Inkjet printer for photographs

• US 7,946,671 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2009
• Issued: 05/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Memjet Technology Ltd. (Memjet Limited)
• Original Assignee: Silverbrook Research Pty Limited
• Inventors: Silverbrook, Kia
• Primary Examiner(s): Do; An H
• Application Number:
  US12/626,935
• Publication Number:
  US 20100110129A1
• Time in Patent Office: 541 Days
• Field of Search: 347/10, 347/11, 347/20, 347/47, 347/54, 347/56, 347/65, 347/9, 347/43
• US Class Current: 347/9
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04505 aiming at correcting alignment
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04516 preventing formation of satellite drops
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04518 reducing costs
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/0452 reducing demand in current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04528 aiming at warming up the head
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04541 Specific driving circuit
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04543 Block driving
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04553 detecting ambient temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04563 detecting head temperature; Ink temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04565 detecting heater resistance
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/0457 Power supply level being detected or varied
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04571 detecting viscosity
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04585 controlling heads based on thermal bent actuators
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04588 using a specific waveform
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/0459 Height of the driving signal being adjusted
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04591 Width of the driving signal being adjusted
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04593 Dot-size modulation by changing the size of the drop
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04596 Non-ejecting pulses
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/04598 Pre-pulse
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/14427 Structure of ink jet print heads with thermal bend detached actuators
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/155 : for line printing
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1623 : bonding and adhesion
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1628 : dry etching
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1629 : wet etching
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1631 : photolithography
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1632 : machining
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1635 : dividing the wafer into individual chips
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1639 : sacrificial molding
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1642 : thin film formation by CVD [chemical vapor deposition]
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1646 : thin film formation by sputtering
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1648 : Production of print heads with thermal bend detached actuators
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2002/14491 : Electrical connection
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 25/005 : for serial printing movements superimposed to character- or line-spacing movements
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/102 : using ink jet print heads
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49401 : Fluid pattern dispersing device making, e.g., ink jet

Abstract

A photo printer that prints 6″×4″ photos that has a stationary printhead. The printhead has a plurality of color channels, each color channel comprising at least one nozzle row extending along the length of said printhead, each nozzle in a color channel ejecting the same colored ink. The photo printer also has means for continuously moving 6″×4″ paper sheets past the printhead and during use, all firing nozzles of each color channel selected for one line of printing are fired within about 200 microseconds.

Claims

1. A photo printer for printing 6″

×

4″

photos comprising;

a stationary printhead, said printhead comprising a plurality of color channels, each color channel comprising at least one nozzle row extending along the length of said printhead, each nozzle in a color channel being fluid communication with a respective ink chamber for holding a quantity of the same colored ink, each of the ink chambers having an actuator for generating a pressure pulse in the quantity of ink held in the ink chamber such that a droplet of ink is ejected through the nozzle; and

,

means for continuously moving 6″

×

4″

paper sheets past said printhead for printing of about 10,000 lines of printing on each paper sheet;

wherein, for one line of printing, all selected firing nozzles of each color channel of the printhead are operated so that each line of printing is printed within about 200 microseconds.

2. The printer of claim 1 further comprising a controller for selecting firing nozzles from each color channel of said printhead and sending a firing pulse to the actuators that correspond to the selected firing nozzles, the firing pulse being an electrical signal with a voltage between 2.75V and 2.85V.

3. The printer of claim 2, wherein said controller selects said firing nozzles by loading a shift register associated with each nozzle.

4. The printer of claim 1, wherein the printhead comprises at least 19,200 nozzles.

5. The printer of claim 1, wherein the printhead prints with a resolution of 1600 dpi.

6. The printer of claim 1, wherein each color channel comprises a pair of nozzle rows.

7. The printer of claim 6, wherein one nozzle row in the pair is offset from the other nozzle row in the pair.

8. The printer of claim 1, which is configured to print a 4″

×

6″

photo in about 2 seconds.

9. The printer of claim 1, wherein the printhead is comprised of at least one printhead chip, said at least one printhead chip comprising a plurality of nozzles and having a chip area of less than 1 cm².

10. The printer of claim 9, wherein drive electronics are integrated into said at least one printhead chip.

11. The printer of claim 8, wherein said at least one printhead chip comprises ink supply channels for supplying ink to said color channels, wherein each nozzle in a color channel is supplied with the same colored ink.