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:
Dec. 14, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 08, 1994
William H Schwiebert, Cardiff, CA (US);
Gerold G Firl, Poway, CA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A service station for use with an inkjet printer is described. The service station includes a sled that is mounted to the printer's chassis. Caps and wipers can be mounted on the sled for each of the printer's movable carriage-mounted printheads. The sled and the chassis, and the sled and carriage, are each cam-coupled so that movement of the carriage produces slight vertical and lateral movement of the sled out of a nominal position to automatically place the sled in one of three primary positions relative to the carriage: an elevated position for capping the printheads, an intermediate position for wiping the printheads and a lowered position for free reciprocal movement of the carriage without interference between the printheads and either the caps or the wipers. A wiper structure according to the invention includes a pre-loaded spring and wiper blades made of a relatively stiff material so that the wiper blade angle of attack is maintained close to 90.degree., resulting in good wiping of the printheads. The spring can have a low spring constant so that good control of wiping forces is maintained. The wiper blades are made of an injection moldable material. For example, the wiper blades can be made of an injection moldable polymer such as olefin polymers or polyolefin alloys. In one particular embodiment, the wiper blades are made of a blend of polypropylene and polyethylene. Alternatively, the wiper blades can be made of an engineering thermoplastic elastomer (ETE).