The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 06, 1997
Filed:
Oct. 13, 1994
David G Anderson, Ontario, NY (US);
Alfred J Claflin, Ontario, NY (US);
Fred F Hubble, III, Rochester, NY (US);
James P Martin, Rochester, NY (US);
Xerox Corporation, Stamford, CT (US);
Abstract
A maintenance system for an ink jet printer of the type having a full width array printhead has a movable carriage with a droplet sensor and a nozzle recovery device. As the carriage moves along the length of the printhead, each nozzle checked, one at a time, by the droplet sensor for the presence or absence of an ejected droplet and if the droplet has the correct directionality. Any problem nozzle is identified during a single traversal of the carriage across the printhead, and during a second traversal, the identified problem nozzles have a recovery operation performed on them such as being cleaned to remove any dried ink or other contaminating particles or being primed in the case of a clogged nozzle. The problem nozzles which have had a recovery operation performed on them and checked again by the droplet sensor is required for the entire array of nozzles, and ink is conserved since only predetermined nozzles are printed.