Apparatus for mounting and aligning components of an ink jet printhead
AssigneeScitex Digital Printing, Inc.
InventorDavid J. Stephens
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus and method allows for mounting and aligning of the charge plate/catcher assembly and the droplet generator within the structure that holds these two parts. Three degrees of freedom of adjustment are incorporated into the frame and are self-locking. Two of the degrees of freedom are the positioning distance of a jet array to charge leads and the parallelism of the jet array to the charge leads. The third degree of freedom is the ability to adjust the jet array so as to align and center the jets in front of the charge leads.
Claims20
A mounting and alignment apparatus for a continuous ink jet printer having a jet array including a plurality of jets, and a plurality of charge leads, and further having a frame containing a drop charging and deflected drop collector and a droplet generator, the apparatus comprising:
- first and second degrees of freedom of adjustment for positioning the plurality of charge leads with respect to the jet array;
- and
- a third degree of freedom of adjustment for adjusting the jet array such that the plurality of jets are aligned with respect to the plurality of charge leads, wherein the first, second, and third degrees of freedom of adjustment are self-locking.
A mounting and alignment apparatus for a continuous ink jet printer having a jet array including a plurality of jets, and a plurality of charge leads, and further having a frame containing a drop charging and deflected drop collector and a droplet generator, the apparatus comprising:
- first and second degrees of freedom of adjustment for positioning the plurality of charge leads with respect to the jet array;
- a third degree of freedom of adjustment for adjusting the jet array such that the plurality of jets are aligned with respect to the plurality of charge leads;
- a spring means for biasing the frame in a first direction;
- and
- a screw means for biasing the frame in a second, opposite, direction with equal force.
An ink jet printhead used in an ink jet printer comprising:
- a means for mounting a droplet generator and a drop charging and collecting device in a common frame;
- a means for moving the droplet generator in a substantially parallel direction relative to the drop charging and collecting device;
- a means for moving the drop charging and collecting device in translation and rotation to achieve a parallel alignment of a plurality of charge leads to a jet array;
- a means for prepositioning the droplet generator and the drop charging and collecting device on a spring structure;
- and
- a means for aligning and holding the droplet generator and the drop charging and collecting device.
A method of mounting and aligning a drop charging and deflected drop collector and a droplet generator of an ink jet printer, within a frame, the printer having a jet array including a plurality of jets, and a plurality of charge leads, the method comprising the steps of:
- positioning the plurality of charge leads with respect to the jet array;
- adjusting the jet array such that the plurality of jets are aligned with respect to the plurality of charge leads;
- and
- providing flexure means, the flexure means allowing the frame containing the drop charging and deflected drop collector and the droplet generator to move in a parallelogram fashion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.