EP1366910B1

EP1366910B1 - Load and feed apparatus for solid ink

Info

Publication number: EP1366910B1
Application number: EP20030011919
Authority: EP
Inventors: Brent R. Jones
Original assignee: Xerox Corp
Current assignee: Xerox Corp
Priority date: 2002-05-30
Filing date: 2003-05-27
Publication date: 2006-06-21
Anticipated expiration: 2023-05-27
Also published as: EP1366910A3; DE60306262T2; JP2003341102A; JP4293838B2; EP1366910A2; DE60306262D1

Description

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY

Solid ink jet printers were first offered commercially in the mid-1980's. One of the first such printers was offered by Howtek Inc. which used pellets of colored cyan, yellow, magenta and black ink that were fed into shape coded openings. These openings fed generally vertically into the heater assembly of the printer where they were melted into a liquid state for jetting onto the receiving medium. The pellets were fed generally vertically downwardly, using gravity feed, into the printer. These pellets were elongated and tapered on their ends with separate rounded, five, six, and seven sided shapes each corresponding to a particular color.
Later solid ink printers, such as the Tektronix Phaser^™, the Tektronix Phaser^™ 300, and the Jolt printer offered by Dataproducts Corporation, used differently shaped solid ink sticks that were 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. These ink sticks were shape coded and generally small. One system used an ink stick loading system that initially fed the ink sticks into a preload chamber and then loaded the sticks into a load chamber by the action of a transfer lever. Earlier solid or hot melt ink systems used a flexible web of hot melt ink that is incrementally unwound and advanced to a heater location or vibratory delivery of particulate hot melt ink to the melt chamber.
US 5 861 903 A discloses a solid ink loader for feeding solid ink sticks and comprising several feed channels and a by plate covering the channels.
The present invention relates to phase change ink jet printers, more particularly to loading mechanisms for such printers, and more specificafly to multiple and color-coded key plates for use inside the loading mechanism.
The present invention provides a solid ink loader for feeding solid ink sticks in a phase change ink printer according to claim 1. Embodiments of the invention are set forth in the dependent claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be described in detail herein with reference to the following figures in which like reference numerals denote like elements and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an exemplary embodiment of a color printer with the printer top cover closed.
FIG. 2 illustrates a top view of an exemplary embodiment of a set of ink sticks.
FIG. 3 illustrates a front view of an exemplary embodiment of one of the ink sticks of FIG. 2.
FIG. 4 is an enlarged partial top perspective view of the printer of FIG. 1 with the ink access cover open showing a solid ink stick in position to be loaded into the appropriate ink stick receptacle.
FIG. 5 illustrates a top view of an exemplary embodiment of a set of key plates for the printer of FIGS. 1 and 4, wherein the key plates have insertion openings corresponding to the ink sticks of FIGS. 2 and 3.
FIG. 6 illustrates a perspective view of the leftmost key plate of FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 discloses an embodiment of a solid ink or phase change printer 10 having an ink access cover 20. The ink access cover 20 is shown in a closed position in FIG. 1. Front panel display screen 31 can display messages concerning the status of the printer. These messages can include, for example, "ink low" or "ink empty."
FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate embodiments of ink sticks for use with the embodiments of an ink loader described herein. As will be noted repeatedly repeatedly during the description of embodiments, the exact configuration of the ink sticks disclosed herein is not important either to the ink loader disclosed herein, or to specific components thereof. However, a description of general features of the ink sticks is useful for a better understanding of the disclosed embodiments of an ink loader.
Solid ink sticks 2 are used in phase change ink jet printers such as the printer 10 shown in FIG. 1. In embodiments, the ink sticks have a generally top portion, which can be a substantially horizontal top surface, and a generally bottom portion, which can be a substantially horizontal bottom surface. Side surfaces connect the top and bottom of the ink stick. The side surfaces can be substantially linear from top to bottom, or they can be stepped or segmented, as seen in FIG. 3. In embodiments, the ink sticks for the different ink feed channels of a particular printer can be made identically. In other embodiments, such as the embodiments shown in FIG. 2, each color of ink stick can be made to have a particular perimeter shape, as viewed from above the ink stick, different from the perimeter shapes of other colors of ink sticks. The ink stick perimeter shape can be the shape of either the top or the bottom (or both) of the ink stick, or of protruding portions from the sides of the ink stick. In FIG. 2, each ink stick has a face surface 3, a rear surface 4, a first side surface 5, and a second side surface 6. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the face surface 3 and the rear surface 4 have nonplanar contours. Further, the face surface 3 and the rear surface 4 are designed to substantially complement each other so that the sticks nest together in a feed channel.
The perimeter shape as viewed from the top of the ink stick may include features that extend from the side surfaces below the ink stick top surface. Unless stated otherwise, when the term perimeter is used it shall mean the view looking down on the ink stick, as opposed to the perimeter of the top surface of the ink stick.
Ink sticks can have different shapes to distinguish among different ink sticks. In particular, ink sticks can have different outer perimeter shapes to provide differentiation. Different portions of the perimeter of the ink stick can be associated with different differentiation elements.
In embodiments, the contours of at least portions of the face surfaces 3 and the contours of at least portions of the rear surfaces 4 can be used to distinguish the particular printer model in which the ink sticks should be used. In such embodiments, each ink stick in a particular printer model would have the same face surface contour and the same rear surface contour regardless of the color of the ink stick. However, the contours of the face surfaces and rear surfaces of the ink sticks would be different than the contours of the face and rear surfaces of ink sticks in other printer models. When used with complementary insertion openings or receptacles 24 in the key plates 18 (shown in FIGS. 5 and 6) or push blocks 50 (shown in FIGS. 23-26), the contours of the front 3 and 4 rear surfaces help prevent the user from adding the wrong ink sticks to a particular printer.
In embodiments, each color of ink stick 2A-D has its own distinctive shape differentiated from other colors of ink sticks by its side surfaces (5,6). The contour of the first side surface 5 and the contour of the second side surface 6 can be different for each color. When used with complementary insertion openings or receptacles 24 in the key plates 18, the side contours help prevent the user from adding the wrong ink sticks to a particular channel. In embodiments, the front 3 and rear 4 surfaces could also be used to distinguish different colors of ink sticks. Likewise, the side surfaces 5 and 6 could be used for model differentiation. In other embodiments, any combination of the surfaces of the ink sticks can be used for various differentiating functions.
FIGS. 2 and 3 are meant to be exemplary and the particular contours of the face, rear, and side surfaces of the ink sticks and key plates shown in these figures should not be considered limiting. Further, the ink sticks can be any color, but typically will be one of the following four colors: cyan, yellow, magenta, and black. Each color of ink stick will have approximately the same volume as the other colors.
FIG. 3 illustrates a front view of the ink sticks of FIG. 2. In embodiments, each of the ink sticks 2A-D has a lower guide element portion 7 formed as part of an extremity of the ink stick body. In the illustrated embodiment, the guide element portion 7 extends downward from near one edge of the ink stick body. This guide element portion 7 fits into, and slidingly engages, a channel guide rail 26 (see FIG. 16) of a feed channel 25 of the ink stick loading bin or loader 16. The ink stick guide element portion 7 is one of the supporting features of the ink sticks, and provides a first area, line, or point of contact between the ink stick and the feed channel. Each ink stick also has a second guide element portion 8 formed on the opposite side of the ink stick body from the first guide element. The second guide element portion 8 can be formed near the upper portion of the inks stick, as a portion of one side of the top of the ink stick. The second guide portion 8 provides a second area, line, or point of contact between the ink stick and the feed channel.
FIG. 4 illustrates the printer 10 with its ink access cover 20 raised. The printer 10 includes an ink load linkage element 30, and an ink stick feed assembly or ink loader 16. In embodiments, key plates 18 are positioned within the printer over a chute 9 divided into multiple feed channels 25. A view of the chute 9 is shown in FIG. 16. Each of the four ink colors has a dedicated channel for loading, feeding, and melting in the ink loader. The channels 25 guide the solid ink sticks toward the melt plates 29 (see FIG. 15), located at the opposite end of the channels from the key plate insertion opening. These melt plates melt the ink and feed it into the individual ink color reservoirs within the print head (not shown) of the printer 10. The chute 9 in conjunction with key plates 18 and melt plates 29 also provides a housing which can accommodate a single or plurality of ink sticks of each color which is staged and available for melting based on printer demands.
Embodiments of the printer include either a single key plate, or multiple key plates 18 for different feed channels 25. In the illustrated embodiment, each feed channel has an individual key plate. FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate in detail the key plates that control which ink sticks 2 enter which channels 25. The key plates 18A-D have receptacles or insertion openings 24 through which ink sticks are inserted into the channels 25. While each key plate 18 of FIGS. 5 and 6 has a single insertion opening 24 located near the rear of the key plate, it is possible to use multiple insertion openings.
The insertion openings 24 in the key plates 18 are shaped to substantially match the perimeter shape of the ink sticks 2 as viewed from the top surface of that ink stick. Each of the key plates 18 corresponds to a particular channel 25 and has a shaped or keyed insertion opening or receptacle 24 corresponding to a particular ink stick perimeter shape. In embodiments, this differentiation is provided by forming each color of ink stick 2A-D with differently shaped face, rear, first side, and/or second side features, and forming each key plate 18 with a correspondingly keyed opening or receptacle 24. Keying makes accidental mixing of the ink stick colors improbable. The keying of the ink sticks 2A-D and openings 24A-D help prevent color contamination of the inks in the individual color reservoirs (not shown) in a print head (also not shown). Some of the keying elements of the ink stick may be eliminated from certain segments of the key plate insertion opening in favor of incorporating the keying function for those segments in the push block 50 or other components of the ink loader 16, such as one of the walls of each channel 25 of the chute 9.

Claims

A solid ink loader (16) for feeding solid ink stick (2, 2A-2D) in a phase change ink jet printer, wherein the solid ink sticks include first ink sticks having a first perimeter shape and second ink sticks having a second perimeter shape, the loader comprising:
a first feed channel (25, 25A-D) for receiving the first ink sticks;

a second feed channel for receiving the second ink sticks;

a first key plate (18, 18A-D) covering at least a portion of the first feed channel, the first key plate having a first opening (24, 24A-D) corresponding to the first perimeter shape; and

a second key plate (18, 18A-D) separate from the first key plate covering at least a portion of the second feed channel, the second key plate having a second opening (24, 24A-D) corresponding to the second perimeter shape.
The loader of claim 1, wherein the first opening and the second opening have the same dimensions.
The loader of claim 1, wherein the first opening (24, 24A-D) and the second opening (24, 24A-D) have different dimensions.
The loader of claim 1, wherein the first key plate (18, 18A-D) has first ink stick color identification markings corresponding to the first ink stick color and the second key plate has second ink stick color identification markings corresponding to the second ink stick color.
The solid ink loader of claim 1, wherein the first insertion opening (24, 24A-D) includes specific side walls configured to admit each of the first ink sticks (2, 2A-2D) into the first feed channel (25, 25A-D), and
wherein the second insertion opening (24, 24A-D) includes opposing side walls configured to admit each of the second ink sticks (2, 2A-2D) into the second feed chanel (25, 25A-D).
The loader of claim 1, wherein the solid ink sticks (2, 2A-D) further include third ink sticks (2, 2A-D) having a third perimeter shape and fourth ink sticks (2, 2A-D) having a fourth perimeter shape, the feed system further comprising
a third feed channel (25, 25A-D) for receiving the third ink sticks;
a fourth feed channel (25, 25A-D) for receiving the fourth ink sticks;
a third key plate (18, 18A-D) covering at least a portion of the third feed channel, the third key plate having a third insertion opening corresponding to the third perimeter shape; and
a fourth key (18, 18A-D) plate covering at least a portion of the fourth feed channel, the fourth key plate having a fourth insertion opening corresponding to the fourth perimeter shape.
A solid ink feed system for feeding multiple types of solid ink stick (2, 2A-2D) in a phase change ink jet printer, wherein each type of solid ink stick has a distinct shape, different from the shapes of the other types of solid ink sticks, the feed system comprising:
a plurality of feed channels (25, 25A-D) each feed channel capable of receiving ink sticks;

a plurality of key plates (27), at least one plate for use with each of the plurality of feed channels, each key plate having at least one insertion opening (24, 24A-D) corresponding to the shape of a particular type of solid ink stick (2, 2A-D).
The system of claim 7, wherein each key plate (27) has color identification markings corresponding to a particular color of solid ink stick.
The system of claim 8, wherein the color identification markings cover substantially the entire key plate (27).
The system of claim 9, wherein the color identification markings include a plurality of key plate colors, and wherein each key plate color is substantially similar to the particular color of ink stick to which the key plate corresponds.