Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-14
2003-05-20
Nguyen, Thinh (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Fluid or fluid source handling means
C347S086000, C347S019000, C347S014000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06565198
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet-type printing apparatus, such as an ink jet printer and an ink jet plotter, and also to an ink cartridge detachably attached to a printer main body of the ink jet-type printing apparatus. More specifically the invention pertains to a technique of processing and storing information relating to the quantity of ink kept in the ink cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
The ink jet-type printing apparatus like the ink jet printer and the ink jet plotter mainly includes an ink cartridge, in which one or plural inks are kept, and a printer main body with a print head to carry out actual printing operations on a printing medium. The print head ejects ink fed from the ink cartridge onto the printing medium, such as printing paper, so as to implement printing on the printing medium. The ink cartridge is designed to be detachably attached to the printer main body. A new ink cartridge has a predetermined quantity of ink kept therein. When the ink kept in an ink cartridge runs out, the ink cartridge is replaced with a new one. The ink jet-type printing apparatus is arranged to cause the printer main body to calculate the remaining quantity of ink in the ink cartridge based on the amount of ink ejected from the print head and to inform the user of a state of running out of the ink, in order to prevent the printing procedure from being interrupted by the out-of-ink.
Another proposed ink cartridge has a storage element, in which various pieces of information relating to ink kept in the ink cartridge, for example, the type of ink and the quantity of ink, are stored. The ink cartridge has these pieces of information regarding ink, and the printer, to which the ink cartridge is attached, reads the stored information regarding ink and carries out the printing procedure suitable for the ink.
In the case where the ink cartridge stores only the read only information, the printer can not carry out the adequate printing operation by taking into account the service conditions of the ink cartridge, that is, the rewritable information regarding ink. In another application that allows the rewritable information regarding ink to be written into the ink cartridge, the conventional technique does not take any measures against possible interruption of the writing operation, which often results in incomplete writing. It is highly required to complete the writing operation of the required pieces of information within a short time period, in order to prevent the writing operation from being made incomplete by some interruption.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is thus to provide an ink cartridge that attains cost reduction and enables required pieces of information relating to the ink cartridge, for example, the remaining quantity of ink, to be stored quickly and securely.
The object of the invention is also to provide a printer using such an ink cartridge, a storage element mounted on such an ink cartridge, and a method of writing the required pieces of information relating to the ink cartridge into the ink cartridge.
At least part of the above and the other related objects is actualized by a first ink cartridge detachably attached to a printer. The first ink cartridge includes: an ink reservoir in which an ink used for printing is kept; and a storage unit storing specific information in a readable, writable, and nonvolatile manner, the storing unit having an ink quantity information storage area. The specific information includes information relating to a quantity of ink kept in the ink reservoir. The ink quantity information storage area is included in a specific area written first by the printer and stores the ink quantity-relating information.
The first ink cartridge of the present invention has the ink quantity information storage area, which is in the specific area written first by the printer and in which the ink quantity-relating information is stored. This arrangement enables the information relating to the ink cartridge, such as the remaining quantity of ink, to be stored quickly and securely, while reducing the manufacturing cost of the ink cartridge. The specific area written first by the printer is, for example, a head area of the storage unit or any arbitrary area of the storage unit, which is accessed and written first by the printer.
In accordance with one preferable application of the first ink cartridge, the ink reservoir includes a specific number of ink chambers corresponding to a number of different inks used for printing, and the ink quantity information storage area has a storage capacity according to the number of different inks. The ink quantity information storage area may, for example, have a storage capacity of at least three bytes. In this application, the ink quantity information storage area has a sufficient capacity to store the specific information including the ink quantity-relating information.
It is preferable that the ink quantity-relating information is written into the ink quantity information storage area at a time of replacement of the ink cartridge and/or at a power-off time of the printer. In this arrangement, the writing operation into the ink quantity information storage area is carried out at the time of replacement of the ink cartridge or at the time of highly probable replacement of the ink cartridge. This enables the ink quantity-relating information to be securely stored into the ink cartridge.
In accordance with another preferable application of the present invention, the ink reservoir has at least three ink chambers, in which at least three different color inks are kept respectively. In this arrangement, the ink quantity information storage area has a plurality of memory divisions. The plurality of memory divisions store pieces of information relating to quantities of the at least three different color inks kept in the respective ink chambers are stored independently. A storage capacity of at least one byte is allocated to each of the plurality of memory divisions.
In accordance with still another preferable application of the present invention, the ink quantity information storage area has a storage capacity of at least five bytes, and the ink reservoir has at least five ink chambers, in which at least five different color inks are kept respectively. In this arrangement, the ink quantity information storage area has a plurality of memory divisions. The plurality of memory divisions store pieces of information relating to quantities of the at least five different color inks kept in the respective ink chambers are stored independently. A storage capacity of at least one byte is allocated to each of the plurality of memory divisions.
These arrangements enable the ink quantity-relating information to be stored in an optimal manner according to the number of inks.
In the above application, it is preferable that the at least five different color inks include three deep color inks and two light color inks, which correspond to two deep colors among the three deep color inks. In the ink quantity information storage area, the memory divisions for storing the pieces of information regarding the three deep color inks are located at a first place written first by the printer, and the memory divisions for storing the pieces of information regarding the two light color inks are located at a second place written next by the printer. By way of example, the three deep color inks are cyan, magenta, and yellow, and the two light color inks are light cyan and light magenta.
This arrangement enables an identical storage unit to be used in common for the ink cartridge including only three deep color inks and the ink cartridge including three deep color inks and two light color inks.
In the above preferable applications, the pieces of information relating to the remaining quantities of the respective inks are written into the memory divisions at a time of replacement of the ink cartridge and/or at a power-off time of the printer. In this arrangement,
Saruta Toshihisa
Shinada Satoshi
Nguyen Thinh
Seiko Epson Corporation
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP
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