Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Medium and processing means
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-11
2001-02-06
Eickholt, Eugene (Department: 2854)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Medium and processing means
C346S135100, C118S046000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06183079
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an ink jet printer having a coating apparatus positioned along a printing substrate feed path and spaced from an ink jet printing device.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Drop-on-demand ink jet printers use thermal energy to produce a vapor bubble in an ink-filled chamber to expel a droplet. A thermal energy generator or heating element, usually a resistor, is located in the chamber on a heater chip near a discharge nozzle. A plurality of chambers, each provided with a single heating element, are provided in the printer's printhead. The printhead typically comprises the heater chip and a nozzle plate having a plurality of the discharge nozzles formed therein. The printhead forms part of an ink jet print cartridge which also comprises an ink-filled container.
Ink jet printers have typically suffered from two major shortcomings. First, optical density of a printed image varies greatly with the print media or substrate being printed upon. Second, ink drying time is excessive.
Attempts to solve these problems through ink formulation have resulted in a loss of performance in other areas, and in general any change made to solve one of the two problems has resulted in aggravation of the other problem.
Heating stations positioned before, coincident with and after the print zone can improve optical density and drying time, but at the expense of power consumption and machine complexity. Hence, this solution has not been found desirable.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved ink jet printer which is capable of printing images uniformly well on a wide variety of commercially available substrates and wherein ink drying time is minimized.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This need is met by the present invention wherein an ink jet printer is provided having a coating apparatus for applying a thin layer of liquid coating material onto at least a portion of a first side of a substrate. Preferably, the coating apparatus is positioned before the ink jet printing device. It is also preferred that the coating material have a high viscosity such that only a minimum amount of water is introduced onto the substrate. Typically, the functionality of the coating material is not diminished by the addition of water to the coating material. However, when the substrate is formed from a paper material, the additional water applied to the substrate exacerbates substrate curl and cockle. The coating apparatus is capable of operating over a wide range of speeds while maintaining a nearly constant rate of application.
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Baker Ronald Willard
Baskette Michael Wesley
Beach Bradley Leonard
Blaine David Clay
Heink Philip Jerome
Eickholt Eugene
Lambert D. Brent
Lexmark International Inc.
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