Claims
- 1. An ink cartridge comprising an ink supply bag, a housing for said bag, and a fitting attached to said bag and including an ink egress snout for discharging an ink supply from said bag, is characterized in that:said housing and said fitting are connected to secure said bag within said housing, but can be disconnected; and said housing has stakes that are adhered to respective portions of said fitting to hold said fitting fast to said housing in order to fix said fitting in place and prevent said fitting from shifting, however slightly, or being disconnected from said housing.
- 2. An ink cartridge as recited in claim 1, wherein a collar mates with said snout when said collar is in a selected orientation to fix said collar in the selected orientation in order to provide an identification of an ink supply in said bag.
- 3. An ink cartridge as recited in claim 1, wherein said housing and said fitting each have engageable-disenageable members that mutually engage to connect said housing and said fitting, and said stakes are adhered to said engageable-disengageable members of said fitting to hold those engageable-disengageable members fast to said housing in order to prevent said fitting from being disconnected from said housing without breaking said stakes and/or said engageable-disengageable members.
- 4. An ink cartridge as recited in claim 3, wherein said stakes have respective tips that are melted onto said engageable-disengageable members of said fitting to adhere said stakes to those engageable-disengageable members.
- 5. An ink cartridge as recited in claim 3, wherein said housing includes a wall with an opening for said snout, said engageable-disengageable members of said housing are at an inner side of said wall and spaced from said opening for said snout, and said stakes are parallel to said inner side of said wall.
- 6. An ink cartridge comprising an ink supply bag, a fitting attached to said bag and including an ink egress snout, and a housing for said bag including a wall with an opening for said snout, is characterized in that:said wall of said housing and said fitting have mutually engageable members that engage to connect said housing and said fitting; and said housing has stakes with respective tips that are melted onto said engageable members of said fitting to adhere said stakes to those engageable members.
- 7. An ink cartridge as recited in claim 6, wherein said engageable members of said housing are at an inner side of said wall and spaced from said opening for said snout, and said stakes project from said housing and parallel to said inner side of said wall.
- 8. An ink cartridge as recited in claim 6, wherein a collar mates with said snout when said collar is in a selected orientation to fix said collar in that orientation in order to provide an identification of an ink supply in said bag.
- 9. An ink cartridge comprising an ink supply bag, a fitting attached to said bag and including an integral ink egress snout, and a pair of housing halves that contain said bag and at respective wall portions have opening halves that form a bottom opening for said snout when said housing halves are connected together, is characterized in that:said fitting and only one of said wall portions each have mutually engageable members that engage to connect said fitting and the one wall portion; and the housing half that includes another of said wall portions has stakes that are adhered to said engageable members of said fitting to hold said engageable members of said fitting fast to that housing half.
- 10. An ink cartridge as recited in claim 9, wherein said engageable members of said one wall portion are spaced from said opening half in that wall portion and said engageable members of said fitting are spaced from said snout.
- 11. An ink cartridge comprising an ink supply bag, a fitting attached to said bag and including an integral ink egress snout, and a pair of housing halves that contain said bag and at respective wall portions have opening halves that form a bottom opening for said snout when said housing halves are connected together, is characterized in that:said fitting and only one of said wall portions each have mutually engageable members that engage to connect said fitting and the one wall portion to secure said bag within the housing half that includes said one wall portion; and the housing half that includes another of said wall portions has stakes that are adhered to said engageable members of said fitting and/or said engageable members of the housing half that includes said one wall portion.
- 12. A method of partially assembling a ink cartridge including an ink supply bag, a housing that is to contain the bag, and a fitting for the bag which has an ink egress snout for discharging an ink supply from the bag, said method comprising:attaching the fitting to the bag; connecting the housing and the fitting to one another; and adhering to the fitting a plurality of stakes that project from the housing to hold the fitting fast to the housing in order to fix the fitting in place and prevent the fitting from shifting, however slightly, relative to the housing.
- 13. A method of partially assembling an ink cartridge including an ink supply bag, a fitting for the bag which has an integral ink egress snout, and a pair of housing halves that are to contain the bag and at respective wall portions have opening halves that form a bottom opening for the snout when the housing halves are connected together, said method comprising:attaching the fitting to the bag; connecting mutually engageable members of the fitting and only one of the wall portions to secure the bag to the housing half that includes the one wall portion; and adhering to the engageable members of the fitting and/or the engageable members of the one wall portion a plurality of stakes that project from the housing half that includes another of the wall portions.
- 14. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein the stakes are adhered to the engageable members of the fitting and/or the engageable members of the one wall portion by melting respective tips of the stakes onto those engageable members.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Reference is made to commonly assigned, U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,402, entitled INK CARTRIDGE WITH COLOR DISCRIMINATION STRUCTURE and filed Aug. 16, 2001 in the names of Trafton, Newkirk, and Robinson; U.S. Pat. No. 6,416,166, entitled INK CARTRIDGE WITH ALIGNMENT FEATURES AND METHOD OF INSERTING CARTRIDGE INTO A PRINTER RECEPTACLE and filed Aug. 16, 2001 in the names of Trafton, Newkirk, Robinson, and Gotham; U.S. Pat. No. 6,505,926, entitled INK CARTRIDGE WITH MEMORY CHIP AND METHOD OF ASSEMBLING and filed Aug. 16, 2001 in the names of Trafton, Newkirk, and Robinson; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,536,888, entitled INK CARTRIDGE WITH INTERNAL INK BAG AND METHOD OF FILLING and filed Aug. 16, 2001 in the names of Trafton, Famung, and Petranek.
Reference is also made to commonly assigned, applications Ser. No. 10/198,517, entitled INK CARTRIDGE HAVING CONNECTABLE-DISCONNECTABLE HOUSING AND INK SUPPLY BAG and filed Jul. 18, 2002 in the names of Perkins, Corby, Dietl, and Petranek, and Ser. No. 10/198,515, entitled DISPOSABLE INK SUPPLY BAG HAVING CONNECTOR-FITTING and filed Jul. 18, 2002 in the names of Perkins, Corby, Dietl, and Petranek.
All of the cross-referenced applications are incorporated into this application.
US Referenced Citations (56)
Foreign Referenced Citations (3)
Number |
Date |
Country |
3405164 |
Aug 1985 |
DE |
359-214656 |
Dec 1984 |
JP |
363-004953 |
Jan 1988 |
JP |