Printer service station having multichannel drop detectors

Abstract

A printer device having a plurality of print heads for printing onto a print medium. Each of the print heads having a plurality of nozzles formed into at least two rows. A service station housed within the printer device having a plurality of service station units for performing servicing operations on the print heads. A plurality of ink drop detector modules being integrated into respective ones of the service station units for detecting malfunctioning nozzles on the plurality of print heads. The ink drop detector modules may be configured to test the nozzles of each row of nozzles on at least one of the print heads simultaneously. And, according to a preferred embodiment, each row of nozzles of each print head are tested simultaneously to thereby substantially reduce the amount of time required to test the functionality of the nozzles.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.