Abstract: Recording/reproducing information signals to/from a recording medium appropriately even though the clearance from the signal recording surface of the recording medium to an optical head slider becomes significantly small. An optical head slider 10 includes a sliding member 11 which is floated and slides on a recording medium 4 at the time of recording/reproducing signals to/from the recording medium 4, a hemispheric objective lens 12 which is bonded to the sliding member 11, and a magnetic field generating means 16, which is mounted to the bottom of the sliding member 11 which faces the recording medium 4. The sliding member 11 is made of the same material as that of the optical lens 12, and a flat surface of the optical lens 12 is bonded to the top surface of the sliding member 11.

Abstract: To provide a footwear aid for walking in water which prevents a foot slipping in a pool more effectively, and which fits more comfortably on the foot. The footwear aid for walking in water includes: a flexible sole-contact-sheet main body (1); and a foot-fastening belt (2) provided to the sole-contact-sheet main body (1), and at least a bottom surface side of the sole-contact-sheet main body (1) is formed of a woven material (3) of cotton or a cotton blend.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus includes an ink jet recording head provided with a discharge port for discharging ink, an ink flow path communicating with the discharge port, and at least two heat generating elements provided in the ink flow path along the direction thereof, wherein the ink is pigment-based ink and the recording head comprises drive signal supply means for varying the supply timing of drive signals to the plural heat generating elements for ink discharge in such a manner that the drive signal is at first given to the heat generating element at the side of the discharge port at room temperature and the supply timings to the plural heat generating members become simultaneous or closer thereto with an increase in the temperature of the recording head.

Abstract: An optical element is provided in which in a lens surface substantially perpendicular to the optical axis of the lens, there is embedded a conductive member whose diameter or width is smaller than the diameter of an optical spot incident upon the lens surface. The optical element is used in an optical head which reads a signal by illuminating an optical recording medium with a reading light. The basic principle of this optical head is such that a subtle phase change of the light is detected which is caused by the electromagnetic interaction between the conductive member embedded in the optical element and a conductive material on the surface of the optical recording medium. For example, the interference between return light beams from the optical recording medium is used to read a signal. Alternately,.

Abstract: An ink tank holding member for holding ink tanks containing ink is made freely attachable and detachable, at the same time, having ink lead-out members for leading out ink from ink supply ports provided for the ink tanks. For this ink tank holding member, gap complementary members are made mountable to complement the difference in shapes of ink tanks to be installed on the holding member. With the structure thus arranged, it becomes possible to use the ink tank holding member for each of the cartridges commonly, hence attempting the common use of parts, at the same time, preventing effectively the ink tanks from being inclined by the provision of the gap complementary members, thus enhancing the reliability of ink supply portion, as well as preventing the degradation of performance that may be caused by erroneous insertion of ink tanks.

Abstract: A recording apparatus uses a liquid recording head for effecting recording by ejecting liquid through ejection outlets corresponding to heat generation elements provided in the recording head. The recording head has a heating device for heating the recording head. A controller will select a heat generating element from among the heat generating elements to correct a temperature distribution of the recording head resulting from the heating by the heating device such that the heat generating element generates heat to such an extent that liquid for recording is not ejected through the ejection outlet during the temperature correction.

Abstract: There is provided a magneto-optical head including a magnetic field applying means having optimum electromagnetic conversion efficiency and capable of applying a magnetic field having favorable distribution to a recording medium, and a magneto-optical read/write apparatus which has the magneto-optical head allowing reduction of power consumption of a disk drive. The magneto-optical head includes a light transmitting section for transmitting light provided to a slider floating over a recording medium, and a magnetic field applying means arranged around the light transmitting section. The magnetic field applying means includes a thin film coil and a magnetic material serving as a magnetic field generating yoke having a portion disposed on the side of the recording medium and another portion disposed on the opposite side to the recording medium. The magneto-optical read/write apparatus has the magneto-optical head for reading/writing information stored in the recording medium.

Abstract: A recording apparatus and method of controlling the apparatus includes a recording head for ejecting liquid ink for recording by heat energization, a temperature change rate detecting device for detecting the temperature change rate of the recording head in a normal state, a storage device for storing the temperature change rate information, a determining device for determining the average ejection duty cycle from recording data, an obtaining device for obtaining information relating the temperature change rate in the normal state to the average ejection duty cycle, and a discriminating device for discriminating an abnormality of the recording head determined by the information relating the temperature change rate in the normal state to the average ejection duty cycle, and the temperature change rate detected by the temperature change rate detecting device.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus includes an ink jet recording head provided with a discharge port for discharging ink, an ink flow path communicating with the discharge port, and at least two heat generating elements provided in the ink flow path along the direction thereof, wherein the ink is pigment-based ink and the recording head comprises drive signal supply means for varying the supply timing of drive signals to the plural heat generating elements for ink discharge in such a manner that the drive signal is at first given to the heat generating element at the side of the discharge port at room temperature and the supply timings to the plural heat generating members become simultaneous or closer thereto with an increase in the temperature of the recording head.

Abstract: A substrate for liquid ejection includes a built-in energy generating element for generating thermal energy, a built-in electrode wiring portion for supplying an electric signal to the energy generating element, and a built-in temperature detecting element for detecting a temperature of the substrate.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus includes an ink jet recording head provided with a discharge port for discharging ink, an ink flow path communicating with the discharge port, and at least two heat generating elements provided in the ink flow path along the direction thereof, wherein the ink is pigment-based ink and the recording head comprises drive signal supply means for varying the supply timing of drive signals to the plural heat generating elements for ink discharge in such a manner that the drive signal is at first given to the heat generating element at the side of the discharge port at room temperature and the supply timings to the plural heat generating members become simultaneous or closer thereto with an increase in the temperature of the recording head.

Abstract: An ink jet recording head including a discharge port for discharging ink, a liquid flow path that communicates with the discharge port and having a heat energy generating element for generating a heat energy to be utilized for discharging the ink, a common liquid chamber disposed for supplying the ink into the liquid flow path as the ink is discharged and located after the liquid flow path and an ink supply port for supplying the ink into the common liquid chamber, in which the common liquid chamber has a curved surface convex inward of the liquid chamber in a region adjacent to the ink supply port.

Abstract: Recording/reproducing information signals to/from a recording medium appropriately even though the clearance from the signal recording surface of the recording medium to an optical head slider becomes significantly small. An optical head slider 10 includes a sliding member 11 which is floated and slides on a recording medium 4 at the time of recording/reproducing signals to/from the recording medium 4, a hemispheric objective lens 12 which is bonded to the sliding member 11, and a magnetic field generating means 16, which is mounted to the bottom of the sliding member 11 which faces the recording medium 4. The sliding member 11 is made of the same material as that of the optical lens 12, and a flat surface of the optical lens 12 is bonded to the top surface of the sliding member 11.

Abstract: An ink jet recording head for ejecting ink through an ejection outlet for effecting record includes a supporting member; a recording element having an energy generating element for applying energy to the ink to eject it in accordance with a record signal; a wiring member including electric connection part relative to the recording element and a second electric connection part relative to an outside of the recording head to transmit the record signal to the recording element; wherein the first electric connection part is disposed on one face of the supporting member, the second electric connection part is disposed on another surface of the supporting member.

Abstract: A flexible printed circuit board has a copper foil serving as a conductive pattern, a nickel layer and a gold layer stacked in sequence on a base film made of polymide at an area to be electrically connected by wire bonding. The wire bonding is made by an aluminum wire and the nickel layer having a thickness of 10 &mgr;m to 20 &mgr;m. An ink jet recording head for discharging ink droplets from a discharge port onto a recording medium for recording thereon is electrically connected to an ink discharge unit by the flexible printed circuit board.

Abstract: A slider for the optical head easy to manufacture and having a high degree of freedom is to be provided as a slider for the optical head for recording and/or reproducing a recording medium using the proximity optical field. On a slider member 3, adapted for running on the recording medium in a state of being floated over or contacted with the recording medium, a catadioptric lens 7 is bonded to constitute a slider for the optical head 1. The slider member 3 and the catadioptric lens 7 are connected and optically unified to each other so that the numerical aperture NA of an optical system made up of the slider member 3 and the catadioptric lens 7 is not less than unity. Also, the plane of the focal point of the light incident for the side of the catadioptric lens 7 is designed to be on a recording medium facing surface of the slider member 3.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus for performing recording using a recording head for ejecting an ink from a plurality of ejection orifices, includes a print control unit for performing a print operation while switching a print mode between a thin multi-pass print mode for sequentially recording divided recording data in a plurality of number of times of relative scan operations of the recording head with respect to a single recording area, and a 1-pass print mode for recording all recording data in a single relative scan operation of the recording head, and an eject quantity control unit for controlling the eject quantity of the ink ejected from the recording head so that a total ink quantity on the recording area in the thin multi-pass print mode is larger than a total ink quantity in the 1-pass print mode.

Abstract: A lens which has corrected the coma aberration substantially completely is provided as a catadioptric lens used with advantage in utilizing the evanescent light. The catadioptric lens is a concave non-spherical mirror having a concave refractive surface as a first surface S1 , a plane mirror as a second surface S2 and a concave non-spherical mirror arranged coaxially with the concave refractive surface of the first surface S1. The parallel incident light is converged through an aperture in the plane mirror of the second surface S2 on a total reflection plane of the fourth surface S4. The radius of curvature of the first surface S1 and the optical length d from the first surface S1 to the apex of the third surface S3 are set to satisfy the sine condition.

Abstract: A substrate for liquid ejection includes a built-in energy generating element for generating thermal energy, a built-in electrode wiring portion for supplying an electric signal to the energy generating element, and a built-in temperature detecting element for detecting a temperature of the substrate.

Abstract: The present invention involves recording apparatus having such a recording head that records using thermal energy. The recording head has a substrate which includes plural thermal energy generating elements for generating thermal energy, plural wiring lines electrically connected with associated said thermal energy generating elements, and a temperature detecting element built in the substrate. This temperature detecting element is either a diode or a transistor.