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:
Aug. 21, 2007
Filed:
May. 05, 2005
Frank Edward Anderson, Sadieville, KY (US);
George Keith Parish, Winchester, KY (US);
Timothy Strunk, Lexington, KY (US);
John Dennis Zbrozek, Lexington, KY (US);
Frank Edward Anderson, Sadieville, KY (US);
George Keith Parish, Winchester, KY (US);
Timothy Strunk, Lexington, KY (US);
John Dennis Zbrozek, Lexington, KY (US);
Lexmark International, Inc., Lexington, KY (US);
Abstract
A method informs a user of an ink jet printer of the end of life of a consumable. The consumable supplies ink to a printhead having a plurality of ink ejection nozzles and an associated plurality of ink jetting actuators, each of the plurality of ink jetting actuators being addressable. The printhead includes a plurality of address lines for facilitating selection of one or more of the plurality of ink jetting actuators. The method includes the steps of defining a notice threshold that is associated with a corresponding amount of ink remaining in the consumable; providing control logic for selectively controlling the plurality of address lines; determining whether the amount of ink remaining in the consumable has reached the notice threshold; and upon reaching the notice threshold, reducing an image density of images formed by the printhead by selectively disabling at least one of the plurality of address lines.