Patents by Inventor Tokihide Ebata

Tokihide Ebata 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: 6609790
    Abstract: An ink jet head cartridge includes a recording head for ejecting ink; an ink container for containing the ink to be supplied to the recording head; an air venting opening for communication between the container and ambience to allow supply of the ink from the container to the recording head; wherein the air venting opening is constituted by an outside opening and an inside opening and a passage connecting them, the passage has a length larger than a thickness of the ink container.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2003
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Mitsuru Kurata, Tokihide Ebata, Noribumi Koitabashi, Hiromitsu Hirabayashi, Hitoshi Sugimoto, Haruo Uchida
  • Publication number: 20020149655
    Abstract: An ink jet head cartridge includes a recording head for ejecting ink; an ink container for containing the ink to be supplied to the recording head; an air venting opening for communication between the container and ambience to allow supply of the ink from the container to the recording head; wherein the air venting opening is constituted by an outside opening and an inside opening and a passage connecting them, the passage has a length larger than a thickness of the ink container.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2002
    Publication date: October 17, 2002
    Applicant: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Mitsuru Kurata, Tokihide Ebata, Noribumi Koitabashi, Hiromitsu Hirabayashi, Hitoshi Sugimoto, Haruo Uchida
  • Patent number: 6412931
    Abstract: An ink jet head cartridge includes a recording head for ejecting ink; an ink container for containing the ink to be supplied to the recording head; an air venting opening for communication between the container and ambience to allow supply of the ink from the container to the recording head; wherein the air venting opening is constituted by an outside opening and an inside opening and a passage connecting them, the passage has a length larger than a thickness of the ink container.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2002
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Mitsuru Kurata, Tokihide Ebata, Noribumi Koitabashi, Hiromitsu Hirabayashi, Hitoshi Sugimoto, Haruo Uchida
  • Patent number: 6398358
    Abstract: An ink jet textile printing method forms an image on cloths in an image forming operation by repeating a step of applying ink on the cloths from an ink discharge port of a recording head, the recording head relatively main-scanning to form the image in a main scan direction, and a step of relatively conveying the cloths in a sub-scan direction. The method includes the steps of forming the image on the cloths by applying ink on the cloths from the recording head based on image data. The method further includes the step of temporarily stopping the image forming operation in accordance with an indication to effect a temporary halt of the image forming operation. When the temporary halt is indicated while the recording head performs a main scan in the image forming operation, the image forming operation by the main scan is completed, and then the temporary halt of the image forming operation is effected by moving the recording head to a standby position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2002
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Miyake, Tomohiro Aoki, Kazuyoshi Takahashi, Akio Suzuki, Mitsuru Kurata, Tokihide Ebata, Yoshihiro Takada, Kunihiko Matsuzawa, Hideyuki Tanaami, Yutaka Udagawa, Masatoshi Ikkatai, Keiju Kuboki, Yasushi Miura, Masahiro Nishio, Yasuyuki Takanaka, Eiichi Takagi, Yoshio Komaki, Nobuhiko Ogata
  • Patent number: 6183074
    Abstract: An ink-jet printing apparatus restricts fluctuation of the printing density due to coagulation and settling of a coloring agent in a water based ink, in which a water insoluble coloring agent or a coloring agent having low water solubility is dispersed. By this, movement of the ink caused due to difference of specific gravity caused by coagulation of the coloring agent or so forth in an upper passage to a lower passage can be restricted to successfully prevent increasing of difference of ink density.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 1999
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2001
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yoshiko Miyashita, Tokihide Ebata, Makoto Aoki, Chikanobu Ikeda
  • Patent number: 6116728
    Abstract: An ink jet textile printing apparatus for performing printing by reading an original image created by a designer, converting the original image into original data represented by an electric signal, retrieving the original data for processing to be output as image data, and recording data on cloth based on the image data. The ink jet textile printing apparatus has a first ink jet recording head provided upstream of a recording position, and a second ink jet recording head provided downstream thereof, and is provided with a drying unit located between the recording heads, whereby high-quality recorded images with less bleeding can be obtained by recording on a recording area again with the second ink jet recording head after drying the recording area on the cloth recorded by the first ink jet recording head with the drying unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 1993
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2000
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Miyake, Tomohiro Aoki, Kazuyoshi Takahashi, Akio Suzuki, Mitsuru Kurata, Tokihide Ebata, Yoshihiro Takada, Kunihiko Matsuzawa, Hideyuki Tanaami, Yutaka Udagawa, Masatoshi Ikkatai, Keiju Kuboki, Yasushi Miura, Masahiro Nishio, Yasuyuki Takanaka, Eiichi Takagi, Yoshio Komaki, Nobuhiko Ogata
  • Patent number: 6086192
    Abstract: An ink jet head cartridge includes a recording head for ejecting ink; an ink container for containing the ink to be supplied to the recording head; an air venting opening for communication between the container and ambience to allow supply of the ink from the container to the recording head; wherein the air venting opening is constituted by an outside opening and an inside opening and a passage connecting the openings, the passage has a length larger than a thickness of the ink container.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 1997
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2000
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Mitsuru Kurata, Tokihide Ebata, Noribumi Koitabashi, Hiromitsu Hirabayashi, Hitoshi Sugimoto, Haruo Uchida
  • Patent number: 6068374
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes conveying device for conveying a printing medium in the substantially horizontal direction in the printing range where a printing agent is applied to the printing medium while a printing plane of the printing medium orients in the upward direction, a printer section including a plurality of printing heads located opposite to a platen portion of the printing range for applying the printing agent to the printing medium in the downward direction so as to form printed images on the printing medium by activating the printing heads, and supporting device for slidably displacing the printer section relative to the platen portion in the conveying direction of the printing medium conveyed by the conveying device, between the position where the printer section is located opposite to the platen portion and the non-opposing position spaced away from the preceding position. With such construction, a maintenance service can easily be conducted for the conveying device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 1995
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2000
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Mitsuru Kurata, Tokihide Ebata, Yasushi Miura, Yasuyuki Takanaka, Kazunari Nishimoto, Yoshiko Miyashita, Takeshi Irizawa
  • Patent number: 6007177
    Abstract: An image formation apparatus comprises a cap to cover the discharge ports of a recording head for discharging ink for the formation of images; rinsing liquid supply means for supplying rinsing liquid for rinsing the cap; and a rinsing liquid receptacle arranged to surround the cap for receiving and retaining the rinsing liquid. With the structure thus arranged, the image formation apparatus is able to prevent ink from being dried in the recording head, and at the same time, to rinse out ink and other dust particles adhering to the discharge port surface of the recording head, and to the cap, a member constituting the device to recover the discharging condition of the apparatus, thus preventing the adhesion of extracted substance resulting from the evaporation of water content in ink for the maintenance of stable ink discharges.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 1995
    Date of Patent: December 28, 1999
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yasuyuki Takanaka, Mitsuru Kurata, Tokihide Ebata
  • Patent number: 5992963
    Abstract: An ink jet printing apparatus for industrial use, which is provided with a comparatively large number of nozzles arranged for high duty recording, particularly an ink jet textile printing apparatus, and an ink jet printing apparatus suitably used for printing on a large-sized medium, are provided together with a method for controlling the temperature of the printing head of such high duty printing apparatuses, and various other types of printing apparatuses reliably. To the large number of heaters used for recording in a printing step, driving signals are applied to cause them to discharge ink for recording and, to the discharge heaters that are not to perform recording, secondary driving signals that do not allow ink to discharge are applied. These secondary driving signals cause the heaters not used in recording to generate heat, so as to reduce unevenness in the intensities of heat generation among the many discharge heaters of the printing head.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 1995
    Date of Patent: November 30, 1999
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Miyake, Mitsuru Kurata, Tokihide Ebata, Hiroyuki Kuriyama, Yasushi Miura, Takeshi Irizawa
  • Patent number: 5980020
    Abstract: An ink-jet print head comprises a plurality of heater boards as unit substrates which are connected to each other and each of which has a plurality of discharge elements arranged therein so that the nonuniformity of density which would ordinarily be produced in portions of the image printed by the head corresponding to boundaries between the respective heater boards is decreased. Since a plurality of ink-jet heads are disposed so that the boundaries between respective heater boards of the heads do not overlap one another, the potential nonuniformity of density at the boundaries can be decreased by interrelation between the heads.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 1995
    Date of Patent: November 9, 1999
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yasushi Miura, Tokihide Ebata, Eiichi Takagi
  • Patent number: 5966158
    Abstract: A sheet feeding apparatus comprising, a feeding device for pinching a sheet and for selectively performing an operation for temporarily stopping a sheet supplied from an upstream side by abutting a leading end of the sheet against a nip of the feeding device and then feeding the sheet toward a downstream side and an operation for feeding a sheet supplied from the downstream side toward the upstream side; a guide mechanism shiftable between a first position near the nip to direct the sheet supplied from the upstream side to the nip of said feeding device, and a second position far away from the nip than the first position; and a biasing mechanism for biasing the guide mechanism to the first position when the feeding device feeds the sheet supplied from the upstream side toward the downstream side and for biasing the guide mechanism to the second position when the feeding device feeds the sheet supplied from the downstream side toward the upstream side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 1991
    Date of Patent: October 12, 1999
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tokihide Ebata, Hideaki Takada
  • Patent number: 5966145
    Abstract: A serial type ink jet printing apparatus for textile printing sets a print beginning position and a print ending position so that the space between the print beginning position and the print ending position is wider than the textile printing medium. When the printing operation is performed, a small amount of ink is discharged from an ink jet head onto a textile support member before the head reaches the textile printing medium, by which ink with high viscosity can be exhausted in a continuous printing operation before printing on the textile. Therefore, the textile can be efficiently printed entirely from edge to edge with high quality, and a separate ink receiver for receiving the preliminarily discharged ink is rendered unnecessary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 1997
    Date of Patent: October 12, 1999
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yasushi Miura, Tokihide Ebata
  • Patent number: 5963236
    Abstract: An ink-jet printing apparatus restricts fluctuation of the printing density due to coagulation and settle out coloring agent employing a water based ink, in which a water insoluble coloring agent or the coloring agent having low water solubility is dispersed. By this, movement of the ink caused due to difference of specific gravity caused by coagulation of the coloring agent or so forth in an upper passage, to a lower passage can be restricted to successfully prevent increasing of difference of ink density.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 1996
    Date of Patent: October 5, 1999
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yoshiko Miyashita, Tokihide Ebata, Makoto Aoki, Chikanobu Ikeda
  • Patent number: 5557310
    Abstract: An ink jet head cartridge includes a recording head for ejecting ink; an ink container for containing the ink to be supplied to the recording head; an ink supply port for supplying the ink from the container to the head; a porous ink absorbing material disposed in the container and having a ring shape with a central opening; and an engaging portion engaging with the central opening wherein the absorbing material has a higher density proximate to the supply port than proximate to the engaging portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 1994
    Date of Patent: September 17, 1996
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Mitsuru Kurata, Tokihide Ebata, Noribumi Koitabashi, Hiromitsu Hirabayashi, Hitoshi Sugimoto, Haruo Uchida
  • Patent number: 5552811
    Abstract: To rinse a cleaning member, a rinsing liquid is discharged from a nozzle onto the cleaning member to wipe the discharging port surface of the liquid discharging apparatus. The foregoing cleaning member is thus maintained in a rinsed condition at all times, thereby obtaining high cleaning performance of the liquid discharging port surface and long-term, stable liquid discharge from the liquid discharging head. A liquid suction force is also created in the cleaning member to draw the viscous ink from the nozzles when the liquid discharging port surface of the liquid discharging head is wiped, thereby further enhancing the cleaning performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 1993
    Date of Patent: September 3, 1996
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Mitsuru Kurata, Hiroyuki Miyake, Tokihide Ebata
  • Patent number: 5550570
    Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus comprises a mounting portion on which an ink jet cartridge is detachably mounted, the cartridge having a connector and a recording head portion for discharging ink to perform image recording. The mounting portion has a body connector associated therewith for electrically connecting the connector of the cartridge to the apparatus. A recording head positioner positions the recording head portion of the cartridge on the mounting portion. An operation device displaces the cartridge and the body connector relative to each other to connect the body connector to the cartridge connector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 1994
    Date of Patent: August 27, 1996
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Mitsuru Kurata, Shinji Kanemitsu, Akihiro Nomura, Tokihide Ebata, Akio Takeda, Yasuo Miyauchi, Haruo Uchida, Shigeyoshi Onoda
  • Patent number: 5502464
    Abstract: A fixater has a fixing unit for expediting the fixation of an image recorded on a recording medium, a conveying unit for conveying the recording medium and a coupling unit detachably mountable in the mounting section of a cassette for stacking the recording medium for the recording apparatus. The fixater is mountable in place of the cassette for stacking the recording medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 1994
    Date of Patent: March 26, 1996
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kazuyoshi Takahashi, Naoji Otsuka, Tokihide Ebata, Hiromitsu Hirabayashi, Hiroshi Tajika, Noribumi Koitabashi, Atsushi Arai, Kenji Aono, Hitoshi Sugimoto
  • Patent number: 5485189
    Abstract: A thermal fixing apparatus includes a heating member for heating a recording medium by contact with its face other than that on which an image has been formed by an image forming apparatus. The face of said heating member which contacts with said recording medium is shaped, in its section perpendicular to the conveying direction for said recording medium, so that the central portion of the face extremely projects into the conveying pass side for said recording medium. The thermal fixing apparatus acts in the image forming apparatus as thermal fixing means for image fixing the recording medium on which a desired record image has been formed by the relative movement with recording means included in the image forming apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 1993
    Date of Patent: January 16, 1996
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Tokihide Ebata
  • Patent number: 5177547
    Abstract: The present invention provides a recording apparatus with a supply roller for supplying a sheet, a sheet directing path for directing the sheet supplied by the supply roller to a recording portion, a sheet ejection path for directing the sheet recorded at the recording portion to an ejection outlet, a guide for guiding a sheet to be introduced from the ejection outlet, and sheet feeding rollers and detectors for directing the introduced sheet to the recording portion through the sheet ejection path and thereafter for returning the sheet to the ejection outlet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 1992
    Date of Patent: January 5, 1993
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shinji Kanemitsu, Yasuo Miyauchi, Tokihide Ebata, Akihiro Nomura, Akio Takeda, Haruo Uchida, Mitsuru Kurata, Shigeyoshi Onoda