Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Masayoshi Hayashi

Hirofumi Kondo

Yasuhiro Kato

Masato Sueyasu

Ryoichi Matsushima

Ryuji Horata

Reiko Toyama

Toru Yamashita

Shuhei Hiwada

Nobumasa Tanaka

Yuta Toda

Takafumi Nakase

Reiko Higashikawa

Tatsuya Nishikawa

Satoru Arakane

Tomoyuki Kubo

Yuji Hori

Hiroto Sugahara

Koji Imai

Shunsuke Minamikawa

Toshiro Ueda

Haruka Azechi

Isao Kubo

Shigeru Suzuki

Yusuke Arai

Takahiko Watari

Yasuhiro Nakano

Yuki Matsui

Jie Chen

An image forming apparatus that utilizes a communication device is disclosed. A communication unit of a housing which corresponds to an antenna portion is provided at a position at which the communication unit can be seen without obstruction from the upper side. A communication device such as a smartphone can be brought close to or into contact with the communication unit readily. Accordingly, wireless communication between the antenna portion and the communication device can be established.

Image forming apparatus including antenna in cover

There is provided a liquid discharging apparatus including: a liquid discharging head; an electrode; a voltage supplier configured to generate an electric potential difference between the liquid discharging head and the electrode; a first output part; and a voltage comparer connected to the voltage supplier. The voltage comparer includes a comparing signal output part configured to output a comparing signal. The voltage supplier is configured to: execute boosting to increase the magnitude of the voltage to be outputted from the voltage supplier in a case that the comparing signal indicates that a magnitude of the voltage outputted from the voltage supplier is not more than a magnitude of a predetermined voltage; and stop the boosting in a case that the comparing signal indicates that the magnitude of the voltage outputted from the voltage supplier is larger than the magnitude of the predetermined voltage.

Liquid discharging apparatus

There is provided a liquid discharge apparatus including: a liquid discharge head having a nozzle; an electrode facing the nozzle; a power supply which generates a potential difference between the liquid discharge head and the electrode; a first output unit which outputs a first signal in accordance with an electric change in a case that the liquid discharge head is caused to perform inspection driving; a low-pass filter; a second output unit; a high-pass filter; a third output unit; and a controller. The controller executes determination as to whether or not the liquid is normally discharged from the nozzle, based on the first signal; and determination as to whether or not a short circuit occurs between the liquid discharge head and the electrode, based on a second signal output from the second output unit and a third signal output from the third output unit.

Liquid discharge apparatus

There is provided a liquid discharging apparatus including: a liquid discharging head having a nozzle; an electrode; a voltage supplier; a first output part configured to output a first signal corresponding to an electric change, of the electrode or the liquid discharging head, caused in a case that the liquid discharging head performs inspection driving for discharging a liquid from the nozzle toward the electrode; a second output part connected to the electrode; a high pass filter; a third output part connected to the electrode via the high pass filter; and a controller. The controller is configured to: determine whether the liquid is normally discharged based on the first signal; and determine whether a short circuit is formed between the liquid discharging head and the electrode based on a second signal outputted from the second output part and a third signal outputted from the third output part.

A liquid ejection apparatus includes a controller configured to perform: causing a voltage application circuit to apply a voltage between a liquid ejection head having a plurality of nozzles and an electrode; driving the liquid ejection head for causing a certain nozzle to eject liquid toward a cap in a state where the plurality of nozzles face the cap; receiving a signal from a signal output circuit; determining, based on the received signal, whether the certain nozzle has ejected liquid normally; determining, based on the received signal, whether a leakage current has occurred between the certain nozzle and the electrode; and specifying the certain nozzle as a leakage nozzle if the leakage current has occurred between the certain nozzle and the electrode.

Liquid ejection apparatus

A printer includes a head, an electrode, a moving unit, a voltage application circuit, and a controller. The head has an ejection surface having a nozzle. The head is configured to eject liquid from the nozzle. The moving unit is configured to move at least one of the electrode or the head. The voltage application circuit is configured to apply a certain voltage between the head and the electrode. The controller is configured to: drive the moving unit such that the ejection surface faces the electrode; drive the voltage application circuit to apply the certain voltage between the head and the electrode; compare a level of an output signal input to the controller from the electrode with a particular threshold; and based on the comparison result, determine that liquid is present between the ejection surface and the electrode.

Printer and method for detecting abnormal event in printer

An image recording system includes a plurality of image recording apparatuses. In a case where a certain image recording apparatus of the image recording apparatuses has a failure nozzle proportion of failure nozzles of all the nozzles of the recording head smaller than or equal to a threshold, image recording is performed on the certain image recording apparatus based on a recording instruction. In a case where the certain image recording apparatus has a failure nozzle proportion exceeding the threshold, a recording instruction is transmitted to a different image recording apparatus having a failure nozzle proportion smaller than that of the certain image recording apparatus, and image recording is performed on the different image recording apparatus based on the recording instruction.

Image recording system

Image forming apparatus

There is provided a printing apparatus including: a platen; a head; a carriage moving in a first direction and a second direction; a sensor configured to detect the medium; a memory; and a controller. Before a certain printing pass starts, the controller is configured to get a first distance value in the first direction between the sensor and a most downstream nozzle and a second distance value between an end of the medium and a close landing position that is closest to the end of the medium. The controller is configured to continue the certain printing pass without stopping the movement of the carriage, when the controller has determined that the second distance value is larger than the first distance value, and when the controller has determined that the medium is supported by the platen.

Printing apparatus

There is provided an ink-jet printer including: a recording head; a power supply; and a controller. In a case that the controller obtains a maintenance instruction, the controller performs: boosting driving voltage to a target voltage value, in accordance with a first pattern; and applying the driving voltage to at least one of driving elements. In a case that the controller obtains an image recording instruction, the controller performs: boosting the driving voltage to the target voltage value, in accordance with a second pattern having a voltage boosting time shorter than the first pattern; and recording an image on a sheet by selectively applying the driving voltage, boosted to the target voltage value, to the driving elements.

Ink-jet printer

A sheet feeder includes a controller configured to control an emitter to emit an ultrasonic wave toward a target sheet being fed along a sheet guide, control a measurer to measure a first reception intensity of a first component of the ultrasonic wave received by a receiver during a first period of time, control the measurer to measure a second reception intensity of a second component of the ultrasonic wave received by the receiver during a second period of time, and determine a feeding state of the target sheet in a detectable area between the emitter and the receiver within the sheet guide, based on the first reception intensity and the second reception intensity.

Sheet feeder, and method and computer-readable medium therefor

An image forming apparatus which utilizes a communication device is disclosed. A communication unit of a housing which corresponds to an antenna portion is provided at a position at which the communication unit can be seen without obstruction from the upper side. A communication device such as a smartphone can be brought close to or into contact with the communication unit readily. Accordingly, wireless communication between the antenna portion and the communication device can be established.

A sheet conveyer device, including a transmitter to transmit ultrasonic waves arranged on a conveyer path to face a first side of a sheet; a receiver to receive the ultrasonic waves arranged on the conveyer path to face a second side of the sheet; a measurement unit to measure an intensity of the received ultrasonic waves; and a determination unit to determine a condition of a range in the conveyer path between the transmitter and the receiver among a first condition, wherein no sheet is present in the range, a second condition, in which a sheet is present in the range, and a third condition, in which a plurality of sheets are present in the range, based on intensities of the ultrasonic waves measured by the measurement unit in a plurality of periods separately after transmission of the ultrasonic waves, is provided.

Sheet conveyer device

There is provided a liquid discharge apparatus, including: a drive element configured to apply discharge energy to the liquid to discharge the liquid; signal generators configured to generate a plurality of types of drive signals having mutually different waveforms to drive the drive element; and drive switches electrically located between the signal generators and the drive element to correspond to the plurality of types of drive signals respectively. The drive switches include a first drive switch and a second drive switch which are different in ON-resistance.

Growing community of inventors

Nagoya, Japan

Masayoshi Hayashi