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US 6,641,245 B1Granted
Printing apparatus with adaptive servicing sled control and method
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsKieran B Kelly, Philip Stallbaumer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An inkjet printer having functionality to adaptively control an amount of force applied to a servicing sled used to clean an inkjet printhead. In selecting a run force to be applied to the servicing sled, a test force is applied to the servicing sled to determine if the servicing sled will move a predetermined distance under the test force.
Claims25
A method of adaptively controlling an amount of force applied to a servicing sled used to clean an inkjet printhead, comprising:
- (a) applying a run force associated with a stored force level to the servicing sled;
- (b) sensing a first unintentional stall of the servicing sled during application of the run force;
- (c) selecting a lowest test force from a plurality of test forces to be a current test force;
- (d) applying the current test force to the servicing sled;
- (e) upwardly incrementing the current test force if a second unintentional stall of the servicing sled is sensed during application of the current test force, otherwise storing an adapted force level indication associated with the current test force in place of the stored force level indication;
- and
- (f) repeating operations (d) and (e) if the current test force is less than a highest test force form the plurality of test forces, otherwise storing an adapted force level indication associated with the highest test force in place of the stored force level indication.
4 more elements
An inkjet printer, comprising:
- a printhead adapted to progressively deposit ink droplets on a print medium;
- a servicing sled having a wiper for removing contaminants from the printhead;
- a drive motor coupled to the servicing sled with a sled drive linkage to move the servicing sled with respect to the printhead;
- a sensor adapted to generate a signal indicative of distance traveled by the servicing sled;
- and
- a control assembly adapted to control the drive motor so as to vary mechanical force applied to the servicing sled, the control assembly programmed to select a run force from a plurality of run forces with which to move the servicing sled during a printhead service by controlling the drive motor to apply a test force from a plurality of test forces to the servicing sled, each test force corresponding to one of the run forces, and by comparing a distance traveled by the servicing sled during application of the test force and a predetermined distance to determine if the test force is sufficient to actuate the servicing sled.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.