ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 18 -- United States Patent no. 12,472,760, issued on Nov. 18, was assigned to RICOH COMPANY LTD. (Tokyo).
"Head-maintenance device and liquid discharge apparatus" was invented by Tatsuroh Watanabe (Kanagawa, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A head-maintenance device includes a suction cap to cap a nozzle surface of a head to discharge liquid, a suction unit to suck the inside of the suction cap, an air-release channel communicating with the inside of the suction cap, a lid to close an opening of the suction cap, and processing circuitry. The processing circuitry performs an air-release channel suction operation to close the air-release channel and suck the inside of ...