Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Lac Corporation

Tadashi Kaiba

Shuusei Murai

Koji Kobayashi

Syusei Murai

A valve type nozzle controls discharge of liquid by opening and closing an discharge port by a valve element, the discharge port being configured to discharge the liquid, and the valve element being formed movably by applying a predetermined voltage to a piezoelectric element, whereby when the predetermined voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element, the valve element moves in a direction where the moving mechanism opens the discharge port when the piezoelectric element extends. This allows the liquid to be discharged. Further, when the application of the voltage to the piezoelectric element is released, the moving mechanism returns to an original shape, by which the valve element closes the discharge port is closed to prevent the discharge of the liquid.

Valve type nozzle and liquid discharge apparatus

A liquid jet device includes a head that discharges liquid to an object; a moving mechanism that moves at least one of the object and the head; and a controller that causes the head to discharge the liquid while moving the at least one of the object and the head in a first direction to form a first row of dots, and causes the head to discharge the liquid while moving the at least one of the object and the head in a second direction opposite the first direction to form a second row of dots that overlaps the first row of dots. The controller causes the center of the first dot in the second row of dots to be shifted from the center of the last dot in the first row of dots by a distance greater than or equal to a distance d.

Liquid jet device

A three dimensional modeling apparatus is provided that includes an inkjet nozzle for discharging a molding material; a plurality of recording heads each having the inkjet nozzle; and a curing section for curing the molding material. Each of the plurality of recording heads includes a first recording head that discharges the molding material downward, and at least one of a second recording head that discharges the modeling material in a horizontal direction or a third recording head that discharges the modeling material upward. The inkjet nozzle opens and closes a discharging port with a valve body to discharge the molding material.

Three dimensional modeling apparatus

A predetermined area of a print surface is captured by a camera as a plurality of subdivided images to include an end edge portion of a previously printed image on a coating-target object, the end edge portion serving as a connection portion with an image to be drawn to be printed contiguous to the printed image, a composite print surface, which is a plane projection of the print-target surface which is non-plane, is created on the basis of the captured subdivided images, an edited image to be drawn is created by superimposing the image to be drawn on the composite print surface, and the image to be drawn is adjacently printed contiguous to the printed image on the basis of the edited image to be drawn.

Three-dimensional printing method

A liquid discharge head for controlling discharging of liquid, the liquid discharge head including a valve body configured to be movable, and to be pressed towards a discharge port from which the liquid is discharged; and a recessed portion provided in the valve body at a position facing the discharge port.

Liquid discharge head, head unit, apparatus for discharging liquid, and liquid discharging method

A valve type nozzle controls discharge of a liquid by opening and closing a discharge port by a valve element. The discharge port discharges the liquid, and the valve element moves by applying a predetermined voltage to a piezoelectric element. When the predetermined voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element, the piezoelectric element extends and the valve element moves in a direction where the moving mechanism opens the discharge port. This allows the liquid to be discharged. Further, when the application of the voltage to the piezoelectric element is released, the moving mechanism returns to an original shape by which the valve element closes the discharge port to prevent the discharge of the liquid.

A printing apparatus which is capable of printing a pattern and/or a character on a curved printed surface, such as an airframe surface of a passenger aircraft, in a very short time. A head array having therein a plurality of inkjet nozzles for ejecting ink toward a remote position by supplying pressurized air to ink tanks filled with the ink, respectively, is mounted on a linear array so as to be able to perform linear reciprocation, the linear rail being held by a robot arm of a multi-articulated robot 5, and a position at which the robot arm 5a is to be disposed is controlled on the basis of position information, while controlling of driving of predetermined nozzles in the head array is performed in association with the position information.

Printing apparatus

A printing device having a turntable for turning a mounted printing object so that its printed face is directed upward, a printing head having a plurality of nozzles for spouting inks and being able to move toward a center of rotation of the printing object from outside the rotation of the printed face, and a controller provided for controlling a moving speed of the printing head, a rotating speed of the turntable, and spouting of the inks by the plurality of the nozzles, to perform a controlling operation in a manner such that a printing is spirally applied onto the printed face of the printing object by permitting the printing object mounted on the turntable to be rotated and by permitting the printing head to continuously move while allowing the plurality of the nozzles to spout therefrom the inks.

Printing device

An automatic painting device wherein control for driving spray gun heads in a Z axis direction is executed correctly with respect to a surface to be painted having a curved shape so that painting can be effected while keeping a constant interval between the plurality of spray gun heads and the surface to be painted. The automatic painting device can include a spray gun head unit holding a plurality of spray gun heads, an X axis direction driving mechanism for driving the spray gun head unit in a horizontal X axis direction, and a Y axis direction driving mechanism for driving the spray gun head unit in a Y axis direction perpendicular thereto, and in which different paints are ejected by the plurality of spray gun heads. The different spray gun heads are held by the spray gun head unit movably in a Z axis direction perpendicular to the x axis direction and the Y axis direction, independently from each other. The automatic painting device includes Z axis direction driving motors, which drive the spray gun heads in the Z axis direction, independently from each other on the basis of measured data and set data relating to a distance between a relevant spray gun head and an object to be painted. In this way the distance between the different spray gun heads and the surface to be painted constant can be kept constant, which improves remarkably the image quality of painting.

Automatic painting device

An automatic printing device according to this invention comprises a spray gun head ejecting ink jets of e.g. three primitive colors and black, a CPU processing image signals inputted from a television camera, a mechanism for driving 3-dimensionally the spray gun head, etc., and can print automatically an enlarged color image consisting of a number of pixels directly on a wall surface, etc. by the fact that the mechanism drives the spray gun head according to signals coming from this CPU.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Tadashi Kaiba