| Patent application number | Description | Published |
| 20090174749 | Image forming apparatus including carriage with recording head - An image forming apparatus includes a first carriage, a second carriage, an endless belt member, and a driving source. The first carriage further includes a recording head. The second carriage further includes one or more electrical components. The endless belt member is extended between a driving pulley and a driven pulley. The first carriage and the second carriage are connected to the endless belt member at diagonally opposed positions. The driving source rotates the driving pulley, moving the belt member to move the first carriage and the second carriages in opposite directions. | 07-09-2009 |
| 20100026758 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS EMPLOYING CARRIAGE WITH IMAGE FORMING UNIT MOUNTED THEREON - An image forming apparatus includes a carriage, an image forming unit, a storage unit, a vibration absorber, and a controller. The carriage reciprocally moves in a main scan direction. The image forming unit is mounted on the carriage. The storage unit stores a speed profile of the carriage. The vibration absorber has controllable vibration reduction characteristics to reduce vibration. The controller controls the vibration reduction characteristics of the vibration absorber in accordance with the speed profile. | 02-04-2010 |
| 20100061745 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus including a carriage including image forming units, the carriage driven reciprocally in a main scanning direction; a conveyance unit to convey a sheet of recording media to a position where the image forming units perform image formation; a first detector provided to the carriage, the first detector including a light emitting part and a light receiving part to periodically detect a surface of the sheet; a calculation unit to calculate a relative amount of movement between the sheet and the image forming units by comparing patterns periodically detected by the first detector; and a control unit to control a timing to perform image formation by the image forming units and an amount of conveyance of the sheet conveyed by the conveyance unit based on a result calculated by the calculation unit. | 03-11-2010 |
| 20100067938 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS WITH RECIPROCALLY MOVABLE CARRIAGE - An image forming apparatus includes a reciprocally movable carriage, an image forming unit, a first drive source, a vibration suppressor, and a vibration-suppression controller. The reciprocally movable carriage moves in a main scan direction. The image forming unit is mounted on the carriage. The first drive source moves the carriage. The vibration suppressor suppresses vibration caused by movement of the carriage, and includes a vibration suppression member having a mass smaller than a mass of the carriage and a second drive source independent of the first drive source to move the vibration suppression member. The vibration-suppression controller drives the second drive source to cause the vibration suppressor to perform vibration suppression operation during at least one of an acceleration period and a deceleration period of the carriage, and stops movement of the vibration suppression member during a constant-speed period of the carriage. | 03-18-2010 |
| 20100207990 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - An image forming apparatus includes a housing, a carriage, and a damping mechanism. The carriage includes an image forming mechanism and moves back and forth in a main scan direction. The damping mechanism generates an impact to suppress vibration caused by movement of the carriage. The damping mechanism suppresses vibration during at least one of acceleration and deceleration of the carriage, and is inactive during movement of the carriage at a constant speed. The damping mechanism suppresses vibration when acceleration of the carriage equals or exceeds a predetermined threshold acceleration. The damping mechanism includes a suppression member and a mass member that strikes the suppression member. The suppression member is at least one of a shock absorber and an elastic member. Shock absorbing characteristics of the shock absorber and elasticity of the elastic member are variable. | 08-19-2010 |