Hewlett-packard Company

Donald R Bloyer

Daniel R Dwyer

Richard E Berriman

Eric S Schuh

Corlene M Ankrum

Peter G Hwang

Jeffrey G Bingham

Raymond C Sherman

Kevin D O'Hara

Donald R McClelland

Matthew B Clark

Rick Minoru Tanaka

Christopher M Lesniak

Todd Michael Gaasch

Sergio Escobedo

Larry G Neubauer

Steve Orrin Rasmussen

Henry Young Chin

Jan Hippen

Michael S Allison

Richard Alan Kelley

Larry A Jackson

Robin W Chu

Jeffrey J Grange

David M Thorpe

John A Christianson

Sandra Y Okazaki

Robert K Beretta

Brently L Cooper

Jeffrey G Patrick

Diego A Rodriguez

Stephen C Brown

Stephen D Dorow

Inkjet printer with fixed sheet feeder and window access door

Inkjet printer

Inkjet printer with photographic media supply tray, fixed sheet feeder, and window access door

A method and apparatus for indicating the condition of a printer is provided. In an inkjet printer having at least one pen that is mounted in a carriage that moves back and forth across the media, the printer status is determined by a controller in the printer which communicates with the pen. The carriage containing the pens is used as a pointer and has is set to a desired carriage position to point to a selected icon from a set of icons located on a top surface adjacent to the carriage. Each of the icons indicates a printer status such as low ink level or a pen problem. The carriage and the set of icons may be located under a lid. When the user lifts the lid such as in response to a print cartridge status light that is illuminated on the control panel, the carriage is set to the desired carriage position to indicate the appropriate printer status. The icons are chosen in such a manner as to be universally understandable and with no need for localization to a particular market.

Method for indicating printer status

A print media ejection system actively pushes a media sheet trailing edge into an output tray. The ejection system includes a movable pivot which supports a media sheet within a print zone during printing. Upon completion of printing the pivot moves downward allowing the current media sheet to slide from the pivot into the output tray. After the pivot completes the downward rotational stroke, the pivot rotates back upward to be in position to support the next media sheet. The upward motion of the pivot mechanism actuates a kicker device to rotate toward an output region. The kicker device drives any remaining portion of the media sheet into the output tray.

Print media ejection kicking after paper drop

An aerosol reduction system collects stray ink aerosol generated by inkjet printheads includes ventilation and collection components. During printing and purging, the printhead ejects ink to generate a desired ink droplet and a by-product comprising floating ink satellites. The aerosol collection system may be either passive or active, with the passive devices relying upon carriage motion to bring the collection elements into contact with the aerosol collection location. The passive systems have collection elements mounted on the carriage, including a rigid electrostatic filter, a billowing sail shaped filter geometry, or electrically charged plates. The active systems use some additional mechanism to bring the aerosol and the collection location together, such as the carriage-mounted aerosol removal or extraction fans illustrated. The collection location of these active systems may be mounted at the carriage, or well behind the carriage.

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Brush Prairie, WA, United States of America

Donald R Bloyer