Abstract: The tendency of gas-propelled ink jet printing systems to clog, and to consume increased amounts of vehicle, is relieved in systems wherein the ink contains one or more components which increase in particle size upon contact with water, by employing gas and vehicle which either contain no water or together contain less water than would be sufficient to cause said increase in particle size.

Abstract: A printing apparatus which prevents discharge failure due to residual bubbles generated in accordance with a printing history of past printing such as the number of printing pulses, the printing and the printing area, and a precipitate from ink, in each ink type, and/or due to residual bubbles coalesced into larger bubbles after the completion of printing and a precipitate from ink, and which enables excellent image printing without unnecessarily increasing ink consumption and without reduction of the printing speed. A CPU 600 measures a driving state of a printhead per unit period, e.g., the number of driving pulses to all the discharge orifices and the driving interval of the printhead. When the printing has been completed, the CPU calculates the number of driving pulses per unit period, and if the calculated value is greater than an allowable value, it performs discharge recovery processing on the printhead.

Abstract: An integrated circuit type device having a series of bond pads for the interconnection of the device with external power or communication lines, a method of improving the registration accuracy of the interconnection comprising the step of forming a guide rail on the device spaced adjacent to the bond pads for abutting the external power and communication lines against so as to accurately position the lines for interconnection with the bond pads. Preferably, the bond pads are arranged in a line along one edge of the integrated circuit type device and the lines are in the form of a Tape Automated Bonding strip. The guide rail can be formed utilising a standard micromechanical systems deposition process and is ideally utilized in a pagewidth ink jet printing system.

Abstract: A service station wiper fluid in an inkjet ink printing system, which in addition to the servicing fluid, also has a surfactant which improves the surface energy consistency of the nozzle plate, thus stabilizing the drop directionality of the ink from inkjet nozzle to the print media.

Abstract: An ink mist controller for a maintenance station including spit louvers and a spit wheel which serve as accumulating surfaces. A flow of air directs ink mist through the louvers and around the spit wheel. Mist that is not attracted to a surface is carried to a manifold which filters, then exhausts, air to the environment, thereby preventing contamination of articles surrounding the printer. Color ink droplets are ejected onto the spit louvers. Low pressure is created between and below the louvers, which increases air and mist velocity over the entire spit zone. An unrestricted air curtain occurs on three sides of the color printhead to further control the location of mist deposit. Black ink is ejected onto the spit wheel which holds the mist deposit during evaporation. At defined intervals, the spit wheel rotates a fraction of a revolution. A scraper removes the non-volatile residue from the wheel during rotation. An air curtain is created on all four sides of the spit wheel to direct mist to this surface.

Abstract: An ink solvent application system applies an inkjet ink solvent with a wiper to clean ink residue from an inkjet printhead. The solvent is stored in a porous applicator and extracted using capillary forces generated when the wiper is rubbed across the applicator. To retain sufficient amounts of ink solvent on the wiper, the wiper moves away from the applicator in a coordinated motion having both rotational and translational components. This coordinated motion for picking solvent from the applicator is superior to a purely rotational stroke of the wiper, which picks very little solvent. The wiper then wipes the solvent across the printhead to dissolve accumulated ink residue. The wiper then moves across a blotter to remove dissolved ink residue and dirty solvent from the wiper. A method of cleaning ink residue from an inkjet printhead, along with an inkjet printing mechanism having such a solvent application system, are also provided.

Abstract: A slit extending from a waste ink inlet position (indicated by a cross mark) in one direction is formed in a waste ink absorber of the waste ink tank. Thereby, the leakage of waste ink from a waste ink storage is avoidable by the improvement in the waste ink absorbing performance through a simple and inexpensive constitution.

Abstract: An ink jet recording head in which a flat plate section has a recess section in its surface and an orifice plate having a plurality of openings grouped and disposed for ejecting a liquid is placed in the recess section, with the flat plate section being cleaned by a cleaning member movable perpendicularly to a direction of the disposition of the ejecting openings in a state brought into contact with a surface of the flat plate section. The recess section includes a combined curved surface made in a manner that a first curved surface having a first curvature and a second curved surface having a second curvature smaller than the first curvature are combined at a position corresponding to the deepest portion of the recess section. At this time, the first curved surface is located on the upstream side of the second curved surface in a cleaning direction of the cleaning member, and the combined curved surface extends in the disposition direction of said ejecting openings.

Abstract: A printhead having reduced spray includes orifi from which ink is expelled by an ink ejector. The orifi employ an aperture at the outer surface of the orifice plate having an asymmetrical hourglass shape to cause the expelled ink drop to break off at the narrow end of the orifice aperture.

Abstract: The invention provides an ink jet printer, for example, having a tiny protrusion provided on a blade holder for holding a wiper blade at the side opposite to that cap, a coil spring for pulling the blade holder downwardly in a slanting direction toward where the tiny protrusion is provided, and a wiper raising arm raised together with the cap, for raising the wiper blade by contacting the lower surface of the blade holder, and a base for receiving the tiny protrusion on the upper surface thereof when the blade holder is lowered from the most raised position. Therefore, the wiper blade is stopped at the ink wiping position.

Abstract: A printhead which high-precisely performs registration adjustment between print dots even in use of plural printheads or a printhead having plural printing element arrays, and a printing apparatus using the printhead. Registration adjustment can be performed with a value equal to or less than a printing resolution in a main-scanning direction by changing the order of nozzle blocks of at least one of two nozzle arrays, in accordance with a stored amount of registration shift, without transmission of a specific control signal from the printing apparatus.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus for recording onto a recording medium using an ink jet recording head which discharges ink, comprises a conveyor which conveys a recording medium, a mount for mounting an ink jet recording head, and an air flow generator. The air flow generator generates an air flow for transporting ink mist generated when ink is discharged from the ink jet recording head, floating in the inside of the ink jet recording apparatus and unused for recording. The head mount mounts the recording head such that ink is discharged toward a recording region located downward of the head mount, and is arranged forwardly of supporting members that support the head mount, and the air flow generator forms an air flow directed downwardly from above and forwardly of the supporting members.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus comprises: at least one recording head having a face on which a plurality of nozzle orifices are formed, the recording head mounted on a carriage to be moved reciprocatively in the widthwise direction of a recording sheet; a capping device disposed in a non-print region of the recording head, the capping device including at least one cap unit for sealing the nozzle-formed surface of the recording head in cooperation with the movement of carriage; and a plurality of suction pumps for applying negative pressure in the interior space of the cap unit via suction tubes while the cap unit seals the nozzle-formed surface in cooperation with at least one drive source. The number of the suction pumps is at least equal to the number of the cap unit.

Abstract: A printing apparatus in the form of an inkjet printer and a printing method utilizes a light-activated ink release system. The apparatus includes at least one nozzle having an ink body that is comprised of light-sensitive ink. The ink can form an unextended droplet meniscus. By directing a light beam onto the unextended droplet meniscus, the surface tension of the light-sensitive ink decreases, and provides for an extended droplet meniscus. The formation of the extended meniscus droplet meniscus permits the transfer of ink to a receiver or media.

Abstract: An ink jet printer reliably prevents printing defects resulting from bubbles remaining in the ink path after ink priming. An ink suction mechanism of the ink jet printer performs a post-priming head recovery process for suctioning ink from the nozzles when an hour passes after the ink priming process. This process suctions a large volume of ink from the ink nozzles, and can thus reliably expel bubbles from the ink path. By performing this process at a sufficiently long specific period of time after ink priming, enough time has elapsed for bubbles that are formed by the ink path filter during ink priming and collect in offsets in the ink path to grow to a size where the bubbles protrude from the offset into the ink path. Bubbles that are thus freed into the ink path can therefore be reliably expelled from the nozzles. Printing defects resulting from bubbles left by ink priming can thus be reliably prevented.

Abstract: The disclosed continuous ink jet printer nozzle assembly defines a flow path having a powered sonic oscillator associated therewith for inputing vibrations to ink flowing in the path, and a cavity for holding closely adjacent but isolated from the ink flow path one or more sensors operable to detect ink vibrations and/or temperatures immediately downstream from the oscillator, whereby such sensed information can be used in feedback controls for changing input power to the oscillator and/or heater/cooler unit upstream of the oscillator, for stabilizing the printed ink pattern. The nozzle assembly further is formed of three subassemblies: an ink driver subassembly having the powered oscillator and sensor(s), and filter and orifice subassemblies respectively adapted to be connected in serial self-aligned sealed orientations to the exterior upstream and downstream sides of the ink driver subassembly, thereby allowing field replacement of the filter and/or orifice subassemblies.

Abstract: A description is given of an ink jet printer having an ink jet print head which can be displaced parallel to a print line, and a print backing support used to support a recording medium, a covering device and a cleaning device for the ink nozzles of the ink jet print head. The covering device, the cleaning device and a supporting section for the recording medium are arranged on a rotatable disk within the printing area of the ink jet print head.

Abstract: A device for verifying security in a postage meter or other devices using dot or drop printing. Security is achieved by counting the number of signal pulse firings that are used to produce ink drops or ink dots that are required to produce the entire document or specific regions of the document. The aforementioned may be accomplished by storing the printer firings in a two dimensional non-volatile memory array and auditing the printed material on the mail piece by using the firings of the printer to compare the value that is printed on the mail piece to the value decremented in the registers of the meter. The apparatus of the invention determines what is printed on the mail piece by reading the printer firings (that represent the alphanumeric characters or other data produced) and comparing it with the value stored in non-volatile memory.

Abstract: There are provided a waste ink reservoir and an ink jet printer incorporating the waste ink reservoir. A waste ink absorber has a top surface, for receiving waste ink from the print head at the top surface, and then absorbing the waste ink for storage therein. The waste ink absorber has a plurality of ink absorbent boards arranged in a vertically layered structure and formed with respective through holes vertically extending therethrough, such that adjacent through holes of absorbent boards at each pair of respective adjacent layers are displaced from each other, thereby allowing the adjacent through holes to partially communicate with each other. A waste ink container accommodates the waste ink absorber.

Abstract: A leather coloring process for carrying out coloring on a natural leather, or a natural leather which has been subjected to degreasing. The coloring process is accomplished by ink-jet coloring on at least a partial area of the natural leather.