Ink-quantity and low ink sensing for ink-jet printers

Details Ink-quantity and low ink sensing for ink-jet printers Ink-quantity and low ink sensing for ink-jet printers

1989-07-11

1990-11-27

Miller, Jr., George H.

Recorders

Markers and/or driving means therefor

With ink supply to marker

346 11, B41J 2175

Patent

active

049739930

ABSTRACT:
For an ink-jet printer, an indication of the quantity of ink remaining gives the user useful information about when to replace a disposable printhead or ink cartridge. The invention disclosed herein provides a means for computing remaining ink and for sensing a true low-ink and out-of-ink condition. Ink is supplied to a printhead (24) by an elastic bladder (16) which is periodically refilled from an ink bag (14). The bladder is designed to collapse in a repeatable manner as ink is consumed. A sensor probe (100), which moves along the bladder's collapse axis, dimples the bladder prior to printing to initialize the collapse mode. The probe position along the axis is measured when its sensitive tip (102) touches the bladder. The difference between bladder positions before and after refill is used in an algorithm to compute the bladder's volumetric change. This is the ink consumed on each print cycle, and gives the quantity of ink remaining when subtracted from an initial value. The bladder's position is known when it refills completely, but it will not reach this position when the ink bag fully collapses from ink exhaustion. Sensing that the bladder has not extended to the full position after a refill cycle produces the true low-ink and out-of-ink indication.

REFERENCES:
patent: 4342042 (1982-07-01), Cruz-Uribe et al.

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