Printhead assembly with shift register stages facilitating cleaning of printhead nozzles

A printer comprising:

• a printhead assembly including a printhead with a plurality of recording elements, each of said recording elements having associated therewith plural actuators for separately determining an output of the recording element;
• a cleaning assembly for cleaning the printhead;
• data path and control electronics circuitry operably coupled with said printhead assembly for providing image data to said printhead assembly for individually actuating the plural actuators;
• shift register means for delivering said image data to said printhead assembly, said shift register means located all to one side of the printhead assembly to facilitate cleaning of the plurality of the recording elements;
• a series of electrical contacts that are supported on an external surface of the printhead with connecting elements attached thereto and the electrical contacts are sufficiently positioned laterally to said one side of to recording elements to facilitate cleaning of the plurality of recording elements without interference with the connecting elements attached to the electrical contacts;
• and
• wherein each of the recording elements has similar plural actuators so that different counterpart actuators are provided for each recording element, and further wherein said shift resister means includes a plurality of shift register stages, each stage being associated with a respective actuator each recording element being associated with plural different shift register stages, the shift register stages being adapted to shift data from one stage to a next stage to distribute data to the different stages so that for at least most shift register stages data shifted into a shift register stage associated with one counterpart actuator for one recording element may be shifted directly into a shift resister stage associated with a second counterpart actuator associated with a different recording element than the one recording element in the course of shifting data from shift resister stage to shift register stage.

A method of providing image data in a printer apparatus, the method comprising:

• providing a plurality of recording elements arranged in an array on a printhead for recording of an image on a receiver medium;
• providing a plurality of actuators associated with each respective recording element each actuator being separately drivable to affect recording by a respective recording element;
• providing a cleaning assembly for cleaning the recording elements;
• providing a plurality of shift register stages, each stage being associated with a respective different actuator, each recording element being associated with plural different shift register stages and shifting data from one stage to a next stage to distribute data to the different stages, the shift register stages being located all to one side of the array of recording elements and wherein data to the different states is distributed so that for at least most shift register stages the data shifted into a shift register stage associated with an actuator for one recording element is shifted directly into a stare associated with another actuator for a different recording element in the course of shifting data from stage to stage;
• altering the position of the cleaning assembly relative to the array of recording elements wherein the shift register stages are sufficiently positioned away from the recording elements to facilitate cleaning of the recording elements by the cleaning assembly without damaging the shift register stages;
• and
• providing bond pads on am external surface of the printhead so that to bond pads are sufficiently positioned laterally to said one side and away from the recording elements to facilitate cleaning of the recording elements without interference with electrical connecting elements attached to the bond pads.