Inkjet printing with air movement system
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsDavid McElfresh, Satya Prakash, Naoto Kawamura
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An inkjet printer includes a printhead having a plurality of ink orifices formed therein. During printing, ink drops are ejected through the ink orifices into a print zone between the printhead and a print medium with an intended ink drop trajectory toward the print medium. An air movement system directs an air stream to the print zone substantially parallel to the intended ink drop trajectory as the ink drops are ejected during printing so as to affect air currents acting on the ink drops during printing and prevent print defects caused by the air currents. The air stream, however, does not disrupt the intended trajectory of the ink drops during printing.
Claims18
An inkjet printer for printing on a print medium, the inkjet printer comprising:
- a printhead having a plurality of ink orifices formed therein through which ink drops are ejected toward the print medium during printing, the printhead having a scan axis oriented substantially perpendicular to a column of the plurality of ink orifices and along which the printhead traverses during printing, the printhead having a leading end oriented substantially perpendicular to the scan axis and a trailing end opposite the leading end;
- and
- an air movement system which directs a stream of gas in a direction opposite a printing direction and substantially perpendicular to the scan axis to the trailing end of the printhead during printing,
- wherein the printhead has a first trailing end when the printhead traverses the scan axis in a first direction during printing and a second trailing end opposite the first trailing end when the printhead traverses the scan axis in a second direction during printing opposite the first direction, and wherein the air movement system includes a first flow channel which directs a first stream of gas to the first trailing end when the printhead traverses the scan axis in the first direction and a second flow channel which directs a second stream of gas to the second trailing end when the printhead traverses the scan axis in the second direction.
An inkjet printer for printing on a print medium, the inkjet printer comprising:
- a printhead having a plurality of ink orifices formed therein through which ink drops are ejected into a print zone between the printhead and the print medium during printing, the printhead having a scan axis oriented substantially perpendicular to a column of the plurality of ink orifices and along which the printhead traverses during printing, the printhead having a leading end oriented substantially perpendicular to the scan axis and a trailing end opposite the leading end;
- and
- an air movement system which directs a stream of gas in a direction opposite a printing direction and substantially perpendicular to the scan axis,
- wherein the air movement system directs the stream of gas to the trailing end of the printhead during printing and to the print zone during printing, and includes a flow channel having a first outlet flow path communicating with the trailing end of the printhead and a second outlet flow path offset from the column of the plurality of ink orifices.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.