Eastman-kodak Company

Yung-Rai R Lee

Gilbert Allan Hawkins

Ravi Sharma

John Andrew Lebens

Christopher Newell Delametter

Constantine N Anagnostopoulos

James Michael Chwalek

Thomas L Penner

John R Debesis

Ram Kannegundla

Zhihao Yang

Charles F Faisst

Lionel J D'Luna

Walter S Stevens

Edwin A Mycek

Larry L Lapa

Alfred J Amell

An inkjet printing apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes a source of ink and a printhead. The printhead includes an end nozzle and a second nozzle adjacent to the end nozzle. A portion of the printhead is shaped to balance forces acting on the ink ejected from the end nozzle.

Apparatus and method of balancing end jet forces in an ink jet printing system

Drop-on-demand ink jet printer capable of directional control of ink drop ejection and method of assembling the method. The method comprises a print head body having an ink ejection orifice adapted to poise an ink meniscus thereat about a center axis passing through the orifice. A deflector is coupled to the print head body and is adapted to be in communication with the poised meniscus for lowering surface tension of a region of the poised meniscus. The poised meniscus deflects away from the region of lower surface tension and away from the center axis to define a deflected meniscus, whereby an ink drop separated from the deflected meniscus travels at an angle with respect to the center axis, so that the ink drop can strike a receiver at any one of a plurality of predetermined locations on a print line.

Drop-on-demand ink jet printer capable of directional control of ink drop ejection and method of assembling the printer

An improved diaphragm ( ) for drop on demand ink jet print heads and method for manufacturing the same. The present diaphragm ( ) includes a support element ( ) defining at least a portion of a chamber ( ) for holding ink, the support element ( ) defining an opening ( ) adjacent to the chamber ( ), and the diaphragm ( ) being electroformed on a surface ( ) of the support element ( ) around the opening ( ) at least substantially covering the opening ( ) and enclosing the chamber ( ). The diaphragm ( ) preferably has a central region ( ) disposed generally centrally over the opening ( ) and a bellows ( ) surrounds the central region ( ). The central region ( ) of the electroformed diaphragm ( ) is disposed in contact with a piezoelectric transducer ( ) for effecting reciprocal movement of the diaphragm ( ) for alternately contracting and expanding the volume of the ink holding chamber ( ), producing uniform pressure or acoustic waves through ink contained in the chamber ( ) whereby ink menisci in nozzles of a print head in communication with the chamber ( ) are uniformly oscillated.

Electroformed metal diaphragm

A method for treating a metallic oxide or metallic nitride ink jet printhead nozzle plate comprising stamping the front surface thereof with an anti-wetting agent using an elastomeric stamp.

Coating of printhead nozzle plate

A printer and method for printing indicia on a disk. According to an embodiment of the invention, a printer comprises a plurality of elongate print heads arranged orthogonally with respect to each other about a center axis defined between the print heads. The print heads are capable of printing indicia on a disk having an annular printing area. The disk may be a recordable compact disk or a read-only memory compact disk, if desired. The print heads may be coupled to a rotatable hub centered at the center axis, such that the print heads extend radially outwardly from the hub. A motor is coupled to the hub for rotating the hub, so that the print heads rotate in unison about the center axis as the hub rotates. A controller coupled to the motor and print heads synchronously control operation of the motor and print heads. In this configuration of the invention, the print heads rotate while the disk is stationary.

Printer and method for printing indicia on a compact disk using a plurality of ink jet or laser rotatable print heads

A system architecture is provided that includes an image sensor unit operable in a single channel mode and a dual channel mode. The image sensor unit includes an electronic image sensor comprising a row and column array of pixel elements, wherein the rows of the array having a line length of N pixels. First and second digital signal processing units for processing image data generated by the image sensor unit into color component image data are provided, wherein each of said first and second digital signal processing units has a line length processing capacity less than N pixels. An input buffer, coupled between outputs of the image sensor unit and inputs to the digital signal processing units, simultaneously receives two lines of image data from the image sensor unit in the dual channel mode of operation, and sequentially supplies a first portion of each of the simultaneously received image lines to the first digital signal processing unit and a second portion of each of the simultaneously received image lines to the second digital signal processing unit. An output buffer, coupled to the output of the first and second digital signal processing units, combines the color component image data generated by the first and second digital signal processing units into color component image lines of length N pixels. A control unit controls the operation of the image sensor unit, the input buffer, the first and second digital signal processing units, and the output buffer. A frame store receives and stores the color component image lines generated by the output buffer, and a monitor displays the image lines at a frame rate that is about twice the operating frame rate of the image sensor unit.

Image processor with input buffering to multiple digital signal

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Pittsford, NY, United States of America

Yung-Rai R Lee