Olympus Corporation

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Riso Kagaku Corporation

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Canon Seiki Kabushiki Kaisha

Takahisa Yamada

Masanobu Shimizu

Takashi Matsuyama

Kazuo Noda

Yukitaka Kumagai

Motoharu Miki

Tadashi Nishio

Akira Yamamoto

Toshihiro Kitahara

Takashi Miyazawa

Hiroshi Hashi

Kaoru Horie

Keiji Izumi

An image forming apparatus estimates a temperature at nozzles in consideration of temperature changes in a recording head, by temperature sensors provided at an ink supply port and an ink eject port in the recording head. From the estimated temperature and a temperature difference between when feeding ink and when ejecting ink, a temperature control based on heating/cooling is performed by combining a fan and a heater with heating/cooling based on the peltier element, so as to fall within a drivable temperature range in which the nozzles properly discharge ink.

Image forming apparatus which adjusts ink temperature

An image forming apparatus which ejects ink to form an image on a recording medium flows the ink from an upstream side tank to a downstream side tank on an ink circulation path, includes a sensor for detecting a parameter corresponding to variations in amount of the ink in the downstream side tank, and confirms ink circulation in accordance with an amount of ink which returns through circulation from an appropriate amount of ink and a measured time.

Method for confirming ink circulation path and method for filling with ink

An image recording apparatus of the present invention comprises an inkjet head which includes a nozzle plate where a plurality of nozzles that shoot ink are arranged in a column and an ink chamber which retains ink and is connected to the plurality of nozzles, at least one maintenance suction section which has a suction area larger than the nozzles, a suction section driving mechanism which causes the suction area to face the nozzles and moves the suction section relatively in the nozzle arrangement direction; and a positive pressure applying section which applies a positive pressure to the ink chamber. The maintenance suction section sucks in ink near the nozzles as moving in the nozzle arrangement direction, while the positive pressure is being applied to the ink chamber.

Image recording apparatus with maintenance unit

The image forming apparatus is an image forming apparatus equipped with a maintenance mechanism that is divided into a plurality of ink pans, which are connected to each other at an edge of each of which by means of pins, on a bottom surface of each of which a plurality of caps are arranged, which at the time of storage, are stored from guide rails so as to be stored at a position beneath a conveyance path in a V-shaped state, the caps in the ink pans being opposed to each other in a V-shaped state, which are drawn out horizontally along the guide rails to a position beneath the recording head group, and in each of which the caps are allocated to the nozzle surfaces of the recording heads by a hoisting and lowering operation of a belt conveying unit.

Image forming apparatus equipped with maintenance mechanism

An image recording device include a control section. The control section circulates the ink in the ink path by section of a circulation driving section, sets at least one of the heads selected based on a temperature of the heads as a temperature measurement head, and controls the temperature of the ink based on an output value from a corresponding one of the temperature sensors provided in the temperature measurement head.

Image recording device

An image forming apparatus has a recording head portion constituted of head modules having a configuration in which a plurality of small heads are detachably attached in a head mount at alternate positions in a recording medium width direction and a drive portion is also mounted.

Image forming apparatus including line head

An image recording apparatus of the present invention comprises an inkjet head which includes a nozzle plate where a plurality of nozzles that shoot ink are arranged in a column and an ink chamber which retains ink and is connected to the plurality of nozzles, at least one maintenance suction section which has a suction area larger than the nozzles, a suction section driving mechanism which causes the suction area to face the nozzles and moves the suction section relatively in the nozzle arrangement direction, and a positive pressure applying section which applies a positive pressure to the ink chamber. The maintenance suction section sucks in ink near the nozzles as moving in the nozzle arrangement direction, while the positive pressure is being applied to the ink chamber.

An ink jet printer includes ink jet heads for recording an image on a recording medium, an ink bottle for holding ink, an ink supply path connecting the ink bottle to each ink jet head, and an electromagnetic valve provided on the path. In the printer, the bottle, the valve and the heads are arranged downward in this order in the vertical direction, the path constantly exists upwards in the vertical direction in such a manner that air entered into the path moves up above the valve due to a difference in the specific gravity between the air and the ink, the path is provided with a branching portion provided between the valve and the heads, and a sub ink tank is provided at an end of the branching portion so as to be positioned lower than the heads in the vertical direction.

Ink jet printer

An ink jet head includes four plate-like piezoelectric bodies each having a primary surface having a plurality of parallel grooves formed therein in a predetermined direction, a end surface on which a one end of the groove is open, and an electrode formed on the inner surface of the groove. These piezoelectric bodies are stacked one upon the other on the primary surfaces under the state that the openings of these piezoelectric bodies are allowed to face the same direction, and that the primary surfaces of these piezoelectric bodies are allowed to face the same direction. Further, formed is a common liquid supply path allowing the plural grooves of the piezoelectric bodies to communicate with each other to form ink flow path.

Apparatus for ejecting liquid droplets

An image forming apparatus includes a paper feed station from which sheets can be fed from a plurality of roll sheets only by placing the roll sheets in the station, a recording station for recording desired images on the sheets, and a processing station for delivering the sheets on which the images are recorded. The recording station includes a platen roller and a driving pinch roller for pushing and conveying a fed sheet while the sheet is drawn by suction by a suction chamber, a carriage unit for recording an image on the sheet on the suction chamber while moving along the sheet, and a pair of paper delivery rollers for delivering the sheet on which the image is recorded. The processing station includes a table on which the delivered sheets can be sequentially stacked in a predetermined position, and a biasing spring for biasing the pivotal distal end portion of the table.

Image forming apparatus

A method of forming a stator for a stepping motor, including the steps of forming comb teeth by cutting a flat section of a plate having a cylindrical section around the flat section and bending the comb teeth up to a first angle. Next, the comb teeth are bent up to a second angle larger than the first angle and the thickness of the comb teeth is reduced so as to render uniform the thickness of all the comb teeth. Then, the cylindrical section is subjected to a drawing process at least one time. Finally, the comb teeth are bent up to a right angle. As a result, the occurrence of cambers in the comb teeth is eliminated and the comb teeth are not inclined in the peripheral direction. Also, the accuracy with which the comb teeth are bent to a right angle can be improved thereby.

Method of manufacturing stator for stepping motor

An image forming apparatus includes an image carrier rotatably disposed in a main body and having an image carrier surface, a transfer unit for transferring a toner image formed on the image carrier surface to a recording member, and a cleaning blade located in a downstream side of the transfer unit in a rotational direction of the image carrier and scraping a residual toner left on the image carrier surface. The transfer unit is located on a portion of the image carrier such that an imaginary normal extending outward from the image carrier surface is directed upward with respect to a horizontal direction and the transfer unit transfers the toner image to a lower surface of the recording member. The cleaning blade is brought into contact with a downward moving portion of the image carrier which has passed through the transfer unit, at a contact angle of not less than 90.degree. relative to the downstream portion of the carrier in a 'with' contact state, and the residual toner scraped by the cleaning blade is moved downard along an upper surface of the cleaning blade.

Cleaning blade arrangement for image forming apparatus

A cover is pivotally supported on the main body frame to close an opening formed on the side of the main body frame, and pivotally supports a sheet convey unit positioned between the cover and the main body frame. A sheet inserted into the main body frame is conveyed along a guide path defined between the main body frame and the convey unit to an image forming section so that one surface of the sheet is printed. Then, the sheet is turned and transferred along the path defined between the cover and the convey unit. The sheet is again conveyed to the image forming section so that the other surface of the sheet is printed.

Growing community of inventors

Hachioji, Japan

Takahisa Yamada