Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Canon Finetech Inc.

Koji Terasawa

Makoto Takemura

Hideo Fukazawa

Katsuyuki Yokoi

Akira Miyakawa

Hideki Yamaguchi

Koichiro Kawaguchi

Tetsuji Kurata

Kazuhiko Shinoda

Shigeyasu Nagoshi

Atsushi Arai

Takashi Nojima

Takehiko Kiyohara

Yukio Kasugayama

Yoshihumi Hattori

Hiromitsu Hirabayashi

Hitoshi Sugimoto

Kenjiro Watanabe

Yuji Akiyama

Miyuki Matsubara

Takao Aichi

Shinya Matsui

Shigemitsu Tazaki

Hiroshi Kyogoku

Shigeru Okamura

Koichi Sato

Tsutomu Abe

Jiro Moriyama

Toshiharu Inui

Yoshifumi Hattori

Kazuyoshi Takahashi

Junji Shimoda

Yasuhiro Numata

Shinichi Hirasawa

Yoji Ara

Mikio Shiga

Shigeru Tsuyukubo

Hitoshi Miyazaki

Hiroyuki Inoue

Tetsuo Suzuki

Hideaki Okamoto

Tetsuhiro Nitta

Eiichi Yoshioka

Junichi Asano

Tetsuo Kimura

Yoshiaki Kaburagi

Masaaki Nakamura

Michitaka Fukuda

Tamaki Hashimoto

Shingo Takada

Sanko Yamaguchi

Shoichiro Shoda

Takanori Mukai

Hideyuki Kitajima

An image forming device capable of detecting the presence/absence of ink as well as whether an ink tank is mounted. A detachable ink tank on a carriage includes a prism C, and a reflective optical sensor detects the presence/absence of ink depending on the difference in refractive index between the two states, that is, filled with ink and empty. A reflector lever movable in response to the ink tank being mounted or not, is provided on the bottom of an ink tank holder The reflector lever has one end fixed on a lower part of the ink tank and the other end that is a free end consisting of a triangular reflector D. The reflector lever is normally urged upward by a resilient member A, and it will not direct the reflection toward the sensor in the absence of the ink tank whereas it is deformed in the presence/absence of the ink tank to direct the reflection toward the sensor As a result, the presence/absence of the ink tank is detected.

Image forming device

A recording apparatus having a black ink recording head for discharging black ink onto a recording material and at least one single color non-black recording head for discharging non-black ink onto the recording material includes a recording head driver for driving the recording heads to discharge the ink onto the recording material; and a controller for controlling the recording head driver so that a volume, per unit area of the recording material, of the black ink discharged from the blue ink recording head and deposited on the recording region of the recording material is larger than that of the non-black ink discharged from the non-black ink recording head and deposited on the recording region of the recording material.

Recording apparatus

An ink jet recording apparatus for performing recording using a recording head for ejecting an ink from a plurality of ejection orifices, includes a print control unit for performing a print operation while switching a print mode between a thin multi-pass print mode for sequentially recording divided recording data in a plurality of number of times of relative scan operations of the recording head with respect to a single recording area, and a 1-pass print mode for recording all recording data in a single relative scan operation of the recording head, and an eject quantity control unit for controlling the eject quantity of the ink ejected from the recording head so that a total ink quantity on the recording area in the thin multi-pass print mode is larger than a total ink quantity in the 1-pass print mode.

Ink jet recording apparatus and method

There is disclosed a method and apparatus for recovering an ink jet head having an opening communicating with a discharge port, the opening being provided on a same planar surface on which the discharge port for discharging ink is provided. An area of the opening is larger than an area of the discharge port. The method includes the steps of forcibly introducing gas into the ink jet head simultaneously through the discharge port and the opening, and exhausting the gas introduced into the ink jet head in the introducing step with ink through the discharge port. The gas introduced into the ink jet head enables the ink to be exhausted at an increased velocity in the exhausting step.

Ink-jet recording apparatus and recovery process method of the same

An ink jet recording apparatus comprises a recording head adapted for ejecting at least two colors of ink, a discriminater for discriminating between character data and bit map data, and a controller for selecting a character data recording mode or a bit map data recording mode in accordance with a discrimination result by the discriminater. The controller controls an amount of ink ejection in the bit map data recording mode to be less than that in the character data recording mode.

Ink jet recording apparatus

An ink jet recording apparatus comprising, timer means for measring an elapse time from a predetermined measurement start timing, a backup power source for supplying power to said timer means when a main power source is turned off, and control means for changing a content and/or the number of times of a recover operation for recovering and preventing a discharge error in a discharge port for discharging an ink on the basis of the elapse time.

There is disclosed a dot forming method and a recording apparatus, suitable for unprocessed recording medium, such as plain paper having fluctuation in its ink absorbing ability, or a plastic sheet with low ink absorbing ability. At the formation of each pixel with plural dots, the dots are so distributed that they are not continuous but are mutually complementary in the transverse and longitudinal directions of the pixel and also at least in the boundary area of adjacent pixels.

Recording apparatus and method for forming plural dots in a pixel

A recording apparatus having a black ink recording head for discharging black ink onto a recording material and at least one single color non-black recording head for discharging non-black ink onto the recording material includes a recording head driver for driving the recording heads to discharge the ink onto the recording material and a controller for controlling the recording head driver so that a volume, per one dot area of the recording material, of the black ink discharged from the black ink recording head and deposited on the recording region of the recording material is larger than that of the non-black ink discharged from the non-black ink recording head and deposited on the recording region of the recording material.

Recording apparatus with ink spot volume regulation

A container including a lid contains an ink jet cartridge, with the lid permitting removal of the cartridge when opened. The cartridge has a head portion with a discharge opening therein. The container includes an ink absorbing member spaced apart from and facing the discharge opening.

Package for ink jet head

A system using an ink jet recording head for scanning between a recording area and a non-recording area and for discharging ink to record an image on a recording medium at the recording area. The system includes wiping a discharge surface of the ink jet recording head, preliminarily discharging ink from the recording head after wiping, and performing normal recording in response to a recording signal without wiping the discharge surface of the ink jet recording head after the preliminary discharge.

Ink jet recording with recovery operation and associated test printing

An ink jet recording apparatus, for recording information on a recording medium, comprises a recording head having an ink ejection outlet for ejecting ink and an ejection recovery unit for ensuring satisfactory ejection from the ink ejection outlet. The ejection recovery unit has a housing, a cap disposed on one side of the housing for capping the ink ejection outlet, and a pump disposed on the other side of the housing and linked to the cap through a tube for sucking ink. In relation to the position of the ejection recovery unit, the tube is disposed so that it has a part bending upward in a vertical direction, and the pump is disposed so that an ink outlet thereof opens downward in a vertical direction.

An ink jet recording apparatus means ink is discharged from a recording head onto a recording material for recording. The ink jet recording apparatus has a cap for closing an ink discharge portion of the recording head, and a device for indicating that the ink discharge portion has been closed with the cap.

Ink jet recording apparatus with capping mechanism and capping state

An ink jet recording apparatus includes datum portions for positioning of each of a plurality of recording heads. The carriage has a cover member to protect the ink jet recording heads and to press them against the datum portions. Another cover member includes an electrical connecting member for making electrical connection to the recording head. With this structure, operating the cover members protects the ink jet recording heads, while they are positioned and electrical connection thereto is made.

Ink jet recording head mounting and positioning arrangement

An ink jet recording apparatus detects the temperature and humidity of the environment in which the ink jet recording apparatus is used when the power-supply is turned on, and checks the detected levels. If the detected levels are lower than the predetermined levels, no ink exhaust is executed as uniquely set, but the number of predischarges is set in accordance with the detected levels. Hence the recording apparatus rises. Also, the standby time of the recording apparatus is measured, and after the recording apparatus rises, the recovery mode is automatically selected in accordance with the temperature, humidity, and standby time. Also, depending on the conditions, the predischarges are executed in the number of discharges which has been changed, thus making it possible to reduce the ink consumption for the operations other than printing, and implement shortening the time required for the recovery operation.

Ink jet recording apparatus which controls recovery operation in

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Mitaka, Japan

Koji Terasawa