Patents by Inventor Akiko Kitami

Akiko Kitami has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8231194
    Abstract: An inkjet recording apparatus including: a recording head having a pressure chamber, and a pressure generation device to change a volume of the pressure chamber, wherein the recording head ejects an ink in the pressure chamber as an ink droplet from a nozzle by driving the pressure generation device based on drive signals; and a drive signal generating section to generate the drive signals, which include: an ejection pulse including a first pulse for expanding the volume of the pressure chamber and then contracting the volume; a preliminary pulse, to be applied immediately before the first pulse, for contracting the volume of the pressure chamber and then expanding the volume, and wherein the preliminary pulse is a rectangular wave having a pulse width of 2AL or greater, where AL is ½ of an acoustic resonance cycle period of a pressure wave in the pressure chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 29, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2012
    Assignee: Konica Minolta IJ Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Akiko Kitami, Kazuo Asano
  • Publication number: 20100118073
    Abstract: An inkjet recording apparatus including: a recording head having a pressure chamber, and a pressure generation device to change a volume of the pressure chamber, wherein the recording head ejects an ink in the pressure chamber as an ink droplet from a nozzle by driving the pressure generation device based on drive signals; and a drive signal generating section to generate the drive signals, which include: an ejection pulse including a first pulse for expanding the volume of the pressure chamber and then contracting the volume; a preliminary pulse, to be applied immediately before the first pulse, for contracting the volume of the pressure chamber and then expanding the volume, and wherein the preliminary pulse is a rectangular wave having a pulse width of 2 AL or greater, where AL is ½ of an acoustic resonance cycle period of a pressure wave in the pressure chamber.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 29, 2009
    Publication date: May 13, 2010
    Applicant: Konica Minolta IJ Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Akiko KITAMI, Kazuo Asano
  • Patent number: 7410233
    Abstract: A liquid droplet ejecting apparatus having: a pressurizing device; a pressure generation chamber whose volume expands or contracts by a movement of the pressurizing device; a liquid droplet ejecting head having a nozzle communicating with the pressure generation chamber; and a drive signal generator which generates the drive signal for operating the pressurizing device, and causing to eject liquid droplets through the nozzle, wherein the drive signal comprises: an expansion pulse to expand the volume of the pressure generation chamber; a first contraction pulse following the expansion pulse to contract the volume; and a second contraction pulse after the first contraction pulse to contract the volume, wherein a pulse width of the expansion pulse is 0.7AL through 1.3AL, and a pulse width of the first contraction pulse is 0.3 AL through 1.5 AL, where AL is ½ of an acoustic resonance period of the pressure generation chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2008
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc.
    Inventors: Akiko Kitami, Kazuo Asano
  • Patent number: 7300126
    Abstract: The present liquid ejecting device adjusts the cross-talk amount to a range of ± 15 %, by providing: a recording head having actuators which generate the ejection energy for ejecting the liquid from a plurality of nozzles for each of the plurality of nozzles; a drive circuit to generate the drive signal for driving the actuator; and an adjusting circuit for adjusting at least one of the rising time constant and the falling time constant of the waveform of the drive signal to a time period more than 30 nsec and less than 150 nsec before the drive signal reaches the actuator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2005
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2007
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc.
    Inventors: Shingo Uraki, Katsuaki Komatsu, Akiko Kitami
  • Patent number: 7287821
    Abstract: A liquid jetting device having: a recording head including a jetting energy generating element; a drive circuit generating drive signal for the element; a liquid detection sensor detecting a jetting characteristic value of liquid jetted from a nozzle; a drive voltage adjustment unit adjusting a voltage value of the drive signal; and a controller to control the drive circuit, the sensor and the drive voltage adjustment unit, wherein the controller performs control so that the liquid is jetted, and creates a correction data from the jetting characteristic value; and the controller performs control so that the voltage value is corrected based on a value obtained by multiplying the correction data by convergence coefficient within a range from 0.50 or more to less than 1.00, and repeats correcting the voltage value until a detection result of the liquid jetted based on the drive signal after the correction becomes a target value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2007
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc.
    Inventors: Shingo Uraki, Akiko Kitami, Katsuaki Komatsu
  • Patent number: 7226141
    Abstract: An inkjet recording apparatus having a head that ejects ink droplets, a temperature detector that detects temperatures in the vicinity of the head, and a drive waveform controller that generates a drive waveform driving the head, wherein the drive waveform controller changes, based on temperature information coming from the temperature detector, the amplitude as temperature changes, according to the expression V=EXP(A/T+B) wherein V represents an amplitude of the drive waveform, T represents the temperature and A and B represent a constant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2007
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc.
    Inventors: Kazuo Asano, Akiko Kitami
  • Patent number: 7195327
    Abstract: A droplet ejection apparatus provided with: a drive signal generator for generating drive signals including a plurality of drive pulses; a drive pulse selector for selecting drive pulses in accordance with a print datum of each pixel; and a head for ejecting a droplet from a nozzle provided corresponding to a channel, by changing a volume of the channel according to the drive pulses selected, wherein, the drive signal includes a micro-vibration pulse as one of the drive pulses to generate a micro-vibration of meniscus in the nozzle in such a degree that the droplet is not ejected, said micro-vibration pulse being formed of rectangular waves which include at least one micro-vibration pulse having a pulse width of (2n) AL, where AL is ½ of the acoustic resonance period of the channel, and n is an integer not smaller than 1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2007
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc.
    Inventors: Akiko Kitami, Kazuo Asano
  • Publication number: 20060125856
    Abstract: A liquid droplet ejecting apparatus having: a pressurizing device; a pressure generation chamber whose volume expands or contracts by a movement of the pressurizing device; a liquid droplet ejecting head having a nozzle communicating with the pressure generation chamber; and a drive signal generator which generates the drive signal for operating the pressurizing device, and causing to eject liquid droplets through the nozzle, wherein the drive signal comprises: an expansion pulse to expand the volume of the pressure generation chamber; a first contraction pulse following the expansion pulse to contract the volume; and a second contraction pulse after the first contraction pulse to contract the volume, wherein a pulse width of the expansion pulse is 0.7AL through 1.3AL, and a pulse width of the first contraction pulse is 0.3 AL through 1.5 AL, where AL is ½ of an acoustic resonance period of the pressure generation chamber.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 5, 2005
    Publication date: June 15, 2006
    Inventors: Akiko Kitami, Kazuo Asano
  • Publication number: 20060033768
    Abstract: A liquid jetting device having: a recording head including a jetting energy generating element; a drive circuit generating drive signal for the element; a liquid detection sensor detecting a jetting characteristic value of liquid jetted from a nozzle; a drive voltage adjustment unit adjusting a voltage value of the drive signal; and a controller to control the drive circuit, the sensor and the drive voltage adjustment unit, wherein the controller performs control so that the liquid is jetted, and creates a correction data from the jetting characteristic value; and the controller performs control so that the voltage value is corrected based on a value obtained by multiplying the correction data by convergence coefficient within a range from 0.50 or more to less than 1.00, and repeats correcting the voltage value until a detection result of the liquid jetted based on the drive signal after the correction becomes a target value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 10, 2005
    Publication date: February 16, 2006
    Applicant: Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc.
    Inventors: Shingo Uraki, Akiko Kitami, Katsuaki Komatsu
  • Publication number: 20060033766
    Abstract: The present liquid ejecting device adjusts the cross-talk amount to a range of ±15%, by providing: a recording head having actuators which generate the ejection energy for ejecting the liquid from a plurality of nozzles for each of the plurality of nozzles; a drive circuit to generate the drive signal for driving the actuator; and an adjusting circuit for adjusting at least one of the rising time constant and the falling time constant of the waveform of the drive signal to a time period more than 30 nsec and less than 150 nsec before the drive signal reaches the actuator.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 26, 2005
    Publication date: February 16, 2006
    Applicant: Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc.
    Inventors: Shingo Uraki, Katsuaki Komatsu, Akiko Kitami
  • Publication number: 20050168510
    Abstract: An inkjet recording apparatus having a head that ejects ink droplets, a temperature detector that detects temperatures in the vicinity of the head, and a drive waveform controller that generates a drive waveform driving the head, wherein the drive waveform controller changes, based on temperature information coming from the temperature detector, the amplitude as temperature changes, according to the expression V=EXP(A/T+B) wherein V represents an amplitude of the drive waveform, T represents the temperature and A and B represent a constant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 24, 2005
    Publication date: August 4, 2005
    Applicant: KONICA MINOLTA HOLDINGS, INC.
    Inventors: Kazuo Asano, Akiko Kitami
  • Patent number: 6908167
    Abstract: An ink-jet recording apparatus in which an electromechanical converting device that changes a volume of an ink channel of a recording head is driven to make an ink droplet to jet from a nozzle, wherein before an ink droplet jetting operation is conducted, an ink meniscus of the ink channel is vibrated finely by repeating plural times a pushing out process so that a distance corresponding to a peak of the ink meniscus pushed out from a surface of the nozzle is equal to or more than a radius of the nozzle and a process for pulling in more toward the ink channel across a repose position, while the ink is prevented from jetting from the nozzle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2005
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Akiko Kitami, Kazuo Asano
  • Publication number: 20040155915
    Abstract: A droplet ejection apparatus provided with: a drive signal generator for generating drive signals including a plurality of drive pulses; a drive pulse selector for selecting drive pulses in accordance with a print datum of each pixel; and a head for ejecting a droplet from a nozzle provided corresponding to a channel, by changing a volume of the channel according to the drive pulses selected, wherein, the drive signal includes a micro-vibration pulse as one of the drive pulses to generate a micro-vibration of meniscus in the nozzle in such a degree that the droplet is not ejected, said micro-vibration pulse being formed of rectangular waves which include at least one micro-vibration pulse having a pulse width of (2n) AL, where AL is ½ of the acoustic resonance period of the channel, and n is an integer not smaller than 1.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 4, 2004
    Publication date: August 12, 2004
    Applicant: KONICA MINOLTA HOLDINGS, INC.
    Inventors: Akiko Kitami, Kazuo Asano
  • Publication number: 20040021714
    Abstract: An ink-jet recording apparatus in which an electromechanical converting device that changes a volume of an ink channel of a recording head is driven to make an ink droplet to jet from a nozzle, wherein before an ink droplet jetting operation is conducted, an ink meniscus of the ink channel is vibrated finely by repeating plural times a pushing out process so that a distance corresponding to a peak of the ink meniscus pushed out from a surface of the nozzle is equal to or more than a radius of the nozzle and a process for pulling in more toward the ink channel across a repose position, while the ink is prevented from jetting from the nozzle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 28, 2003
    Publication date: February 5, 2004
    Applicant: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Akiko Kitami, Kazuo Asano
  • Publication number: 20010038710
    Abstract: A process and an apparatus for converting multi-valued image data obtained, for a plurality of pixels of a continuous tone image, by an image input device, into binary image data representing a halftone image to be output by an image output device. The conversion is performed by comparing the multi-valued image data for the plurality of pixels with threshold values, which are determined in advance so as to be specific to a combination of the image input device and the image output device. Alternatively, the multi-valued image data may be corrected before comparison with threshold values, by using correction data which is determined in advance so as to be specific to a combination of the image input device and the image output device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2000
    Publication date: November 8, 2001
    Inventors: Michiko Kawano, Hiroyuki Endo, Taeko Koizumi, Akiko Kitami, Yuko Suzuki