Waste ink separator for ink jet printer maintenance system
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorMichael Carlotta
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A waste ink separator is used in an ink jet printer maintenance station for management of the waste ink generated during printhead priming operations. The separator primarily consists of three main components, viz., a rigid chamber body with side walls and a top wall with an inlet and outlet therein, a chamber floor constructed of a material having a high moisture vapor transfer rate to pass moisture therethrough, and a foam material housed in the interior of the chamber body and floor for absorbing and storing waste liquid ink. The internal surface of the chamber top wall has interleaved parallel ribs which provide a serpentine floor path between the chamber inlet and outlet about the foam material for separating the liquid ink from the air.
Claims6
A waste ink separator for use in an ink jet printer maintenance station, comprising:
- a rigid chamber body having sidewalls surrounding and extending from a top wall, the top wall having an inlet and an outlet and an interior surface with a plurality of ribs thereon;
- a flexible bottom floor being sealably attached to the sidewalls and having a material providing a high moisture vapor transfer rate for the transfer of moisture therethrough and evaporization therefrom;
- and
- a foam material being placed in the separator and sandwiched between the bottom floor and ribs of the top wall, so that the ribs produce a flow path from the inlet to the outlet.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.