公开(公告)号：US5847727A

公开(公告)日：1998-12-08

申请号：US644728

申请日：1996-05-09

申请人： Amy VanLiew ,  Gerold G. Firl

发明人： Amy VanLiew ,  Gerold G. Firl

IPC分类号： B41J2/165

CPC分类号： B41J2/16547

摘要： A service station for use with an inkjet printer is described. The service station includes a sled that is mounted to the printer's chassis. Caps and wipers can be mounted on the sled for each of the printer's movable carriage-mounted printheads. The sled and the chassis, and the sled and carriage, are each cam-coupled so that movement of the carriage produces slight vertical and lateral movement of the sled out of a nominal position to automatically place the sled in one of three primary positions relative to the carriage: an elevated position for capping the printheads, an intermediate position for wiping the printheads and a lowered position for free reciprocal movement of the carriage without interference between the printheads and either the caps or the wipers. In one embodiment of the invention, prior to wiping the printhead of a print cartridge, the print cartridge is spitted to wet the printhead. Such spitting is particularly beneficial for a print cartridge that dispenses a pigmented ink (frequently a black ink), since the pigmented ink tends to crust on the printhead more than inks that are dyes. Preferably, a plurality of drops of ink are spit from the print cartridge at each of a plurality of frequencies. The method according to the invention is applicable to printers including one or more print cartridges.

摘要翻译： 描述了与喷墨打印机一起使用的维修站。 维修站包括安装在打印机机箱上的滑轨。 每个打印机的可移动支架安装的打印头都可以将雪橇和雨刷安装在雪橇上。 滑板和底盘以及滑板和滑架各自凸轮连接，使得滑架的运动产生滑雪板的标准位置的轻微的垂直和横向运动，以将滑板自动地放置在三个主要位置中的一个相对于 托架：用于盖住打印头的升高位置，用于擦拭打印头的中间位置和用于托架自由往复运动的降低位置，而不会在打印头和盖子或擦拭器之间产生干扰。 在本发明的一个实施例中，在擦拭打印墨盒的打印头之前，打印墨盒被喷洒以润湿打印头。 这种吐痰对于分配着色油墨（通常是黑色油墨）的打印盒特别有利，因为着色油墨比打印头上的油墨比作为染料的油墨倾向于外壳更多。 优选地，多个墨水滴以多个频率中的每一个从打印墨盒吐出。 根据本发明的方法可应用于包括一个或多个打印墨盒的打印机。