Patents Examined by Thinh Nguyen
  • Patent number: 9067412
    Abstract: A printing apparatus performing printing to a print medium includes a printer having at least two line heads with a plurality of recording modules; a scanner configured to scan an image printed with the printer to obtain a scanned image; a correcting-chart printing unit configured to print first and second correcting charts in first and second line head printing areas, respectively; a scanned image collecting unit configured to collect first and second scanned images; a correction-data calculating device configured to calculate correction data by determining a reference head difference from the first scanned image, determining an individual head difference from the second scanned image, summing up the reference head difference and the individual head difference to obtain a total, the reference head difference and the total being regarded as the correction data for the first and second line heads, respectively; and an adjusting device configured to adjust a timing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2015
    Assignees: SCREEN Holdings Co., Ltd., Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuki Yamanaka, Seiya Nomura
  • Patent number: 9067416
    Abstract: A liquid ejection device includes first and second ejection heads, first and second suction containers, and a suction fan. The first and second ejection heads are configured and arranged to eject liquid from a plurality of nozzles onto a recording medium. The first suction container is disposed on a downstream side of the first ejection head with respect to a direction of feeding the recording medium. The second ejection head is disposed on a downstream side of the first suction container. The second suction container is disposed on a downstream side of the second ejection head. The suction fan is configured and arranged to generate an air flow. The first suction container and the second suction container are connected to the suction fan.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 30, 2015
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Norihiro Masuda
  • Patent number: 9061504
    Abstract: There is provided a liquid jetting apparatus including: a liquid jetting head including a pressure generating element and a plurality of nozzles arranged in rows in a nozzle-row direction; and a controller. The controller is configured to: determine a basic flushing amount for each nozzle; make the liquid jetting head carry out flushing with the basic flushing amount for inner-side nozzles positioned at an inner side in the nozzle-row direction; and make the liquid jetting head carry out flushing with a flushing amount larger than the basic flushing amount, for outer-side nozzles positioned at an outer side in the nozzle-row direction, of the inner-side nozzles.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiromitsu Mizutani, Yusuke Suzuki, Taisuke Mizuno, Shohei Koide, Atsushi Ito, Keita Hirai
  • Patent number: 9056472
    Abstract: A fluid ejector includes a substrate having an exterior surface and an interior surface. A non-wetting coating can cover at least a portion of the exterior surface and can be substantially absent from the flow path. A non-wetting coating can be formed of a molecular aggregation. A precursor of a non-wetting coating may flow into a chamber at a higher temperature higher than the substrate. A non-wetting coating can be over a seed layer. An outer portion of the seed layer can have a higher concentration of water molecules or a greater density than an inner portion. The outer portion can be deposited at a ratio of partial pressure water to partial pressure matrix precursor that is higher than the ratio for the inner portion. An oxygen plasma can be applied to a seed layer on the exterior surface, and the non-wetting coating can be applied on the seed layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2015
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Yoshimasa Okamura
  • Patent number: 9056512
    Abstract: There is provided a printing apparatus comprising: a printhead; a recovery mechanism for the printhead; a jetting failure detector; an operation history memory; a detection condition memory, the jetting failure detector; and a controller. The controller in configured to control the printing apparatus to: determine whether or not the operation history of the printhead conforms to the first condition value; determine whether or not the jetting failure is present, in a case that, the operation history conforms to the first condition value; cause the recovery mechanism to perform the recovery process, in a case that, the jetting failure is present; and cause the detection condition memory to store the second condition value smaller than the first condition value as a new first condition value, in a case that the jetting failure is present.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2015
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Shotaro Kanzaki
  • Patent number: 9050794
    Abstract: An inkjet printing apparatus which performs printing by performing scanning using a print head has a problem in that quality of an image of a ruled line is degraded when ink is not ejected for a certain period of time. To address this problem, control is performed such that power for driving the print head for unit regions including pixels having a ruled-line attribute becomes higher than power for driving the print head for unit regions which do not include the pixels having the ruled-line attribute. By this, a high-quality ruled-line image may be printed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroaki Shirakawa, Kazuo Suzuki, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Yuhei Oikawa, Yosuke Ishii
  • Patent number: 9050809
    Abstract: A liquid discharge recording apparatus includes a first liquid containing first 1,2-alkanediol; a liquid discharge head configured to discharge the first liquid; a second liquid containing second 1,2-alkanediol of which vapor pressure is lower than that of the first 1,2-alkanediol; and an absorber which contains the second liquid and which is configured to absorb the first liquid exited from the liquid discharge head.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2015
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Noriaki Satoh, Junichiro Sugimoto, Akihiko Taniguchi, Ayako Ohishi
  • Patent number: 9050840
    Abstract: A printing apparatus, including: printing unit; conveying unit; print control unit; correcting unit configured to determine, in printing an image on each of a plurality of sets of the same type of print medium, a correction value for correcting printing position shift between a plurality of nozzle arrays based on an inspection pattern printed on a preceding region of the print medium, and to correct the printing position between the plurality of nozzle arrays in the subsequent region of the print medium by using the determined correction value, wherein the correcting unit corrects, in printing on a leading end region of a set of print medium subsequent to the preceding set of print medium, the printing position shift by using the correction value used in printing on the preceding set of print medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2015
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Atsuchi Sakamoto, Susumu Hirosawa, Satoshi Masuda, Toshiki Takeuchi, Kengo Nieda
  • Patent number: 9044984
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus and method. In an aspect of the present invention, uneven concentration correction and non-ejection correction are performed at the time of drawing an image. In the non-ejection correction, a non-ejecting nozzle and a deflected ejection nozzle are detected as a defective nozzle, the detected defective nozzle is not allowed to eject ink to perform the non-ejection correction. When a deflected ejection nozzle is detected, an allowable value range of a deflected ejection amount of each of nozzles with respect to a deflected ejection amount of each of nozzles at the time of creating an uneven concentration correction parameter is determined. A nozzle in which a deflected ejection amount exceeds the allowable value range so that the deflected ejection occurs is detected as a deflected ejection nozzle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Masashi Ueshima
  • Patent number: 9044959
    Abstract: Methods performed by a printing system are described herein. A portion of a print area is located by operating an optical sensor to respond to a color shift. The color shift is from a printed reference color. The color shift is caused by a fixer fluid applied to the portion. Printing systems and tangible machine readable storage mediums are also described herein.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Eduardo Amela Conesa, Jacint Humet Pous, Marc Serra Vail, Jaime Fernández del Rio
  • Patent number: 9044958
    Abstract: Image forming apparatus and methods are disclosed which include identifying a first ink density of ink in an ink tank by a density sensor unit disposed in the ink tank. The image forming apparatus and methods also include identifying an ink weight of ink in an intermediate reservoir by a weight sensor unit. The image forming apparatus and methods also include determining a second ink density of the ink in the intermediate reservoir based at least on the identified first ink density by the density sensor unit and the identified ink weight of the ink in the intermediate reservoir by the weight sensor unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 2, 2015
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Indigo B.V.
    Inventors: Assaf Pines, Nassim Henn, Chen Talmor
  • Patent number: 9039126
    Abstract: A liquid ejection head substrate includes: a plurality of energy generating element arrays each including a plurality of energy generating elements configured to generate energy for ejecting liquid; a supply port array in which a plurality of supply ports configured to supply liquid to the plurality of energy generating elements are arranged between the plurality of energy generating element arrays in an arrangement direction in which the plurality of energy generating elements are arranged; a temperature detection element that is configured to detect a temperature of the liquid ejection head substrate and that is provided on one side of the supply port array; and a heating element that is configured to heat the liquid ejection head substrate and that is provided on the other side of the supply port array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Nobuyuki Hirayama, Ryo Kasai
  • Patent number: 9028022
    Abstract: According an aspect of the present invention, when causing the liquid ejection head to perform a feeding operation along a first direction, the substrate is retracted outside the projected feeding region of the liquid ejection head and the supporting member thereof prior to starting the feeding operation of the liquid ejection head, preventing dusts and other foreign matters, generated as a result of the feeding operation of the liquid ejection head and the supporting member, from being deposited on a surface of the substrate onto which the liquid is to be deposited.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventors: Kenichi Kodama, Satoshi Wakamatsu
  • Patent number: 9028039
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a recording head, an ejection detector, a cleaner and cleaning ejection controller. The ejection detector has a droplet landing member disposed in an area in which the droplet landing member faces the head. The ejection detector detects ejection or non-ejection by detecting electric change caused by landing of the droplets on the droplet landing member. The cleaner cleans a droplet landing surface of the droplet landing member. The cleaning ejection controller controls the recording head to eject droplets on the droplet landing surface for cleaning the droplet landing surface before cleaning the droplet landing surface by the cleaner. A quantity of the droplets for cleaning the droplet landing surface is greater than a quantity of the droplets for detecting ejection or non-ejection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shingo Masaoka, Shotaro Takeuchi, Masahiko Hisada
  • Patent number: 9028038
    Abstract: A liquid discharge head has a substrate having an inorganic material layer, an organic material layer, and an intermediate layer contacting the inorganic material layer and the organic material layer between the inorganic material layer and the organic material layer, in which the intermediate layer contains a resin having three or more cyclohexene oxide skeletons in the molecules, a photocationic polymerization initiator, a thermal cationic polymerization initiator, and an onium salt containing a cation portion structure represented by (d1) and an anion portion structure represented by (d2).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kyosuke Nagaoka, Masako Shimomura
  • Patent number: 9028030
    Abstract: When the contact angle of a first color ink on a layer of a second color ink is larger than the contact angle of the second color ink on a layer of the first color ink, ejection of the first and the second color ink is controlled so that the number of pixel areas onto which the second color ink is applied after the first color ink is larger than the number of pixel areas onto which the first color ink is applied after the second color ink.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Rie Takekoshi, Takumi Kaneko, Yumi Kamimura
  • Patent number: 9022505
    Abstract: Provided is a printing method using a printing apparatus. The printing apparatus includes a head that has a nozzle array, in which a plurality of nozzles for ejecting a black pigment ink is arranged, and a nozzle array in which a plurality of nozzles for ejecting a color ink is arranged. The printing method includes: a step of acquiring image data of an image to be printed on a medium; a step of ejecting the black pigment ink onto the medium on the basis of the image data; and a step of ejecting the color ink onto the medium on the basis of the image data. A supply capability of the pigment ink supply section is higher than a supply capability of the color ink supply section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
    Assignee: Seiko Corporation
    Inventors: Masami Ogura, Naoki Sudo
  • Patent number: 9016825
    Abstract: When an image is printed with inks each containing a polymer emulsion and a film forming agent, the ejection of the inks is controlled so that the ink having a relatively low dynamic surface tension forms dots having a higher dot connectivity than the dots formed with the ink having a relatively high dynamic surface tension.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tatsuo Shimmoto, Masami Izumizaki, Yoshiyuki Nagase, Takeshi Oota, Takao Ogata, Noboru Kunimine
  • Patent number: 9016832
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus, including: a head having an ejection surface; a head holder; a capping mechanism for capping the ejection surface, having: a facing member with a facing surface to face the ejection surface; and a protrusion provided on the head holder for isolating, from an external space, an ejection space formed between the ejection surface and the facing surface when a tip of the protrusion contacts the facing surface; and a humidifying mechanism having: a circulation passage whose first and second ends are open to the ejection space through openings thereof provided in one of the head and the head holder; and a humidifier for humidifying an air in the passage, the humidifying mechanism being configured to collect an air in the ejection space from the opening of the first end and to supply an air humidified by the humidifier into the ejection space from the opening of the second end.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2015
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Akira Shinoda
  • Patent number: 9010902
    Abstract: A detailed sheet bundle process may be efficiently performed even in a state in which a plurality of general sheet process apparatuses are connected. The print system capable of individually conveying sheets to a plurality of sheet process apparatuses, comprises: an obtaining unit configured to obtain waiting times in which conveyance of a sheet is to be waited between sheet bundles of the sheet process apparatuses and switching times required for switching a sheet discharge destination; a determination unit configured to determine whether a sheet process apparatus to be used is to be changed for every sheet bundle among the sheet process apparatuses in accordance with the waiting times and the switching times obtained by the obtaining unit; and a control unit configured to allow change of a sheet process apparatus to be used for every sheet bundle when the determination unit determines that a sheet process apparatus to be used is to be changed every sheet bundle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Yusuke Kimura