Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd

Zamtec Limited

Memjet Technology Limited

Paul Justin Reichl

Samuel George Mallinson

Kia Silverbrook

Brian Robert Brown

Akira Nakazawa

Garry Raymond Jackson

Christopher Hibbard

John Douglas Peter Morgan

Michael John Hudson

Paul Timothy Sharp

Norman Micheal Berry

Angus John North

Jennifer Mia Fishburn

Roger Mervyn Lloyd Foote

Paul David Lunsmann

Matthew Stewart Walker

Mehdi Azimi

Frederik Jacobus Crous

Channarayapatna Shankar Lakshmi

Gregory John McAvoy

Samuel James Myers

Alexandra Artemis Papadakis

Norman Michael Berry

Glenn Horrocks

Philip Palma

Nagesh Ramachandra

Glenn David Horrocks

Frederik Jacobus Clous

Lakshmi Channarayapatna Shankar

Aidan Patrick O'Mahony

Jeffrey John Miller

David Secker

Roger Mervyn Foote

Lakshmi Cs

Gregory John Mcavoy

John Douglas Morgan

Lakshmi CS

An inkjet nozzle device includes: a nozzle chamber having a floor, a roof and perimeter sidewalls extending between the floor and the roof, wherein a nozzle aperture is defined in the roof; a heating element for generating gas bubbles in the nozzle chamber so as to eject ink through the nozzle aperture, wherein a centroid of the heating element is aligned with a centroid of the nozzle aperture; and a pair of chamber inlets defined in the floor of the nozzle chamber, the chamber inlets being symmetrically disposed about the centroid of the heating element. The inkjet nozzle device has a pair of orthogonal symmetry planes passing through the centroid of the nozzle aperture.

Inkjet nozzle device having dual chamber inlets and twofold symmetry

An inkjet nozzle assembly includes a nozzle chamber having a planar roof spaced apart from a floor. A heater element is suspended in the nozzle chamber and is configured as a planar beam extending longitudinally and parallel with a plane of the roof. A nozzle aperture defined in the roof has a centroid offset from a longitudinal centroid of the planar beam.

Inkjet nozzle assembly having suspended beam heater element offset from nozzle aperture

A detachable fluid coupling for connecting an inkjet printhead with an ink supply, the detachable coupling having a fixed valve member defining a valve seat, a sealing collar () for sealing engagement with the valve seat (), a resilient sleeve () having one annular end fixed relative to the fixed valve member (), and the other annular end engaging the sealing collar to bias it into sealing engagement with the valve seat. The coupling also having a conduit opening () that is movable relative to the fixed valve member for engaging the sealing collar () to unseal it from the valve seat. Unsealing the sealing collar from the valve seat compresses the resilient sleeve () such that an intermediate section of the sleeve displaces outwardly relative to the annular ends. With a resilient sleeve that buckles or folds outwardly, the diameter of the coupling is smaller that the conventional couplings that use an annular resilient element that biases the valve shut remaining residual tension. With a smaller outer diameter, the couplings for all the different ink colors can be positioned in a smaller more compact interface.

Detachable fluid coupling for inkjet printer

A structure for an inkjet printhead is disclosed. The printhead structure has an elongate support structure for supporting a printhead integrated circuit, and ink conduits formed in the elongate support structure for supplying ink to an array of nozzles of the printhead integrated circuit. Each ink conduit includes cavities distributed along a roof of the ink conduit. An opening to each cavity has an upstream edge and a downstream edge. The upstream edge contacts the ink before the downstream edge during initial priming of the ink conduits from an ink supply. The upstream edge has a transition face between the ink conduit and the cavity interior, the transition face being configured to inhibit ink from filling the cavity by capillary action during initial priming of the ink conduit. This causes gas to be trapped within the cavity. The gas acts to compress pressure pulses in the ink.

Printhead support structure with cavities for pulse damping

An inkjet printer that has a printhead with a nozzle array for ejecting droplets of ink onto a media substrate, a media feed assembly for feeding media passed the printhead in a media feed direction such that the nozzle array and the media substrate are separated by a print gap and, an air flow generation mechanism for generating an air flow in the print gap opposite to the media feed direction.

Printer with reduced vortex oscillation in print gap

An inkjet nozzle assembly has a chamber with a nozzle opening for ejecting a liquid, a heater element disposed in the chamber, and a dielectric layer sandwiched between the heater element and a wall of the chamber. The dielectric layer has a thermal product of less than 1495 JmKs. The thermal product is defined as (&#x3c1;Ck), where &#x3c1; is the density of the layer, C is specific heat of the layer and k is thermal conductivity of the layer.

Inkjet nozzle assembly having heater element bonded to chamber wall via dielectric layer

A printhead for an inkjet printer that has a printhead integrated circuit with nozzles for ejecting ink, and a support structure for supporting the printhead IC. The support structure has ink conduits for supplying the nozzles with ink and a fluidic damper containing gas for compression by pressure pulses in the ink within the ink conduits to dissipate the pressure pulse. Damping pressure pulses using gas compression can be achieved with small volumes of gas. This preserves a compact design while avoiding any nozzle flooding from transient spikes in the ink pressure.

Fluidically damped printhead

A printhead for an inkjet printer is disclosed. The printhead has one or more a printhead integrated circuits (ICs) with an array of nozzles for ejecting ink. A support structure of the printhead supports the printhead ICs. The support structure has ink conduits for supplying the array of nozzles with ink. Each ink conduit includes cavities distributed along a roof of the ink conduit. An opening to each respective cavity has an upstream edge and a downstream edge. The upstream edge contacts the ink before the downstream edge during initial priming of the ink conduits from an ink supply. The upstream edge has a transition face between the ink conduit and the cavity interior. The transition face is configured to inhibit ink from filling the cavity by capillary action during initial priming of the ink conduit. This causes gas to be trapped within the cavity. The gas acts to compress pressure pulses in the ink.

An inkjet printer includes a printhead having a plurality of ink chambers fed be an ink inlet, each ink chamber having a heater element for ejecting drops of ink from a nozzle aperture of each chamber; a plurality of pressure pulse diffusing structure positioned between the plurality of ink chambers fed by the ink inlet, the plurality of pressure pulse diffusing structures for retarding a propagation of pressure waves generated by each ink chamber to adjacent ink chambers; and a controller for receiving print data and generating drive pulses to energize the heater elements in accordance with the print data. The controller increases the drive pulse energy during the printhead lifetime such that the drive pulse energy is never less than that of a preceding drive pulse.

Printhead incorporating pressure pulse diffusing structures between ink chambers supplied by same ink inlet

A printhead is provided for an inkjet printer that has a print engine controller for receiving print data and sending it to the printhead. The printhead has a printhead IC for ejecting ink and a support structure for mounting the printhead IC in the printer adjacent a paper path. The printhead IC is mounted on a face of the support structure that, in use, faces the paper path. A flexible printed circuit board (flex PCB) that has contacts for receiving print data mounted to the support structure on a face that does not face the paper path. The bent section reduces the likelihood of trace cracking by holding the flex PCB at a set radius rather than allowing the flex to follow an irregular curve and thereby risking localized points of high stress on the traces.

Printhead with flex PCB bent between contacts and printhead IC

An inkjet printer that has a printhead with an array of ejection devices for ejecting drops of liquid onto a media substrate. Each of the ejection devices having a chamber for holding liquid, a nozzle in fluid communication with the chamber and a heater positioned in the chamber for contact with the liquid such that resistive heating of the heater generates a vapor bubble that ejects a drop of the liquid through the nozzle. The printer also has a controller for receiving print data and generating drive pulses to energize the heaters in accordance with the print data. The controller increases the drive pulse energy during the printhead lifetime.

Printhead with increasing drive pulse to counter heater oxide growth

A MEMS vapor bubble generator includes a chamber for holding liquid; and a heater positioned in the chamber, the heater being formed using a sputtering technique. The heater is formed from a superalloy material. The superalloy material of the heater is in direct contact with the liquid, without any intervening protective coating. The superalloy has a crystalline structure with a grain size less than 100 nano-meters. The superalloy is MCrAlX, where M is one or more of Ni, Co, Fe with M contributing at least 50% by weight, Cr contributing between 8% and 35% by weight, Al contributing more than zero but less than 8% by weight, and X contributing less than 25% by weight, with X consisting of zero or more other elements, preferably including but not limited to Mo, Re, Ru, Ti, Ta, V, W, Nb, Zr, B, C, Si, Y, Hf.

MEMS bubble generator incorporating superalloy heater in direct contact with bubble formation liquid without intervening protective coating

An inkjet printhead is provided having nozzles, bubble forming chambers containing ejectable ink, generally planar heater elements each bonded on one side to an associated chamber so that the other side faces into the chamber, a MEMS fluid sensor having a MEMS sensing element for detecting the presence or otherwise of the ejectable ink in the chamber, and control circuitry for measuring the current passing through the sensing element during its heating. The heater elements receive heating pulses to form gas bubbles in the ejectable ink on the side facing into the chamber which cause ink ejection from the nozzle. Each chamber has a dielectric layer proximate the side of the heater element which has a thermal product less than 1495 JmKs, the thermal product being (&#x3c1;Ck), where &#x3c1; is the density of the layer, C is specific heat of the layer and k is thermal conductivity of the layer.

Inkjet printhead having MEMS sensors for directionally heated ink ejection

A printhead for an inkjet printer that has a printhead integrated circuit () with nozzles for ejecting ink and a support structure () for supporting the printhead IC. The support structure having ink conduits () for supplying the array of nozzles. A plurality of cavities (), each cavity having an opening that establishes fluid communication with the ink conduits, the openings being configured such that the cavities do not prime with ink when the ink conduits are primed from the ink supply. By leaving unprimed cavities throughout the support structure, any pressure pulses in the ink are damped by compression of the trapped gas pockets. Distributing the cavities rather than using one relatively large cavity, means that the pressure pulse is being damped along the length of the printhead IC, instead of allowing the pulse to travel the length of the ink conduit until it reaches the single damper and compresses the gas.

Printhead with non-priming cavities for pulse damping

A printhead for an inkjet printer that has a printhead integrated circuit (IC) with an array of nozzles for ejecting ink, and a support structure for mounting the printhead IC within the printer. The support structure has ink conduits for supplying the array of nozzles with ink, the ink conduits have a meniscus anchor for pinning part of an advancing meniscus of ink to divert the advancing meniscus from a path the advancing meniscus would otherwise take. If a printhead consistently fails to prime correctly because a meniscus pins at one or more points, then the advancing meniscus can be directed so that the advancing meniscus does not contact these critical points. Deliberately incorporating a discontinuity into an ink conduit immediately upstream of the problem area can temporarily pin to the meniscus and skew the meniscus to one side of the conduit and away from the undesirable pinning point. Once flow has been initiated into the side branch or downstream of the undesirable pinning point, it is not necessary for the anchor to hold the ink meniscus any longer and priming can continue.

Growing community of inventors

Balmain, Australia

Paul Justin Reichl