Responsive To Condition Patents (Class 347/23)
  • Patent number: 11926159
    Abstract: A control portion makes a recording head perform flushing processing every time a flushing area that does not overlap a recording medium faces the recording head but makes the recording head perform no flushing processing when a flushing area that at least in a part of it overlaps a recording medium faces the recording head. The longer a non-flashing period between the previous and present sessions of flushing processing, the larger the control portion makes the amount of ink ejected by each of nozzles in the present session of flushing processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 12, 2024
    Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.
    Inventor: Takeshi Watanabe
  • Patent number: 11858279
    Abstract: A recording device includes a recording unit configured to perform recording by discharging a droplet to a medium a conveyance belt disposed facing the recording unit and convey the medium, and a cleaning unit including a scrape unit configured to make contact with the conveyance belt and scrape off a residual at the conveyance belt. The cleaning unit includes a pressing part configured to push the scrape unit against the conveyance belt, and the scrape unit includes a sponge member configured to be pressed against the conveyance belt to scrape off the residual and a contact part of the sponge member that is brought into contact with the conveyance belt is worn.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Takamasa Ikagawa, Koji Hara, Hiroyuki Maeda
  • Patent number: 11840094
    Abstract: A printing apparatus on which an ink tank containing ink to be used for printing is mounted, the printing apparatus including: a cover configured to be opened in a case where the ink tank is replaced; an operation unit configured for shifting to a replacement state in which the ink tank can be replaced; and a control unit configured to display a screen for guidance of a user operation for shifting the ink tank to the replacement state on a display unit if the cover is opened in a case where the ink tank can be replaced and shift the ink tank to the replacement state in a case where the operation unit is operated in a state where the screen is displayed on the display unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2023
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Ryuhei Hamada
  • Patent number: 11801692
    Abstract: A printing device includes a liquid composition having a viscosity of from 2 to 15 mPa·s and a static surface tension of from 20 to 50 mN/m. A liquid composition container contains the liquid composition, a liquid composition applying device is configured to apply the liquid composition to a contact-target member, and a contact member is configured to make contact with a region to which the liquid composition has been applied in the contact-target member. The contact member includes a liquid composition holding layer configured to hold the liquid composition, an adhesive layer that fixes the liquid composition holding layer, and a core, in this order from a side that makes contact with the region. The liquid composition holding layer has a thickness of from 200 to 1,300 ?m.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2023
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Yuuki Mizutani, Motoaki Saitoh
  • Patent number: 11667120
    Abstract: A liquid discharge apparatus includes a liquid discharger, a discharge receptacle, and circuitry. The liquid discharger includes a nozzle configured to discharge liquid. The discharge receptacle is configured to receive the liquid discharged from the liquid discharger. The circuitry is configured to control a flushing operation of the liquid discharger. The circuitry is configured to cause the liquid discharger to perform flushing to the discharge receptacle and a sheet to which the liquid is applied, with a first flushing amount and a second flushing amount different from the first flushing amount, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2023
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazuhisa Yoda, Yosuke Fukuda
  • Patent number: 11529810
    Abstract: There is provided a liquid ejecting apparatus including: a head having a nozzle; a carriage; a receiver; and a controller. The controller is configured to execute: a first flushing processing; a second flushing processing including at least one of a discharge flushing driving and a non-discharge flushing driving of driving; and a printing processing. The first flushing processing is executed in a case that a first count value is not less than a first threshold value, the first count value being an elapsed time since a completion of the first flushing processing. The second flushing processing is executed in a case that a second count value is not less than a second threshold value, the second count value being an elapsed time since a completion of the printing processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2022
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Satoru Arakane, Shotaro Iida, Shin Hasegawa, Yasuhiro Nakano
  • Patent number: 11498337
    Abstract: Printing liquid is spat from ai least one printhead nozzle onto a printing medium in a spitting zone when the printhead traverses the spitting zone during printing. The spitting zone is an area of the printing medium located at least partially in a second half of the printing medium in the direction of printhead travel, and wherein a centre point of the spitting zone is located in the second half of the printing medium in the direction of printhead travel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Li Qian, Marc Bautista, Francisco Guerrero
  • Patent number: 11485141
    Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus includes a liquid ejection head having a nozzle face in which a plurality of nozzles is opened, the plurality of nozzles ejecting liquid as a droplet, a cleaning unit configured to clean the nozzle face, an information receiving unit configured to receive input of a cleaning information that is information related to a frequency of cleaning of the nozzle face by the cleaning unit, and a controller configured to instruct the cleaning unit to perform the cleaning in accordance with the cleaning information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 1, 2022
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Ryota Sakamoto
  • Patent number: 11465350
    Abstract: An ejection device includes: an ejection unit provided with an ejection port configured to eject an ejection material; a piezoelectric element configured to cause the ejection material to be ejected from the ejection unit; a first liquid chamber connected to the ejection unit and configured to supply the ejection unit with the ejection material; a pressure control unit configured to control a pressure in the ejection unit by controlling a pressure in the first liquid chamber; and a detection unit configured to detect a wetness of an ejection port side surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2022
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Akiko Iimura, Noriyasu Hasegawa, Yoshimasa Araki
  • Patent number: 11427009
    Abstract: The image formation device includes a tank, a hollow member, and a sensor. The tank is configured to store ink. The hollow member is disposed inside the tank, and extends in an up-down direction. The sensor is disposed outside the tank and above the hollow member, and is configured to detect a pressure inside the hollow member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Shumei Mori, Yohei Kuno, Sho Mishima
  • Patent number: 11427003
    Abstract: Provided is an inkjet recording apparatus that reduces clogging of nozzles, while at the same time avoid a decrease in productivity of the recording medium, and reduces situations in which the recording medium becomes stained due to the staining of opening portions and splashing due to ink ejected during flushing. A conveyor belt of the inkjet recording apparatus has a plurality of opening portion groups. The control unit determines the pattern of the plurality of opening portion groups used for flushing in one cycle of the conveyor belt according to the size of the recording medium. The control unit causes the recording medium to be supplied from the recording medium supply unit between the plurality of opening groups arranged in the conveying direction in the above pattern on the conveying belt and at positions separated from the opening portion groups by a specific distance or more.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.
    Inventors: Masaaki Maruta, Tomoya Hotani, Yuki Tamura
  • Patent number: 11400725
    Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus that prevents a user's hand from becoming dirty when attaching and detaching a liquid holding container, the liquid ejection apparatus includes a space portion that is open on a side surface of a housing, a liquid holding container that is detachably mounted to the space portion and includes an introduction port for introducing liquid to an inside thereof, on an upper surface, and a discharge portion that is provided at a position facing the introduction port inside the space portion in a state in which the liquid holding container mounted and includes a discharge port for discharging the liquid to the inside of the liquid holding container, in which the discharge portion is configured such that at least the discharge port is movable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Keiji Watanabe, Kenji Tamamori, Takashi Sugawara
  • Patent number: 11400721
    Abstract: Methods to wipe a print head are described. In an example of a method, an amount of treatment fluid is determined based on a temperature of the print head and the print head is wiped with the determined amount of treatment fluid and a wiping medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Mauricio Seras Franzoso, Sheila Cabello Cabrera, Aleix Fort Filgueira
  • Patent number: 11390084
    Abstract: Provided is an inkjet recording apparatus that reduces situations in which the recording medium becomes stained during flushing. A conveyor belt of the inkjet recording apparatus has a plurality of opening portion groups in a conveying direction of the recording medium in which opening portions for allowing ink ejected from each of the nozzles of the recording head to pass during the flushing are arranged in a belt width direction perpendicular to the conveying direction of the recording medium. A control unit determines a pattern of a plurality of opening portion groups used in flushing in one cycle of the conveyor belt according to the size of the recording medium, and causes the recording medium to be supplied from a recording medium supply unit between the opening portion groups arranged in the conveying direction in the pattern on the conveyor belt.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2022
    Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.
    Inventors: Tomoya Hotani, Yuki Tamura, Masaaki Maruta
  • Patent number: 11358404
    Abstract: A printer includes a head having nozzles, a carriage with the head mounted thereon, a carriage motor to move the carriage along a scanning direction, an encoder including a scale having reference marks formed thereon along a particular direction, and a sensor to detect the reference marks while moving relative to the scale along with movement of the carriage along the scanning direction, and a controller configured to perform liquid discharging to control the head to discharge liquid from the nozzles toward a recording medium while performing feedback control of the carriage motor based on velocity information such that the carriage moves at a target velocity along the scanning direction, the velocity information representing a carriage velocity based on detection results of the sensor, and interrupt the liquid discharging when the carriage velocity exceeds an overshoot threshold higher than the target velocity during the liquid discharging.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tsuyoshi Kuwayama, Satoru Arakane, Kenji Kawamoto, Shoji Sato, Shoko Ota
  • Patent number: 11331926
    Abstract: There is provided a liquid consuming apparatus including: a tank having a liquid storing chamber, an erected wall through which the liquid inside the liquid storage chamber is visible from outside of the tank, and an inlet which is formed to penetrate through the erected wall and via which the liquid is poured into the liquid storage chamber; a liquid consuming section which consumes the liquid stored in the liquid storing chamber; and a cover. A transmitting section and a checking section are formed in an upper surface, of the cover, under a condition that the cover is in the exposure position, the transmitting section configured to transmit information optically to a user of the liquid consuming apparatus and the checking section configured to prevent the liquid moving on a particular surface of the cover from arriving at the transmitting section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2022
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yoshinori Osakabe, Tomohisa Higuchi
  • Patent number: 11247471
    Abstract: The object of the present disclosure is to optimize the time necessary for filling and the ink consumption. One embodiment of the present disclosure is a printing apparatus having: a storage unit; a print head having an ejection port from which ink supplied from the storage unit is ejected; an ink supply path that connects the storage unit and the print head; a suction unit configured to perform suction at the ejection port; and a supply control unit configured to supply ink stored in the storage unit to the ink supply path and the print head by performing suction at the ejection port by the suction unit, and the printing apparatus has an acquisition unit configured to acquire information relating to ink discharge from the ink supply path and the supply control unit determines the number of times of suction by the suction unit based on the information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kazuki Narumi, Masataka Kato, Toshimitsu Danzuka, Yasunori Fujimoto, Shin Genta, Tomoki Yamamuro, Hiroto Kango, Kazuhiko Sato, Kazuo Suzuki
  • Patent number: 11192357
    Abstract: Although a conventional method of inspecting an ink discharge state in which the temperature change of the heater is detected enables accurate and high-speed inspection, due to the situation in which the inspection was performed, appropriate post-processing depending on the situation cannot be executed based on a result of the inspection. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the ink discharge state in detail. A plurality of modes are provided in accordance with the purpose of performing an inspection of the ink discharge state, and a discharge inspection threshold is provided for each of these modes. By selectively executing or continuously executing these modes, it is possible to determine the ink discharge state in more detail.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2021
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yuhei Oikawa, Yutaka Kano, Kohei Sato, Takuya Fukasawa
  • Patent number: 11104156
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a print head having a heat generation element, a generation unit that generates print data for driving the heat generation element to form an image on a print medium and a drive unit that drives the heat generation element on a basis of the print data generated by the generation unit. The print medium includes a laminate of a plurality of image forming layers that generate develop mutually different colors by receiving heat. The generation unit generates the print data depending on a type of the print medium among a plurality of print medium types that differ from each other in order of lamination of the plurality of image forming layers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Okinori Tsuchiya, Takashi Fujita, Takeru Sasaki, Hiroaki Ogawa, Akitoshi Yamada
  • Patent number: 11084280
    Abstract: A learning device targeted for a printer including a printer head that discharges ink, the learning device includes: an information obtaining section configured to obtain a parameter that affects ink discharge failures of the print head; an event data obtaining section configured to obtain event data regarding an occurrence state of the ink discharge failures; and a learning section configured to perform machine learning on a prediction condition of an occurrence interval of the ink discharge failures in accordance with a learning data set created based on the parameter and the event data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Takayuki Nishikawa
  • Patent number: 11078350
    Abstract: Provided is a cleaning member including a urethane rubber, wherein the urethane rubber has a cyclic structure portion in which a fluorine atom is directly bonded to the cyclic structure portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2021
    Assignee: KONICA MINOLTA, INC.
    Inventors: Taiki Amemiya, Yukio Hosoya, Kunihiro Ogura
  • Patent number: 11020963
    Abstract: A fluidic die may include at least one fluidic passageway, at least one electrode disposed within the at least one fluidic passageway, and control circuitry to activate the electrode within the fluidic die. An impedance sensed at the electrode corresponds to a particle concentration within the fluid. The control circuitry activates the electrode during a separate pulse group assigned to the activation of the electrode among at least one other pulse group assigned to an activation of at least one fluid actuator within a column group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2021
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Eric Martin, Daryl E. Anderson
  • Patent number: 10994542
    Abstract: An inkjet printing apparatus includes a print head, to which a protective member configured to protect an ejection opening surface is attachable, and a head holder configured to hold the print head detachably. The inkjet printing apparatus further includes a guide portion provided in the head holder and configured to guide, in a width direction, the print head with the ejection opening surface protected by the protective member. The guide portion guides the print head with the protective member attached up to a predetermined position in the width direction and guides only the print head ahead of the predetermined position to prevent the protective member from exceeding the predetermined position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2021
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Tetsuji Kurata, Takuya Iwano, Hiromasa Amma
  • Patent number: 10981387
    Abstract: A printer includes a head including a plurality of ink ejecting units for ejecting different types of inks from nozzles, a waste liquid flow path that is a flow path of ink sucked from the nozzles, a suction unit that performs an ink suction operation of sucking the ink from the nozzles of the ink ejecting units via the waste liquid flow path, and a cleaning operation of sucking the cleaning liquid from nozzles via the waste liquid flow path, and a control unit that controls the suction unit so as to vary a suction amount of the cleaning liquid depending on the type of the ink sucked by the ink suction operation when the cleaning operation is performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroya Fukuta, Takeshi Yoshida
  • Patent number: 10926542
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for adaptive ink flushing of a printer. One embodiment is an apparatus that includes an adaptive ink flushing controller configured to obtain nozzle firing data for a nozzle of a printhead, to analyze the nozzle firing data to determine an inactive firing span of the nozzle, and, in response to determining that the inactive firing span of the nozzle exceeds a threshold, to transmit a firing instruction for ejecting ink.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Vincent William Ferreri, Walter F. Kailey
  • Patent number: 10894401
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a drive signal generation circuit generating a drive waveform signal, a liquid ejecting head including a vibration plate, a drive element displacing the vibration plate by being supplied with the drive waveform signal, a cavity that is filled with a liquid and of which an internal pressure changes by the displacement of the vibration plate, and a nozzle that communicates with the cavity and that ejects the liquid by the change in internal pressure of the cavity, and an ejecting malfunction detection circuit that detects, specifies a cause of the ejecting malfunction based on the residual vibration signal. The ejecting malfunction detection circuit includes a detection unit detecting the residual vibration signal, an obtaining unit obtaining information indicating an ejecting state of the liquid ejected from the nozzle, and a learning unit machine learning a relationship between the residual vibration signal and the ejecting state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Masashi Kamiyanagi, Toru Matsuyama
  • Patent number: 10882323
    Abstract: A controller causes a notification device to provide a first alert in response to receipt of a first signal from a liquid level sensor. After the controller determines that a cartridge is located at a particular position in an installation case, the controller clears the first alert in response to receipt of a second signal from the liquid level sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2021
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Kenta Horade
  • Patent number: 10850528
    Abstract: There is provided a liquid consuming apparatus including: a tank having a liquid storing chamber, an erected wall through which the liquid inside the liquid storage chamber is visible from outside of the tank, and an inlet which is formed to penetrate through the erected wall and via which the liquid is poured into the liquid storage chamber; a liquid consuming section which consumes the liquid stored in the liquid storing chamber; and a cover. A transmitting section and a checking section are formed in an upper surface, of the cover, under a condition that the cover is in the exposure position, the transmitting section configured to transmit information optically to a user of the liquid consuming apparatus and the checking section configured to prevent the liquid moving on a particular surface of the cover from arriving at the transmitting section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventors: Yoshinori Osakabe, Tomohisa Higuchi
  • Patent number: 10828902
    Abstract: A liquid ejection apparatus includes a cap member contacting an ejection opening surface of a liquid ejection unit and covering the ejection opening surface, and a drive motor configured to cause the ejection opening surface and the cap member to contact or separate from each other. Furthermore, the liquid ejection apparatus includes a negative pressure generation unit configured to bring a space surrounded by the ejection opening surface and the cap member into a negative pressure state, and a control unit configured to drive the negative pressure generation unit to bring the space into a negative pressure state under a separation instruction to separate the cap member and the liquid ejection unit, and subsequently cause the drive motor to separate the liquid ejection unit and the cap member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 10, 2020
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takashi Sasaki, Noriko Sato, Takahiro Kiuchi
  • Patent number: 10688790
    Abstract: There is provided a liquid jetting apparatus including: a liquid jetting head having a nozzle; a supply channel; a cap configured to cover the nozzle; a discharging section; a switching mechanism switching a state of the cap between a capping state and an uncapping state; and a controller. The controller is configured to perform: controlling the discharging section, based on both of a supply evaporation rate according to an evaporation rate of water content in the liquid inside the supply channel and a cap evaporation rate which is an evaporation rate of the water content in the liquid remaining in the cap, so as to cause the liquid to be discharged from the nozzle; and controlling the discharging section, based on one of the supply evaporation rate and the cap evaporation rate, to cause the liquid to be discharged from the nozzle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Shotaro Iida
  • Patent number: 10682857
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for adaptive ink flushing of a printer. One embodiment is an apparatus that includes an adaptive ink flushing controller configured to obtain nozzle firing data for a nozzle of a printhead, to analyze the nozzle firing data to determine an inactive firing span of the nozzle, and, in response to determining that the inactive firing span of the nozzle exceeds a threshold, to transmit a firing instruction for ejecting ink.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 16, 2020
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Vincent William Ferreri, Walter F. Kailey
  • Patent number: 10661579
    Abstract: A printing apparatus comprises: a transport mechanism that transports a recording medium; a first line head group including a first line head in number of N that ejects first ink; a second line head group including a second line head in number of M that ejects second ink; and a controller, where M is a natural number larger than N. The line heads form images along lines extending in a width direction along a surface of the recording medium by ejecting ink droplets from a plurality of nozzles aligned in the width direction. In a first printing step, the controller makes each of the first line head in number of N perform printing process on every N-th line, while making each of the second line heads in number of M perform the printing process on every M-th line.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2018
    Date of Patent: May 26, 2020
    Assignee: SCREEN HOLDINGS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Satoshi Yasuda, Tetsuya Ishida, Masayuki Nakano
  • Patent number: 10638010
    Abstract: A control device that controls an image former, includes: a second power supply that performs power feeding to a detector during a power feeding suspension period during which power feeding from a first power supply to the image former and the detector is not performed, the detector detecting an environment variable around the image former, the environment variable affecting quality of an image formed by the image former; and a determiner that determines a control condition for the image former in accordance with a result of detection performed by the detector during the power feeding suspension period, when power feeding from the first power supply to the image former is started at an end of the power feeding suspension period and the image former enters an image formation ready state in which the image former can perform image formation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 28, 2020
    Assignee: Konica Minolta, Inc.
    Inventors: Katsuyuki Ikuta, Takeshi Tamada, Yoshihito Sasamoto, Masahiro Kamiya, Shota Igo
  • Patent number: 10576766
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a printing unit that prints an image based on image data, and an inspection pattern including a first patch, and a second patch different in color or having the same color and different in density than the first patch, each of the first and second patches being printed so as to extend in the first direction on the printing medium, and the first patch and the second patch being arranged in the second direction. A scanning unit includes a plurality of detection elements arranged in the second direction, and scans the inspection pattern, and a correcting unit corrects the image data based on a scanning result. The scanning unit scans the first patch using a first detection element and scans the second patch by using a second detection element which is farther away from a lens than the first detection element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2020
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Kenji Kubozono, Takuya Tsunemi, Shinsuke Ikegami, Satoshi Tada
  • Patent number: 10569551
    Abstract: There is provided a liquid jetting apparatus including: a liquid jetting head; a cap; a switching mechanism configured to perform switching of a state of the cap between a capping state and an uncapping state; a timer; a purge mechanism; and a controller. The controller performs: calculating a value of a capping-time parameter; and measuring a capping time with the timer. In a case that a purge condition regarding the capping time and the value of the capping-time parameter is satisfied, the controller causes the purge mechanism to perform a purge, and then causes the liquid jetting head to perform a jetting operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2020
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Shotaro Iida
  • Patent number: 10513121
    Abstract: A liquid ejecting apparatus performs ejection in which droplets are deposited onto a medium and flushing in which droplets are not deposited onto the medium. The apparatus includes a recording head configured to eject the droplets, a presentation unit configured to present at least one condition selected from a number of times of ejecting droplets in the one flushing, a weight per one of the droplets in the flushing, and a timing of the flushing to be changeable, and a flushing controller configured to control the recording head to perform the flushing based on the condition changed via the presentation unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 24, 2019
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Ryota Sakamoto
  • Patent number: 10500848
    Abstract: A printer includes a printhead assembly, a service station assembly, and a controller. The printhead assembly includes nozzles to eject fluid drops. The nozzles are divided into a least two groups with each group assigned a burst drop count, a post-burst delay, and a burst order. The service station assembly is to receive fluid ejected from the nozzles during spits. The controller is to control a spit of the printhead assembly by ejecting fluid from the nozzles of each group based on the burst drop count, the post-burst delay, and the burst order of each group until a target drop count for the spit is reached.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Lisa Michels, Randal J Morrison, Kyle Mannari, Cristopher Royce Jansson
  • Patent number: 10486417
    Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a transfer member that rotates, a printhead that forms an image on the transfer member, and a transfer unit that transfers the image to a print medium. An application unit, provided at a downstream side of an area, at which the transfer unit transfers the image to the print medium, in a rotation direction of the transfer member, applies a cleaning liquid to a region on the transfer member after the image is transferred to the print medium. In addition, a collecting unit, provided between the printhead and the application unit, in the rotation direction of the transfer member, includes a collection roller that rotates in contact with the transfer member, in a direction opposite to the rotation direction of the transfer member, for collecting the cleaning liquid applied to the transfer member by the application unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 26, 2019
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Ippei Tsushima, Ryosuke Sato, Yusuke Nakaya, Toshiki Takeuchi, Kengo Nieda, Kenji Sugiyama, Futoshi Hirose, Atsushi Sakamoto, Susumu Hirosawa
  • Patent number: 10471722
    Abstract: A waste liquid tank includes a case. The case includes a first accommodating portion having an inlet and a first communication opening, a second accommodating portion having a second communication opening and a connecting portion connecting the first communication opening and the second communication opening, wherein a cross-sectional area of the connecting portion is less than a cross-sectional area of the first accommodating portion and is less than a cross-sectional of the second accommodating portion. The waste liquid tank includes a first absorber accommodated in the first accommodating portion, a second absorber accommodated in the second accommodating portion and a third absorber accommodated in the connecting portion. The connecting portion includes a passage defined between the third absorber and a peripheral portion of the connecting portion, the passage allowing the first accommodating portion to communicate with the second accommodating portion and for air to pass therethrough.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Toshiro Ueda
  • Patent number: 10464313
    Abstract: A liquid droplet ejecting apparatus includes a liquid droplet ejecting head that includes a pressure chamber to which a liquid is supplied from a liquid supply source, a nozzle that communicates with the pressure chamber, and an actuator that vibrates the pressure chamber, and discharges a liquid droplet from the nozzle by driving of the actuator, a cap designed to make a capping state where the cap is in contact with the liquid droplet ejecting head to form a space where the nozzle opens and a non-capping state where the cap is separated from the liquid droplet ejecting head, and a detection unit designed to detect a state in the pressure chamber, in which in the capping state, the detection unit detects the state in the pressure chamber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Toshihiro Shinbara, Toshio Nakata, Toshiyuki Suzuki
  • Patent number: 10457076
    Abstract: An ink jet printing method includes an ink image forming step of forming an ink image onto an ink receiving medium, a liquid absorbing step of performing liquid absorption treatment in which an aqueous liquid component is at least partially absorbed by a porous body from the ink image, by contacting a liquid absorbing surface of the porous body of a liquid absorbing member with the ink image in a liquid absorption treatment region, and a conveying step of conveying the porous body conveyed from the liquid absorption treatment region to the liquid absorption treatment region again. The method also includes a porous body checking step of forming a test pattern for testing an image quality, detecting the image quality of the test pattern, subjected to the liquid absorbing step, by an image quality detecting device, and determining a state of the porous body from obtained detection results.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2019
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Koji Inoue, Noboru Toyama, Akihiro Mouri, Toru Ohnishi
  • Patent number: 10442186
    Abstract: An inkjet printer for printing labels includes: a first interface configured to receive, from a host computer, print data for images to be printed on the labels; a second interface configured to receive, from a sequencer, a first signal indicating a timing to execute a printing operation that includes printing the images, and a second signal indicating a timing to execute a predetermined operation that cannot be executed in parallel with printing the images; and a controller configured to: render the print data received via the first interface, and execute the printing operation based on the rendered print data at a timing based on the first signal received via the second interface, and execute the predetermined operation at a timing based on the second signal received via the second interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2019
    Assignee: SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION
    Inventors: Toru Takami, Hiroyuki Endo
  • Patent number: 10437534
    Abstract: In examples a printing system comprises a controller and a printing device. The controller is to divide a print job into a sequence of areas, wherein an image property varies between adjacent areas. The controller is to determine a pausing point to be within a runout area at which a remaining amount of a consumable will be at or below a predetermined first amount when executing the print job when the runout area fulfills a condition. The controller is to determine the pausing point to be within a preceding area that fulfills the condition when the runout area does not fulfill the condition. The controller is to control the printing device to pause printing of the print job at the pausing point.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Jose Miquel Cluet Beltran, Albert Crespi Serrano, Oriol Borrell Avila
  • Patent number: 10427408
    Abstract: In an example, a printhead maintenance apparatus includes a pump, a current monitor and processing circuitry. The pump may be provided to increase a pressure in a printhead, and the current monitor may monitor a current consumption of the pump. The processing circuitry may determine a rate of change of current consumption of the pump, and compare the rate of change of current consumption to a predetermined threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 1, 2019
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Pere Tuset, Sheila Cabello, Xavier Vilajosana
  • Patent number: 10401772
    Abstract: A decoloring apparatus includes a decoloring assembly, a driver configured to drive the decoloring section, and a storage configured to store first setting information, as setting information when there is no next job, and second setting information, as setting information when there is a next job; and a controller. The controller is configured to perform control to drive the decoloring assembly based on conveyance speed and set temperature corresponding to a predetermined, coverage rate of the image receiving medium in the first setting information stored in the storage if there is no next job, or perform control to drive the decoloring assembly based on the conveyance speed and the set temperature corresponding to a predetermined coverage rate of the image receiving medium in the second setting information stored in the storage if there is a next job.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Toshiyuki Ueno
  • Patent number: 10369797
    Abstract: Provided is an inkjet printing apparatus capable of performing preliminary discharge without the influence of mist while suppressing degradation in throughput regardless of a preliminary discharge time. Specifically, an inkjet printing apparatus that performs a wiping operation on a nozzle arrangement surface provided with nozzles discharging an ink in a print head includes a wiping determination unit that determines whether to perform the wiping operation before preliminary discharge based on the amount of the preliminary discharge to be performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2019
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Shin Genta, Masaya Uetsuki, Toshimitsu Danzuka, Kazuo Suzuki, Yoshinori Nakagawa, Masataka Kato, Tsuyoshi Ibe, Tomoki Yamamuro
  • Patent number: 10350894
    Abstract: According to an embodiment of the present invention, a printing apparatus that satisfactorily sucks and recovers a printhead is provided. A printing apparatus that includes a transfer member, and the first and second printheads has the following arrangement. The apparatus includes the first and second suction units which suck a plurality of nozzles of the first and second printheads, a common negative-pressure generation unit which generates a negative-pressure for suction by these suction units, and a moving unit which moves these suction units from one end to the other end of each printhead. Then, the moving unit moves the first and second suction units so as to pass through concave gaps with respect to ink discharge surfaces of the first and second printheads corresponding to the first and second suction units at different timings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 16, 2019
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Takashi Horiba, Hikaru Watanabe, Kanto Kurasawa
  • Patent number: 10315423
    Abstract: A recording device includes a recording head having multiple ejection port columns each configured such that multiple ejection ports for ink ejection are arrayed in a predetermined direction. The multiple ejection port columns are arranged in a crossing direction crossing the predetermined direction. An acquisition unit is configured to acquire image data including information corresponding to an image to be recorded and information indicating the attribute of the image. A generation unit is configured to distribute the image data to the multiple ejection port columns based on the attribute to generate recording data corresponding to each of the ejection post columns. The multiple ejection port columns include at least a first ejection port column having a first ejection port, and a second ejection port column arranged at a position different from that of the first ejection port column in the predetermined direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 11, 2019
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Yoshiaki Murayama, Atsuhiko Masuyama
  • Patent number: 10308043
    Abstract: Provided is a highly reliable ink jet recording apparatus capable of preventing the occurrence of image defects. The ink jet recording apparatus includes a liquid absorbing device including a porous body configured to absorb/remove an aqueous liquid component from an image containing the aqueous liquid component and a coloring material, a heat drying device configured to perform a heat drying treatment of the image after being subjected to the liquid absorption treatment, a temperature measuring device configured to measure the temperature of the image after being subjected to the heat drying treatment with the heat drying device, and a determination unit configured to determine the state of the liquid absorbing device from the measured temperature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2019
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Eisuke Nishitani, Takao Ogata, Akira Morita, Takumi Otani, Toshimori Miyakoshi
  • Patent number: 10286657
    Abstract: Provided are an inkjet printing apparatus and a recovery processing method which can suppress occurrence of defective ejection and can suppress an ink consumption amount. For that purpose, information relating to a condensation degree of ink is obtained, and ejection operation is made in accordance with the obtained condensation degree of ink.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: May 14, 2019
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Rinako Kameshima, Minoru Teshigawara, Takatoshi Nakano, Atsushi Takahashi, Takuya Fukasawa