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. 03, 2002
Filed:
Dec. 05, 2000
David Skinner, Rochester, NY (US);
Hiep Ly, Webster, NY (US);
Daniel Foucher, Rochester, NY (US);
Ming-Hong Fu, Webster, NY (US);
Xerox Corporation, Stamford, CT (US);
Abstract
Process for producing a corrosion-resistant liquid level control plate for the printhead of an aqueous ink jet printing machine. A corrosion-resistant metal alloy base is used, having an undersurface and an upper surface and having closely-spaced ink jet nozzles therethrough. Each of the nozzles has a micro-orifice at the undersurface surrounded by a lip area at the bottom of upwardly and outwardly tapered walls opening at the upper surface. The present process comprises forming the lip areas of metallic gold, encapsulating the upper surface of the metal alloy base including the gold lip areas and the tapered walls with metallic gold to form a corrosion-resistant, hydrophobic surface layer thereover. Thereafter the undersurface is coated with metallic chromium to render it hydrophilic. The gold coating preferably is reacted with a self assembled monolayer (SAM) of an organic sulfur compound such as hexadecylthiol or, more preferably, a cross-linkable SAM which is then cross-linked in situ to form a rub-resistant layer having strong hydrophobic properties. The chrome coating on the undersurface may be coated with a hydrophilic silane to increase its hydrophilic properties.