Carriage-mounted inkjet aerosol reduction system

An inkjet printing mechanism, comprising:

• a stationary enclosure;
• an inkjet printhead that selectively ejects ink within the enclosure to print an image on a print media and that concurrently generates airborne ink aerosol within the enclosure, with the airborne ink aerosol failing to contact the print media to print the image;
• a carriage that reciprocally moves the printhead through the enclosure to print the image;
• and
• an active ink aerosol collection system having (a) an electrostatic filter member, (b) an inlet duct supported by the carriage for movement through the enclosure, and (c) a ventilation component coupled to draw a portion of said airborne ink aerosol from within the enclosure through the inlet duct and through the electrostatic filter member which then electrostatically entraps said portion of the airborne ink aerosol to provide cleaned air.

A method of operating an inkjet printing mechanism, comprising the steps of:

• ejecting ink through an inkjet printhead inside a stationary enclosure to generate a desired ink droplet and a by-product comprising floating ink satellites which float inside the enclosure;
• depositing the desired ink droplet at a selected location;
• moving the printhead and an electrostatic collection member with a carriage inside the enclosure;
• and
• during the moving step, encountering and entrapping at least a portion of the floating ink satellites from inside the enclosure with the electrostatic collection member.