Liquid ejecting apparatus and ordering system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11347982-B2
Application number	US-202016912785-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 26, 2020
Priority date	Jun 28, 2019
Publication date	May 31, 2022
Grant date	May 31, 2022

Abstract

A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a liquid container and a control unit. The liquid container has an upper limit mark. The upper limit mark is arranged so that in a first case where an entire amount of liquid stored in a refilling container is injected into a storage portion when a notification unit notifies of a first state, a liquid level of the liquid in the storage portion is located between an inlet port and the upper limit mark, and in a second case where the entire amount of liquid stored in the refilling container is injected into the storage portion when the notification unit notifies of a second state, the liquid level overlaps with the upper limit mark.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A liquid ejecting apparatus comprising:
a head that discharges liquid;
a liquid container that supplies the liquid to the head; and
a control unit that controls operation of the liquid ejecting apparatus, wherein the liquid container has
a storage portion configured to store the liquid,
an inlet port for injecting the liquid of a refilling container different from the liquid container from the refilling container to the storage portion, and
an upper limit mark that indicates an upper limit of a liquid level of the liquid stored in the storage portion,

the control unit has
a remaining amount detection unit that detects a remaining amount of the liquid stored in the storage portion,
a determination unit that determines whether the remaining amount of the liquid in the storage portion is in a first state where the remaining amount is smaller than or equal to a first threshold value or in a second state where the remaining amount is smaller than or equal to a second threshold value smaller than the first threshold value by using a detection result of the remaining amount detection unit, and
a notification unit that notifies outside whether the remaining amount is in the first state or in the second state according to a determination result of the determination unit, and

the upper limit mark is arranged so that
in a first case where an entire amount of the liquid stored in the refilling container is injected into the storage portion when the notification unit notifies of the first state, a liquid level of the liquid in the storage portion is located between the inlet port and the upper limit mark, and
in a second case where the entire amount of the liquid stored in the refilling container is injected into the storage portion when the notification unit notifies of the second state, the liquid level overlaps with the upper limit mark.

2. The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the liquid container further has a detection member that is used to detect the presence or absence of the liquid, and
the remaining amount detection unit has a liquid detection unit that detects presence or absence of the liquid stored in the storage portion by using the detection member and a measuring unit that measures an amount of liquid discharged from the head.

3. The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the determination unit determines the first state by using a detection result of the liquid detection unit and determines the second state by using the detection result of the liquid detection unit and a measuring result of the measuring unit.

4. The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the determination unit determines whether the remaining amount is in the first state or in the second state by using the detection result of the liquid detection unit and a measuring result of the measuring unit.

5. The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the detection member is arranged in a position where the determination unit can determine the first state so that the liquid level is located between the inlet port and the upper limit mark when a maximum storage amount of the liquid in the refilling container is injected into the storage portion in the first case.

6. The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
a plurality of the liquid containers are included, and
the determination unit determines the second state of each of the plurality of liquid containers based on the remaining amount of the liquid in a specific liquid container whose liquid level height in the storage portion is lowest at a time point when the liquid detection unit detects that there is no liquid, among the plurality of liquid containers.

7. An ordering system of a refilling container that refills a liquid container of a liquid ejecting apparatus with liquid, the ordering system comprising:
the liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 1 ;
a display unit that displays the state of the liquid container; and
a control driver that controls operations of the display unit and the liquid ejecting apparatus, wherein
the notification unit causes the display unit to display a first button for periodically purchasing the refilling container through the control driver in a third case where the notification unit causes the display unit to notify whether the state is the first state or the second state through the control driver.

8. The ordering system according to claim 7 , wherein
the display unit displays the first button in association with a container image representing the liquid container to be periodically purchased.

9. The ordering system according to claim 7 , wherein
in the third case, the display unit displays the second button for purchasing the refilling container separately from the periodic purchase.

10. The ordering system according claim 9 , wherein
the display unit further displays the second button after the remaining amount display image is updated to the modified remaining amount.

11. The ordering system according to claim 9 , wherein
the display unit displays the second button in association with a container image representing the liquid container for which the refilling container is purchased separately from the periodic purchase.

12. The ordering system according to claim 11 , wherein
the display unit further displays the second button after the remaining amount display image is updated to the modified remaining amount.

13. The ordering system according to claim 7 , wherein
the liquid ejecting apparatus further has a storage unit that stores the remaining amount of the liquid, which is a detection result of the remaining amount detection unit, as a detected remaining amount,
the display unit displays a remaining amount display image that represents the detected remaining amount and a modification receiving section that receives modification of the remaining amount display image by a user, and
when the modification is received by the modification receiving section, the display unit updates the remaining amount to a modified remaining amount that is the remaining amount where the modification is performed and displays the remaining amount display image, and the remaining amount detection unit stores the modified remaining amount into the storage unit as the remaining amount.

14. The ordering system according to claim 13 , wherein
the display unit further displays the second button after the remaining amount display image is updated to the modified remaining amount.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Koganehira Shuichi
• Hirano Tomoyuki

Classifications

• G06K15/4075 Primary

  Determining remaining quantities of ink or toner · CPC title

• B41J29/393

  Devices for controlling or analysing the entire machine {; Controlling or analysing mechanical parameters involving printing of test patterns} · CPC title

• B41J29/13

  Cases or covers · CPC title

• B41J2/17509

  Whilst mounted in the printer · CPC title

• B41J2002/17573

  using optical means for ink level indication · CPC title