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:
Jul. 30, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 05, 2001
Kevin R. Crystal, Chanhassan, MN (US);
Richard Joseph Bigaouette, Chaska, MN (US);
MacDermid Acumen, Inc., Waterbury, CT (US);
Abstract
The apparatus of the present invention increases the operating envelope for large format thermal ink jet printing via a directed fluid flow from specially-designed orifices which promote fluid flow on a printed surface adjacent a printing zone in a large format ink jet printer where in addition to the optimized fluid flow one or more heating elements are inserted directly into the fluid flow to thereby promote drying of said printed surface. In one embodiment, a single dual-duct plennum spans the width of a roll-fed large format ink jet print engine and a first duct distributes heated air downward (in the direction of media web movement) and a second duct evacuates a printing space so that any potentially harmful ink vapors or other air-borne contaminant is appropriately fluidly coupled to either a remote exhaust vent or vapor capture vessel.