Oce-technologies B.v.

Canon Production Printing Holding B.v.

Oce Holding B.v.

Mark Rietbergen

Joseph A Schulkes

Roy H R Jacobs

Erik E M Nolting

Sjirk H Koekebakker

Antonius G H Albers

Henricus J A Van De Sande

Gerardus J C Van Soest

Cornelis P M Van Heijst

Johan P Smits

Benjamin P H Van Rens

Antonius G Van Rooijen

Albert W T Rademakers

Pascal Driessen

Bas Smeets

Kevin Hjr Prinsen

Roy HR Jacobs

A low cost and low air resistance belt support structure for an endless belt conveyor of an inkjet printer can be achieved with the belt support structure being provided over a suction chamber. The belt support structure includes a plurality of longitudinal, narrow support beams positioned spaced apart from one another and parallel to one another in a transport direction of the belt to define a flat support plane for the belt. The support beams provides a relatively small contact area with the belt, which results in low friction. The support beams further allow for a relatively large open area between them to achieve a low air resistance.

Belt support structure for a conveyor of an inkjet printer

The invention relates to a print system comprising at least two page-wide arrays of ink jet print heads, positioned in a frame over a conveyor belt for transporting a substrate underneath the arrays, three sensors for reading markers on the conveyor belt and a control unit that is configured to derive control signals from encoder signals of the three sensors. Two sensors are directly connected to the frame and a third sensor is connected to one of the said two sensors by an element with virtually no thermal expansion, extending in transport direction. The control signals, comprising signals for controlling a transport speed of the conveyor belt and line pulses for the at least two print heads, are derived in such a way that an amount of thermal expansion of the frame is determined and an absolute print resolution is maintained.

Print head frame structure and control

An inkjet printer and a method for controlling an inkjet printer are disclosed. The inkjet printer is provided with an endless transport belt for transporting a medium to be printed; at least one roller for driving the transport belt and at least one additional roller for driving and/or suspending the transport belt; a detection system configured to detect a deformation of the transport belt including at least an in-plane bending deformation of at least a stretch of the transport belt and to generate at least one deformation signal indicating the detected deformation; an actuator assembly configured to change a position and/or orientation of at least one of the rollers of the inkjet printer; and a controller configured to control the actuator assembly based on the at least one deformation signal.

Inkjet printer with transport belt deformation compensation

A sheet conveying system comprising a first conveyor and a second conveyor arranged downstream of the first conveyor in a transport direction for taking-over a sheet from the first conveyor, the first conveyor having a belt that is driven to move over a stationary attraction mechanism, the attraction mechanism being arranged to exert, onto a sheet conveyed on the first conveyor, an attraction force that is proportional to an area of coverage of the sheet on the attraction mechanism, characterized in that the attraction mechanism is arranged to attract the sheet with a larger force per area in a downstream zone of the first conveyor than in an upstream zone thereof.

Sheet conveying system

A system including an ink bottle closure including a first closure member configured to be fixed to an ink bottle, the first closure member including a seal, arranged to be located over an outlet opening in a neck of the bottle and a second closure member attached to the first closure member and movable relative to the first closure member between a closed position, in which the second closure member covers the seal, and an open position in which the seal is exposed to be pierced or ruptured for dispensing ink from the bottle through the outlet opening, wherein the second closure member is movable in translation, relative to the first closure member between the closed position and the open position in a direction substantially perpendicular to a central or longitudinal axis of the bottle and a dispensing device for opening an ink bottle closure, including an adapter having a receiving area for receiving the ink bottle closure of an ink re-fill bottle with the bottle in an inverted orientation, a mechanism for moving the second closure member relative to the first closure member from a closed position, in which the second closure member covers the seal, to an open position in which the seal is exposed and a cutter arranged below the adapter substantially aligned with the receiving area, wherein the cutter is movable generally vertically between a lower position, in which the cutter is retracted from interaction with the ink bottle closure, and an upper position in which the cutter pierces or ruptures the exposed seal to dispense ink from the bottle.

Ink bottle closure, ink bottle, and associated dispensing device

A method is provided for forming an image on a recording medium in a printer, the printer comprising a print head assembly for applying a curable ink on a recording medium to form the image, a transport path arranged for moving the recording medium in a transport direction along the print head assembly and a curing system; said curing system comprising a curing source, which curing source is arranged extending over the transport path in the transverse direction; the method comprising the steps of: moving the recording medium through the transport path in a step-wise movement in the transport direction along the print head assembly and the curing system; applying the curable ink on the recording medium by the print head assembly to form the image; and curing the curable ink, which is applied on the recording medium, by the curing source in a curing zone on the recording medium, the curing zone extending over the transport path in a transverse direction, the transverse direction being substantially perpendicular to the transport direction; wherein the curing step comprises moving the curing zone along the transport direction through the transport path in response to the step-wise movement of the recording medium.

Method for forming an image on a recording medium in a printer

A sheet transfer device for transferring a sheet between two sheet processing devices comprising a switch for directing sheets from a first transport path coming from the first sheet processing device onto a two-way transport path or for directing sheets from the two-way transport path onto a second transport path for feeding sheets to the second sheet processing device. A transport pinch is provided along the two way transport path for reversing a sheet on the two-way transport path. When in use, the two-way transport path extends downward in a vertically extending free-hanging chamber wherein the sheet engaged by the transport pinch is allowed to hang freely under the influence of gravity. Thereby, a compact device is formed which is able to adjust the sheet to a suitable orientation for the second processing device. The device further prevents forces from the first processing device to disrupt the sheet's orientation in the second processing device.

Compact interface module for a printing system

An ink handling system for an ink jet printer includes a local ink reservoir associated with a print head assembly of the printer, a fill state sensor arranged to detect a fill state of the local ink reservoir, a pump arranged to supply ink into the local ink reservoir, and a pump controller for controlling an operation of the pump, including controlling an on/off state of the pump, on the basis of a detection result of the fill state sensor. A pump calibration system includes an ink consumption measurement system including a droplet counter for counting a number of ink droplets jetted out by the print head assembly and arranged to calculate a volume V of consumed ink on the basis of the counted number of droplets; a timer for counting an on-time T of the pump; a flow rate calculator arranged to calculate an measured ink flow rate of the pump on the basis of the ratio V/T; and a flow rate drift compensation functionality in the pump controller, the compensation functionality being configured to control the operation of the pump on the basis of the measured ink flow rate.

Ink handling system for an ink jet printer

A sheet conveyor is provided for transporting a sheet. The sheet conveyor includes a supplying conveyor, a receiving conveyor and a sheet guidance unit. The receiving conveyor includes a support surface arranged for supporting the sheet on a contact side of the sheet and an attraction unit arranged for attracting the sheet to the support surface. The supplying conveyor includes a transport belt being arranged for advancing the sheet in a transport direction along a transport path towards the support surface of the receiving conveyor; the sheet having two side edge portions relative to the transport path. The sheet guidance unit is arranged at a downstream end of the transport path for guiding the sheet towards the receiving conveyor, wherein said sheet guidance unit includes a lifting element arranged for lifting both side edge portions of the sheet away from the support surface while a middle portion of the sheet in between both side edge portions is guided towards the support surface.

Sheet conveyor for transporting a sheet, method for transporting a sheet in a sheet conveyor, inkjet printing apparatus comprising the sheet conveyor

A sheet conveying system includes an upstream conveyor section having an endless first conveyor belt movable in a first conveying direction x and extending in a first lateral direction z, the first conveying direction x and the first lateral direction z defining a first conveying plane xz; and a downstream conveyor section having an endless second conveyor belt that adjoins the first conveyor belt and is movable in a second conveying direction x' and extends in a second lateral direction z&#x2032;, the second conveying direction x&#x2032; and the second lateral direction z&#x2032; defining a second conveying plane x&#x2032;z&#x2032;. The conveyor sections are adapted to hold the sheets slip-free on the first and second conveyor belts. The second conveyor belt has a shear compliance in the second conveying plane x&#x2032;z&#x2032; that is larger than the shear compliance of the first conveyor belt in the first conveying plane xz.

Belt conveyor system comprising: an endless mesh belt, the belt having a mesh structure and having edge areas at the lateral sides, a drive mechanism drivable by a drive motor to rotate the belt, and a steering roller for steering the lateral position of the belt, wherein an edge area comprises a band running substantially parallel to the lateral sides, the band comprising an elastic filler being provided inside the mesh structure, the elastic filler being discernible from the mesh structure, and wherein the belt conveyor system further comprises a band position detector for detecting the lateral position of the band.

Belt conveyor system comprising a mesh belt and a sheet conveyor system for conveying sheets in a reprographic apparatus

A sheet handling apparatus comprising a rotary drum having an outer peripheral wall with perforations, and a number of separate chambers, a suction system for controlling a flow of air through the perforations, thereby to attract sheets to the peripheral wall of the drum, and a stationary shutter member for blocking the flow of air through the perforations when they pass through a predetermined angular range. The number of separate chambers extend in axial direction and are distributed over the periphery of the drum. A disk-shaped manifold at the first axial end of the drum is co-rotatably with the drum. The manifold forms a number of radial channels each connected to one of said chambers and having an opening at a radially inward end of each channel. The stationary shutter member is arranged for blocking an opening of a channel to block air flow from a radially inward end of a channel.

Sheet handling apparatus with rotary drum

A sheet retention device is provided for retaining at least one sheet. The sheet retention device comprises a sheet supporting unit for supporting at least a first portion of the sheet, a rotatable guiding unit configured to enclose a second portion of the sheet, an urging unit and a drive unit for in operation controllably rotating the rotatable guiding unit. The rotatable guiding unit comprises a passageway arranged through the rotatable guiding unit, which passageway is configured to enclose the second portion of the sheet, the passageway having an entrance portion at one side of an outer surface of the rotatable guiding unit and an exit portion at another side of an outer surface of the rotatable guiding unit. The exit portion is arranged in the passageway at an opposite end with respect to the entrance portion.

Sheet retention device

A print head for an inkjet printer with n interlacing passes. The print head is provided with a number of regular nozzles disposed in a row. The row has a first end and a second end, each formed by an associated regular nozzle. Neighboring regular nozzles are spaced apart by a regular nozzle pitch N, where N&equals;n*ds, where ds is the dot pitch. A reserve nozzle is disposed at a distance from at least one of the ends of the row and in extension of the row. The distance between the reserve nozzle and the associated end of the row is I*ds, where I is an integer and is unequal to (p/k)*n where p is an integer, and k is an integer less than n. A method of printing an image built up from a number of sub-images, wherein neighboring sub-images are spaced apart by a dot pitch ds. The method in which the inventive print head is used comprises performing a number of printing passes of the print head to form the number of sub-images. Also, the position of a defective regular nozzle is detected before and during a first printing pass respectively. The print head is displaced over a distance between a preceding and a following printing pass, such that the reserve nozzle during the following printing pass comes into the position occupied by the defective nozzle in the preceding printing pass.

Growing community of inventors

Venlo, Netherlands

Mark Rietbergen