Warming printheads during print passes
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsDavid Toussaint, Oriol Borrell Avila, Antonio Gracia Verdugo
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A drive signal may be determined to drive a printhead to a series of target temperatures during respective portions of a print pass by the printhead. Each of the target temperatures may be the greater of a temperature of the printhead caused by printing a quantity of printing fluid to be printed during the respective portion and a predetermined threshold temperature. A drive signal may be provided to warm the printhead to the series of target temperatures during the respective portions of the print pass.
Claims20
A fluid ejection system comprising:
- a fluid ejection head including a plurality of heating units to warm the fluid ejection head to a series of target temperatures while the fluid ejection head executes a pass of fluid ejection;
- and
- a controller to determine a drive signal to drive the fluid ejection head to the series of target temperatures such that decap time during the fluid ejection pass is greater than a time elapsed between ejections of fluid by a nozzle of the fluid ejection head,
- each of the target temperatures being the greater of (1) a temperature of the fluid ejection head caused by dispensing a quantity of fluid up to a respective portion of the fluid ejection pass and (2) a predetermined threshold temperature,
- the controller to provide the drive signal to warm the fluid ejection head to the series of target temperatures during respective portions of the fluid ejection pass.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including executable instructions that, when executed by a controller of a fluid ejection system, cause the controller to:
- determine a drive signal to drive a fluid ejection head to each of a series of target temperatures during respective portions of a fluid ejection pass by the fluid ejection head, each of the target temperatures being a greater of (1) a temperature of the fluid ejection head caused by ejecting a quantity of fluid to be ejected during a respective portion and a previous portion of the fluid ejection pass and (2) a predetermined threshold temperature, wherein the drive signal is based on a plurality of heating quantities of printing fluid to be printed during multiple print swaths that are determined before printing the print pass;
- and
- provide the drive signal to warm the fluid ejection head to the series of target temperatures while the fluid ejection head ejects the respective quantities of the fluid during the respective portions of the fluid ejection pass.
A fluid ejection system comprising:
- a fluid ejection head including a plurality of heating units to warm the fluid ejection head to a series of target temperatures while the fluid ejection head executes a pass of fluid ejection;
- and
- a controller to determine a drive signal to drive the fluid ejection head to the series of target temperatures such that decap time during the fluid ejection pass is greater than a time elapsed between ejections of fluid by a nozzle of the fluid ejection head, wherein the drive signal is based on an amount of fluid ejection to be performed by the fluid ejection head during each portion of the fluid ejection pass such that the drive signal produces less warming of the fluid ejection head when the fluid ejection head already has an elevated temperature due to a relatively greater quantity of fluid ejection performed,
- the controller to provide the drive signal to warm the fluid ejection head to the series of target temperatures during respective portions of the fluid ejection pass.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.