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US 5,847,727 AGranted
Wet-wiping technique for inkjet printhead
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorsAmy VanLiew, Gerold G. Firl
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorsAmy VanLiew, Gerold G. Firl
Estimating the term…
A service station for use with an inkjet printer is described. The service station includes a sled that is mounted to the printer's chassis. Caps and wipers can be mounted on the sled for each of the printer's movable carriage-mounted printheads. The sled and the chassis, and the sled and carriage, are each cam-coupled so that movement of the carriage produces slight vertical and lateral movement of the sled out of a nominal position to automatically place the sled in one of three primary positions relative to the carriage: an elevated position for capping the printheads, an intermediate position for wiping the printheads and a lowered position for free reciprocal movement of the carriage without interference between the printheads and either the caps or the wipers. In one embodiment of the invention, prior to wiping the printhead of a print cartridge, the print cartridge is spitted to wet the printhead. Such spitting is particularly beneficial for a print cartridge that dispenses a pigmented ink (frequently a black ink), since the pigmented ink tends to crust on the printhead more than inks that are dyes. Preferably, a plurality of drops of ink are spit from the print cartridge at each of a plurality of frequencies. The method according to the invention is applicable to printers including one or more print cartridges.
A method for cleaning the printhead of a print cartridge of an inkjet printer, the print cartridge including a plurality of printing nozzles through which ink passes and is ejected from the printhead for printing on a print medium, comprising the steps of:
A method for cleaning the printhead of a print cartridge of an inkjet printer, the print cartridge including a plurality of nozzles through which ink passes and is ejected from the printhead, comprising the steps of:
In an inkjet printer, a method for cleaning the printhead of each of a plurality of print cartridges, each of the plurality of print cartridges including a plurality of nozzles through which ink passes and is ejected from the printhead of the print cartridge, pigmented ink being ejected from one or more of the print cartridges, dye being elected from the other print cartridges, the method comprising the steps of:
A method for cleaning the printhead of each of a plurality of print cartridges, each of the plurality of print cartridges including a plurality of nozzles through which ink passes and is ejected from the printhead of the print cartridge, the method comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.