Seiko Epson Corporation

Satoru Hosono

Minoru Usui

Shuji Yonekubo

Hirofumi Teramae

Takahiro Naka

Toshihisa Saruta

Tomoaki Abe

Tomoaki Takahashi

Kenji Otokita

Hisashi Miyazawa

Tsuyoshi Kitahara

Shinji Yasukawa

Osamu Nakamura

Takashi Nakamura

Satoshi Shinada

Hirokazu Nunokawa

Yoshiko Hoshiyama

Hironori Endo

Yasuhiko Kosugi

Noriaki Okazawa

Ryoichi Tanaka

Toshiki Usui

Kaoru Momose

Takayuki Togashi

Munehide Kanaya

Fujio Akahane

Takahiro Katakura

Masahiko Yoshida

Nobumasa Abe

Setsuya Iwashita

Yasuaki Hamada

Nobuhito Takahashi

Akihisa Wanibe

Junhua Zhang

Tomohiro Sayama

Shigenori Fukasawa

Satoshi Kimura

Hideki Okumura

Seiji Tojo

Kazuo Koshino

Takahiro Usui

Shoichi Hiraide

Keisuke Niishida

Sayuri Kawakami

A photoelectric conversion element includes a ferroelectric layer; a first electrode and a second electrode provided on a surface or a surface layer portion of the ferroelectric layer; a common electrode provided on a surface or a surface layer portion of an opposite side to a side of the ferroelectric layer on which the first electrode and the second electrode are provided; and a pair of lead-out electrodes extracting electric power from the ferroelectric layer, in which the first electrode and the second electrode are arranged alternately in a predetermined direction.

Photoelectric conversion element and photovoltaic cell

A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a liquid ejecting head in which liquid is ejected from a nozzle as liquid droplets using a driving signal generated by a driving signal generation unit, wherein the driving signal generation unit fits a difference between a maximum voltage and a minimum voltage, and generates a first driving signal that is transmitted when an ambient temperature is within a predetermined low temperature range, and a second driving signal that is transmitted when the temperature is within a predetermined high temperature range, further the first and second driving signals include a first element that forms a liquid column by pressurizing the pressure chamber and projecting the liquid in the nozzle, and a second element that projects the pressure chamber in a projecting direction of the liquid column from a position where a liquid surface inside the nozzle is connected to an internal surface of the nozzle.

Liquid ejecting apparatus

A flushing method for a fluid ejecting apparatus that includes a pressure chamber filled with fluid, a pressure generating element on a surface of the pressure chamber that deforms the surface to change the pressure in the pressure chamber, and a nozzle in fluid communication with the pressure chamber that ejects the fluid, the method including repeatedly performing first flushing process a first period; and repeatedly performing a second flushing process with a second period. The flushing processes include causing the pressure chamber to expand into an expanded state, maintaining the expanded state, and contracting the pressure chamber from the expanded state, causing the fluid to be ejected from the nozzle. The amount of fluid ejected from the nozzle in the second flushing process is larger than the amount ejected in the first flushing process.

Flushing method for fluid ejecting apparatus

A liquid ejecting apparatus includes: a head having a nozzle; a pressure-changing unit for changing pressure of liquid in the nozzle in such a manner that the liquid is ejected from the nozzle; a first level-data setting unit for setting a selected first level data from a plurality of first level data, based on an ejecting data for a first kind of liquid; a second level-data setting unit for setting a selected second level data from a plurality of second level data, based on an ejecting data for a second kind of liquid; a driving-signal generator for generating a driving signal; and a driving-pulse generator for generating a driving pulse based on the selected first or second level data and the driving signal. The plurality of first level data and the plurality of second level data are different from each other.

A fluid ejecting apparatus that ejects a fluid includes a storage portion that stores a fluid, a head, and a head capping device. The head discharges fluid supplied from the storage portion from a plurality of nozzles and includes a fluid discharging passage through which other fluid is discharged from the storage portion. The head capping device contacts the head and receives the fluid discharged from the plurality of nozzles and the fluid discharged through the fluid discharging passage. The head and the head capping device respectively include a head side flow passage and a head capping device side flow passage, which cooperatively form a circulation flow passage, through which the fluid that flows from the storage portion through the nozzles and the fluid discharged through the fluid discharging passage are returned back to the storage portion, in a state where the head capping device contacts the head.

Fluid ejecting apparatus

A fluid discharging apparatus including a head, a medium support portion, a contact member, and an actuator portion. The head includes a plurality of nozzles through which a fluid is discharged onto a target medium. The medium support portion supports the medium. The contact member is provided within the medium support portion. The actuator portion moves at least one of the head and the medium support portion so that the plurality of nozzles are located close to or far from the contact member. During a standby state when fluid is not discharged onto the medium, the contact member is brought into contact with the head in order to seal the plurality of nozzles, and in a discharging state, the head is located away from the contact member in order to provide a space through which the medium is allowed to pass between the plurality of nozzles and the contact member.

Fluid discharging apparatus and method of controlling the fluid discharging apparatus

A liquid ejecting apparatus includes: a head having a nozzle; a pressure-changing unit for changing pressure of liquid in the nozzle in such a manner that the liquid is ejected from the nozzle; a level-data setting unit for setting a selected level data from a plurality of level data, based on an ejecting data; a driving-signal generator for generating a first driving signal and a second driving signal; and a driving-pulse generator for generating a driving pulse based on the selected level data and the first driving signal and the second driving signal. The first driving signal and the second driving signal are periodical signals having a same period. The first driving signal includes a first large-drop pulse-wave and a third large-drop pulse-wave. The second driving signal includes a second large-drop pulse-wave. The first large-drop pulse-wave, the second large-drop pulse-wave and the third large-drop pulse-wave have a same waveform, and appear in that order at regular intervals.

A method for maintaining a fluid ejecting apparatus including an ejecting head that has an ejecting surface in which a plurality of ejecting ports that eject fluid are formed, and a maintenance portion that performs maintenance processing to recover the ejection of fluid from the ejecting ports and that has a cap member and a wiping member. The method includes performing capping processing to put the cap member on the ejecting surface and to suck, and then wiping processing to wipe the ejecting surface with the wiping member, and performing the capping processing again and then waiting a predetermined time without performing the wiping processing.

Fluid ejecting apparatus and ejecting head maintenance method

A liquid ejecting head includes a plurality of nozzle groups each including a plurality of nozzle openings; and a plurality of pressure generating chambers that cause liquid to be ejected from the nozzle openings. A plurality of recessed portions are formed at a nozzle forming member, the recessed portions each having a thickness smaller than a thickness of the nozzle forming member, the nozzle openings being formed at the recessed portions. A set of at least one of the plurality of nozzle openings included in each single nozzle group defines a nozzle set, the nozzle set being arranged to correspond to each of the pressure generating chambers. The nozzle groups each have a plurality of nozzle sets in an array, the nozzle sets of one of the nozzle groups being relatively shifted from the nozzle sets of another one of the nozzle groups in a nozzle-set-array direction.

Liquid ejecting head and liquid ejecting apparatus

A liquid ejecting apparatus of the invention includes a distance obtaining unit that obtains a distance between the nozzle of the head and a medium to which the liquid is ejected. The driving signal is a periodical signal including a first pulse-wave capable of ejecting a drop of the liquid having a predetermined volume at a relatively low speed, and a second pulse-wave capable of ejecting a drop of the liquid having the predetermined volume at a relatively high speed, the predetermined volume corresponding to a predetermined level data. The driving-pulse generator is adapted to generate, when the selected level data is the predetermined level data: a driving-pulse including only the first pulse-wave when a distance obtained by the distance obtaining unit is not less than a predetermined value; and a driving-pulse including only the second pulse-wave when the distance is less than the predetermined value.

Liquid ejecting apparatus driving-signals generation

A liquid ejecting head is provided with pressure chambers adapted to contain liquid. Nozzle orifices are respectively communicated with the pressure chambers and arranged so as to form nozzle arrays. Each of pressure generating elements is operable to generate pressure fluctuation in the liquid contained in one of the pressure chambers to eject at least a first amount of a liquid droplet and a second amount of a liquid droplet from one of the nozzle orifices toward a target medium. A first storage stores first information indicative of a first deviation of the first amount from a first reference amount for each of the nozzle arrays. A second storage stores second information indicative of a correlation between the first deviation and a second deviation of the second amount from a second reference amount. A processor is operable to calculate the second deviation for each of the nozzle arrays with reference to the first information and the second information.

Liquid ejecting head and liquid ejecting apparatus incorporating the same

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Nagano, Japan

Satoru Hosono