Tektronix, Inc.

Other

Jeffrey J Anderson

John S Moore

Ted E Deur

Donald R Titterington

Ernest I Esplin

Richard Schmachtenberg, Iii

Randy C Karambelas

Donald B Maclane

J Kirk McGlothlan

Joy Roy

Raul Krivoy

Jeffery J Clark

James C Oswald

Mike C Gordon

Terry A Smith

Maridana L Whitlow

James D Rise

Ronald F Burr

Hue Phuoc Le

Sharon S Berger

Guenther W Wimmer

Joern B Eriksen

Douglas M Stanley

Susan C Schoening

Richard S Meissner

Wayne Jaeger

Monte J Rhoads

A computer printer having a frame contained within a housing, a media transport and printing mechanism attached to the frame within the housing is provided with at least one debris shield positioned above the printing mechanism to protect it from falling debris. The at least one debris shield may be positioned below an air flow path generated by printer ventilation, and the printer may employ a transfer surface on which an image is generated prior to transfer to a media sheet, and above which the debris shield is positioned.

Ink jet printer

An encasement device for a golf tee is cylindrically adhered to a shaft of golf tee. The encasement device is a cover with graduated markings, which allows the golfer to consistently set the tee at the golfer's desired depth. Each graduated marking is numerically related to other graduated markings and the ground penetration depth. The resulting multi-layer structure of the golf tee and the encasement device deters breakage of the golf tee and reinforces the shaft structure of the golf tee.

Encasement device for golf tee

The present invention provides an ink jet print head capable of fast, efficient and consistent printing. Such ink jet print heads include an ink ejecting component which incorporates electropolished surfaces. Electropolishing techniques useful in the production of such ink ejecting components are also discussed.

Ink jet print heads

An arrowhead for an arrow that utilizes a blade locking ring for retaining and releasing a set of expandable blades. The arrow has a slotted ferrule for rotatably attaching a set of expandable blades. Each expandable blade has a ear having a notch and a rim for holding the blade locking ring in a retaining and releasing position, respectively. The rim is dimensioned in view of the width of the blade locking ring, so that outward projections are minimized. Operationally, the tip of the arrow penetrates a given distance before actuation of the releasing mechanism, so that the expandable blades open within the body of the animal. The skin of the target displaces the blade locking ring from the notch to the rim, causing the blades to pivot outward. As such, the impact force is maximized to inflict greater damage inside the animal, therefore increasing the chances of getting a kill. The blade locking ring is pushed onto the arrow shaft for reuse by the hunter.

Ring actuated arrowhead

An arrowhead for an arrow that utilizes a tip actuation mechanism for retaining and releasing a set of expandable blades. The arrowhead has a tip ferrule and a body ferrule, each having a number of blade slots. A set of blades, each having a blade ear, are rotatably attached to the body ferrule. The tip ferrule is positioned on the body ferrule such that the tip ferrule sits on each blade ear and retains the blades in a semi-retracted position. The downward force by the tip ferrule on the blade ear causes direct ejection of the blades without the use of any intervening structures. Consequently, the impact force is maximized to penetrate into the animal, therefore increasing the chances of getting a kill. The device can be reused by the user without the purchase of any new parts by simply attaching the tip ferrule to the body ferrule.

Tip actuated arrowhead

A computer printer having a frame contained within a housing, a media transport and printing mechanism attached to the frame within the housing is provided with at least one debris shield positioned above the printing mechanism to protect it from falling debris. The at least one debris shield may be positioned below an air flow path generated by printer ventilation, and the printer may employ a transfer surface on which an image is generated prior to transfer to a media sheet, and above which the debris shield is positioned. Stripper fingers strip the media sheet from the transfer surface and webs between the stripper fingers form an air flow barrier to prevent debris transmission through gaps between the fingers.

Ink jet printer having webs between stripper fingers

A particulate filter (16) is provided within an inlet channel (22) of an ink jet (14). The filter is oriented generally in the direction of ink flow to provide a greater filter surface area. Positioning the filter within the inlet channel results in reduced acoustic crosstalk, more effective filtering, and more efficient purging of the filter itself because of the relatively high ink pressure drop across the filter in the channel. Positioning the channel vertically assists the buoyancy of the bubble movement during operation and purging.

Ink jet head with channel filter

Ink jet print heads and methos for preparing them

An internal ink filter (12) located within an ink jet print head (10) is formed by overlapping filter portions (100 and 102) of two laminated plates (22 and 24) that comprise the print head. Each plate includes an array of holes (120) in the filter portion. The individual holes have an opening dimension (122) such that the plates can be easily manufactured using conventional techniques, although the opening dimension may be too large for effective filtering. The plates are juxtaposed with the holes of each plate partly overlapping the holes of the other plate. The areas of overlap define a filter pore smaller than the individual holes in each plate.

Ink jet head with internal filter

An ink jet print head cleaning and maintenance system has a purge chamber for applying a vacuum to a nozzle orifice surface. A specialized baffle diverts ink entering the purge chamber away a vent port through which the vacuum is drawn. An elongated wipe engages and wipes the orifice surface and is preferably moved at an extremely slow rate across the surface to enhance the wiping operation. An air knife directs a narrow stream of air across a portion of the nozzle orifice surface with air from the air stream being scanned across the surface for cleaning purposes. A specialized drip edge is positioned beneath the orifice surface for directing drops of ink away from the ink jet print head, the drops of ink being generated during the cleaning procedures. A mechanically simple cam mechanism coupled to a rotatable drum of the printer may be used to shift the maintenance system against the nozzle orifice surface for cleaning purposes.

Ink jet print head maintenance system

A drop-on-demand ink jet has an ink chamber coupled to a source of ink, and an ink drop orifice with an outlet. An acoustic driver produces a pressure wave in the ink and causes the ink to pass outwardly through the ink drop orifice and outlet. The driver is driven with bipolar drive pulses having a refill pulse component and an eject pulse component of a polarity which is opposite to the refull pulse component. The refill and eject pulse components are separated by a wait period. The drive pulses may be adjusted to minimize their energy content at a frequency corresponding to the dominant acoustic resonance frequency of the ink jet. This will accelerate drop breakoff, optimize drop shape and minimize drop speed variations over the range of drop printing rates. The ink jet printer of the present invention may be used to print with a wide variety of inks, including phase change inks to achieve high print quality at high print rates.

Method of operating an ink jet to achieve high print quality and high

Printing is by an array of color-printing elements or nozzles in order ot produce interlaced color printing while printing each line only once with each color. Print head array configurations for printing two, three and four colors include linear and parallel arrays. In one embodiment, a first color and a second color are printed on alternate lines of a first set of print lines. The first color and a third color are printed on alternate lines of a second set of print lines. Also, the second color and the third color are printed on alternate lines of a third set of print lines. By sequentially printing these consecutive sets of lines on a print medium, with each of the three pairs of colors, all of the lines of an image are printed once with each color. Other color-printing configurations are also shown.

Method and apparatus for interlaced multicolor printing

An ink jet print head face cleaner provides a controlled air passageway through an enclosure formed against the print face. Air is directed through an inlet into a cavity in a body. The body has a face with an opening into the cavity. This face is sealingly placeable against the print face. The cavity has a limited size so that air is directed without interruption through the cavity past the ink jet apertures, and out an outlet. The cleaner body is coupled resiliently to a platform to allow positioning of the body and print faces flush with each other. A vacuum source is preferably attached to the outlet to create a subatmospheric pressure in the cavity to further seal the two faces together. A collection chamber and removable drawer are positioned below the outlet to facilitate disposing of removed ink.

Ink jet print head face cleaner

A method for producing a light-transmissive phase change ink printed substrate is described which comprises providing a substrate, and then printing on at least one surface of the substrate a predetermined pattern of a light-transmissive phase change ink which initially transmits light in a non-rectilinear path. The pattern of solidified phase change ink is then reoriented to form an ink layer of substantially uniform thickness. This ink layer will, in turn, produce an image which then will transmit light in a substantially rectilinear path. In one aspect of the invention, the substrate is light transmissive, and the reoriented printed substrate exhibits a high degree of lightness and chroma, and transmits light in a substantially rectilinear path. In this way, the reoriented printed substrate can be used in a projection device to project an image containing clear, saturated colors.

Substrates having a light-transmissive phase change ink printed thereon

A first surface of a first metal component of an ink jet print head is bonded to a second surface of a second metal component of the ink jet print head, the first and second surfaces being of materials having the same or similar coefficients of thermal expansion. A layer of filler material is electroplated or otherwise placed on at least one of these surfaces. The filler material has a melting point which is below the melting point of the first and second components, and the total thickness of the filler material on the surfaces together is in the range of from approximately one-sixteenth micron to approximately five microns, with one-eighth micron to two microns being a preferred range. These surfaces are placed together and subjected to heat and pressure to diffusion bond the surfaces without melting the filler material. The diffusion bonding is performed in one approach until no more than approximately one micron of filler material remains between the surfaces. Thereafter, the filler material is melted without melting the first and second components to thereby braze the first and second components together.

Growing community of inventors

Camas, WA, United States of America

Jeffrey J Anderson