Thermal cleaning of individual jetting module nozzles
AssigneeEastman Kodak Company
InventorsGregory J. Garbacz, Ali G. Lopez, Chang-Fang Hsu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A liquid ejection device includes a jetting module including an array of nozzles; a thermal stimulation device associated with each nozzle of the array of nozzles; and a controller in electrical communication with each thermal stimulation device. The controller is configured to provide a first activation waveform to each thermal stimulation device and to provide a second activation waveform to each thermal stimulation device to clean the associated nozzle with liquid emitted from the associated nozzle. The second activation waveform has a higher activation component when compared to the first activation waveform.
Claims17
A liquid ejection device comprising:
- a jetting module including an array of nozzles;
- a thermal stimulation device associated with each nozzle of the array of nozzles;
- and
- a controller in electrical communication with each thermal stimulation device, the controller being configured to provide a first activation waveform to each thermal stimulation device and to provide a second activation waveform to each thermal stimulation device to clean the associated nozzle with liquid emitted from the associated nozzle, the second activation waveform having a higher activation component when compared to the first activation waveform.
A method of cleaning a liquid ejection device comprising:
- providing a jetting module including an array of nozzles;
- providing a thermal stimulation device associated with each nozzle of the array of nozzles;
- using a controller in electrical communication with each thermal stimulation device to provide a first activation waveform to each thermal stimulation device;
- and
- using the controller to provide a second activation waveform to each thermal stimulation device to clean the associated nozzle with liquid emitted from the associated nozzle, the second activation waveform having a higher activation component when compared to the first activation waveform.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.