Valve for ink jet printer
AssigneeNCR Corporation
InventorsJacob E. Thomas, Victor J. Italiano
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A rotary ink jet printer has an ink supply in a rotating reservoir wherein a major portion of the ink supply is isolated from the ink feed system during the printing operation. A cylindrical reservoir has a central cavity and a surrounding or outer cavity connected by an orifice opened and closed by means of a ball valve to control the flow of ink or ink supply from the central cavity to the outer cavity.
Claims20
A system for controlling the ink supply for a rotary printer having a print head for ejecting ink droplets onto record media, said system comprising a
- rotatable ink reservoir having a first cavity and a second cavity, an
- ink supply line connected with said second cavity and with said print head, and
- valve means positioned to control the flow of ink between said first cavity and said second cavity wherein the ink is free to flow between said cavities when said reservoir is at rest and wherein, responsive to centrifugal force, the ink is prevented from flowing between said cavities upon rotation of said reservoir.
A valve assembly for isolating a portion of an ink supply to an ink jet print head in a rotary printer having a rotatable ink reservoir comprising two cavities and an ink supply line connecting one of said cavities and said print head, said valve assembly comprising a
- valve body interposed between said cavities, an
- aperture through said valve body for flow of ink between said cavities, and
- means movable in relation to said aperture permitting flow of ink between said cavities when said printer is at rest and responsive to centrifugal force during operation of said printer preventing flow of ink between said cavities.
In an ink jet printer having a print head movable in rotary direction, a rotating ink reservoir having two cavities, a line for supplying ink from one of said cavities to said print head, and control means for isolating the ink supply to said one cavity during printer operation comprising a
- valve body positioned at the juncture of the cavities, an
- aperture through said valve body for flow of ink between said cavities;
- and a
- movable member within said one cavity and responsive to centrifugal force of said rotating reservoir for closing said aperture to prevent flow of ink therethrough during printer operation.
In a printer having an ink supply within a multi-chambered rotatable reservoir and an ink feed means connecting said reservoir with a uni-rotatable ink jet printhead, valve means for isolating a major portion of said ink supply from said printhead during the printing operation, comprising an
- orifice interconnecting the multiple chambers of said reservoir;
- and a
- valve member free of said orifice under the influence of gravity permitting the flow of ink between each chamber of said reservoir when at rest and closing off said orifice under influence of centrifugal force for restricting flow of ink through said ink feed means from a single chamber of said reservoir during rotation thereof.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.