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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8186785 | User adaptable ink status conveyance system An ink status conveyance system comprises a maximum monitored ink level sensor operable with respect to an ink source for holding a supply of ink and delivering the ink to a printhead. The ink level sensor is configured to detect when an available amount of ink in t... | 05/29/2012 |
| 8177314 | Printing apparatus and method of switching filled states A printing apparatus includes a head which discharges color inks and into which clear ink that prevents the head from being clogged and white ink are selectively filled. A selection portion communicates either of a white or a clear ink container with the head. A con... | 05/15/2012 |
| 8177313 | Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus includes a print head to eject droplets, a subtank to supply ink to the print head, a main tank to supply the ink to the subtank, a supply pump to supply the ink from the main tank to the subtank, a pump driver to drive the supply pump, an... | 05/15/2012 |
| 8172349 | Fluid discharge device, control method for a fluid discharge device, and a fluid tank A fluid discharge device, a control method for a fluid discharge device, and an ink tank enable easy and accurate confirmation of the fluid usage history, such as how much fluid is left in the tank, on the user or device side without increasing the price. An inkjet ... | 05/08/2012 |
| 8167392 | Ink jet recording apparatus and control method therefor A user-friendly ink jet recording apparatus is capable of preventing a sudden ink exhaustion and a resulting unclear print that may result from canceling a no-ink error signal without an ink tank replacement. In the ink jet recording apparatus, in a case of a no-ink... | 05/01/2012 |
| 8141969 | Print control apparatus, print control method, and program therefor Provided is a print control apparatus for controlling a printing apparatus that is able to perform color printing by using coloring agents of a plurality of colors. The print control apparatus includes: a residual amount acquisition section that acquires residual am... | 03/27/2012 |
| 8132877 | User adaptable ink status conveyance system An ink status conveyance system comprises a maximum monitored ink level sensor operable with respect to an ink source for holding a supply of ink and delivering the ink to a printhead. The ink level sensor is configured to detect when an available amount of ink in t... | 03/13/2012 |
| 8123317 | Ink tank and printing apparatus To implement an ink tank and a printing apparatus that can detect a residual quantity of ink in an ink containing part optically with high accuracy by solving a problem of false detection of an ink residual quantity caused by irregular reflection light and scattered... | 02/28/2012 |
| 8109584 | Liquid ejection head, liquid ejection apparatus, and manufacturing method of liquid ejection head A liquid ejection head includes an energy-generating element arranged on a semiconductor substrate, a barrier layer deposited on the semiconductor substrate for forming a liquid chamber in the periphery of the energy-generating element, and a nozzle sheet bonded on ... | 02/07/2012 |
| 8104854 | Liquid-droplet jetting apparatus and liquid-droplet jetting method In an ink-jet printer, as a liquid-droplet jetting apparatus, when a predetermined condition is satisfied during an printing operation, a non-jetting drive pulse is applied to an actuator to impart vibration to an ink meniscus of an ink in the vicinity of nozzles wi... | 01/31/2012 |
| 8104855 | Inkjet printer system and ink supply apparatus An inkjet printer system includes a print head, a sub tank, and a sensor. The print head is configured to eject ink. The sub tank includes an ink supply chamber and an ink detection chamber. The ink supply chamber has an ink inlet hole and an ink outlet hole connect... | 01/31/2012 |
| 8100490 | Liquid storage device and liquid presence determining method A liquid storage device includes a storage portion that is configured to store liquid therein, a rotating member that is provided in a bottom portion at inside of the storage portion so as to be capable of rotating, a driving member that is provided at outside of th... | 01/24/2012 |
| 8096630 | Ink jet printer cartridge refilling method and apparatus The present invention provides an automated system for refilling printer ink cartridges. The system includes a computer with memory provided to store information relating to a plurality of ink cartridges, and a user interface that is connected to the computer and ca... | 01/17/2012 |
| 8091972 | Installing fluid container in fluid ejection device A fluid ejection device ejecting a fluid, the fluid ejection device includes: a fluid ejection unit; a main chassis case; a fluid-containing pack; a container case; and a plurality of holders. The fluid ejection unit ejects a fluid onto an ejection target. The main ... | 01/10/2012 |
| 8083308 | Liquid cartridge and liquid ejecting system A liquid cartridge is detachably mounted in a liquid ejecting device, and supplies liquid to the liquid ejecting device when mounted. The liquid cartridge includes a liquid accommodating chamber, a float member movably disposed in the liquid accommodating chamber, a... | 12/27/2011 |
| 8079657 | Liquid sensing device and liquid container including the same A liquid sensing device is for a liquid consuming system in which air is introduced from the upstream end in association with consumption of liquid at the downstream end. The liquid sensing device includes a sensor positioning member that defines a sensing flow chan... | 12/20/2011 |
| 8066344 | Apparatus capable of mounting expendable cartridges, method for counting consumption amount of expendable cartridges, and computer program Provided is an apparatus capable of mounting an expendable cartridge thereon, including: a consumption amount counting unit that counts up the consumption amount of expendable cartridges in the apparatus when a change is detected for the first time during the contin... | 11/29/2011 |
| 8066343 | Liquid detecting apparatus and liquid ejecting apparatus The invention relates to a liquid detecting apparatus that drives a liquid detecting unit that outputs two detection signals having phases opposite to each other in accordance with the amount of liquid. The liquid detecting apparatus according to an aspect of the in... | 11/29/2011 |
| 8061794 | Method and apparatus for spoofing imaging devices Techniques for spoofing an imaging device adapted for reading data from an electrical storage device to determine a volume of ink in an ink container include providing a replacement electrical storage device for use with the ink container, the replacement electrical... | 11/22/2011 |
| 8047624 | Discharge amount calculating device and fluid ejecting apparatus A discharge amount calculating device for calculating the discharge amount of a fluid from a fluid ejecting apparatus is disclosed, in which the fluid ejecting apparatus is capable of ejecting at least one fluid onto a target at a discharge amount of multiple stages... | 11/01/2011 |
| 8033625 | Apparatus and method of filling ink tank An apparatus and method of filling a tank with a fluid are provided. The method includes providing the tank including a porous media positioned therein, the tank having a length dimension and a width dimension; providing a plurality of needles, each needle having a ... | 10/11/2011 |
| 8016376 | Liquid cartridge and liquid ejecting system A liquid cartridge is detachable mounted in a liquid ejecting device and supplies liquid to the liquid ejecting device when mounted. The liquid cartridge includes a liquid accommodating chamber, a float member movably disposed in the liquid accommodating chamber, a ... | 09/13/2011 |
| 8007065 | Printer control circuitry for reading ink information from a refill unit A refill unit for refilling an ink cartridge that forms part of an inkjet printer. The printer also having a printhead, control circuitry and an interface for releasably engaging the refill unit. The refill unit has a body containing a quantity of ink, an ink outlet... | 08/30/2011 |
| 8007064 | Image forming apparatus, image forming method, and recording medium storing program that causes the apparatus to execute the method An image forming apparatus includes ink cartridges, image forming units, an ink-remaining-amount manager, a maintenance determiner, an information writer, an ink-amount estimator, and a maintenance-executability determiner. If an ink near-empty or empty state occurs... | 08/30/2011 |
| 8002372 | Liquid pump and inkjet printer equipped with liquid pump A long-life pump capable of simultaneously conveying plural liquids and an inkjet printer having the pump are provided. The liquid pump includes: a liquid storage unit having liquid chambers trapping at least two types of liquids with each chamber corresponding to t... | 08/23/2011 |
| 7971947 | Systems and methods for remanufacturing imaging components An ink jet remanufacturing chip verifier for new ink jet chips attached to remanufactured ink jet cartridges includes a controller for verifying during the process of remanufacturing the ink jet cartridges: if the new ink jet chips attached to the remanufactured ink... | 07/05/2011 |
| 7971945 | Ink consumption detecting method, and ink jet recording apparatus The present method detects an ink consumption condition in an ink cartridge loaded on an ink jet recording apparatus having a recording head for jetting ink drops, using a piezo-electric device mounted on the cartridge. The method detects the ink consumption conditi... | 07/05/2011 |
| 7971946 | Printer and method for printing A printer includes first and second ink cartridges, a print head having first and second nozzle arrays, first and second ink supply passages having first and second valves, and a connecting passages having a third valve. The first passage connects the first cartridg... | 07/05/2011 |
| 7959245 | Device and method for measuring ink levels in a container An ink level sensing device and associated method. The ink level sensing device includes a near infrared illumination source that emits near infrared light, and a container configured to accommodate a supply of ink containing light absorption material. The device fu... | 06/14/2011 |
| 7954915 | Ink jet recording apparatus and remaining ink amount detecting method Even if an error occurred in a result of the detection by an optical detecting mechanism for optically detecting whether or not a remaining amount of ink in an ink tank is equal to or less than a predetermined amount, a correct situation of the remaining ink amount ... | 06/07/2011 |
| 7942487 | Liquid ejection controlling method and liquid ejection apparatus A remaining amount of liquid contained in each of a plurality of cartridges is detected. When a small remaining amount is detected, information relating to the cartridge with the small remaining amount is transmitted. A substitute cartridge is determined based on th... | 05/17/2011 |
| 7942488 | Custom color printhead module A custom color printhead module comprises a mixing reservoir having a first opening and a second opening each configured to receive a first colored ink and a second colored ink and to mix the ink in the reservoir to form a custom colored ink. A first and a second re... | 05/17/2011 |
| 7934785 | Selectable gloss coating system A coating system comprises a high gloss coating ink supply source, and a low gloss coating ink supply source. The system includes a coating module configured to receive the high gloss coating ink and the low gloss coating ink. The coating module includes a first gro... | 05/03/2011 |
| 7922274 | Solid semiconductor element, ink tank, ink jet recording apparatus provided with ink tank, liquid information acquiring method and liquid physical property change discriminating method There is disclosed a solid semiconductor element which very efficiently detects information about a liquid and bidirectionally exchanges the information with the outside. The solid semiconductor element is disposed in a liquid container, and includes at least energy... | 04/12/2011 |
| 7922275 | Liquid ejection controlling method and liquid ejection apparatus A remaining amount detecting step is performed by a first controller, in which a remaining amount of a liquid contained is detected for each of a plurality of cartridges containing the liquid to be ejected from nozzles. An information transmitting step is performed ... | 04/12/2011 |
| 7896454 | Remaining-liquid-amount display apparatus and remaining-liquid-amount display method A remaining-liquid-amount apparatus for displaying an amount of conductive liquid (ink) remaining in a container includes electrode units which are arranged along a direction in which the liquid level falls when the amount of liquid in the container decreases and wh... | 03/01/2011 |
| 7883164 | Liquid storing device and liquid storing cartridge having a simple structure for ink agitation and ink state detection A liquid storing device includes a storage unit that stores a liquid to be consumed and a rotation member inside the storage unit that rotates around a rotation axis. A blade member is installed to the rotation member to be movable in the axis direction of the rotat... | 02/08/2011 |
| 7878609 | Mounting structure, module, and liquid container The mounting structure for mounting the piezo-electric device (106) used to detect the consumption condition of the liquid in the liquid container (1) to the liquid container (1), having the receiving portion (363) to which the piezo-elec... | 02/01/2011 |
| 7850263 | Liquid consumption apparatus and liquid consumption amount control method The invention provides a liquid consumption apparatus including a liquid consumption unit, a counting unit that counts the amount of the liquid consumed by the liquid consumption unit as a liquid consumption amount, a reception unit that receives a detection signal ... | 12/14/2010 |
| 7845746 | Liquid container for a liquid ejection device with a vibration sensor for ink level detection An ink container which includes an ink supply port for supplying ink to a recording head, and is formed with a flexible member shaped like a bag, which deforms in accordance with an amount of remaining ink contained therein, the ink container including: a sensor mod... | 12/07/2010 |