A system for selectively shifting the phase of drop charging along the array of ink jets of a continuous ink jet printer by producing a replicate signal of the drop stimulation signal; selectively shifting the phase of the replicate signal to provide a phase control signal; synchronizing a media feed tachometer signal to the phase control signal to produce a print enable signal; and controlling address of the charge electrodes with the print enable signal. The system further includes a selection mode wherein drop charge phase can be made random by selecting synchronization with the media feed tachometer signal.
A method of manufacturing an inkjet printer component and an inkjet printer component electropolishing device are provided. The method includes positioning an electrode in a fluid passageway of an inkjet printer component, the electrode including a conductive face and a nonconductive face; polishing a side of the fluid passageway by: biasing the nonconductive face of the electrode toward a side of the fluid passageway such that the conductive face of the electrode does not contact any portion of the fluid passageway; providing an electrolytic fluid to the fluid passageway of the inkjet printer component; and applying a voltage between the electrode and the inkjet printer component.
A print assembly for pagewidth inkjet printing that includes an elongate carrier that is mountable on a support structure of a printer in an operative position with respect to a platen of the printer. A number of printhead chips are positioned on the carrier. The printhead chips together define a printhead that is configured to eject at least one billion drops per second into a printing zone defined between the printhead and the platen of the printer. Control circuitry is also positioned on the carrier and is configured to control operation of the printhead chips.
A pilot nozzle is provided for a multi-jet printing head. The pilot nozzle is continuously monitored to detect changes in phase due to changes in ink temperature, viscosity, pressure or other reason. Should a change occur requiring that the pilot nozzle be operated on a different clock phase, this change is made to all of the nozzles, without interrupting printing. The pilot nozzle is not used for printing, but is continuously monitored for the sole purpose of detecting phase changes.
A method, and apparatus for performing the method, are intended to prevent all of the ink discharged from a defective one of multiple nozzles in a continuous inkjet printhead from being used for printing on a print medium. This can be done by periodically heating the defective nozzle at a frequency that is greater than frequencies other nozzles which are not defective are periodically heated, to cause the defective nozzle to only discharge ink droplets that have a smaller volume than ink droplets discharged from the nozzles that are not defective. Then, the smaller volume droplets discharged from the defective nozzle are prevented from reaching a print medium, but the larger volume ink droplets discharged from the nozzles that are not defective are allowed to reach the print medium.
An ink pen assembly of a continuous ink jet printer includes a printhead nest and an ink pen cartridge removably received within the nest. The cartridge includes a pen body in electrical communication with the printhead nest, and a nozzle body in fluid communication with the printhead nest. A charge electrode charges ink drops breaking off from ink jetted from an outlet of the nozzle body. A deflection electrode deflects the charged ink drops along an axis substantially transverse to a direction of travel of a substrate being printed. An ink block mount includes an ink blocking element for diverting deflected ink drops. An ink block actuator pivots with respect to the pen body to adjust the position of the ink blocking element. The printhead nest defines at least four ink outlets for delivering different colored inks, and at least four ink pen cartridges are removably received by the printhead nest.
