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:
Jun. 18, 2013
Filed:
Feb. 01, 2011
Kiyomi Kuroda, Matsumoto, JP;
Kiyomi Kuroda, Matsumoto, JP;
Seiko Epson Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A cleaning control method accurately detects the nozzle recovery condition after cleaning and efficiently eliminates ejection problems. When a regular cleaning command is received from a host device, the inkjet printerapplies an ink suction operation to the inkjet headas a first cleaning step. After the ink suction operation ends, a nozzle check is performed after waiting a delay time T. If a faulty nozzle is detected, a second ink suction operation is performed, the delay time T is waited, and the nozzle check is then run again. The ink suction operation, waiting delay time T, and nozzle check repeat during regular cleaning until the number of faulty nozzles is less than or equal to a reference number, or the nozzle check has been performed a maximum number of times. Each delay time T is set according to the suction strength in the ink suction operation.