Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
2002-06-26
2004-08-24
Meier, Stephen D. (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S019000, C347S222000, C347S005000, C347S020000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06779868
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer, and more specifically, the present invention discloses a printer that is capable of setting a calibration position within a range in which a print head is able to print a document.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Please refer to FIG.
1
.
FIG. 1
is a perspective view of a printer
10
disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,861,726. The printer
10
comprises a housing
12
, a carriage
14
installed inside the housing
12
that moves in right and left directions on a horizontal track
16
, an ink container
18
installed on the carriage
14
, a print head
20
set on the ink container
18
, and a step motor
30
for driving the carriage
14
. The printer
10
further comprises a light source
22
, and a light sensor
24
installed outside a printing range of the printer
10
. The carriage
14
further comprises a shield
26
for blocking light transmitted from the light source
22
to the light sensor
24
.
The step motor
30
drives the carriage
14
to move left and right along the horizontal track
16
, so that the print head
20
is able to print the document. Before the printer
10
starts to print the document, the printer
10
calibrates a position of the carriage
14
to a zeroed position, i.e. the position that the light source
22
and the light sensor
24
is at, outside of the printing range. The position of the carriage
14
is calibrated by using the step motor
30
to drive the carriage
14
to move until the shield
26
on the carriage
14
blocks the light transmitted from the light source
22
to the light sensor
24
. When starting printing of the document, the step motor
30
drives the carriage
14
to a printing start point, so as to enter the printing range, then prints the document until printing is finished, or the next calibration time, at which time the position of the carriage
14
is zeroed again.
In the prior art printing method, the printer
10
is unable to detect immediately if the position of the print head
20
is not accurate, so the print head
20
continues printing on a wrong position, until the whole document is printed, or the next calibration. This wastes time and ink.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
It is therefore a primary objective of the claimed invention to provide a printer that is capable of setting the calibration position inside the printing range. While not consuming excess time, the printer is able to detect the position of the print head in the printing process, so as to check whether the position of the print head is correct or not. If the error of the print head position is too large, then the printer is able to stop printing and calibrate the position of the carriage instantly, not wasting printing time and ink.
The claimed invention, briefly summarized, discloses a printer including a position detecting mechanism for detecting and calibrating a position of a carriage on a horizontal track, and a print head installed on the carriage for printing a document. The position detecting mechanism has a first portion installed at a calibration position of the horizontal track, and a second portion installed on the carriage. The calibration position is positioned within a document printing range of the print head, so that the second portion is capable of passing by the first portion during a printing process.
It is an advantage of the claimed invention that the printer has a position detecting mechanism installed within the printing range of the print head, so that the position of the carriage is detected and calibrated in the printing process. If an error of the print head position exceeds a predetermined range, but is within an acceptable range, the printer can calibrate the position of the carriage after printing the document. In contrast, if the position of the print head has a serious misalignment, then the printer may stop printing the document and calibrate the position of the carriage instantly, to avoid wasting printing time and ink.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, which is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
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patent: 5842800 (1998-12-01), Bailey et al.
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patent: 6010206 (2000-01-01), Simons
patent: 6015204 (2000-01-01), Ha
patent: 6164750 (2000-12-01), Subirada et al.
patent: 6264303 (2001-07-01), Watanabe
patent: 6378977 (2002-04-01), Gompertz
patent: 6412899 (2002-07-01), Choo
patent: 6419342 (2002-07-01), Bronswijk et al.
patent: 6431775 (2002-08-01), Huang et al.
patent: 6435641 (2002-08-01), Tung et al.
patent: 6499827 (2002-12-01), Elgee
patent: 311207 (1997-07-01), None
BenQ Corporation
Hsu Winston
Liang Leonard S
Meier Stephen D.
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