ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 26 -- United States Patent no. 12,257,852, issued on March 25, was assigned to KONICA MINOLTA INC. (Tokyo).
"Ink supply device and image forming apparatus" was invented by Shigetaka Kurosu (Hino, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An ink supply device includes: a main tank that stores ink; a sub-tank that stores the ink supplied from the main tank and supplies the ink stored to a plurality of inkjet heads connected; and a heater that heats the ink before the ink flows into the sub-tank, wherein the heater includes a plurality of ink outlet ports that can supply the ink with different temperatures to the sub-tank midway in a flow path of the ink to be heated."
The pat...