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. 19, 2001
Filed:
Jan. 15, 1998
Alan Shibata, Camas, WA (US);
Catherine Rotering, Vancouver, WA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A storage and spittoon system is provided for an inkjet printing mechanism to handle waste inkjet ink that has been spit from an inkjet printhead during a nozzle clearing, purging or “spitting” routine. A rotating spit wheel has a rim with a concave cross sectional shape which receives ink residue spit from the printhead. A compliant scraper is spring biased to contact the spit wheel rim at a substantially tangential orientation to scrape the ink residue from the rim as the wheel is rotated past the scraper. The scraper directs the ink residue into a storage container as a string-like strip which is then packed to into a storage container as the spit wheel rotates. A method of purging ink residue from an inkjet printhead, along with an inkjet printing mechanism having such a waste ink storage and spittoon system, are also provided.