摘要:
An acoustic ink printer (10) comprises a pool of liquid ink (14) having a free surface in intimate contact with the inner face of a perforated membrane (32). The printer (10) addresses all pixel positions within its image field via substantially-uniform, relatively large diameter apertures (33) which extend through the membrane (32) on centers that are aligned with respective ones of the pixel positions. In operation, one or more focused acoustic beams (16) selectively eject individual droplets of ink from the ink menisci that extend across the apertures (33). Accordingly, the membrane (32) is positioned, and the bias pressure applied (14) to the ink is selected, so that the menisci essentially remain within the focal plane of such beam or beams (16).
摘要:
The output surface (18) of an acoustic printhead (10) having one or more concave acoustic beam-forming devices for supplying focused acoustic beams (17) to eject droplets (19) of ink (13) on demand from the surface (18) of a pool of ink (13) is planarized by filling those concave devices with a solid material (21) having an acoustic impedance and an acoustic velocity which are intermediate the acoustic impedance and the acoustic velocity, respectively, of the ink (13) and of the printhead (10). This not only facilitates the cleaning of the printhead (10), but also eliminates the edges upon which an optional ink transport or the like may tend to drag. The outer surface of the filler (21) may be essentially flush with the face of the printhead (10), or the filler (21) may overcoat the printhead (10).
摘要:
To facilitate the fabrication of acoustic printheads (11), arrays of spherical acoustic lenses (12a-12i) are provided for bringing rf acoustic waves to essentially diffraction-limited foci at or near the free surface of a pool of ink. These lenses (12a-12i) produce focal patterns which are relatively free of localized amplitude variations, so they may be employed to fabricate acoustic printheads (11) having relatively stable characteristics for acoustic printing.
摘要:
A nozzleless print head for ink jet printing and the like comprises one or more essentially planar surface acoustic wave transducers (12a) which are submerged at a predetermined depth in a liquid filled reservoir (13a) so that each of the transducers (12a) launches a converging cone of leaky, coherent Rayleigh waves into the reservoir, thereby producing an acoustic beam (33a) which comes to a generally circular focus at or near the surface (17) of the reservoir (13a) (i.e., the liquid/air interface). The acoustic beam (33a) may be intensity modulated to control the ejection timing, or an external source (34) may be used to extract droplets from the acoustically excited liquid on the surface (17) of the reservoir (13a) on demand. Regardless of the timing mechanism employed, the size of the ejected droplets is determined by the waist diameter of the focused acoustic beam (33a). To control, the direction in which the droplets are ejected, provision (43, 44) may be made for producing a controllable acoustical asymmetry for steering the focused acoustic beam (33a) in a direction generally parallel to the surface (17) of the reservoir (13a).
摘要:
The free ink surface levels (13) of acoustic ink printers (11) are controlled by cap structures (31) that have substantially non-retroreflective aperture configurations. The non-retroreflective configurations of the apertures (32,42) of these cap structures (31) cause diffusive scattering or directional deflection of the reflected surface ripple waves, thereby significantly reducing the time that is required for the oscillatory perturbations, which are caused by reflection of the surface ripple waves that are generated during the droplet ejection process, to dissipate to a negligibly low amplitude in the critical local areas of the ejection sites. This, in turn, increases the droplet ejection rates at which printers (11) having such cap structures (31) can be operated asynchronously.