US 8,708,466 B2Granted

System for coupling fluid supply to printhead

AssigneeZamtec Ltd

InventorsBob Mallory, Robert Rosati, Mike Eckard, Geoffrey Philip Dyer

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Abstract

A system for coupling a media width printhead to a fluid supply is provided having a printhead having a fluid inlet coupling at one longitudinal end of the media width and a fluid outlet coupling at the other longitudinal end of the media width, an inlet supply coupling having fluid ports defined in a port plate for engagement with fluid ports of the inlet coupling, an outlet supply coupling having fluid ports defined in a port plate for engagement with fluid ports of the outlet coupling, and a coupling drive mechanism connected to the port plates of the supply couplings via pre-compressed compression springs. The coupling drive mechanism is operational to move the port plates relative to the printhead so as to drive the ports of the supply couplings into engagement with the respective ports of the printhead couplings.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A printer system comprising:

a replaceable elongate printhead having an ink inlet printhead coupling and an ink outlet printhead coupling, each printhead coupling having a plurality of respective ink ports;
a printer comprising:
an inlet supply coupling having a plurality of respective ink ports defined in a port plate for engagement with the ink ports of the inlet printhead coupling;
an outlet supply coupling having a plurality of respective ink ports defined in a port plate for engagement with the ink ports of the outlet printhead coupling;
a coupling drive mechanism comprising:
a rotatable drive rod extending between the inlet and outlet supply couplings,
a pair of cam arms mounted at either end of the drive rod;
a lever for rotating the drive rod and thence the cam arms;
a pair of connecting rods, each pivotally connected to a respective cam arm;
and
a pair of movable shafts, each pivotally connected at one end to a respective connecting rod and operatively connected at the other end to a respective port plate;
a connecting rod pivotally connected to the shaft and
a rotatable cam arm pivotally connected to the connecting rod,
wherein the coupling drive mechanism is operational via rotation of the lever to move the port plates simultaneously relative to the printhead so as to drive the ports of the supply couplings into engagement with the respective ports of the printhead couplings.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.