Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Sean K Fitzsimons

William Edward Manchester

Stuart James Boland

Scott Richard Johnson

Casey Ethan Walker

Dilan Nirushan Fernando

Spencer Robert Wasilewski

David M Price

Carlton E Begeal

Ryan Warren Ransburg

Scott Johnson

Carl E Begeal

Socket tool for servicing fluid connectors. In one embodiment, a tool includes a body having a hollow recess at one end. The hollow recess has non-circular dimensions for rotating a head fitting of the fluid connector about an axis. The tool further includes a pin that mounts to a surface inside the hollow recess so that the pin is disposed in an axial direction along a center of the axis. The pin enters an aligned opening of a nozzle of the fluid connector and occupies a conduit space in the nozzle when the hollow recess is engaged with the head fitting of the fluid connector.

Socket tool for servicing fluid connectors

Systems and methods provide enhanced radiant drying capabilities for a printing system utilizing temperature control of a thermally conductive drum. One embodiment comprises a radiant dryer and a control system. The radiant dryer includes a thermally conductive drum and a plurality of radiant energy sources disposed along an outside surface of the drum. The energy sources dry a colorant applied to a print medium in contact with the drum. The radiant dryer further includes a cooling system that applies a coolant to the drum to remove heat from the drum. The control system measures the temperature of the drum, determines a difference between the temperature of the drum and a target temperature, and directs the cooling system to vary an application of the coolant to the drum based on the difference to maintain the drum at the target temperature.

Drum temperature control for a radiant dryer of a printing system

Systems and methods for connector for supplying fluid to a print system. One system is an apparatus that includes a fluid supply station of a printer with a connector to couple with a fluid source for supplying fluid to at least one printhead of the printer. The connector includes an interface having a body with an end surface that corresponds with a face of a nozzle of the fluid source. The connector also includes an inlet protruding from the end surface and configured to enter an opening of the nozzle for receiving the fluid from the fluid source. The connector further includes communication circuitry disposed on the end surface and configured to establish a connection with corresponding communication circuitry disposed on the face of the nozzle of the fluid source when the inlet enters the opening of the nozzle and the end surface and the nozzle face align.

Connector for supplying fluid to a print system

Systems and methods provide targeted cooling for portions of print media during a radiant drying process. One embodiment comprises a radiant dryer and a control system. The radiant dryer includes a radiant energy source within an interior of the radiant dryer that dries a colorant onto a continuous-form medium. The radiant dryer further includes a plurality of independently actuated cooling jets within the interior that apply a cooling gas to the medium. The control system determines regions on the medium where the colorant is at risk of overheating, and directs the cooling jets to apply the cooling gas to the regions.

Dynamic cooling of print media in a radiant dryer

Systems and methods are provided for balancing air flow in dryers of printing systems. The dryer includes a heating element, top flow generator, and bottom flow generator. The heating element is within the dryer, and heats a web of printed media. The top flow generator directly projects a first jet of gas onto a top side of the web. The first jet of gas deflects air proximate to the web. The bottom flow generator directly projects a second jet of gas onto an opposing side of the web. The second jet strikes the web at substantially the same location as the first jet, and compensates orthogonal force applied to the web by the first jet. Furthermore, the top and bottom flow generators are both oriented to project the jets partially in the direction of travel of the web.

Force-balancing gas flow in dryers for printing systems

Systems and methods are provided for dispersing a liquid coolant in a radiant dryer. The system comprises a dryer of a printing system. The dryer includes a heating element within an interior of the dryer that is able to heat a web of printed media as the web travels through the interior. The dryer also includes a liquid dispersal unit within the interior that is able to project liquid droplets of coolant onto the web as the web travels through the interior, in order to control the temperature of the web.

Liquid dispersal in radiant dryers for printing systems

Systems and methods for improving the quality analysis of printheads that apply transparent or hard-to-detect fluids to a media. The system includes a printhead operable to apply a clear fluid to a print media. The system also includes a controller operable to enter a diagnostic mode for quality analysis of the printhead. The controller initiates a supply of diagnostic fluid to the printhead that includes a colorant. The controller then directs the printhead to apply the diagnostic fluid to the print media. Because the diagnostic fluid includes a colorant, the output of the printhead will be more visible on the media.

Quality analysis of printheads with clear fluid

An apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus includes a fluid cartridge and a label stiffener applied to the fluid cartridge to provide stiffness to enable fluid within the fluid cartridge to empty under pressure.

Fluid cartridge label stiffener

Systems and methods are provided for cleaning wipers for printheads of a printing system. The system includes a cleaning mechanism for a wiper of a printing system. The cleaning mechanism includes a scraper able to scrape ink off of the wiper, and a suction device that is proximate to the scraper and is able to remove the ink from the scraper.

Wiper cleaning for printheads

Systems and methods are provided for generating flush lines that do not interfere with control marks for post-processing equipment. The system includes a print controller able to receive a print job and to insert printable control marks into the print job to direct the actions of post-processing equipment. The system also includes an ink flushing controller that can detect horizontal locations of the control marks along the width of the print job. Responsive to detecting the locations of the control marks, the ink flushing controller can generate flush lines for the print job that have altered optical densities at the horizontal locations.

Flush line generation in printing systems that utilize control marks

Systems and methods selectively remove flush drops from a plurality of ink drops ejected by a print engine when printing data for a print job. One embodiment comprises a control system of a printing system. The control system receives a flush pattern for flushing an ink jet print engine of the printing system, and receives a sheetside bitmap for printing to a print medium. The control system merges the flush pattern and the sheetside bitmap to generate a composite sheetside bitmap. The control system directs the print engine to eject a plurality of ink drops toward the print medium based on the composite sheetside bitmap, and identifies a subset of the ink drops based on the flush pattern. The control system then directs a drop deflection system of the printing system to selectively prevent the subset of ink drops from impinging the print medium.

Dynamic drop redirection for drop on demand printing

Systems and methods provide dynamic radiant drying for a print media by monitoring a temperature of a test patch of colorant during the drying process. One embodiment is a radiant dryer and a control system. The radiant dryer receives a media marked with a wet colorant that depicts a sheetside of print data and a test patch. The radiant dryer includes a radiant energy source that heats the colorant based on a heating power. The radiant dryer further includes a cooling system within the interior that applies a cooling gas to the medium. The control system obtains a temperature of the test patch, determines a difference between the temperature of the test patch and a target temperature, and varies the heating power and/or an application of the cooling gas based on the difference to normalize temperatures across the medium during a drying process.

Dynamic drying of print media in a radiant dryer

Systems and methods are provided for generating flush lines for printers. The system includes a flush line generator able to receive a print job, to determine a drying limit that defines a maximum areal density of ink for the print job that may be dried by a dryer, and to generate a flush line based on the drying limit that does not exceed the drying limit. The system further includes a marking engine able to mark the print job and the flush line onto a web of printable media upstream from the dryer.

Custom flush line generation in printing systems that utilize ink drying limits

Systems and methods are provided for inserting low temperature gas into dryers of printing systems. The system comprises a dryer, which includes a heating element and a flow generator. The heating element is within an interior of the dryer and is able to heat a web of printed media as the web travels through the interior. The flow generator is within the interior and is operable to directly project an impinging jet of gas along a width of the web that deflects heated air proximate to the web. The gas is cooler than the heated air.

Growing community of inventors

Thornton, CO, United States of America

Sean K Fitzsimons