Hewlett-packard Company

Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Hewlett-packard Corporation

Ignacio De Olazabal

Mark E Young

Rosa Calatayud

Elizabeth Zapata

Robert R Giles

Joaquim Brugue

Max Stephen Gunther

Jordi Bartolome

Carles Vi&ntilde;as

Joaquim Veciana

A scanning device such as a printer has a trapezoidal carriage support beam which permits a compact juxtaposition of the carriage slider rod, the printhead, a drive belt and an encoder device. A second slider mounting for the printer carriage includes a bushing incorporating a part-spherical portion and an arm which engage with corresponding parts of the carriage.

Beam for supporting a carriage

A technique for aligning a carriage holding a pen in a printing machine including a carriage axis assembly having a motor drive system for moving the carriage along a carriage axis, a carriage position sensor, and a refill station disposed along the axis. A carriage alignment position at which the pen septum is aligned with the refill valve is determined, by (i) actuating the motor drive system to move the carriage in a first direction along the carriage axis to a first end of carriage travel along the carriage axis, (ii) sensing the position of the carriage at the first end of carriage travel, and storing the sensed first end position, (iii) actuating the motor drive system to move the carriage in a second direction along the carriage axis until the carriage runs into contact with a refill stopper surface of the refill station, (iv) determining a refill stopper carriage position at which the carriage runs into the refill stopper surface, and (v) determining the alignment position from the refill stopper carriage position. The carriage is moved along the carriage axis during printing operations and dispenses droplets of liquid ink from the printhead onto a print medium. A refill operation is conducted by moving the carriage to the alignment position, engaging the pen septum and the refill valve, passing ink through the refill valve and the pen septum, and disengaging the refill valve from the pen septum.

Printer carriage alignment for periodic ink replenishment from

An inkjet printing system provides an on/off valve adapted for periodic engagement with an inlet port on a print cartridge mounted in a carriage. The valve is connected to an ink supply which is located off the carriage. A manually actuated set of individual locking gates allows each valve to be separately mounted on a holder capable of carrying multiple valves. As the ink reservoir in the print cartridge is slowly depleted during operation of the printing system, a mechanism periodically moves the valves from a first passive position separated from the print cartridges to a second active position engaged with the inlet port of the print cartridges in order to allow replenishment without removing the print cartridges from the carriage.

Interchangeable fluid interconnect attachment and interface

A printing system which provides active control of the vertical position of an off-carriage ink supply. The system includes an ink-jet print cartridge having an ink reservoir for holding a supply of liquid ink, and an ink replenishment port. A carriage holds the print cartridge, and a carriage scanning apparatus drives the carriage along a carriage scan axis. The system further includes an off-carriage ink supply which is connectable via a fluid path to the ink replenishment port of the cartridge. An elevator apparatus actively raises or lowers the off-carriage ink supply in response to drive commands to position the off-carriage ink supply at a plurality of different elevations relative to a vertical position of the print cartridge to supply ink to the ink replenishment port via the fluid path. The fluid path can be established intermittently, and disconnected during printing operations, or continuously established even during printing operations.

Active control of vertical position of an off-carriage ink supply

An ink-jet printing system includes a printer frame structure, and a carriage mounted on the printer frame structure for movement across a print zone during normal printing operations and which is positionable in a refill position. A printhead is mounted on the carriage, and has an inlet port accessible without having to remove the printhead. The printing system includes a support bracket attached to the printer frame structure, with an ink supply valve mounted on the support bracket. A clamp structure is mounted on the support bracket and is moveable between a clamping position for engaging the carriage in the refill position and securing the carriage, and a disengaged position wherein the clamp structure is not in contact with the carriage. An automated mechanism is operatively connected to the support bracket which moves the clamp structure from the disengaged position to the clamping position, and which moves the at least one ink supply valve toward the carriage in a rest position for engagement of the ink supply valve with the inlet port of the printhead mounted in the carriage. The automated mechanism includes a single motor which is activated to perform both functions, moving the clamp structure and the ink supply valve.

Automatic single motor control of both carriage stabilization and valve

A variable height reservoir system that allows for reliable ink replenishment to an on-carriage pen reservoir from an off-carriage ink reservoir on an as needed basis. The off-carriage reservoirs are mounted on a platform that is actively moved up and down in a vertical motion. A pen cartridge with an internal spring to provide vacuum pressure is intermittently connected to an off-carriage reservoir, by movement of the pen carriage to a refill station for ink replenishment. In the refill station, a valve is engaged into the pen, thus connecting the ink reservoir to the pen cartridge. Using only the vacuum pressure present in the pen cartridge, ink is pulled into the pen from the reservoir. The ink replenishment occurs in a first stage with the reservoir placed very close to the pen cartridge elevation, with only a small offset between the top of the ink reservoir and the pen nozzles. This small offset distance ensures flow of ink into the pen cartridge, and results in acceleration of ink into the pen, decreasing the fill time. The pen can be overfilled, decreasing the pen vacuum pressure such that high print quality will be sacrificed. The reservoir is then lowered which results in a small amount of ink moving back into the reservoir, raising the vacuum pressure into the appropriate range.

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Barcelona, Spain

Ignacio De Olazabal