Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090051726 | DIGITAL COLOUR PHOTOGRAPH PRINTER - The present invention relates to a printer for printing digital colour photographs. The printer includes a printhead cartridge housing an ink ejection printhead and an ink supply configured to supply ink to the printhead. A cradle unit defines a support bay in which the printhead cartridge can be fitted in a removable manner. The cradle unit houses a media transport mechanism which transports print media past the printhead. A media supply cartridge is configured to supply the media to the transport mechanism. | 02-26-2009 |
20090058924 | Printhead Capping Mechanism Having Multiple Gear Assemblies and Method of Assembling Same - A gear arrangement for a capper of an inkjet printer comprises a first gear assembly mounted to the printer so as to cooperate with a motor gear for driving rotation of the first gear assembly, the first gear assembly having a code feature; and a second gear assembly mounted to the printer so as to cooperate with the first gear assembly to be rotatable therewith, the second gear assembly, in use, cooperating with a capper for capping a printhead so that the rotation of the second gear assembly moves the capper out of and into its capping position. The code feature of the first gear assembly is arranged to cooperate with a holding feature of a mounting arrangement used to mount the second gear assembly to the printer, the code feature being configured so that the cooperation with the holding feature maintains the first gear assembly at a predetermined position during the mounting of the second gear assembly. A common shaft is mounted connecting the first gear and two second gears to the body so that each of the second gears mesh with the second gear assembly. A pin of two third gears is mounted to the body so that each of the third gears mesh with a respective one of the second gears of the first gear assembly. | 03-05-2009 |
20090122101 | PRINTHEAD CAPPING ARRANGEMENT WITH PIVOTABLE SHAFT MOUNTS - An inkjet printer comprises an elongate shaft adapted to rotate so as to move a capper for capping a pagewidth printhead out of and into capping position; a motor for driving the elongate shaft; a support frame; and first and second fixing plates mounted to the support frame. The first and second fixing plates each include first and second bearings for supporting the shaft at first and second longitudinal ends of the shaft so as to allow rotation of the shaft. The first and second bearings are configured to allow pivotal movement of the elongate shaft about first and second longitudinal ends thereof. The second fixing plate includes a seat for receiving the motor therein. | 05-14-2009 |
20090179929 | PRINTHEAD CARTRIDGE PRIMING PROTOCOL - A method of priming a printhead cartridge upon installation in a printer, the printhead cartridge having a printhead with a nozzle face defining an array of nozzles for ejecting ink on to a media substrate fed past the printhead in a media feed direction, by providing a printer with at least three ink tanks for storing the inks of different colour, the printer also having a cradle for supporting the printhead cartridge adjacent a media feed path, a fluid interface in fluid communication with the ink tanks, and a latch for securing the printhead cartridge in the cradle, the latch being movable between an open position where access to the cradle is unobstructed, and a closed position where access to the cradle is obstructed, placing the printhead cartridge in the cradle while the latch is in the open position, the printhead cartridge having a fluid coupling positioned to align with the fluid interface when placed in the cradle, moving the latch to the closed position to secure the printhead cartridge in cradle, providing a mechanical linkage between the latch and the fluid interface such that the fluid interface sealingly engages the fluid coupling upon moving the latch to the closed position and, priming the printhead with ink from all of the ink tanks. | 07-16-2009 |
20090179943 | PRINTHEAD NOZZLE WIPER AND DOCTOR BLADE FOR INK REMOVAL - A printhead maintenance facility for an inkjet printhead, having a wiper member for contacting a nozzle face on the inkjet printhead, the wiper member having a resilient blade with the distal edge configured to flex upon contact with the nozzle face, a doctor blade and, a maintenance drive configured to wipe the wiper member over the nozzle face and then past the doctor blade. The resilient blade flexes to pass the doctor blade and, upon disengagement of the resilient blade and the doctor blade, the resilient blade springs back to its quiescent shape thereby projecting contaminants from its surface. | 07-16-2009 |
20090179968 | LOW INSERTION FORCE FLUID COUPLING - A fluid coupling for establishing a sealed connection between a first conduit and a second conduit that has a seal seat and a compression member. The compression member is movable relative to the seal seat in which an annular seal is positioned. An engagement mechanism moves the second conduit from a disengaged position where there is no sealed fluid connection between the first and second conduits, to an engaged position where the compression member moves toward the seal seat to compress the annular seal to form a sealed fluid connection. | 07-16-2009 |
20090179969 | PRINTER WITH ZERO INSERTION FORCE PRINTHEAD CARTRIDGE - An inkjet printer that has a printhead cartridge with a pagewidth printhead defining an array of nozzles for ejecting ink onto a media substrate. The printhead cartridge has a fluid coupling in fluid communication with the array of nozzles. The printer also has a cradle for supporting the printhead cartridge such that the array of nozzles is adjacent a media feed path extending through the printer, the cradle having a latch mechanism for retaining the printhead cartridge, an ink reservoir for containing supply of ink and a complementary coupling for fluid communication with the ink reservoir. The fluid coupling and the complementary coupling are configured to establish a sealed fluid connection using mechanical advantage provided by user actuation of the latch mechanism to retain the printhead cartridge in the cradle. | 07-16-2009 |
20090179971 | PRINTHEAD MAINTENANCE FACILITY WITH INK STORAGE AND DRIVEN VACUUM DRAINAGE COUPLING - A inkjet printhead maintenance facility that has an ink storage reservoir for holding ink ejected from the inkjet printhead during a maintenance operation and, an outlet coupling in fluid communication with the ink storage reservoir and configured for connection to a vacuum source to draw ink out of the ink storage reservoir. | 07-16-2009 |
20090244171 | PRINTER HAVING ECCENTRICALLY CODED CAPPING MECHANISM - An inkjet printer has a body mounting first and second gear assemblies. The first assembly cooperating with a motor gear and having a code feature. The second assembly rotatably cooperating with the first assembly and a capper for capping a printhead. The code feature cooperates with a holding feature of a mounting arrangement used to mount the second assembly so that the cooperation maintains the first assembly at a predetermined position during the mounting of the second assembly. The first assembly has first and second gears connected by a common shaft. The first gear meshes with the motor gear and the second gear meshes with the second assembly. The second assembly has a third gear mounted to the body by a pin which meshes with the second gear. The third gear is an eccentric gear. | 10-01-2009 |
20090278300 | Sheet Feed Mechanism - A sheet feed mechanism includes a chassis for supporting a stack of sheets; a top sheet engaging member for engaging a top most sheet of the stack; a stack engaging structure for engaging the stack and biasing the top most sheet against the top sheet engaging member, the stack engaging structure hingedly connected to the chassis at a hinge axis; a friction surface extending from the stack engaging structure, the friction surface extending in a curvature parallel to a locus of the stack engaging structure about the hinge axis; a lock mechanism having a lock arm hingedly connected to the chassis at the hinge axis, the lock mechanism further having a biased contact foot for engaging the friction surface to retard a movement of the stack engaging structure about the hinge axis; and an actuator for engaging and disengaging the contact foot from the friction surface. The friction surface is arranged to extend beneath the biased contact foot, and the actuator is adapted to pivotally actuate the biased contact foot upwards and downwards to respectively disengage and engage the biased contact foot with the friction surface. | 11-12-2009 |
20100071190 | Method Of Assembling Print Media Transport Arrangement - A method of assembling a media transport arrangement of a printer is provided. The method includes positioning a roller so as to be supported at a first end by a support frame, positioning a ring bearing of a fixing plate about a second end of the roller, the fixing plate being separate from the support frame, and slidably engaging the fixing plate with the support frame so as to fix the fixing plate and the roller to the support frame. During the sliding engagement, the roller pivots about the first end due to the configuration of the ring bearing. | 03-25-2010 |
20100164168 | PRINTER HAVING GEARED MEDIA PICK-UP ROLLER - A printer is provided having a sheet media transport mechanism, a pick-up roller arranged to be rotated so as to contact and pick-up sheet media from a sheet media supply, and a gear assembly for communicating a driving force of a motor to the pick-up roller to rotate the pick-up roller. A first gear of the gear assembly is directly coupled with a second gear of the gear assembly which is concentric with the pick-up roller. The first gear is configured to disengage from the second gear substantially at the point of delivery of a leading edge of the picked sheet media to the sheet media transport mechanism so as to cease communication of the driving force of the motor to the pick-up roller. | 07-01-2010 |
20100225049 | SHEET FEED MECHANISM - A sheet feed mechanism includes a chassis for supporting a stack of sheets; a top sheet engaging member for engaging a top most sheet of the stack; a stack engaging structure, a first end of the stack engaging structure engaging the stack of sheets to bias a top most sheet of the stack of sheets against the top sheet engaging member, the stack engaging structure being supported from the chassis by a resilient member; a friction surface extending perpendicularly from a second end of the stack engaging structure opposite to the first end; a lock mechanism having a lock arm hingedly connected to the chassis, the lock mechanism including a biased contact foot for engaging the friction surface to retard a rectilinear movement of the stack engaging structure; and an actuator for engaging and disengaging the contact foot from the friction surface. | 09-09-2010 |
20100229393 | METHOD OF ASSEMBLING PRINTHEAD CAPPING MECHANISM - A method of assembling a gear arrangement for a capper of an inkjet printer includes the steps of: mounting a first gear assembly to the printer to cooperate with a motor gear for driving rotation of the first gear assembly, the first gear assembly including a driving gear from which a code feature protrudes, the driving gear meshed with the motor gear; engaging the printer with a jig; and mounting a second gear assembly to the printer using the jig, the second gear assembly mounted to cooperate with the first gear assembly to be rotatable therewith and to further cooperate with a capper for capping a printhead so that the rotation of the second gear assembly moves the capper out of and into capping position. The step of mounting the second gear assembly further includes a step of sliding a slider block of the holding feature about the code feature of the driving gear, whereby the code feature cooperate with the holding feature to maintain the first gear assembly at a predetermined position during the mounting of the second gear assembly. | 09-16-2010 |
20100277545 | PRINTER HAVING DISENGAGEABLE MEDIA PICK UP - A printer is provided having a support frame, a media cartridge removably engaged with the support frame, the media cartridge having a supply of sheet media, a driven roller arranged to be rotated so as to contact and pick-up sheet media from the media cartridge and deliver the picked sheet media to a sheet media transport mechanism of the printer, and a gear assembly for engaging driving power from a motor to the driven roller. The gear assembly has a first gear on a shaft of the driven roller and a second gear directly coupled with the first gear. The gear assembly is configured to decouple the second gear from the first gear to thereby disengage said driving power upon delivery of the picked sheet media to the sheet media transport mechanism. | 11-04-2010 |
20110080455 | FLUID COUPLING - A fluid coupling for establishing a sealed connection between a first conduit and a second conduit. The second conduit has a seal seat and a compression member. The compression member is movable relative to the seal seat. A seal is positioned in the seal seat. An engagement mechanism moves the compression member toward the seal seat to compress the seal to form a sealed fluid connection. The engagement mechanism has an input arm hinged to the compression member at a hinge connection. The input arm has a compression lever fixed at an angle to the longitudinal extent of the input arm. The input arm is arranged to push against the compression member as the input arm rotates about the hinge connection to the compression member. The compression member in turn pushes against the second conduit to move the second conduit relative to the first conduit, until the input arm reaches a predetermined angle about the hinge where the compression lever engages the second conduit such that further rotation of the input arm moves the compression member relative to the second conduit to compress the seal. | 04-07-2011 |
20110090280 | PRINTHEAD MAINTENANCE FACILITY HAVING FLUID DRAINAGE - A printhead maintenance facility is provided having a storage reservoir for storing fluid ejected by a printhead and a core movable relative to the printhead. The has an internal structure defining the storage reservoir and having a port in fluid communication with the storage reservoir, and an external structure movable relative to the internal structure and having a drain movable into registration with the port to establish fluid communication between the drain and storage reservoir. | 04-21-2011 |
20110234691 | PAGEWIDTH PRINTHEAD MAINTENANCE FACILITY HAVING FLUID DRAINAGE - A printhead maintenance facility is provided having a storage reservoir for storing fluid ejected by a printhead, and a core movable relative to the printhead. The core has an internal structure defining the storage reservoir and having a port in fluid communication with the storage reservoir, and an external structure movable relative to the internal structure and having a drain movable into registration with the port to establish fluid communication between the drain and storage reservoir. The printhead is pagewidth and the internal and external structures are at least as long as the pagewidth. | 09-29-2011 |
20110279619 | MEDIA CLEARANCE MECHANISM FOR PRINTER - A media clearance mechanism for a printer, the media clearance mechanism having a door hingedly mounted to a body of the printer which can be opened to expose a media width of a media path to a media width printhead of the printer; a media diverter mounted to the door such that when the door is in a closed position the door and the diverter define guiding portions of the path, the diverter being pivotally mounted to the door so that the diverter pivots out of the way upon opening of the door; and a displacement mechanism configured to retract the diverter with the opening movement of the door and to reposition the diverter for media guiding with the closing movement of the door | 11-17-2011 |
20110279621 | PRINTER HAVING MEDIA CLEARANCE MECHANISM - A printer having a media width printhead; a media path from a media input area to the printhead; a door hingedly mounted to a body of the printer which can be opened to expose the media path a media diverter mounted to the door such that when the door is in a closed position the door and the diverter define guiding portions of the path, the diverter being pivotally mounted to the door so that the diverter pivots out of the way upon opening of the door; and a displacement mechanism configured to retract the diverter with the opening movement of the door and to reposition the diverter for media guiding with the closing movement of the door. | 11-17-2011 |