Back to results
US 11,254,118 B2Granted
Apparatus for ink contaminant drying
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsSeemit Praharaj, Paul McConville, Douglas Herrmann, Jason Lefevre, Chu-Heng Liu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for ink contaminant drying includes a marker platen having a topside and a bottom side, and a plurality of heating elements located beneath the topside of the marker platen. The plurality of heating elements provides heating with respect to a surface of the marker platen, which prevents ink contaminants on the surface from remaining in a viscous fluidic state over a period of time.
Claims20
An apparatus for ink contaminant drying, comprising:
- a marker transport belt and a marker platen, wherein the marker platen comprises a topside and a bottom side, the marker platen including platen guides and a plurality of vacuum channels formed from the platen guides, the marker transport belt configured with vacuum holes spaced periodically and aligned with the plurality of vacuum channels;
- and
- a plurality of heating elements located beneath the topside of the marker platen in the platen guides of the marker platen and in proximity to areas with a high probability of ink contamination, which results in an efficient transfer of energy for drying out ink contaminants, wherein the plurality of heating elements provides heating with respect to a surface of the marker platen, which assist in preventing ink contaminants on the surface from remaining in a viscous fluidic state over a period of time, and wherein the areas with the high probability of ink contamination include a contact area between the marker transport belt and the marker platen, the contact area comprising a region most likely to suffer from ink contamination, wherein each heating element among the plurality of heating elements comprises a cartridge heating element.
A printing system that provides ink contaminant drying, comprising:
- a marker transport belt and a marker platen, wherein the marker platen comprises a topside and a bottom side, the marker platen including a plurality of platen guides and a plurality of vacuum channels formed from the plurality of platen guides, the marker transport belt configured with vacuum holes spaced periodically and aligned respectively with the plurality of vacuum channels;
- and
- a plurality of heating elements located beneath the topside of the marker platen in the plurality of platen guides of the marker platen and in proximity to areas with a high probability of ink contamination, which results in an efficient transfer of energy for drying out ink contaminants, wherein the plurality of heating elements provides heating with respect to a surface of the marker platen, which assist in preventing ink contaminants on the surface from remaining in a viscous fluidic state over a period of time, and wherein the areas with the high probability of ink contamination include a contact area between the marker transport belt and the marker platen, the contact area comprising a region most likely to suffer from ink contamination, wherein each heating element among the plurality of heating elements comprises a cartridge heating element.
A method for ink contaminant drying, comprising:
- associating a marker transport belt with a marker platen having platen guides, a surface and a topside and a bottom side;
- configuring the marker platen with a plurality of vacuum channels formed from the platen guides, the marker transport belt configured with vacuum holes spaced periodically and aligned with the plurality of vacuum channels;
- locating a plurality of heating elements in the platen guides of the marker platen, wherein each heating element among the plurality of heating elements comprises a cartridge heating element;
- and
- facilitating heating by the plurality of heating elements with respect to the surface of the marker platen having the topside and the bottom side, the plurality of heating elements further located beneath the topside of the marker platen and in proximity to areas with a high probability of ink contamination, the heating resulting in an efficient transfer of energy for drying out ink contaminants, wherein the plurality of heating elements provides the heating with respect to the surface of the marker platen, which assists in preventing the ink contaminants on the surface from remaining in a viscous fluidic state over a period of time, and wherein the areas with the high probability of the ink contamination include a contact area between the marker transport belt and the marker platen, the contact area comprising a region most likely to suffer from the ink contamination.
2 more elements
The method of 18 further comprising operating the plurality of heating elements during a system idle time in which a plurality of print heads are capped and printing does not take place.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.