Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
2002-04-29
2004-07-13
Nguyen, Lamson (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Fluid or fluid source handling means
C347S099000, C347S084000, C347S085000, C347S095000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06761443
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates generally to ink printers, the ink used in such ink printers, and the apparatus and method for feeding the ink into the printer.
BACKGROUND
Solid ink or phase change ink printers conventionally receive ink in a solid form, either as pellets or as ink sticks. A feed mechanism delivers the solid ink to a heater assembly, where the ink is melted into a liquid state for jetting onto a receiving medium.
Solid ink or phase change ink printers conventionally receive ink in a solid form and convert the ink to a liquid form for jetting onto a receiving medium. The printer receives the solid ink either as pellets or as ink sticks in a feed chute. With solid ink sticks, the solid ink sticks are either gravity fed or spring loaded through a feed channel of the feed chute toward a heater plate. The heater plate melts the solid ink into its liquid form. In a printer that receives solid ink sticks, the sticks are either gravity fed or spring loaded into a feed channel and pressed against a heater plate to melt the solid ink into its liquid form. U.S. Pat. No. 5,734,402 for a Solid Ink Feed System, issued Mar. 31, 1998 to Rousseau et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,861,903 for an Ink Feed System, issued Jan. 19, 1999 to Crawford et al. describe exemplary systems for delivering solid ink sticks into a phase change ink printer.
SUMMARY
A set of ink sticks for a phase change ink jet printer includes a plurality of ink sticks. Each ink stick is formed of a three dimensional ink stick body with a perimeter. Each of the ink stick bodies has one or more key elements formed in its perimeter. Each of the key elements has a uniform shape and size. The key elements are in different positions on the perimeter of each ink stick, and particularly the key elements of some of the ink sticks are on a different side of the ink stick than are the key elements on others of the ink sticks in the set. Corresponding keys on the perimeters of the openings through which the ink sticks are inserted into their appropriate feed channel exclude ink sticks of the set that do not have the appropriate perimeter key element.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5038157 (1991-08-01), Howard
patent: 5442387 (1995-08-01), Loofbourow et al.
patent: 5455604 (1995-10-01), Adams et al.
patent: 5510821 (1996-04-01), Jones et al.
patent: 5734402 (1998-03-01), Rousseau et al.
patent: 5805191 (1998-09-01), Jones et al.
patent: 5861903 (1999-01-01), Crawford et al.
patent: D409237 (1999-05-01), Ellers et al.
patent: D412527 (1999-08-01), Ellers et al.
patent: D412528 (1999-08-01), Ellers et al.
patent: 5975690 (1999-11-01), Grellmann et al.
patent: 5988805 (1999-11-01), Meinhardt
patent: 6053608 (2000-04-01), Ishii et al.
patent: D436124 (2001-01-01), Mattern et al.
Jones et al., “Alignment Feature For Solid Ink Stick,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. XX/XXX,XXX (Attorney Docket No. D/A 1673), filed concurrently herewith.
Summary of Tektronix/Xerox Corporation Solid Ink Stick Products sold at least one year prior to Apr. 29, 2002.
Arthur David J.
Liang Leonard
Nguyen Lamson
Xerox Corporation
LandOfFree
Keying feature for solid ink stick does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Keying feature for solid ink stick, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Keying feature for solid ink stick will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3194797