Plural Pulses Patents (Class 347/11)
  • Patent number: 10388305
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are apparatuses and methods for writing to a magnetic medium, and data storage devices comprising such apparatuses and methods. An apparatus comprises a main pole, a trailing shield, a write-field-enhancing structure, a write coil, a write current control circuit configured to supply a write current to the write coil to record a bit to a magnetic medium, and a driving current control circuit configured to supply a driving current to the write-field-enhancing structure, wherein the driving current comprises a driving pulse. A method of writing to a magnetic medium comprises supplying a write current to a write coil of a magnetic write head, and supplying a driving current to a free layer disposed in a write gap between a main pole and a trailing shield of the magnetic write head, wherein the driving current comprises an AC component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 20, 2019
    Assignee: Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Gonçalo Marcos Baião De Albuquerque, Yunfei Ding, Alexander Goncharov, Kuok San Ho, Daniele Mauri, Goran Mihajlovic, Suping Song, Petrus Antonius Van Der Heijden
  • Patent number: 10369562
    Abstract: A droplet ejecting apparatus includes a solution container, first and second nozzle groups fluidly connected to the solution container and having nozzles from which the solution can be ejected, first actuators respectively associated with each nozzle in the first nozzle group, second actuators respectively associated with each nozzle in the second nozzle group, and drive circuits respectively connected in a parallel to the first and second actuators. Each nozzle has a pressure chamber associated therewith. Each actuator causes a pressure change in a corresponding pressure chamber to control an ejection of a droplet of the solution from the corresponding nozzle. Each drive circuit is configured to supply a drive signal. When supplied by each drive circuit to the first and second actuators respectively, each drive signal causes solution to be ejected from each nozzle of each respective nozzle group at a same time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2019
    Assignee: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shuhei Yokoyama, Satoshi Kaiho, Ryutaro Kusunoki
  • Patent number: 10300695
    Abstract: An ink jet printer includes an ink jet head and an ink jet head control circuit supplying a control signal to control the ink jet head. The ink jet head includes a nozzle, an ink chamber, an actuator configured to change a pressure of the ink chamber to eject ink from the nozzle, a driver circuit that is connected to a signal line on which the control signal is supplied and configured to generate a drive waveform for driving the actuator according to the control signal, and a non-volatile memory connected to the signal line and configured to store information of the ink jet head. The ink jet head control circuit includes a drive control circuit connected to the signal line and configured to output the control signal to the signal line, and a non-volatile memory control circuit that accesses the non-volatile memory via the signal line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 28, 2019
    Assignee: Toshiba TEC Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Teruyuki Hiyoshi, Noboru Nitta, Syunichi Ono
  • Patent number: 10286653
    Abstract: Printheads and techniques for manufacturing printheads are disclosed. An example method includes forming drive circuit components in a circuit layer. The method also includes forming a fluidic device that causes fluid to be ejected from a nozzle. The method also includes forming an interconnect layer that couples the drive circuit components.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2019
    Assignee: HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P.
    Inventors: Eric T Martin, Chris Bakker, James R Przybyla
  • Patent number: 10272697
    Abstract: In a printer, a print head carriage assembly includes a carriage arranged to move in a main scanning direction relative to a recording medium; a plurality of print heads mounted on the carriage and arranged to apply a curable marking material onto the recording medium; and a number of curing devices mounted on the carriage and disposed in positions relative to the print heads such that each print head is associated with at least one of the curing devices. The at least one of the curing devices is disposed to follow its associated print head in a distance in the main scanning direction so as to cure the ink that has been applied with that print head. The print heads are arranged in at least two rows which extend in the main scanning direction and are staggered in a sub-scanning direction normal to the main scanning direction, and the print heads are grouped such that each print head in each row has, in each other row, a counterpart print head which belongs to the same group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 30, 2019
    Assignee: OCÉ HOLDING B.V.
    Inventors: Richard F. E. Van Hout, Johan Schutten, Elisabeth H. G. Beckers-Vaasen, John B. L. De Kock, Marcellus W. P. Van De Put, Mark M. J. Gosens
  • Patent number: 10239313
    Abstract: An inkjet head drive apparatus comprises a pressure chamber, an actuator, a nozzle and a drive signal output section. The pressure chamber accommodates an ink. The actuator increases or decreases volume of the pressure chamber through an applied a voltage. The nozzle is connected with the pressure chamber to eject the ink through the change in the volume of the pressure chamber. When an ejection pulse for the ejection of the ink from the nozzle is repeated for equal to or greater than three times, the drive signal output section outputs a drive signal having a driving waveform including an initial ejection pulse having a first voltage amplitude and the second ejection pulses and the pulses thereafter having a second voltage amplitude smaller than the first voltage amplitude to the actuator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 26, 2019
    Assignee: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yasuhito Kiji, Ryutaro Kusunoki
  • Patent number: 10220615
    Abstract: A method for controlling a liquid ejecting apparatus includes: driving a ejecting section by using each of a plurality of candidate waveforms of a minute vibration pulses in parallel with movement of a liquid ejecting head, the minute vibration pulses vibrates a liquid surface within a nozzle of the liquid ejecting head without causing liquid to be ejected from the nozzle, the candidate waveforms are different from each other; and setting a waveform of the minute vibration pulses included in a driving signal generated by the signal generating section, in accordance with an instruction accepted with an operating device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Ryota Sakamoto
  • Patent number: 10214010
    Abstract: A driving signal generating circuit generates, for each driving period, a main driving signal including a first sub driving signal including a first driving pulse, a second sub driving signal including a second driving pulse, and a third sub driving signal including a third driving pulse. The third sub driving signal follows the second sub driving signal. A driving signal supplying circuit includes a second dot former to supply the second sub driving signal and the third sub driving signal to an actuator coupled to a defining plate defining a portion of a pressure chamber, without supplying the first sub driving signal to the actuator. The third driving pulse starts after a lapse of a preset time from the start of the second driving pulse. The preset time is equal to a value of about p×Tc, where p is greater than 2.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: ROLAND DG CORPORATION
    Inventors: Keisuke Misawa, Kenji Kazaoka
  • Patent number: 10195847
    Abstract: A liquid jetting apparatus includes: a head including nozzles and driving elements arranged to correspond to the nozzles; a power source connected to the driving elements; and a control circuit connected to the power source. The control circuit determines whether an output voltage value of the power source is changed from a first voltage value to a second voltage value. When the control circuit has determined that the output voltage value is changed from the first voltage value to the second voltage value, the control circuit calculates an absolute value of a difference between the first voltage value and the second voltage value and compares the absolute value of the difference and a threshold value. When the absolute value of the difference is equal to or more than the threshold value, the control circuit determines a calculation voltage value smaller than the absolute value of the difference.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 5, 2019
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Fumika Hatta
  • Patent number: 10189252
    Abstract: Methods and systems are described herein for driving droplet ejection devices with multi-level waveforms. In one embodiment, a method for driving droplet ejection devices includes applying a multi-level waveform to the droplet ejection devices. The multi-level waveform includes a first section having at least one compensating edge and a second section having at least one drive pulse. The compensating edge has a compensating effect on systematic variation in droplet velocity or droplet mass across the droplet ejection devices. In another embodiment, the compensating edge has a compensating effect on cross-talk between the droplet ejection devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2019
    Assignee: FUJIFILM DIMATIX, INC.
    Inventors: Hrishikesh V. Panchawagh, Christoph Menzel
  • Patent number: 10166766
    Abstract: A head driving device drives a liquid ejection head. The liquid ejection head includes a plurality of nozzles and a plurality of pressure generating devices provided respectively corresponding to the nozzles. The head driving device includes a driving-waveform correcting unit configured to correct driving waveform data that defines ejection characteristics of liquid to be ejected from the nozzle based on interference patterns expressing variations in the ejection characteristics caused by an interference occurring in the nozzle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2019
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Naruhiro Masui
  • Patent number: 10137686
    Abstract: An ink jet head includes a pressure chamber connected to a nozzle, an actuator configured to cause liquid in the pressure chamber to be ejected from the nozzle by deforming a wall of the pressure chamber, and a drive circuit configured to apply voltage to the actuator to drive the actuator. When a droplet of the liquid is ejected from the nozzle, the voltage applied to the actuator is changed from a first value to a second value that causes the pressure chamber to expand, and then changed from a third value that is equal to the second value or between the first value and the second value to the first value after a time period ?, which is a primary natural oscillation period of the actuator when the pressure chamber and the nozzle are filled with the liquid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2018
    Assignee: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Ryutaro Kusunoki, Shuhei Yokoyama, Meng Fei Wong
  • Patent number: 10131142
    Abstract: In accordance with an embodiment, an inkjet head comprises a pressure chamber, an actuator and a control section. The pressure chamber houses ink. The actuator is driven to expand or contract the volume of the pressure chamber in order to eject the ink from an opening of the pressure chamber. The control section applies an expansion pulse of which the width is 0.4 times-0.9 times as large as an AT which is half a natural vibration period during which nozzle negative pressure is changed in the pressure chamber and which expands the pressure chamber to the actuator, and applies a contraction pulse which contracts the pressure chamber to the actuator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2018
    Assignee: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Masaya Ichikawa
  • Patent number: 10046558
    Abstract: A method for recovering missing inkjets in a printhead including determining an inkjet in the printhead is not ejecting ink, purging degassed ink into the printhead, adjusting a pressure in the printhead so that ink drools out of an aperture of each nozzle of the printhead, repeatedly applying a non-firing waveform at a frequency for a predetermined amount of time to the printhead while the ink drools out of the aperture of each nozzle of the printhead, and after the predetermined amount of time, adjusting the pressure in the printhead to a normal printhead pressure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2018
    Assignee: XEROX CORPORATION
    Inventor: Douglas Dean Darling
  • Patent number: 10029485
    Abstract: An ink jet recording method uses an ink jet recording apparatus including a plurality of heads arranged in parallel in a first direction, each of which ejects droplets of a different radiation-curable ink composition onto a recording medium, and first light sources provided for corresponding heads so as to be disposed at a predetermined side of the corresponding heads. The first light sources emit active radiation to irradiate the droplets on the recording medium. The method includes ejecting droplets of the ink compositions from the heads onto the recording medium, and performing a first irradiation by irradiating the droplets of each ink composition with the active radiation from the corresponding first light source at an irradiation energy within 500 ms after the droplets have landed. The irradiation energy is in the range of 5% to 10% of the energy E90 at which the ink composition is 90% cured.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 24, 2018
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Taketoshi Kagose, Satoru Miura
  • Patent number: 10022962
    Abstract: A fluidic die may include a number of actuators. The number of actuators form a number of primitives. The fluidic die may include a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to drive a number of the delay circuits. The delay circuits delay a number of activation pulses that activate the actuators associated with the primitives to reduce peak power demands of the fluidic die. A number of delay circuits may be coupled to each primitive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2018
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Scott A. Linn, George H. Corrigan, III, Michael W. Cumbie
  • Patent number: 9981468
    Abstract: An ink jet printing apparatus is provided which can suppress defective ejection of ink from the nozzles. An element array with a plurality of print elements arranged therein is divided into a plurality of groups of print elements. For each of the plurality of groups, the apparatus determines whether any area undergoes a failure to perform a normal printing operation. If the apparatus determines, for any of the plurality of groups, that any area is likely to undergo the failure, when the print medium is printed based on the print data corresponding to the area, control is performed in such a manner that a first amount of energy supplied to drive one print element is greater than a second amount of energy supplied to drive one print element immediately before the print medium is printed based on the print data corresponding to the area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 29, 2018
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Joji Katsuura
  • Patent number: 9969157
    Abstract: A fluidic die may include a number of actuators. The number of actuators form a number of primitives. The fluidic die may include a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to drive a number of the delay circuits. The delay circuits delay a number of activation pulses that activate the actuators associated with the primitives to reduce peak power demands of the fluidic die. A number of delay circuits may be coupled to each primitive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 1, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2018
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Scott A. Linn, George H. Corrigan, III, Michael W. Cumbie
  • Patent number: 9956768
    Abstract: A liquid ejection device includes a head driving unit that generates a first driving voltage and a second driving voltage in which whether or not there is ejection of liquid from a first ejection element in a case where the first driving voltage alone is applied to the first ejection element that is a detection target of a short circuit between ejection elements is different from whether or not there is ejection of liquid from the first ejection element in a case where the first driving voltage and the second driving voltage are applied to the first ejection element, supplies the first driving voltage to the first ejection element, and supplies the second driving voltage to the second ejection element suspected of a short circuit with the first ejection element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2018
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Tadashi Kyoso
  • Patent number: 9925772
    Abstract: A method for controlling an inkjet printing apparatus performing printing to an elongated printing medium 11, the method having a discharging step of performing continuous application to a piezoelectric element 23 of a nozzle to be used with a pulse number of two or more waves per one printing element to deform the piezoelectric element and thereby discharge ink in an ink chamber 22 from an opening portion 21, and a vibrating step of performing application of the piezoelectric elements 23 to all the nozzles with a pulse number of one wave per one printing element to deform the piezoelectric elements, thereby imparting only vibrations to the inks in the ink chambers 22 without discharging the inks, where the discharging step and the vibrating step are performed alternately.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2018
    Assignee: MIYAKOSHI PRINTING MACHINERY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hideo Izawa, Yasushi Katagiri, Seiji Komatsuda
  • Patent number: 9844934
    Abstract: A liquid jetting device comprising a plurality of ejection units each of which is arranged to eject a droplet of a liquid and comprises a nozzle, a liquid duct connected to the nozzle and an electro-mechanical transducer arranged to create an acoustic pressure wave in the liquid in the duct, the device further comprising an electronic control system arranged to receive a pressure signal from at least one of the transducers and to generate a transducer control signal on the basis of the received pressure signal and to control the transducers of said plurality of ejection units to operate in a mode of operation selected from a variety of different modes of operation, wherein the control system is arranged to detect an acoustic property of the liquid of the basis of the received pressure signal and to select the mode of operation in accordance with the detected property, the control system being arranged to deliver transducer control signals to the transducers, which control signals are derived from a common bas
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2017
    Assignee: OCE-TECHNOLOGIES B.V.
    Inventors: Hylke Veenstra, Theo Hummel, Amol Khalate, Cor Venner, Marko Mihailovic
  • Patent number: 9815279
    Abstract: An inkjet head drive apparatus comprises a pressure chamber, an actuator, a nozzle and a drive signal output section. The pressure chamber accommodates an ink. The actuator increases or decreases volume of the pressure chamber through an applied a voltage. The nozzle is connected with the pressure chamber to eject the ink through the change in the volume of the pressure chamber. When an ejection pulse for the ejection of the ink from the nozzle is repeated for equal to or greater than three times, the drive signal output section outputs a drive signal having a driving waveform including an initial ejection pulse having a first voltage amplitude and the a second ejection pulses and the pulses thereafter having a second voltage amplitude smaller than the first voltage amplitude to the actuator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2017
    Assignee: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yasuhito Kiji, Ryutaro Kusunoki
  • Patent number: 9796175
    Abstract: A controller adapted for an inkjet printing system is described. The controller can include an analyzer and a prefire inserter. The analyzer can be configured to determine whether a nozzle arrangement should generate a fire pulse in a current line, and whether the last preceding fire pulse was further in the past than an interval value threshold N. The prefire inserter can be configured to insert one or more prefire pulses into the N lines before the current line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2017
    Assignee: Océ Holding B.V.
    Inventors: Timo Sponer, Martin Wilhelm
  • Patent number: 9776401
    Abstract: A droplet ejection apparatus includes, a droplet ejection head, wherein the droplet ejection head includes a nozzle communicated with a pressure chamber, a first piezoelectric element configured to pressure liquid in the pressure chamber so as to cause a droplet to be ejected, and a second piezoelectric element capable of pressuring the liquid in the pressure chamber, a first drive waveform generation unit configured to generate a first drive waveform to be applied to the first piezoelectric element, a second drive waveform generation unit configured to generate a second drive waveform to be applied to the second piezoelectric element, and a control unit configured to apply the second drive waveform to the second piezoelectric element after the first piezoelectric element is driven due to the applied first drive waveform. Residual vibration of the liquid in the pressure chamber is suppressed by a vibration caused by the second piezoelectric element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Hirohito Murate
  • Patent number: 9776436
    Abstract: A method for controlling a print device by generating a firing encoder signal from varying one or more characteristics of a reference signal where, the one or more characteristics are varied based on at least the position of a print medium at a reference time. The firing encoder signal is used to synchronize firing of at least one print head of the print device after the reference time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2014
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2017
    Assignee: HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P.
    Inventors: David Chanclon, Alberto Borrego Lebrato, Juan Francisco Redondo Del Campo
  • Patent number: 9738069
    Abstract: A driving pulse to be applied to a plurality of print elements in a print element array is decided based on the deviation of the discharge amount from the print elements.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 22, 2017
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yuhei Oikawa, Taku Yokozawa, Hiroaki Shirakawa, Mitsutoshi Nagamura, Hiroshi Taira, Yosuke Ishii, Satoshi Azuma, Hiroaki Komatsu, Kazuhiko Sato
  • Patent number: 9718269
    Abstract: The uniformity of performance of inkjet nozzles within a print head containing a plurality of said nozzles is optimized by characterizing one or more performance attributes of the nozzles within said print head. A waveform set is generated that comprises a plurality of waveforms to compensate for variations of the one or more performance attributes among the nozzles. One of the waveforms within the waveform set is assigned to each nozzle to optimize the one or more performance attributes of each nozzle relative to each other nozzle in the print head. Based upon the waveform assigned to each nozzle, each nozzle in the print head responds substantially uniformly relative to each other nozzle in the print head.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2017
    Assignee: ELECTRONICS FOR IMAGING, INC.
    Inventor: John Duffield
  • Patent number: 9701117
    Abstract: A liquid-jet head includes: a passage member including a plurality of individual passages and a manifold communicating commonly with the individual passages, the individual passages each having a pressure generating chamber communicating with a nozzle orifice that ejects liquid, the pressure generating chambers being formed on one surface side of the passage member on an opposite side from the nozzle orifices, the individual passages and the manifold communicating with each other through communicating paths, and each adjacent two of the individual passages communicating with each other through the corresponding communicating path; and reinforcement walls each provided between the communicating paths in a parallel direction of the individual passages, the reinforcement walls defining the communicating paths.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2017
    Assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hajime Nakao, Takaaki Koizumi
  • Patent number: 9701109
    Abstract: When the discharging abnormalities detection circuit detects a state in which the ink droplet is not discharged from the first nozzle which discharges a relatively large ink droplet, a second recording mode is set, and in a recording process, the ink droplet discharges from a second nozzle without discharging the ink droplet from a first nozzle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2017
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Eiichiro Watanabe
  • Patent number: 9682548
    Abstract: A print device is configured to perform printing by an ink jet scheme including: an ink jet head including a nozzle, an ink chamber that stores ink droplets at an upstream of the nozzle, and a piezoelectric element; and a drive signal output section that outputs a drive signal for causing the piezoelectric element to be displaced. The drive signal includes a discharge driving signal for causing the piezoelectric element displaced so that ink droplets are discharged from the nozzle, and a post-discharge controlling signal for causing the piezoelectric element displaced after the ink droplets are discharged from the nozzle, the drive signal output section outputs the discharge driving signal by which a voltage changes linearly from a first voltage to a second voltage which are predeterminedly set, at a timing when the ink droplets are to be discharged from the nozzle, and outputs a substantial sine wave.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2017
    Assignee: MIMAKI ENGINEERING CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Masaru Ohnishi
  • Patent number: 9649845
    Abstract: A liquid jetting apparatus includes a casing, a tank formed with a liquid storage chamber which stores liquid, an inlet which allows the liquid to be poured into the liquid storage chamber, and a liquid outflow channel which allows the liquid to flow out from the liquid storage chamber, a conveying mechanism which conveys a recording medium along a conveying path extending in a front-rear direction, a carriage which moves in a left-right direction, and a head mounted on the carriage and having a nozzle which jets the liquid onto the recording medium conveyed by the conveying mechanism. The tank, the conveying path, and the carriage are arranged inside the casing, the tank is arranged outside the conveying path in the left-right direction, and at least a part of the tank is arranged inside both ends of a movement area of the carriage in the left-right direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2016
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2017
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yoshinori Osakabe, Tomohisa Higuchi, Akira Shinoda, Akinori Igarashi, Suguru Tomoguchi, Hisaki Sakurai
  • Patent number: 9630408
    Abstract: An inkjet head that is able to circulate ink. The inkjet head includes a diaphragm plate, a first restrictor plate, one or more chamber plates, a second restrictor plate, and an orifice plate. The orifice plate forms a plurality of nozzles. The chamber plates form a plurality of chambers corresponding with the nozzles, and also form a return manifold for receiving ink from the chambers when circulating the ink through the inkjet head. The diaphragm plate forms a diaphragm that seals the chambers. The first restrictor plate controls a flow of ink between the chambers and the return manifold to circulate the ink through the inkjet head. The second restrictor plate controls the flow of ink between a supply manifold and the chambers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Nishimura, Giang Vo, Connor Matsumori
  • Patent number: 9607253
    Abstract: A printing apparatus inputs print data, generates a driving pulse to cause a plurality of print elements of a printhead to perform a printing operation and generates a print data signal based on the input print data to cause the printhead to print on a print medium. At this time, for example, the signal generation timing is controlled so as to determine, based on a driving pulse width, a generation range of the print data signal so as not to overlap with the leading edge and the trailing edge of the driving pulse. Subsequently, the generated driving pulse and the generated print data signal are transferred to the printhead, and the printhead is driven to print on the print medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2017
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hitoshi Matsuoka
  • Patent number: 9573364
    Abstract: A head-driving method includes outputting, to a plurality of head modules arranged in a recording head, nozzle control data via a data bus, wherein the data bus is shared between the plurality of head modules with the data being switched sequentially every bit, setting the nozzle control data for each head module to be supplied via the data bus as nozzle data for each of the head modules at a timing depending on each of the head modules, and outputting a drive voltage signal to an ejection energy generating element configured to eject liquid in each of the head modules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Assignee: FUJIFILM Corporation
    Inventor: Yuta Sumiyoshi
  • Patent number: 9486769
    Abstract: A method of manufacturing gel particles adapted to apply a voltage to a liquid ejection head to eject a liquid including a polymeric material toward an ejection target liquid to thereby manufacture the gel particles, includes: raising the voltage from a first voltage to a second voltage at a first gradient; raising the voltage from the second voltage to a third voltage at a second gradient steeper than the first gradient at which the voltage is raised from the first voltage to the second voltage, and then holding the voltage at the third voltage; dropping the voltage from the third voltage to a fourth voltage, and then holding the voltage at the fourth voltage; raising the voltage from the fourth voltage to a fifth voltage at a third gradient, wherein the third gradient is gentler than the second gradient.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2016
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Kei Hiruma
  • Patent number: 9487001
    Abstract: An inkjet head comprising ink flow paths each including a nozzle in communication with a pressure chamber. Pressurizing sections vary pressure on the ink in the respective pressure chambers. Each of the ink flow paths has a natural frequency of a first-order mode and the ink and has a natural frequency of a second-order mode which is higher than the natural frequency of the first-order mode. Each of the pressurizing sections varies the pressure on the ink for a predetermined time corresponding to the natural frequency of the first-order mode, so that a predetermined volume of ink is discharged when a shift of a fluid level of the ink due to pressure oscillation of the second-order mode is superposed on a shift of a fluid level of the ink due to pressure oscillation of the first-order mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2016
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA, INC.
    Inventors: Yasuo Nishi, Kusunoki Higashino
  • Patent number: 9463619
    Abstract: In a head part of inkjet printer, a leading droplet and a following droplet are ejected from an outlet by inputting one driving signal, and the leading droplet and the following droplet land onto a recording paper. At this time, a waveform of the driving signal is set such that an average of distance from the center of a main dot element formed by the leading droplet to the farthest point in a group of dot elements formed by the leading droplet and the following droplet is equal to or more than 1.1 times an average of radius of the main dot element and equal to or less than 3.0 times the average. Therefore, the dot shape can be made noncircular, and as the result, it is possible to suppress jaggies on edges of an image on the recording paper and lowering of density in a solid area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2016
    Assignees: SCREEN HOLDINGS CO., LTD., SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventor: Kiyoomi Mitsuki
  • Patent number: 9427961
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is a microfluidic jetting device having a piezoelectric member positioned above a displaceable membrane. A voltage is applied across the piezoelectric member causing deformation of the piezoelectric member. The deformation of the piezoelectric member results in a displacement of the membrane, which is formed above a cavity. Displacement of the membrane creates pressure to jet or eject liquid from the cavity and suction liquid into the cavity through ports or apertures formed in the in membrane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2016
    Assignee: STMICROELECTRONICS, INC.
    Inventor: Michele Palmieri
  • Patent number: 9428263
    Abstract: A jet generator is controlled by providing an input signal at a variable frequency to the jet generator and to a simulated electrical load of the jet generator, measuring a difference in signals between the jet generator and the simulated electrical load to identify an optimum flow of a jet generated by the jet generator, and tuning the frequency of the input signal to maintain the jet at the optimum flow.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2016
    Assignee: The Boeing Company
    Inventor: Steven F. Griffin
  • Patent number: 9421764
    Abstract: A controller is for driving a nozzle of a fluid-jet printing device. The controller can select a waveform from a number of waveforms based at least on values for the nozzle. The controller can scale the waveform based on the values for the nozzle. The waveform drives the nozzle to cause the nozzle to eject fluid therefrom.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2011
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2016
    Assignee: HEWLETT PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P.
    Inventors: Andrew L. Van Brocklin, Eric T. Martin, Neel Banerjee
  • Patent number: 9365034
    Abstract: An apparatus and method support a plurality of print head dies (24, 324, 524) on a print bar (22, 322, 522). The plurality of print head dies (24, 324, 524) comprise a print head die (24, 324, 524) having a circuit (26, 526) forming a series (28, 328) of information bits (30), wherein bit locations in the series (28, 328) are mapped to information type definitions based on a location of the print head die (24, 324, 524) on the print bar (22, 322, 522) relative to other print head dies (24, 324, 524) on the print bar (22, 322, 522).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2016
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Garrett E. Clark, Christopher H. Bakker, Yit Hong Tor, Glory J. Abadilla, Andrew Phillips, Glenn D. McCloy
  • Patent number: 9352570
    Abstract: A control unit 6 of a printer 1 determines the combination of conditions of regular flushing that ejects ink into a maintenance unit 5, and onto-paper flushing that ejects ink onto printing paper P, based on the set print mode. To achieve the dot density defined by the selected combination, flushing dots Df are added to the input data 10 to be printed and are printed. When printing, regular flushing is executed at the frequency and strength determined by the selected combination of conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2016
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Yukie Yamazaki, Kimitaka Kamijo
  • Patent number: 9346262
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes: a heating unit which heats a medium; a head which ejects liquid droplets onto the medium opposed thereto; and a driving signal generating unit which generates a driving signal to be applied to the head in order to eject the liquid droplets and which generates a driving signal different in accordance with whether the heating unit is used.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2016
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Seiji Ihara
  • Patent number: 9346263
    Abstract: Upon driving a driver to perform an ejection drive of each of ink chambers subjected to the ejection drive, a controller drives the driver to supply a drive signal having a corrected waveform which increases an ejection amount and an ejection speed of ink compared with those of a normal waveform, when a correction condition is satisfied. The correction condition includes that at least one of the ink chambers arranged next to the ink chamber subjected to the ejection drive is not subjected to the ejection drive in an immediately preceding time slot, and that both the ink chambers arranged next to the ink chamber subjected to the ejection drive in a same group are subjected to the ejection drive.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2016
    Assignee: RISO KAGAKU CORPORATION
    Inventor: Asayo Shimoda
  • Patent number: 9340015
    Abstract: An inkjet printer includes a print head, a nozzle position specifying section and a print control section. The print head includes a plurality of nozzles to eject ink. The nozzle position specifying section is configured to specify a position of a first nozzle that exhibits defective ejection. The print control section is configured to print dots in a plurality of sizes. The print control section is configured to change a dot size of a dot to be printed by a second nozzle, which is positioned adjacent to the first nozzle, to a larger size than a dot size specified in an image data, and to change a dot size of a dot to be printed by a third nozzle, which is positioned adjacent to the second nozzle, to a smaller size than the dot to be printed by the second nozzle after the change.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2016
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Naoki Sudo, Akito Sato
  • Patent number: 9327497
    Abstract: A liquid discharge apparatus includes: a channel unit including: a discharge port; a first channel through which liquid to be supplied to the discharge port flows; and a second channel communicated with the first channel and the discharge port; an actuator including a first and second electrodes and a piezoelectric layer, and being configured to apply pressure to the liquid in the second channel; and a signal supply unit configured to selectively supply a discharge driving signal and a non-discharge driving signal to the actuator. The discharge driving signal includes a first voltage signal which drives the actuator to discharge the liquid from the discharge port, and the non-discharge driving signal includes a plurality of second voltage signals each of which drives the actuator not to discharge the liquid from the discharge port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2016
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Yuichi Ito
  • Patent number: 9272511
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, and system are described herein for driving a droplet ejection device with multi-pulse waveforms. In one embodiment, a method for driving a droplet ejection device having an actuator includes applying a multi-pulse waveform with a drop-firing portion having at least one drive pulse and a non-drop-firing portion to an actuator of the droplet ejection device. The non-drop-firing portion includes a jet straightening edge having a droplet straightening function and at least one cancellation edge having an energy canceling function. The at least drive pulse causes the droplet ejection device to eject a droplet of a fluid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2016
    Assignee: FUJIFILM DIMATIX, INC.
    Inventor: Christoph Menzel
  • Patent number: 9259922
    Abstract: According to an example, a method for TIJ printing may include applying, by a processor, F electrical firing pulses to a resistor of a TIJ printhead for a duration of about 0.50 to 1.00 ?s to jet a latex ink or a dispersed polymer particle ink from a nozzle. According to another example, a TIJ printing apparatus may include a TIJ printhead including a firing chamber to jet a latex ink or a dispersed polymer particle ink from a nozzle, and a resistor to heat the latex ink or the dispersed polymer particle ink to jet from the nozzle. The TIJ printing apparatus may further include a memory storing machine readable instructions to apply F electrical firing pulses to the resistor for a duration of about 0.50 to 1.00 ?s to jet the latex ink or the dispersed polymer particle ink, and a processor to implement the machine readable instructions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2016
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Phillip C. Cagle, Paul Joseph Bruinsma, Satya Prakash
  • Patent number: 9205647
    Abstract: An inkjet head includes a plurality of pressure chambers, each in communication with an ink supply, a plurality of piezoelectric members configured to deform to vary the volume of the pressure chambers, and drive unit that applies a driving signal to each of the piezoelectric members. The driving signal includes, in order, a first negative voltage over a first period having a predetermined length, a first positive voltage followed by a zero voltage over a second period having the same length, a second positive voltage over a third period having the same length, the zero voltage followed by a second negative voltage over a fourth period having the same length, and the zero voltage over a fifth period having the same length. The predetermined length is a half of an inherent vibration cycle of ink that is within the pressure chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2015
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Masaya Ichikawa
  • Patent number: 9186891
    Abstract: A driving device of an inkjet head including a pressure chamber for accommodating ink, a nozzle that communicates with the pressure chamber to eject the ink in the pressure chamber, and an actuator for expanding or contracting a volume of the pressure chamber, is provided with a drive circuit that applies a driving signal to the inkjet head. The driving signal includes: a first contracting pulse, a first expanding pulse following the first contracting pulse, a second contracting pulse following the first expanding pulse, a second expanding pulse following the second contracting pulse, and a third contracting pulse following the second expanding pulse.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2015
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Takashi Norigoe