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:
May. 25, 2004
Filed:
Jan. 15, 2003
Michael C. Ferringer, Webster, NY (US);
Xerox Corporation, Stamford, CT (US);
Abstract
Current fluid ejector maintenance techniques do not adequately deal with moveable debris particles present in the fluid supply manifold. Such moveable particles within the fluid supply manifold of a fluid ejector head can cause random ejection defects by clogging, restricting and/or blocking the channel inlets and/or filters present in the channel inlets, causing missed or misfired and/of misdirected drops. At least some of a plurality of fluid ejectors can be fired in a sequential pattern. Sequentially firing the fluid ejectors can move movable particles in the direction of the firing sequence. The moved movable particles can be deposited into non-operative areas within the fluid supply manifold, such as, for example, non-firing fluid ejection locations. The fluid ejectors can be fired in a sequential pattern within blocks of the fluid ejectors. For example, a fluid ejector head with 120 fluid ejectors can fire 1 out of every 20 fluid ejectors.