International Business Machines Corporation

Van Clifton Martin

Sidney Jared Fox

Gregory Lawrence Ream

Gary L Fillmore

Danny Allen Van Hook

In a multinozzle ink jet printing system, a closed loop servo system drives the drop generator so that the distance between the streams at which ink droplets are detached is maintained at an optimum range. One or more sensors are positioned downstream from the multinozzle plate of the ink jet printing system. The sensors sense the flight time of ink droplets and output signals which are developed into a variable voltage for controlling the drop generator.

Break-off uniformity maintenance

Multiple-resolution, interlace, ink-jet printing is accomplished pseudo a single array with multiple nozzles by assuming a psuedo pel (picture element) spacing k' between the nozzles. The ratio between the old resolution and the new resolution is k'/k where k is the actual pel spacing between the nozzles. The print-data must be processed and the print head moved based on the pseudo pel spacing k'. The array of nozzles will still print in an interlace manner so long as k' and Nt (the total number of ink jet nozzles used) have no common factor.

Variable resolution, single array, interlace ink jet printer

An ink jet printer has a rotating drum supporting a medium to receive ink drops from ink jet nozzles arranged in first and second sets of multiple linear arrays about the circumference of the drum. Both the first set of arrays, which are equally angularly spaced from each other in the arc in which they are mounted, and the second set of arrays, which are equally angularly spaced from each other about the entire circumference of the drum, are moved axially simultaneously along the drum. By altering at least two of the velocity of the rotating drum, the transport velocity of the moving arrays, and the drop rate, facsimile resolutions can be printed by the second set of arrays. The printer also is capable of printing at a higher resolution than any of the facsimile resolutions through use of the first set of arrays. In either the higher resolution or any facsimile resolution, there is interlacing of the tracks produced by the drops from the selected nozzles. If only one of the nozzles of each of the second set of arrays is selected, any detected facsimile resolution can be printed whereas the use of a plurality of the nozzles in each array of the second set of arrays enables only one detected facsimile resolution to be printed.

Ink jet printer for selectively printing different resolutions

An ink jet printer which includes data storage and which prints with multiple jets in an interlace fashion on paper supported on a rotating drum is provided with a bidirectional ink jet transport for moving axially along the drum. A gating arrangement is provided for gating the stored data to printing controls for the multiple jets in a first order upon the transport moving in a first axial direction and for gating the stored data to the printing controls in a second order upon the transport moving in the opposite axial direction.

Bidirectional ink jet printer with moving record receiver

An ink jet copier is provided with a document scanner which scans a document to be copied one line at a time producing non-coded binary data. The binary data is inserted in storage in a predetermined arrangement. Stored data is removed from selected predetermined locations in accordance with an algorithm and applied to a plurality of ink jet nozzles arranged in multiple linear arrays about the circumference of a rotating paper drum. The data signals selectively applied to the ink jet printers control the deposition of ink on the paper supported on the rotating drum to cause the reproduction of the original scanned image on a predetermined interlaced basis.

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Boulder, CO, United States of America

Van Clifton Martin