System and method for supplying ink to a printer
AssigneeEncad, Inc.
InventorsWilliam Fries, Timothy J. Morrison, Steven J. Wirth
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An inkjet printer uses large volume ink reservoir containers to supply ink to ink cartridges located on a movable print carriage. A communication link including tubing sections and quick disconnect fittings couples the large volume ink reservoir containers and the ink cartridges. The printer may be plumbed with more ink supply tubing sections than ink cartridges and ink reservoirs for the provision of different ink types. The changing of sets of large volume ink reservoir containers or sets of ink cartridges is more convenient with the use of quick disconnect fittings.
Claims10
A multi-plumbed inkjet printer comprising:
- a container mounting assembly with a plurality of bays,
- a plurality of quick disconnect fittings separately associated with each bay such that each bay mounts more than one quick disconnect fitting, said quick disconnect fittings having a predetermined spatial relationship relative to one another within each bay;
- a set of containers removably mounted on said bays, each container having an ink reservoir;
- and
- a quick disconnect fitting located at a specified position on each container, wherein the position of said quick disconnect fitting on said container is indicative of a characteristic of ink in said ink reservoir, and wherein the position of the quick disconnect fitting on the container is aligned with one of the quick disconnect fittings of the bay such that when said container is removably mounted on said bay, the quick disconnect fitting of the container connects with one of the quick disconnect fittings of the bay.
A printer comprising:
- a moveable print carriage having at least one ink jet cartridge mounting bay, wherein said ink jet cartridge mounting bay is configured to hold a single individual ink jet cartridge;
- a stationary mounting bay for an ink reservoir container having at least one ink reservoir, wherein said stationary mounting bay is configured to hold a single individual ink reservoir container;
- and
- a plurality of ink supply tubes connected at a first end to said stationary mounting bay and at a second end to said ink jet cartridge mounting bay.
An ink reservoir container in a printer comprising:
- a housing;
- at least one chamber inside said housing;
- a first tubing section inside said chamber;
- a first half of a first quick disconnect coupling on said housing, said first half of said first quick disconnect coupling connected to said first tubing section;
- and
- a quick disconnect coupling assembly attached to said quick disconnect coupling on said housing.
An ink reservoir container for an ink jet printer comprising;
- an ink outlet;
- a first mounting location for said ink outlet;
- and
- a second mounting location for said ink outlet placed in a predefined location with respect to said first mounting location, whereby said ink outlet may alternatively be positioned on said housing at either said first mounting location or said second mounting location thereby allowing keyed container installation into said ink jet printer.
An ink jet printer comprising:
- a moveable print carriage having a number of ink jet cartridge receiving locations;
- a plurality of ink supply tubes routed to said moveable print carriage, wherein said
- plurality of ink supply tubes routed to said moveable print carriage is greater than said number of said ink jet cartridge receiving locations.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.