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:
Aug. 24, 1999
Filed:
Dec. 07, 1995
Karai P Premnath, Rochester, NY (US);
Xerox Corporation, Stamford, CT (US);
Abstract
A maintenance station of an ink jet printer includes a blade cleaning station wherein a wiper blade assembly provides independent cleaning of different portions of the front nozzle face of a multi-segment ink jet printhead. In one embodiment, a printer includes a color printhead which contains recording groups of nozzles, each group associated with printing of a different colored ink. Each color group is separated by a non-recording boundary sector. To prevent color mixing during a printhead face wiping operation, a blade assembly is formed with separate blade segments which provide separate wiping actions to each recording segment without mixing adjacent wiped colors. In one embodiment, two blades are staggered in a wipe direction. Each blade has furrows formed along its length to coincide with the non-recording segments of a printhead face. Each blade cleans two non-adjacent recording segments, while the total wiping action is accomplished without mixing of ink into the nozzles of adjacent groups. In another embodiment, a single wiper blade is used with notches formed along its length corresponding to the non-recording printhead segments. A single wiping action is accomplished without excess ink being wiped into the non-recording sections.