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. 12, 2011
Filed:
Oct. 22, 2007
Michael Alan Fairchild, Vancouver, WA (US);
Michael Kenneth Oehl, Beaverton, OR (US);
Michael Alan Fairchild, Vancouver, WA (US);
Michael Kenneth Oehl, Beaverton, OR (US);
Xerox Corporation, Norwalk, CT (US);
Abstract
A solid ink printer includes a solid ink transportation control system that helps ensure a continuous supply of solid ink to a melting device within a printer. The solid ink transportation control system includes an ink loss measurement circuit configured to identify an accumulated ink mass loss of ink from an ink reservoir in a printer and to generate an ink supply replenish signal in response to the accumulated ink mass loss reaching an accumulated loss threshold, a drive motor electrically coupled to the ink loss measurement circuit, the drive motor being configured to operate in response to the ink supply replenish signal, and an ink stick drive train coupled to the drive motor, at least a portion of the ink stick drive train moving towards a melting assembly in the printer in response to the operation of the drive motor.