Hewlett-packard Company

Jeffrey G Patrick

Steve Orrin Rasmussen

Larry A Jackson

Donald R Bloyer

Robert K Beretta

Larry G Neubauer

Brently L Cooper

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.

Carriage-mounted inkjet aerosol reduction system

Described herein is a printer having a printhead which traverses laterally across a sheetlike print medium and which thereby defines a laterally-extending print zone across the print medium. A paper transport mechanism in the printer has drive rollers and associated pinch wheels to drive the print medium through the printer's print zone. The paper transport mechanism further includes an upper print media guide and a lower print medium guide. The two print medium guides are shaped at their transverse ends to bow the transverse edges of the print medium downwardly to reduce its tendency to buckle upwardly into the printhead. In order to fit the upper print medium guide into the limited available space above the drive rollers, it is made of a lower molded portion for paper contact and an upper backing portion for rigidity. A pinch finger extends toward the printer's print zone beyond the pinch wheels to establish a pinch point against the drive roller in near proximity to the print zone. To facilitate ejection of printed pages, the upper print medium guide is formed with a series of ribs which contact the paper. The ribs reduce friction and static buildup, and make it easier to push the paper from the paper transport mechanism.

Media handling in an ink-jet printer having guide ribs

Described herein is a print medium support mechanism for supporting a print medium such as paper in a print zone adjacent a printer's printhead. The print medium support mechanism includes at least one drive roller positioned upstream from the print zone of the printer to feed paper into the print zone. An upper print media guide is positioned adjacent the drive roller between the drive roller and the print zone to contact and support the paper from above. A lower print media guide is mounted downstream from the upper print media guide to pivot between retracted and non-retracted positions relative to the print zone. When in its non-retracted position, the lower print media guide contacts and supports the paper from below. The support of the upper and lower print media guides against opposite sides of the paper is primarily responsible for establishing the shape and angle of the paper as it passes through the print zone. The print medium support mechanism includes a pivot stop which is adjustable to set the vertical position of the lower print media guide relative to the upper print media guide when the lower print media guide is pivoted to its non-retracted position. This effectively establishes a desired print medium shape and angle. A separate media-to-printhead spacing adjustment mechanism is provided for adjusting the vertical positioning of the printer's printhead relative to the paper. Because of this, the media-to-printhead spacing can be set without affecting the settings made to obtain the optimal print medium shape and angle.

Growing community of inventors

Vancouver, WA, United States of America

Jeffrey G Patrick