Hewlett-Packard Company

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.p.

Melanie J Feder

Ralph L Stathem

Terry M Lambright

Kevin D Almen

Richard J Mcmanus

Warren Scott Martin

Frank J Bretl

Veronica A Nelson

Mark D Zinser

Melissa D Lee

Roy Glenn Atkinson

Emmet Whittaker

Jason H Oakes

Paul Killeen

Brett Dahlgren

Kirk Haylett

Victor Selvey

Hot-melt Seal For Nozzles on Print Cartridges And Method. A layer of hot-melt is adhesively bonded to a print cartridge to seal the nozzles through which ink is jetted. In another aspect, a layer of hot-melt seals the electrical contacts and leads mounted on the print cartridge. The hot-melt adhesive can be either laminated with a moisture retardant (preferably impermeable) base film or block coated on moisture retardant (preferably impermeable) pouch material. These materials are thereafter adhesively bonded to the print cartridge, sealing the nozzles and preferably the electrical contacts and leads as well. In one application process, a hot-melt moisture retardant laminate tape is cut to size, releasably captured, positioned over the nozzles, and heat staked to seal the nozzles of the print cartridge. In a second application process, a layer of hot-melt is directly applied over the nozzles and a layer of moisture retardant material is heat staked to the hot-melt. In a third application process, heat stakable pouch material is block coated with hot-melt, the block coated hot-melt is positioned over the nozzles and heat staked, and the print cartridge is thereafter flow wrapped. In a fourth application process a hot-melt, moisture retardant tape is cut to size and heat staked to seal the nozzles of a print cartridge. Thereafter a free-end of the tape is heat staked into a pouch material and then the print cartridge is flow wrapped with the pouch material.

Hot-melt seal for nozzles on print cartridges and method

A technique for handling residual ink that is from time to time present on the orifice plate of an ink-jet print cartridge. In one preferred embodiment, an ink-jet print cartridge is equipped with an ink-receptive member, such as an absorbent pad. The pad is located so that a service station wiper will move the residual ink from the orifice plate and spread it across the pad. The pad absorbs the ink. In essence, the ink is sequestered on the cartridge, in the pad. The exterior surface of the pad dries quickly so that there is little likelihood of developing a tacky area over the pad to which fibers may stick and degrade print quality.

Sequestering residual ink on an ink-jet print cartridge

An inkjet printer printhead has a layering of a flexible polymer tape, a patterned barrier material that is acting as an adhesive as well as ink channels, and a substrate that has a plurality of ink expulsion devices. Each of the ink propulsion devices is aligned with an orifice hole ablated in the flexible polymer tape where the ink expels and patterns the medium beyond. To keep adhesives and encapsulants required in the assembly of the inkjet printer printhead out of the critical ink channel area near the orifice holes, fluid accumulation channels are ablated into the flexible polymer tape in a strategic location between the adhesive bead and the ink channel. These accumulation channels function as both a diversion a containment point for the excess flow of adhesive.

Control of adhesive flow in an inkjet printer printhead

Growing community of inventors

Blodgett, OR, United States of America

Melanie J Feder