Seiko Epson Corporation

Yusuke Sakagami

Osamu Shinkawa

Jun Amako

Koji Higuchi

Koki Tajima

Tetsushi Takahashi

Kazuhiko Sato

Tomoki Hatano

Tadaaki Hagata

Kunihiro Inoue

Tadashi Shimizu

A sensor chip includes a substrate, a relief structure composed of protruding sections formed so as to be arranged on a surface of the substrate to have a lattice shape and a recessed section between the protruding sections, and fine metal particles arranged along upper ridge lines of the respective protruding sections of the relief structure, the protruding sections being adjacent to each other, having a minute gap with which the surface plasmon resonance occurs. By irradiating the gap between the fine metal particles with a laser beam, the localized surface plasmon resonance occurs more efficiently. As a result, the sensor chip capable of taking out the surface enhanced Raman scattering to thereby detect the substance with high sensitivity can be realized.

Sensor chip, detection device, and method of manufacturing sensor chip

A detection apparatus includes: a first light source group having a plurality of light sources; a switch that switches the plurality of light sources to activate at least one of the light sources, a first optical system that introduces light from the activated light source into an electrical conductor of an optical device; and a detector that detects Raman scattering light from the light scattered or reflected by the electrical conductor. Each of the plurality of light sources of the first light source group is capable of radiating light having different polarization directions.

Detection apparatus

An optical device unit includes: an optical device which has an electrical conductor and is capable of enhancing Raman scattering light generated by receiving light from a light source; and a first guide unit which guides a gaseous sample to the optical device. The optical device unit is detachable from the detection apparatus.

Optical device unit and detection apparatus

A printing apparatus includes a first transport belt group including endless belts arranged at predetermined intervals in a direction intersecting a transport direction of a printing medium, a second transport belt group including endless belts arranged so as to oppose the first transport belt group and configured to transport the printing medium while the printing medium is clamped between the first transport belt group and the second transport belt group, and a group of liquid ejecting heads provided between the endless belts of the first transport belt group or between the endless belts of the second transport belt group and configured to eject liquid onto the printing medium being transported.

Printing apparatus

An optical device unit includes: an optical device that has an electrical conductor and that is capable of enhancing Raman scattering light generated by receiving light from a light source; and a guide unit that guides a gaseous sample to the optical device. The guide unit has a first fluid path for rotating the gaseous sample in an area facing the optical device.

A printer includes first transporting belts disposed in parallel at predetermined intervals in the direction intersecting the direction of transportation of print media. The first transporting belts transport a print medium while adsorbing the print medium. Second transporting belts disposed in parallel at predetermined intervals in the direction intersecting the direction of transportation of print media further transport the print media. The second transporting belts are separated from the first transporting belts at the downstream part of the first transporting belts in the direction of transportation of print media. A print head prints on the print medium. The position of separation at which the print medium is separated from the first transporting belts is different in the direction of transportation of print media between one of the first transporting belts and another one of the first transporting belts.

Printer with staggered transporting belts

An ink jet printer includes: ink jet heads that discharge aqueous ink droplets onto a printing surface of a printing medium that is transported in a predetermined direction; a vapor supply unit that is provided at a downstream side of the ink jet head in a direction in which the printing medium is transported and supplies vapor to a surface of the printing medium opposite the printing surface of the printing medium having the liquid droplets discharged from the ink jet heads in a non-contact manner; and a vapor electrostatic deposition unit that deposits the vapor supplied from the vapor supply unit to the surface of the printing medium opposite the printing surface of the printing medium using electrostatic force.

Ink jet printer

An ink jet printer that performs printing by discharging ink droplets from nozzles of an ink jet head onto a print medium includes: a moisture adjusting unit that is provided at a downstream side of the ink jet head in a print medium transport direction and adjusts moisture of the print medium by moving moisture of a printing surface of the print medium, onto which the ink droplets are discharged from the ink jet head, to a surface opposite the printing surface; and a moisture adjustment control unit that controls moisture adjustment of the print medium performed by the moisture adjusting unit in accordance with a ratio of the number of nozzles, from which the ink droplets from the ink jet head are discharged, to the total number of nozzles.

It is an object of the invention to provide a droplet ejection apparatus and a method of detecting and judging a head failure that can detect an ejection failure and carry out appropriate recovery processing according to a cause thereof. The droplet ejection apparatus of the invention includes a plurality of droplet ejection heads, each of the droplet ejection heads including a diaphragm and an actuator which displaces the diaphragm; a driving circuit which drives the actuator of each droplet ejection head; residual vibration detectorfor detecting a residual vibration of the diaphragm displaced by the actuator after the actuator has been driven by the driving circuit; pulse generator for generating reference pulses; information processorfor carrying out a computation for the number of reference pulses generated by the pulse generator on the basis of the residual vibration of the diaphragm detected by the residual vibration detector; time measurer for measuring a lapsed time since the actuator has been driven by the driving circuit; and head failure judgefor judging a head failure in the droplet ejection heads on the basis of the computation result of the information processorand the lapsed time measured by the time measurer.

Droplet ejection apparatus and a method of detecting and judging head failure in the same

It is an object of the invention to provide a droplet ejection apparatus and a method of detecting and judging a head failure that can detect an ejection failure and carry out appropriate recovery processing according to a cause thereof. The droplet ejection apparatus of the invention includes a plurality of droplet ejection heads, each of the droplet ejection heads including a diaphragm and an actuator which displaces the diaphragm; a driving circuit which drives the actuator of each droplet ejection head; residual vibration detecting meansfor detecting a residual vibration of the diaphragm displaced by the actuator after the actuator has been driven by the driving circuit; pulse generating means for generating reference pulses; computation meansfor carrying out a computation for the number of reference pulses generated by the pulse generating means on the basis of the residual vibration of the diaphragm detected by the residual vibration detecting means; time measuring means for measuring a lapsed time since the actuator has been driven by the driving circuit; and head failure judging meansfor judging a head failure in the droplet ejection heads on the basis of the computation result of the computation meansand the lapsed time measured by the time measuring means.

It is an object of the invention to provide a droplet ejection apparatus that can carry out appropriate recovery processing easily and surely in the recovery processing for droplet ejection heads when the apparatus is powered on. The droplet ejection apparatus of the invention has a driving circuit and a plurality of droplet ejection heads. Each of the droplet ejection heads includes a cavity filled with a liquid, a nozzle communicated with the cavity, an actuator driven by the driving circuit, and a diaphragm displaced by the actuator, and ejects the liquid within the cavity through the nozzle in the form of droplets by driving the actuator with the driving circuit. The droplet ejection apparatus further includes: ejection failure detecting and recovery processing determining means () which detects a residual vibration of the diaphragm at least when the apparatus is powered on, and then detects an ejection failure of the droplet ejection heads on the basis of a vibration pattern of the detected residual vibration of the diaphragm and determines recovery processing for eliminating the ejection failure; and recovery meansfor carrying out the recovery processing determined by the ejection failure detecting and recovery processing determining means.

Droplet ejection apparatus

It is an object of the invention to provide a droplet ejection apparatus that can detect whether or not a missing dot (absence of a pixel) actually occurs on a formed image, and can carry out appropriate recovery processing according to a cause of the ejection failure without conventional sequential recovery processing by identifying the cause thereof in the case where a missing dot is detected. The droplet ejection apparatus of the invention includes a plurality of droplet ejection heads, ejection failure detecting meansfor detecting an ejection failure of the droplet through the nozzle, and recovery meansfor carrying out recovery processing to eliminate a cause of the ejection failure of the droplet. The ejection failure detecting meansdetects the ejection failure with respect to a droplet ejection operation of each droplet ejected through the nozzles when the plurality of droplet ejection heads eject the droplets onto the droplet receptor. In the case where the ejection failure is detected, the droplet ejection apparatusinterrupts the ejection of the droplets onto the droplet receptor and make the recovery meanscarry out the recovery processing in accordance with the cause of the ejection failure.

A droplet ejection apparatus includes a main power supply, power cutoff detecting means, a standby power supply, residual vibration detecting means, storage means, and ejection failure detecting means. When cutoff of the main power supply is detected, an actuator is driven by a driving circuit, the residual vibration detecting means detects the residual vibration of the diaphragm displaced by the driving of the actuator, and the storage means stores the vibration pattern of the residual vibration of the diaphragm detected by the residual vibration detecting means and/or the information obtained from the vibration pattern. The ejection failure detecting means include an oscillation circuit that oscillates in response to an electric capacitance component that varies with the residual vibration of the diaphragm.

Droplet ejection apparatus including recovery processing with a standby power supply

A droplet ejection apparatus includes ejection failure detecting means for detecting an ejection failure, counting means for counting the number of ejection failures, and droplet receptor transporting means which carry out discharge and feed of the droplet receptor. The ejection failure detecting means detect the ejection failure with respect to a droplet ejection operation when the plurality of droplet ejection heads eject the droplets onto the droplet receptor. In the case where the number of ejection failures exceeds a predetermined reference value, the droplet ejection apparatus stops the droplet ejection operation and operates the droplet receptor transporting means to discharge the droplet receptor from and feed another droplet receptor to the droplet ejection apparatus to carry out a new and same droplet ejection operation with respect to the fed droplet receptor.

Growing community of inventors

Shiojiri, Japan

Yusuke Sakagami