Electrohydrodynamic printer with self-cleaning extractor
AssigneeThe Regents of the University of Michigan
InventorsLai Yu Leo Tse, Kira Barton, Ethan John McMillan
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Abstract
An electrohydrodynamic printer has a self-cleaning extractor that can cleaning itself during printing. The extractor can be in the form of a metal block or a metal rod along which a layer of cleaning fluid flows from a source of cleaning fluid to a collector. The surface of the extractor along which the cleaning fluid flows can be adjustable between horizontal and any other angle. The self-cleaning extractor eliminates the need to interrupt e-jet printing cycles to clean stray printing fluid from the extractor by continuously keeping the extractor clean during ink extraction and printing.
Claims19
An electrohydrodynamic printer, comprising:
- an ink nozzle;
- and
- an extractor configured to use a controllable electric field to extract printing fluid from the ink nozzle for deposition on a printing surface when the printing fluid and extractor are at different electrical potentials,
- wherein the extractor is a self-cleaning extractor having a layer of cleaning fluid flowing along a surface of the extractor during printing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.