The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 22, 1998
Filed:
Mar. 04, 1996
Shuzo Hirahara, Yokohama, JP;
Hitoshi Nagato, Tokyo, JP;
Yuko Nomura, Kawasaki, JP;
Koichi Ishii, Kawasaki, JP;
Yasuo Hosaka, Tokyo, JP;
Hideyuki Nakao, Kawasaki, JP;
Teruo Murakami, Yokohama, JP;
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Kawasaki, JP;
Abstract
An auxiliary substrate is provided so as to face a main substrate to which ink is supplied and the pattern of a voltage applied to an auxiliary electrode array formed on the auxiliary substrate is controlled. In a printing operation, the coloring material components are sent to the vicinity of an ink droplet emitting outlet and the coloring material components in the ink where the coloring material is dispersed in solvent are concentrated. Then, they are emitted from the ink droplet emitting outlet in the form of ink droplets and are forced to fly at a printing medium, thereby printing on the medium. In a non-printing operation, the auxiliary electrode array is controlled so that the coloring material components may be kept away from the ink droplet emitting outlet and the concentration of the coloring material components in the ink near the ink droplet emitting outlet is made lower than in a printing operation.