Hewlett-Packard Company

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.p.

Michael S Millman

Dean A Gaylor

John A Barinaga

Stephen G Brown

Jeffrey J Anderson

Robert M Yraceburu

Michael K Bowen

Michael W Munro

Angela S Chen

Paul M O'Brien

Richard Olson

Alan Shibata

Todd R Medin

Le Gia Pham

Tanya Vesta Burmeister

A two-stage scraper system having coarse and fine cleaning components is provided for cleaning ink residue from a wiper following wiping a printhead in an inkjet printing mechanism. A fixed, coarse scraper bar is sandwiched between a pair of moveable fine scraper bars. During the first scraping stage, the fine scrapers are retracted from the wiper path and the coarse scraper cleans one side of the wiper. During the second scraping stage, the fine scrapers move into the wiper path and one of the fine scrapers removes ink residue from the wiper tip. Moving bi-directionally, the wiper reverses to first encounter the coarse scraper, then the other fine scraper, removing ink residue from the other side and tip of the wiper. The fine scrapers may be absorbent or impregnated with an ink solvent. A method of cleaning printheads and inkjet printing mechanisms having two-stage wiper cleaning systems are also provided.

Two-stage scraper system for inkjet wipers

A flipping wiper scraper system for cleaning several inkjet printheads in an inkjet printing mechanism has a wiper support mechanism which moves several elastomeric wipers across the printheads to wipe off accumulations of ink residue. This ink residue is then scraped off of the wipers to ready them for the next wiping stroke using a scraper system. The wiper support mechanism inverts the wipers to engage scraper bars of the scraper system. The scraper bars have scraping heads and capillary channels to draw liquid ink residue away from the heads through capillary forces. The scraper bars are arranged so only one or two wipers are scraped at any given time to reduce noise and quiet overall unit operation. A method of cleaning an inkjet printhead, along with an inkjet printing mechanism having such a flipping wiper scraper system are also provided.

Flipping wiper scraper system for inkjet printheads

A two-stage scraper system having coarse and fine cleaning components is provided for cleaning ink residue from a wiper following wiping a printhead in an inkjet printing mechanism. A fixed, coarse scraper bar is sandwiched between a pair of moveable fine scraper bars. During the first scraping stage, the fine scrapers are retracted from the wiper path and the coarse scraper cleans one side of the wiper. During the second scraping stage, the fine scraper move into the wiper path and one of the fine scrapers removes ink residue from the wiper tip. Moving bi-directionally, the wiper reverses to first encounter the coarse scraper, then the other fine scraper, removing ink residue from the other side and tip of the wiper. The fine scrapers may be absorbent or impregnated with an ink solvent. A method of cleaning printhead and inkjet printing mechanisms having two-stage wiper cleaning systems are also provided.

A composite wiper assembly is provided for cleaning ink residue from an inkjet printhead in an inkjet printing mechanism. The composite wiper has a wiper blade with a first portion of a first elastomeric material, and a second portion of a second elastomeric material different from the first elastomeric material. The wiper blade may also have a third portion of a third elastomeric material different from the first elastomeric material and different from the second elastomeric material. The composite structure of the wiper blade allows the materials of the different portions to be tailored to best serve the function of a particular portion. An inkjet printing mechanism having such a composite wiper is also provided.

Composite wiper for inkjet printheads

A transferring spittoon system is provided for an inkjet printing mechanism to handle waste inkjet ink that has been spit from an inkjet printhead during a nozzle clearing, purging or &ldquo;spitting&rdquo; routine. A rotating spit wheel receives ink residue spit from the printhead. A scraper removes the residue from the spit wheel and directs the residue into a temporary storage container. A transfer mechanism transports the ink residue from the temporary storage container to a permanent storage container. A second scraper may be used to remove the residue from the transfer mechanism and direct the residue into the permanent storage container. The transfer mechanism may be a rotating auger, a conveyor belt, or a turntable. A method of purging ink residue from an inkjet printhead, along with an inkjet printing mechanism having such a transferring spittoon system, are also provided.

Transferring spittoon system for waste inkjet ink

Auxiliary sheet feeder for an inkjet printer

Inkjet printer with an auxiliary sheet feeder

Inkjet printer

Growing community of inventors

Vancouver, WA, United States of America

Michael S Millman