Printer consumable cartridge

Details Printer consumable cartridge Printer consumable cartridge

2000-05-23

2001-09-18

Le, N. (Department: 2861)

Incremental printing of symbolic information

Ink jet

Fluid or fluid source handling means

C347S086000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06290349

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to ink jet printers and in particular, consumable cartridges for ink jet printers.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Ink jet printers are widely used for printed document production. Ink jet printheads eject droplets of ink or other colorant onto a media substrate to form the printed text or image. As the droplet size affects the resolution of the print, there is a need to keep the ejected ink drops small which in turn requires that the ejection nozzles in the printhead be correspondingly small.
To prevent particulate contaminants from clogging the nozzles, some ink jet printers are designed such that positive air pressure is provided within the printheads. The air supplied to the printheads to create the positive pressure should be filtered to guard against clogging from within by airborne particles. Ais with all filters, the air filter must be periodically cleaned or replaced. Some businesses may have this done as part of a maintenance regime; however, often it is neglected until the printers' operation is compromised. It will be appreciated that printers used at home are even less likely to receive regular maintenance.
For this reason, it is expected that printers used in the Applicant's netpage system would ordinarily be susceptible to this problem. A detailed overview of the netpage system is provided below. Netpage printers are an important part of this system and a description of these is also set out below. These printers produce magazine quality printing in the form of bound documents. Because of the high-resolution printing, they have comparatively small ink nozzles formed using microelectromechanical techniques, which can easily clog from microscopic airborne contaminants. Furthermore, common forms of the printer, such as the wallprinter, are intended solely for use in a domestic environment where there is unlikely to be any regular maintenance regime in place.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to overcome or ameliorate the above problems associated with ink jet printers. Accordingly, the present invention provides A replaceable cartridge for supplying consumable material to an ink jet printer, the printer having:
a printhead;
means provide air to the print head; and,
binding means adapted to bind printed pages into a bound document; wherein,
the replaceable cartridge includes:
an air filter unit, such that in use the air provided to the printhead is filtered by the air filter unit; and
a storage chamber for binding material suitable for use in the binding means.
Preferably, the air filter unit is capable of removing microscopic particles from the air provided to the printhead. In a further preferred form, the means to provide air to the printhead includes an air pump and conduit system for fluid communication with the printhead; wherein,
the filter unit is adapted to detachably interface with the conduit system to filter airflow to the printhead. In a particularly preferred form, the cartridge is adapted to supply the printer with;
cyan, magenta, yellow and/or black ink.
In other preferred forms, the cartridge is also adapted to supply infrared ink and/or fixative.
As discussed above, the present invention will be described with reference to the netpage system developed by the Applicant and in particular, the netpage wallprinter developed specifically for use within this system. However, it will be appreciated that the invention may be embodied in many other forms.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4571599 (1986-02-01), Rezanka
patent: 6048055 (2000-04-01), Hakkaku
patent: 6099189 (2000-08-01), Owen et al.
patent: 4128101 (1993-02-01), None

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