Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Hewlett-packard Company

David J Waller

Timothy L Weber

David R Thomas

Naoto A Kawamura

Kit L Harper

Colin C Davis

Jeremy A Davis

John Paul Harmon

S Dana Seccombe

Paul J McClellan

Kenneth E Trueba

Melissa D Boyd

Timothy E Beerling

Marvin Glenn Wong

Storrs Townsend Hoen

Leslie Ann Field

Phillip W Barth

Hai Quang Tran

Daniel D Dowell

Louis C Barinaga

Richard W Seaver

Kris M English

John M Koegler, Iii

William R Knight

Jeffrey K Pew

James Walter Pearson

Paul P Merchant

Channing R Robertson

George D Zuras, Jr

Thomas W Linder

Jim Plymale

One embodiment of a printhead servicing mechanism includes a driveshaft, and a sled including a rack adapted to selectively engage the driveshaft and a retaining wall positioned to retain the driveshaft on the rack in a zone.

Printing mechanism and method

Pillars are formed in a fully integrated thermal inkjet printhead to prevent particles from entering into a nozzle chamber along an ink refill channel. The pillars are formed after a step of applying a thin film structure to a substrate. At one step, pits are etched through the thin film structure. At another step, material for an orifice layer is deposited into the pits. At another step, a firing chamber is etched into the orifice layer. At another step, a trench is etched into the backside of the wafer in the vicinity of the filled pits. The material filling each pit is not removed and remains in place to define the respective pillars. Two or more pillars are formed within the trench for each inkjet nozzle chamber. Alternatively pillars are formed by depositing material into the underside trench and performing photoimaging processes.

Method of forming pillars in a fully integrated thermal inkjet printhead

A pen having a printhead and a chamber for holding ink; a sensor for monitoring changes in the amount of ink in the chamber; and a pump for selectively drawing ink into or expelling ink from the chamber.

Pen maintenance system and method for operating same

A system for receiving and recycling ink comprises a print cartridge having a printhead, and an ink supply reservoir fluidly connected to the print cartridge and a seal member coupled to the ink supply reservoir. The seal member defines a fluid path into the reservoir and the print cartridge engages the seal member so that ink spit from the printhead flows through the fluid path into the reservoir.

Printhead maintenance system

A printhead servicing mechanism comprises a gear assembly actuated by a printhead carriage to move between an engaged position and a disengaged position, and a printhead servicing device actuated by the gear assembly in the engaged position.

Printhead servicing mechanism and method

A printhead servicing mechanism comprises a printhead capping device that moves between a storage position and a printhead capping position, and a crank arm assembly that moves the printhead capping device between the storage and capping positions.

A pen having a printhead and a chamber for holding ink; a sensor for monitoring changes in the amount of ink in the chamber; and a pump for seletively drawing ink into or expelling ink from the chamber.

The present invention includes as one embodiment a capping station for a fluid ejection device having a snout feature, the capping station comprising a cap with a rigid body and a gland seal disposed around an inner perimeter of a cavity defined by the rigid body for resiliently receiving side portions of the snout feature of the fluid ejection device to create a seal with the fluid ejection device.

Snout-encompassing capping system for inkjet printheads

A printhead for an inkjet printer employs asymmetric orifices, such as an egg-shaped orifice, at the surface of the orifice plate to cause the ink drop tail to be severed at a predictable location from the orifice. The controlled tail and diminished spray of an ink droplet expelled from the asymmetric orifice results in improved edge roughness and improved quality of print.

Asymmetric printhead orifice

An actively-controlled recirculating ink delivery system is provided that incorporates active control of pressures downstream of the printhead. This is achieved through the use of a device (such as a pump, return valve, combination thereof or similar devices) that provides active control of downstream ink pressures. A pressurized ink supply, pressure sensors, an air and heat exchanger are also provided, thereby improving start up, normal operation, purging and shut down procedures. Because the pressurized ink supply is not restricted to sit at a particular vertical distance below the printhead, backpressure may be changed quickly and easily through electronic control, and system priming is considerably quicker than with conventional air-pressurized systems.

Ink delivery system and method for controlling fluid pressure therein

A method and apparatus for improving ink-jet print quality uses a print head having an array using a plurality of nozzles in sets in each drop generator mechanism. Where a conventional ink-jet pen fires a single droplet of ink at a pixel per firing cycle, the present invention fires a plurality of droplets at different subdivisions of pixels. The particular array design may vary from ink-to-ink or pen-to-pen. Each drop generator of a print head array includes a plurality of nozzles wherein each of the nozzles has an exit orifice with an areal dimension, and produces an ink droplet that produces a dot on adjacent print media wherein the dot has an areal dimension, less than the areal dimension of a pixel to be printed. Dots are printed in a pattern for each pixel wherein print quality is achieved that approximates a higher resolution print made by conventional ink-jet methodologies.

Growing community of inventors

Corvallis, OR, United States of America

David J Waller