A small printer for printing characters on a printing medium especially adapted for use in a portable electronic calculator. The printer includes a frame having a carriage slidably mounted thereon for lateral displacement across the printing medium. An ink jet printing mechanism is carried on the carriage for selectively printing characters at predetermined positions along lines of the printing medium. A crank mechanism couples a motor to the carriage so that the printing mechanism can be translated across the printing medium. A printing position control circuit determines when the printing mechanism is in each predetermined printing position and selectively supplies a printing signal to the printing mechanism so that the printing mechanism will print a character at the selected predetermined positions.
A recording apparatus for effecting recording on a recording medium is portable and capable of bearing against the recording medium. The recording apparatus comprises recording means for effecting recording on the recording medium, and control means for controlling the ON and OFF of recording by the recording means.
This application is directed to an ink jet pen having an ink supply housing which includes a primary ink reservoir (30) and a secondary ink reservoir (26). A balancing capillary member is positioned within the ink supply housing and includes ink flow path (20, 24) which extends between the primary ink reservoir (30) and the secondary ink reservoir (26). This capillary member is operative to draw ink from the primary ink reservoir (30) and into or toward the secondary ink reservoir (26) by capillary action as temperature and pressure within the primary ink reservoir increases. Conversely, when temperature and pressure in the housing decreases, ink will be drawn back into or toward the primary ink reservoir (30). In addition, the primary ink reservoir (30) is connected by way of a suitable ink feed path to an ink jet printhead (32) for supplying ink to the printhead during an ink jet printing operation.
A method of cleaning an ink jet recording head uses a flexible blade that is moved forwardly and backwardly in response to the capping operation of the front surface of the recording head and the movement of a carriage, and the front surface of the recording head is wiped by the blade in response to the movement of the carriage. An ink jet recording apparatus has a recording head disposed on a carriage, cap means for covering the front surface of the recording head and a blade for cleaning the front surface of the recording head, characterized by blade moving means for moving the blade forward or backward in the direction of the recording head by movement of the cap means and movement of the carriage.
A self-contained non-contact writing device is disclosed that employs a thermal ink jet to transfer ink to a writing substrate. The problems associated with conventional direct contact writing devices are avoided by preventing direct contact of the ink transfer mechanism and the writing substrate.
A removable ink cartridge having a generally rectangular parallelepiped ink container having a top wall with a vent hole, a bottom wall with a recess and an ink supply hole, and side walls with vertical ribs. A larger felt block having a low density is arranged in the chamber and a small felt block having a high density is arranged in the recess. An elastic tubular plug is fitted in the ink supply hole to receive a tubular member of a printing head. The tubular plug has a thin membrane having a central hole the diameter of which is small when the tubular member is not inserted in the tubular plug and is enlarged when the tubular member is inserted in the tubular plug sufficiently to push and to deform the thin membrane.
