Seiko Epson Corporation

Hiroshi Toyama

Ken Ikuma

Yujiro Nomura

Satoru Katagami

Yuichi Washio

Shinji Yasukawa

Masanao Kunugi

Atsunori Kitazawa

Nobuhiro Miyakawa

Tomoyuki Shiiya

Takeshi Kobayashi

Shoji Hiruta

A drying unit includes a first contact heating unit provided inside a housing, and a second contact heating unit provided downstream in a transport direction from the first contact heating unit inside the housing. The first contact heating unit includes a first contact heating surface configured to come into contact with a back surface of a medium after printing. The second contact heating unit includes a second contact heating surface configured to come into contact with the back surface of the medium after printing. The first contact heating surface is curved to have a shape protruding in a direction opposite to the second contact heating surface, and the second contact heating surface is curved to have a shape protruding in a direction opposite to the first contact heating surface. The first contact heating surface has a radius of curvature larger than that of the second contact heating surface.

Printing apparatus

A printing apparatus includes a support portion configured to support a part of a printing medium to be transported, a heating portion configured to heat the part of the printing medium supported by the support portion, and a curved portion disposed upstream of the support portion in a transport path of the printing medium and including a curved surface that curves the transport path. The curved portion is formed of a member having a lower thermal conductivity than the support portion. In addition, the temperature of the curved portion is lower than the temperature of the support portion.

A printing apparatus includes a printing portion that performs printing on a printing medium, a heating portion that heats the printing medium, which is performed downstream of the printing portion in transport of the printing medium, and a controller. The heating portion is disposed in a position facing a back surface, on which the printing is performed. The controller executes first control for putting the heating portion in a first state in which the heating portion is in contact with the back surface during a transport stop period, in which transport of the printing medium is stopped, and executes second control for putting the heating portion in a second state in which the heating portion contacts the back surface at a lower degree than in the first state during a transport period, in which the transport of the printing medium is performed.

Printing apparatus and printing method

A printing apparatus includes a drying unit that includes a bring-in port where a medium is brought in and a bring-out port where the medium is brought out, and dries ink applied onto the medium, and in a case in which printing is temporarily stopped and a predetermined maintenance work is performed, the medium is transported in a transporting direction which is a direction toward the bring-out port from the bring-in port in a maintenance work period from starting of the maintenance work to finishing of the maintenance work or in a partial period of the maintenance work period.

Transporting medium through drying unit during printing interruption

There is provided a printing apparatus including: a driving roller which drives a recording medium in a predetermined direction by rotation thereof; a supporting member which supports the recording medium further on the downstream side in the predetermined direction than the driving roller; a discharge head which is provided to oppose the supporting member and discharges liquid to the recording medium supported by the supporting member; a tension control portion which adjusts tension of the recording medium supported by the supporting member by controlling tension of the recording medium based on a result of detecting tension of the recording medium further on the downstream side in the predetermined direction than the driving roller; and a first destaticizing portion which destaticizes the recording medium further on the upstream side in the predetermined direction than the driving roller.

The liquid discharge apparatus includes a support member supporting a medium while rotating, a head facing the support member and discharging a liquid, a conveyance part conveying a medium between the support member and the head, and a foreign matter detection unit detecting a foreign matter heading toward between the support member and the head in association with the conveyance of the medium. The foreign matter detection unit has a movable roller that faces the support member upstream relative to the head in a conveyance direction of the medium, and nips the medium between the support member and the movable roller, a rotational support member rotatably supporting the movable roller to allow inclination of the movable roller relative to a rotational axis direction, which is a center of rotation of the support member, and a retention member movably retaining the rotational support member in a direction toward the support member.

Liquid discharge apparatus

The apparatus is adapted to deflect a light beam from a laser light source for each of the color components by means of a deflection mirror surface which oscillates, thereby making the light beam reciprocally scan in a main scanning direction. In this apparatus, however, only a light beam SL which scans in a first direction (+X) of the main scanning direction is irradiated in an effective image region on a photosensitive member, so as to form a latent image thereon. The resultant latent image is developed to form a toner image. Since image formation is performed using only the light beam SL which scans in the first direction (+X), the images may be formed at the consistent density irrespective of the image types. Furthermore, the scanning directions of the light beams SL for all the color components are uniformly defined to be the first direction (+X), so that the toner images of the respective colors may maintain the consistent density.

Image forming apparatus, image forming method and data control device

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier that is electrically charged and exposed to light to form a latent image that is developed by liquid developer. A first squeezing roller that is held in contact with the image carrier carrying a developed image bears bias voltage Vs. A second squeezing roller that is held in contact with the image carrier squeezed by the first squeezing roller bears bias voltage Vs. The image is transferred to a transfer member that is held in contact with the image carrier squeezed by the second squeezing roller. The absolute values of the bias voltages Vsand Vshave a relationship of |Vs|&#x3e;|Vs|.

Image forming apparatus and image forming method

An image forming apparatus, includes: a latent image carrier whose surface includes an effective image region spanning across a predetermined width in a main scanning direction and is driven in a sub scanning direction approximately orthogonal to the main scanning direction; a latent image former which has a light source and a deflection mirror oscillating, and deflects a light beam from the light source using the deflection mirror so as to scan the effective image region with the deflected light beam; and a scanning mode controller which switches selectively between a single-side scanning mode and a double-side scanning mode, the single-side scanning mode being a mode in which the light beam is scanned only in a first direction included in the main scanning direction, the double-side scanning mode being a mode in which the light beam is scanned in both the first direction and a second direction opposite to the first direction, wherein a condition to form latent images on the latent image carrier in the single-side scanning mode is different from a condition to form latent images on the latent image carrier in the double-side scanning mode.

Light scanning apparatus, image forming apparatus equipped with such light scanning apparatus, and control method or image forming method for such image forming apparatus

An optical scanning apparatus in which an exposing signal is generated from pattern data indicating a position to be exposed by a light beam on a surface-to-be-scanned. A corrected exposing signal is generated by varying the width of pulses of the exposing signal in accordance with a distance between an exposing area corresponding to the pulse and an optical axis of the scanning optical system. The light beam is emitted and modulated by the corrected exposing signal. The pulse width and/or the light quantity of the light beam is/are varied in accordance with the distance between the exposing area and the optical axis of the scanning optical system.

Optical scanning apparatus, control method of such apparatus, and image forming apparatus

An image forming method using an image forming apparatus including: a latent image carrier whose surface is driven in a sub scanning direction; a deflector which scans a beam spot reciprocally in a main scanning direction substantially perpendicular to the sub scanning direction on the surface of the latent image carrier in the use of an oscillating deflect mirror so as to form spot latent images each of which formed on a pixel; developer which develops each of the spot latent images as a pixel-dot, the method includes of: halftoning for a tone reproduction in which a halftone-dot constituted by the pixel-dot(s) is formed on a cell consisting plural pixels according to a fattening type threshold matrix, wherein a plurality of cells are contiguously arranged in the main scanning direction so as to form a plurality of contiguous locations at each of which the cells adjoin mutually in the main scanning direction, each cell includes a larger-than-four even number of pixels in the sub scanning direction, and the cells, which mutually adjoin at a particular contiguous location out of the plurality of contiguous locations, are mutually shifted by an odd number of pixel(s) in the sub scanning direction.

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Shiojiri, Japan

Hiroshi Toyama