Citizen Watch Company, Ltd.

Mizue Fukushima

Makoto Yasunaga

Toshihiro Endo

Hiroaki Imai

Hiroshi Hirashima

Oh Junrok

A light-storing fluorescent pigment comprising a mother crystal and a rare earth element with which said mother crystal is doped, characterized in that said light-storing fluorescent pigment is produced by calcining a gel powder, as a starting material, obtained from an arbitrary combination of an alkoxide derivative, an organic acid salt, an inorganic acid salt, an oxide and a chloride of metal elements constituting said pigment by using a sol-gel method. A simplified production process can be used and the resulting light-storing fluorescent pigment has high crystal purity, is free from contamination with impurities and it is possible to easily control the particle diameter of the pigment.

Phosphorescent pigment and process for preparing the same

A method of pretreating an ink-jet printer ( ) before it is used is provided, wherein the printer includes a printing head ( ) provided with a plurality of nozzles ( ) for ejecting ink-droplets and movable in a reciprocating manner, an ink storage section ( ) and an ink supply conduit ( ) connecting the printing head with the ink storage section. The entirety of an ink flow passage including the ink supply conduit ( ) is filled with a colored liquid material ( ) having a function for maintaining the hydrophilic nature of the ink flow passage, before the ink-jet printer is forwarded from a factory. Then, before the ink-jet printer is assigned to the user, a printing operation is carried out by the printing head ( ) by using the colored liquid material ( ) and a character printed with the colored liquid material is observed to determine a printing function.

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Tokorozawa, Japan

Mizue Fukushima