Screen Holdings Co., Ltd.

Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.

Katsuaki Takeuchi

Mitsuru Tanemoto

Shoji Kakimoto

Yuto Suzuki

Takaharu Yamamoto

Osamu Morizono

Ryoichi Naoe

Ryouichi Naoe

A printing apparatus comprises a main tank, an intermediate tank, and a control unit controlling an amount of the ink stored in the intermediate tank by a normal replenishing operation for increasing an ink remaining amount to a normal amount more than a first reference amount by feeding the ink from the main tank to the intermediate tank if the ink remaining amount falls below the first reference amount. The control unit controls the amount of the ink stored in the intermediate tank by an extraordinary replenishing operation for increasing the ink remaining amount to a second reference amount by feeding the ink from the main tank to the intermediate tank if the ink remaining amount falls below the second reference amount less than the first reference amount when the main tank held is exchanged.

Printing apparatus and ink replenishment method

An inkjet printer includes a maintenance solution supply mechanism. In response to switching of a three-way valve provided in an ink pipe, a maintenance solution is supplied from a maintenance tank to each head through a maintenance pipe. The maintenance tank is a common tank. This suppresses size increase of the printer compared to provision of an individual maintenance tank for each head. The maintenance pipe is connected to the ink pipe at a position downstream of an intermediary tank. This eliminates the need of replacement of ink in the intermediary tank by the maintenance solution during supply of the maintenance solution. This allows reduction in the consumptions of the ink and the maintenance solution.

Inkjet printer and maintenance method

An upstream drive roller transports an elongate medium. An upstream tension sensor detects tension of the medium. A downstream drive roller transports the medium. A downstream tension sensor detects tension of the medium in a position between the upstream and downstream drive rollers. A control unit controls transportation of the medium by operating the upstream drive roller based on a first difference which is a difference between a first detection value and a target value, operating the downstream drive roller based on a second difference which is a difference between a second detection value and a target value, and when a specific condition is satisfied, further operating the downstream driver roller with an adjustment value, which is based on the first difference, added to the second difference.

Transport apparatus, and a printing apparatus having same

A controller in the example of this invention operates to perform flushing by ejecting three types in size of ink droplets, i.e., smaller, middle and larger ink droplets, from each of nozzles. Then the controller operates an ink-droplet detector to perform an ejection test to detect ejection conditions. Thereafter, the controller operates an ink supply section to perform cleaning in accordance with results of the test. A combination in size of unejected ink droplets indicates a defective condition of the nozzle. Consequently, varying the degree of cleaning the nozzles in accordance with the size of the unejected ink droplets may achieve cleaning in a shorter time of period. As a result, time for cleaning the nozzle can be suppressed. This leads to a decreased proportion of maintenance to a starting time in an apparatus and increased availability of the apparatus.

Inkjet printing apparatus and nozzle-cleaning method thereof

An inkjet printing apparatus for printing images on printing paper by discharging ink while moving inkjet heads and the printing paper relative to each other. The apparatus includes an inkjet head holder for holding the inkjet heads, a controller for operating a plurality of motors to move the inkjet head holder vertically at least between a printing position and an origin position, and a monitoring unit for monitoring, during a vertical movement caused by the controller, synchronous rotations of the plurality of motors, and corresponding directions of rotation of the plurality of motors.

Inkjet printing apparatus

A transport device includes a plurality of transporting sections to transport a printing medium; a divided accelerating interval setting section to set a transportation speed in a divided accelerating interval corresponding to a time generated by dividing a time where the transportation speed of the printing medium changes from 0 to a given value in accordance with an acceleration rate; a divided decelerating interval setting section to set a transportation speed in a divided decelerating interval corresponding to a time generated by dividing a time where the transportation speed of the printing medium changes from the given value to 0 in accordance with an decelerating rate; including a basic shaft transporting section configured to be driven at the transportation speed set for every divided accelerating interval or for every divided decelerating interval for transporting the printing medium; and a controller for controlling the foregoing sections.

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Kyoto, Japan

Katsuaki Takeuchi