Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Ryuji Horata

Nobumasa Tanaka

Kenta Horade

Zenichiro Sasaki

Takafumi Nakase

Masayoshi Hayashi

Tatsuya Shindo

Toshiro Ueda

Masahiro Hayashi

Isao Kubo

Hironori Takasaki

Yuta Toda

Shoko Ota

There is provided a liquid ejection apparatus including: a liquid ejection head; a signal outputter configured to output an ejection state signal; and a controller. The ejection state signal is a first or second ejection state signal, the first ejection state signal fulfills a first condition regarding a maximum value and/or a minimum value in a first period and does not fulfill a second condition regarding the maximum value and/or the minimum value in a second period after the first period; the second ejection state signal does not fulfill the first condition in the first period and fulfills the second condition in the second period. The controller is configured to vary a process to be performed between a case in which the ejection state signal outputted is the first ejection state signal and a case in which the ejection state signal outputted is the second ejection state signal.

Liquid ejection apparatus and control method therefor

There is provided a liquid ejecting apparatus including: a head having a nozzle; a signal outputting part having an electrode and configured to output a signal indicating a magnitude of an electric change in the electrode; and a controller. The controller is configured to execute a determination as to whether or not the nozzle is normal based on the signal output from the signal outputting part in a case that the controller drives the head so as to eject a liquid droplet from the nozzle toward the electrode. The controller is configured to determine that the nozzle is normal in a case that the magnitude of the electric change is within a predetermined normal range, and to determine that the nozzle has a first abnormality in a case that the magnitude of the electric change is greater than the normal range.

Liquid droplet ejecting apparatus

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, a carriage, a carriage moving mechanism, a carriage motor, an output unit outputting a discharge determination signal, and a controller configured to carry out a determination of whether or not a liquid is discharged normally from the nozzle, based on the discharge determination signal outputted from the output unit when the liquid discharge head carries out an inspection driving. If a first condition is satisfied, then after a carriage drive in order to move the carriage to a predetermined position, the inspection driving is performed. If a second condition other than the first condition is satisfied, then the inspection driving is performed without performing the carriage drive.

Liquid discharge apparatus

A liquid ejection apparatus includes a first circuit to output a determination signal indicating that ejecting ink is in failure, a second circuit to output a temperature signal indicating a temperature, a recovery device to perform a recovery operation, and a controller. The controller causes a recovery device to perform a first recovery operation based on a first failure-nozzle data in response to determining that a first temperature and a second temperature satisfy a predetermined condition.

Liquid ejection apparatus

When inspection driving is performed by a liquid ejection head, a signal output circuit outputs a determination signal indicating whether a nozzle is an abnormal nozzle. The inspection driving is driving the liquid ejection head to eject liquid from the nozzle for checking whether the nozzle is the abnormal nozzle. A recovery device performs a recovery operation of discharging liquid from the nozzle. A controller is configured to: in response to receiving a first signal, perform the inspection driving and, in response to determining that the determination signal transmitted from the signal output circuit indicates that the abnormal nozzle exists, store flag information in a memory, the flag information indicating that the recovery operation needs to be performed; and in response to receiving a second signal different from the first signal and determining that the memory stores the flag information, control the recovery device to perform the recovery operation.

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.

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 liquid ejection head having a plurality of nozzles, a determination circuit, a clock, and a controller. The controller is configured to determine whether the clock is in an on or off state. In response to determining that the clock is in an on state, the controller is configured to perform an inspection process at a first time. In the inspection process, the controller drives the liquid ejection head to eject liquid from a nozzle of the plurality nozzles and receive a determination signal that is output from the determination circuit in response to ejection of liquid from the nozzle of the plurality of nozzles. In response to determining that the clock is in an off state, the controller is configured to perform the inspection process at a predetermined time that is a time after the clock is returned to an on state.

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.

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

A circuit board to be mounted on a casing of a cartridge includes an insulating substrate, an integrated circuit mounted on the substrate, terminals and a dummy electrode. The terminals are electrically connected to the integrated circuit, while the dummy electrode is electrically disconnected from the integrated circuit. The terminals and dummy electrode are formed on the substrate to satisfy an inequity of L1+L2&#x3c;L3, where L1 is a shortest distance among distances between edges of the terminals and an edge of the dummy electrode in a direction perpendicular to a predetermined direction in which the terminals are aligned with one another; L2 is a shortest distance between an edge of the dummy electrode and an edge of the casing in the predetermined direction; and L3 is a shortest distance among distances between edges of the terminals and the edge of the casing in the predetermined direction.

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Gamagori, Japan

Ryuji Horata