Patents by Inventor Minoru Usui

Minoru Usui 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: 20030128261
    Abstract: An ink cartridge (1) for supplying the ink in an ink reserving chamber (3) via an ink supply port (4) into a recording head (21) has a differential pressure valve mechanism (5) disposed between an ink flow port (7) and the ink supply port (4) in the ink reserving chamber (3), whereby the ink is supplied an adequate amount to the recording head (21) by opening or closing the differential pressure valve mechanism (5) in accordance with an ink pressure of the recording head (21). As a result, it is possible to supply the ink at a substantially constant pressure to the recording head without regard to the variation in the amount of ink or the movement of the carriage.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 25, 2003
    Publication date: July 10, 2003
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Minoru Usui, Hisashi Miyazawa
  • Patent number: 6585358
    Abstract: An ink cartridge (1) for supplying the ink in an ink reserving chamber (3) via an ink supply port (4) into a recording head (21) has a differential pressure valve mechanism (5) disposed between an ink flow port (7) and the ink supply port (4) in the ink reserving chamber (3), whereby the ink is supplied an adequate amount to the recording head (21) by opening or closing the differential pressure valve mechanism (5) in accordance with an ink pressure of the recording head (21). As a result, it is possible to supply the ink at a substantially constant pressure to the recording head without regard to the variation in the amount of ink or the movement of the carriage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 16, 2001
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2003
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Minoru Usui, Hisashi Miyazawa
  • Publication number: 20030117450
    Abstract: A liquid container, comprising: a housing containing therein liquid; a liquid supply opening formed in the housing for withdrawing the liquid from the housing; a liquid sensor mounted on the housing for detecting a level of the liquid which is variable in accordance with a consumption of the liquid; and a first partition wall extending in an interior of the housing and defining the interior of the housing into at least two liquid accommodating chambers which communicate with each other, the liquid accommodating chambers comprising: an air-communication side liquid accommodating chamber which communicates with ambient air; and a detection side liquid accommodating chamber in which the liquid sensor is disposed at an upper portion thereof.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 4, 2003
    Publication date: June 26, 2003
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Minoru Usui, Kenji Tsukada, Munehide Kanaya
  • Publication number: 20030117451
    Abstract: A liquid container, comprising: a housing containing therein liquid; a liquid supply opening formed in the housing for withdrawing the liquid from the housing; a liquid sensor mounted on the housing for detecting a level of the liquid which is variable in accordance with a consumption of the liquid; and a first partition wall extending in an interior of the housing and defining the interior of the housing into at least two liquid accommodating chambers which communicate with each other, the liquid accommodating chambers comprising: an air-communication side liquid accommodating chamber which communicates with ambient air; and a detection side liquid accommodating chamber in which the liquid sensor is disposed at an upper portion thereof.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 4, 2003
    Publication date: June 26, 2003
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Minoru Usui, Kenji Tsukada, Munehide Kanaya
  • Patent number: 6561633
    Abstract: A pressurizing chamber 1 is formed as a recess by half etching of a silicon single-crystal substrate 2. A nozzle communicating hole 6 through which the pressurizing chamber 1 is connected to a nozzle opening 5 is formed as a through hole which is smaller in width than the pressurizing chamber 1. The pressurizing chamber 1 is connected to the nozzle opening 5 in the other face via the nozzle communicating hole 6 while reducing the volume of the pressurizing chamber 1 to a degree as small as possible. The silicon single-crystal substrate is used as a member constituting a spacer so that an ink drop of a reduced ink amount suitable for high density printing flies with high positioning accuracy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2003
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Minoru Usui
  • Publication number: 20030085969
    Abstract: An ink jet type printing apparatus in which an ink supply needle is located near one side in a direction perpendicular to the reciprocated directions of a carriage, a circuit board is mounted on a wall of an ink cartridge in the vicinity of the side on which an ink supply port is formed and plural contacts for connecting to external control means are formed on the exposed surface of the circuit board.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 11, 2002
    Publication date: May 8, 2003
    Inventors: Satoshi Shinada, Fujio Akahane, Minoru Usui, Takao Kobayashi, Makoto Matsuzaki
  • Patent number: 6550902
    Abstract: An ink jet type printing apparatus in which an ink supply needle is located near one side in a direction perpendicular to the reciprocated directions of a carriage, a circuit board is mounted on a wall of an ink cartridge in the vicinity of the side on which an ink supply port is formed and plural contacts for connecting to external control means are formed on the exposed surface of the circuit board.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 22, 2003
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Satoshi Shinada, Fujio Akahane, Minoru Usui, Takao Kobayashi, Makoto Matsuzaki
  • Patent number: 6540322
    Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus in which a nozzle ink jet recording head provided with a nozzle plate provided with apertures for jetting an ink droplet and a capping device provided with a cap unit for sealing the apertures of the nozzle plate when the recording apparatus is not used are mounted, in which in the cap unit of the capping device, in a sealed state, an ink suction port for supplying negative pressure for exhausting ink from a nozzle aperture if necessary is arranged at the bottom and an atmospheric air open port for releasing negative pressure is arranged on one side and in which a porous plate provided with plural through holes for adjusting the distribution of pressure in the longitudinal direction of the cap unit is housed between the inner bottom face and the upper open face of the cap unit and further, an ink suction method of a recording head are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 1, 2003
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Minoru Usui, Kenji Tsukada, Takahiro Katakura, Tomoaki Takahashi, Kazuhiko Hara
  • Publication number: 20030058296
    Abstract: An ink jet type printing apparatus in which an ink supply needle is located near one side in a direction perpendicular to the reciprocated directions of a carriage, a circuit board is mounted on a wall of an ink cartridge in the vicinity of the side on which an ink supply port is formed and plural contacts for connecting to external control means are formed on the exposed surface of the circuit board.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2002
    Publication date: March 27, 2003
    Inventors: Satoshi Shinada, Fujio Akahane, Minoru Usui, Takao Kobayashi, Makoto Matsuzaki
  • Patent number: 6536861
    Abstract: A liquid container, comprising: a housing containing therein liquid; a liquid supply opening formed in the housing for withdrawing the liquid from the housing; a liquid sensor mounted on the housing for detecting a level of the liquid which is variable in accordance with a consumption of the liquid; and a first partition wall extending in an interior of the housing and defining the interior of the housing into at least two liquid accommodating chambers which communicate with each other, the liquid accommodating chambers comprising: an air-communication side liquid accommodating chamber which communicates with ambient air; and a detection side liquid accommodating chamber in which the liquid sensor is disposed at an upper portion thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2003
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Minoru Usui, Kenji Tsukada, Munehide Kanaya
  • Publication number: 20030043216
    Abstract: A liquid container, comprising: a housing containing therein liquid; a liquid supply opening formed in the housing for withdrawing the liquid from the housing; a liquid sensor mounted on the housing for detecting a level of the liquid which is variable in accordance with a consumption of the liquid; and a first partition wall extending in an interior of the housing and defining the interior of the housing into at least two liquid accommodating chambers which communicate with each other, the liquid accommodating chambers comprising: an air-communication side liquid accommodating chamber which communicates with ambient air; and a detection side liquid accommodating chamber in which the liquid sensor is disposed at an upper portion thereof.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 16, 2002
    Publication date: March 6, 2003
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Minoru Usui, Kenji Tsukada, Munehide Kanaya
  • Publication number: 20030029038
    Abstract: An ink jet recording head has an ink passage unit (1) formed by superposing a nozzle plate (3) with a plurality of nozzles (2) and an ink passage plate (8). The ink passage plate (8) has first and a second surface (8a, 8b), and is provided with a plurality of pressure producing chambers (5) connected to the plurality of nozzles (2), and an ink reservoir (7) communicating with the pressure producing chambers (5) by means of ink inlet ports (6). A cover plate (11) is closely joined to the first surface (8a) of the ink passage plate (8). The cover plate (11) is deformed elastically by piezoelectric vibrators (10) so as to apply pressure to the ink contained in the pressure producing chambers (5). The ink passage plate (8) is a metal sheet (21) having first and second surfaces (8a, 8b) of the ink passage plate (8). A through hole (20) for the ink reservoir (7) is formed from the first surface to the second surface in the metal sheet (21).
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 10, 2002
    Publication date: February 13, 2003
    Inventors: Minoru Usui, Tomoaki Takahashi, Tsuyoshi Kitahara
  • Patent number: 6502917
    Abstract: An ink jet type printing apparatus in which an ink supply needle is located near one side in a direction perpendicular to the reciprocated directions of a carriage, a circuit board is mounted on a wall of an ink cartridge in the vicinity of the side on which an ink supply port is formed and plural contacts for connecting to external control means are formed on the exposed surface of the circuit board.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 18, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2003
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Satoshi Shinada, Fujio Akahane, Minoru Usui, Takao Kobayashi, Makoto Matsuzaki
  • Patent number: 6502929
    Abstract: Actuator independently dedicated to nozzles divided into a plurality of groups are fixed to a common flow path unit having the nozzles formed therein with through holes aligned with one another. Heads of various types can be formed by using the actuator units of the same design only by changing the mode of arrangement of the nozzles in accordance with the purpose.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 1994
    Date of Patent: January 7, 2003
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Yuji Tanaka, Koji Watanabe, Tomoaki Abe, Takayuki Ishii, Naomi Shirakawa, Koichi Toba, Minoru Usui, Shinri Sakai, Kohei Kitahara, Hideaki Sonehara
  • Patent number: 6499836
    Abstract: An ink jet recording head has an ink passage unit (1) formed by superposing a nozzle plate (3) with a plurality of nozzles (2) and an ink passage plate (8). The ink passage plate (8) has first and a second surface (8a, 8b), and is provided with a plurality of pressure producing chambers (5) connected to the plurality of nozzles (2), and an ink reservoir (7) communicating with the pressure producing chambers (5) by means of ink inlet ports (6). A cover plate (11) is closely joined to the first surface (8a) of the ink passage plate (8). The coverplate (11) is deformed elastically by piezoelectric vibrators (10) so as to apply pressure to the ink contained in the pressure producing chambers (5). The ink passage plate (8) is a metal sheet (21) having first and second surfaces (8a, 8b) of the ink passage plate (8). A through hole (20) for the ink reservoir (7) is formed from the first surface to the second surface in the metal sheet (21).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 12, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2002
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Minoru Usui, Tomoaki Takahashi, Tsuyoshi Kitahara
  • Publication number: 20020180823
    Abstract: An ink jet type printing apparatus in which an ink supply needle is located near one side in a direction perpendicular to the reciprocated directions of a carriage, a circuit board is mounted on a wall of an ink cartridge in the vicinity of the side on which an ink supply port is formed and plural contacts for connecting to external control means are formed on the exposed surface of the circuit board.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 12, 2002
    Publication date: December 5, 2002
    Inventors: Satoshi Shinada, Fujio Akahane, Minoru Usui, Takao Kobayashi, Makoto Matsuzaki
  • Publication number: 20020184438
    Abstract: The processor, upon fetching a sleep command, stops its own operation and outputs an internal power-down signal. The power-down control circuit outputs, upon receiving the internal power-down signal from the processor, a control signal to put a volatile semiconductor memory connected to the system bus into a self refresh mode. Thus, the processor can simply fetch the sleep command to put the semiconductor memory into the self refresh mode. Since system programs need not include any processing program for putting the semiconductor memory into the self refresh mode, the software processing can be prevented from being complicated. As a result, it is possible to reduce the burden on the program developers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 7, 2002
    Publication date: December 5, 2002
    Applicant: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventor: Minoru Usui
  • Publication number: 20020171701
    Abstract: An ink jet type printing apparatus in which an ink supply needle is located near one side in a direction perpendicular to the reciprocated directions of a carriage, a circuit board is mounted on a wall of an ink cartridge in the vicinity of the side on which an ink supply port is formed and plural contacts for connecting to external control means are formed on the exposed surface of the circuit board.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 12, 2002
    Publication date: November 21, 2002
    Inventors: Satoshi Shinada, Fujio Akahane, Minoru Usui, Takao Kobayashi, Makoto Matsuzaki
  • Publication number: 20020170353
    Abstract: A liquid detection device attached on a liquid container for detecting a liquid consumption status of the liquid contained in the liquid container, the liquid detection device including a vibrating section symmetrical about a center thereof, and at least one electrode electrically connecting with said vibrating section.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 10, 2002
    Publication date: November 21, 2002
    Applicant: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Minoru Usui, Kenji Tsukada, Munehide Kanaya
  • Publication number: 20020167574
    Abstract: An ink jet type printing apparatus in which an ink supply needle is located near one side in a direction perpendicular to the reciprocated directions of a carriage, a circuit board is mounted on a wall of an ink cartridge in the vicinity of the side on which an ink supply port is formed and plural contacts for connecting to external control means are formed on the exposed surface of the circuit board.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 12, 2002
    Publication date: November 14, 2002
    Inventors: Satoshi Shinada, Fujio Akahane, Minoru Usui, Takao Kobayashi, Makoto Matsuzaki