Tempering Device and Method for Tempering Ink for an Ink Printer

A tempering device for tempering ink for an ink printer, having:

• a warm fluid source with at least one outflow and at least one inflow, wherein a first tempering fluid with a warm fluid temperature is provided at the at least one outflow,
• a cold fluid source with at least one outflow and at least one inflow, wherein a second tempering fluid with a cold fluid temperature is provided at the at least one outflow,
• a mixer with at least two inflows that are connected via fluid conduits with the at least one output of the warm fluid source or the at least one output of the cold fluid source, at least one control unit that mixes mass throughputs of the supplied first and second tempering fluids in such a ratio that a mixture fluid with corresponding fractional quantities of the first and second tempering fluids is provided with a resulting mixture temperature at an output of the mixer,
• a heat exchanger with a first fluid and a second fluid separate from one another for transferring thermal energy from the first fluid circuit to the second fluid circuit, with
• a mixture entrance for the first fluid circuit, to which the mixture fluid is supplied from the mixer, and with a mixture exit of the first fluid circuit via which the mixture fluid is returned to the cold fluid source and/or the warm fluid source,
• an ink entrance for the second fluid circuit, which is connected with an ink reservoir and via which ink to be tempered is supplied to the heat exchanger, and with an ink exit that is connected with at least one printing unit of the ink printer in order to supply the tempered ink to the at least one printing unit, and
• a thermally conductive wall via which thermal energy is transferred from the one fluid circuit to the other, and
• at least one temperature sensor that is arranged at or after the ink exit of the heat exchanger and is electrically connected with the mixer, wherein the temperature sensor measures a value of a temperature of the ink and feeds the measured value as a control variable back to the mixer in order to regulate a nominal temperature of the ink.