Claims
- 1. A color printing system, comprising:a plurality of printheads for ejecting droplets of ink of different colors: a media handling apparatus; a scanning carriage for scanning across a print zone of a printer, said plurality of printheads mounted in said carriage; a supply station mounted above said scanning carriage and in a fixed location relative to said scanning carriage; a plurality of replaceable ink supply cartridges releasably mounted in said supply station; and a fluid conduit system passing between said plurality of ink supply cartridges and said plurality of printheads to provide a plurality of ink flow paths between said plurality of cartridges and said plurality of printheads, said conduit structure including a flexible conduit portion to permit the flexible conduit portion to flex as the carriage is scanned across the print zone.
- 2. The system of claim 1, wherein said scanning carriage moves along a scanning axis, and said plurality of ink supply cartridges are arranged in said supply station along a supply station axis which is generally parallel to said scanning axis.
- 3. The system of claim 1, wherein said plurality of ink supply cartridges are disposed in a horizontal arrangement.
- 4. The system of claim 1, wherein said each of said plurality of printheads ejects droplets of ink in a vertical direction.
- 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the flexible conduit portion includes a set of flexible tubes.
- 6. A method of providing ink of different colors to a plurality of printing structures mounted in a scanning carriage of a color printing system, comprising:supplying ink of different colors from a plurality of ink sources into a set of flexible conduits connected to the plurality of printing structures mounted on said scanning carriage, the plurality of ink sources mounted in a fixed location relative to the carriage, said fixed location above the carriage; and allowing ink of said different colors to flow from said ink sources and into respective internal chambers in said plurality of printing structures while said carriage is scanning along a scan axis during printing operations.
- 7. The method of claim 6, wherein said plurality of ink sources are disposed in a horizontal arrangement in a supply station fixed above said scanning carriage and generally parallel to a scan axis of the scanning carriage.
- 8. The method of claim 6, wherein each of said printing structures comprises a printhead for ejecting droplets of ink in a vertical direction.
- 9. The method of claim further comprising:supplying ink of said different colors to said plurality of ink sources.
- 10. The method of claim 9, wherein said supplying ink of said different colors to said plurality of ink sources comprises:releasably mounting a plurality of replaceable ink supplies in fluid communication with said set of flexible conduits.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This is a continuation co-pending application Ser. No. 09/832,777, filed on Apr. 11, 2001, now U.S. Pat. 6,422,693 in turn a continuation of application number 09/256,820, filed on Feb. 24, 1999 now U.S. Pat. 6,231,173.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/706,045, filed Aug. 30, 1996, now U.S. Pat. 5,980,032 entitled “Compliant Ink Interconnect Between Print Cartridge And Carriage,” by Norman E. Pawlowski, Jr. et al., which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/550,902, filed Oct. 31, 1995, now U.S. Pat. 5,872,584 entitled “Apparatus for Providing Ink to an Ink-Jet Print Head and for Compensating for Entrapped Air” by Norman Pawlowski, Jr. et al., which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/518,847, filed Aug. 24, 1995, now U.S. Pat. 5,736,992 entitled “Pressure Regulated Free-Ink Ink-Jet Pen,” by Norman Pawlowski, Jr. et al., which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/331,453, filed Oct. 31, 1994, now U.S. Pat. 5,583,545 by Norman Pawlowski, Jr. et al.
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Continuations (3)
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