Method for detecting purging ink flow through printhead heater chip nozzles by thermal analysis

Abstract

A method for detecting ink flow through a printhead, due to a successful purging of the nozzles of a heater chip of the printhead, includes moving the printhead to a location in preparation for a purging operation such that a purge pump is connected in flow communication with heater chip nozzles, setting the manner in which the purge pump operates to suction ink through nozzles of the heater chip from a source of ink, performing a thermal analysis on the heater chip concurrently as the purge pump operates to determine whether ink is flowing through the heater chip nozzles and whether the purge pump should continue to operate, and adjusting the manner in which the purge pump continues to operate in response to the thermal analysis.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.