Seiko Epson Corporation

Norihiro Maruyama

Shigenori Fukasawa

Atsushi Kobayashi

Seiji Mochizuki

Nobuhito Takahashi

Kazuhisa Kawakami

Masahiro Isono

Masahiro Nakamura

Hitoshi Hayakawa

Nobutoshi Ohtsuka

Yoshiaki Shimizu

Masaaki Ando

Noritaka Mitsuo

Hidenori Usuda

Kazuhiko Hara

Koichi Toba

Kazutoshi Shimizu

Takashi Mano

Takao Mimura

A gear pump includes a pump casing and a gear assembly. The gear assembly includes a driving gear, a driven gear, a driving gear shaft, a driven gear shaft, and a bearing frame. The bearing frame includes a frame main body, a pair of driving side bearing portions, and a pair of driven side bearing portions. The frame main body has a pair of bearing support portions, in which the driving side bearing portion and the driven side bearing portion are provided, and a connecting portion which connects the bearing support portions. The bearing support portions and the connecting portion are integrated together as a one-piece member.

Gear pump and printing apparatus provided with same

A gear pump for transporting a fluid includes a pump casing; and a gear assembly which is accommodated in the pump casing. The gear assembly includes a driving gear, a driven gear that mashes with the driving gear, a driving gear shaft to which the driving gear is attached, a driven gear shaft to which the driven gear is attached, and a bearing frame that rotatably supports the driving gear shaft and rotatably supports the driven gear shaft.

An air pressurization pump is driven to apply pressurized air pressure to a main tank storing ink. The pressurized air causes the ink to be supplied from the main tank to a recording head arranged on a carriage. A CPU of an inkjet recording apparatus selectively sets a drive control mode and a power saving control mode. The drive control mode operates the air pressurization pump, and the power saving control mode consumes less power than the drive control mode. If the drive control mode ends, the CPU shifts to the power saving control mode when a predetermined time elapses after the drive control mode ends and stops operating the gas pressurization pump.

Liquid ejection apparatus and method for controlling liquid ejection apparatus

A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a carriage moving between a liquid ejecting area and a non-liquid ejecting area in a first direction, a liquid ejecting head, having a nozzle formation face from which a liquid droplet is ejected, the liquid ejecting head mounted on the carriage, a slider moving between a non-capping position and a capping position relative to the nozzle formation face in accordance with the movement of the carriage, a capping member provided on the slider, the capping member sealing the nozzle formation face when the slider is positioned on the capping position, a first spring urging the slider, and a guide member provided on the slider, and pushing against a side face of the liquid ejecting head.

Liquid ejecting apparatus

An ink-jet recording apparatus has a flushing signal generating unit that generates a flushing signal, and a recording head provided with nozzles and capable of jetting ink particles through the nozzles when driven by the flushing signal. The flushing signal causes the recording head to jet only main ink particles through the nozzles. The ink-jet recording apparatus suppresses the formation of mist of ink particles during a flushing operation.

Ink-jet recording apparatus

A wiping member for wiping the nozzle forming surface of a recording head is mounted on a holding member and is constituted to be moved in a vertical direction. On the other hand, a capping device is provided with a wiper cleaner for abutting on the side wall of the wiping member. By the wiping operation of the recording head, a waste ink sticking to the wiping member is wiped away by the wiper cleaner with the fall of the wiping member and is removed from the wiping member.

Ink jet recording apparatus and cleaning control method for wiping device in the apparatus

The driving mechanism of the cleaner includes a drive shaft having a sun gear; a gear holding lever that is rotatably and pivotally supported between two rotation stop positions on the drive shaft and rotatably holds a planet gear, which is engaged with the sun gear; and a cleaner drive lever having an inner teeth that is juxtaposed on the gear holding lever, rotatably and pivotally supported on the drive shaft, and is engageable with the planet gear; wherein the cleaner drive lever is formed of a pivotally supporting lever that is caused to turn by engagement of the planet gear with the inner teeth by rotations of the sun gear in a rotation stop state of the gear holding lever and applies a driving force to the cleaner.

Ink jet recording apparatus

A recording head is mounted on a carriage moving in a widthwise direction of a recording medium. The recording head includes a nozzle formation face having nozzle orifices from which ink drops are ejected for recording. An elastic wiping member is provided for wiping out ink on the nozzle formation face as the carriage is moved. A buffer member is mounted on the carriage so as to be adjacent to the recording head. The buffer member has a contact face for receiving restoration force of the elastic wiping member produced by the wiping operation in order to prevent received ink from splashing therearound.

An ink jet recording device includes an external switch, a device for detecting the amount of ink left in each ink cartridge, and a device operating such that when an instruction to replace the ink cartridge is generated by the switch, or when a device detects an ink end of the cartridge, only the ink cartridge to be replaced is exposed through a window in the recording device. The ink cartridge to be replaced is specified, and only the specified ink cartridge is automatically moved to a replaceable position. Correct replacement of more than one ink cartridge is ensured, and the cartridge replacing work is simplified.

Ink jet recording device

Ink is sucked in a first amount from recording heads by applying negative pressure of suction pumps to the recording heads in a state in which communication between the recording heads and the atmosphere is cut off by sealing the recording heads by means of caps. The ink in the caps is then discharged by causing negative pressure of the suction pumps to act in a state in which the caps are made to communicate with the atmosphere, and then wiping is effected by a wiping blade.

Cap holders (,) are accommodation in a holder receiving member (,) in such a state that the cap holders are urged by springs toward the side of a recording head at two places with inclinations at angles of &thgr;1, &thgr;2 in the moving direction of a carriage and at an angle of &thgr;3 in a direction perpendicular thereto. Moments are produced by giving a difference to the distance between the whole periphery of a cap and the recording head, and peeling is effected from one point, so that the sealing of the recording head and the peeling of the cap off the recording head are made compatible.

Capping unit and ink-jet recording apparatus using the same

Capping unit having a decreased load during a peeling operation and ink-jet recording apparatus using the same

The object of the current invention is to print characters, for example, on a substantially full area of a recording medium extended up to the leading or trailing edge of the recording medium. A carriage is moved so that a print hole of a ribbon mask is positioned at a medium center as viewed in the direction of feeding of a recording medium. The recording medium is fed to a position so that the print hole is at a print start position. A print operation is carried out toward a first side edge of the recording medium. The recording medium is then fed in the reverse direction to a position where the print hole is away from the recording medium as viewed in the character pitch direction. The carriage is then moved so that the print hole is positioned at a medium center as viewed in the direction of feeding of a recording medium. Thereafter, the medium is fed to a position so that the print hole is at a print start position. A print operation is then carried out toward a second side of the recording medium. A similar operation may be carried out to print on the trailing edge of a recording medium. Thus, characters may be printed on the leading or trailing edge of the recording medium without catching the any of the corners of the recording medium on the print hole.

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Nagano, Japan

Norihiro Maruyama