Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Shigeru Suzuki

Etsuzo Nomura

Yasuhiro Kato

Hirosumi Itoh

Tomoyuki Kubo

Hirokazu Takeuchi

Koji Imai

Kazunori Irie

Shuhei Hiwada

Masatomo Kojima

Hiroto Sugahara

Atsushi Ito

Shohei Koide

Naoki Katayama

Hirofumi Kondo

Toru Yamashita

Akira Iriguchi

Keiji Kura

Yasuhiro Sekiguchi

Yoshitsugu Morita

Masayoshi Hayashi

Masato Sueyasu

Riki Matsuda

Reiko Higashikawa

Tatsuya Nishikawa

Masashi Ono

Hirokasu Takeuchi

There is provided a liquid jetting apparatus including: a liquid jetting head configured to jet liquid; a liquid discharge unit configured to discharge the liquid from the liquid jetting head; a waste liquid recover unit including a waste liquid absorber configured to absorb a waste liquid discharged from the liquid jetting head by the liquid discharge unit and detection electrodes configured to detect a waste liquid amount absorbed into the waste liquid absorber; and a vibration generating source configured to vibrate the waste liquid absorber in a vibration direction, wherein the detection electrodes are disposed to make contact with an end surface defining the waste liquid absorber, and a normal direction of the end surface intersects with the vibration direction.

Liquid jetting apparatus

In a liquid droplet jetting mode of jetting liquid droplets, a controller controls a piezoelectric actuator to perform a liquid droplet jetting operation in which volume of a pressure chamber is decreased to a decreased volume smaller than a predetermined volume, and then the volume of the pressure chamber is increased to an increased volume greater than the predetermined volume, and the volume of the pressure chamber is again decreased to the decreased volume. On the other hand, in a warm-up mode of heating the liquid in the pressure chamber, the controller controls the piezoelectric actuator to perform at least one of a first warm-up operation in which the volume of the pressure chamber is changed repeatedly between the predetermined volume and the increased volume, and a second warm-up operation in which the volume of the pressure chamber is changed repeatedly between the predetermined volume and the decreased volume.

Liquid droplet jetting apparatus

A piezoelectric actuator includes upper and lower constant electric potential electrodes. The upper constant electric potential electrodes are connected to a first-common conducting section extending in a predetermined direction, both ends of the first-common conducting section are connected to second-common conducting sections, and thus a first electrode assembly is formed. Both ends of the lower constant electric potential electrodes extending in the predetermined direction are connected to third-common conducting sections, and thus a second electrode assembly is constructed. A flexible wiring board stacked on the piezoelectric actuator has a first-connecting land extending in the predetermined direction and to which one of the first and second electrode assemblies having a smaller voltage drop when a predetermined current is applied is connected, and second-connecting lands to which the other is connected and which are arranged on both end sides of the first-connecting land.

Liquid droplet discharge head and liquid droplet discharge apparatus

A discharge head includes a discharge driving element; an individual electrode formed on the discharge driving element and having a connecting section; and a wired board having a terminal which is joined to the individual electrode by a conductive brazing material. The connecting section is provided to face the terminal, and a metal, which is hardly sulfurized, is exposed in a facing area, of a surface of the connecting section, facing the terminal. A silver sulfide coating is formed on a surface of the connecting section except for a portion facing the terminal. The silver sulfide coating has a low affinity for the conductive brazing material, which is hardly wetted thereby. Therefore, even when the conductive brazing material leaks, then the conductive brazing material is not retained on the silver sulfide coating, and no influence is exerted on the driving operation of the discharge head.

Discharge head and method for producing discharge head

An electronic device includes an FPC, a circuit chip arranged on the flexible flat cable, a heat sink arranged on the circuit chip to release a heat of the circuit chip, and an elastic member arranged on a lower surface of the FPC. The upper surface of the FPC is large enough to cover a contact surface of the circuit chip. The elastic member does not overlap with an apex portion of the circuit chip, but overlaps with the circuit chip at an inner side of the apex portion. Therefore the elastic member does not press the FPC against the apex portion of the circuit chip. Accordingly, the FPC at a position corresponding to an apex of the circuit chip is suppressed from being distorted, and there is no fear of breaking of wire and exfoliation of the circuit chip.

Electronic device

A circuit element which ensures an operation of a driving IC chip and a recording element, is mounted between a power supply and the driving IC chip of a flexible flat cable. Since the circuit element is arranged so as to avoid a bending portion of the flexible flat cable, even in a case of mounting the circuit element near the driving IC chip, it is possible to prevent the circuit elements from being peeled off, and to let the driving IC chip and the heat sink make a close contact assuredly.

Recording apparatus and method for producing the same

A plurality of external electrodesare disposed in parallel along two sides facing each other of a regioncorresponding to the circuit substrate to be manufactured, and a probing electrode is formed, which is connected to the external electrodes through extending conductorsextending to the outside the regionfrom the external electrodes. At this time, widths of the extending conductorsare set smaller than the widths of the external electrodesand probing electrodesTherefore, a solder storage part is formed in a wide portion in a width changing part between an electrode and a conductor, and a necessary sufficient amount of solder is adhered to the surfaces of the external electrodes

Substrate sheet, manufacturing method of circuit substrate, and ink jet head

A recording apparatus that has a recording head and a flexible printed circuit board. The recording head, which performs recording on a recording medium, has a plurality of recording elements. One end of the flexible printed circuit board has plurality of feeder wires that connect to one of the terminal lands of each of the recording elements. A first common voltage wire connects the other terminal lands of each of the recording elements to a common potential. A drive circuit is attached to the flexible printed circuit board to drive the recording head via the feeder wires. The other end of the flexible printed circuit board is connected to another circuit board used by the recording apparatus.

Structure of flexible printed circuit board

A recording head comprises: a plurality of recording elements; a driver for driving the recording elements; a circuit board for supplying to the driver a signal for driving the recording elements; a wiring member connecting the recording elements to the driver, and connecting the driver to the circuit board; and a heatsink for releasing heat generated at the driver. A surface of a first portion of the wiring member is held in contact with a surface of the heatsink, and the first portion of the wiring member is separated from the driver.

Recording head unit

A flexible wiring cableconnects a recording headand a relay board, and includes COF (chip on film)for connecting an output side wiring pattern of an IC chipto the recording head, and general purpose FFC (flexible flat cable)formed with a parallel wiring pattern. The flexible wiring cableconnects the output side wiring pattern of the IC chipto the relay boardvia FFC, thereby decreasing the use of more expensive COFby the use of cheap, general purpose FFC. Thus, the product cost as the entire recording apparatus is reduced by using the general purpose flexible board for a part of a flexible board having a driving circuit mounted thereon and serving as a connecting means for connecting a recording means and a relay board, suppressing the manufacturing cost of parts for connecting means.

Flexible wiring cable for recording apparatus

A flexible circuit sheet is electrically connected to an electric device. The electric device has a first row of electric terminals and a second row of electric terminals. Both the first row of electric terminals and the second row of electric terminals extend along a first direction, the second row of electric terminals extends parallel to the first row of electric terminals. The flexible circuit comprises a base sheet, a first row of lands formed on the base sheet to be electrically connected to the first row of electric terminals, and a second row of lands formed on the base sheet to be electrically connected to the second row of electric terminals. A positional relationship between the first row of lands and the second row of lands is equal to a positional relationship between the first row of electric terminals and the second row of electric terminals. A surface area of each land of the first row of lands is greater than a surface area of each land of the second row of lands.

Flexible circuit sheet, continuous tape, and ink jet head

An ink-jet head controller generates drive waveforms selectively at predetermined print cycles to cause ink ejection from a cavity. A waveform generator generates a plurality of waveform signals, including a waveform signal extending over two adjacent print cycles, and a waveform selector selects and outputs to the ink-jet head one of a plurality of waveform signals, based on whether dot data for two adjacent print cycles indicates ink ejection. The waveform selector selects a waveform signal extending over two adjacent print cycles when dot data for a current print cycle indicates ink ejection while dot data for a next print cycle indicates no ink ejection. In addition, a plurality of drive pulses cause ejection of a plurality of ink droplets to form a dot outputted after a certain delay from the start of the current print cycle.

Controller for inkjet apparatus

A flexible flat cable having a driver integrated circuit (IC) thereon is soldered to a piezoelectric actuator of an ink-jet head. A power source equivalent to a power source that generates a voltage required for ink ejection is connected, through a lead wire, to each electrode provided on one side of each piezoelectric element. A negative power source is connected, through another lead wire, to each electrode provided on the other side of each piezoelectric element, that is, on the opposite side from the driver IC. After the piezoelectric actuator is coupled to the flexible flat cable, the piezoelectric elements are polarized using these two power sources.

Ink-jet recording apparatus and method of manufacturing the same

A silicon single crystal substrate is formed with a plurality of channels that are partitioned by a plurality of partition walls and that are arranged at a pitch of 40 &mgr;m or less, for example. A filler material is then introduced into the channels to a height that matches the upper edges of the partition walls. After the filler material is hardened by heating a cover film is deposited to a thickness of 5 &mgr;m or less on the upper surface of the filler material and on the upper edges of the partition walls. As a result, the cover film has the same, flat shape as the upper surface of the filler material and the upper edges of the partition walls. Next, the filler material is removed so that the cover film remains covering the channels. Next, electrodes are formed on the cover film. A drive voltage is applied to a desired electrode to deform the cover film at a corresponding area, whereupon pressure is applied to liquid in the corresponding channel, and liquid is ejected from an aperture that is provided at the front end of the subject channel. Thus, the compact and high density liquid ejection device with a large deformation amount and with good drive efficiency can be easily manufactured.

Growing community of inventors

Nagoya, Japan

Shigeru Suzuki