Abstract: An ink jet printer maintenance or cleaning system (10) for continuous ink jet printing systems having an ink collecting gutter (12) on the print head (12, 46). The maintenance or cleaning system (10) generally comprises a hydrodynamic cleaning fluid nozzle (24) disposed within the print head (12, 46), a wiper (26, 52) for engaging the print head (12, 46), and a spittoon (28, 66) for collecting discharged cleaning fluid. Relative translational movement between the wiper (26, 52) and the print head (12, 46), along with a discharge of cleaning fluid from the hydrodynamic cleaning fluid nozzle (24), cleans the ink nozzle (18) of the print head (12, 46). In a preferred embodiment, the wiper (26, 52) is disposed on the spittoon (28), which is positioned along one end of the guide shafts (16a, 16b) such that movement of the print head (12) over the spittoon (28) causes the wiper (26) to engage the print head (12) and clean the ink nozzle (18).

Abstract: An ink jet head 31 is formed with two rows of plurality of ejection channels 33 through which ink droplets are ejected. A manifold 40 is formed with an ink supply path 43 which fluidly connects the ejection channels 33 with an ink cartridge 50. The ink supply path 43 includes a small diameter connection path 44 and a broad portion 45. The broad portion 45 broadens in a tapering manner from the connection path 44 side to the ink jet head 31 side. The broad portion 45 is provided with guide walls 45c which define narrow ink channels 45d. The presence of the guide walls 45c decreases the volume of the broad portion 45, thereby increasing ink flow speed during purging operations. The rapid ink flow easily removes air bubbles clinging to an inner surface of the ink supply path 45. In this way, the air bubbles are reliably discharged out of the ink supply path 45 during the purging operations.

Abstract: A storage and spittoon system is provided for an inkjet printing mechanism to handle waste inkjet ink that has been spit from an inkjet printhead during a nozzle clearing, purging or “spitting” routine. A rotating spit wheel has a rim with a concave cross sectional shape which receives ink residue spit from the printhead. A compliant scraper is spring biased to contact the spit wheel rim at a substantially tangential orientation to scrape the ink residue from the rim as the wheel is rotated past the scraper. The scraper directs the ink residue into a storage container as a string-like strip which is then packed to into a storage container as the spit wheel rotates. A method of purging ink residue from an inkjet printhead, along with an inkjet printing mechanism having such a waste ink storage and spittoon system, are also provided.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus with ink drop registration control adjusts the timing of the ink drop or drops that form each pixel to compensate for time-of-flight differences that are a function of the number of ink drops that form a pixel and as a function of the ink drops that constitute one or more immediately preceding pixels. A pixel buffer stores successive pixel data in a first-in first-out (FIFO) manner so that the timing of the ink drop for a current pixel can be adjusted, in part, as a function of the number of ink drops of at least one next successive pixel.

Abstract: An ink protection device for an inkjet printhead comprises a flap member associated with the printhead and extending generally parallel to the ink ejection surface of the printhead so that when the printhead is mounted in the carriage the flap member extends between the carriage and a face of the printhead, particularly the electrical interconnect face. The device may be in a two part laminar form attached to the bottom of a carriage of the printer and having a flexible part for contacting all four faces of the printheads and a stiff part for support. Both parts having openings aligned with the openings in the carriage through which the printhead snout passes.

Abstract: An ink jet printer of the present invention includes a recovering device for repeating, at the time of recovery from defective ink ejection, the suction of ink a plurality of times while varying a suction pressure acting on the ink. This successfully reduces the amount of bubbles and reduces the number of times of suction to thereby obviate the wasteful consumption of ink at the time of recovery. A printing method practicable with the ink jet printer and a storage medium storing the printing method are also disclosed.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for conducting solid printing on a tape-shaped recording medium without leaving any unprinted portions on either the sides, leading or trailing ends thereof. A portion of the image-receiving surface of a tape-shaped recording medium of a pre-determined width which is narrower than the full width is used for the actual image-receiving surface, while the other continuous portions are used as dummy image-receiving surfaces. The solid printing action involves solid printing in such a manner that the printing overlaps the edge of the image-receiving surface onto the outer dummy image-receiving surfaces. After solid printing, the center image-receiving surface portion is cut loose from peeling paper, leaving the unnecessary dummy image-receiving surfaces. The image-receiving portion cut loose may be applied to a desired surface, as a piece of printed tape-shaped printing medium solidly printed without unprinted gaps at the edges.

Abstract: An ink supply apparatus includes a container for storing ink jet ink having an opening for releasing ink from the container, a valve member mounted in the opening in the container, and a mechanism coupled to the valve member for biasing the valve member so as to prevent the flow of ink from the container when the ink supply is not mounted on a supply base

Abstract: In an ink-jet printing apparatus for performing printing of an image using a plurality of printing heads for ejecting an ink and a printing head for ejecting a processing liquid making the ink insoluble, a rebounding mist to be generated by ejection of the ink and the processing liquid is prevented from adhering on to the vicinity of nozzles of the printing heads. Therefore, respective number of ejection of respective of the printing heads is counted. On the other hand, a threshold level is to set smaller, at greater distance between the printing head for ejecting the ink and the printing head for ejecting the processing liquid. A recovery process, such as wiping or the like is performed when the counted value of the printing head exceeds a predetermined value. By this, appropriate recovery process, such as wiping or the like can be performed depending upon deposition amount of the mist for respective printing heads.

Abstract: An inkjet printer according to the present invention records images by expelling ink droplets by applying a pulse voltage to a piezoelectric element for driving the same. In the inkjet printer, the waveform of a pulse voltage applied to the piezoelectric element consists of a rising portion of voltage having a first inclination relative to time and a failing portion having a second inclination. As a result, an inkjet printer permitting the picture quality to be improved can be provided.

Abstract: The present invention provides an ink jet recording apparatus in which during wiping of an ink jet head surface, ink accumulation on both sides of each wiping region can be removed, thereby preventing dropping and transfer of the ink accumulation onto a recording medium, and maintaining good image quality. In the ink jet recording apparatus, a second wiping operation, separate from a normal first wiping operation, is performed for wiping a discharge element relatively moved to a position shifted by a predetermined amount from a position in the first wiping operation in a direction perpendicular to the wiping direction.

Abstract: A unitary capping system for simultaneously sealing multiple inkjet printheads during periods of inactivity has a base, a sled and an elastomeric printhead sealing structure. The base defines a cap hole and a chamber which receives the sled. The sled has a planar surface that moves between sealing and rest positions. The sealing structure has a planar web sandwiched between the sled and the base inside the chamber. The sealing structure has a lip support surrounded by the web, with the lip support having an upper surface extending through the cap hole to encircle the printhead nozzles when the sled is in the sealing position. A deflection cavity is defined between the lip support and the sled planar surface, so a portion of the lip support may collapse into the deflection cavity when sealing the associated printhead. Vent troughs linking two or more supports are defined by the sled planar surface.

Abstract: To propose an ink-jet recording apparatus having a small-sized compact driving mechanism for driving an ink suction pump, an elastic blade for wiping a recording head, and a locking arm for locking a carriage. An ink suction pump 8, a locking arm for locking a carriage, and an elastic blade for wiping a recording head are driven by a driving mechanism for common use. The driving mechanism transmits the torque of a single motor via a driving gear to the ink suction pump. Moreover, the driving mechanism also converts the rotary motion into the locking movement of the elastic blade via a rotary cam plate frictionally engaging with the driving gear and further converts the locking movement of the elastic blade to the locking movement of the locking arm. The ink-jet recording apparatus can be made small-sized and compact by driving each driven portion using the driving mechanism for common use.

Abstract: A fiber tracking management system controls fibers clinging to an inkjet printhead in an inkjet printing mechanism, to stop these fibers from trailing across freshly printed wet ink and leaving unsightly fiber tracks. The system includes a sled which supports a fiber crushing member that contacts the printhead when the sled is in the servicing position and crushes fibers dangling from the printhead against the printhead. The printhead carriage has a datum which extends over the print zone and collects fibers from a wiper following printhead wiping. The system also has a fiber remover which removes fibers deposited along the exterior surface of the datum. The fiber remover may be a clutch actuator or other mechanism which plucks the fibers off the carriage, or a compressible pad which smashes the fibers and scrubs ink residue from the datum. A method of controlling fibers clinging to an inkjet printhead is also provided.

Abstract: An ink-jet printer includes a rotary drum for carrying a print sheet, a print head arranged above the rotary drum for printing an image by ejecting ink onto the print sheet, a washing board facing the print head to wash an end surface of the print head with ink ejected from the print head, and a control unit for controlling at a non-printing time the washing board to be set at a cleaning position located between the print head and the rotary drum and the print head to eject ink therefrom. Particularly, the washing board has grooves which receives an entire end surface of the print head and a drain section for draining the ink ejected from the print head and flowing in contact with the end surface of the print head within the groove section.

Abstract: A tapered screw spittoon system is provided for an inkjet printing mechanism to handle waste inkjet ink residue that has been spit from an inkjet printhead during a nozzle clearing or “spitting” routine. The spittoon system has a cylindrical reservoir with a tapered screw rotatably mounted therein. The reservoir defines an entranceway opening to receive the ink residue, which then lands on a spit region of the screw. The screw has a tapered shaft which increases in diameter from the entranceway opening toward an exit opening defined by the reservoir wall at a remote location. When rotated, the tapered screw transports the ink residue from the spit region toward the exit opening. During transport, the ink residue is compacted between the screw shaft and the reservoir, and is squeezed out of the reservoir through the exit opening for permanent storage in a container surrounding the reservoir.

Abstract: A system incorporating the invention controls ink deposition from a multi-orifice inkjet printhead. The printhead is adapted to deposit shingled dots, of plural colors, during multiple passes across a media sheet. The system includes an image buffer which stores image data, the data configured into plural color planes, each color plane including single color subpixels. Each subpixel is a multibit value that is representative of a color intensity. Multiple color plane deposition masks are stored for use with subpixel data from associated color planes, each color plane deposition mask including plural threshold values. Subpixel values from each color plane are compared with logically corresponding threshold values from an associated color plane deposition mask and print control signals are produced in accordance with the comparing action. If the subpixel value equals or exceeds an associated threshold value, a print signal is issued and if not, a no-print action occurs.

Abstract: A manifold 40 is formed with an ink supply path 43, which fluidly connects an ink cartridge 50 and ejection channels 33 of an ink jet head 31. The ink supply path 43 has a broad portion 45 that broadens from a connection path 44 outward in a tapering manner. A space A defined between a mesh filter 40a and a mesh filter 53a is set to have a volume greater than a volume of a spherical shape B, which is inscribed by the ceiling surface of the broad portion 45 and an upper surface 31a of the ink jet head 31. Air is introduced into the space A during exchange of the ink cartridge 50. When the air is drawn into the broad portion 45 during purging operations, the air is supported in contact with the ink jet head 31 and also blocks the connection path 44.

Abstract: An ink jet printer which is designed to control the motions of horizontal and vertical drive motors collectively and thereby allow only one motor to be driven at time for the reduction of peak power consumption includes: a vertical drive motor for feeding and discharging a print paper; a horizontal drive motor for driving a carriage to carry an ink cartridge to a print position; an ASIC circuit section corresponding to a logic circuit for controlling the operations of the horizontal and vertical drive motors; an EEPROM saving initial setting values required to control the ASIC circuit section and a program for a system; a driver circuit for controlling the operations of the drive motors; and a converger for managing tasks requested by the driver circuit in a collective manner so as to prevent simultaneous driving of the vertical and horizontal drive motors.

Abstract: An inkjet recording head including a head cover for protecting the recording head. The head cover includes a notch formed at a top portion thereof which exposes a side portion of the nozzle plate of the ink-jet recording head so that a wiping blade can effectively wipe a top surface of a nozzle plate without interference by the head cover.