Patents by Inventor Yasuo Nishi

Yasuo Nishi 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: 20100020131
    Abstract: A liquid ejection head which can fly a minute high viscosity droplet with high precision by a low drive voltage in electric field assist system which exhibiting excellent maintainability such as cleaning. The liquid ejection head (2) comprises a nozzle plate (4) provided with a nozzle (5) having a liquid supply opening (9) for supplying a liquid (L), an ejection opening (11) for ejecting the liquid (L), and a liquid supply passage for supplying the liquid (L) from liquid supply opening (9) to the liquid ejection opening (11), a cavity (20) for storing the liquid (L), a pressure generating means for generating pressure in the cavity (20), and an electrostatic voltage generating means for generating an electrostatic attraction between the liquid (L) and a substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 19, 2008
    Publication date: January 28, 2010
    Inventor: Yasuo Nishi
  • Patent number: 7520592
    Abstract: An electrostatic attraction fluid jet device of the present invention is so arranged that a nozzle (4) is formed so as to correspond to a meniscus equivalent to a tip portion in the form of a taylor cone formed in a process of an electrostatic attraction of ink (2) as a conventional fluid. A diameter of an ink-ejecting hole (4b) of the nozzle (4) is set to be substantially the same as a diameter of the tip portion, which is about to be ejected, of the meniscus (14) of ink. Moreover, the diameter of the ink-ejecting hole (4b) of the nozzle (4) is set to be equal to or less than a droplet diameter of the ink (2) which has just been ejected. Therefore, it is possible to provide an electrostatic attraction fluid jet device which can realize a recording device which has high resolution, is safe and is highly versatile.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 21, 2009
    Assignees: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc., National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
    Inventors: Kaoru Higuchi, Yasuo Nishi, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20090096837
    Abstract: A liquid ejection head, having: an insulating nozzle plate provided with a nozzle having, a liquid supply port to supply liquid and an ejection port to eject the liquid supplied from the liquid supply port onto a substrate; a cavity communicating with the liquid supply port to reserve the liquid to be ejected from the ejection port; an electrostatic voltage applying device to generate an electrostatic attraction force by applying an electrostatic voltage between the liquid in the nozzle and the cavity, and the substrate; and a control device to control the electrostatic voltage applying device for conducting polarization relaxation operation by applying an electrostatic voltage having reverse polarity opposite to that of the electrostatic voltage applied in liquid ejection, wherein the nozzle is a flat nozzle and the control device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 15, 2007
    Publication date: April 16, 2009
    Applicant: KONICA MINOLTA HOLDINGS, INC
    Inventors: Naomi Kubo, Yasuo Nishi, Atsuro Yanata
  • Patent number: 7449283
    Abstract: First, through a coating step, a photolithography step and an etching step, a plurality of electrodes 142, 142, . . . are formed on a base plate 141. Next, a resist layer 143b is formed on the base plate 141 so as to cover all of the electrodes 142, 142, . . . , and by exposing and developing the resist layer 143b, a nozzle 103 having a super minute diameter is formed to stand with respect to the base plate 141 so as to make the resist layer 143b correspond to each electrode 142, and an in-nozzle passage is formed in each nozzle 103.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2008
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yasuo Nishi, Kaoru Higuchi, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20080150975
    Abstract: A liquid ejection head having: a nozzle for ejecting a liquid; a flat nozzle plate on which the nozzle is provided; a cavity to store the liquid to be ejected from an ejection hole of the nozzle; a pressure generating section which generates pressure on the liquid in the nozzle and forms a meniscus of the liquid in the ejection hole of the nozzle; an electrostatic voltage applying section which applies electrostatic voltage between a base material and the liquid in the nozzle and the cavity, and generates electrostatic suction force; and an operation control section which controls applying of the electrostatic voltage by the electrostatic voltage applying section, and controls applying of drive voltage to drive the pressure generating portion, wherein a volume resistivity of the nozzle plate is 1015 ?m or more.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2005
    Publication date: June 26, 2008
    Inventors: Nobuhiro Ueno, Yasuo Nishi, Atsuro Yanata
  • Patent number: 7337987
    Abstract: A liquid jetting apparatus (50) to jet a droplet of a charged liquid solution onto a base material, having: a nozzle (51) in which an edge portion thereof is arranged to face the base material K having a receiving surface to receive the jetted droplet, and an inside diameter of the edge portion from which the droplet is jetted is not more than 30 [?m]; and a liquid solution supplying section (35) to supply the liquid solution into the nozzle (51), wherein a jetting electrode (58) of the jetting voltage applying section (35) is provided on a back end portion side of the nozzle, and an inside passage length of the nozzle is set to at least not less than ten times of the inside diameter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2008
    Assignee: Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc.
    Inventors: Yasuo Nishi, Kaoru Higuchi, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Patent number: 7314185
    Abstract: A liquid jetting apparatus (20) to jet a droplet of a charged liquid solution onto a base material, having: a nozzle (21) in which an edge portion thereof is arranged to face the base material K having a receiving surface to receive the jetted droplet, and an inside diameter of the edge portion from which the droplet is jetted is not more than 30 [?m]; a liquid solution supplying section (29) to supply the liquid solution into the nozzle (21); a jetting voltage applying section (25) to apply a jetting voltage to the liquid solution in the nozzle (21); and a convex meniscus forming section (40) to form a state where the liquid solution in the nozzle (21) protrudes from the nozzle edge portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2008
    Assignees: Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc., Sharp Kabushiki Kaishi, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
    Inventors: Yasuo Nishi, Kaoru Higuchi, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20070200898
    Abstract: Liquid ejecting apparatus 20 for ejecting electrically charged droplets of the liquid solution onto base member K, which includes liquid ejecting head 26 to eject the droplets from top end 21a of nozzle 21, with the inner diameter equal to or less than 100 ?m, liquid solution supplying section 29 to supply the liquid solution into nozzle 21, and ejection voltage applying section 25 to apply the ejection voltage onto the liquid solution in nozzle 21. In liquid ejecting apparatus 20, nozzle 21 projects toward the droplet ejecting direction from nozzle plane 26e on nozzle plate 26c facing base member K, whereby the projecting length of nozzle 21 is equal to or less than 30 ?m.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 20, 2005
    Publication date: August 30, 2007
    Applicant: KONICA MINOLTA HOLDINGS, INC.
    Inventors: Nobuhiro Ueno, Isao Doi, Yasuo Nishi, Nobuhisa Ishida
  • Publication number: 20070146399
    Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus includes: a liquid ejection head (26) having a nozzle (21) with an inner diameter of 15 ?m or less to eject droplets of charged solution onto a substrate; an ejection voltage supply (25) to apply an ejection voltage to a solution inside the nozzle; a convex meniscus generator (40) to form a state in which the solution inside the nozzle rises from the nozzle in a convex shape; and an operation controller (50) to control application of a drive voltage to drive the convex meniscus generator and application of an ejection voltage by the ejection voltage supply so that the drive voltage to the convex meniscus generator is applied in timing overlapped with the application of a pulse voltage as the ejection voltage by the ejection voltage supply.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 29, 2004
    Publication date: June 28, 2007
    Applicants: Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc., Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
    Inventors: Kazunori Yamamoto, Yasuo Nishi, Hironobu Iwashita, Shigeru Nishio, Kazuhiro Murata
  • Publication number: 20060170753
    Abstract: An electrostatic attraction fluid jet device of the present invention is so arranged that a nozzle (4) is formed so as to correspond to a meniscus equivalent to a tip portion in the form of a taylor cone formed in a process of an electrostatic attraction of ink (2) as a conventional fluid. A diameter of an ink-ejecting hole (4b) of the nozzle (4) is set to be substantially the same as a diameter of the tip portion, which is about to be ejected, of the meniscus (14) of ink. Moreover, the diameter of the ink-ejecting hole (4b) of the nozzle (4) is set to be equal to or less than a droplet diameter of the ink (2) which has just been ejected. Therefore, it is possible to provide an electrostatic attraction fluid jet device which can realize a recording device which has high resolution, is safe and is highly versatile.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2003
    Publication date: August 3, 2006
    Inventors: Kaoru Higuchi, Yasuo Nishi, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20060125363
    Abstract: A method is for producing an active matrix organic EL display element by an inkjet method to eject droplets (12) of a liquid via an ejection hole of a nozzle so as to form an organic EL layer. The liquid contains an organic EL layer material. An electrostatic attraction type inkjet apparatus (15) is used whose ejection hole (1b) has a diameter smaller than a diameter of the droplets (12). The droplets are ejected from the nozzle of the electrostatic attraction type inkjet apparatus (15) in such a manner that each of the droplets is 1 pl or less in amount. With this arrangement, the landed droplet dries quickly, and movement of the landed droplet is restricted. This makes it possible to form an organic EL layer accurately with low cost.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 24, 2003
    Publication date: June 15, 2006
    Inventors: Toshio Tahira, Yasuo Nishi, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20060049272
    Abstract: A liquid jetting apparatus (20) to jet a droplet of a charged liquid solution onto a base material, having: a nozzle (21) in which an edge portion thereof is arranged to face the base material K having a receiving surface to receive the jetted droplet, and an inside diameter of the edge portion from which the droplet is jetted is not more than 30 [?m]; a liquid solution supplying section (29) to supply the liquid solution into the nozzle (21); a jetting voltage applying section (25) to apply a jetting voltage to the liquid solution in the nozzle (21); and a convex meniscus forming section (40) to form a state where the liquid solution in the nozzle (21) protrudes from the nozzle edge portion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2003
    Publication date: March 9, 2006
    Inventors: Yasuo Nishi, Kaoru Higuchi, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20060043212
    Abstract: A liquid jetting apparatus (50) to jet a droplet of a charged liquid solution onto a base material, having: a nozzle (51) in which an edge portion thereof is arranged to face the base material K having a receiving surface to receive the jetted droplet, and an inside diameter of the edge portion from which the droplet is jetted is not more than 30 [?m]; and a liquid solution supplying section (35) to supply the liquid solution into the nozzle (51), wherein a jetting electrode (58) of the jetting voltage applying section (35) is provided on a back end portion side of the nozzle, and an inside passage length of the nozzle is set to at least not less than ten times of the inside diameter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2003
    Publication date: March 2, 2006
    Inventors: Yasuo Nishi, Kaoru Higuchi, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Publication number: 20060017782
    Abstract: First, through a coating step, a photolithography step and an etching step, a plurality of electrodes 142, 142, . . . are formed on a base plate 141. Next, a resist layer 143b is formed on the base plate 141 so as to cover all of the electrodes 142, 142, . . . , and by exposing and developing the resist layer 143b, a nozzle 103 having a super minute diameter is formed to stand with respect to the base plate 141 so as to make the resist layer 143b correspond to each electrode 142, and an in-nozzle passage is formed in each nozzle 103.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 22, 2003
    Publication date: January 26, 2006
    Inventors: Yasuo Nishi, Kaoru Higuchi, Kazuhiro Murata, Hiroshi Yokoyama
  • Patent number: 6245500
    Abstract: A method of cooling a photographic coating composition in a sol state is disclosed. The composition that includes photographic emulsion, an emulsified material or gelatin solution, or comprising combinations thereof is continuously cooled by employing heat exchanger, and after being transformed into a gel state, the resulting product is placed into a storage vessel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2001
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventor: Yasuo Nishi
  • Patent number: 6194034
    Abstract: A method of coating a coating solution onto a base member by a coater while conveying the base member, wherein the base member has a coating starting point from which the coating solution is coated onto the base member, comprise steps of feeding the coating solution to the coater at a flow rate lower than a regular coating flow rate; and increasing the lower flow rate to the regular coating flow rate in accordance with the conveyed position of the coating starting point of the base member when the coating starting point of the base member is conveyed to the coater.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 1998
    Date of Patent: February 27, 2001
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Yasuo Nishi, Tomohiko Sakai, Nobuhiro Ueno, Nobuyuki Kimura, Fumio Kimura
  • Patent number: 6106590
    Abstract: In an apparatus for defoaming liquid with ultrasonic wave in order to eliminate foam or bubble from the liquid, provided with an ultrasonic wave liquid tank, a defoaming tank, and an ultrasonic oscillator for irradiating ultrasonic wave through the ultrasonic wave transmitting liquid to the defoaming tank; at least a part of the defoaming tank is immersed in the ultrasonic wave transmitting liquid in the ultrasonic wave liquid tank, and a degree of unsaturation of dissolved air in the ultrasonic wave transmitting liquid under defoaming operation is not lower than 10%.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 16, 1998
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2000
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Nobuhiro Ueno, Yasuo Nishi, Takeshi Sakurai
  • Patent number: 5403622
    Abstract: A method of coating an object by shifting from a first coating solution to a second coating solution. After a coating of the object with the first coating solution is finished, a washing solution is used to clean a coating pipe-line and a coater. Deaerated water is supplied to fill up the pipe-line and the coater by control of a multi-way valve which is located at an end of the coating pipe-line which is connected to one of a coater or an outlet for drainage. The multi-way valve is capable of shifting a fluid flow therethrough to one of the coater and to the outlet. With the multi-way valve in the outlet position the deaerated water is replaced in the pipe-line and the coater with the second coating solution. A slit inside the coater is dried, and the second coating solution is then conducted to the coater by shifting the multi-way valve to a coater position therefor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 1993
    Date of Patent: April 4, 1995
    Assignee: Konica Corporation
    Inventors: Yasuo Nishi, Nobuhiro Ueno, Katsusuke Nagashima, Takayuki Kato, Nobuhiko Takashima, Kikuo Maeda
  • Patent number: 5178996
    Abstract: Disclosed is a photographic element having a support, at least one layer for carrying an image on the support and a protective coated layer cured by an active energy ray thereon, wherein the protective coated layer is one obtained by curing, by irradiation of an active energy ray, an active energy ray curable composition containing a prepolymer containing at least 2 epoxy groups in the molecule and a polymerization initiator which can be activated by the active energy ray; and the active energy ray curable composition is coated on the layer carrying the image; and the layer carrying the image has a water content of 20.0% by weight or less. Disclosed is also a process for preparing the photographic element constituted as the above.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 1992
    Date of Patent: January 12, 1993
    Assignees: Konica Corporation, Asahi Denka Kogyo K.K.
    Inventors: Tohru Kobayashi, Yasuo Nishi, Nakaya Nakano, Kazuo Ohkawa, Hiroyuki Tachikawa