Eastman-kodak Company

Encad, Inc.

James J Haflinger

Arthur King Wilson

Gary Alan Kneezel

Dwight John Petruchik

Richard A Murray

David A Neese

Juan Manuel Jimenez

John Christian Love

Yichuan Pan

Warren Free

David M Dull

A method for monitoring relative position of a carriage and a recording medium in an inkjet printing system having a roller for advancing the recording medium along a recording medium advance direction, the method includes sending light from a light source toward at least a portion of the roller; receiving reflected light in a two-dimensional sensor mounted on the carriage; sending a signal from the two-dimensional sensor to a controller, wherein the signal indicates the pattern of reflected light received by the two-dimensional sensor; comparing the received signal by the controller to a signal stored in memory; and calculating a shift between the received signal and the signal stored in memory.

Method of position detection with two-dimensional sensor in printer

An inkjet printing system includes a roller for advancing a recording medium along a recording medium advance direction; an inkjet printhead that ejects drops of ink; a carriage for moving the printhead along a carriage scan direction that is substantially perpendicular or perpendicular to the recording medium advance direction; one or more motors for driving the roller and moving the carriage; a two-dimensional sensor mounted on the carriage which two-dimensional sensor is configured to sense either: a) the recording medium; b) the roller and the recording medium; or c) the roller; and a controller for receiving electrical signals from the two-dimensional sensor and for controlling the one or more motors.

Position detection with two-dimensional sensor in printer

An ink tank having a tank housing; an electrical contact on the housing; an ink outlet port disposed on the housing; and at least one projection disposed adjacent the electrical contact on the housing, wherein the projection is configured for engaging a leaf spring of an inkjet printer. The leaf spring exerts an out and away pivoting force on the projection so that an electrical connection destination for the electrical contact is prevented until the ink tank is completely installed.

Ink tank feature for improved mounting reliability

An inkjet printhead that receives one or more detachably mountable ink tanks, the inkjet printhead includes an ink tank holding receptacle that receives the one or more detachably mountable ink tanks between a first and second wall; a spring disposed on the first wall of the printhead to provide a biasing force in a direction that pushes the detachably mountable ink tank away from the first wall of the printhead and which biasing force must be manually overcome in order to properly install the one or more detachably mountable ink tanks in the ink tank holding receptacle of the printhead.

Printhead with improved ink tank mounting reliability

An inkjet carriage that receives a print cartridge, the inkjet carriage includes a holding receptacle having a wall, wherein the holding receptacle is configured to receive the print cartridge; and a spring disposed on the wall of the holding receptacle to provide a biasing force in a direction that pushes the print cartridge away from the wall of the inkjet carriage and which biasing force must be manually overcome in order to properly install the print cartridge in the holding receptacle of the inkjet carriage.

Carriage with improved print cartridge mounting reliability

A method for measuring dimensions of a stack of medium in a media input location of an imaging system, includes emitting light along a direction that is at a predetermined angle with respect to the normal of the planar surface of the media input location. An array of photosensors are disposed along an array direction that lies in a plane defined by the direction of the light and the normal of the planar surface. The photosensors receive a spatially-varying pattern of light reflected from a surface that is substantially parallel to the planar surface of the media input location to provide corresponding electronic signal data from the photosensor array for subsequent transmission to a printing system controller. The varying electronic signal data is used to provide a measurement of the one or more dimensions corresponding to the stack of medium.

Media measurement with sensor array

A method and apparatus for determining defective heating resistors Rin each of a plurality of inkjets in an inkjet printer, wherein each heating resistor Ris connected in parallel with a common capacitor, the method for each heating resistor Rincludes providing a variable power supply effective in a first condition to produce a first operating DC voltage and, in a second condition, to produce a second known test DC voltage V, and inserting a known reference resistor Rin series with the heating resistor Rand capacitor and also open circuiting the capacitor in response to sensing that the power supply has changed from the first condition to the second condition. The method and apparatus further include digitizing the voltage Vat the electrical junction between the heating resistor Rand the reference resistor R, and using the digitized voltage to determine if the heating resistor Ris defective.

Determining defective resistors in inkjet printers

A system and method of ink jet printing in a printer having more than one print head is disclosed. The printing results in improved image quality by dithering the transition from one print head to the next and by individually adjusting the timing of the firing of each of the print heads. This allows the printer to create a better quality image in instances of horizontal or vertical misalignment of the print heads, without the need for costly and problematic mechanical systems.

Compensation method for overlapping print heads of an ink jet printer

A method of ink jet printing uses only selected nozzles of a print head to reduce the time required to print onto pixel locations as the print head is scanned over the surface of a piece of media. Print carriage speed during printing may thus be increased.

Print masks for high speed ink jet printing

A column of ink ejection nozzles on an ink jet print head is arranged in a plurality of sub-columns. The number of sub-columns and the assignment of nozzles to the sub-columns is selected to reduce cross-talk between nozzles, to prevent overlap of ejection pulses between sub-columns, and to minimize the complexity of the electronics required to actuate the ink ejection nozzles for droplet deposition.

Nozzle cross talk reduction in an ink jet printer

A method and system for detecting a nonfunctional element in an ink jet printhead is disclosed. The ink jet printer system includes: a switching power supply, coupled to the inkjet printhead, for supplying power to the printhead; an output capacitor, coupled to an output of the switching power supply, for storing a dc voltage therein; a bleed resistor, coupled in parallel to the output capacitor, for discharging current from the output capacitor; an output shifting circuit, coupled to the switching power supply, for shifting the dc voltage level across the output capacitor between a low state and a high state; and a sensor, coupled to the output of the switching power supply, for detecting when the switching power supply is switching, wherein an element of the printhead is tested by measuring a test current discharging from the output capacitor when the element is activated and comparing the measured test current with a reference current which discharges from the output capacitor through the bleed resistor. The method includes: supplying regulated power to the printhead; storing the regulated power in a capacitor so as to provide a dc voltage across the capacitor; shifting the dc voltage level stored in the capacitor between a low state and a high state; measuring a test current discharging from the capacitor when an element of the printhead is activated; measuring a reference current discharging from the capacitor through a bleed resistor, when no elements of the printhead are activated; and comparing the measured test current with the reference current.

Growing community of inventors

San Diego, CA, United States of America

James J Haflinger