is a nozzle array located downstream in a transfer direction among a plurality of nozzle arrays. The upstream nozzle array is a nozzle array located upstream in the transfer direction among the plurality of nozzle arrays.Type: GrantFiled: September 18, 2013Date of Patent: August 26, 2014Assignee: Riso Kagaku CorporationInventors: Takashi Ebisawa, Ryo Terakado, Mamoru Saitou, Toshihide Maesaka
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Patent number: 8807684Abstract: A method of identifying defective nozzles of a printhead. The method includes the steps of: (i) instructing each nozzle in one ink plane of the printhead to print a respective coded line pattern, each coded line pattern being represented by a column of printed pixels and absent pixels, the coded line patterns being defined by first and second coding schemes encoding a position of each nozzle within its respective cell and a position of each cell within its respective ink plane; (ii) firing each nozzle of the ink plane to print a test pattern comprising a plurality of neighboring coded line patterns; (iii) imaging an area of the test pattern to obtain an imaged test pattern; (iv) decoding the imaged test pattern using the first and second coding schemes; and (iv) identifying the defective nozzles using the decoded imaged test pattern.Type: GrantFiled: September 6, 2013Date of Patent: August 19, 2014Assignee: Memjet Technology Ltd.Inventors: Peter Allworth, Matthew Baker
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Patent number: 8807685Abstract: An image forming device and an image forming method capable of suppressing a deviation of ink landing position generated by transfer unevenness of a transfer belt and also suppressing a deviation of ink landing position at a fine level generated by the different causes by generating correction profile data specifying a correction value of ink ejection timing from contents of the deviation of landing position of each pixel calculated by reading a test pattern image printed by an inkjet printer by a scanner unit and by performing ink ejection timing correction using the correction profile data.Type: GrantFiled: September 17, 2013Date of Patent: August 19, 2014Assignee: Riso Kagaku CorporationInventor: Mari Ishida
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Patent number: 8801134Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods for a handheld image translation device are described herein. The handheld image translation device may include a position module to determine positioning information including both translation and rotation information based at least in part on captured navigational measurements. A print module of the handheld image translation device may cause print forming substances to be deposited based at least in part on the positioning information. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.Type: GrantFiled: July 30, 2012Date of Patent: August 12, 2014Assignee: Marvell World Trade Ltd.Inventors: James Bledsoe, James Mealy, Asher Simmons
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Patent number: 8801146Abstract: An inkjet print head includes a jet assembly which includes a nozzle plate, the nozzle plate including an ink transferring path on a bottom surface of the nozzle plate, and a jet jetting a transferred ink out of the head. A printed circuit substrate is connected to the jet assembly and includes an integrated circuit and a connection electrode. A barrier coating layer covers a surface of the printed circuit substrate and an inner surface and an outer surface of the jet assembly except a bottom surface of the nozzle plate and a surface of the connection electrode of the jet assembly and the printed circuit substrate being connected with each other. The barrier coating layer has a layered structure which includes a flexible layer, a diffusion barrier layer, and a hydrophobic layer.Type: GrantFiled: October 17, 2012Date of Patent: August 12, 2014Assignee: Samsung Display Co., Ltd.Inventors: Woo-Yong Sung, A-Ram Lee, Tae-Woon Cha, Tae-Gyun Kim, Hyoung Sub Lee, Seung-Yeon Chae, Sang Gun Choi
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Patent number: 8794742Abstract: There is provided a discharge head including: a tubular member that includes a flat portion with an oblate shape where a cross-section of a tube path extends in a first direction, the tubular member being formed so that the flat portion includes a first wall that is flat and has an actuator attached to an outside thereof and the flat portion becomes a cavity with an internal volume thereof varying due to displacement of the first wall; and a nozzle opening that is provided at one end of the tubular member and discharges a liquid substance due to variation in the internal volume of the cavity.Type: GrantFiled: February 16, 2010Date of Patent: August 5, 2014Assignee: Microjet CorporationInventors: Shuichi Yamaguchi, Akira Ueno
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Patent number: 8789924Abstract: A fluid ejector includes a fluid ejection module and an integrated circuit element. The fluid ejection module includes a substrate having a plurality of fluid paths, a plurality of actuators, and a plurality of conductive traces, each actuator configured to cause a fluid to be ejected from a nozzle of an associated fluid path. The integrated circuit element is mounted on the fluid ejection module and is electrically connected with the conductive traces of the fluid ejection module such that an electrical connection of the module enables a signal sent to the fluid ejection module to be transmitted to the integrated circuit element, processed on the integrated circuit element, and output to the fluid ejection module to drive the actuator.Type: GrantFiled: November 1, 2013Date of Patent: July 29, 2014Assignee: FUJIFILM CorporationInventors: Andreas Bibl, Deane A. Gardner, John A. Higginson, Kevin von Essen