Lexmark International, Inc.

International Business Machines Corporation

John Philip Bolash

Thomas Jon Eade

George Keith Parish

Randall David Mayo

Frank Edward Anderson

Mark Joseph Edwards

Edmund Hulin James, Iii

Mahesan Chelvayohan

Patrick Laurence Kroger

Edmund Holin James, Iii

Michael Anthony Marra, Iii

Robert Wilson Cornell

Bruce David Gibson

Timothy John Rademacher

Scott Michael Heydinger

Michael Clark Campbell

Duane Edward Norris

Stephen Kelly Cunnagin

Lawrence Russell Steward

Joel Gerard Goodwin

Darell Dean Cronch

Curt Paul Breswick

Paul Harrington, Iii

David Keith Lane

Nicholas J Krull

David Howard White

Matthew Kevan Zimmer

David Steven Waldrop

Richard G Zumbach

Jim Dal Freeze

Michael David Gonzalez-Rubio

A method of correcting for sensitivity variation of media sensors includes determining a first signal level corresponding to a first calibration media having a first glossiness; determining a second signal level corresponding to a second calibration media having a second glossiness, the second glossiness being greater than the first glossiness; and determining a corrected normalized signal level ratio of an unknown media based on the first signal level of the first calibration media and the second signal level of the second calibration media.

Media type sensing method for an imaging apparatus

Media manipulation and sensing apparatuses having a media type detector and method for media type detection, wherein non-linear characteristics of light sensors used for measuring a media type are compensated for by adjusting for the light flux capability of one of the sensors to be greater than the light flux capability of another sensor, such that the ratio between the two sensors accurately represents the glossiness of an illuminated media. An algorithm technique is applied such that a value for a detected sensor signal, which falls in a non-linear range of a sensor characteristic curve, is extrapolated to a value that corresponds to a position on a projection of a linear portion of the sensor characteristic curve, and thereby measuring the glossiness based on the extrapolated sensor signal.

Method and apparatus for detecting media type

A media type sensing method for an imaging apparatus includes the steps of changing a light intensity of a light source by changing a drive signal, while monitoring for an output change of a comparator; determining a drive signal value of the drive signal at a point of detection of the output change; and correlating the drive signal value to a specific media type.

An ink jet printing apparatus forms a printed image on a print medium based on image data. The apparatus includes an ink jet print head having ink ejection nozzles in a nozzle array. Ink is ejected from the nozzles and onto the print medium as the print head scans across the print medium in a scan direction, thereby forming the image on the print medium. The nozzle array on the print head includes a first substantially columnar array of nozzles aligned with a print medium advance direction which is perpendicular to the scan direction. The first array has a first upper subarray pair that includes a first upper left and a first upper right subarray of nozzles. The first upper left and a first upper right subarrays each include a substantially linear arrangement of n number of nozzles having equal nozzle-to-nozzle spacings. The nozzle-to-nozzle spacing in the first upper right subarray is equivalent to the nozzle-to-nozzle spacing in the first upper left subarray. The first upper right subarray is offset from the first upper left subarray in the scan direction by a first horizontal spacing, and is offset in the print medium advance direction by one-half of the nozzle-to-nozzle spacing. The nozzle array also includes a second substantially columnar array of nozzles aligned with the print medium advance direction. The second array is offset from the first array in the scan direction by a second horizontal spacing, and is offset in the print medium advance direction by one-fourth of the nozzle-to-nozzle spacing. The second columnar array has a second upper subarray pair that includes a second upper left and a second upper right subarray. The second upper left and second upper right subarrays each include a substantially linear arrangement of n number of nozzles having equal nozzle-to-nozzle spacings. The second upper right subarray is offset from the second upper left subarray in the scan direction by the first horizontal spacing and in the print medium advance direction by one-half of the nozzle-to-nozzle spacing.

Ink jet print head having offset nozzle arrays

A method for reducing visual printing defects produced by an ink jet printer includes the steps of providing a first printhead nozzle array spaced apart from a second printhead nozzle array in a main scan direction; defining a plurality of rasters for scanning during a first unidirectional scan of the first printhead nozzle array and the second printhead nozzle array; and printing on a print medium with both the first printhead nozzle array and the second printhead nozzle array to form printing lines traced along at least a portion of the plurality of rasters during the first unidirectional scan, wherein the first printhead nozzle array is controlled to print in a first shingling pattern and the second printhead nozzle array is controlled to print in a second shingling pattern.

Method of color shingling to reduce visible printing defects

The invention provides a method for aligning multiple color ink jet printheads to provide ink droplet placement within about {fraction (1/600)} inch of desired droplet location. The method includes providing an ink jet printer containing a printhead carriage for retaining a black ink printhead and a multi-color ink printhead thereon. The black ink printhead contains a black ink pen and the color ink printhead preferably contains at least two pens for providing droplets of ink on a print media. A color pen is selected to provide reference vertical and horizontal alignment patterns rather than using a black pen as the reference color. This enables a smaller error for alignment than provided with conventional alignment patterns.

Alignment method for color ink jet printer

The invention described in the specification relates to an apparatus for supplying electrical information to a printer controller in order to identify the one or more cartridges installed in a printer. The apparatus comprises a carriage which is laterally translatable relative to the movement of print media through the printer, carriage translation means, and a replaceable cartridge attached to the carriage. The apparatus further comprises an indicia device which is attached to the replaceable cartridge and which has optically readable indicia thereon containing encoded information which contains information identifying the type of cartridge installed in the printer. The apparatus also includes an optical code reader which reads and transmits the encoded information to a printer controller as the cartridge moves in a lateral direction relative to the code reader. The invention thus uses the linear motion of the carriage in combination with the optically readable indicia device on the cartridge to identify the type of cartridge, or to otherwise control the printer depending on the specific information provided by the indicia device.

Thermal ink jet printer cartridge identification

The specification describes a printer containing an angled printer cartridge and a method for printing using the cartridge. The printer is an ink jet printer which includes a print media movement device for moving a print media having through the printer along a print media path and a printer cartridge attached to the printer at an angle between 0&deg; and 90&deg; relative to an axis perpendicular to an axis along the direction of the media path through the printer. The printer cartridge has a length sufficient to print substantially the entire width of the printed width across the print media and contains a plurality of printheads along at least a portion of the length thereof, each printhead having one or more nozzle arrays. During a printing operation, only a portion of the printheads along the length of the cartridge are activated thus, reducing power consumption during printing. Angling the printer cartridge also has the advantage of increasing the print quality without increasing the density of nozzles in the nozzle array of the printhead.

Angled printer cartridge

The invention relates to an apparatus for providing information to a printer controller in order to identify the type of printer cartridge installed in a thermal ink jet printer. The apparatus includes a printer cable containing a set of electrically-conductive wires connected to contacts in a printer cable connector. The contacts of the printer cable connector make physical connection to an identification circuit on the printer cartridge. The identification circuit includes an electrical conductor which is at an electrical reference potential. When none, or one or more contacts on the cable connector are in electrical contact with the electrical conductor of the identification circuit, a signal corresponding to the identification of the printer cartridge is produced which is used by the printer controller to determine the type of printer cartridge installed in the printer. Selective contact between the connector contacts and the identification circuit, so as to produce an electrical code, may be obtained using a label having apertures, contact pads, electrical traces, or a combination thereof. Accordingly, various cartridge identification codes can be produced using various methods which allow encoding of the information on a cartridge during or after the manufacture of the cartridge body is substantially complete.

Identification of thermal inkjet printer cartridges

The invention described in the specification relates to an ink jet printer with multiple print heads that allows for the less restrictive installation of print head cartridges. The print head carriers are designed so that any of a variety of different types of print head cartridges can be inserted into any of the print head carriers. When image data is received, the ink jet printer's processor determines the appropriate type of print head cartridge that should be used to print the image data. Information electronically stored on the print head cartridges in the form of a read-only memory (ROM), bar code, or optical LED's, identifies the type of each print head cartridge. The printer processor examines this identification information on the installed print head cartridges to determine if one of the print head carriers contains the desired type of print head cartridge. If the desired type of print head cartridge is located, the printer processor configures the printer itself to print with the desired cartridge in the particular print head carrier location in which the desired cartridge was found. If the printer cannot locate the desired type of print head cartridge in any of the multiple print head carriers, a error message is displayed informing the user that the proper print head cartridge is not installed.

Less restrictive print head cartridge installation in an ink jet printer

An ink jet print head has first nozzles of a first diameter for ejecting droplets of ink having a first mass, and second nozzles of a second diameter for ejecting droplets of ink having a second mass. The first diameter is larger than the second diameter, and the first mass is larger than the second mass. First and second heater-switch pairs are connected in parallel on a substrate of the print head. The first heater-switch pairs include first heaters adjacent corresponding first nozzles, and the second heater-switch pairs include second heaters adjacent corresponding second nozzles. The first and second heaters are composed of electrically resistive material occupying first and second heater areas on the substrate. The first heater-switch pairs also include first switching devices connected in series with the first heaters, with each first switching device developing a first switching device voltage drop as a first electrical current flows through. The second heater-switch pairs include second switching devices connected in series with the second heaters, with each second switching device developing a second switching device voltage drop as a second electrical current flows through. The first heater area is larger than the second heater area, thus matching heater area to nozzle diameter to provide for more efficient transfer of thermal energy to the ink. The voltage drop across each first switching device is substantially equivalent to the voltage drop across each second switching device, thus reducing undesirable nozzle-to-nozzle variations in the amount of energy delivered to the ink.

Dual droplet size printhead

Method and apparatus for inhibiting electrically induced ink build-up on flexible, integrated circuit connecting leads, for thermal ink jet printer heads is disclosed, and relates to a thermal ink jet printer having a print head comprising an integrated circuit chip, a nozzle plate including a plurality of ink ejecting nozzles therein and overlying a heater resistor for each of the nozzles. Each of the associated heater resistors has associated active circuitry on the chip. On the chip there are a plurality of auxiliary functions requiring power, for example a substrate (silicon chip) heater, a shift register containing print head identification, fault detection circuit connections, etc. The machine includes a power supply and printer control logic, and gate means responsive to the logic upon sending a control signal to effect operation of at least one of the auxiliary functions to energize the function by gating the power supply to the integrated circuit chip and the associated auxiliary function only for a duration corresponding to necessary energization of the function. Because electrically induced ink build-up (EIIBU) usually occurs only between adjacent lands or traces of the TAB or flexible printed circuit that have voltage differentials, functions associated with those lands or traces are the functions which are gated to power from the power supply.

Method and apparatus for inhibiting electrically induced ink build-up on

The invention is directed to a method of printing on a print medium wherein a relocation error is induced in a paper transport system so as to randomize, bias, or redistribute harmonic errors associated with the paper transport system. The print medium is advanced in the ink jet printer in an advance direction to a registration location using the paper transport system. A first subset of an addressable set of ink emitting orifices in the printhead are used to print on the print medium at the registration location. The print medium is then moved in a reverse direction a predetermined distance. The print medium is again advanced in the advance direction and relocated at the registration location using the paper transport system. A second subset of the addressable set of ink emitting orifices in the printhead are used to print on the relocated print medium at the registration location.

Method of printing with an ink jet printer to inhibit the formation of a

An ink jet printing apparatus is provided comprising a print cartridge including a heater chip and a nozzle plate coupled to the heater chip. The heater chip has first, second, third and fourth heating elements, and the nozzle plate has a plurality of primary and secondary nozzles. The primary nozzles include first and second nozzles positioned in first and second nozzle plate columns and the secondary nozzles include third and fourth nozzles positioned in third and fourth nozzle plate columns. Each of the nozzles has one of the heating elements associated therewith for generating energy to discharge ink therefrom. The apparatus further includes a driver circuit, electrically coupled to the print cartridge, for applying firing pulses to the heating elements.

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Lexington, KY, United States of America

John Philip Bolash