Claims
- 1. A capping system for sealing ink-ejecting nozzles of an inkjet printhead in an inkjet printing mechanism, comprising:a sled; a flexible frame supported by the sled for movement between a rest position and a sealing position, the flexible frame including a border portion, a cap base portion and a spring portion that couples the base portion to the border portion; and a sealing lip onsert molded to the flexible frame cap base portion, with the sealing lip sized to surround and seal the printhead nozzles when the frame is in the sealing position; wherein the frame border portion defines a reference plane, and the spring portion allows at least a fraction of the cap base portion to move out of the reference plane when the frame is in the sealing position.
- 2. A capping system according to claim 1 wherein the border portion, the base portion, and the spring portion are each partially separated from one another by plural voids defined by and extending through the frame.
- 3. A capping system according to claim 1 wherein the spring portion is bonded to the border portion.
- 4. A capping system according to claim 1 wherein the spring portion bends under a cantilever force when allowing said at least a fraction of the base portion to move out of the reference plane.
- 5. A capping system according to claim 1 wherein the spring portion twists under a torsional force when allowing said at least a fraction of the base portion to move out of the reference plane.
- 6. A capping system according to claim 1 wherein the spring portion bends under a cantilever force and twists under a torsional force when allowing said at least a fraction of the base portion to move out of the reference plane.
- 7. A capping system according to claim 1 wherein:the sealing lip and the base portion and the printhead define a sealing chamber therebetween when the frame is in the sealing position; and the base portion defines a vent hole therethrough to couple the sealing chamber to atmosphere.
- 8. A capping system according to claim 7 wherein the base portion defines a vent hole therethrough comprising a vent slot.
- 9. A capping system according to claim 8 wherein the base portion includes a projecting flange that defines the vent slot.
- 10. A capping system according to claim 1 wherein the cap base portion has a first thickness, and the spring portion has a second thickness different from said first thickness.
- 11. A capping system according to claim 10 wherein the second thickness of the spring portion is less than the first thickness of the cap base portion.
- 12. A capping system according to claim 1 wherein the flexible frame comprises plural cap base portions and plural spring portions, with each cap base portion associated with at least one of the plural spring portions to couple each cap base portion to the border portion.
- 13. A capping system according to claim 12 wherein:a first one of the plural cap base portions tilts in a first plane out of the reference plane when the frame is in the sealing position; and a second one of the plural cap base portions tilts in a second plane out of the reference plane when the frame is in the sealing position, with the second plane being nonparallel to the first plane.
- 14. A capping system according to claim 1 wherein:the border defines an interior portion of the flexible frame; and the flexible frame comprises plural cap base portions located side-by-side within the interior portion of the flexible frame, with any two adjacent cap base portions separated by a void defined therebetween.
- 15. A capping system according to claim 1 wherein the flexible frame comprises plural cap base portions and plural spring portions, with each cap base portion associated with at least one of the plural spring portions to couple each cap base portion to the border portion so each cap base portion may tilt independently from the other cap base portions out of the reference plane when the frame is in the sealing position.
- 16. A capping system according to claim 1 wherein the flexible frame is of a metallic material and the sealing lip of an elastomer.
- 17. A capping system according to claim 16 wherein the flexible frame is of a metallic material comprising a stainless steel, and the sealing lip of an elastomer comprising ethylene polypropylene diene monomer (“EPDM”).
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/340,550 filed on Jun. 28, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,196,658 issued Mar. 6, 2001. Which is a continuation of Ser. No. 08/741,850, filed Oct. 31, 1996, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,936,647 on Aug. 10, 1999.
US Referenced Citations (20)
Continuations (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09/340550 |
Jun 1999 |
US |
Child |
09/740683 |
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US |
Parent |
08/741850 |
Oct 1996 |
US |
Child |
09/340550 |
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US |