Abstract: A method of removing particulates from an ink ejection face of a printhead is provided. The method comprises the steps of: (i) flooding the face with ink from the printhead, thereby dispersing the particulates into the flooded ink; and (ii) transferring the flooded ink, including the particulates, onto a disposable sheet moving through a maintenance zone adjacent the face, wherein the sheet does not contact the face.

Abstract: A method of purging and printing from an inkjet printhead is provided. The method comprises the steps of: (i) fluidically connecting the printhead to a second ink reservoir containing purging ink; (ii) purging the printhead using the purging ink, thereby flooding an ink ejection face of the printhead; (iii) removing the flooded ink from the ink ejection face; (iv) fluidically connecting the printhead to a first reservoir containing printing ink; and (v) printing from the printhead using the printing ink.

Abstract: A method of purging ink from an inkjet printhead is provided. The printhead is in fluid communication with an ink reservoir via an ink conduit having a valve. The method comprises the steps of: (i) closing the valve; (ii) positively pressurizing the ink reservoir using a pressure device; and (iii) opening the valve for a predetermined period, thereby purging ink from the printhead and flooding an ink ejection face thereof.

Abstract: A printhead service station that is arranged on one side of a print track of a printer for cleaning and covering the printhead, comprising a bottom part, a transmission part, and a base, wherein a frame is disposed across the top surface of the bottom part, provided with a plurality of openings and a cap for covering the printhead, wherein said transmission part is connected pivot-movably to the bottom part to support the printhead, and is provided with a moving device and a resilient device to move the transmission part over the bottom part, and wherein said base is also pivot-movably connected to the bottom part, is provided with a plurality of cleaning devices and a ripple track, said base is provided further with a pulling-and-holding device such that, when the transmission part is moved on the track, said base can displace up and down beneath the bottom part, and allows said cleaning devices shuttle upwardly and downwardly within the opening of the bottom part, respectively.

Abstract: A printhead maintenance station for maintaining a printhead in an operable condition is provided. The maintenance station comprises an elastically deformable pad having a contact surface for sealing engagement with an ink ejection face of the printhead, and an engagement mechanism for reciprocally moving the pad between a first position in which the contact surface is sealingly engaged with the face and a second position in which the contact surface is disengaged from the face. The engagement mechanism is configured to move the pad rotatably with respect to the printhead such that, during engagement, a first part of the surface is contacted with the face prior to a second part of the surface. During disengagement the second part is disengaged from the face prior to the first part.

Abstract: A printhead maintenance station for maintaining a printhead in an operable condition is provided. The maintenance station comprises an elastically deformable roller having a contact surface for contacting an ink ejection face of the printhead, and a mechanism for rolling the roller across the face.

Abstract: A printhead maintenance station for maintaining a printhead in an operable condition is provided. The maintenance station comprises an elastically deformable pad having a contact surface for sealing engagement with an ink ejection face of the printhead. The maintenance station also comprises an engagement mechanism for moving the pad between a first position in which the contact surface is sealingly engaged with the face, and a second position in which the contact surface is disengaged from the face. The maintenance station is configured such that the contact surface is progressively contacted with the face during sealing engagement and peeled away from the face during disengagement. The disclosures of these applications and patents are incorporated herein by reference.

Abstract: A printhead assembly for maintaining a printhead in an operable condition is provided. The assembly comprises a printhead having an ink ejection face and a printhead maintenance station. The printhead maintenance station comprises an elastically deformable pad having a contact surface for sealing engagement with the face, and an engagement mechanism for moving the pad between a first position in which the contact surface is sealingly engaged with the face and a second position in which the contact surface is disengaged from the face. The printhead assembly is configured such that the contact surface is progressively contacted with the face during sealing engagement and peeled away from the face during disengagement.

Abstract: A printhead maintenance station for maintaining a printhead in an operable condition is provided. The maintenance station comprises (a) an elastically deformable cylinder having a contact surface for sealing engagement with an ink ejection face of the printhead; and (b) an engagement mechanism for reciprocally moving the cylinder between a first position in which the contact surface is sealingly engaged with the face, and a second position in which the contact surface is disengaged from the face. The engagement mechanism moves the cylinder substantially perpendicularly with respect to the face.

Abstract: A printhead maintenance station for maintaining a printhead in an operable condition is provided. The maintenance station comprises a capper sealingly engageable around the printhead. The capper comprises a constriction member for defining a blast channel adjacent an ink ejection face of the printhead. The maintenance station further comprises a vacuum system in fluid communication with the capper and an engagement mechanism. The engagement mechanism moves the capper between a first position in which the capper is sealingly engaged around the printhead and a second position in which the capper is disengaged from around the printhead.

Abstract: A thermal management system is provided herein which comprises a synthetic jet ejector (201) driven by an acoustic resonator (209).

Abstract: An inkjet printhead with a nozzle plate that has an exterior surface with formations for reducing its co-efficient of static friction. By reducing the co-efficient of static friction, there is less likelihood that paper dust or other contaminants will clog the nozzles in the nozzle plate. Static friction, or “stiction” as it has become known, allows dust particles to “stick” to nozzle plates and thereby clog nozzles. By patterning the exterior of the nozzle plate with raised formations, dust particles can only contact the outer extremities of each formation. This reduces friction between the particles and the nozzle plate so that any particles that contact the plate are less likely to attach, and if they do attach, they are more likely to be removed by printhead maintenance cleaning cycles.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead comprising: an array of nozzles; a plurality of actuators for ejecting ink through the nozzles such that a bulb of ink attached to a droplet stem forms prior to drop separation when the stem breaks; a plurality of droplet stem anchors positioned between adjacent actuators; wherein during use, the adjacent actuators eject ink simultaneously and the droplet stem anchors combine the ink simultaneously ejected by the adjacent nozzles into a single drop.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead comprising: an array of ink chambers, each having a nozzle and an actuator for ejecting ink through the nozzle; wherein, the nozzle has a nozzle rim defining a nozzle aperture and a localized irregularity on the nozzle rim extending toward the centre of the nozzle aperture.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead is provided having an elongate ink supply channel defined within a substrate and a plurality of inkjet nozzles arranged on the substrate to extend across a pagewidth. Each nozzle incorporates an actuator of a conductive heater, a paddle and an arm interconnecting the heater and paddle, and an ink ejection chamber having a first wall in which a first aperture for ink ejection is defined, a second wall in which a second aperture is defined through which the arm of the actuator passes so that the heater is outside the chamber and the paddle is inside the chamber, and a third wall in which a third aperture is defined through which ink from the ink supply channel is communicated. The arm of each actuator incorporates a protruding shield configured to restrict the flow of ink through the second aperture.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead with planar thermal actuators, with contacts directly deposited onto the CMOS electrodes and suspended heater element, which avoids hotspots caused by vertical or inclined surfaces so that the contacts can be much smaller structures without acceptable increases in resistive losses. Low resistive losses preserves the efficient operation of a suspended heater element and the small contact size is convenient for close nozzle packing on the printhead.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead with an array of nozzles and corresponding actuators for ejecting ink through the nozzles, the nozzles being arranged in rows such that the nozzle centres are collinear; wherein, the nozzle pitch along each row is greater than 1000 nozzles per inch. By configuring the components of the unit cell (the repeating chamber, nozzle and actuator unit) such that the overall width of the unit is reduced, the same number of nozzles can be arranged into a single row instead of two staggered and opposing rows without sacrificing any print resolution (d.p.i.). One row of drive circuitry simplifies the CMOS. fabrication and connection to a print engine controller for receiving print data. Alternatively, the unit cell configuration used in the present invention can be arranged into opposing rows that are staggered with respect to eachother to effectively double the print resolution—in the case of the preferred embodiment, to 3200 d.p.i.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead comprising: an array of ink chambers, each having a nozzle, a droplet stem anchor and an actuator for ejecting ink through the nozzle; wherein during use, the ink ejected from the nozzle is attached to the droplet stem anchor by an ink stem until the stem breaks so that the ejected ink forms a separate drop.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead comprising: an array of ink chambers, each having a nozzle, an elongate actuator for ejecting ink through the nozzle; wherein, the nozzle has an elongate shape with its long dimension aligned with that of the elongate actuator.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead with multiple actuators in respective ink chambers, where a plurality of the actuators activate simultaneously from the same drive signal. By replacing a single relatively large chamber with two or more smaller chambers, such that the separate actuators are in the same driver circuit (either in series or parallel), each nozzle ejects drops of smaller volume, and having different misdirections. Smaller drops with differing misdirections are less likely to create any visible artefacts.

Abstract: Ink jet printhead comprising one or more ejection module, each with a silicon chip, a plurality of ejector nozzles arranged adjacent to a front of the module, ejection cells for the nozzles and delivery channels for the ink of the cells. The module or modules each include a distribution channel adjacent to the front and in fluid communication with the delivery channels and a nozzle layer integrated with the relative chip and in which the ejector nozzles parallel to the front are made. The head also comprises a support on which the module or modules are mounted and which defines a feeding duct for the ink in fluid communication with the delivery channels and sealing means between the module or modules and the support to guarantee fluid tightness between the feeding duct and the ejection cells.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead comprising: an array of ink chambers, each having a nozzle and a thermal actuator for generating vapour bubbles to eject ink through the nozzle; wherein, the thermal actuator has a pair of contacts and at least two parallel current paths between the contacts, each of the current paths having a plurality of heater elements for nucleating a vapour bubble.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead with ink chambers that are supplied with ink via an adjacent ink chamber. The conduits for distributing ink to every ink chamber in the array can occupy a significant proportion of the wafer area. By making some ink chambers part of the ink flow path to other ink chambers, while keeping each chamber sufficiently free of fluidic cross talk, reduces the amount of wafer area lost to ink supply conduits.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead with multiple actuators and respective nozzles in each chamber, so that each actuator activates simultaneously from the same drive signal. By putting multiple actuators in a single chamber, and providing each actuator with a corresponding nozzle (or nozzles), each nozzle ejects drops of smaller volume, and having different misdirections. Smaller drops with differing misdirections are less likely to create any visible artefacts.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead with an array of ink chambers, each having a nozzle and an actuator for ejecting ink through the nozzle; a plurality of ink inlets in fluid communication with the ink chambers; and, at least one priming feature extending through each of the ink inlets; such that, the surface tension of an ink meniscus at the ink inlet acts to draw the ink out of the inlet and partially along the flow path toward the ink chambers. By introducing a priming feature into the plane of the inlet aperture, the surface tension in the ink meniscus can be redirected to pull the ink along the intend flow path rather than push it back into the inlet.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead comprising: an array of ink chambers, each having an ink refill aperture, a nozzle and an actuator for ejecting ink through the nozzle; and, a fluid flow rectifying valve at the ink refill aperture for providing less hydraulic resistance to ink flowing into the chamber than ink flowing out of the chamber.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead with an array of nozzles, and corresponding actuators for ejecting ink through the nozzles; a plurality of ink inlet apertures in fluid communication with the nozzles, each of the ink inlet apertures having an ink permeable trap and a vent sized so that the surface tension of an ink meniscus across the vent prevents ink leakage; wherein during use, the ink permeable trap directs gas bubbles to the vent where they vent to atmosphere. By trapping the bubbles at the ink inlets and directing them to a small vent, they are effectively removed from the ink flow without any ink leakage. The trap can also double as an inlet priming feature to assist priming the chambers with ink.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead with an array of ink chambers defined by sidewalls extending between a nozzle plate and an underlying wafer substrate, each chamber having a nozzle in the nozzle plate plurality of nozzles, and an actuator for ejecting ink through the nozzle, one of the sidewalls of each chamber having an opening to allow ink to refill the chamber; an ink conduit between the nozzle plate and underlying wafer, the ink conduit being in fluid communication with the openings of a plurality of the ink chambers; and, a plurality of ink inlets defined in said substrate; wherein, the ink conduit is in fluid communication with the plurality of ink inlets for receiving ink to supply to the ink chambers. Introducing an ink conduit that supplies several of the nozzles, and is in itself supplied by several ink inlets, reduces the chance that nozzles will be starved of ink by inlet clogging. If one inlet is clogged, the ink conduit will draw more ink from the other inlets in the wafer.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead with multiple nozzles in each ink chamber. By giving the chamber multiple nozzles, each nozzle ejects drops of smaller volume, and having different misdirections. Several small drops misdirected in different directions are less detrimental to print quality than a single relatively large misdirected drop.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead comprising: an array of ink chambers, each having a nozzle and a plurality of heater elements for generating vapour bubbles to eject ink through the nozzle, the heater elements being suspended for immersion in the ink; and, a cross bracing structure for maintaining the spacing between the heater elements.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead comprising: an array of ink chambers, each having a nozzle and an actuator for ejecting ink through the nozzle; wherein during use, the actuator initiates a quadrupole pressure pulse that is symmetrical about two orthogonal axes parallel to the plane of the nozzle, the orthogonal axes intersecting a mutually orthogonal axis extending through the centre of the nozzle.

Abstract: A positive type photosensitive resin composition comprises a polyacrylate resin having, in the structure, at least a structural unit represented by the following general formula (1): wherein X represents a hydroxyl group, an alkylol group having 2 to 4 carbon atoms, or a methylolamino group; R1 and R2 independently represents a hydrogen atom, or an alkyl group having 1 to 3 carbon atoms; R3 represents an alkyl group having 1 to 3 carbon atoms, an alkoxyl group having 1 to 3 carbon atoms, or an aralkyl group having an aryl group or alkyl group with 1 to 2 carbon atoms; n represents a positive integer; and m represents 0 or a positive integer, and a condensable crosslinker.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead with an array of elongate ink chambers, each having a nozzle, an actuator for ejecting ink through the nozzle and a sidewall opening allowing ink to refill the chamber; wherein, the opening is in one of the long sides of the ink chamber. Configuring the ink chambers so that they have side inlets reduces the ink refill times. The inlets are wider and therefore refill flow rates are higher.

Abstract: A controller controls a pressurizing actuator in such a manner that a pressure chamber changes from a first state where a volume of the pressure chamber is V1 to a second state where the volume is V2 larger than V1 and then returns from the second to the first state to cause ink to be ejected from an ejection opening, that a time length Tv1 from a time point at which the pressure chamber starts to change from the first to the second state to a time point at which the pressure chamber is in the second state becomes 33% or more of a characteristic vibration period Td of ink filled in a first ink passage extending from an outlet of the pressure chamber to the ejection opening, and that the time length Tv1 becomes 83% or less of the characteristic vibration period Td.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for changing the trajectory of ink droplets generated by and emitted from a print head which operates in a continuous manner, the ink droplets being electrostatically charged and deflected in a plane out of an original trajectory by at least one electrical field in a first deflecting device, the ink droplets being deflected in the same plane by at least one electrical field in a second deflecting device.

Abstract: A method of inkjet printing includes establishing a back pressure corresponding to a desired print mode in a printhead and changing the back pressure in response to changes in print mode. A printing system for printing in a number of distinct print modes includes an inkjet pen having a printhead and a back pressure control unit having multiple back pressure settings. The back pressure is set to a first value when the printing system is operating in a first print mode to a second value when the printing system is operating in a second print mode. In another embodiment, the printing system includes structure for controlling meniscus condition in the printhead nozzles by selectively changing back pressure.

Abstract: A method of removing particulates from an ink ejection face of a printhead is provided. The method comprises the steps of: (i) flooding the face with ink from the printhead, thereby dispersing the particulates into the flooded ink; and (ii) transferring the flooded ink, including the particulates, onto a disposable sheet moving through a maintenance zone adjacent the face, wherein the sheet does not contact the face.

Abstract: An ink supply system for an inkjet printhead is provided. The system comprises: (a) an ink reservoir for storing ink, the ink reservoir being contained in a pressurizable chamber; (b) an ink conduit providing fluid communication between the ink reservoir and the printhead; (c) a pressure device for positively pressurizing the chamber, the pressure device comprising an air compressor in fluid communication with the chamber; and (d) a valve in the ink conduit for controlling a supply of ink to the printhead.

Abstract: A method of removing particulates from an ink ejection face of a printhead is provided. The method comprises the steps of: (i) flooding the face with ink from the printhead, thereby dispersing the particulates into the flooded ink; and (ii) transferring the flooded ink, including the particulates, onto a disposable sheet moving through a maintenance zone adjacent the face, wherein the sheet does not contact the face.

Abstract: A valve device for opening and closing a valve including a movable valve member, the valve device comprising: an operation member movable toward and away from the valve, the operation member moving the valve member with magnetic force when moving toward or away from the valve to open or close the valve, wherein the operation member is formed to move in a predetermined direction including a first component representing magnitude of a vector in a movement direction of the valve member and a second component representing magnitude of a vector in a direction perpendicular to the movement direction of the valve member, with the first component being greater than the second component.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for measuring a physical property of ink, the apparatus having a function of determining whether the ink is in an appropriate state for printing by monitoring a change of a physical property of the ink. The apparatus includes an ink storage unit, a printhead module, a physical property measuring unit, a storage unit, and a determination unit. The ink storage unit stores ink and the printhead module is connected to the ink storage unit to eject the ink onto a printing medium. The physical property measuring unit measures an actual value of the physical property of the ink (for example, electrical conductivity), and the storage unit stores a nominal value of the physical property of the ink, wherein the nominal value is determined in advance at a predetermined temperature.

Abstract: An inkjet printhead with an array of ink chambers, each having a nozzle, an actuator for ejecting ink through the nozzle, an inlet opening allowing ink to refill the chamber and a filter structure at the inlet opening; wherein, the filter structure has rows of obstructions extending transverse to the flow direction through the opening, the obstructions in each row being spaced such that they are out of registration with the obstructions in an adjacent row with respect to the flow direction. Filtering the ink as it enters the chamber removes the contaminants and bubbles but it also retards ink flow into the chamber. The present invention uses a filter structure that has rows of obstructions in the flow path. The rows are offset with respect to each other to induce turbulence. This has a minimal effect on the nozzle refill rate but the air bubbles or other contaminants are likely to be retained by the obstructions.

Abstract: An ink-jet recording apparatus includes a rubber member in an ink flow passage. The rubber member is pretreated with an organic solvent having a high boiling point, a water-based liquid containing a coloring agent, or a mixture of the two. The pretreatment is effective for preventing additives in the rubber material from being eluted into a water-based liquid for ink-jet recording, which can lead to clogging of ink-jet nozzles and the like.

Abstract: An inkjet printing method including jetting an inkjet ink composition before and/or after a solution containing a Grignard reagent is applied to a printing medium, so that bleeding between colors of the printed image is minimized by increasing the adhesion between a colorant and a paper, and water resistance and rubbing resistance at dry and wet state for the printed image are enhanced to provide superior colorfastness.

Abstract: An inkjet ink composition including about 100 parts by weight of a liquid vehicle (such as water), about 1 to about 35 parts by weight of a colorant including first and second dyes, and about 0.1 to about 130 parts by weight of an organic solvent, and a weight of the first dye soluble in 100 parts by weight of water under standard state conditions is more than 1.5 times an initial weight of the first dye contained in 100 parts by weight of the inkjet ink composition and a weight of the second dye soluble in 100 parts by weight of water under the standard state conditions is less than 1.5 times an initial weight of the second dye contained in 100 parts by weight of the inkjet ink composition; and a multi-color inkjet ink set including the inkjet ink composition.

Abstract: The present invention provides an ink set including multiple liquids including at least first and second liquids, wherein the first liquid contains a hydrophobic polymer, and the hydrophobic polymer includes at least a unit represented by the following formula (1), wherein R1 represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group that may have a substituent group; R2 represents an alkyl or aryl group that may have a substituent group; and L represents a linking group selected from the group consisting of —C(?O)O—, —O—, and —OC(?O)—.

Abstract: The present invention provides an ultraviolet curable ink set comprising: a white ink composition containing at least a white pigment and a polymerizable compound; and a color ink composition containing at least a coloring material of a color other than white and a polymerizable compound, wherein at least one of the white ink composition and the color ink composition contains a polymerization initiator. Also disclosed is an image recording method using the ultraviolet curable ink set.

Abstract: A non-gated print media crossover for a printing system includes crossover pathways which intersect at a crossover junction. A control system controls arrival of sheets of print media at the crossover junction whereby a sheet conveyed on the first crossover pathway traverses the junction in an intersheet gap between sheets traversing the junction on the second crossover pathway. The printing system includes print media processing units, such as marking engines, paper sources, and output destinations, which are connected by a conveyor system incorporating the crossover.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus with three-dimensional object imaging capability is provided that is compact, has a small footprint, and is easy to use. This apparatus has a top-surface paper ejection unit (130) that ejects paper P on which an image has been formed by an image forming unit (110) onto the top surface of the apparatus body (101); a top-surface paper ejection tray (150) that can be opened and closed with respect to the apparatus body (101) and receives paper P ejected by the top-surface paper ejection unit (130); an object placement platform (160) whose object placement surface (161), on which an object is placed, is exposed by opening the top-surface paper ejection tray (150); and a two-dimensional sensor (170) for imaging an object placed on the object placement platform (160). The apparatus has a configuration in which the top-surface paper ejection tray (150), when open, serves as a support for the imaging section.

Abstract: A printing arrangement includes a driving station which is configured to drive print media along a path. A printing station is operatively arranged with respect to the path to print upon the print media. An adhesive application station is operatively arranged with respect to the path to apply adhesive to the print media. A binding station is provided in which the printed print media can collect in a stack and be pressed together to facilitate adhering of the print media together.