EP0551752A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Method of controlling an ink-jet recording apparatus according to recording head information, and ink-jet recording apparatus in which the method is implemented
Assignee: Canon Inc
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Filing: 1992-12-17
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2012-12-17
Abstract
Abstract An ink-jet recording apparatus, having a printer that performs recording by jetting ink from a recording head according to recording data, comprises a plurality of signal lines that supply the recording data to the printer and are connected to a host for controlling the printer, and an information transfer unit for transferring the information to the host. Herein, the plurality of signal lines include at least a first signal line for transferring recording data and commands from the host to the printer, and a second signal line for transferring printer information to the host. Thus, the ink-jet recording apparatus offers excellent cost-efficiency, system reliability and operability.
Inventors
- 👤 Kentaro C/O Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Yano
- 👤 Naoji C/O Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Otsuka
- 👤 Shigeyasu C/O Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Nagoshi
- 👤 Atsushi C/O Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Arai
- 👤 Kiichiro C/O Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Takahashi
- 👤 Osamu C/O Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Iwasaki
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-06 17:51
CPC Classifications
B; B41; B41J; B41J2/00; B41J2/005; B41J2/01; B41J2/17; B41J2/175; B41J2/17503; B41J2/17543; B41J2/17546; B41J2/015; B41J2/04; B41J2/045; B41J2/04501; B41J2/04553; B41J2/0458; B41J2/04586; B41J2/135; B41J2/165; B41J2/16517; B41J2/1652; B41J2/17513; B41J2/1752; B41J2/17526; B41J29/00; B41J29/38; B41J29/393; B41J3/00; B41J3/44; B41J3/46; B41J2202/00; B41J2202/01; B41J2202/17; G; G06; G06F; G06F11/00; G06F11/30; G06F11/32; G06F11/324
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 44
Claim 1
Independent Claim
96 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus having a printer that performs recording by jetting ink from a recording head according to recording data, comprising: a plurality of signal lines that supply said recording data to said printer and are connected to a host for controlling said printer; said plurality of signal lines including at least a first signal line for transferring said recording data and commands from said host to said printer, and a second signal line for transferring information from said printer to said host; and an information transfer means for transferring said information to said host.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
24 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said host includes a transferred information processing means for processing information transferred from said printer.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
37 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said host includes an information display means, processes information transferred from said printer using said transferred information processing means, and displays the information on said information display means.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
22 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said information display means displays information only for a certain period of time.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
38 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said host includes an input means and an input information transfer means for transferring input information entered at said input means to said printer over said first signal line.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
44 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said host includes a memory means for storing information transferred from said printer; and said information display means displays information stored in said memory means in response to a command entered at said input means.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
43 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said input means permits entry in association with a command for controlling said printer, and entry at said input means causes said input information transfer means to transfer an associated command to said printer.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
19 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said command is treated as an interrupt by said printer.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
20 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said input means is used to change modes of said printer.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
33 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said recording head is made up of an ink tank for reserving ink and a head having nozzles for jetting ink, which are united.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
53 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising a calculating means for calculating an amount of ink remaining in said ink tank; an amount of remaining ink calculated by said calculating means being transferred to said host by said information transfer means in response to a command sent from said host.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
35 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said recording head is made up of an ink tank for reserving ink and a head having nozzles for jetting ink, which are separable and detachable.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
53 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising a calculating means for calculating an amount of ink remaining in said ink tank; an amount of remaining ink calculated by said calculating means being transferred to said host by said information transfer means in response to a command sent from said host.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
61 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising a storage element for storing an activity ratio of said head; said printer calculating a service life of said head on the basis of said activity ratio stored in said storage element in response to a command sent from said host, then transferring the service life to said information transfer means.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
59 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claime 1, wherein said recording head includes a plurality of jet nozzles for jetting ink, and thermal energy generating means that are installed in associated jet nozzles and that cause ink to change its state with heat, jet the ink from said jet nozzles according to the state change, and form ink droplets.
Claim 16
Dependent Claim
46 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus that performs recording by jetting ink, comprising: a printer having a recording head for jetting ink; a host for transferring recording data and commands to said printer; and a storage element that can be referenced commonly by said printer and said host.
Claim 17
Dependent Claim
38 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said host includes an information processing means for processing information stored in said storage element, and an information display means for displaying information processed by said information processing means.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
33 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said recording head is made up of an ink tank for reserving ink and a head having nozzles for jetting ink, which are united.
Claim 19
Dependent Claim
24 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 18, further comprising a calculating means for calculating an amount of ink remaining in said ink tank.
Claim 20
Dependent Claim
22 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 19, wherein said storage element contains at least information of said amount of remaining ink.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
35 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said recording head is made up of an ink tank for reserving ink and a head having nozzles for jetting ink, which are separable and detachable.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
24 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 21, further comprising a calculating means for calculating an amount of ink remaining in said ink tank.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
22 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 22, wherein said storage element contains at least information of said amount of remaining ink.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
21 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said storage element contains at least an activity ratio of said head.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
59 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 16, wherein said recording head includes a plurality of jet nozzles for jetting ink, and thermal energy generating means that are installed in associated jet nozzles and that cause ink to change its state with heat, jet the ink from said jet nozzles according to the state change, and form ink droplets.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
132 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus that performs recording using an ink-jet cartridge in which an ink-jet recording head having a plurality of jet nozzles for jetting ink and an ink tank for reserving ink to be supplied to said ink-jet recording head are installed to be separable and detachable, comprising: a suction recovery means that achieves suction recovery by sucking ink from said plurality of jet nozzles; a preliminary jet means that achieves preliminary jet recovery by jetting ink multiple times from said plurality of jet nozzles; a head replacement detecting means that detects whether or not said ink-jet recording head has been replaced; and a recovery control means that varies recovery of said suction recovery means or of said preliminary jet means depending on an output of said head replacement detecting means.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
57 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 26, wherein said ink-jet cartridge further includes a shared chamber for temporarily reserving ink to be supplied to said plurality of nozzles, and a sub-heater for heating the ink in said shared chamber; and said sub-heater heats the ink in said shared chamber during recovery of said preliminary jet means.
Claim 28
Dependent Claim
41 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 27, wherein when said head replacement detecting means detects replacement of a head, recovery of said suction recovery means to be repeated multiple times and recovery of said preliminary jet means are executed simultaneously.
Claim 29
Dependent Claim
50 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 27, further comprising a timer means that measures time for which said ink tank has been unmounted; when said head replacement detecting means does not detect replacement of a head, said recovery being varied depending on the time indicated by said timer means.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
53 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 29, wherein when the time measured by said timer means is shorter than a given time, recovery of said suction recovery means is executed alone; and said recovery of said suction recovery means is executed multiple times according to the time measured by said timer means.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
29 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 30, wherein recovery of said suction recovery means is executed many times in proportion to the time measured by said timer means.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
63 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 30, wherein when the time measured by said timer means is longer than said given time, recovery of said suction recovery means and recovery of said preliminary jet means are executed simultaneously; and the number of jets to be shot by said preliminary jet means is varied depending on the time measured by said timer means.
Claim 33
Dependent Claim
32 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 32, wherein the number of jets to be shot by said preliminary jet means increases in proportion to the time measured by said timer means.
Claim 34
Dependent Claim
46 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 26, further comprising a temperature detecting means for measuring an ambient temperature; the frequency of recovery of said suction recovery means or of said preliminary jet means being changed according to the temperature detected by said temperature detecting means.
Claim 35
Dependent Claim
29 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 34, wherein the frequency of recovery of said suction recovery means decreases as the temperature detected by said temperature detecting means increases.
Claim 36
Dependent Claim
33 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 34, wherein the number of preliminary jets to be shot by said preliminary jet means increases as the temperature detected by said temperature detecting means increases.
Claim 37
Dependent Claim
54 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 26, further comprising a memory means for storing a frequency of replacing said ink tank; the number of preliminary jets to be shot by said preliminary jet means being changed in inverse proportion to a frequency of replacing said ink tank without replacing said ink-jet recording head.
Claim 38
Dependent Claim
26 words
An ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 37, wherein said memory means is reset to an initial value every time said ink-jet recording head is replaced.
Claim 39
Independent Claim
137 words
A method of recovering an ink-jet recording apparatus that uses an ink-jet cartridge in which a head having a plurality of jet nozzles for jetting ink and an ink tank for reserving ink to be supplied to said head are installed to be separable and detachable, comprising: a replacement detecting step of detecting whether or not said head has been replaced; a first recovery step at which recovery is executed when it is detected at said replacement detecr-ing step that said head has been replaced; a time detecting step at which time for which said ink tank has been separated is detected when displacement of said head is not detected at said replacement detecting step; and a second recovery step of executing recovery that has been varied depending on the time detected at said time detecting step.
Claim 40
Dependent Claim
43 words
A method of recovering an ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 39, further comprising a temperature detecting step of detecting an ambient temperature of said ink-jet cartridge; said second recovery step being varied depending on the temperature detected at said temperature detecting step.
Claim 41
Independent Claim
177 words
A method of recovering an ink-jet recording apparatus that performs recording using an ink-jet cartridge in which a head having a plurality of jet nozzles for jetting ink and an ink tank for reserving ink to be supplied to said head are installed to be separable and detachable, and that includes a suction recovery means which achieves suction recovery by sucking ink from said plurality of jet nozzles, and a preliminary jet means which achieves recovery by jetting ink multiple times from said plurality of jet nozzles, comprising: a replacement detecting step of detecting replacement of said head; a first recovery step at which when replacement of said head is detected at said replacement detecting step, said suction recovery means and said preliminary jet means execute recovery; and an ink tank separated time detecting step at which when replacement of said head is not detected at said replacement detecting step, time for which said ink tank has been separated is detected; recovery being varied depending on the time detected at said ink tank separated time detecting step.
Claim 42
Dependent Claim
48 words
A method of recovering an ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 41, wherein when the time detected at said ink tank separated time detecting step is shorter than a given time, recovery of said suction recovery means is executed by a frequency varied according to said detected time.
Claim 43
Dependent Claim
62 words
A method of recovering an ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 41, wherein when the time detected at said ink tank separated time detecting step is longer than a given time, said suction recovery means and said preliminary jet means execute recovery; and the number of jets to be shot by said preliminary jet means is varied depending on said detected time.
Claim 44
Dependent Claim
31 words
A method of recovering an ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 41, wherein said number of jets to be shot by said preliminary jet means increases as said detected time increases.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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