Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Yoichi Kawabata

Minoru Machida

Mitsuaki Seki

Masayoshi Ozawa

Shotaro Takeuchi

Yuta Moriwaki

Masashi Ohnishi

Yuta Kashiwagi

Yuusuke Matsuki

A liquid supply apparatus includes a liquid container to temporarily store liquid, a vacuum device connected to the liquid container to decompress the liquid container to form a negative pressure in the liquid container and a negative pressure forming device disposed between the liquid container and the vacuum device. The vacuum device includes a gas chamber connected to the liquid container, a flexible member forming a part of wall surface of the gas chamber, a first elastic member to push the flexible member in a first direction to expand the gas chamber, a pressing member to push the flexible member in a second direction opposite the first direction to compress the gas chamber. The gas chamber moves between a connection position and a cutoff position.

Liquid supply apparatus, liquid discharge apparatus, and three-dimensional fabricating apparatus

The liquid discharge apparatus includes a liquid discharge head having nozzles formed therein, to discharge liquid from the nozzles and a cap to contact with or separate from the liquid discharge head to maintain the liquid discharge head. The liquid discharge head includes a common chamber connected to the nozzles, a liquid supply port provided at one end of the liquid discharge head in a longitudinal direction of the liquid discharge head to supply liquid to one end of the common chamber, and a liquid discharge port provided at another end of the liquid discharge head in the longitudinal direction to discharge liquid, which flows through the common chamber and is not discharged from the nozzles, from another end of the common chamber. The cap includes a drainage supply port to be connected with the liquid discharge port of the liquid discharge head with a connection path.

Liquid discharge apparatus and method for maintaining liquid discharge apparatus

A liquid cartridge is detachably attachable to an apparatus body of an image forming apparatus. The liquid cartridge includes a cartridge case, an information memory element, and a holding unit. The cartridge case includes at least two dividable case parts. The at least two dividable case parts form a front face of the cartridge case to face the apparatus body when the liquid cartridge is attached to the apparatus body. An information memory element is held at the front face of the cartridge case. The holding unit is provided in one of the at least two dividable case parts to hold the information memory element with only the one of the at least two dividable case parts. The holding unit includes a groove to receive the information memory element and a displaceable claw to hold the information memory element between the groove and the claw.

Liquid cartridge and image forming apparatus incorporation same

An image forming apparatus is disclosed that includes an ejecting head including a nozzle from which an ink is ejected; a wiper member configured to wipe ink from a surface of the nozzle of the ejecting head; a wiper cleaning portion configured to remove an ink attached to the wiper member when the wiper member is pressed against the wiper cleaning portion, a scraping member actuated in a longitudinal direction of the wiper cleaning portion reciprocatively, and configured to scrape ink attached to the wiper cleaning portion; and a cleaning member configured to remove ink accumulated on the top portion of the scraping member.

Image forming apparatus

An image forming apparatus includes a head tank and a main tank that sends liquid to the head tank. When the remaining ink amount in the main tank is less than or equal to a predetermined amount (near empty), the liquid sending amount to be sent from the main tank to the head tank required for detecting a full state of the head tank is set to be a second liquid sending amount which is greater than a usual first liquid sending amount. An ink supply operation is performed to send liquid corresponding to the second liquid sending amount, from the main tank to the head tank. Then, it is determined whether the head tank is in a full state. When the head tank is not in a full state, the main tank is determined to be in an ink empty state.

A compact electronic calculator having the function of extracting cubic roots comprises a first register for storing therein a number, a circuit for dividing the number in the first register at every three digits and effecting subtraction therefrom, and a second register for storing therein the data provided by the dividing circuit.

Calculator for determining cubic roots

A calculator of the type having parenthesis keys, wherein there is provided means for performing an operation on an expression containing an exponent term or terms by touching keys in the left-to-right sequence as the expression reads.

Electronic calculator having an exponentiation function

An electronic calculator having a pair of parenthesis keys is capable of displaying a temporary partial result obtained from an operation performed on a portion of a numerical expression to be calculated, which portion is included within a pair of parentheses. The partial result may be continuously displayed until the next key operation is executed. A temporary result from an exponent term in an expression is also indicated visually.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Yoichi Kawabata