Rigid tube off-axis ink supply
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorChuong C. Ta
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ink jet printer that including a movable print carriage, an ink jet printhead cartridge removably supported by the movable print carriage, a stationary ink reservoir located remotely from the ink jet printhead cartridge, a movable ink conveying coupler fluidically coupled to the stationary ink reservoir, and a rigid ink conveying tube connected between the movable ink conveying coupler and the ink jet printhead cartridge, wherein the movable ink conveying coupler moves relative to the stationary ink reservoir as the movable carriage moves along a carriage axis. A ink pump can be driven by the reciprocating motion of the movable ink conveying coupler, and another rigid ink conveying tube be provided to achieve ink recirculation for printhead cooling.
Claims6
An ink jet printer comprising:
- a movable print carriage;
- an ink jet printhead cartridge removably supported by said movable print carriage;
- a stationary ink reservoir located remotely from said ink jet printhead cartridge;
- a movable ink conveying coupler fluidically coupled to said stationary ink reservoir;
- and
- a rigid ink conveying tube connected between said movable ink conveying coupler and said ink jet printhead cartridge;
- wherein said movable ink conveying coupler (a) moves relative to said stationary ink reservoir as said movable carriage moves along a carriage axis, and (b) moves orthogonally to the carriage axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.