Patents by Inventor Hiroshi Kawafuji

Hiroshi Kawafuji 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: 11958301
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a printing unit configured to print an image on a print medium, an acquiring unit configured to acquire temperature information of the printing unit, and a control unit configured to control the printing unit so as to start relative scanning in a case where a temperature that is indicated by the temperature information has reached a print permission temperature. The print permission temperature in a first print mode whose speed at a time of a constant speed in relative scanning is a first speed is a first temperature. The print permission temperature in a second print mode whose speed at the time of the constant speed is a second speed that is faster than the first speed is a second temperature that is lower than the first temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 16, 2024
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takeshi Murase, Kazuhiko Sato, Taku Yokozawa, Noboru Kunimine, Hiroshi Taira, Hiroshi Kawafuji, Sae Mogi, Akiko Aichi
  • Patent number: 11919300
    Abstract: An inkjet printing apparatus adopting short pulse heating is designed to output a uniform image without unevenness. To this end, in a serial inkjet printing apparatus, a print head is subjected to a short pulse heating treatment before each print scan is carried out. In a case where a print medium is a first print medium, the print head is heated to a first target temperature before carrying out each of the print scans. In a case where the print medium is a second print medium, the print head is heated to a second target temperature lower than the first target temperature before carrying out each of the print scans.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kawafuji, Kazuhiko Sato, Kazuo Suzuki, Takeshi Murase, Hiroshi Taira, Tomoki Yamamuro, Sae Mogi, Masaki Nitta
  • Patent number: 11919321
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a printing unit configured to print an image on a print medium, an acquiring unit configured to acquire temperature information of the printing unit, and a control unit configured to control the printing unit so as to start relative scanning in a case where a temperature that is indicated by the temperature information has reached a print permission temperature. The print permission temperature in a first print mode whose speed at a time of a constant speed in relative scanning is a first speed is a first temperature. The print permission temperature in a second print mode whose speed at the time of the constant speed is a second speed that is faster than the first speed is a second temperature that is lower than the first temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takeshi Murase, Kazuhiko Sato, Taku Yokozawa, Noboru Kunimine, Hiroshi Taira, Hiroshi Kawafuji, Sae Mogi, Akiko Aichi
  • Publication number: 20240017549
    Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus includes: a liquid ejection head that ejects a liquid from an ejection port; and a cap movable to a closed position at which the cap covers the ejection port and an open position which is separated from the closed position and at which the ejection port is open. The liquid ejection apparatus further includes: a recovery unit configured to perform a recovery process of recovering liquid ejection performance of the liquid ejection head; and a determination unit configured to determine whether abnormal termination occurred with the cap at the open position when the liquid ejection apparatus resumes operating. In a case where the determination unit determines that the abnormal termination occurred, the recovery process is controlled based on a temperature obtained by a temperature obtaining unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 5, 2023
    Publication date: January 18, 2024
    Inventors: MASATAKA KATO, KAZUO SUZUKI, MASAKI NITTA, TAKESHI MURASE, HIROSHI TAIRA, HIROSHI KAWAFUJI, SAE MOGI
  • Publication number: 20230415474
    Abstract: A threshold value is set based on a temperature of a recording apparatus, and a recording condition corresponding to the acquired temperature is set by comparing the set threshold value with a counted value of the number of driving times of a recording element.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 11, 2023
    Publication date: December 28, 2023
    Inventors: TAKESHI MURASE, KAZUO SUZUKI, MASATAKA KATO, MASAKI NITTA, HIROSHI TAIRA, HIROSHI KAWAFUJI, SAE MOGI
  • Patent number: 11813853
    Abstract: To provide a technology capable of appropriately suppressing deterioration in cutting accuracy of a slitter although the rigidity of a print medium changes, a printing apparatus is equipped with: a first conveyance unit configured to convey a print medium; a printing unit configured to print an image by applying ink to the print medium conveyed by the first conveyance unit; a cutting unit disposed on a downstream side in a conveyance direction in which the print medium is conveyed by the first conveyance unit and configured to cut the print medium, which is conveyed by the first conveyance unit, along the conveyance direction; and a second conveyance unit disposed on the cutting unit, and the printing apparatus includes a correction unit configured to correct a parameter related to conveyance of at least one of the first conveyance unit and the second conveyance unit, based on information about the print medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2023
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kawafuji, Hiroshi Taira, Kazuhiko Sato, Taku Yokozawa, Noboru Kunimine, Akiko Aichi, Satoshi Azuma, Sae Mogi, Kei Yoshizawa, Shingo Nishioka, Junichi Saito, Hajime Nagai, Naoko Baba, Yuji Konno, Serena Yoshikawa, Satoshi Wada
  • Patent number: 11794495
    Abstract: An object is to provide a full-line inkjet printing apparatus and a printing method that can suppress occurrence of image degradation in the case where a conveyance roller conveys a print medium and multipass printing is performed. The maximum conveyance amount in a return route is set to be smaller than a distance between the conveyance roller and a print head.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2023
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masataka Kato, Kazuhiko Sato, Kazuo Suzuki, Yoshinori Nakajima, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Shin Genta, Satoshi Azuma, Shingo Nishioka, Sae Mogi, Taku Yokozawa, Noboru Kunimine, Akiko Aichi, Hiroshi Taira, Hiroto Kango, Hiroshi Kawafuji
  • Publication number: 20230202193
    Abstract: An object is to provide a technique of calculating an ejection amount of a ink in accordance with a printing head. A printing apparatus includes: a printing head including an ejection port array in which multiple ejection ports to eject a ink are arrayed; a conveyer unit configured to convey a printing medium in a conveyance direction; and a controller unit configured to control the printing head. The controller unit executes processing to obtain the printing dot number based on printing data and processing to calculate an amount of the ink used in a case of performing printing based on the printing data by using different calculation methods between a case where a first printing mode is set and a case where a second printing mode is set based on the printing dot number and an ejection amount conversion factor corresponding to a temperature of the printing head.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 19, 2022
    Publication date: June 29, 2023
    Inventors: TOMOKI YAMAMURO, KAZUHIKO SATO, KAZUO SUZUKI, TAKESHI MURASE, HIROSHI TAIRA, HIROSHI KAWAFUJI, SAE MOGI, MASAKI NITTA
  • Publication number: 20230191798
    Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention provides an ink jet printing apparatus including: a print head including a printing element array provided with printing elements each configured to generate thermal energy required to eject an ink, a supply flow channel provided along the printing element array and configured to supply the ink to the respective printing elements, an opening provided to the supply flow channel and configured to cause the ink to flow in, and heating units provided along the supply flow channel and configured to heat the ink inside the supply flow channel; and a heating control unit configured to carry out heating control of the heating units based on a heating pattern determined based on heating intensity distribution, the heating intensity distribution representing heating intensities corresponding to the respective heating units and representing the heating intensities corresponding to positions in a direction of the printing element array.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 18, 2022
    Publication date: June 22, 2023
    Inventors: Masaki Nitta, Kazuo Suzuki, Masataka Kato, Takeshi Murase, Hiroshi Kawafuji, Hiroshi Taira, Sae Mogi
  • Patent number: 11660877
    Abstract: For a multi-pass printing, an image of a unit area is printed by M printing scans of M print regions of first and second nozzle arrays. Each of N pieces of column data is printed by a different printing scan. Ejection data for the first nozzle array is generated using a first mask pattern and ejection data for the second nozzle array is generated using a second mask pattern different from the first mask pattern, for each of the N pieces of column data. On that basis, the first mask pattern and the second mask pattern have a complementary relationship in each of the M print regions. Further, in each of the first mask pattern and the second mask pattern, a combination of print regions, of the M print regions, for printing dots at the same position on the print medium has a mutually complementary relationship.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2023
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroshi Kawafuji
  • Publication number: 20230134991
    Abstract: A recording apparatus includes recording elements to eject ink, heating elements to heat the ink, and a common wiring through which the recording elements and the heating elements are applied with a voltage. The recording apparatus determines a drive pulse applied to the recording elements based on the number of recording elements to be simultaneously driven and the number of heating elements to be simultaneously driven.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 25, 2022
    Publication date: May 4, 2023
    Inventors: Sae Mogi, Kazuo Suzuki, Masataka Kato, Masaki Nitta, Takeshi Murase, Hiroshi Taira, Hiroshi Kawafuji
  • Publication number: 20220134738
    Abstract: An inkjet printing apparatus includes a print head configured to print an image on a printing medium using a printing element configured to eject ink with thermal energy, a scanning unit configured to cause the print head to scan the printing medium, and a control unit configured to control scanning by the scanning unit and image printing by the print head based on an image printing instruction, wherein the control unit performs a control operation including executing a preliminary ejection to eject, from the print head, ink that does not contribute to image printing before an image is printed in one scanning operation, and determining an amount of ink to be ejected in the preliminary ejection based on a difference between a target temperature and a scanning start temperature, which is a temperature of the print head acquired in response to an instruction to start the one scanning operation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 27, 2021
    Publication date: May 5, 2022
    Inventors: Taku Yokozawa, Kazuhiko Sato, Noboru Kunimine, Takeshi Murase, Hiroshi Taira, Hiroshi Kawafuji, Sae Mogi, Akiko Aichi
  • Patent number: 11292268
    Abstract: A control unit controls a print head to print a print image by ejecting ink through a nozzle to form dots on a print medium and a movement unit to impart relative movement between the print head and the print medium to print a print image on the print medium. The control unit obtains a dot adjustment value in the predetermined print operation based on the measurement result of a measurement unit measuring a first pattern composed of a print image printed by the predetermined print operation including the relative movement, and a second adjustment value for adjusting dot printing positions in the predetermined print operation in a unit of length shorter than in the adjustment using the first adjustment value based on a second pattern printed by the predetermined print operation in a density according to density information on the first pattern, measured by the measurement unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 5, 2022
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hiroshi Kawafuji
  • Publication number: 20220080754
    Abstract: To provide a technology capable of appropriately suppressing deterioration in cutting accuracy of a slitter although the rigidity of a print medium changes, a printing apparatus is equipped with: a first conveyance unit configured to convey a print medium; a printing unit configured to print an image by applying ink to the print medium conveyed by the first conveyance unit; a cutting unit disposed on a downstream side in a conveyance direction in which the print medium is conveyed by the first conveyance unit and configured to cut the print medium, which is conveyed by the first conveyance unit, along the conveyance direction; and a second conveyance unit disposed on the cutting unit, and the printing apparatus includes a correction unit configured to correct a parameter related to conveyance of at least one of the first conveyance unit and the second conveyance unit, based on information about the print medium.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 23, 2021
    Publication date: March 17, 2022
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kawafuji, Hiroshi Taira, Kazuhiko Sato, Taku Yokozawa, Noboru Kunimine, Akiko Aichi, Satoshi Azuma, Sae Mogi, Kei Yoshizawa, Shingo Nishioka, Junichi Saito, Hajime Nagai, Naoko Baba, Yuji Konno, Serena Yoshikawa, Satoshi Wada
  • Publication number: 20220080747
    Abstract: An object is to provide a full-line inkjet printing apparatus and a printing method that can suppress occurrence of image degradation in the case where a conveyance roller conveys a print medium and multipass printing is performed. The maximum conveyance amount in a return route is set to be smaller than a distance between the conveyance roller and a print head.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 29, 2021
    Publication date: March 17, 2022
    Inventors: Masataka Kato, Kazuhiko Sato, Kazuo Suzuki, Yoshinori Nakajima, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Shin Genta, Satoshi Azuma, Shingo Nishioka, Sae Mogi, Taku Yokozawa, Noboru Kunimine, Akiko Aichi, Hiroshi Taira, Hiroto Kango, Hiroshi Kawafuji
  • Publication number: 20210402813
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a printing unit configured to print an image on a print medium, an acquiring unit configured to acquire temperature information of the printing unit, and a control unit configured to control the printing unit so as to start relative scanning in a case where a temperature that is indicated by the temperature information has reached a print permission temperature. The print permission temperature in a first print mode whose speed at a time of a constant speed in relative scanning is a first speed is a first temperature. The print permission temperature in a second print mode whose speed at the time of the constant speed is a second speed that is faster than the first speed is a second temperature that is lower than the first temperature.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2021
    Publication date: December 30, 2021
    Inventors: Takeshi Murase, Kazuhiko Sato, Taku Yokozawa, Noburu Kunimine, Hiroshi Taira, Hiroshi Kawafuji, Sae Mogi, Akiko Aichi
  • Publication number: 20210300031
    Abstract: An inkjet printing apparatus adopting short pulse heating is designed to output a uniform image without unevenness. To this end, in a serial inkjet printing apparatus, a print head is subjected to a short pulse heating treatment before each print scan is carried out. In a case where a print medium is a first print medium, the print head is heated to a first target temperature before carrying out each of the print scans. In a case where the print medium is a second print medium, the print head is heated to a second target temperature lower than the first target temperature before carrying out each of the print scans.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2021
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kawafuji, Kazuhiko Sato, Kazuo Suzuki, Takeshi Murase, Hiroshi Taira, Tomoki Yamamuro, Sae Mogi, Masaki Nitta
  • Publication number: 20210283925
    Abstract: For a multi-pass printing, an image of a unit area is printed by M printing scans of M print regions of first and second nozzle arrays. Each of N pieces of column data is printed by a different printing scan. Ejection data for the first nozzle array is generated using a first mask pattern and ejection data for the second nozzle array is generated using a second mask pattern different from the first mask pattern, for each of the N pieces of column data. On that basis, the first mask pattern and the second mask pattern have a complementary relationship in each of the M print regions. Further, in each of the first mask pattern and the second mask pattern, a combination of print regions, of the M print regions, for printing dots at the same position on the print medium has a mutually complementary relationship.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2021
    Publication date: September 16, 2021
    Inventor: Hiroshi Kawafuji
  • Patent number: 11052671
    Abstract: For a multi-pass printing, an image of a unit area is printed by M printing scans of M print regions of first and second nozzle arrays. Each of N pieces of column data is printed by a different printing scan. Ejection data for the first nozzle array is generated using a first mask pattern and ejection data for the second nozzle array is generated using a second mask pattern different from the first mask pattern, for each of the N pieces of column data. On that basis, the first mask pattern and the second mask pattern have a complementary relationship in each of the M print regions. Further, in each of the first mask pattern and the second mask pattern, a combination of print regions, of the M print regions, for printing dots at the same position on the print medium has a mutually complementary relationship.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroshi Kawafuji
  • Publication number: 20200290367
    Abstract: A control unit controls a print head to print a print image by ejecting ink through a nozzle to form dots on a print medium and a movement unit to impart relative movement between the print head and the print medium to print a print image on the print medium. The control unit obtains a dot adjustment value in the predetermined print operation based on the measurement result of a measurement unit measuring a first pattern composed of a print image printed by the predetermined print operation including the relative movement, and a second adjustment value for adjusting dot printing positions in the predetermined print operation in a unit of length shorter than in the adjustment using the first adjustment value based on a second pattern printed by the predetermined print operation in a density according to density information on the first pattern, measured by the measurement unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 4, 2020
    Publication date: September 17, 2020
    Inventor: Hiroshi Kawafuji