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US 2006/0139408 A1Published application
Inkjet printer
AssigneeImaje S.A.
InventorsBruno Barbet, Pierre Henon
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A printer head (1) of an ink jet printer (10), is provided with an internal stimulation system (31) with which it is possible to create in an upstream breaking position (11) of a jet (30), an upstream break-up forming in a zero potential area, drops (33) which will be used for printing, and jet sections (38) on the one hand and in a downstream breaking position (12), a break-up of the jet (30) or of sections (38) of the jet forming in a non-zero potential area, drops (43) which are recovered on the other hand. A sorting system (35) common to all the jets (30) of the head provides simplification of the head and reduction of its bulkiness.
Claims25
An ink jet printer (10) comprising:
- a printing head (1) with one or more nozzles (29) having a head (1) body (23) notably accommodating for each nozzle 29),
- a hydraulic path of the ink including, a stimulation chamber (28) in hydraulic communication with one of the printing nozzles (29) emitting a pressurized ink jet (30) along an axis of this nozzle (29),
- internal means (31) for stimulating the ink jet (30) emitted by the nozzle (29), mechanically coupled with the ink (16) accommodated in the stimulation chamber (28), these means (31) acting on the jet (30) emitted by the nozzle (29) in order to break up the jet (30) in a controlled way, and
- means (40) for recovering the ink which is not received by a printing substrate (41),
- a generator (32) of electrical control signals receiving a control signal and delivering to stimulation means (31), stimulation signals,
- an arrangement (35) of charging electrodes defining around the axis of the nozzle (29), upstream and downstream areas, the downstream area being further away from the nozzle than the upstream area, upstream and downstream electrodes (34, 37) of this arrangement (35) being connected to sources of electric potential in order to maintain in one of the areas, a potential equal to that of the ink found in the body (23) of the printing head (1), and in the other one of the areas a potential different from that of the ink found in the body (23) of the printing head (1),
- an arrangement (39) of deflection electrodes axially located downstream from the arrangement (35) of charging electrodes,
- characterized in that the generator (32) of electrical control signals delivers to the stimulation means (31), signals intermittently causing controlled breaking of the jet (30) in an upstream breaking position (11) located in the upstream area, to intermittently form a drop, thereby separating the jet into a drop and a section, and also causing controlled breaking of the jet (30) or of sections (38) of the jet (30) continuously in a downstream breaking position (12), the continuous jet (30) emitted by the nozzle (29) being thereby transformed after the downstream area into a continuous train of electrically charged and uncharged ink drops (33, 43).
5 more elements
An ink jet printer (10) head (1) comprising:
- a printing head (1) with one or more nozzles (29) and a head (1) body (23) notably accommodating for each nozzle (29),
- a hydraulic path of the ink including a stimulation chamber (28) in hydraulic communication with one of the printing nozzles (29) emitting a pressurized ink jet (30) along an axis of this nozzle (29),
- internal means (31) for stimulating the ink jet (30) emitted by the nozzle (29) mechanically coupled with the ink (16) accommodated in the stimulation chamber (28), these means (31) acting on the jet (30) emitted by the nozzle (29) for breaking up the jet (30) in a controlled way, and
- means (40) for recovering the ink which is not received by a printing substrate (41),
- a generator (32) of electrical control signals receiving a control signal and delivering stimulation signals to the stimulation means (31),
- an arrangement (35) of charging electrodes defining around the axis of the nozzle (29), upstream and downstream areas, the downstream area being further away from the nozzle than the upstream area, upstream and downstream electrodes (34, 37) of this arrangement (35) being connected to sources of electric potential so as to maintain in one of the areas a potential equal to that of the ink found in the body (23) of the printing head (1), and in the other one of these areas, a potential different from that of the ink found in the body (23) of the printing head (1),
- an arrangement (39) of deflection electrodes axially located downstream from the arrangement (35) of charging electrodes
- characterized in that the generator (32) of electrical control signals delivers to the stimulation means (31), signals intermittently causing controlled breaking up of the jet (30) in an upstream breaking position (11) located in the upstream area, and also causing controlled breaking up of the jet (30) or of the sections (38) of the jet (30) continuously in a downstream breaking position (12), the continuous jet (30) emitted by the nozzle (29) being also transformed after the downstream area into a continuous train of electrically charged and uncharged ink drops (33, 43).
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.