Sony Corporation

Kazuyasu Takenaka

Takeo Eguchi

Yuichiro Ikemoto

Iwao Ushinohama

Takumi Namekawa

Shogo Ono

Takaaki Miyamoto

Atsushi Nakamura

Shinichi Horii

Soichi Kuwahara

Shigeyoshi Hirashima

Shota Nishi

Minoru Kohno

Yuji Yakura

Manabu Tomita

Atsushi Nakayama

Manabu Matsuda

Shigeyoshi Fujiki

Makoto Ando

Iwao Ishinohama

Tatsumi Ito

Hiroshi Tokunaga

Yukihiro Ohzeki

Makoto Tanahashi

Hiromitsu Takeda

Shin Todo

Toshiki Kagami

Akihito Miyazaki

Takanori Takahashi

Ichiro Ujiie

A liquid ejection head includes an energy-generating element arranged on a semiconductor substrate, a barrier layer deposited on the semiconductor substrate for forming a liquid chamber in the periphery of the energy-generating element, and a nozzle sheet bonded on the barrier layer and having a nozzle formed at a position opposing the energy-generating element, in which the liquid ejection head ejects liquid contained in the liquid chamber from the nozzle as liquid droplets by the energy-generating element, and the barrier layer is provided with a plurality of depressions, each having an independent contour, arranged within a range, which is separated from the border of the barrier layer, on an adhesive region adhering to the nozzle sheet.

Liquid ejection head, liquid ejection apparatus, and manufacturing method of liquid ejection head

A maintenance method is provided for a discharging head in which multiple discharging portions are arranged in line. The maintenance method includes the steps of performing an operation of continuously discharging droplets from one discharging portion or a plurality of unadjacent discharging portions, and repeating the operation for one discharging portion or a plurality of discharging portions adjacent to the previous discharging portion or the previous discharging portions in a predetermined direction.

Maintenance method for discharging head, maintenance device for discharging head, droplet discharging apparatus, discharging head, and computer program

Disclosed is a liquid emitting apparatus for emitting a liquid pressurized by a pressure generated by a pressure generating element is emitted as liquid droplets onto a support. A controller () controls an emission controller () so that the current value of the pulse current supplied to a heating resistor () will have a current value difference within &#xb1;10% with respect to the current value of the pulse current supplied to a heating resistor (). By so doing, variations in the position of deposition of an ink droplet i emitted with variable emitting directions may be suppressed to enable printing to a high-quality image in which deterioration in the image quality variations ascribable to color time variations or white streaks is prohibited.

Liquid emitting apparatus and method

A remaining-liquid-amount apparatus for displaying an amount of conductive liquid (ink) remaining in a container includes electrode units which are arranged along a direction in which the liquid level falls when the amount of liquid in the container decreases and which conduct current when the electrode units are in contact with the liquid, a voltage source (pulse generator) which applies a voltage to the electrode units, a liquid detector (DFFs) which detects the presence/absence of the liquid at positions of the electrode units on the basis of whether or not the electrode units conduct current when the voltage is applied by the voltage source, and a remaining-liquid-amount display unit (LEDs) which displays, in steps, the amount of liquid remaining in the container on the basis of the detection result of the presence/absence of the liquid at positions of the electrode units obtained by the liquid detector.

Remaining-liquid-amount display apparatus and remaining-liquid-amount display method

The present invention is a liquid discharge device having a function of supplying liquid to liquid chambers in a stable manner, and also has a function of suppressing interference between liquid discharge portions due to discharging of liquid droplets. The liquid discharge device has a liquid discharge head in which a plurality of liquid discharge portions including an ink liquid chamber () for storing a liquid to be discharged, and nozzles () for discharging the liquid stored in the ink liquid chamber (), are arrayed on a substrate. The liquid discharge device comprises: individual channels () provided for each of the liquid discharge portions so as to communicate with the ink liquid chamber () and supply liquid to within the ink liquid chamber (); and a common channel () which is provided to the plurality of individual channels () so as to communicate with each of the plurality of individual channels (), for supplying liquid to the plurality of individual channels (). The common channel () includes a first common channel () provided on a liquid supply source side, and a second common channel () provided adjacent to the individual channels (), and having liquid channel resistance greater than that of the first common channel ().

Liquid discharging device

Even when ejection characteristics of ink droplets are dispersed between unit heads and when arrangement accuracies of unit heads are dispersed, stripe unevenness is alleviated by correction corresponding to each unit head. In a liquid ejection apparatus having a line head () arranged by juxtaposing a plurality of (unit) heads () of liquid ejection parts so as to connect the head () to the adjacent head (), the liquid ejection apparatus includes ejection direction changing means for enabling the ejection direction of liquid droplets ejected from a nozzle of each liquid ejection part to change in a plurality of directions in the arranging direction of liquid ejection parts and reference direction setting means for individually setting one reference principal direction for each head () among a plurality of ejection directions of liquid droplets by the ejection direction changing means. In the (N&#x2212;1)th and the (N+1)th head, the third ejection direction from the left is established as the principal direction while in the Nth head, the second ejection direction from the right is established as the principal direction.

Liquid ejection apparatus and liquid ejection method

A liquid ejecting head includes a plurality of liquid ejecting portions arrayed in a flat region on a substrate. The liquid ejecting portions each include a liquid chamber that accommodates liquid to be ejected, a heater element arranged in the liquid chamber, the heater element generating bubbles in liquid in the liquid chamber when heated, and a nozzle for ejecting liquid in the liquid chamber in accordance with generation of bubbles by the heater element.

Liquid ejecting head and liquid ejecting apparatus

A liquid ejecting device includes an ejection pattern storage unit and a read-address shifting unit. In the ejection pattern storage unit, ejection patterns corresponding to grayscale data items, each data item representing a grayscale by using the number of droplets to be delivered to pixel regions, are stored so as to be associated with the pixel regions. In each ejection period of droplets, the read-address shifting unit shifts read addresses to be supplied to the ejection pattern storage unit in response to the deflecting direction of each of ejecting outlets.

Ejection control device, liquid ejecting device, liquid ejecting method, and recording medium and program used therewith

A liquid-amount detecting apparatus detects the amount of a liquid in containers. The liquid-amount detecting apparatus includes a liquid detecting circuit and a determining unit. The liquid detecting circuit includes electrode units disposed so as to be in contact with the liquid in the containers, which becomes electrically conductive when in contact with the liquid, an impedance, and an AC-signal source. An AC signal not containing a DC component is input from the AC-signal source to the electrode units through the source impedance, and a signal representing the status of electric connection of the electrode units is output. Furthermore, based on the output signal, a binary signal representing the presence or absence of electrical connection of the electrode units is output. The determining unit determines the presence or absence of the liquid at the electrode units based on the binary signal output from the liquid detecting circuit.

Liquid detecting apparatus, liquid-amount detecting apparatus, liquid detecting method, and liquid-amount detecting method

A liquid ejecting head includes a plurality of arrays of liquid ejecting portions each having a nozzle for ejecting a droplet. The nozzle is arranged along each of an imaginary straight line Rand an imaginary straight line Rthat are arranged in parallel at a distance &#x3b4; from each other, and a distance, with respect to the direction of the imaginary straight lines Rand Rbetween two adjacent ones of the nozzles respectively arranged on the imaginary straight line Rand the imaginary straight line Ris set to a fixed value P. The liquid ejecting portions arrayed along at least one of the imaginary straight lines Rand Rare formed so that a liquid is ejected from each of the liquid ejecting portions while being deflected to the other imaginary straight line side.

The liquid discharge apparatus including a head having liquid dischargers capable of deflecting the trajectories of discharged droplets in a plurality of directions. At least two of the liquid dischargers neighboring each other are capable of discharging droplets in the same pixel area. When there is a shut-off liquid discharge due to droplet discharge failure, this information is stored. According to the stored information, the discharge signal corresponding to the droplets the shut-off discharger were supposed to discharge is transferred to another liquid discharger in the vicinity of the shut-off discharger. This other liquid discharger alternatively discharges droplets so that the droplets land in a position the droplets would have had landed if they were discharged by the shut-off discharger.

Liquid discharge apparatus and method for discharging liquid

A flow path structure includes a heating element, a barrier layer, a liquid chamber formed by a part of the barrier layer and a pair of walls confronting each other to hold the heating element therebetween and a first individual flow path and a second individual flow path disposed on both the sides of the liquid chamber to communicate with the liquid chamber, a liquid is supplied to the liquid chamber from at least one of first and second individual flow paths, and the distance U between the walls in the liquid chamber and the flow path width W of the first individual flow path are set to satisfy U&#x3e;W. With this arrangement, a flow path structure can be provided in which a failure in flow paths due to dusts is unlike to occur and which minimizes the influence of bubbles and has almost no uneven ejection.

Liquid ejection head and liquid ejection device

The present invention is directed to a liquid discharge apparatus adapted for discharging inks from discharge holes, which includes a control unit for controlling a discharge control unit, wherein the control unit controls the discharge control unit in such a manner that pulse current delivered to one of a pair of heating resistors is caused to be reference, and pulse current is delivered to the other heating resistor in the state where timing is shifted in a time of the range within 20% of supply time of pulse current serving as reference with respect to supply timing of pulse current serving as reference. Thus, it is possible to suppress unevenness or variation of impact positions of ink droplets discharged in the state where discharge direction has been changed. As a result, deterioration of picture quality resulting from color tone unevenness and/or white stripe, etc. is prevented. Thus, print operation can be performed at excellent picture quality.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Kazuyasu Takenaka