Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Masashi Shimizu

Shigeru Watanabe

Yasushi Miura

Hiroyuki Kuriyama

Chikanobu Ikeda

Toshio Kashino

Yoshiyuki Imanaka

Shuji Koyama

Yoshie Asakawa

Hiroyuki Miyake

Masami Amemiya

An ink jet recording apparatus includes a recording head configured to discharge ink onto a recording medium, a carriage on which the recording head is mounted and which is configured to make a reciprocating movement, a cutter unit mounted on the carriage and configured to cut the recording medium, a detection unit mounted on the carriage and configured to detect a distance to the recording medium, and a control unit configured to control an operation of the recording apparatus. The ink jet recording apparatus includes a first process for detecting an amount of a change in the distance to the recording medium by the detection unit when the recording medium is cut by the cutter unit, and a second process for detecting the distance to the recording medium by the detection unit while the cutter unit is retracted if the change amount equal to or more than a predetermined value is detected in the first process. The control unit determines that the state of the recording medium is abnormal when the distance to the recording medium detected in the second process is equal to or less than a predetermined value.

Ink jet recording apparatus

A printing apparatus and an ink-discharge status detection method which perform appropriate print control by detecting discharge failure with a simple construction, without reducing the printing speed. The apparatus, to which the method is applied, performs test ink discharge from a part of nozzles of a printhead while scanning the printhead, and detects ink discharge statuses of the nozzles of the printhead by using a photosensor in an area between the home position of the printhead and a position outside of an effective printing area. In next detection, nozzles different from those used in the previous test ink discharge are used for performing test ink discharge, and discharge statuses are detected. Discharge statuses of all the nozzles are detected in forward and backward scannings or a plurality of scannings.

Printing apparatus and ink-discharge status detection method

A printing apparatus and a print control method which detect a defective printing element in operation failure status while reciprocate-scanning a printhead, and perform appropriate print control such as complementary printing on an unprinted portion by the defective printing element, without reducing the printing speed. An apparatus, to which the method is applied, has a photosensor to detect ink discharge statuses of a plurality of nozzles of a printhead which is provided between a home position of the printhead and the outside of an effective printing area where image printing is to be made. While the printhead is scanned, test ink discharge is performed at the position of the photosensor and the ink discharge statuses of the nozzles are detected by the photosensor A corrector analyzes the operation statuses of the nozzles of the printhead based on the results of detection in a real time manner. A CPU performs print control based on the results of analysis.

Printing apparatus and print method

This invention provides, in a novel liquid discharge method utilizing a movable member, a configuration for detecting presence or absence of liquid in the liquid path or discharge state of the liquid. In an embodiment of this invention, the element substrate of the liquid discharge head is rendered electrically conductive and a partition wall for separating a liquid path for the liquid to be discharged and a liquid path for generating energy for liquid discharge upon heating is also rendered electrically conductive, and a detecting pulse is applied to the partition wall to detect the difference in potential or the variation in electrostatic capacitance between the element substrate and the partition wall, whereby the presence or absence of liquid in the small liquid path is detected. Also in another embodiment, the electrostatic capacitance between a fixed electrode provided in a fixed position of the liquid discharge head and a movable electrode provided on the movable member is detected, and the discharge state of the liquid is judged according to the function state of the movable member.

Liquid discharging head, head cartridge and liquid discharge apparatus

An original image is read, image data corresponding to a black frame is added to the read original image data, and the image data with the frame is output. In this case, when the shape of the read original image data is not a rectangular shape, since the black frame is not added as intended, binarized data of the read image before the image frame is added is directly output.

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Kawasaki, Japan

Masashi Shimizu