Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Housing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-30
2002-02-19
Pham, Hai C. (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Housing
Reexamination Certificate
active
06347868
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to artists' painting tools, and more particularly to hand held tools such as air brushes.
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Air brushes are used by artists to generate effects having soft or blurry features that may be readily blended, and which allow subtle gradations of hue and value. Air brush systems, while useful, are unsuitable for non-professionals seeking to generate similar images, and to engage in recreational creative arts. Air brush systems are relatively expensive, particularly in that they require an air compressor not already found in most households. In addition, the compressor requires an air line that tethers the user to a limited area. Also, air compressors are noisy, creating an unpleasant environment for creative expression. Professional air brushes also require attention to cleaning and service to ensure continued operation. An air brush is capable of emitting only a single color at one time, requiring flushing out of one color paint before beginning with another paint color.
Ink jet printers provide strictly controlled operation of an ink jet pen that ejects ink droplets through small nozzles toward a sheet of printer media. Such printers maintain the pen at a fixed distance from the media, and control the motion of the pen to a straight swath to ensure that droplets are distributed in a controlled raster or grid pattern. Electronic circuitry on a pen controls various parameters, such as print head die temperature, to ensure that droplet volume is consistent over a wide range of environmental conditions, ensuring uniform printing. Occasionally during the production of ink jet pens, a pen is rejected as unsuitable for the critical function of printing. Such a rejected pen might operate adequately, except that the temperature control circuitry is inoperable, allowing droplet size to depart from strict constraints required for printing uniformity. In other instances, a single ink nozzle out of the several hundred nozzles might be clogged or otherwise inoperable, which would cause a defect in some printer output. These rejected pens, while few in comparison to the multitudes successfully produced to strict standards for printers, lack any useful application and must be discarded at significant cost to the manufacturer.
The present invention overcomes the limitations of the prior art by providing a painting tool with a carriage having a control switch, control circuitry, and means to connect an ink jet pen to the carriage and control circuitry. An ink jet pen may be included in the carriage, and more than one switch may be provided, with one switch controlling hue, and the other controlling flow rate. An on-board power source may be included to provide cordless operation.
REFERENCES:
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patent: 4758849 (1988-07-01), Piatt et al.
patent: 5501535 (1996-03-01), Hastings et al.
patent: 5911533 (1999-06-01), Fassler et al.
patent: 5953497 (1999-09-01), Kokubo et al.
patent: 4-141463 (1992-05-01), None
Headrick Charles R.
Martin Eric T.
Hewlett--Packard Company
Pham Hai C.
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