Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Tomohiro Nodsu

Satoru Arakane

Masahiro Hayashi

Sadaaki Miyazaki

Yasuhiro Sekiguchi

Yuichi Ito

Shin Hasegawa

Hiroto Sugahara

Akira Iriguchi

Shotaro Kanzaki

Takamasa Usui

Shotaro Iida

Yoshiharu Furuhata

Masanobu Ogawa

Masaru Someya

Shota Iida

A printing device includes a printing portion, a maintenance portion, and a controller. The printing portion includes an ejection head and prints using ink. The maintenance portion performs maintenance on the ejection head. The maintenance involves consumption of ink. The controller has a manual maintenance mode and an automated maintenance mode. In the manual maintenance mode, the controller executes a maintenance using the maintenance portion in response to a maintenance command signal based on a manual operation. In the automated maintenance mode, the controller automatically executes a maintenance using the maintenance portion in response to a maintenance execution condition being met. Based on control information acquired, the controller switches an operating mode of the printing device from a first operating mode of selectively executing the manual maintenance mode and the automated maintenance mode to a second operation mode of executing the automated maintenance mode without executing the manual maintenance mode.

Printing device including controller provided with manual maintenance mode and automated maintenance mode as control mode for controlling maintenance portion

A liquid discharging apparatus includes: a head having a plurality of nozzles; and a controller. The controller executes: a discharging processing of discharging liquid, from each of the nozzles toward a recording medium, in a liquid droplet amount which is selected for each of pixels from at least three kinds of liquid droplet amounts; and a total discharge amount calculating processing of calculating a total discharge amount of the liquid to be discharged from the nozzles in the discharging processing, based on the liquid droplet amount selected for each of the pixels and a discharge duty which is density of the liquid droplet per a unit area of the recording medium.

Liquid discharging apparatus, controlling method for liquid discharging apparatus and medium storing controlling program for liquid discharging apparatus

There is provided a liquid discharge apparatus including: a conveyer; head chips; a circulation channel; and a controller. Each head chip includes a manifold; a nozzle group, and actuators. Each head chip is configured to execute discharge drive and non-discharge vibration drive. The head chips include: an end head chip; a facing head chip facing the recording medium; and a non-facing head chip not facing the recording medium. The controller is configured to make at least one of a circulation flowing amount of a liquid in the circulation channel in the facing head chip and a frequency of the non-discharge vibration drive by an actuator included in the actuators in the facing head chip larger than those of the non-facing head chip.

Liquid discharge apparatus, liquid discharge method and non transitory computer-readable medium storing control program for liquid discharge apparatus

There is provided a liquid discharge apparatus including a discharge head including nozzles and actuators; a liquid detecting sensor; and a controller. The controller is configured to: cause the actuators to perform a discharge operation; calculate a discharge amount of the liquid discharged from each of the nozzles; determine the discharge amount of the liquid; and cause a first actuator corresponding to a first nozzle, whose discharge amount is less than a first predetermined amount, and a second actuator corresponding to a second nozzle, whose discharge amount is not less than the first predetermined amount and less than a second predetermined amount, to perform a flushing, without causing a third actuator corresponding to a third nozzle, whose discharge amount is not less than the second predetermined amount, to perform the flushing.

Liquid discharge apparatus, liquid discharge method, and medium storing program executable by liquid discharge apparatus

There is provided an image recording apparatus including: a head; a driving element; a controller configured to output, to the driving element, a driving signal having a first voltage level or a second voltage level greater than the first voltage level; and a moving mechanism causing one of the recording medium and the head to move relative to the other of the recording medium and the head. The controller sets the voltage level of the driving signal to be the first voltage level in a case that the controller causes the head to move relative to the recording medium at the first velocity; and the controller sets the voltage level of the driving signal to be the second voltage level in a case that the controller causes the head to move relative to the recording medium at the second velocity.

Image recording apparatus

An ink-jet recording apparatus, including: a recording head including a first nozzle communicating with a first chamber storing a first ink and a second nozzle communicating with a second chamber storing a second ink whose viscosity change rate differs from the first ink; and a controller configured to determine a drive voltage to be a first voltage and determine voltage application timings for the respective first and second nozzles to be a first timing when estimated viscosity of the first ink is lower than a first viscosity and to determine the drive voltage to be a second voltage higher than the first voltage, determine the voltage application timing for the first nozzle to be the first timing, and determine the voltage application timing for the second nozzle to be a second timing different from the first timing when the estimated viscosity is equal to or higher than the first viscosity.

Ink-jet recording apparatus

An ink-jet recording apparatus includes: an ink-jet head provided with first and second nozzles for jetting a first ink and a second ink respectively, first and second drive elements which apply energy to the first and second inks respectively; a power supply circuit; and a controller. The controller estimates viscosity of the first ink in the first nozzle, controls the power supply circuit to generate a first drive voltage or a second drive voltage higher than the first drive voltage based on the viscosity of the first ink in the first nozzle estimated, drives the first and second drive elements by use of the drive voltage generated in the power supply circuit, and calculates a jetting amount of the first ink to be jetted from the first nozzle and a jetting amount of the second ink to be jetted from the second nozzle.

An image recording apparatus includes: an ink-jet head including an energy applier that causes ejection of ink; a medium supplier that supplies a recording medium; a first sensor provided on a supply path through which the recording medium is to be supplied to the ink-jet head by the medium supplier; and a controller. The controller controls the energy applier to perform first preparatory driving including flushing before the ink-jet head performs image recording. The controller controls the energy applier to perform second preparatory driving including the flushing or ink agitation driving after the first preparatory driving and detection of the recording medium by the first sensor. The controller controls the energy applier to perform the second preparatory driving in accordance with an elapsed time extending from an input of a recording command to the detection of the recording medium by the first sensor.

Liquid ejection apparatus

A liquid ejection apparatus stores ejection pattern information and slight vibration pattern information indicating two-dimensional arrangements of ejection information and slight vibration information, respectively. A controller transmits an ejection signal when the ejection information at a first position in the ejection pattern information is first information and when the slight vibration information at a second position in the slight vibration pattern information is third information or fourth information. The controller transmits a slight vibration signal the ejection information at the first position is second information and when the slight vibration information at the second position is the third information. The controller transmits a non-vibration signal when the ejection information at the first position is the second information and when the slight vibration information at the second position is the fourth information.

An ink-jet printer, including a density detector and a controller, wherein, where successive three ejecting operations to be repeatedly performed on the same predetermined region of a recording medium are defined as first through third ejecting operations in the order of performance, the controller executes: a process for detecting a color density of the predetermined region immediately after attachment of the ink ejected in the second ejecting operation; a process for calculating, based on the detected color density, an estimated density after fixation of the ink ejected in the second ejecting operation; a process for calculating, based on print data, an ideal density after fixation of the ink ejected in the second ejecting operation; and a process for correcting the print data based on a difference between the estimated density and the ideal density, and wherein the ink-jet printer performs the third ejecting operation based on the corrected print data.

Ink-jet printer and method of performing printing

A piezoelectric actuator includes one piezoelectric layer, a common electrode disposed on the lower surface of the piezoelectric layer and individual electrodes disposed on the upper surface of the piezoelectric layer. In the piezoelectric layer, a plurality of metal patterns arranged at regular intervals in the conveyance direction and in a direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction and overlapping with pressure chambers are provided substantially at the central part in the direction of the thickness. The metal patterns are not electrically continuous with each other and not electrically continuous with other parts. The metal patterns situated outermost in the conveyance direction are disposed so as to cross the edge of the pressure chamber. Some metal patterns overlap with the individual electrode and the other metal patterns do not overlap with the individual electrode.

Piezoelectric actuator and method of manufacturing piezoelectric actuator

A printer includes an inkjet head that includes a plurality of individual flow passages each including a nozzle and a manifold commonly communicating with the plurality of individual flow passages, a heater that heats ink in the manifold, and a temperature sensor that detects a temperature of ink in the manifold. After the heater heats ink in the manifold, liquid droplets are ejected from the nozzles of the inkjet head. Abnormal ejection of the nozzle is detected based on a detected change in a temperature of the ink in the manifold.

Liquid-droplet ejection device

An ink-jet printer includes an ink jet head which jets liquid droplets of an ink onto a recording medium; a scanning mechanism which reciprocates the ink-jet head in a forward scan direction and a backward scan direction; a transport mechanism which transports the recording medium in a transport direction intersecting with the forward and backward scan directions; and a jetting controller which controls the ink-jet head. The jetting controller has a reference jetting amount setting section which sets a reference jetting amount based on an input image data for each of a plurality of scans of the ink-jet head, and a jetting amount adjusting section which makes a jetting amount be smaller than the reference jetting amount with respect to an overlapping area at which liquid droplet jetting areas of the forward scan and the backward scan partially overlap each other.

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Seto, Japan

Tomohiro Nodsu