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:
Jun. 30, 1998
Filed:
Oct. 25, 1996
Todd R Medin, Vancouver, WA (US);
Richard A Becker, San Diego, CA (US);
Brent W Richtsmeier, San Diego, CA (US);
William D Meyer, Ramona, CA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
An ink-jet printer having a dual drying system. A print heater is disposed at the print zone for heating a portion of the print medium during printing operations to dry ink ejected onto the medium. The printer has means for drying the print medium at a drying location before the medium reaches the print zone to prevent uneven shrinkage of a cellulose-based print medium due to heating the medium at the print zone. The print heater can be controlled to provide a higher temperature at the print zone than the drying means provides at the drying location. The printer provides the capability of independent control of said drying means and said print heater. A method is described for detecting a transparent medium being advanced to a print zone of an ink-jet printer capable of supporting printing operations on a transparent medium as well as an opaque medium, including: providing a sheet of transparent print medium having an opaque strip extending along a leading edge thereof, wherein a reflectivity of the strip is substantially higher than a reflectivity of the transparent print medium; advancing an opaque or transparent print medium along a medium path toward the print zone; and determining whether a print medium being advanced to the print zone is an opaque type or a transparent type by sensing the presence of the opaque strip on said transparent medium.