Xerox Corporation

Other

Elliott A Eklund

Scott J Phillips

Mark Anthony Cellura

Peter M Gulvin

Yelena Shapiro

Dan A Hays

Roger Gaylord Leighton

Paul C Julien

Edul N Dalal

Joel A Kubby

Donald J Drake

Elias Panides

Richard P Germain

Sue E Blaszak

Jeffrey J Folkins

Beilei Xu

David Lyell Knierim

Michael Jon Levy

Gerald M Fletcher

Gerald A Domoto

John F Knapp

Hui Ting Cheng

Michael F Leo

Kristine A German

Michael D Thompson

Jack Thomas Lestrange

Barry Daniel Reeves

Tuan Anh Vo

Kaiser H Wong

Antonio L Williams

Kristen M Natale-Hoffman

Susan J Kremer

John F Murphy

Robert M Rottman

Igor Podzorov

Ronald Larry Nichols

Jim Casella

Igor A Podzorov

A maintenance assembly for cleaning a plurality of printheads in a printing machine comprises two or more cleaning members, each of the cleaning members sized and positioned to clean at least one but less than all of the plurality of printheads when in a cleaning position. A drive mechanism associated with each of the two or more cleaning members is configured to selectively move an associated cleaning member to and from the cleaning position and a retracted position. The cleaning members are supported on a frame with a mechanism provided for translating the frame into position juxtaposed with the plurality of printheads and a further mechanism to swipe the cleaning members across the printheads. The maintenance assembly is operable to clean only selected printheads in a single operation.

Print head maintenance system for an ink-jet printer using phase-change ink printing on a continuous web

A method and apparatus for printhead inspection and recovery in an ink jet printing system includes a modular printhead assembly disposed within the printing system for on-line printing operation. An off-line printhead inspection and recovery unit including a printhead dock for receiving the printhead assembly is locally disposed for ready diagnostic inspection of printhead operation and includes a user interface for reporting diagnostic results. A modular printhead assembly is disposed within the off-line printhead inspection and recovery unit for identifying the head failure to an operator. The inspection and recovery unit may execute a printhead purge and maintenance cycle to repair the failing on-line printing assembly. The inspection and recovery unit maintains a spare head assembly in a heated print-ready state for minimal downtime in production operation upon the replacement of the failing printhead with the spare head from the inspection and recovery unit.

Off-line printhead inspection and recovery unit for production piezo ink jet architectures

System and method for encapsulating edges of a paper in digital printing systems. A spray applicator can include a set of stationary sprayers with spray nozzles, a set of transfer rollers and an inkjet print head. The stationary sprayers can be positioned at both marginal ends of the paper. The stationary sprayers apply the fluid through the spray nozzles at edges of the moving paper to encapsulate the edges of the paper such that loose paper fibers and debris are bound to the paper. The fluid can be applied when the transfer rollers can pass the moving paper through a printer or printing press. Thus, the system can protect various subsystems of the printer or printing press against contamination due to the loose paper fibers and debris.

System and method for encapsulating edges of paper in printers

An escort belt facilitates removal of particulate from a print zone in an ink printing machine while maintaining proper registration of printing media in the print zone. The escort belt includes an endless belt having a width between a first and a second edge of the escort belt that is greater than a media sheet carried by the escort belt, a first plurality of apertures arranged in a longitudinal line proximate one of the belt edges of the escort belt, and a second plurality of apertures distributed between the first plurality of apertures and the other edge of the escort belt, the apertures of the first plurality having a shape different from that of the second plurality of apertures and the apertures of the first aperture plurality being positioned so the apertures are only partially covered by edges of the media being held to the escort belt by a vacuum source applied to the first and the second pluralities.

Escort belt for improved printing of a media web in an ink printing machine

A maintenance method for an ink jet imaging device comprises ejecting drops from a plurality of ink jets to successively form a plurality of images on the image receiver. Inter-image intervals between the ejection of drops to form one image in the plurality of images and the ejection of drops to form a successive image in the plurality of images are detected. A plurality of drops is ejected from at least a portion of the ink jets in the plurality of ink jets during at least one detected inter-image interval. The plurality of ejected drops having at least one drop ejecting characteristic selected from: a drop mass for the plurality of drops being greater than a standard drop mass; a drop ejecting frequency for the plurality of drops being lower than a standard drop ejecting frequency; and a substantially sequential drop ejecting pattern for the plurality of drops.

Method for increasing printhead reliability

A method for testing inkjets for defects in an inkjet device includes determining, based on the likelihood that one or more inkjets are defective, whether to perform an inkjet defect test, The method may also include, identifying, if it is determined to perform an inkjet defect test, which inkjets to test based on properties of the inkjets, the number of identified inkjets being less than a total number of inkjets in the inkjet device; and testing the identified inkjets for defects using an image sensor.

Systems and methods for detecting inkjet defects

An apparatus is used with an ink jet print head in an ink jet printer. The apparatus includes a print head protector that surrounds a print head. A substantially continuous slot is provided along a perimeter of the bracket and a filter is located in the substantially continuous slot. An inlet in fluid communication with the substantially continuous slot enables a positive pressure air supply to be coupled to the inlet. The air entering the inlet flows through the filter in the slot and the filtered air flows outwardly away from the print head.

Apparatus for reducing ink jet contamination

An image forming device includes marking material dispensers for disposing an image on an imaging drum surface. The image forming device further includes plural particle removal devices comprising first and second particle removal devices coupled to a vacuum source. The first particle removal device includes a first vacuum port positioned as close as possible to an included image transfer site. The second particle removal device includes a second vacuum port positioned as close as possible to the marking material dispensers. The first and second vacuum ports are positioned proximate to the imaging drum surface to provide respective first and second air flows.

Image forming device arranged with plural particle removal devices

Embodiments herein comprise a compact dust abatement apparatus that includes at least one manifold shaped to fit next to a belt or drum of a printing engine, at least one blower/fan positioned within the manifold, and at least one air duct connected to the manifold. The manifold has a vacuum opening adjacent the belt or drum and an exit opening where the air duct connects to the manifold. The blower is positioned inside the manifold, between the vacuum opening and the exit opening, such that the blower draws air and particles from the vacuum opening toward the exit opening. Thus, the blower creates a vacuum at the vacuum opening. The air duct directs air and particles from the manifold to a location away from the sensitive components. The inclusion of the blower inside the vacuum manifold provides for compactness without sacrificing performance.

Printer contaminant abatement systems and methods

A structure for a micro-device is fabricated by forming: a first layer of sacrificial material, a layer of structural material over the first sacrificial material layer, a second layer of sacrificial material over the structural material layer and a protective layer over the second sacrificial material layer. A release etch is used to remove the first and second sacrificial material layers at approximately the same rate. A structural feature may also be fabricated by forming: a first layer of a first material; a layer of structural material over the first layer of the first material; at least one cut in the structural material layer; and, a first layer of a sacrificial material, different from the first material, over the structural material layer such that an interface is created between the first layer of the sacrificial material and the first layer of the first material at the at least one cut.

Membrane structures for micro-devices, micro-devices including same and methods for making same

A printhead interposing maintenance method and apparatus are provided for maintaining a printhead assembly within a relatively tight space in an image producing machine. The printhead interposing maintenance apparatus for the method includes (a) at least a first home position adjacent a first side of four sides of an operating zone between a printhead assembly and an imaging surface in the image producing machine; (b) a first moving device for moving the printhead assembly from a printing first position adjacent the imaging surface to a maintaining second position spaced further away from the printing first position; (c) a maintenance apparatus movably supported for movement along an maintenance path interposed between the imaging surface and the printhead assembly; (d) a second moving device for moving the maintenance apparatus for contacting and maintaining the printhead assembly, and along the maintenance path from the at least first home position to a resting position adjacent a second side and opposite the first side of the four sides of the operating zone; and (e) a third moving device for moving the printhead assembly back from the maintaining second position to the printing first position.

Printhead interposing maintenance apparatus and method and image producing machine having same

Selective replacement methods and systems based on a stochastic process use a redundancy inherent, for example, in a four-plus color printing system that has full-width colors. Since the absorption spectra of the four or more colors usually overlap to some extent, there is a redundancy that can be used to reduce artifacts, such as streaks. Since the human visual system is much less sensitive to chrominance changes, than to luminance changes, matching the luminance of a pixel where a color is missing, to the luminance of the original color or to the luminance of the pixels that neighbor that pixel can adequately to reduce the severity of the artifact caused by the missing color while reducing the chance that the replacing process itself introduces any additional artifacts.

Selective replacement for artifact reduction

A micro-electromechanical fluid ejector including a substrate having an insulating layer thereon; a conductor formed on said insulating layer; a membrane adjacent to said conductor, said membrane having a corrugated, multi-layer structure for added rigidity; and an actuator chamber formed between said membrane and said conductor, said membrane flexing toward said conductor when a voltage bias is applied thereto.

Electrostatically-actuated device having a corrugated multi-layer membrane structure

A method for fabricating a membrane having a corrugated, multi-layer structure, comprising the steps of: providing a substrate having an insulator layer on the top surface of the substrate, a conductive layer on the insulator layer, a sacrificial layer on said conductive layer, and a second conductive layer; patterning a series of holes the second conductive layer to allow release etchant to have access to a second sacrificial layer; depositing the second sacrificial layer onto said second conductive layer so that the series of holes are filled with the second sacrificial layer; patterning the second sacrificial layer with a radial and/or concentric grid pattern so that a third conductive layer when deposited will form the support structure and top portion of the corrugated structure; depositing the third conductive layer so that the grid pattern is filled in and is in contact with the second conductive layer; removing the first and second sacrificial layer by immersing the device in a release etchant.

Method for fabricating a micro-electro-mechanical fluid ejector

A micro-electromechanical fluid ejector having an inner structure on the bottom of the top of the membrane for isolating the conductor, and an outer structure, away from the center of the membrane, on the bottom of the top of the membrane to stop excessive flexing of the membrane leading to inter-electrode contact.

Growing community of inventors

Penfield, NY, United States of America

Elliott A Eklund