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US 7,922,279 B2Granted
Printhead maintenance facility with ink storage and driven vacuum drainage coupling
AssigneeSilverbrook Research Pty Ltd
InventorsChristopher Hibbard, Geoffrey Philip Dyer, Paul Ian Mackey, Makomo Tsubono, Attila Bertok, Kia Silverbrook, Nicholas Kenneth Abraham, David William Jensen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A inkjet printhead maintenance facility that has an ink storage reservoir for holding ink ejected from the inkjet printhead during a maintenance operation and, an outlet coupling in fluid communication with the ink storage reservoir and configured for connection to a vacuum source to draw ink out of the ink storage reservoir.
Claims11
A printhead maintenance facility for an inkjet printhead, the printhead maintenance facility comprising:
- an ink storage reservoir for holding ink ejected from the inkjet printhead during a maintenance operation;
- an outlet coupling in fluid communication with the ink storage reservoir and configured for connection to a vacuum source to draw ink out of the ink storage reservoir;
- a plurality of maintenance structures for operation with the printhead, at least one of the maintenance structures designed to receive ink from the printhead and feed it to the ink storage reservoir;
- a core for mounting in an inkjet printer for movement relative to the inkjet printhead, the plurality of maintenance structures are mounted to the core such that they are movable relative to the ink storage reservoir;
- wherein,
- the core has an internal structure defining the ink storage reservoir and an external structure movable relative to the internal structure, the internal structure has an inlet in fluid communication with the ink storage reservoir and the external structure has at least one ink drain for collecting ink received by the at least one maintenance structure, the at least one drain being movable into registration with the inlet to establish fluid communication between the maintenance structure corresponding to the drain and the ink storage reservoir.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.