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:
Jan. 18, 2000
Filed:
Apr. 01, 1998
John A Barinaga, Portland, OR (US);
James E Clark, Albany, OR (US);
David O Merrill, Corvallis, OR (US);
Ngoc-Diep Nguyen, Camas, WA (US);
David R Otis, Jr, Corvallis, OR (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
One aspect of the present invention is a removable ink supply for forming a fluid connection with a fluid inlet of an ink-jet printer into which the ink supply can be installed. The ink-jet printer has a fluid conduit for supplying liquid ink to an ink-jet printhead. The removable ink supply includes a quantity of liquid ink and a fluid outlet. The fluid outlet includes (i) a hollow boss having a first end in fluid communication with the quantity of liquid ink, a neck formed in a second end of the boss, the neck defining a scaling surface and an opening; (ii) a sealing member positioned within the boss, the sealing member being movable between a first position in which the sealing member seals the opening and a second position in which liquid ink can flow through the boss opening; and (iii) a biasing structure for biasing the sealing member toward the first position. The ink supply is adapted for installation in the fluid inlet of the ink-jet printer. Upon installation the sealing member is engaged and displaced from the first position to the second position such that the sealing surface engages against a structure of the fluid inlet to create an ink seal.