Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Yoichiro Shimizu

Naoya Okazaki

Masayuki Takata

Hirotake Nakamura

Takamasa Usui

Takaichiro Umeda

Tomoyuki Kubo

Seiji Shimizu

Tsuyoshi Suzuki

Yoshitsugu Morita

Hikaru Kaga

Masahiro Nishizaki

Takahiro Yamada

Bing Wang

Masaru Someya

Shingo Hattori

Keita Sugiura

Kosuke Nukui

Hiromitsu Mizutani

Akihiko Taniguchi

Koichiro Hara

Takao Hyakudome

Kenji Matoba

Kazuaki Iwatsuki

In a fluid ejection apparatus, fluid flows from a tank, through a fluid inlet, to a fluid supply passage which extends to nozzles. A driver is configured to apply energy to fluid in the fluid supply passage to eject fluid from the nozzles. A purge unit is configured to purge fluid from the nozzles to execute first purging. A controller is configured to receive, from a user input unit, a refill completion signal indicating that the tank is refilled with fluid, obtain an amount of fluid consumed since receipt of the refill completion signal by counting an amount of fluid discharged from the nozzles, and determine an amount of fluid to be purged by the first purging by subtracting the amount of fluid consumed from a total capacity of the fluid supply passage.

Fluid ejection apparatus

A liquid ejection apparatus includes: a head including an ejection surface, an internal passage and ejection openings; a cap mechanism including a facing member and an elastic member; and a controller for: performing an ejection-opening purging operation for, after establishing a first isolated state of an ejection space, discharging liquid from the ejection openings by establishing an isolating state of a discharge passage in a state in which the liquid in a tank is supplied to the internal passage by a pump; and thereafter stopping the liquid in the tank from being supplied to the internal passage. The controller controls the cap mechanism in the ejection-opening purging operation to switch the ejection space from the first isolated state to a second isolated state in which the ejection space is isolated, with the facing member spaced from the ejection surface at a greater distance than in the first isolated state.

Liquid ejection apparatus

An image recording apparatus includes a liquid applying mechanism that applies a first liquid onto a recording medium, a liquid discharge head that discharges a second liquid onto the recording medium, a wiper that wipes a liquid discharge surface of the liquid discharge head, and a processor. The processor counts a number of jams of the recording medium and a number of passages of the recording medium through the liquid discharge head. The processor increments the number of jams when the number of passages is equal to or greater than a first threshold value. The image recording apparatus performs a head recovery operation when a jam of a recording medium occurs and when the number of jams is incremented.

Image recording apparatuses

A liquid ejecting apparatus includes: a head that contains an ejection surface where a plurality of ejection ports are opened; a sensor that detects a contact between the recording medium and the ejection surface; an ejection duty detecting unit, when the sensor detects the contact, that is configured to detect an ejection duty of the liquids of an image formed in an area of the recording medium, which comes into contact with the ejection surface; and a maintenance unit, when the sensor detects the contact, that is configured to stop an operation based on a record command and is configured to perform maintenance including compulsory ejection which ejects liquids from the ejection ports, wherein the maintenance unit adjusts the amount of the liquids, which are ejected in the compulsory ejection, according to the ejection duty, which is detected by the ejection duty detecting unit.

Liquid ejecting apparatus, control device, and program

A liquid ejection apparatus includes: a head having an ejection face; a humid-air supplier including a storage portion for storing humidification liquid containing water and a non-volatile component and configured to perform a humidifying operation in which humid air humidified by the humidification liquid is supplied into a space near the ejection face; and an indicator obtainer configured to obtain an indicator indicating a concentration of the non-volatile component in the humidification liquid in the storage portion. The humidifying operation is performed after the ejection space is switched to the sealed state. An amount of the humid air and/or an amount of water of the humid air to be supplied in the humidifying operation is increased with increase in the concentration indicated by the indicator.

An ink jet printer including a carriage which is movable relative to a sheet of paper, a recording head which is mounted on the carriage and records an image on the sheet by ejecting a droplet of ink toward the sheet, one or more ink tanks which store the ink or inks to be supplied to the recording head, a buffer tank which is mounted on the carriage, and one or more ink flow passages in which the inks are supplied from the ink tanks to the recording head via the buffer tank. The buffer tank has, at a height position higher than a height position where the recording head is provided, one or more air buffer chambers which accommodate respective amounts of the inks, and collect air bubbles produced in the ink flow passages.

Air bubble removal in an ink jet printer

A recording apparatus may comprise a recording head which has an ejection surface, and a wiping device configured to move in a wiping direction. The wiping device may comprise a wiper and a wiper holder. The wiping device may comprise a cam mechanism configured to support the wiper holder and change the height of the wiper holder, such that the wiper is positioned at a contacting height when the cam mechanism is moving in the wiping direction, and such that the wiper is positioned at a separation height when the cam mechanism is moving in the retracting direction. The wiping device may comprise a guide mechanism. The wiping device may comprise a moving device configured to move the wiper and the wiper holder together with the cam mechanism by moving the cam mechanism selectively in either the wiping direction or a retracting direction.

Recording apparatus and wiping device

A liquid ejection head includes: an ejection port; a supply section and a discharge section; a main flow channel; a supply flow channel; a filter; and a sub flow channel, one end of which is connected to a first connection position near the supply section, and the other end of which is connected to a second connection position near the discharge section, wherein the main flow channel and the sub flow channel are formed such that, in supplying the liquid from the supply section to the main flow channel at a predetermined flow rate, the higher the predetermined flow rate is, the more the ratio of a flow rate in the main flow channel from the first connection position to the second connection position to a flow rate in the sub flow channel increases.

Liquid ejection head and recording apparatus having the same

A damper control section controls a piezoelectric actuator attached to a damper, in a printing mode of jetting an ink by a pressure applied by an actuator for jetting, to suppress a pressure fluctuation in an ink storage chamber, and controls the piezoelectric actuator, in a purge mode of discharging forcibly the ink in the ink-jet head as a waste liquid, to transport the ink in the ink storage chamber to the ink-jet head.

Liquid Droplet jetting apparatus

A liquid ejection head may include a first flow channel member and a second flow channel member, wherein the first flow channel member and the second flow channel member are disposed to form a liquid supply flow channel configured to supply liquid to an ejection port, a supply and discharge flow channel communicated with a supply port and a discharge port, and a communicating flow channel configured to communicate the supply and discharge flow channel to the liquid supply flow channel. The liquid ejection head may also include a seal member which constitutes a part of the supply and discharge flow channel and connects the first flow channel member to the second flow channel member in a water-tight manner. The communicating flow channel may be communicated with the supply and discharge flow channel via a filter disposed in the interior of the second flow channel member.

Liquid ejection head and ink-jet printer

An inkjet recording apparatus comprising: an ink tank that has an ink reservoir; a recording head that has an ink inlet connected to the ink reservoir; a box-shaped head holder on which the ink tank and the recording head are mounted; a discharge passage for discharging air separated from the ink, the discharge passage being opened through a valve element to the outside; and a manipulation member that is provided outside the head holder, wherein the head holder has a bottom wall portion and a side wall portion, wherein the recording head is fixed to the bottom wall portion, wherein the ink tank is fixed to the bottom wall portion, and wherein the inkjet recording apparatus further comprises a discharge case that has at least a part of the discharge passage therein and that is formed integrally with the head holder to constitute a part of the side wall portion.

Inkjet recording apparatus

A liquid discharge apparatus includes: a head having a nozzle surface having a plurality of nozzles which are open in the nozzle surface and through which a liquid is discharged toward an object; a transporting device which transports the object relative to the nozzle surface in a transporting direction and which positions the object to face the nozzle surface; a platen having a flexibility or bendability and provided with an attachment portion to which the object is attached; and a platen moving device which moves the platen in a direction orthogonal to the transporting direction to position the attachment portion at a nozzle facing position facing the nozzle surface under the condition that the liquid is discharged toward the object.

Liquid discharge apparatus with platen and platen moving device and method for controlling the same

A liquid droplet jetting apparatus includes a jetting head unit which jets liquid droplet from nozzles, and which is displaced in a jetting direction in which the liquid droplets are jetted and in an opposite direction opposite to the jetting direction, a capping mechanism including a cap covering a nozzle opening surface in which the nozzles of the jetting head unit open, and performing a capping operation in which the cap is moved in the opposite direction from a stand-by position, which is away from the nozzle opening surface, to a capping position at which the cap covers the nozzle opening surface, a stopper which is arranged with a spacing distance from the jetting head unit, and which regulates a displacement of the jetting head unit in the opposite direction, and a first buffer which is arranged between the jetting head unit and the stopper.

A processing liquid applying apparatus includes a processing liquid transfer roller which transfers a processing liquid to a transfer medium while rotating in a predetermined direction; a processing liquid applying section which applies the processing liquid to a surface of the processing liquid transfer roller; a downstream wall which is positioned on a downstream side in a rotating direction of the processing liquid transfer roller with respect to the processing liquid applying section; and a downstream wall moving mechanism which moves the downstream wall between a downstream wall first position at which the downstream wall is positioned when the processing liquid is transferred to the transfer medium and a downstream wall second position at which the downstream wall is positioned when the surface of the processing liquid transfer roller is washed with the processing liquid.

Processing liquid applying apparatus and image-forming apparatus

A head for ejecting a liquid from ejection holes, including: a first flow-passage member in which are formed (a) a liquid-supply passage, (b) branch passages connected to the liquid-supply passage, and (c) discharge passages each being connected to any of the branch passages; a second flow-passage member in which are formed (a) at least one common passage each communicating with at least one of the branch passages and (b) individual passages having respective pressure chambers, each individual passage being connected to any one of the at least one common passage and introducing the liquid to a corresponding one of the ejection holes via a corresponding one of the pressure chambers; a first filter disposed in the liquid-supply passage; second filters disposed between the branch passages and the at least one common passage: and at least one energy giving member for giving ejection energy to the liquid in each pressure chamber.

Growing community of inventors

Kasugai, Japan

Yoichiro Shimizu