Back to results
US 2014/0176654 A1Published application
Inkjet printing system with condensation control
AssigneeEastman Kodak Company
InventorsTimothy John Hawryschuk, Michael Joseph Piatt, Harsha S. Bulathsinghalage, Randy Dae Vandagriff
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Inkjet printing systems are provided that use a combination of higher resistance flow areas and lower resistance flow areas to allow a vaporized carrier reducing airflow to flow between a printing module and a receiver without disrupting inkjet drop placements. Removal of the vaporized carrier fluid reduces condensation.
Claims23
An inkjet printing system comprising:
- a plurality of inkjet printheads arranged to direct droplets of an ink having a vaporizable carrier fluid toward a receiver that is moved past the inkjet printheads by a receiver transport system;
- a barrier between the inkjet printheads;
- a plurality of caps with each cap positioned at one of the plurality of inkjet printheads and extending from the barrier toward a receiver to create higher resistance flow areas between the cap and the receiver having a higher resistance to the cross-module airflow than is found in lower resistance flow areas formed in separations between the caps and with each of the caps further having an opening through which ink droplets can pass from the inkjet printheads through the higher resistance flow areas to the receiver;
- and
- a cross-module air flow generation system generating a cross-module airflow to remove at least a portion of any vaporized carrier fluid from between the barrier and the receiver;
- and
- wherein differences between the lower resistance to the cross-module airflow in the lower resistance flow channels and the higher resistance to the cross-module airflow in the higher resistance flow areas cause the cross-module airflow to flow through the cross-module airflow channels so that any portion of the cross-module airflow entering the higher resistance flow areas does not create variations in the travel paths of the ink droplets that are sufficient to form an observable artifact in a print made on the receiver using the ink droplets.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.