Printing head nozzle evaluation
AssigneeXjet Ltd.
InventorsEliahu M. Kritchman, Timofey Shmal
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for evaluating performance of a plurality of nozzles of a printing head includes repeatedly operating each of the nozzles to print test marks on a surface of a substrate, each of the test marks printed by that nozzle being printed at a different time. At least once during the repeated operation of each of the nozzles, at least some of the test marks are erased from the surface. The test marks that were printed by that nozzle are inspected for a feature that is indicative of the performance of that nozzle.
Claims19
A method of selecting nozzles for printing a multi-layered line of metallic material, the method comprising:
- printing a first plurality of test marks using a plurality of nozzles and according to a set of parameters;
- printing a second plurality of test marks using the plurality of nozzles and according to the set of parameters;
- inspecting the first and second pluralities of test marks to determine whether test marks printed by a particular nozzle of the plurality nozzles are identical in appearance;
- identifying a set of test marks from the first and second pluralities of test marks that were printed by a particular nozzle and that are not identical in appearance;
- identifying the nozzle that printed the identified set of test marks;
- excluding the identified nozzle from the plurality of nozzles to generate a set of conforming nozzles;
- and using the set of conforming nozzles to print the multi-layered line of metallic material, wherein each nozzle in the set of conforming nozzles deposits metallic material to form a metallic layer within the multi-layered line of metallic material.
A method of selecting nozzles for printing a multi-layered line of metallic material, the method comprising:
- printing a first plurality of test marks using a plurality of nozzles and according to a set of parameters;
- printing a second plurality of test marks using the plurality of nozzles and according to the set of parameters;
- inspecting individual test marks of the first and second pluralities of test marks to determine whether test marks printed by a particular nozzle are identical in appearance;
- assigning each of the plurality of nozzles a value representing an ability of each of the plurality of nozzles to print test marks that are identical in appearance;
- using the assigned values to identify a set of nozzles to be excluded from the plurality of nozzles;
- excluding the identified set of nozzles to generate a set of conforming nozzles;
- and
- using the set of conforming nozzles to print the multi-layered line of metallic material, wherein each nozzle in the set of conforming nozzles deposits metallic material to form a metallic layer within the multi-layered line of metallic material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.