Patents by Inventor Toshiyuki Chikuma

Toshiyuki Chikuma 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: 10308044
    Abstract: A recording apparatus includes a recording head that includes a plurality of recording devices containing ink, first and second heating devices, and first and second detection devices. The recording devices each generate energy for ejection of the ink, the first and second heating devices respectively heat the ink in a vicinity of recording devices located at first and second positions of the recording devices, and the first and second detection devices respectively detect temperatures in the vicinity of the recording devices located at the first and second positions. The recording apparatus includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire information relating to a representative temperature of the temperatures detected by the first and second detection devices, and a decision unit configured to decide an upper limit of driving power of each of the first and second heating devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2019
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yutaka Kano, Yuhei Oikawa, Toshiyuki Chikuma
  • Publication number: 20180339526
    Abstract: A recording apparatus includes a recording head that includes a plurality of recording devices containing ink, first and second heating devices, and first and second detection devices. The recording devices each generate energy for ejection of the ink, the first and second heating devices respectively heat the ink in a vicinity of recording devices located at first and second positions of the recording devices, and the first and second detection devices respectively detect temperatures in the vicinity of the recording devices located at the first and second positions. The recording apparatus includes an acquisition unit configured to acquire information relating to a representative temperature of the temperatures detected by the first and second detection devices, and a decision unit configured to decide an upper limit of driving power of each of the first and second heating devices.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 24, 2018
    Publication date: November 29, 2018
    Inventors: Yutaka Kano, Yuhei Oikawa, Toshiyuki Chikuma
  • Patent number: 9421798
    Abstract: An ink-jet recording device is capable of correcting a recording position due to a leaning of a printing head and correcting of driving timing between multiple printing heads. Each nozzle row of a printing head is classified into multiple nozzle groups, and the driving timing of the nozzle groups other than the nozzle group serving as a reference of correction of the multiple nozzle groups is adjustable to correct for any leaning of the printing head. Moreover, in the event of performing the driving timing between printing heads, the driving timing of a non-reference printing head is adjustable relative to a reference printing head employed for leaning correction of multiple printing heads.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2016
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Aya Hayashi, Jiro Moriyama, Hidehiko Kanda, Yuji Hamasaki, Norihiro Kawatoko, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Atsushi Sakamoto, Hirokazu Tanaka, Masashi Hayashi
  • Patent number: 9403368
    Abstract: In a case in which a cumulative value ?Nure of wetting coefficients is less than a wetting threshold value THNure, printing is carried out on a unit area through a print mode in which an image is completed through a first number of instances of a scan, and in a case in which the cumulative value ?Nure is equal to or greater than the wetting threshold value THNure, printing is carried out on a unit area through a print mode in which an image is completed through a second number of instances of the scan, where the second number is greater than the first number.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2016
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Satoshi Seki, Kenichi Oonuki
  • Patent number: 9033471
    Abstract: In an ink jet printing apparatus and control method using a plurality of parts of a printing unit, ink ejection can be immediately started. First and second heating units heat first and second parts of the printing unit. Each of the first and second heating units performs heating when the temperature of each of the first and second parts of the printing unit is lower than a reference temperature, and stops heating when the temperature of each of the first and second parts of the printing unit is at least equal to the reference temperature. A control unit controls ejecting of ink from the printing unit such that the printing unit starts ejecting ink according to both first and second information, the first and second information indicating that the temperature of the first and second parts of the printing unit once reached the reference temperature under certain circumstances.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kenichi Oonuki, Kiichiro Takahashi, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Hiroshi Taira, Wakako Tanaka
  • Patent number: 8998367
    Abstract: There is provided an image processing apparatus in which in a case of tone-expressing one pixel corresponding to a plurality of areas (printing resolution) in a multi-pass print, it is possible to output a uniform image without graininess or density unevenness over all-tone regions from a low-density region to a high-density region. To this end, by referring to dot patterns in which a print or a non-print of dots onto each pixel (area) corresponding to a printing resolution are in advance defined, quantization data is converted into binary data having the higher printing resolution. At this time, the dot patterns are prepared to be different from each other for M times of scans in a multi-pass print of M passes. In consequence, it is possible to restrict a variation of a coverage ratio due to a printing position displacement in each printing scan.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: April 7, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Wakako Yamamoto, Kiichiro Takahashi, Tetsuya Edamura, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Hirokazu Tanaka, Takatoshi Nakano
  • Patent number: 8974021
    Abstract: A printing apparatus comprising, a printhead including an element array in which a plurality of printing elements are arrayed, scanning unit configured to reciprocally scan the printhead, driving unit configured to time-divisionally drive the printing elements, conveyance unit configured to convey a printing medium, and setting unit configured to set a driving order, wherein the conveyance unit performs a first conveyance operation of conveying the printing medium by a conveyance amount which is an integer multiple of a width of the group of the time-divisional driving, and a second conveyance operation of conveying the printing medium by a conveyance amount which is not an integer multiple of the width of the group, and the setting unit sets the driving order in the time-divisional driving for each scan based on the conveyance amount by the conveyance unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2014
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takeshi Yazawa, Yuji Konno, Hinako Ojiro, Masashi Hayashi, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Hirokazu Tanaka
  • Patent number: 8967758
    Abstract: An ink-jet recording device is capable of correcting a recording position due to a leaning of a printing head and correcting of driving timing between multiple printing heads. Each nozzle row of a printing head is classified into multiple nozzle groups, and the driving timing of the nozzle groups other than the nozzle group serving as a reference of correction of the multiple nozzle groups is adjustable to correct for any leaning of the printing head. Moreover, in the event of performing the driving timing between printing heads, the driving timing of a non-reference printing head is adjustable relative to a reference printing head employed for leaning correction of multiple printing heads.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2012
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2015
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Aya Hayashi, Jiro Moriyama, Hidehiko Kanda, Yuji Hamasaki, Norihiro Kawatoko, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Atsushi Sakamoto, Hirokazu Tanaka, Masashi Hayashi
  • Publication number: 20150022586
    Abstract: In a case in which a cumulative value ?Nure of wetting coefficients is less than a wetting threshold value THNure, printing is carried out on a unit area through a print mode in which an image is completed through a first number of instances of a scan, and in a case in which the cumulative value ?Nure is equal to or greater than the wetting threshold value THNure, printing is carried out on a unit area through a print mode in which an image is completed through a second number of instances of the scan, where the second number is greater than the first number.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 15, 2014
    Publication date: January 22, 2015
    Inventors: Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Satoshi Seki, Kenichi Oonuki
  • Publication number: 20150015640
    Abstract: A printing apparatus comprising, a printhead including an element array in which a plurality of printing elements are arrayed, scanning unit configured to reciprocally scan the printhead, driving unit configured to time-divisionally drive the printing elements, conveyance unit configured to convey a printing medium, and setting unit configured to set a driving order, wherein the conveyance unit performs a first conveyance operation of conveying the printing medium by a conveyance amount which is an integer multiple of a width of the group of the time-divisional driving, and a second conveyance operation of conveying the printing medium by a conveyance amount which is not an integer multiple of the width of the group, and the setting unit sets the driving order in the time-divisional driving for each scan based on the conveyance amount by the conveyance unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 24, 2014
    Publication date: January 15, 2015
    Inventors: Takeshi Yazawa, Yuji Konno, Hinako Ojiro, Masashi Hayashi, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Hirokazu Tanaka
  • Publication number: 20140292886
    Abstract: In an ink jet printing apparatus and control method using a plurality of parts of a printing unit, ink ejection can be immediately started. First and second heating units heat first and second parts of the printing unit. Each of the first and second heating units performs heating when the temperature of each of the first and second parts of the printing unit is lower than a reference temperature, and stops heating when the temperature of each of the first and second parts of the printing unit is at least equal to the reference temperature. A control unit controls ejecting of ink from the printing unit such that the printing unit starts ejecting ink according to both first and second information, the first and second information indicating that the temperature of the first and second parts of the printing unit once reached the reference temperature under certain circumstances.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 11, 2014
    Publication date: October 2, 2014
    Inventors: Kenichi Oonuki, Kiichiro Takahashi, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Hiroshi Taira, Wakako Tanaka
  • Patent number: 8814296
    Abstract: A printing apparatus comprising, a printhead including an element array in which a plurality of printing elements are arrayed, scanning unit configured to reciprocally scan the printhead, driving unit configured to time-divisionally drive the printing elements, conveyance unit configured to convey a printing medium, and setting unit configured to set a driving order, wherein the conveyance unit performs a first conveyance operation of conveying the printing medium by a conveyance amount which is an integer multiple of a width of the group of the time-divisional driving, and a second conveyance operation of conveying the printing medium by a conveyance amount which is not an integer multiple of the width of the group, and the setting unit sets the driving order in the time-divisional driving for each scan based on the conveyance amount by the conveyance unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2012
    Date of Patent: August 26, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takeshi Yazawa, Yuji Konno, Hinako Ojiro, Masashi Hayashi, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Hirokazu Tanaka
  • Patent number: 8783832
    Abstract: In an ink jet printing apparatus including a plurality of print heads and a method for controlling the ink jet printing apparatus, ink ejection can be immediately started. If temperatures of both a first print head and a second print head have become equal to or higher than a reference temperature at least once, a printing operation or a preliminary ejection operation using the first print head and the second print head is started even when one of the temperature of the first print head and the temperature of the second print head is lower than the reference temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2012
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kenichi Oonuki, Kiichiro Takahashi, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Hirokazu Yoshikawa, Hiroshi Taira, Wakako Tanaka
  • Patent number: 8770693
    Abstract: An ink jet printing apparatus and printing method are provided that can, without the addition of a special structure, suppress density imbalance between the print images formed by ink ejected from each of the ejection ports formed on a print head. As for the plurality of ejection ports, one portion of them are established as multiple impact ejection ports that form multiply impacted pixels at which the number of times ink is impacted at the same area is greater than at other pixels of the print area. And, print control is carried out such that more multiply impacted pixels are printed at print areas printed using ejection ports at the ends of the print head than at print areas printed without using ejection ports at the ends of the print head.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hirokazu Tanaka, Tetsuya Edamura, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Takatoshi Nakano, Wakako Yamamoto, Kiichiro Takahashi
  • Publication number: 20140132657
    Abstract: An ink-jet recording device is capable of correcting a recording position due to a leaning of a printing head and correcting of driving timing between multiple printing heads. Each nozzle row of a printing head is classified into multiple nozzle groups, and the driving timing of the nozzle groups other than the nozzle group serving as a reference of correction of the multiple nozzle groups is adjustable to correct for any leaning of the printing head. Moreover, in the event of performing the driving timing between printing heads, the driving timing of a non-reference printing head is adjustable relative to a reference printing head employed for leaning correction of multiple printing heads.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 21, 2014
    Publication date: May 15, 2014
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Aya Hayashi, Jiro Moriyama, Hidehiko Kanda, Yuji Hamasaki, Norihiro Kawatoko, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Atsushi Sakamoto, Hirokazu Tanaka, Masashi Hayashi
  • Patent number: 8711424
    Abstract: In an image processing apparatus, a data amount of printing data generated for each different size of dot is reduced. Specifically, in quantization to obtain data for each printing head, printing data for a large dot is set as data in which a bit number per pixel is two bits, and printing data for a medium or small dot is set as data in which a bit number per pixel is one bit. Thereby, a data amount per pixel can be reduced compared with data in which all bit numbers per pixel for the large, medium and small dots are equally two bits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 29, 2014
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Chikuma, Hidehiko Kanda
  • Publication number: 20130088537
    Abstract: A printing apparatus comprising, a printhead including an element array in which a plurality of printing elements are arrayed, scanning unit configured to reciprocally scan the printhead, driving unit configured to time-divisionally drive the printing elements, conveyance unit configured to convey a printing medium, and setting unit configured to set a driving order, wherein the conveyance unit performs a first conveyance operation of conveying the printing medium by a conveyance amount which is an integer multiple of a width of the group of the time-divisional driving, and a second conveyance operation of conveying the printing medium by a conveyance amount which is not an integer multiple of the width of the group, and the setting unit sets the driving order in the time-divisional driving for each scan based on the conveyance amount by the conveyance unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 5, 2012
    Publication date: April 11, 2013
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Takeshi Yazawa, Yuji Konno, Hinako Ojiro, Masashi Hayashi, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Hirokazu Tanaka
  • Patent number: 8403444
    Abstract: According to the present invention, a recording apparatus is provided which is capable of recording a plurality of patterns, on a recording medium, for detecting an amount of displacement between a recording position of a first discharge port array and a recording position of a second discharge port array in a conveyance direction and acquiring an amount of inclination based on the amount of displacement without conveying the recording medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2010
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2013
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Toshiyuki Chikuma, Kiichiro Takahashi, Tetsuya Edamura, Hirokazu Tanaka, Takatoshi Nakano, Wakako Yamamoto
  • Patent number: 8384944
    Abstract: Provided is a print position control method whereby displacement of a print position in a wide range can be corrected very accurately, without reducing a printing speed or increasing a manufacturing cost. Thus, a printing apparatus includes: a first correction unit, for correcting a print position at accuracy equal to the resolution of the printing apparatus; and a second correction unit, for correcting the print position at accuracy higher than the resolution and in the range of an area that corresponds to one pixel of the resolution. With this arrangement, the print position displacement in a wide range equal to or greater than one pixel can be corrected by the first correction unit, and a print position displacement smaller than one pixel can be corrected by the second correction unit. Therefore, correction of a print position displacement in a wide range is enabled at a higher accuracy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2013
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Norihiro Kawatoko, Yuji Hamasaki, Atsushi Sakamoto, Aya Hayashi, Hidehiko Kanda, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Jiro Moriyama
  • Patent number: 8356875
    Abstract: An ink-jet recording device is capable of correcting a recording position due to a leaning of a printing head and correcting of driving timing between multiple printing heads. Each nozzle row of a printing head is classified into multiple nozzle groups, and the driving timing of the nozzle groups other than the nozzle group serving as a reference of correction of the multiple nozzle groups is adjustable to correct for any leaning of the printing head. Moreover, in the event of performing the driving timing between printing heads, the driving timing of a non-reference printing head is adjustable relative to a reference printing head employed for leaning correction of multiple printing heads.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2013
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Aya Hayashi, Jiro Moriyama, Hidehiko Kanda, Yuji Hamasaki, Norihiro Kawatoko, Toshiyuki Chikuma, Atsushi Sakamoto, Hirokazu Tanaka, Masashi Hayashi