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. 26, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 23, 2009
Masakazu Okajima, Nagano, JP;
Masakazu Okajima, Nagano, JP;
Mimaki Engineering Co., Ltd., Nagano, JP;
Abstract
In an ink filling method according to the present invention, a suction arrangement having a pump is air-tightly coupled to a head unit having a plurality of ink supply ports, and sucking is performed by using the pump, thereby supplying an ink stored in an ink supply source to a plurality of the ink supply ports via a flow channel arrangement including one ink flow channel that communicates with the ink supply source and a plurality of branched flow channels that branch out from the ink flow channel and communicate with corresponding ones of the ink supply ports. The sucking is stopped from a time point when one of the branched flow channels is entirely filled with the ink until air in the flow channel arrangement moves in a branching portion, and the sucking is resumed when the air has moved in the branching portion.