Monitoring printing fluids
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsAna Oropesa Fisica, Dorkaitz Alain Vazquez Fernandez, Alberto Borrego Lebrato, Jennifer M. Korngiebel, Alvin Zheng-Hui Yu, Miquel Boleda Busquets, Ryan Suelzle
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Abstract
Example implementations provide a controller to determine a printing fluid abnormality associated with an ink supply channel of a printer; the controller comprising: an input to receive a signal output by a pressure sensor; the signal being indicative of ink pressure associated with the ink supply channel, and a monitor to determine from a characteristic of the signal the presence of an abnormality in the printing fluid.
Claims13
A controller to monitor a printing fluid associated with a printing fluid supply channel of a printer;
- the controller comprising:
- an input to receive a pressure signal by a pressure sensor;
- the signal being indicative of printing fluid pressure associated with the printing fluid supply channel;
- a processing module to determine from a characteristic of the pressure signal a printing fluid abnormality, wherein the characteristic comprises a rate of change of printing fluid with time;
- and
- an alert module for issuing an alert indicative of the printing fluid abnormality, wherein the rate of change of printing fluid pressure with time below a predetermined gradient is indicative of the presence of gas within the printing fluid supply channel and, therefore, the alert corresponds to a presence of gas alert and the rate of change of printing fluid pressure with time above a further predetermined gradient is indicative of the presence of enriched printing fluid within the ink supply channel and, therefore, the alert corresponds to an enriched printing fluid alert.
A non-transitory machine-readable storage storing machine instructions arranged when executed or implemented in a controller to:
- receive a pressure signal derived from a pressure transducer;
- the pressure signal being associated with a printing fluid pressure within a printing fluid delivery system;
- process the received pressure signal to determine from a characteristic of the pressure signal a printing fluid abnormality, wherein the characteristic comprises a rate of change of printing fluid with time;
- and
- issuing an alert indicative of the printing fluid abnormality, wherein the rate of change of printing fluid pressure with time below a predetermined gradient is indicative of the presence of gas within the printing fluid supply channel and, therefore, the alert corresponds to a presence of gas alert and the rate of change of printing fluid pressure with time above a further predetermined gradient is indicative of the presence of enriched printing fluid within the ink supply channel and, therefore, the alert corresponds to an enriched printing fluid alert.
A printing system comprising
- a printhead,
- a printing fluid delivery system for transporting printing fluid to the printhead from a printing fluid supply,
- a pressure transducer for determining a printing fluid pressure,
- a controller arranged to determine from a characteristic of an output signal associated with the pressure transducer a printing fluid abnormality within the printing fluid delivery system, wherein the characteristic comprises a rate of change of printing fluid with time, and
- the controller causes an issuance of an alert indicative of the printing fluid abnormality, wherein the rate of change of printing fluid pressure with time below a predetermined gradient is indicative of the presence of gas within the printing fluid supply channel and, therefore, the alert corresponds to a presence of gas alert and the rate of change of printing fluid pressure with time above a further predetermined gradient is indicative of the presence of enriched printing fluid within the ink supply channel and, therefore, the alert corresponds to an enriched printing fluid alert.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.