Patents by Inventor Satoshi Kitai

Satoshi Kitai 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: 11845268
    Abstract: A printing apparatus for printing using a printhead including a plurality of nozzles, each configured to discharge ink, and a plurality of sensors, corresponding to the plurality of nozzles, for detecting a discharge state of ink from the plurality of nozzles, judges a discharge state. The apparatus prints, based on print data, an image by driving the printhead under a first drive condition to discharge the ink from the printhead to a first area, discharges ink to a second area different from the first area by driving the printhead, based on inspection data, under a second drive condition different from the first drive condition, and judges a discharge state of each nozzle by monitoring an output from each sensor at a timing of driving the printhead under the second drive condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2023
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takeshi Murase, Yoshiaki Murayama, Satoshi Kitai, Masahiko Umezawa, Tomoki Kobayashi
  • Publication number: 20220410568
    Abstract: In at least one embodiment, a number of nozzle rows in a first area on a side of one end of a first substrate closest to one end of a print head is set to be lower than a number of nozzle rows on a central side of the print head relative to the first area, and energy for driving the element on the first substrate is set to be larger than energy for driving the element on a second substrate on the central side of the print head relative to the first substrate to set a dot to be formed on the recording medium by ink discharged from a nozzle in the first area to be larger than a dot to be formed on the recording medium by ink discharged from a nozzle in the second substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2022
    Publication date: December 29, 2022
    Inventor: Satoshi Kitai
  • Publication number: 20220016882
    Abstract: A printing apparatus prints by discharging ink to a transfer member from a first printhead, discharging a transfer accelerator to the ink from a second printhead, and transferring an image formed on the transfer member to a print medium. When inspecting a discharge state of each of plural nozzles provided in each of the first and second printheads, the apparatus controls the second printhead so as to discharge the transfer accelerator from at least one nozzle of the second printhead to a discharge area of the transfer member to which the ink is discharged by the first printhead for inspection of the discharge states of the plural nozzles of the first printhead, while inspecting a discharge state of a nozzle different from the at least one nozzle of the second printhead by discharging the transfer accelerator from the nozzle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 1, 2021
    Publication date: January 20, 2022
    Inventors: Masahiko Umezawa, Kouichi Serizawa, Satoshi Kitai, Yoshiaki Murayama, Takeshi Murase
  • Patent number: 11155078
    Abstract: A printing apparatus prints by discharging ink to a transfer member from a first printhead, discharging a transfer accelerator to the ink from a second printhead, and transferring an image formed on the transfer member to a print medium. When inspecting a discharge state of each of plural nozzles provided in each of the first and second printheads, the apparatus controls the second printhead so as to discharge the transfer accelerator from at least one nozzle of the second printhead to a discharge area of the transfer member to which the ink is discharged by the first printhead for inspection of the discharge states of the plural nozzles of the first printhead, while inspecting a discharge state of a nozzle different from the at least one nozzle of the second printhead by discharging the transfer accelerator from the nozzle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masahiko Umezawa, Kouichi Serizawa, Satoshi Kitai, Yoshiaki Murayama, Takeshi Murase
  • Publication number: 20210252851
    Abstract: A printing apparatus for printing using a printhead including a plurality of nozzles each configured to discharge ink and a plurality of sensors, corresponding to the plurality of nozzles, for detecting a discharge state of ink from the plurality of nozzles, judges a discharge state. More specifically, the apparatus prints, based on print data, an image by driving the printhead under a first drive condition to discharge the ink from the printhead to a first area, discharges ink to a second area different from the first area by driving the printhead, based on inspection data, under a second drive condition different from the first drive condition, and judges a discharge state of each nozzle by monitoring an output from each sensor at a timing of driving the printhead under the second drive condition.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 20, 2021
    Publication date: August 19, 2021
    Inventors: Takeshi Murase, Yoshiaki Murayama, Satoshi Kitai, Masahiko Umezawa, Tomoki Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 11020959
    Abstract: A printing apparatus for printing using a printhead including a plurality of nozzles, each configured to discharge ink, and a plurality of sensors, corresponding to the plurality of nozzles, for detecting a discharge state of ink from the plurality of nozzles, judges a discharge state. The apparatus prints, based on print data, an image by driving the printhead under a first drive condition to discharge the ink from the printhead to a first area, discharges ink to a second area different from the first area by driving the printhead, based on inspection data, under a second drive condition different from the first drive condition, and judges a discharge state of each nozzle by monitoring an output from each sensor at a timing of driving the printhead under the second drive condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2021
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takeshi Murase, Yoshiaki Murayama, Satoshi Kitai, Masahiko Umezawa, Tomoki Kobayashi
  • Patent number: 10596812
    Abstract: According to an embodiment of the present invention, to improve processing performance, a printing apparatus that performs printing by using a printhead formed by a plurality of headchips includes one CPU, a table configured to store processing contents set by the CPU, and a plurality of processing units configured to process, in parallel, printing data to be used in each headchip by commonly using the table and in accordance with the processing contents set in the table. In addition, the apparatus includes a plurality of control units configured to wait for the completion of the processing of each processing unit, synchronize the plurality of processing units for next processing, and cause each of the processing units to execute the next processing in accordance with the processing contents set in the table.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2020
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Satoshi Kitai, Masahiko Umezawa, Kouichi Serizawa, Kazuya Koizumi
  • Patent number: 10576737
    Abstract: A recording apparatus includes a recording head having a plurality of recording elements configured to generate energy for discharging ink, a first heating element configured to heat ink in the vicinity of one of said recording elements positioned at a first position, insufficiently to discharge ink, and a second heating element positioned at a second position different from the first position, which are arranged on a same substrate, a heating control unit configured to control the heating operation of the ink by driving the first and the second heating elements by applying voltage to the first and the second heating elements, and a recording control unit configured to control the recording operation by driving the plurality of recording elements, wherein the heating control unit is configured to control the heating operation to drive the first heating element and the second heating element at timings different from each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kouichi Serizawa, Satoshi Kitai, Masahiko Umezawa, Atsushi Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20200047491
    Abstract: A printing apparatus for printing using a printhead including a plurality of nozzles each configured to discharge ink and a plurality of sensors, corresponding to the plurality of nozzles, for detecting a discharge state of ink from the plurality of nozzles, judges a discharge state. More specifically, the apparatus prints, based on print data, an image by driving the printhead under a first drive condition to discharge the ink from the printhead to a first area, discharges ink to a second area different from the first area by driving the printhead, based on inspection data, under a second drive condition different from the first drive condition, and judges a discharge state of each nozzle by monitoring an output from each sensor at a timing of driving the printhead under the second drive condition.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 7, 2019
    Publication date: February 13, 2020
    Inventors: Takeshi Murase, Yoshiaki Murayama, Satoshi Kitai, Masahiko Umezawa, Tomoki Kobayashi
  • Publication number: 20200047492
    Abstract: A printing apparatus prints by discharging ink to a transfer member from a first printhead, discharging a transfer accelerator to the ink from a second printhead, and transferring an image formed on the transfer member to a print medium. When inspecting a discharge state of each of plural nozzles provided in each of the first and second printheads, the apparatus controls the second printhead so as to discharge the transfer accelerator from at least one nozzle of the second printhead to a discharge area of the transfer member to which the ink is discharged by the first printhead for inspection of the discharge states of the plural nozzles of the first printhead, while inspecting a discharge state of a nozzle different from the at least one nozzle of the second printhead by discharging the transfer accelerator from the nozzle.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 7, 2019
    Publication date: February 13, 2020
    Inventors: Masahiko Umezawa, Kouichi Serizawa, Satoshi Kitai, Yoshiaki Murayama, Takeshi Murase
  • Patent number: 10507646
    Abstract: Priority order is updated so that an ejection port that is selected as an ejection port subjected to ejection failure determination in a pixel row in which a previous ejection operation is to be performed has the lowest priority order, which is used for selecting an ejection port subjected to ejection failure determination, in a pixel row in which a subsequent ejection operation is to be performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2019
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Satoshi Kitai, Kouichi Serizawa, Masahiko Umezawa, Atsushi Takahashi, Shinsuke Ikegami, Takeshi Murase, Masashi Hayashi, Yuki Sawai
  • Patent number: 10500840
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a control unit that, when continuously printing on a plurality of cut sheets of a same size, controls a print unit to cause a transfer member to continue movement, controls the print unit and a supply unit so as to stop supply of a cut sheet by the supply unit based on information concerning a time taken to process image data representing an image of a print target by an image processing unit, and controls the print unit not to form an ink image in a partial area on the transfer member that passes through a transfer area at a timing when the supply of the cut sheet to the transfer area is stopped, and to form the ink image in a remaining area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Masahiko Umezawa, Satoshi Kitai, Kouichi Serizawa, Atsushi Takahashi
  • Patent number: 10293620
    Abstract: An inkjet printing apparatus uses a printing head including a plurality of nozzle arrays each including a plurality of nozzles arrayed in a first direction, the nozzle arrays being arranged in a second direction. A compensating unit compensates for an ejection failure of a defective nozzle by causing a compensating nozzle to eject ink to a predetermined pixel area in a case where the print data corresponding to the defective nozzle indicates ink ejection to the predetermined pixel area. The compensating unit determines the compensating nozzle such that the compensating nozzle satisfies both a first condition that the compensating nozzle is not a defective nozzle and a second condition that the print data indicates that nozzles belonging to the nozzle array including the compensating nozzle do not eject ink to a pixel area corresponding to N pixels (N is a positive integer) around the predetermined pixel area in the first direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 21, 2019
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yoshiaki Murayama, Satoshi Kitai, Masahiko Umezawa
  • Patent number: 10286650
    Abstract: A pixel row in an arrangement direction or an orthogonal direction is divided into processing groups including pixels at every predetermined pixel count in the pixel row. Nondischarge complementary processing is sequentially performed on the divided plurality of processing groups.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2019
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Satoshi Kitai, Masahiko Umezawa, Yoshiaki Murayama
  • Publication number: 20190084026
    Abstract: The present disclosure is applied to a press molding method for press-molding a workpiece by a press die composed of an upper die and a lower die while holding the workpiece by a die cushion. The press molding method according to the present disclosure includes pressing process, in which a press position at which the workpiece is pressed by the press die is gradually lowered while repeatedly pressing and releasing the workpiece by the press die a plurality of times until the press position reaches a bottom dead center, wherein in the pressing process, a holding force for holding the workpiece by the die cushion is controlled separately from a press molding force for press-molding the workpiece by the press die.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 21, 2018
    Publication date: March 21, 2019
    Applicant: TOYOTA JIDOSHA KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Kunihiro TSUNEKAWA, Satoshi KITAI, Hirokazu MORISHITA, lsamu URATA, Asahiko HASEBE
  • Publication number: 20180345664
    Abstract: According to an embodiment of the present invention, to improve processing performance, a printing apparatus that performs printing by using a printhead formed by a plurality of headchips includes one CPU, a table configured to store processing contents set by the CPU, and a plurality of processing units configured to process, in parallel, printing data to be used in each headchip by commonly using the table and in accordance with the processing contents set in the table. In addition, the apparatus includes a plurality of control units configured to wait for the completion of the processing of each processing unit, synchronize the plurality of processing units for next processing, and cause each of the processing units to execute the next processing in accordance with the processing contents set in the table.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 29, 2018
    Publication date: December 6, 2018
    Inventors: Satoshi Kitai, Masahiko Umezawa, Kouichi Serizawa, Kazuya Koizumi
  • Publication number: 20180281399
    Abstract: A recording apparatus includes a recording head having a plurality of recording elements configured to generate energy for discharging ink, a first heating element configured to heat ink in the vicinity of one of said recording elements positioned at a first position, insufficiently to discharge ink, and a second heating element positioned at a second position different from the first position, which are arranged on a same substrate, a heating control unit configured to control the heating operation of the ink by driving the first and the second heating elements by applying voltage to the first and the second heating elements, and a recording control unit configured to control the recording operation by driving the plurality of recording elements, wherein the heating control unit is configured to control the heating operation to drive the first heating element and the second heating element at timings different from each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Inventors: Kouichi Serizawa, Satoshi Kitai, Masahiko Umezawa, Atsushi Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20180281382
    Abstract: There is provided a printing apparatus having a transfer member that moves to cyclically pass through a formation area of an ink image and a transfer area where the ink image is transferred to a cut sheet, and a supply that supplies the cut sheet to the transfer member continuously. The printing apparatus controls, when continuously printing on a plurality of cut sheets of the same size, stops the supply of the cut sheet based on a time taken to process image data representing an image of a print target, does not form the ink image in a partial area on the transfer member that passes through the transfer area at a timing when the supply of the cut sheet is stopped, and forms the ink image in a remaining area, while continuing the movement of the transfer member.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 20, 2018
    Publication date: October 4, 2018
    Inventors: Masahiko Umezawa, Satoshi Kitai, Kouichi Serizawa, Atsushi Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20180086048
    Abstract: Priority order is updated so that an ejection port that is selected as an ejection port subjected to ejection failure determination in a pixel row in which a previous ejection operation is to be performed has the lowest priority order, which is used for selecting an ejection port subjected to ejection failure determination, in a pixel row in which a subsequent ejection operation is to be performed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 19, 2017
    Publication date: March 29, 2018
    Inventors: Satoshi Kitai, Kouichi Serizawa, Masahiko Umezawa, Atsushi Takahashi, Shinsuke Ikegami, Takeshi Murase, Masashi Hayashi, Yuki Sawai
  • Publication number: 20180043681
    Abstract: An inkjet printing apparatus uses a printing head including a plurality of nozzle arrays each including a plurality of nozzles arrayed in a first direction, the nozzle arrays being arranged in a second direction. A compensating unit compensates for an ejection failure of a defective nozzle by causing a compensating nozzle to eject ink to a predetermined pixel area in a case where the print data corresponding to the defective nozzle indicates ink ejection to the predetermined pixel area. The compensating unit determines the compensating nozzle such that the compensating nozzle satisfies both a first condition that the compensating nozzle is not a defective nozzle and a second condition that the print data indicates that nozzles belonging to the nozzle array including the compensating nozzle do not eject ink to a pixel area corresponding to N pixels (N is a positive integer) around the predetermined pixel area in the first direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 24, 2017
    Publication date: February 15, 2018
    Inventors: Yoshiaki Murayama, Satoshi Kitai, Masahiko Umezawa