Xerox Corporation

Tektronix, Inc.

Other

Palo Alto Research Center Inc.

Sharon S Berger

Ronald F Burr

Jonathan Robert Brick

Richard Schmachtenberg, Iii

John Richard Andrews

Terrance Lee Stephens

Dan Leo Massopust

Donald B Maclane

David W Hanks

David A Tence

William H Tomison

Jim Stevenson

Peter Johan Nystrom

Karl Anthony Littau

Steven A Buhler

Cathie J Burke

David Paul Platt

Scott Eugene Solberg

Brian Edward Sonnichsen

John S Moore

Jeffrey J Anderson

Chad Johan Slenes

Michael C Weisberg

Scott Jong Ho Limb

James Dudley Padgett

Nasser Alavizadeh

Michael Yu Tak Young

Meade M Neal

Beverly Russo

Thomas Long

Timothy Trang

Chad Johan Stenes

Andrey S Kim

Richard Schmachtenberg Iii

An inkjet external ink manifold is provided that allows for use of a jet stack that does not internally contain ink manifolds. The external ink manifold has a manifold body that includes one or more ink manifold chambers and includes ports arranged to connect the chambers to one or more ink reservoirs. The external ink manifold further includes an adhesive layer overlying and sealing the ink manifold chambers. The adhesive layer includes a plurality of ports arranged to connect the external ink manifold chambers to the jet stack.

Injet jet stack external manifold

A drop emitting device that includes a drop generator, a drive signal including a plurality of fire intervals applied to the drop generator, wherein the drive signal includes in each fire interval a bi-polar drop firing waveform or a time varying non-firing waveform.

Ink jet apparatus

A printhead reservoir assembly has at least one reservoir to hold ink. The assembly includes an outlet plate having siphon vents to allow air to exit an ink path, a manifold plate having at least one manifold to channel ink and manifold outlets to corresponding to the siphon vents, a jet stack having an array of jets to transfer ink out of the printhead reservoir assembly to a printing substrate and jet stack outlets corresponding to the siphon vents, and a circuit board between the jet stack and the manifold plate to operate the jet stack, the circuit board having outlets corresponding to the siphon vents.

Printhead reservoir with siphon vents

Inkjet jet stack external manifold

A liquid drop ejector comprising a jet stack, thin film or thick film heaters formed on the surface of the jet stack, and at least one thin film or thick film temperature sensor operative to provide feedback temperature control for the thin film or thick film heater elements is provided. In one form, the liquid drop ejector also has the thin film or thick film heater elements grouped in segments that are operative to be individually controlled. In addition, in another form, the signal lines provided to the liquid drop ejector are patterned to allow for more uniform resistance over the span of the liquid drop ejector.

Thin film and thick film heater and control architecture for a liquid drop ejector

A container including a first tank for receiving a liquid, a second tank that is selectively pressurizable, a check valve for permitting fluid flow from the first tank to the second tank, and a manifold structure having a first port fluidically coupled to the first tank and a second port fluidically coupled to the second tank.

An ink jet array print head (101) includes four media-width linear ink jet arrays (100). Ink flows from four sets of manifolds (106) through acoustically matched inlet filters (116), inlet ports (117), inlet channels (118), pressure chamber ports (120), and ink pressure chambers (122). Ink leaves the pressure chambers through outlet ports (124) and flows through oval outlet channels (128) to orifices (108), from which ink drops (110) are ejected. The ink pressure chambers are bounded by flexible diaphragms (130) to which piezo-ceramic transducers (132) are bonded. To minimize inter-jet cross-talk caused by pressure fluctuations in the manifolds, compliant walls (150) form one wall along the entire length of each manifold. An improved ink feed system (210) supplies four colors of ink to the print head. Phase-change inks are melted and deposited in ink catch basins (202), funneled into ink storage reservoirs (204), and fed to the print head through ink stack feeds (206) having substantially equal lengths and cross-sectional areas to improve jetting uniformity. Manifold tapering, inlet port positioning, and an elevationally upward slope of the ink stack feeds enhances purgeability of the ink feed system and the ink jet print head.

High-performance ink jet print head having an improved ink feed system

An ink jet array print head (101) includes four media-width linear ink jet arrays (100). Ink flows from four sets of manifolds (106) through acoustically matched inlet filters (116), inlet ports (117), inlet channels (118), pressure chamber ports (120), and ink pressure chambers (122). Ink leaves the pressure chambers through outlet ports (124) and flows through oval outlet channels (128) to orifices (108), from which ink drops (110) are ejected. The ink pressure chambers are bounded by flexible diaphragms (130) to which piezo-ceramic transducers (132) are bonded. To minimize inter-jet cross-talk caused by pressure fluctuations in the manifolds, compliant walls (150) form one wall along the entire length of each manifold. An ink feed system (200) supplies four colors of ink to the print head. Phase-change inks are melted and deposited in ink catch basins (202), funneled into ink storage reservoirs (204), and fed to the-print head through ink stack feeds (206). Manifold tapering, inlet port positioning, and an elevationally upward slope of the ink stack feeds enhances purgability of the ink feed system and the ink jet print head.

High-performance ink jet print head

An ink jet (10, 200) provides high-resolution gray scale printing or switchable resolution printing by providing PZT drive waveforms (100, 110, 120, 360, 370), each having a spectral energy distribution that excites a modal resonance of ink in an ink jet print head orifice (14, 208). By selecting the particular drive waveform with selectable energy inputs that concentrates spectral energy at frequencies associated with a desired oscillation mode and that suppresses energy at the other oscillation modes, an ink drop (170, 180, 190, 210) is ejected that has a diameter proportional to a center excursion size of the selected meniscus surface oscillation mode. The center excursion size of high order oscillation modes is substantially smaller than the orifice diameter, thereby causing ejection of ink drops smaller than the orifice diameter. Conventional orifice manufacturing techniques may be used because a specific orifice diameter is not required. Jetting reliability and contaminant susceptibility are, thereby, improved by eliminating the need for an unconventionally small orifice. Changing a selected PZT drive waveform amplitude changes drop ejection velocity without substantially changing drop volume. This invention, therefore, provides for selection of ejected ink drop volumes having substantially the same ejection velocity over a wide range of drop ejection repetition rates.

Method and apparatus for producing dot size modulated ink jet printing

A particulate filter (16) is provided within an inlet channel (22) of an ink jet (14). The filter is oriented generally in the direction of ink flow to provide a greater filter surface area. Positioning the filter within the inlet channel results in reduced acoustic crosstalk, more effective filtering, and more efficient purging of the filter itself because of the relatively high ink pressure drop across the filter in the channel. Positioning the channel vertically assists the buoyancy of the bubble movement during operation and purging.

Ink jet head with channel filter

Growing community of inventors

Canby, OR, United States of America

Sharon S Berger