Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-Kaisha

Mikio Sakuma

Teruo Imamaki

Yukihito Takagi

Shigeru Nakata

Yoshiaki Nagao

Atsuhiro Kobayashi

Atsushi Hirota

Tasuku Sugimoto

Mamoru Imaizumi

Toshiaki Mizuno

Shinji Kimura

Toshiaki Sugiura

Nagao Yoshiaki

Kobayashi Atsuhiro

Pressure chambers arranged in the form of a matrix along a plane form first and second pressure chamber columns arranged alternately in the plane and having nozzles connected on opposite sides respectively. Two adjacent pressure chamber columns constituted by a first pressure chamber column and a second pressure chamber column are arranged opposite to each common ink path. First connection holes formed in the pressure chambers of the first pressure chamber column and connected to nozzles and second connection holes formed in the pressure chambers of the second pressure chamber column and connected to nozzles are arranged side by side on opposite sides of a corresponding common ink path. Between two adjacent common ink paths, first connection holes and second connection holes are arranged on a column.

Inkjet head

An inkjet head provided with a plurality of pressure chambers includes an actuator unit for the plurality of pressure chambers. The actuator unit includes a plurality of inactive layers and at least one active layer, both made of piezoelectric material. The plurality of inactive layers are arranged on a pressure chamber side to cover the plurality of pressure chambers. The at least one active layer is arranged on an opposite side of the pressure chambers with respect to the inactive layers. The active layer is segmented to a plurality of segments which are located at positions correspond to the plurality of pressure chambers. Further, each segment of the active layer is sandwiched between a common electrode and a driving electrode.

Inkjet head having a plurality of pressure chambers

A tape storage cassette contains a thermal transfer ribbon having an ink coating on one surface and a recording tape wound about respective spools. A separator concentric with the recording tape spool wraps partially about the recording tape wound upon the spool to isolate the recording tape from the ink coating on the thermal transfer ribbon and cooperates with a film separator in preventing contact between the transfer ribbon and recording film prior to printing.

Printing tape cassette with separated recording medium and ink ribbon

An ink ejection device used, for example, in conjunction wit a host computer or a personal computer includes a head formed with orifices from which ink droplets are ejected to print a dot image on a printing sheet. The ink supplied to the head is stored in an ink reservoir. To properly continue printing when an amount of ink remaining in the ink reservoir is small, an amount of ink remaining in the ink reservoir is detected. When the detection results indicate that less than a predetermined amount of ink remains in the ink reservoir, then printing is performed using less ink than is used during normal printing.

Ink ejection device with ink saving mode used when remaining ink amount

An ink ejecting printer capable of increasing a printing speed by eliminating unnecessary head maintenance operations includes a mode controller, a ROM, timing value storage, a wiping ordering unit and a suction ordering unit. When a normal print mode is selected, the mode controller supplies the timing value storage with the initial values of the wiping and suction timings held in the ROM; when a thin-out mode is selected, the mode controller supplies the storage with changed values. The timing value storage stores the wiping and suction timings sent from the mode controller. When a print operation is started, the wiping ordering unit and suction ordering unit retrieve the values of the wiping and suction timings from the timing value storage. When the print operation is found to have reached one of the timings, the corresponding unit suspends the printing and causes the appropriate wiping or sucking operation to be carried out. This makes it possible, when the thin-out mode is selected, to reduce unnecessary head maintenance operations and thereby increase the printing speed.

Ink ejecting printer having different cleaning timings

A cleaning operation is directed by a CPU of an ink ejecting device every predetermined number of characters printed or when the power is turned on. The cleaning counter counts the number of cleaning times, the comparator compares a value in a table in ROM with the count value in the counter, and a message informing the user of the need for head replacement is displayed on the display of the operational panel when the numbers agree. Therefore, this ink ejecting device can inform the user of the appropriate time for head replacement.

Ink ejecting device

A tape feed mechanism comprising a storage cassette having at least two tapes, a tape feed device and a guide arrangement. One of the tapes is an inked ribbon having an inked surface that is directed toward the spool about which it is wound.

Tape feed mechanism having ribbon inked surface directed toward ribbon

A printing device includes a detachable cassette containing therein a recording medium to be printed upon and a cutter blade which is movable to contact a wall section of the cassette through the recording medium. A holder on the cassette guides and holds the recording medium which has exited the cassette to a position on the wall section for cutting by the cutter blade.

Tape feed mechanism with tape cutter and guide

A tape end processing unit has a guide path for guiding a tape piece from an insertion port into which the tape piece is inserted to a cutting blade to cut off the tape piece. The guide path is bent in a convex form in a direction in which the cutting blade moves when the tape piece is cut. With this configuration, the curl of the tape piece can be cured, and an end of the tape piece can be cut off with an accurate length. The tape end processing unit may have a blade receiving stand which has a concave section having a width narrower than the length of the cutting blade and a depth smaller than the thickness of a releasable paper constituting a part of the tape piece. With this configuration, the tape end processing unit can cut off an end of the tape piece in a state where the releasable paper can easily be separated.

Tape end processing unit

In a tape feed mechanism comprising a tape storage cassette including at least two tapes in respective wound states and a tape feed device feeding the two tapes in an overlapped state, provided is a guide member for guiding the two tapes to a predetermined portion in the tape storage cassette. Thus, the tape storage cassette is detachably mounted from the tape feed device in a condition that each of the leading end portions of the tapes are fixed at the predetermined position and the tape storage cassette is attachably mounted again to the tape feed device in that condition.

Tape feed cassette with tape cutter and guide

According to the present invention, a tape cutter device for cutting a tape which comprises a tape substrate coated with an adhesive layer and a separable sheet laid on the adhesive layer comprises: means for receiving the tape; and a cutter blade for cutting the tape received on the tape receiving means to thereby divide the tape into two sections such that at least the adhesive layers of the two sections being separated from each other; wherein, in each section of the tape, an adhesive force of the adhesive layer relative to the separable sheet is greater than an adhesive force of the adhesive layer relative to the cutter blade.

Tape cutter device

A tape printer for making adhesive labels includes a tape supply, a printer for reverse printing on the tape and a double-sided adhesive film, one side of which is laminated to the printed tape and the other side of which carries a release paper. The printer has a cutter for cutting the tape from the continuous supply tape and includes a trimmer for rounding the corners of the tape to reduce defoliation of the tape from the surface to which it is applied. The cutting blade of the trimmer has a central straight section, contiguous arcuate sections at each end of the central straight section and auxiliary straight cutting edges contiguous with the arcuate sections and extending at an obtuse angle to the central straight section. The cutting blade is mounted in an integrally molded support unit which includes guide members for guiding the width of tape to be trimmed by the cutting blade. The support unit is detachably mounted on a tape support member so that tapes of differing widths can be trimmed by interchanging the support units. Levers for actuating the cutting blade are movable from a position to actuate the cutter to a retracted position enabling replacement of the support unit.

End trimming mechanism of tape printer

A sheet detection apparatus is provided which determines the presence or absence of a sheet on a sheet feed path as well as the type of sheet. The apparatus utilizes a light source to direct a predetermined amount of light to a sensor by reflecting off a sheet on the feed path or a reflector in the absence of any such sheet on the path. The presence or absence of the sheet is determined by comparing the output value of the sensor with predetermined reference values.

Growing community of inventors

Ichinomiya, Japan

Mikio Sakuma