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US 10,518,551 B1Granted
System and method for attenuating the drying of ink from a printhead
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsPaul J. McConville, Christopher D. Atwood, Seemit Praharaj, Michael J. Levy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An ink reservoir in an ink delivery system of an inkjet printer is selectively pressurized and depressurized to fluctuate an ink meniscus at the nozzle of each inactive inkjet in the printhead connected to the ink reservoir. The cycle of pressurization and depressurization is repeated for a predetermined number of times to replenish ink at the nozzles and reduce the likelihood of the ink at the nozzles obtaining a high viscosity.
Claims20
An ink delivery system in a printer comprising:
- a printhead;
- an ink reservoir operatively connected to the printhead to provide ink to the printhead;
- an air pressure pump operatively connected to the ink reservoir, the air pressure pump being configured to apply pressure to ink in the ink reservoir and the printhead;
- a valve operatively connected between the ink reservoir and the air pressure pump, the valve being configured to be moved to a first position where the ink reservoir is vented to atmosphere pressure and to a second position where the air pressure pump applies pressure to the ink reservoir;
- and
- a controller operatively connected to the valve and the air pressure pump, the controller being configured to operate the valve to connect the air pressure pump to apply pressure sufficient to extend an ink meniscus at inactive inkjets in the printhead without breaking the ink meniscus and to operate the valve to disconnect the air pressure pump from the ink reservoir and vent the ink reservoir to atmospheric pressure to retract the ink meniscus at the inactive inkjets.
3 more elements
A method of reducing evaporation of ink from printheads in a printer comprising:
- operating with a controller a valve operatively connected between an air pressure pump and an ink reservoir connected to a printhead to connect the air pressure pump to the ink reservoir;
- activating with the controller the air pressure pump to apply pressure to ink in the ink reservoir to extend an ink meniscus at inactive inkjets in the printhead without breaking the ink meniscus;
- and
- operating with the controller the valve to disconnect the air pressure pump from the ink reservoir and vent the ink reservoir to atmospheric pressure to retract the ink meniscus at the inactive inkjets.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.