Seiko Epson Corporation

Hikonosuke Uwai

Satoshi Shinada

Toshio Kumagai

Takahiro Naka

Toshihiro Shima

Tatsuya Seshimo

Satoru Orii

Yuki Togawa

Yusuke Torigoe

Munehide Kanaya

Masahiko Yoshida

Susumu Shiohara

Hitoshi Hayakawa

Kaoru Momose

Kohei Iwamoto

Masahiro Owa

Yasunori Hiyoshi

Kazuhiko Iida

Norishige Kakuno

Ryuji Ohmoto

Satoshi Moriyama

An ink cartridge which has an IC memory for holding information about the cartridge. At the time the ink cartridge is to be installed in a printing apparatus, its insertion is inhibited at a position before installation by a lock mechanism. In this state, the information in the IC memory is read out via a first electrode terminal located on the cartridge side and connected to the IC memory and the propriety of the installation of the ink cartridge to the apparatus is determined. When the ink cartridge is determined to be appropriate, the lock mechanism is unlocked and the ink cartridge can be installed into the printing apparatus. When the ink cartridge is installed in the printing apparatus, data is exchanged between the printing apparatus and the IC memory via a second electrode terminal connected to the IC memory.

Ink cartridge, ink-jet type printing apparatus using the same, and ink cartridge change control method in the apparatus

Ink cartridge, ink jet type printing apparatus using the same, and ink cartridge change control method in the apparatus

A printing device ( ) includes print management means. The print management means interrupts the execution of a print job under execution and executes preferentially another print job waiting for printing: 1) when the print job waiting for printing rather than the print job under execution is first executed, the best order of printing operations is secured or the print mechanism ( ) is more efficiently operated, or 2) the processing of the print job under execution takes much time because of time consumption by the intermediate code generation and the like.

Printer having a print management device for interrupting print jobs during intermediate data generation

When ink is sucked from the nozzles during a cleaning process, a rubber cap having a plural number of small spaces independently operable for ink suction is applied to a print head, and only the small space associated with a clogged nozzle of those nozzles of the print head is connected to a suction pump. A user looks up in advance the number and location of a clogged nozzle, judges the cause of the clogging of the nozzle on the basis of the number and location of the clogged nozzle, and selects a suitable type of cleaning process, a selective cleaning (based on the specified-nozzle suction) or a conventional cleaning (based on the all-nozzle suction).

Ink jet printer and printing system using the same

A valve unit is arranged in an ink supply path located between an ink cartridge and a recording head in an ink jet recording apparatus. The valve unit controls the opening and closing of the ink supply paths between the ink cartridge and the nozzle openings during a cleaning operation of the recording head. Air bubbles entered into the recording head when the ink cartridge is replaced are discharged by opening the valve unit after applying negative pressure within a cap covering the nozzle openings. By closing valve units disposed on the other recording head that does not receive a new ink cartridge, unnecessary ink suction discharging ink equally through all nozzle openings can be avoided.

Ink jet recording apparatus and recording head cleaning control method thereon

A printer selection device selects an optimum printer for printing a document based on user information indicating such conditions as print commands and specifications, and based on printer information concerning print environments of the printers and causes the optimum printer to print the document. An optimum printer can be selected for each document, or each page of a document.

Printing system and printing method for selecting an optimum printing for printing

An image information print system has a reception task for receiving data containing print information input from a host computer, a job language interpretation task for interpreting the data, a print data analysis task for converting the format of the print information to prepare intermediate print information, memory means for storing the data and the intermediate print information, and a print management task for issuing a print execution instruction based on print specifications of print information contained in the data according to interpretation of the job language interpretation task and converting the intermediate print information into bit image data and executing print based on the print execution instruction.

Image information print system and method

An intermediate code generating section generates intermediate codes corresponding to a print job on a rectangular block basis, the print job being received by a receiving section, arranges the intermediate codes generated on a rectangular block basis either in a lengthwise direction or in a widthwise direction of a page, and stores the arranged intermediate codes on a band basis in an intermediate code memory, the rectangular block being a square. An actual image data generating section generates actual image data by extracting the intermediate codes on a band basis from the intermediate code memory. In generating the actual image data, if the initially set direction of a page is changed, a direction in which to generate bits forming an intermediate code within each rectangular block having been generated is rotated by 90.degree. and rectangular blocks, each forming an intermediate code, are extracted on a band basis, the band extending in the other direction of the page.

Image forming method and image forming apparatus

The present invention offers a system which operates with reference to a dictionary for registering a registered data string as correlated to a registration number and for performing a data compressing process by replacing a combination consisting of two or more character strings with a registration number mentioned above. The system according to the present invention performs the compilation and updating of the dictionary at the Step A1 and A2, respectively, and judges at the Step A3 whether or not the dictionary has become the optimum dictionary. The system performs the updating of the dictionary in such a case by an incremental decomposition method, or an augmentative decomposition method, or the like. Then, as shown for the Steps A4 and A5, the system compiles the optimum dictionary, at which stage the system puts out the dictionary as the ultimate static dictionary for its use for data restoration and also performs a data compressing process with reference to the above-mentioned static dictionary, putting out the compressed data as the ultimate compressed data to be used for data restoration.

Data compressing method, data restoring method, and information

An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: an ink jet recording head for sucking an ink into a pressure chamber and jetting an ink droplet from a nozzle opening by expanding and contracting the pressure chamber by a piezoelectric vibration element; the pressure chamber being formed of a nozzle plate and a vibration plate; and a signal generating device for generating signals. The signals includes a first signal for contracting the piezoelectric vibration element at a predetermined speed to suck the ink into the pressure chamber, a second signal for starting an extension process of the piezoelectric vibration element to splash the ink droplet from the nozzle opening by contracting the pressure chamber, a third signal for interrupting the extension process of the piezoelectric vibration element at least once while the extension process is still being performed and a fourth signal for resuming the extension process of the piezoelectric vibration element again after a predetermined period has elapsed.

Growing community of inventors

Nagano-ken, Japan

Hikonosuke Uwai