Printing apparatus and ink cartridge therefor
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorYasuhiko Kosugi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A printing apparatus which may effectively manage information related to each ink cartridge and an ink cartridge therefor are provided. A printing apparatus having a cartridge mounting portion on which a plurality of ink cartridges are detachably mountable, each ink cartridge having an element which may be written with information, an accumulating means for accumulating a discharge amount of ink discharged for every ink cartridge mounted on the cartridge mounting portion, and a writing member for writing information into the element, in which the writing member writes information into an element in the ink cartridge selected according to an accumulated result of the accumulating means, out of the plurality of ink cartridges mounted on the cartridge mounting portion.
Claims31
An ink cartridge which may contain ink and is detachably mountable on a printing apparatus body, comprising an element into which information may be written, wherein
- said element may be written with information showing a used amount or residual quantity of ink contained in said ink cartridge, and information for determining a writing timing of said information showing said used amount or residual quantity to said ink cartridge.
A printing apparatus comprising:
- a cartridge mount on which a first ink cartridge and a second ink cartridge are detachably mountable, said first ink cartridge having a first memory, and said second cartridge having a second memory;
- and
- a control circuit that determines a first discharge amount of ink discharged from said first ink cartridge and that determines a second discharge amount of ink discharged from said second ink cartridge;
- wherein said control circuit selects said first ink cartridge or said second ink cartridge based on at least one of said discharge amount and said second discharge amount,
- wherein, when said control circuit selects said first ink cartridge, said control circuit causes information to be written to said first memory, and wherein, when said control circuit selects the first ink cartridge, information is not written to said second memory.
A printing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein, when said control circuit causes said information to be written to said first memory and not to be written to the second memory, a value of said first discharge amount is adjusted and a value of said second discharge amount is not adjusted.
An ink cartridge detachably mountable on a printing apparatus body, comprising:
- a memory into which information is written,
- wherein said information indicates a used amount or residual quantity of ink contained in said ink cartridge, and
- wherein said information identifies a writing timing at which said information is to be updated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.