Spectra, Inc.

Fujifilm Dimatix, Inc.

Markem Corporation

Dimatix, Inc.

Robert L. Wells

Nathan P. Hine

Paul A. Hoisington

Charles W., Jr. Spehrley

Richard Carden

Melvin L. Biggs

Nathan P Hine

Paul A Hoisington

Edward Russell Moynihan

Charles W Spehrley, Jr

Melvin L Biggs

David W Gailus

Steven H Barss

Marlene M McDonald

David Grose

Robert G Palifka

Yong Zhou

Diane Mackay

David Adams-Brady

Peter Wallis

Stephen C Mackay

Linda T Creagh

Jack B MacDonald

Jeffrey B Brooks

Jaan Thomas Laaspere

Bruce A Paulson

Dean H Cranston

Jill Ann Hanson

Robert L Wells, Jr

Mark S Noyes

Jaan Laspere

Frank W Martines

Paul Beliveau

Marlene M Mcdonald

Jr Wells Robert L

Jr Spehrley Charles W

A single-pass print head has multiple orifice plates each serving some but not all of the area to be printed.

Single-pass inkjet printing

A piezoelectric ink jet printing module has a semiconductive material on a surface of a piezoelectric element of the module.

Piezoelectric ink jet printing module

In the embodiments of the simplified ink jet head described in the specification, a carbon body is formed with ink passages, such as internal passages extending through a carbon plate, pressure chambers on one side of a carbon plate, flow-through passages on the other side of the same plate and ink supply passages, and a piezoelectric plate is affixed to the pressure chamber side of the carbon plate by a thin layer of epoxy adhesive. The piezoelectric plate may have a conductive coating on one side which is photo-etched to produce an electrode pattern corresponding to the pattern of the pressure chambers in the carbon plate. An orifice plate may have specially profiled orifice openings to assure axial projection of drops and may be affixed by a thin layer of epoxy adhesive to a carbon plate having orifice passages supplying ink from the pressure chambers to the orifices. Since the carbon plate is conductive, it can be used, if desired, as an electrode on the opposite side of the piezoelectric plate and, to assure grounding of the piezoelectric plate, a conductive epoxy adhesive may be used to bond the piezoelectric plate to the carbon plate. Moreover, since the carbon plate is porous, it can provide a communication path between a vacuum source and an air-permeable, ink-impermeable layer on the ink passages to remove dissolved air from the ink in the passages. In one alternative embodiment, an ink jet head assembly contains two separate carbon pressure chamber plates, a carbon manifold plate and a carbon collar to retain the carbon plates in an assembly.

Ink jet head containing a carbon member

A print head has an array of ink orifices arranged to selectively deposit drops of ink along parallel print lines on the medium while the medium and the print head undergo relative motion in a printing direction parallel to the print lines, the printing being completed in a single pass of the print head relative the medium. The orifices in the array are arranged in a pattern such that adjacent parallel print lines on the medium are served by orifices that have different positions in the array along the direction of the print lines. The different positions of the orifices that serve any pair of adjacent parallel lines are separated by no less than a first predetermined distance along the direction of the print lines.

A single-pass print head has multiple orifice plates each serving some but not all of the area to be printed. In embodiments, the printhead includes an array of ink jet outlets sufficient to cover a target of a print substrate at a predetermined resolution, and orifice plates, each of the orifice plates having orifices, each of the orifice plates serving some but not all of the area to be printed. The orifices are arranged in a pattern such that adjacent parallel lines on the print medium are served by orifices that have different positions in the array along the direction of the print lines, that are separated by a distance that is at least an order of magnitude greater than the distance between adjacent orifices in a direction perpendicular to the print line direction.

In the embodiments of the simplified ink jet head described in the specification, a carbon body is formed with ink passages, such as internal passages extending through a carbon plate, pressure chambers on one side of a carbon plate, flowthrough passages on the other side of the same plate and ink supply passages, and a piezoelectric plate is affixed to the pressure chamber side of the carbon plate by a thin layer of epoxy adhesive. In one alternative embodiment, an ink jet head assembly contains two separate carbon pressure chamber plates, a carbon manifold plate and a carbon collar to retain the carbon plates in an assembly.

Simplified ink jet head

A method of single pass printing, a single pass ink jet print head has an array of ink jet orifices arranged transversely to a substrate which moves relative to the print head during printing. A pump supplies ink from an ink reservoir to the print head. UV curable ink is provided in the reservoir. The UV curable ink is jetted through the orifices to print on the substrate. The UV-curable ink is circulated through the print head when jetting and when not jetting.

In the ink jet printing system described in the specification, a hot melt ink jet printhead having two ink reservoirs is coupled through an ink supply line to a remote hot melt ink supply and a temperature controller is arranged to control the temperatures of the ink in the remote ink supply, the supply line, the ink reservoirs in the printhead and passages leading from the reservoirs to the ink jet orifices at selected temperature levels to inhibit high-temperature degradation of the ink while permitting the ink to be jetted at the desired jetting temperature. In addition, a pressure control system controls the pressure of the ink in the printhead at one or more selected levels to permit the printhead to be used at different orientations and to permit purging of air bubbles and contaminants from the orifice passageways and to supply a relatively high vacuum to a deaerator in the printhead to extract dissolved air from the ink. A check valve in the ink supply line permits the printhead to be positioned at different elevations with respect to the remote ink supply without causing any undesired flow of ink between the reservoir and the printhead.

Ink jet printing system

A single pass ink jet printer includes a plurality of ink jet modules arranged in adjacent rows extending across the width of the surface of an object which is moved with respect to the printer. The modules are mounted on and joined to a manifold which is mounted in a support frame. Ink is supplied to the manifold through an opening in the frame and the manifold distributes the ink to corresponding openings in the ink jet modules where it is directed to arrays of ink pressure chambers and to an outlet which communicates with a corresponding return passage in the manifold leading back to the ink supply. As a result, ink is circulated continuously through all of the ink jet modules, thereby maintaining pigment in suspension in a pigmented ink. An ink supply is removably connected to the printhead through quick-disconnect couplings and, to prevent contamination of the ink in the printhead, filters are provided in the ink supply and at the inlet to the printhead. An additional filter, designed to trap only those particles which would block the orifices in the orifice plate, is positioned between the ink jet modules and the orifice plate.

Single pass ink jet printer with offset ink jet modules

In the ink jet head described in the specification, a reservoir body contains three ink reservoirs and a vacuum reservoir and a cover plate at the front of the reservoir body provides passages to supply ink from the ink reservoirs to an ink jet array from which ink is selectively ejected in response to electrical signals. Air-permeable, ink-impermeable membranes in a lung plate adjacent to the cover plate provide one wall of the ink passages, and the opposite sides of the membranes communicate with the vacuum reservoir. The reservoir body is made of a heat-conductive material and is removably received in an insulating housing containing a cartridge heater which supplies heat to the bottom of the reservoir body.

Efficient ink jet head arrangement

In the simplified ink jet head described in the specification, a tubular member made of air-permeable, ink-permeable material which is closed at one end and connected at the other end to a source of subatmospheric pressure is inserted into an ink passage in the ink jet head to extract dissolved air through the material of the tubular member from a surrounding body of ink in the ink passage.

Deaerator for simplified ink jet head

Growing community of inventors

South Strafford, VT, United States of America

Nathan P Hine