Method and apparatus for ink-jet print zone drying
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorsGeoff Wotton, Todd R. Medin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An ink-jet hard copy apparatus provides a flow of air across the printing surface of a sheet of print media during printing operations. The airflow scrubs the boundary layer of the printing surface such that paper cockle is reduced by resultant improvement in drying time. A writing instrument deflector is used to prevent substantial interference with ink droplet flight trajectories due to positive airflow through the print zone.
Claims16
An ink-jet hard copy apparatus for printing onto a print media, comprising:
- ink-jet means for selectively printing dots of ink on an adjacently positioned print medium at a print zone of the apparatus;
- transport means for advancing the print medium via a print medium path through the print zone;
- and
- disposed within the apparatus proximate the print zone, airflow means for producing a substantially laminar flow of air through the print zone during printing operations.
A method for drying ink drops deposited on print medium by an ink-jet writing means for ejecting the ink drops from a predetermined distance between the writing means and a printing surface of the print medium at a print zone of a hard copy apparatus, comprising the steps of:
- heating sequentially received sheets of the print medium such that the printing surface is higher than ambient atmospheric temperature;
- and
- providing a laminar flow of air substantially continuously across the printing surface of the sheet through the print zone.
An ink-jet hard copy apparatus, having a sheet media input supply, comprising:
- a paper transport for sequentially selecting a sheet of print medium from the input supply and transporting the sheet through a print zone region of the apparatus where drops of ink are deposited on a printing surface of the sheet;
- at least one ink-jet writing instrument for scanning the print zone substantially perpendicularly to direction of transporting the sheet and selectively ejecting drops of ink onto the printing surface, the drops having a predetermined flight time from the instrument to the printing surface;
- at least one heater mounted with respect to the print zone region for imparting thermal energy to the printing surface such that drying time of drops once deposited on the printing surface is reduced;
- and
- at least one airflow device for generating a laminar flow of air through the print zone region and across the printing surface such that drying time of drops once deposited on the printing surface is reduced further from a drying time produced by the heater alone.
A scanning ink-jet pen for a hard copy apparatus having a means for producing an air flow through a print zone, comprising:
- printhead means for firing ink drops from the pen to a surface of adjacently positioned print media, the ink drops having a predetermined flight time between the printhead means and the surface;
- and
- an air flow deflector mounted such that the air flow is interrupted and substantially prevented from crossing the print zone during the predetermined flight time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.