Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd

Zamtec Limited

Memjet Technology Limited

Kia Silverbrook

Geoffrey Philip Dyer

Tobin Allen King

Akira Nakazawa

Garry Raymond Jackson

Christopher Hibbard

Attila Bertok

Paul Ian Mackey

Gregory Michael Tow

Robert John Brice

Makomo Tsubono

Nicholas Kenneth Abraham

Bob Mallory

Edward Ellis Esdaile-Watts

Kent Benjamen Kwan

Rommel Balala

Norman Micheal Berry

Norman Michael Berry

David William Jensen

Robert Rosati

Jon Lucas

Vesa Karppinen

Eric Johnson

John Christian Love

Michael John Hudson

Andy Bound

David John Worboys

Miao Wang

Ryan Root

Jeff Borra

Victor T Escobedo

Richard Alan Kelley

Jinsong Gao

John Bailey

Jeffrey D Lueschen

Thomas J Roetker

Kianoush Mir Sanaei

Tom Alesi

Neal Cekalski

Paul Daniel Seiter

Greg Williams

Saminda Jayatileke

Jeffrey Johnson

Mike Eckard

Paul Charles Knight

Ray Guichard

Paul Fishbein

Jon Olson

Bob Yraceburu

Paul Weiskopf

John Douglas Morgan

Patrick John Mcauliffe

Attilla Bertok

Andrew John Graf

A pinch valve includes first and second pinch arms pivotally mounted about respective pivot axes. A spring interconnects the first and second pinch arms to mutually bias the pinch arms towards each other and provide a pinching force for pinching respective first and second conduits. A cam engages with each of the pinch arms and provides an unpinching force for either one of the pinch arms against the bias of the sprint.

Compact pinch valve

An improved pinch valve includes a camshaft and associated cam(s) controlling the position of a pivotally-mounted first pinch arm and an opposed, pivotally-mounted second pinch arm. The respective pinch arms are provided symmetrically about a central plane which contains an axis of the camshaft. A spring extends across the central plane and interconnects the respective pinch arms so as to urge both pinch arms towards the central plane. A mechanical advantage lever is provided such that the pinching force is greater than the spring force.

A replaceable printhead cartridge includes: an elongate cartridge body having an elongate structure with a plurality of longitudinally extending channels; a pagewidth printhead mounted on the elongate structure; a first fluid coupling positioned towards one end of the elongate structure; and a second fluid coupling positioned towards an opposite end of the elongate structure. The first and second fluid couplings each has an interface plate supporting a plurality of spouts positioned for sealed engagement with corresponding apertures in a complementary socket of a printer. The spouts are in fluid communication with the respective ends of corresponding longitudinally extending channels. The spouts extend from respective interface plates in a direction transverse to a longitudinal axis of the cartridge body and parallel with a media feed direction.

Replacable printhead cartridge for inkjet printer

A coupling for distributing fluid to a printhead, the coupling having a housing, a port plate movably mounted on the housing by a shaft, the port plate having a plurality of ports for receiving respective fluid spouts of the printhead, a seal member mounted on the housing between the housing and the port plate, the seal member having a plurality of seals which align with respective ones of the ports of the port plate and a compression spring mounted on the shaft by a washer so as to be compressed between the washer and the port plate.

Printhead coupling for fluid distribution

A system for coupling a media width printhead to a fluid supply is provided having a printhead having a fluid inlet coupling at one longitudinal end of the media width and a fluid outlet coupling at the other longitudinal end of the media width, an inlet supply coupling having fluid ports defined in a port plate for engagement with fluid ports of the inlet coupling, an outlet supply coupling having fluid ports defined in a port plate for engagement with fluid ports of the outlet coupling, and a coupling drive mechanism connected to the port plates of the supply couplings via pre-compressed compression springs. The coupling drive mechanism is operational to move the port plates relative to the printhead so as to drive the ports of the supply couplings into engagement with the respective ports of the printhead couplings.

System for coupling fluid supply to printhead

An inkjet printer includes: a print engine having a cradle for receiving a removable printhead cartridge; an ink inlet manifold for supplying ink to a printhead cartridge; and an ink outlet manifold for receiving ink from the printhead cartridge. The printhead cartridge includes: a cartridge body configured for user insertion and removal from the ink jet printer; a pagewidth printhead housed in the cartridge body, the pagewidth printhead defining an array of nozzles for ejecting ink onto a media substrate; a first fluid coupling in fluid communication with the pagewidth printhead; and a second fluid coupling in fluid communication with the pagewidth printhead. The first and second fluid couplings establish fluid communication with the ink inlet manifold and ink outlet manifold respectively, upon insertion of the cartridge body in the cradle.

Inkjet printer with removable cartridge establishing fluidic connections during insertion

A coupling assembly for distributing fluid to a printhead, the coupling assembly having a housing, a seal member received in a recess of the housing, a port plate movably mounted on the housing by a washer which is press-on mounted to a shaft through the port plate and housing, and a tube retainer mounted within a groove of the housing for retaining fluid distribution tubes, the retainer having a plurality of holes aligned with respective ones of a plurality of ports in the port plate and a plurality of seals of the seal member for fluidically connecting the retained fluid distribution tubes with respective fluid spouts of the printhead, wherein mounting of each of the seal member, port plate and retainer to the housing is achieved in a non-fastened manner.

Simple printhead coupling for fluid distribution

A coupling assembly for distributing fluid to a printhead, the coupling assembly having a housing, a port plate movably mounted to a shaft which passes through the port plate and housing, a compression spring mounted on the shaft by a washer so as to be compressed between the washer and the port plate and an arm pivotally connected to the shaft at one of its longitudinal ends and pivotally connected to a coupling drive mechanism at its other longitudinal end.

Printhead coupling having cam driven mechanism

A system for venting gas at ink containers which supply inks to a multi-channel inkjet printhead is provided having a plurality of ink containers for supplying fluids to a printhead having a plurality of ink channels, and a gas vent assembly having a plurality of gas vents. Each ink container has an ink port connected to a corresponding one of the ink channels of the printhead and a gas port. Each gas vent is connected to a corresponding one of the gas ports of the ink containers. The gas vents of the gas vent assembly are in fluid communication with the external atmosphere.

System for venting gas at ink containers

A system for sensing a predetermined pressure change at a port of a liquid container for supplying liquid to a printer, the system having a liquid delivery apparatus connected to a liquid container via a fluid line and a sensing arrangement connected to the fluid line, wherein the liquid container has an internal fluid pressure changing member configured so that contact with liquid being delivered by the liquid delivery apparatus causes the predetermined pressure change in the fluid line, and the sensing arrangement is configured to sense the predetermined pressure change in the fluid line.

System for sensing capacity state of liquid container

A fluid distribution system having a first fluid container having a fluid outlet, a second fluid container having a fluid inlet, a fluid line interconnecting the outlet of the first container and the inlet of the second container, an inverted umbrella valve between the fluid line and the inlet, the valve arranged to allow fluid flow from the first container to the second container via the fluid line and a restrictor for restricting the allowed fluid flow through the fluid line.

Fluid distribution system having fluid flow restriction

A sheet feed mechanism includes a chassis for supporting a stack of sheets; a top sheet engaging member for engaging a top most sheet of the stack; a stack engaging structure, a first end of the stack engaging structure engaging the stack of sheets to bias a top most sheet of the stack of sheets against the top sheet engaging member, the stack engaging structure being supported from the chassis by a resilient member; a friction surface extending perpendicularly from a second end of the stack engaging structure opposite to the first end; a lock mechanism having a lock arm hingedly connected to the chassis, the lock mechanism including a biased contact foot for engaging the friction surface to retard a rectilinear movement of the stack engaging structure; and an actuator for engaging and disengaging the contact foot from the friction surface.

Sheet feed mechanism

A fluid coupling for establishing a sealed connection between a first conduit and a second conduit. The second conduit has a seal seat and a compression member. The compression member is movable relative to the seal seat. A seal is positioned in the seal seat. An engagement mechanism moves the compression member toward the seal seat to compress the seal to form a sealed fluid connection. The engagement mechanism has an input arm hinged to the compression member at a hinge connection. The input arm has a compression lever fixed at an angle to the longitudinal extent of the input arm. The input arm is arranged to push against the compression member as the input arm rotates about the hinge connection to the compression member. The compression member in turn pushes against the second conduit to move the second conduit relative to the first conduit, until the input arm reaches a predetermined angle about the hinge where the compression lever engages the second conduit such that further rotation of the input arm moves the compression member relative to the second conduit to compress the seal.

Fluid coupling

An inkjet printer has a body mounting first and second gear assemblies. The first assembly cooperating with a motor gear and having a code feature. The second assembly rotatably cooperating with the first assembly and a capper for capping a printhead. The code feature cooperates with a holding feature of a mounting arrangement used to mount the second assembly so that the cooperation maintains the first assembly at a predetermined position during the mounting of the second assembly. The first assembly has first and second gears connected by a common shaft. The first gear meshes with the motor gear and the second gear meshes with the second assembly. The second assembly has a third gear mounted to the body by a pin which meshes with the second gear. The third gear is an eccentric gear.

Printer having eccentrically coded capping mechanism

A method of assembling a gear arrangement for a capper of an inkjet printer includes the steps of: mounting a first gear assembly to the printer to cooperate with a motor gear for driving rotation of the first gear assembly, the first gear assembly including a driving gear from which a code feature protrudes, the driving gear meshed with the motor gear; engaging the printer with a jig; and mounting a second gear assembly to the printer using the jig, the second gear assembly mounted to cooperate with the first gear assembly to be rotatable therewith and to further cooperate with a capper for capping a printhead so that the rotation of the second gear assembly moves the capper out of and into capping position. The step of mounting the second gear assembly further includes a step of sliding a slider block of the holding feature about the code feature of the driving gear, whereby the code feature cooperate with the holding feature to maintain the first gear assembly at a predetermined position during the mounting of the second gear assembly.

Method of assembling printhead capping mechanism

Growing community of inventors

Balmain, Australia

Geoffrey Philip Dyer