Systems and methods for communication of date information between an ink tank and printing device
OwnerRobert Henry Muyskensinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Some or all of the needs above can be addressed by embodiments of the invention. According to one embodiment of the invention, a method for determining ink evaporation from at least one ink tank can be provided. The method can include determining a removal time associated with removal of at least one ink tank from a printing device. The method can also include determining an insertion time associated with insertion of the at least one ink tank into a printing device. In addition, the method can include estimating an amount of ink evaporation from the at least one ink tank during the time between the removal time and insertion time based at least in part on the difference between the removal time and insertion time.
Claims20
An ink tank, comprising:
- a reservoir that holds an ink volume;
- and
- a memory device associated with the reservoir;
- wherein the memory device includes a first memory date area, the first memory data area configured to receive and store a first date and a first time from a controller associated with a printing device, the first date and the first time being associated with a date and time when the ink tank is installed in the printing device.
The ink tank of claim 3, further comprising a third memory data area in the memory device that is configured to receive and store a third date and a third time from a controller, the third date and third time being associated with one of an installation or a removal of the ink tank from the printing device.
A method for estimating as amount of ink evaporation from an ink tank, comprising:
- capturing a first data point representative of a first time period when the ink tank is removed from a printing system;
- capturing a second data point representative of a second time period when the ink tank is installed into the same or a different printing system;
- and
- using the difference between the first and second data point to calculate the amount of ink evaporation that has occurred between the first and second time periods.
The method of claim 12, further comprising storing the modified estimate of ink remaining in the ink tank in a memory associated with the ink tank.
A method for estimating an amount of remaining ink in each of a plurality of ink tanks installed in a printing device, the method comprising:
- detecting an opening of the printing device;
- capturing a first data point representative of a first time period when the printing device is opened;
- storing the first data point on a plurality of memory devices associated with the respective plurality of ink tanks;
- detecting a closing of the printing device;
- capturing a second data point representative of a second time period when the printing device is closed;
- querying the plurality of memory devices to determine whether any of the plurality of ink tanks has been replaced;
- and
- estimating an amount of remaining ink in each of the plurality of ink tanks based at least in part on a plurality of responses from the query.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.