Method for damping pressure peaks in a line for ink of an inkjet printer

Abstract

A method for damping pressure peaks in an ink line of an inkjet printer includes connecting the line to a chamber divided by a diaphragm into an air-filled first space and an ink-filled second space, connecting the first space to an air-filled buffer, connecting the buffer to an air pump, a) pumping air into the first space until freeing the chamber of ink and the diaphragm rests on a chamber wall or tension in the diaphragm begins rising substantially linearly, then b) pumping air out of the first space until filling the chamber with ink and the diaphragm rests on a chamber wall or tension of the diaphragm begins rising substantially linearly, while determining the number of pump cycles, then c) pumping air into the first space while passing through substantially half of the determined pump cycles. Steps a and b may be reversed.