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:
Feb. 11, 2003
Filed:
Feb. 12, 2001
Applicant:
Inventors:
Assignee:
Hitachi Koki Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B41J 2/165 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
B41J 2/165 ;
Abstract
A head is formed with a plurality of nozzles and a common ink chamber fluidly connected with the nozzles. A sub ink tank is provided above the head. Ink housed in a main ink tank is supplied into the sub ink tank through the common ink chamber when an image forming operation is not performed. At this time, air bubbles existing in the common ink chamber is brought into the sub ink tank along with the ink supplied from the main ink tank. The air bubbles collected into the sub ink tank in this manner are released into the ambient air through a valve provided to the sub ink tank.