Method of adjusting drop volume
AssigneeEastman Kodak Company
InventorsRobert Link, James Lee Bello, Todd Russell Griffin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method for operating a jetting module includes applying to a drop forming mechanism a sequence of drop formation waveforms in which a small-drop waveform applied after another identical small-drop waveform causes a small drop of volume Vs to be formed; applying a large-drop waveform after another identical large-drop waveform causes a large drop of volume VL to be formed, and applying a large-drop waveform adjacent to a small-drop waveform can be done in a way that produces a large drop having a volume VL2, where VL2 is different than VL and a small drop of volume VS2, where VS2 is different than Vs.
Claims14
A method for operating a jetting module comprising:
- providing a jetting module including a nozzle and a drop forming mechanism;
- providing a liquid to the jetting module under pressure sufficient to cause a liquid stream to jet from the nozzle;
- providing a small-drop waveform, the small drop waveform having a starting endpoint and a trailing endpoint, the small-drop waveform having a small-drop period XS equal to the time between the starting endpoint and the trailing endpoint of the small-drop waveform, the small-drop waveform including a small drop volume-control pulse, the small-drop volume-control pulse of the small-drop volume-control pulse having centroid, the centroid of the small-drop volume-control pulse being at a first defined time relative to a predefined one of the starting endpoint and the trailing endpoint of the small-drop waveform;
- providing a large-drop waveform, the large-drop waveform having a starting endpoint and a trailing endpoint, the large-drop waveform having a large-drop period XL, where XL=N*XS and N is an integer greater than one, the large-drop waveform including a large-drop volume-control pulse, the large-drop volume-control pulse having centroid, the large-drop waveform having a corresponding endpoint that corresponds to the predetermined endpoint of the small-drop waveform;
- wherein the centroid of the large-drop volume-control pulse being at a second defined time relative to the corresponding one of the starting endpoint and trailing endpoint of the large-drop waveform, the second defined time being different from the first defined time;
- applying to the drop forming mechanism a sequence of drop formation waveforms in which:
- applying a small-drop waveform after another identical small-drop waveform causes a small drop of volume Vs to be formed;
- applying a small-drop waveform after a large-drop waveform causes a small drop of volume Vs2 to be formed, where VS2 is not equal to VS;
- applying a large-drop waveform after another identical large-drop waveform causes a large drop of volume VL to be formed, where VL˜N*Vs;
- and
- applying a large-drop waveform after a small-drop waveform causes a large drop of volume VL2 to be formed, where VL2 is not equal to VL.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.