Patents by Inventor Sota YANAGIHARA

Sota YANAGIHARA 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: 20240111238
    Abstract: A manual feed tray is located at a side surface of a main housing. A supply roller conveys a sheet on the manual feed tray toward a print engine. A pressure plate is movable between a contact position at which the sheet on the manual feed tray contacts the supply roller and a separated position at which the sheet on the manual feed tray is separated from the supply roller. A push-up cam pushes up the pressure plate from the separated position to the contact position. The push-up cam includes a contact portion configured to contact the pressure plate. A controller is configured to: when performing printing on a plurality of sheets, after moving the pressure plate from the separated position to the contact position, convey the plurality of sheets by intermittently driving the supply roller while maintaining the pressure plate at the contact position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2023
    Publication date: April 4, 2024
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yusuke IKEGAMI, Sota YANAGIHARA, Hiroshi NAKANO
  • Patent number: 11868061
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a photoconductive body, a light source, a deflector to deflect a light beam from the light source, a scanning optical system to image the deflected light beam onto the photoconductive body, a developing unit to supply developer to the photoconductive body, an optical sensor to detect the deflected light beam, a moving mechanism to move the developing unit to a first position and to a second position, and a controller configured to start driving the deflector, when the developing unit is in the second position, the light source to emit the light beam, thereby obtaining a detection signal of the light beam from the optical sensor, and after obtaining the detection signal of the light beam from the optical sensor, control the moving mechanism to move the developing unit to the first position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Sota Yanagihara, Yusuke Ikegami, Kotaro Haruta, Shoichiro Nishimura
  • Publication number: 20230070918
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a photoconductive body, a light source, a deflector to deflect a light beam from the light source, a scanning optical system to image the deflected light beam onto the photoconductive body, a developing unit to supply developer to the photoconductive body, an optical sensor to detect the deflected light beam, a moving mechanism to move the developing unit to a first position and to a second position, and a controller configured to start driving the deflector, when the developing unit is in the second position, the light source to emit the light beam, thereby obtaining a detection signal of the light beam from the optical sensor, and after obtaining the detection signal of the light beam from the optical sensor, control the moving mechanism to move the developing unit to the first position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2022
    Publication date: March 9, 2023
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Sota Yanagihara, Yusuke Ikegami, Kotaro Haruta, Shoichiro Nishimura
  • Patent number: 11500302
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a photoconductive body, a light source, a deflector to deflect a light beam from the light source, a scanning optical system to image the deflected light beam onto the photoconductive body, a developing unit to supply developer to the photoconductive body, an optical sensor to detect the deflected light beam, a moving mechanism to move the developing unit to a first position and to a second position, and a controller configured to start driving the deflector, when the developing unit is in the second position, the light source to emit the light beam, thereby obtaining a detection signal of the light beam from the optical sensor, and after obtaining the detection signal of the light beam from the optical sensor, control the moving mechanism to move the developing unit to the first position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Sota Yanagihara, Yusuke Ikegami, Kotaro Haruta, Shoichiro Nishimura
  • Publication number: 20210278780
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a photoconductive body, a light source, a deflector to deflect a light beam from the light source, a scanning optical system to image the deflected light beam onto the photoconductive body, a developing unit to supply developer to the photoconductive body, an optical sensor to detect the deflected light beam, a moving mechanism to move the developing unit to a first position and to a second position, and a controller configured to start driving the deflector, when the developing unit is in the second position, the light source to emit the light beam, thereby obtaining a detection signal of the light beam from the optical sensor, and after obtaining the detection signal of the light beam from the optical sensor, control the moving mechanism to move the developing unit to the first position.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 4, 2021
    Publication date: September 9, 2021
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Sota YANAGIHARA, Yusuke IKEGAMI, Kotaro HARUTA, Shoichiro NISHIMURA