Flushing quality determination for printheads
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsWalter F. Kailey, Ziling Zhang, Scott R. Johnson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
System, method, and software for determining flushing quality in an image forming apparatus. In an embodiment, a flushing quality manager is configured to perform at least one flushing quality check regarding a flushing operation of nozzles in at least one printhead. The at least one flushing quality check comprises identifying nozzle defects in the nozzles, computing a rate of nozzle defect formation based on the nozzle defects, and initiating a corrective action directed to modifying the flushing operation when the rate of nozzle defect formation exceeds a threshold.
Claims20
An apparatus, comprising:
- a flushing quality manager comprising at least one processor and memory;
- the at least one processor configured to cause the flushing quality manager at least to:
- perform at least one flushing quality check regarding a flushing operation of nozzles in at least one printhead, the at least one flushing quality check comprising:
- identifying nozzle defects in the nozzles;
- computing a rate of nozzle defect formation based on the nozzle defects;
- and
- initiating a corrective action directed to modifying the flushing operation when the rate of nozzle defect formation exceeds a threshold.
A method comprising:
- performing at least one flushing quality check regarding a flushing operation of nozzles in at least one printhead, the performing comprising:
- identifying nozzle defects in the nozzles;
- computing a rate of nozzle defect formation based on the nozzle defects;
- and
- initiating a corrective action directed to modifying the flushing operation when the rate of nozzle defect formation exceeds a threshold.
A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying programmed instructions executed by a processor, wherein the instructions direct the processor to implement a method comprising:
- performing at least one flushing quality check regarding a flushing operation of nozzles in at least one printhead, the performing comprising:
- identifying nozzle defects in the nozzles;
- computing a rate of nozzle defect formation based on the nozzle defects;
- and
- initiating a corrective action directed to modifying the flushing operation when the rate of nozzle defect formation exceeds a threshold.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.