Patents by Inventor Hiroaki Shirakawa

Hiroaki Shirakawa 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).

  • Publication number: 20160263885
    Abstract: A driving pulse to be applied is changed when an overlapped level of invert timing of driving pulse is large.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 8, 2016
    Publication date: September 15, 2016
    Inventors: Yuhei Oikawa, Taku Yokozawa, Hiroaki Shirakawa, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Hiroshi Taira, Satoshi Azuma, Yosuke Ishii, Hiroaki Komatsu
  • Publication number: 20160257115
    Abstract: In a case where the temperature difference between first and second time points detected by a first temperature sensor provided in a print head is lower than a threshold temperature, a temperature correction for the first temperature sensor is performed based on a temperature detected by a second temperature sensor provided within a printing apparatus thereof. In a case where the temperature difference is higher than the threshold temperature, a temperature correction for the first temperature sensor is performed without using the temperature detected by the second temperature sensor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2016
    Publication date: September 8, 2016
    Inventors: Satoshi Azuma, Taku Yokozawa, Hiroaki Shirakawa, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Yuhei Oikawa, Hiroshi Taira, Yosuke Ishii, Hiroaki Komatsu
  • Publication number: 20160257114
    Abstract: A recording apparatus is capable of executing multiple types of different temperature control. A recording head of the recording apparatus has multiple temperature sensors disposed at different positions from each other in the recording head. Each of the multiple types of different temperature control is performed based on representative temperatures acquired using different combinations of the temperature sensors.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 2, 2016
    Publication date: September 8, 2016
    Inventors: Taku Yokozawa, Hiroaki Shirakawa, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Yuhei Oikawa, Yosuke Ishii, Hiroaki Komatsu, Satoshi Azuma, Hiroshi Taira
  • Patent number: 9415588
    Abstract: In a case where the temperature difference between first and second time points detected by a first temperature sensor provided in a print head is lower than a threshold temperature, a temperature correction for the first temperature sensor is performed based on a temperature detected by a second temperature sensor provided within a printing apparatus thereof. In a case where the temperature difference is higher than the threshold temperature, a temperature correction for the first temperature sensor is performed without using the temperature detected by the second temperature sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2016
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoshi Azuma, Taku Yokozawa, Hiroaki Shirakawa, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Yuhei Oikawa, Hiroshi Taira, Yosuke Ishii, Hiroaki Komatsu
  • Patent number: 9315058
    Abstract: According to an aspect of the present invention, temperatures at a plurality of different positions in an array direction in an ejection opening array are detected, and heating by a heating element is executed in a case where a temperature difference between the temperatures is higher than a predetermined threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2016
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Taku Yokozawa, Hiroaki Shirakawa, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Yuhei Oikawa, Yosuke Ishii, Hiroaki Komatsu
  • Patent number: 9259921
    Abstract: First heating is started at a first time point, and a second heating having higher heating energy than the first heating is started at a second time point subsequent to the first time point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2016
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroaki Shirakawa, Yosuke Ishii, Taku Yokozawa, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Yuhei Oikawa, Hiroaki Komatsu
  • Publication number: 20150367632
    Abstract: First heating is started at a first time point, and a second heating having higher heating energy than the first heating is started at a second time point subsequent to the first time point.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 15, 2015
    Publication date: December 24, 2015
    Inventors: Hiroaki Shirakawa, Yosuke Ishii, Taku Yokozawa, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Yuhei Oikawa, Hiroaki Komatsu
  • Publication number: 20150343817
    Abstract: According to an aspect of the present invention, temperatures at a plurality of different positions in an array direction in an ejection opening array are detected, and heating by a heating element is executed in a case where a temperature difference between the temperatures is higher than a predetermined threshold.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 26, 2015
    Publication date: December 3, 2015
    Inventors: Taku Yokozawa, Hiroaki Shirakawa, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Yuhei Oikawa, Yosuke Ishii, Hiroaki Komatsu
  • Patent number: 9180660
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus including a recording head including a plurality of energy generation elements configured to generate thermal energy. The ink jet recording apparatus includes a specification unit and a control unit. The specification unit specifies a pulse width upper limit value of a prepulse during a recording operation based on a minimum pulse width by which ink is discharged by applying a drive pulse to the energy generation elements and a temperature of the recording head during the recording operation. The control unit controls the energy generation elements to be driven using a drive pulse of a prepulse with a pulse width equal to or less than the pulse width upper limit value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yuhei Oikawa, Kazuo Suzuki, Hiroaki Shirakawa, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Yosuke Ishii
  • Patent number: 9114607
    Abstract: Provided are an inkjet printing apparatus, whereby pulse drive periods and a pause period can be adjusted so as to fall within predetermined periods, while the volume of ink to be ejected is ensured, and a heat generating element driving method therefor. For the inkjet printing apparatus, a pulse signal drive period for a pulse driven previously, a pulse signal drive period for a pulse driven subsequently and a pause period are set to perform ejection of ink droplets one time. When the ejection period exceeds the threshold value, the pulse signal drive period for the pulse driven subsequently and the pause period are reduced to adjust the ejection period to be equal to or lower than a threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2015
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yosuke Ishii, Kazuo Suzuki, Hiroaki Shirakawa, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Yuhei Oikawa
  • 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: 8991959
    Abstract: A recording apparatus including a recording head that includes an element array of a plurality of recording elements for discharging a liquid, the plurality of recording elements in the element array being divided into groups, and a drive unit configured to drive the recording head in a driving mode selected from a plurality of driving modes including a continuous driving mode in which recording elements in each of the groups are driven in order from one end and a distributed driving mode in which recording elements in each of the groups are driven such that adjacent recording elements are not driven sequentially.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masaki Nitta, Hiroaki Shirakawa, Yasunori Fujimoto, Taku Yokozawa
  • Publication number: 20150022574
    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: Application
    Filed: July 15, 2014
    Publication date: January 22, 2015
    Inventors: Hiroaki Shirakawa, Kazuo Suzuki, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Yuhei Oikawa, Yosuke Ishii
  • Patent number: 8919904
    Abstract: An inkjet recording apparatus predicts the volume of air bubbles generated in a storage section of a recording head based on an input recording job. When the volume of the amount of ink in the storage section of the recording head is less than the predicted volume of air bubbles, a recovery operation is performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: December 30, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroaki Shirakawa, Yuhei Oikawa, Satoshi Hayashi, Taku Yokozawa, Masaki Nitta, Yosuke Ishii
  • Patent number: 8851613
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a print unit, an acquisition unit, and a setting unit. The print unit performs printing on a sheet by repeating reciprocating scans of a print head. The acquisition unit acquires information on a temperature of the print head. The setting unit sets a wait time to start a next scan after one scan. The setting unit increases the wait time by a predetermined additional time for each subsequent scan once a value acquired by the acquisition unit exceeds a first threshold, unless the value falls below a second threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2012
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Taku Yokozawa, Satoshi Hayashi, Masaki Nitta, Yosuke Ishii, Hiroaki Shirakawa, Yuhei Oikawa
  • Patent number: 8783811
    Abstract: A printing apparatus, which includes a heating unit for heating a recording medium during printing, determines a pass number for multi-pass printing based on acquired information relating to the duty in each of a plurality of regions in one band of print region. The printing apparatus sets an amount of heat of the heating unit based on the acquired information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masaki Nitta, Satoshi Hayashi, Taku Yokozawa, Hiroaki Shirakawa, Yuhei Oikawa, Yosuke Ishii
  • Patent number: 8608268
    Abstract: A recording apparatus includes a first acquisition unit configured to acquire a speed of ink discharged from a recording head, a second acquisition unit configured to acquire information relating to a speed change based on the speed acquired by the first acquisition unit and a reference speed; a setting unit configured to set driving information relating to the recording head based on the information relating to the speed change acquired by the second acquisition unit, and a drive unit configured to drive the recording head based on the driving information set by the setting unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2011
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2013
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masaki Nitta, Hiroaki Shirakawa, Yosuke Ishii, Yuhei Oikawa, Satoshi Hayashi, Taku Yokozawa
  • Publication number: 20130257933
    Abstract: An inkjet recording apparatus predicts the volume of air bubbles generated in a storage section of a recording head based on an input recording job. When the volume of the amount of ink in the storage section of the recording head is less than the predicted volume of air bubbles, a recovery operation is performed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Publication date: October 3, 2013
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Hiroaki Shirakawa, Yuhei Oikawa, Satoshi Hayashi, Taku Yokozawa, Masaki Nitta, Yosuke Ishii
  • Publication number: 20130235104
    Abstract: Provided are an inkjet printing apparatus, whereby pulse drive periods and a pause period can be adjusted so as to fall within predetermined periods, while the volume of ink to be ejected is ensured, and a heat generating element driving method therefor. For the inkjet printing apparatus, a pulse signal drive period for a pulse driven previously, a pulse signal drive period for a pulse driven subsequently and a pause period are set to perform ejection of ink droplets one time. When the ejection period exceeds the threshold value, the pulse signal drive period for the pulse driven subsequently and the pause period are reduced to adjust the ejection period to be equal to or lower than a threshold value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 1, 2013
    Publication date: September 12, 2013
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yosuke Ishii, Kazuo Suzuki, Hiroaki Shirakawa, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Yuhei Oikawa
  • Patent number: 8382260
    Abstract: A liquid discharging apparatus includes a liquid container having an information storage portion configured to store information and a supply port for supplying liquid in the liquid container to the outside and a movable member having the liquid container attached thereon. After the connection between the supply port and the apparatus is severed while the movable member moves from a first position to a second position, information is written in the information storage portion. The second position is set such that the time required for the movable member to move from the first position to the second position is longer than or equal to the time required for the information communication.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2009
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2013
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Syuu Utzui, Masaya Uetsuki, Kouhei Tokuda, Hideo Fukazawa, Hiroaki Shirakawa, Naoshi Inoue, Eiichi Adachi