Abstract: A sheet supplying device has a sheet delivering roller for delivering sheets one by one; a feeding roller for feeding the sheet delivered by the sheet delivering roller; a pinch roller urged by the feeding roller to be rotated by the feeding roller; a detecting lever swingable by being contacted by a leading of the sheet delivered by the sheet delivering roller; and a sensor for detecting the swing motion of the detecting lever. An area of said detecting lever to which the leading end of the sheet is contactable is such a curved surface that a distance from a nip between the feeding roller and the pinch roller is substantially constant.

Abstract: A sheet supplying device includes sheet delivering means for delivering sheets one by one; feeding means for feeding the sheet delivered by the sheet delivering means; and detecting means, disposed between the sheet delivering means and the feeding means, for detecting a leading end of the sheet, wherein when the detecting means detects the leading end of the sheet, a distance between a feeding reference position where the feeding means nips the sheet and the leading end of the sheet is constant irrespective of a path of the sheet delivered to the detecting means.

Abstract: A sheet material guiding mechanism for guiding the edge portion of sheet material comprises a movable side guide capable of sliding corresponding to the sizes of sheet material, and being fixable in any position within the sliding area; a sheet guide section provided for the movable side guide in order to regulate the position of sheet material by butting against the edge of the sheet material; and an inner-side operating section provided for the movable side guide, being capable of releasing the fixed condition of the movable side guide by depression, hence making it possible to provide a sheet material guiding mechanism having a simple structure at lower costs, and producing the suppression effect against the skew of the sheet material with the easy operation that copes with disability.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus, for effecting recording on recording sheets by ejecting ink from a recording head onto the recording sheets, includes a head carrying portion for carrying the recording head; a feeding roller for separating and feeding recording sheets one by one from a plurality of the recording sheets; a conveying roller for conveying the recording sheet fed by the feeding roller to a position where the recording sheet is opposed to the recording head; and a discharging unit disposed between the feeding roller and the conveying roller with respect to a feeding direction of the recording sheet. The discharging unit is effective to decrease an electrostatic charge amount of the recording sheet to a level lower than a predetermined level.

Abstract: Disclosed is a sheet supplying apparatus including first and second stacking means and contrived to prevent the apparatus from being upsized and to reduce a manufacturing cost by employing one sheet supplying/separating mechanism in common. The sheet supplying apparatus has a first stacking means including a first stacking portion stacked with a sheet, a second stacking means installable in an attachable/detachable manner to and from the first stacking means on an upper side of the first stacking portion, and a separating/supplying means used in common to the first and second stacking means, for separating and supplying the stacked sheets. The second stacking means includes a base member for installing in the first stacking means, and a second stacking portion movably incorporated into the base member. The second stacking portion is so constructed as to be possible of advancing and retreating.

Abstract: A sheet material guiding mechanism for guiding the edge portion of sheet material comprises a movable side guide capable of sliding corresponding to the sizes of sheet material, and being fixable in any position within the sliding area; a sheet guide section provided for the movable side guide in order to regulate the position of sheet material by butting against the edge of the sheet material; and an inner-side operating section provided for the movable side guide, being capable of releasing the fixed condition of the movable side guide by depression, hence making it possible to provide a sheet material guiding mechanism having a simple structure at lower costs, and producing the suppression effect against the skew of the sheet material with the easy operation that copes with disability.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus for effecting recording on recording sheets by ejecting ink from a recording head onto the recording sheets, the apparatus includes a head carrying portion for carrying the recording head; a feeding roller for separating and feeding recording sheets one by one from a plurality of the recording sheets; a feeding roller for feeding the recording sheet fed by the feeding roller to a position where the recording sheet is opposed to the recording head; discharging means disposed between the feeding roller and the feeding roller with respect to a feeding direction of the recording sheet, the discharging means being effective to decrease an electrostatic charge amount of the recording sheet to a level lower than a predetermined level.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus includes a carriage on which is mountable a recording head provided with discharge ports to discharge ink and which is movable to move the head, a movable cap to cover the discharge ports, and a pump to suck ink from the discharge ports through the cap when the cap covers the discharge ports. A controller controls the recording head to wait for a given period of time in a position facing the cap before the carriage is moved to carry the recording head, subsequent to suction by the pump and separation of the cap from the recording head. This arrangement reduces the possibility that a recording material will be stained by ink following a suction of ink by the pump.

Abstract: An recording apparatus and a method of controlling the operation of the recording apparatus in which the timing of replacing ink cartridges for supplying ink to a recording head or the timing of refilling the ink cartridges with ink is controlled in such a manner as to minimize the total amount of ink consumed during the operation of recovering the recording head performed after the ink cartridge is replaced or refilled thereby achieving a high efficiency in the replacement or refilling of ink cartridges. The amount of remaining ink is monitored for each ink cartridge. If an ink cartridge is detected to be so low in the amount of remaining ink that it should be replaced or refilled, then it is judged whether there is another ink cartridge whose amount of remaining ink is lower than a predetermined value. If there is such an ink cartridge, it is determined that the ink cartridge as well as the former one should also be replaced or refilled with ink.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a discharge recovery processing of an ink jet recording apparatus which forms an image on the recording medium by discharging the ink. The invention aims to prevent the increase in the running costs and the shortened life of a waste ink tank by preventing the wasteful ink consumption which may be caused by the dual use of an automatic recovery processing and a manual recovery processing after the replacement of an ink tank.Also, the invention further aims to provide an ink jet recording apparatus with high safety and reliability as well as effecting an appropriate recovery by controlling the movement of head in involving the recovery.

Abstract: A recording apparatus, in which a recording operation is carried out while a recording head having a plurality of recording elements arranged in a line is reciprocated, includes a pattern printing device for printing adjustment patterns through a plurality of reciprocations, in which drive timings of the plurality of recording elements of the recording head are different so that a relative position between an odd number line and an even number line in a direction of the reciprocation, are slightly deviated; and an adjusting device for adjusting printing positions between forward and backward printing operations, by controlling the drive timings of the recording elements in accordance with deviation in the adjustment pattern provided by the pattern printing device.

Abstract: In a recording apparatus using a plurality of kinds of head cartridges each comprising an ink jet recording head and an ink tank formed as a unit, the present invention prevents, when a wrong head cartridge has been mounted during cartridge exchange, data regarding the remain of ink in a thitherto used cartridge of other kind from being lost, and enables the remain of ink in that cartridge to be confirmed. A user is pressed for the exchange of the head cartridge now mounted to thereby effect the exchange actually, and is called on to confirm whether the newly mounted head cartridge is a right one, and the initialization of the data regarding the remain of ink is effected when the user has done the inputting of the confirmation.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus is provided with at least one first electrode at least in either a recording head or ink retaining member, dielectric adjacent to the first electrode or laying between the first electrodes, a second electrode electrically connected to the first electrode through the dielectric and ink, power supply to apply and release voltage to and from the first electrode, potential difference detector for detecting the potential of the second electrode, and equivalent circuit to determine the ink remains at least in either one of the recording head and ink retaining member in accordance with the potential of the second electrode detected by potential difference detector. In this way, it is possible to provide an ink jet recording apparatus having equivalent circuit for detecting ink shortage, and expect a highly precise detection thereof, and also, to provide information processing systems having such recording apparatus for its output device.

Abstract: A pair of supporting members is removably attached to a containing box for supporting a roll sheet that consists of a cylindrical core and a recording sheet wound thereon. Each supporting member has a flat portion with an upper edge, a lower edge, and a center portion and a shaft portion mounted on the flat portion. A tapered portion contacting with an inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical core is formed on an outer peripheral surface of the shaft portion for supporting the roll sheet while the tapered portion is contacting an upper area thereof with an opposed area of the inner peripheral surface of the cylindrical core.

Abstract: A display unit is provided so as to be rotatable with respect to a main body of an electronic apparatus. An inlet for manually inserting a sheet is provided in the vicinity of the center of rotation of the display unit, and a sheet feeding device capable of continuously feeding sheets is provided so as to be detachable with respect to the inlet. It is thereby possible to supply a sheet from the front side of the electronic apparatus.

Abstract: A recording apparatus for recording by discharging plural kinds of ink from the recording head to a recording medium comprises detection device for detecting the decrease of ink remains of each ink of the plural kinds of ink, ink amount indication device arranged in a number smaller than the number of the plural kinds of ink, and signal outputting device for outputting signals which enables the decrease of ink remains having the least amount of ink remains to be displayed on the ink amount indication device in accordance with the results of plural detections by the detection device.

Abstract: An ink ribbon cassette which is adapted to be demountably loaded on a recording apparatus having a recording head capable of recording information on a recording medium supported by a platen, the ink ribbon cassette has the following parts: a substantially box-shaped casing constituted by an upper case and a lower case which are connected to each other at their vertical walls, the casing having a first side wall facing the platen and a second side wall opposing the first side wall, a recessed portion formed in one end of the first side wall and capable of receiving the recording head, engaging portion provided on the second side wall and adapted for engagement with retaining member on the recording apparatus, a pair of through holes constituted by pairs of apertures formed in the portions of the upper and lower cases adjacent to the first side wall, the through holes being adapted for receiving locating members on the recording apparatus so as to locate the ink ribbon cassette, and a path of an ink ribbon ext

Abstract: An image recording apparatus for recording an image on a recording medium has a plurality of ink ribbon mounting portions on which a multicolor ink ribbon having inks of plural colors and a monochromatic ink ribbon having monochromatic ink can be mounted, a recording head for recording an image on the recording medium, an input circuit for designating the colors of the image to be recorded on the recording medium, and a control unit for controlling the image based on recording information to be recorded by the direction from said input means so that image recording is effected in a smaller number of the recording colors by the recording information. The unused amount of the color blocks on the ribbon is stored in memory to control efficient use of the ribbon.

Abstract: An ink ribbon cassette includes a cassette case for housing an ink ribbon and feeding it along a feed path, an ink ribbon guide for guiding the ribbon along the ink path and a cantilevered spring member disposed at an intermediate portion of the feed path of the ink ribbon. The cantilevered spring member includes a frictioning portion for imparting a smaller tension to the ink ribbon when the ink ribbon is fed from a supply end to a take-up end, while imparting a greater tension to the ink ribbon when the ink ribbon is fed from the take-up end to the supply end. The spring member is provided at a free end with the frictioning portion and is bent at an intermediate portion such that a supported end of the spring member and the free end thereof face each other.

Abstract: A sheet feeding apparatus comprising a support for supporting stacked sheets, a rotary sheet feed device for feeding out the sheets supported by the support, and a separating device for separating the sheets fed out from the rotary sheet feed device one by one. The support is shiftable between a feed position where the stacked sheets are abutted against the rotary sheet feed device and a waiting position where the stacked sheets are separated from the rotary sheet feed device. There is provided a switch connected to a rotary drive source for driving the rotary sheet feed device and adapted to shift the support to the feed position through a rotation of the rotary drive in one direction and to shift the support to the waiting position through a rotation of the rotary drive in the other direction.