Passive valves in a printhead
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorNasser Budraa
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Printheads that jet print liquids. In an embodiment, a printhead comprises a housing and a plate stack attached to the housing that forms a plurality of jetting channels comprising pressure chambers and channel fluid passages that fluidly couple the pressure chambers to a common manifold, and passive valves disposed in the channel fluid passages. The passive valves are configured to inhibit a back flow of print liquid from the pressure chambers towards the common manifold and allow a flow of the print liquid from the common manifold towards the pressure chambers. At least one plate of the plate stack comprises fixed valve members that are disposed within the channel fluid passages to form the passive valves.
Claims23
A printhead comprising:
- a housing;
- and
- a plate stack attached to the housing that forms:
- a plurality of jetting channels comprising pressure chambers and channel fluid passages that fluidly couple the pressure chambers to a common manifold;
- and
- passive valves disposed in the channel fluid passages, the passive valves configured to inhibit a back flow of print liquid from the pressure chambers towards the common manifold and allow a flow of the print liquid from the common manifold towards the pressure chambers;
- wherein at least one plate of the plate stack comprises fixed valve members that are disposed within the channel fluid passages to form the passive valves.
A printhead comprising:
- a housing;
- and
- a plate stack attached to the housing that forms:
- a plurality of jetting channels comprising pressure chambers, first channel fluid passages that fluidly couple the pressure chambers to a first common manifold, and second channel fluid passages that fluidly couple the pressure chambers to a second common manifold;
- and
- passive valves comprising:
- first passive valves disposed in the first channel fluid passages, the first passive valves configured to inhibit a back flow of print liquid from the pressure chambers towards the first common manifold and allow a flow of the print liquid from the first common manifold towards the pressure chambers;
- and
- second passive valves disposed in the second channel fluid passages, the second passive valves configured to inhibit a back flow of the print liquid from the second common manifold towards the pressure chambers and allow a flow of the print liquid from the pressure chambers towards the second common manifold, wherein
- a first plate of the plate stack comprises fixed valve members that are disposed within the first channel fluid passages to form the first passive valves, and a second plate of the plate stack comprises the fixed valve members that are disposed within the second channel fluid passages to form the second passive valves.
A method of fabricating a printhead, the method comprising:
- obtaining a housing and a plurality of plates for the printhead;
- forming fixed valve members on one or more of the plates;
- and
- assembling the plates into a plate stack attached to the housing, wherein
- the plate stack when assembled forms:
- a plurality of jetting channels comprising pressure chambers and channel fluid passages that fluidly couple the pressure chambers to a common manifold;
- and
- passive valves disposed in the channel fluid passages, the passive valves configured to inhibit a back flow of print liquid from the pressure chambers towards the common manifold and allow a flow of the print liquid from the common manifold towards the pressure chambers;
- wherein the fixed valve members disposed within the channel fluid passages form the passive valves.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.