Patent Grant
7901063
The present invention relates to droplet deposition apparatus and especially to inkjet printing apparatus. More specifically the invention is related to ink delivery systems for inkjet printers.
Printers are used to print output from computers or similar type of devices that generate information, onto a recording medium such as paper. Commonly available types of printers include impact printers, laser printers and inkjet printers. The term “inkjet” covers a variety of physical processes and hardware but basically these printers transfer ink from an ink supply to the recording medium in a pattern of fine ink drops. Inkjet printheads produce drops either continuously or on demand. “Continuously” means that a continuous stream of ink drops is created, e.g. by pressurizing the ink supply. “On demand” differs from “continuous” in that ink drops are only ejected from a printhead by manipulation of a physical process to momentarily overcome surface tension forces that keep the ink in the printhead. The ink is held in a nozzle, forming a meniscus. The ink remains in place unless some other force overcomes the surface tension forces that are inherent in the liquid. The most common practice is to suddenly raise the pressure on the ink, ejecting it from the nozzle. One category of drop-on-demand inkjet printheads uses the physical phenomenon of electrostriction, a change in transducer dimension in response to an applied electric field. Electrostriction is strongest in piezoelectric materials and hence these printheads are referred to as piezoelectric printheads. The very small dimensional change of piezoelectric material is harnessed over a large area to generate a volume change that is large enough to squeeze out a drop of ink from a small chamber. A piezoelectric printhead includes a multitude of small ink chambers, arranged in an array, each having an individual nozzle and a percentage of transformable wall area to create the volume changes required to eject an ink drop from the nozzle, in according with electrostriction principles.
The present invention deals with the way ink is supplied to the ink chambers, the conditioning of the ink and the impact of ink conditioning on the operation of an inkjet printhead.
Entrapped Air in the Ink Chambers
It is known that the presence of air bubbles in the ink chamber of a piezoelectric printhead often causes operational failure of the printhead. If air is present in the ink chamber, intended pressure changes resulting from piezoelectric deformation of part of the ink chamber walls will be absorbed by the air, leaving the ink pressure unaffected. The surface tension force of the ink in the nozzle maintains the meniscus and no drops will be ejected from the ink chamber. At the frequencies at which piezoelectric transducers in priezoelectric printhead are operated, i.e. in the khz to Mhz range, not only air bubbles but also dissolved air in the ink can cause operation failure as described above. In the prior art, concepts have been disclosed to avoid air bubbles in the ink chamber by creating an air trap upstream the ink chamber, i.e. prior to the ink entering the ink chamber. Solutions have been proposed in EP-A-0 714 779 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,963, both herein incorporated by reference in their entirety for background information only, in the form of air buffers or gas separators that allow air bubbles to rise and evacuate from the ink in an intermediate tank before the ink is supplied to the printhead. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,771,052, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety for background information only, a deaerator tube is disclosed as an internal part of an inkjet printhead. The deaerator tube is an air-permeable, ink-impermeable tubular membrane allowing air to be withdrawn from the ink, through the membrane, via a vacuum source.
Back-Pressure Control at the Nozzle in Fast Scanning Applications
A second point of attention in ink supply systems is the pressure at the nozzle, which is critical to a well-tuned and good operating printhead. Inkjet printheads operate best at a slightly negative nozzle pressure or back pressure. In practice this is often achieved by maintaining a height difference between the free ink surface in a vented ink supply tank and the meniscus in the nozzle. That is, the free ink surface in the vented supply tank is maintained gravimetrically a couple of centimeters below the level of the meniscus in the nozzle. This height difference established a hydrostatic pressure difference to control the back pressure at the nozzle. In reciprocating printhead configurations the ink supply tank is located off axis, i.e. not scanning, because otherwise the lowered position of ink supply tank versus the printhead would interfere with the printing medium transport path. Flexible tubing is used to connect the off axis ink supply tank with the on axis printhead, as disclosed in for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,963. During acceleration and deceleration of the printhead, pressure waves are created in the tubes that may significantly disturb the pressure balance at the meniscus and may lead to weeping of the nozzle in the case of a decrease in negative pressure, or breaking of the meniscus in the case of an increase in negative pressure and taking air into the ink channel. Many approaches have been proposed to control the back pressure in reciprocating printhead applications. A back pressure regulation mechanisms in the form of pressure buffers or dampers mounted together with the printhead on the reciprocating carriage are disclosed in EP-A-1 120 257 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,485,137, both herein incorporated by reference in their entirety for background information only. For accelerations and decelerations of the carriage above 1G the response time of these devices is insufficient. In EP-A-1 142 713, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety for background information only, a vented subtank is used. The subtank serves as a local ink reservoir near the printhead and is being filled intermittently from a main tank located off axis. The solution provides a better control of the nozzle back pressure by maintaining a local hydrostatic pressure difference between the free ink surface of the vented subtank and the meniscus.
Degradation with Time of Ink Properties in Printheads (Especially for Inactive Nozzles Over a Longer Period of Time)
Although inkjet ink properties can be well controlled at manufacture and maintained at a reasonable level during transport and storage, some ink properties may degrade when the ink is used in an ink system or maintained in the printhead. For instance, inkjet inks containing VOC's (volatile organic compounds) often suffer from evaporation of some VOC's at the ink meniscus in the nozzle. The viscosity of the ink will change locally in the nozzle, having a negative effect on its jetting properties and potentially leading to a nozzle fall out. The time it takes for an ink to degrade in a way that it leads to a nozzle failure, is often referred to as its latency period. Latency problems often are prevented or recovered by regular maintenance of the nozzles, e.g. by purging the nozzle so that ‘fresh’ ink enters the nozzle. Next to these problems, it has been found that if the retention time of ink in an ink supply system is too long, e.g. during production breaks or overnight, effects like settling of dispersions, auto-curing, etc. may occur. In many cases, reliable operation of an inkjet printer after a production break or production shutdown is only achieved after an extensive startup procedure, including purging of a significant amount of degraded ink retained in the whole or part of the ink supply system to assure that the ink in the ink chambers of the printhead is of good quality and will perform reliably in the printhead. Often these amounts of purged ink are not reusable within the printer setup.
For production type inkjet printing equipment, where high printing speeds and reliability are of the outmost importance, the conditioning of the ink is critical. The solutions proposed in the prior art only partially solve some of the problems described above. Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide an ink system, incorporated in an inkjet printer, that brings the ink in optimal condition immediately after startup and keeps it in optimal condition during printing.
It is an object of the invention to provide an ink system for inkjet printers that provides optimally conditioned and continuously rejuvenated ink to the inkjet printheads. In one embodiment of the inventions, this object is realized by active degassing of the ink in a continuous ink circulation system.
Specific features of preferred embodiments of the invention are set out in the claims.
Further advantages and embodiments of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and drawings.
The applicability of the present invention is wide-ranging.
Applicability Regarding Printer Configuration
The invention may be applied in printers with reciprocating printhead configurations known from the SOHO market, i.e. the small-office and home inkjet printers, and the wide format market, e.g. for point-of-sale applications, advertising, etc. In these kinds of printing apparatus, the inkjet printheads move in a first direction, the fast scan direction, across the recording medium, while printing ink drops onto the recording medium. In between two fast scan operations, the recording medium is forwarded in a second direction, the slow scan direction perpendicular to the fast scan direction, so as to present an unprinted part of the recording medium underneath the printhead's fast scan print swath trajectory. Multiple printheads may be assembled onto a single carriage moving back and forth along the fast scan direction. Numerous printer configurations and printing methods including reciprocating printheads have been described and are commercially available.
As opposed to reciprocating printhead configurations, fixed array configurations are also known. In the fixed array setup, printheads are stationary and only the recording medium is moved in a feeding direction while the printheads are printing. The stationary printheads may either print a specific swath of the recording medium, e.g. for variable data printing of name and address labels within a dedicated area on preprinted forms, or the stationary printheads may be arranged in an array to print page wide, e.g. for digital printing of packaging material or labels on a single pass digital press.
Except for the SOHO printing apparatus, almost all inkjet printing apparatus use an ink system that delivers ink from a replaceable ink supply tank to the inkjet printheads. The ink is ejected as individual drops from the printhead nozzles, according to a predefined pattern. Depending on the application, this pattern may represent an image in a poster printing application, a conductive structure in an application for printed electronics, glue tracks in a bonding application, etc. The present invention can be implemented on any of these inkjet printing apparatus.
Applicability Regarding Printhead Technology
Inkjet printing is a generic term for a number of different printing technologies that all eject drops of ink from a printhead nozzle in the direction of a recording medium. The most important inkjet printhead technologies today include continuous inkjet, drop-on-demand thermal inkjet and drop-on-demand piezoelectric inkjet. Within the drop-on-demand inkjet technology we may further distinguish between end-shooter type printheads, side-shooter type printheads and through-flow type printheads, depending on their design. End-shooter printheads are characterized by having the nozzles at the end of the ink chambers, while side-shooter printheads are characterized by having their nozzles at a side of the ink chambers. End-shooter and side-shooter printheads require one ink connection for providing the ink via an ink manifold to a plurality of individual ink chambers each having actuating means for ejecting a drop of ink through their nozzle. The ink supplied to the printhead is retained in the printhead until it is ejected from a nozzle. Through-flow printheads on the other hand are characterized by having a continuous flow of ink through the ink chambers, i.e. ink flows via an ink inlet into a supply manifold, through a plurality of individual ink chambers, ending into a collector manifold from where the ink leaves the printhead via an ink outlet. Only a small part of the ink volume that continuously flows through the ink chambers is used for ejecting ink drops from the nozzle, e.g. less than 10%. Hybrid printhead designs are also known, e.g. end-shooter type printheads where the ink manifold has an ink inlet and an ink outlet. Here the ink contained in the end-shooter ink chambers is retained in the printhead until used; the ink in the ink manifold may be refreshed continuously. The present invention is independent of inkjet printhead technology or printhead type. Although the embodiments described in detail in the following sections of the detailed description will deal mainly with hybrid type piezoelectric printheads, i.e an end-shooter with through-flow characteristics, the invention is likewise applicable to other type of printheads, as will become evident from the further description.
Applicability Regarding Inkjet Inks
‘Inks’ used for inkjet printing processes are no longer limited to colored printing material for image reproduction, but include nowadays also structuring materials for printing of OLED displays, electronic conducting materials for printed RFID tags, adhesives materials, etc. Especially piezoelectric inkjet technology is often used for jetting a variety of liquid materials other than traditional printing inks because the physics behind piezoelectric inkjet, i.e. electrostriction, does not put constraints on the chemical composition of the liquid material to be jetted. This is not the case for thermal inkjet technology requiring a local ‘evaporation’ of the ink, or continuous inkjet technology requiring ‘electrostatic charging’ of the ink drops.
From a chemical composition point of view, inkjet inks often are categorized in families based upon the carrier material, e.g. water, used to carry the functional material, e.g. pigments. Examples of ink families based on the carrier used include, water-based inks, solvent inks, oil-based inks, UV or EB curable inks, hot melt inks, and recently introduced eco-solvent and bio inks both aiming at environment friendly usage.
From the discussion in the background of the invention, it is known that performance and reliability of inkjet printing systems increase with the use of degassed inks because undesired air bubbles that develop in the ink chambers seriously disturb the drop generation process and even may result in failure of the ink ejection process.
Therefore it is preferred to use degassed ink in the printing process. Although the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to a UV curable ink, the invention is not limited to UV curable inks but can also be used to improve the performance of other types of ink.
From the background of the invention, it is also known that some ink dispersions settle easily when retained too long without stirring. A typical example is a pigmented ink using Titanium Dioxide as a white pigment. These inks require a continuous circulation to keep the ink dispersion fit for jetting purposes.
In
The printhead may have conditioning means, generally indicated with reference number 15 in
The supply subtank 20 includes a closed container 29 for containing ink, an ink entry 21 for replenishing the ink in the container, an is ink exit 22 for feeding ink to the printhead, a pressure connection 23 for applying a pressure to the closed container and one or more ink level sensors 25, 26, 27 for monitoring the free ink surface in the container 29. These sensors may output an analogue signal, e.g. representing a continuous level measurement, or a digital signal, e.g. in case of a level switch. In the further description of the invention both sensor types, or combinations of sensor types, may be used. Referring to
With continued reference to
By way of example, the degassing unit 60 in the embodiment of
In
The operation of the embodiment according to
The back pressure at the nozzles of the printhead is controlled by means of the same pressure values P2 and P3 used to establish the ink flow through the printhead 10. In a preferred hydrodynamic symmetrical construction of the carriage ink system 3, i.e. with a balanced hydraulic resistance before and after the printhead nozzles, the back pressure at the nozzle equals ((P2+P3):2)+(ρgh) where ρgh is the hydrostatic pressure of the ink column between the free ink surface in the subtanks and the meniscus in the nozzles. In embodiments where the subtanks and the printhead are mounted on a single carriage, h values typically range between 20 cm and 50 cm. Any deviation from this preferred symmetrical construction of the carriage ink system 3 leads to unbalanced dynamic pressure drops and unbalanced hydrostatic pressures in the supply path versus the return path. This imbalance can be pre-calculated or calibrated up front so that finally the back pressure at the nozzles is perfectly controllable with the pressure in the supply subtank 20 and the return subtank 30. It is an advantage that both ink flow rate and back pressure are controllable with only two pressure values, i.e the pressure in the supply subtank 20 and the pressure in the return subtank 30. In embodiments where the subtanks and the printhead are mounted on a single carriage, the pressure values P2 and P3 are chosen so as to compensate to a large extent the hydrostatic pressure of the ink column between the free ink surface in the subtanks and the meniscus in the nozzles, and create a small back pressure in the nozzle. In a specific embodiment used to verify the invention, pressure values in normal printing mode were −30 mbar for P2 and −33 mbar for P3. These pressure values and a height difference between the free ink surface in the subtanks and the nozzles about 30 cm lead to a back pressure in the nozzles of about −1.5 mbar and an ink flow rate above 300 ml/h.
In order to sustain a continuous flow of ink through the printhead 10, the supply subtank 20 needs to be replenished continuously and the return subtank 30 needs to be drained continuously so as to keep the ink levels in the subtanks constant. After all, the back pressure in the nozzles is to some extent depending on the hydrostatic pressure of the ink columns at the supply and the return side of the printhead. And although hydrostatic pressures can be calibrated up front and taken into account when determining the set points for P2 and P3, they should be kept constant during operation. Fortunately, printheads have a back pressure operating window within which the ejection process can operate. A back pressure operating window is expressed as a hydrostatic pressure range and may go up to ±10 cm water gauge around its working point, for printheads operation in a stationary system with constant printing process parameters. But printing process parameters are seldom constant and vary also within a tolerance window around their working point, e.g. printhead manufacturing tolerances or varying dynamic pressure drops in the ink tubes. These tolerance windows consume a part of the available operating window for the printhead back pressure. In practice the free ink surface variations in the subtanks are preferably limited to ±1 cm, more preferably ±0.5 cm, most preferably ±0.1 cm. This operating window thus provides room for intermittent on/off replenishment of ink in the supply subtank 20 and drainage of the ink in the return subtank 30. Intermittent replenishment concepts may be realized using fast switching valves with switching rates in the range of 1 to 10 Hz and having a small diaphragm. Switching may be triggered by a single operating level switch with a small hysteresis defining the targeted operating window. Fast switching with low flow rates is close to a continuous replenishment concept, much like pulse width modulated power drives come close to analogue power drives, but is cheaper and easier to control. In the embodiment of
An alternative embodiment for controlling the continuous flow of ink through the printhead 10 is to keep the pressure values P2 and P3, applies to the supply subtank 20 respectively the return subtank 30, equal and use hydrostatic control of the free ink surface of the respective subtanks to create a hydrostatic pressure difference between the free ink surface in the supply subtank 20 versus the return subtank 30. The hydrostatic pressure difference replaces the active pressure difference P3−P2. The hydrostatic pressure difference may be realized via a different position of the ink level sensors in the respective subtanks, feasible because the continuous ink flow will control the ink level in the subtanks towards the position of the ink level sensors in that subtank, or may be realized via a height difference of the subtanks relative to each other. This embodiment is advantageous when small pressure differences already create a desired ink flow rate through the printhead, in which case the hydrostatic difference is easily implemented without serious mechanical consequences to the implementation of the embodiment, and is advantageous because only is one pressure value P2=P3 is to be made available to the carriage ink system.
The ink in the supply subtank 20 on the carriage ink system is replenished from a supply vessel 40 located off-axis and through a through-flow degassing unit. A pressure P4 can be applied to the supply vessel 40 via pressure connection 43. The pressure P4 in the supply vessel 40 is set higher than the pressure P2 in the supply subtank 20 so as to force a flow of ink from the supply vessel 40 to supply subtank 20 when the replenish valve 24 is opened. The pressure difference P4−P2 between the supply vessel 40 and the supply subtank 20 is chosen as a function of the desired flow rate, the allowable disturbance of the free ink surface in the supply subtank 20 during replenishment, a known flow resistance in the ink path from the supply vessel 40 to the supply subtank 20, the pressure drop in the degassing unit 60, and the hydrostatic height difference between the supply vessel 40 and the supply subtank 20. The pressure P4 may be chosen in a range from 200 mbar to 1000 mbar. A practical example for pressure value P4, in combination with P2 equal to −30 mbar, may be +400 mbar. It is preferred that the pressure difference P4−P2 can create an ink flow rate of at least 1000 ml/h between the supply vessel 40 and supply subtank 20. This preferred minimum ink flow rate is related to the active degassing unit 60 that needs a minimum through flow to function properly, as will be described further on.
On the return side of the ink system 1, the ink that is returned from the printhead 10 enters return subtank 30 where the ink level rises. The ink level in return subtank 30 has a hydrostatic contribution to the back pressure regulation at the nozzles and therefore the ink level in return subtank 30 needs to be maintained within limits, in a similar way that the ink level in the supply subtank 20 needs to be maintained within limits. The ink in the return subtank 30 on the carriage ink system 3 is drained towards return vessel 50 located off-axis. A pressure P5 can be applied to the return vessel 50 via pressure connection 53. The pressure P5 in is the return vessel 50 is set lower than the pressure P3 in the return subtank 30 so as to force a flow of ink from the return subtank 30 to return vessel 50 when a drain valve 34 is opened. The drain valve 34 is opened and closed under control of one or more of the level detection sensors 35, 36 or 37 of the return subtank 30. Depending on the back pressure operating window for the printhead 10, the ink level detection sensors in the return subtank 30 may be configured to allow a minimum to maximum height difference of ±5 cm, more preferably ±1 cm, most preferably ±0.5 cm. The pressure difference P5−P3 between the return vessel 50 and the return subtank 30 is chosen as a function of the desired flow rate, the allowable disturbance of the free ink surface in the return subtank 30 during drainage, a known flow resistance in the ink path from the return subtank 30 to the return vessel 50, and the hydrostatic height difference between the return vessel 50 and the return subtank 30. The pressure P5 may be chosen in a range from −100 mbar to −950 mbar. A practical example for pressure value P5, in combination with P3 equal to −40 mbar, may be −300 mbar. It is preferred that the pressure difference P5-P3 can create an ink flow rate of at least 1000 ml/h between the return subtank 30 and return vessel 50. The ink that is returned in the return vessel 50 is used to replenish supply vessel 40, to be described now.
To assure a constant supply of ink to and a drainage of ink from the carriage ink system 3, the supply vessel 40 of the off-axis ink system 2 continuously needs to have ink available while return vessel 50 of the off-axis ink system 2 continuously needs to have draining capacity available. This is achieved by filling and draining operations for the supply vessel 40 respectively return vessel 50. These operations are less critical with respect to maintenance of precise ink levels in the vessels 40 and 50. The supply vessel 40 may be replenished via ink entries 41 and 48, from two sources: a hydraulic connection with return vessel 50 via ink exit 52 will replenish supply vessel 40 with returned ink from the printhead, and a hydraulic connection with the main ink tank 70 will replenish supply vessel 40 with fresh ink to compensate for the ink is that was ejected from the printhead. One of possible procedures may be that replenishment of supply vessel 40 is triggered by ink level sensor 46 and starts with ink coming from return vessel 50, by default and if possible. If during this replenishment process the ink level in the return vessel 50 would become insufficient to further support the replenishment process, i.e. an underflow condition occurs, replenishment via return vessel 50 is interrupted and replenishment is taken over by the main ink tank 70, until the amount of ink returned into vessel 50 is again sufficient to further support the replenishment process via return vessel 50. The cause of an underflow condition in the return vessel 50 is ink consumption by the printhead 10. As ink is consumed, i.e. printed, the total amount of ink circulating in the ink system 1 gradually decreases and the ink in one of the intermediate ink storage elements of the ink circulating system, i.e. one of the subtanks or one of the vessels, will go in an underflow condition i.e. below its normal operating ink level. It is preferred to allow this underflow condition only to happen in return vessel 50, because the ink level in return vessel 50 is the least critical to the operation of the complete circulation system. The line between having an underflow condition or not in return vessel 50 is somewhat arbitrary, but may for example be chosen so as to guarantee ink replenishment to supply vessel 40 during the time frame of a main tank replacement operation, i.e. during a time that the supply vessel 40 can not be replenished via main tank 70. An underflow condition in return vessel 50 may be detected via ink level sensor 56.
The replenishment process with fresh ink via pump 73 may operate under the control of the underflow detection in return vessel 50, under the control of a printer controller that keeps track of the amount of ink consumed by the printhead for printing, or be operated manually in the event of emptying the main tank by an operator before replacing it with a new one.
An alternative to a progressive replenishment of supply vessel 40 from main ink tank 70, as ink is consumed and printed by the printhead, is a one-time replenishment with the full content of a main ink tank. A possible embodiment of this alternative is illustrated in
The pressure P2 in the supply subtank 20 can be selected from at least three preset values P21, P22 and P23 that correspond to different operating conditions of the printhead 10. These preset pressure values for the supply subtank 20 cooperate with a parallel set of preset values P31, P32, P33 for the pressure P3 in the return subtank 30. A first operating condition of the printhead corresponds with a normal printing condition that has been described previously. For this purpose a set of valves (see
A second operating condition of the printhead may be a purging operation, wherein the pressures applied to the nozzles is such that ink is flows out of the nozzles without actuating the nozzles. For a purging operation, equal positive pressures are applied to the supply subtank 20 and the return subtank 30. In this case there is no through-flow in the printhead 10 and all the ink available in the supply subtank 20 and the return subtank 30 is purged through the printhead nozzles. It is clear that a purging condition can also be created by means of two positive but unequal pressures, in which case a through-flow will be created in the printhead 10. In the embodiment of
A third operating condition of the printhead 10 is used to create a sweating nozzle plate prior to wiping the nozzle plate during maintenance of the printhead. A sweating nozzle plate can help soak or detach any dirt at the nozzle plate before wiping the nozzle plate with a wiper blade. The pressure required for a nozzle to start sweating is typically a little less negative than the operational back-pressure, i.e. just outside the back-pressure operating window in the positive pressure direction. Sweating of a nozzle plate can be realized with pressures between 0 mbar and 50 mbar at the meniscus, so slightly positive whereas the nozzle back pressure for normal printing is slightly negative. As for the purging operation, nozzle plate sweating may be realized with equal pressure values P23 and P33 in the supply subtank 20 respectively return subtank 30, in which case there is not flow through the printhead 10, which is not a requirement for this operation mode. A practical example for the embodiment in
As is depicted in
Active Degassing
It has been known from the prior art that jetting reliability of printheads may be significantly increased by providing degassed ink to the printhead. In the field of inkjet printing, degassing is also referred to as air-removal or de-aerating. It is the process of reducing the amount of gas, e.g. oxygen or nitrogen or other gasses, dissolved in the ink. The embodiment of the invention depicted in
An ink system according to the present invention therefore includes an active through-flow degassing unit 60 that controls the continuously circulating ink towards a target dissolved gas level. An example of a through-flow degassing unit suitable for inkjet inks is a MiniModule hollow fiber membrane type degassing unit available from Membrana GmbH. The Celgard® hollow fibers are hydrophobic and provide a surface area for a liquid and a gas phase to come into direct contact with each other without the liquid penetrating the pores. These hollow fibers do not suffer from getting silted up, a problem that porous membrane type degassing units may have. Generally, in through-flow degassing units, the dissolve gas removal is a function of through-flow rate of the ink, the type of ink, the applied vacuum pressure P6 and of course the construction of the degassing unit itself. It has been found that the dissolved gas removal level of the ink reaches an asymptotic value after two or three passes of the ink through the degassing unit. A through-flow active degassing unit as part of an ink circulation system allows the ink system to provide degassed ink of the right quality to the printhead almost instantly and continuously. The degassed ink delivery is independent of print throughput (ink consumption rates), maintenance or purge operations, printer restart, stops for media change over, etc. The printer will be able to reliably print from the first centimeter of the printing medium on. It has also been found that the dissolved gas removal process works efficiently only with a minimum ink through flow. Measurements of dissolved gas removal as a function of through flow through the degassing unit have been depicted in
An alternative to targeting an asymptote value for the dissolved gas removal level of the circulating ink, is the use of an aeration module combined with a degassing unit. The aeration module may be inserted in the ink circulation circuit in front of the degassing module and bring the dissolved gas level of the ink back to an equilibrium or saturation level. Such an aeration module may comprise for example a depressurizing valve reducing the pressure of an available pressed air connection towards a suitable pressure value for injecting air in a already pressurized component in the ink system. For example, if the aeration module is connected to the ink supply vessel 40 that is pressurized to a pressure P4, the air should be injected at a pressure above P4. Between the depressurizing valve and the supply vessel 40, a control valve is located to control the air injection process, e.g. on/off. In addition to the depressurizing valve and the control valve, there may be agitation means to speedup the gas dissolving process in the ink. The degassing unit being downstream the aeration module always receives ink with an equilibrium amount of dissolved gas and always outputs ink with a reproducible level of dissolved gas removed, the level being dependent on manufacturing settings or operation settings of the degassing unit. The aeration module may be inserted in the ink circulation system 1 at a location after the return subtank 30 and before the degassing unit 60, and is preferably inserted near the return vessel 50.
In the embodiment of the invention depicted in
In
Alternative Subtank Embodiment
In the first embodiment the supply subtank 20 and return subtank 30 are separate modules with similar mode of operation. An alternative design is shown in
The printhead subtank 90 has an ink exit 22 linked to ink inlet 11 of the printhead for providing ink from compartment I to the printhead, and en ink entry 31 linked to ink outlet 12 of the printhead for returning ink from the printhead into compartment II of printhead subtank 90. The height difference between the ink levels in compartment I and compartment II of printhead subtank 90 creates a hydrostatic pressure difference ΔP between ink exit 22 and ink entry 31, so that a flow of ink from ink exit 22 through the printhead 10 and back to ink entry 31 is spontaneously established. ΔP is functionally comparable with the pressure difference P3-P2 in the first embodiment of the invention.
Pressure connection 93 may be used to superimpose a pressure onto the printing ink pressure, established via valves 24 and 34, for either non-printing operation or for adjusting the printing conditions. E.g. purging operation or a forced sweating of the nozzle plate.
A variant to the overflow wall 91 as depicted in
Use of additional partitions in compartment II used as breakwaters will further stabilize the free ink surface in compartment II as the subtank 90 is reciprocated on the carriage.
Valve 24 may be replaced by a continuous running pump as it serves mainly to maintain a continuous overflow condition from compartment I to compartment II. Control of the ink level in compartment II may be realized with valve 34 only.
Embodiments for Specific Printer Configurations: Stationary Printhead
In a stationary inkjet printhead configuration, dividing an ink system in an off-axis ink system and a carriage ink system may be somewhat artificial because there are no scanning components. Nevertheless it may be advantageous to keep components that operate very closely with the printhead, like the supply subtank and the return subtank, physically grouped together with the printhead in a ‘carriage’ subassembly. One of the evident advantages being less static or dynamic pressure drop between the subtanks and the printhead.
Embodiments for Specific Printer Configurations: Multiple Printheads
While
The off-axis ink system may be common for all the printheads while the carriage ink system from
In stationary printhead applications or less critical reciprocating printhead applications, a number of components in the carriage ink system may be grouped together. The advantage being a simpler ink system with overall less components. As an example the return subtanks of the multitude of staggered printheads, construing a single page wide printhead, may be combined into a single return subtank that serves all of the printheads in the page wide printhead assembly. This setup allows individual back-pressure control via the pressure in the individual supply subtanks that are still allocated to each of the individual printheads, but purging would be organized for all the printheads in the page wide printhead assembly simultaneously. A number of other combinations are possible, depending on the functional specifications the person skilled in the art would integrate into the ink system and its operation.
A mechanical simplification of the carriage ink system in reciprocating printhead configurations is also possible. The plurality of supply subtanks, one for each printhead, may be combined into a single supply subtank serving all printheads. The single supply subtank can still be part of the carriage ink system and be mounted on the carriage for reciprocating back and forth, together with the printheads. This embodiment has the advantage of limiting the number of subtanks on the carriage and still preventing the pressure waves in the ink tubes between the carriage ink system and the off-axis ink system from entering the printheads. Between the single supply subtank and the plurality of printheads, a plurality of valves may be used to individually cut off the printhead from the ink supply. In normal printing mode each valve would be open to allow ink supply from the single subtank to the printheads. Closing of the valves is advantageous in non-printing mode. For example, if a printhead from the plurality of printheads on the carriage needs to be purged during maintenance, the pressure in the single supply subtank, and therewith the back pressure in the nozzles, is raised and ink is pushed out of the printhead nozzles. If the valves corresponding with the printheads not requiring a purging operation are closed, these printheads are cut off from the raised ink pressure in the single supply subtank thereby excluding them from the purging operation and saving significant ink amounts. In general terms, when multiple printheads printing the same ink are used, a single off-axis ink system supplies and distributes the ink to the multitude of printheads within the carriage ink system. If n printheads are involved each requiring a minimum ink through flow for the printhead to operate properly, then the off-axis ink system needs to be designed to supply n times that minimum amount of ink flow to the carriage ink system where that ink flow will be distributed.
With reference to
The embodiment as depicted in
It is obvious that the concept of a collector bar is not limited to the ink circulation system described, but that the concept may be applied in other configurations wherein a plurality of inkjet printheads needs to be connected to a common supply or return of ink.
With reference to
In an alternative embodiment serving the same purpose, i.e. optimal degassing conditions, the bypass path is arranged between the exit of the degassing unit 60, i.e. before replenish valve 24, and the ink entry to the return vessel 50, i.e. after drain valve 34. The ink content of return vessel 50 is now also included in the conditioning flow.
Embodiments for Specific Printer Configurations: Multiple Colors
In a color inkjet printer, each color is printed with a different printhead or a set of printheads. Each color has its own ink system with an off-axis part and a carriage part. Each ink system can support one or a multitude of printheads printing the same color. The multitude of printheads printing the same color can be assembled into a module reciprocating across the printing medium and printing swaths that are wider than the width of a single printhead, or they can be staggered into a full page-wide printhead assembly.
Embodiments for Specific Printer Configurations: End-Shooter Type Printhead
So far, the present invention has been described with through-flow type printheads. The advantages of a continuous ink circulation with continuous active degassing are indeed substantial with the use of through-flow type printheads, because the ink in the printhead is continuously rejuvenated with fresh and conditioned ink. Prior art ink systems for end-shooter type printheads with only an ink inlet often have a one-way supply of ink chain from a main ink tank or cartridge to the printhead. These ink systems do not have ink circulation and therefore the ink in the printheads, the tubing and other components can not be continuously rejuvenated. An embodiment of the present invention for end-shooter printhead may be very similar to the embodiment depicted in
Having described in detail preferred embodiments of the current invention, it will now be apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous modifications can be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appending claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04106662 | Dec 2004 | EP | regional |
This application is a national stage filing under 35 USC §371 of PCT application no. PCT/EP2005/056816 filed Dec. 15, 2005 which claims priority to U.S. provisional application No. 60/648,020 filed Mar. 4, 2005 and EP application no. 04106662.2 filed Dec. 17, 2004.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2005/056816 | 12/15/2005 | WO | 00 | 2/11/2008 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2006/064040 | 6/22/2006 | WO | A |
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20080297577 A1 | Dec 2008 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60648020 | Mar 2005 | US |
