Steven W Steinfield

6334661, Jan 1, 2002

Jul 2, 1999

09/347076

Steven W. Steinfield - San Diego CA
Joseph E. Scheffelin - Poway CA
William S. Colburn - San Diego CA

Hewlett-Packard Company - Palo Alto CA

B41J 2145

347 20

This present invention is embodied in a printing system and method for inducing shrinkage-tensioning of a flexible nozzle member of a printhead portion of an inkjet printer with an adhesive and novel arrangement. The printing system of the present invention includes a nozzle member securely coupled to a printhead body with an adhesive arrangement that allows shrinkage-induce tensioning of the nozzle member. The adhesive arrangement includes having an adhesive located between a top portion of the printhead body and the flexible nozzle member. The top portion has a mechanical structure such that it induces tensioning of the flexible nozzle member during thermal expansion of the adhesive. Namely, the adhesive arrangement of the printing system of the present invention is capable of efficiently tensioning, and thus, flattening the flexible nozzle member during the adhesion process of the nozzle member. As a result, trajectory errors of ejected ink droplets from the nozzles are reduced.

6378984, Apr 30, 2002

Jul 31, 1998

09/127360

Steven Warren Steinfield - San Diego CA
Kirk Edward Novotny - San Diego CA

Hewlett-Packard Company - Palo Alto CA

B41J 214

347 47, 347 44, 347 20

This disclosure describes an improved print cartridge that reduces dimple in the nozzle member and the attendant nozzle trajectory errors. In a preferred embodiment, a nozzle member has a plurality of ink orifices formed therein by suitable processing techniques. A substrate containing a plurality of heating elements and associated ink ejection chambers is affixed to the nozzle member via suitable processing with a suitable adhesive. The heating elements are mounted on a back surface of the nozzle member, each heating element being located proximate to an associated ink ejection chamber and ink orifice, with the back surface of the nozzle member extending over two or more outer edges of the substrate. The nozzle member includes reinforcing features. These features increase the structural integrity of flex circuit in the vicinity of the orifices.

6457821, Oct 1, 2002

Mar 13, 2001

09/805073

Kan Liu - San Diego CA
Steven W. Steinfield - San Diego CA
Joseph E. Scheffelin - Poway CA

Hewlett-Packard Company - Palo Alto CA

B41J 2175

347 93, 347 87

The present invention overcomes the problem of filter blockage created by bubble accumulation underneath the filter of previous printheads with a filter carrier and filter that reduces air bubble blockage of the filter. Namely, air bubble blockage of the filter is avoided by trapping more bubbles in a designated area with a horizontal ink flow, relative to the substrate. In addition to the filter carrier and filter, the printing device further includes an outer housing, a substrate and an ink conduit. The substrate has a back surface and a front surface with ink ejection chambers formed thereon. The ink conduit has a distal end proximate to the back surface of the substrate. The ink conduit, the outer housing and the substrate define an ink flow path to the ink ejection chambers and a bubble accumulation chamber in communication with the ink flow path such that buoyancy will tend to move bubbles that accumulate in the ink flow path into the bubble accumulation chamber.

6467878, Oct 22, 2002

May 10, 2000

09/569585

Steven W. Steinfield - San Diego CA
Craig Andrew LeVier - Escondido CA
John Dangelewicz - San Diego CA

Hewlett-Packard Company - Palo Alto CA

B41J 214

347 47

The present invention is embodied in a system and method for locally controlling the thickness of a flexible nozzle member of a printhead portion of an inkjet printer. The printing system of the present invention includes a printhead assembly and an ink supply for printing ink on print media. The printhead assembly includes a printhead body, ink channels, a semiconductor wafer, a nozzle member and a barrier layer located between the wafer and nozzle member. The nozzle member has plural nozzles coupled to respective ink channels and is secured at a predefined location to the printhead body with a suitable adhesive layer. The flexible member has a mechanical feature defining local thickness variations of the flexible nozzle member. The mechanical feature can be defined in the flexible nozzle member as extending in a range in close proximity to the ink channel and the adhesive. The mechanical feature reduces the stiffness of the flexible nozzle member near the ink channel or near the adhesive for reducing the stress transmitted to an outside portion of the barrier layer.

6508552, Jan 21, 2003

Oct 26, 2001

10/044198

Steven W Steinfield - San Diego CA
Ronald A. Askeland - San Diego CA
Jason R Arbeiter - Poway CA

Hewlett-Packard Co. - Palo Alto CA

B41J 201

347102

A printer having precision ink drying capability and method of assembling the printer. The printer comprises a print head that is adapted to eject a plurality of ink drops through outlet orifices defined by the print head. The ink drops form a plurality of ink marks at a plurality of locations on a recording medium positioned opposite the outlet orifices. A plurality of heaters is disposed near the print head for heating the ink marks on the recording media in order to dry the ink marks. Drying the ink marks fixes the ink to the recording media. A plurality of sensors, that are disposed near the print head are also coupled to respective ones of the heaters for sensing the locations of the ink marks on the recording media. In addition, a controller interconnects each of the heaters to respective ones of the sensors for selectively energizing the heaters according to the locations of the ink marks sensed on the recording media by the sensors. Thus, the controller selectively informs the heaters of the locations of the ink marks on the recording media as the sensors sense the ink marks.

6575550, Jun 10, 2003

Jan 30, 2002

10/060448

Steven W. Steinfield - San Diego CA

Hewlett-Packard Development Company - Houston TX

B41J 201

347 19

Performance of a fluid ejection device is ascertained by using an array of fluid responsive transducers which provide signals useful for determining the size and/or landing position of ejected fluid droplets to obtain useful data for controlling fluid ejection devices such as inkjet printheads.

6688718, Feb 10, 2004

Jul 2, 1999

09/347079

Steven W. Steinfield - San Diego CA
Joseph E. Scheffelin - Poway CA
William S. Colburn - San Diego CA

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. - Houston TX

B41J 29377

347 18, 347 87

This present invention is embodied in a printing system with thermally efficient heat transfer capabilities for reducing dimpling of a nozzle member during fabrication of the printhead portion of an inkjet printer. The printing system of the present invention includes a printhead assembly and an ink supply for printing ink on print media. The printhead assembly includes a printhead body having a heat transfer device, ink channels and a nozzle member having plural nozzles coupled to respective ink channels. The nozzle member is secured to the printhead body with a suitable adhesive layer. The heat transfer device can be defined by a portion of or the entire printhead body for reducing thermal expansion of the printhead body during exposure to heat. Namely, the heat transfer device of the printing system of the present invention is capable of efficiently reducing thermal expansion of the printhead body during the process of adhering (which includes heating and curing the adhesive) the nozzle member to the printhead body. As a result, trajectory errors of ejected ink droplets from the nozzles are reduced.

6692100, Feb 17, 2004

Apr 5, 2002

10/116999

Steven W Steinfield - San Diego CA
Lidia Calvo - San Diego CA
Benjamin H Wood - San Diego CA
Antonio Monclus - Castelldefels Barcelona, ES
Daniel Laborce - San Diego CA

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. - Houston TX

B41J 2165

347 22, 347 29, 347 33

Cleaning apparatus and method of assembly therefor for cleaning an inkjet print head. The cleaning apparatus comprises a web supply for supplying a cleaning web therefrom and a web receiver for receiving the web. A web drive drives the web from the web supply to the web receiver. The web drive pulls the web from the web supply with a first tension force and also pulls the web onto the web receiver with a second tension force greater than the first tension force, so that the web is wrinkle-free while the web slidably engages an exterior surface of the print head to clean the print head. The web remains wrinkle-free to ensure that the surface of the web will contact the surface of the print head without gaps in contact coverage. This enhances cleaning effectiveness compared to a cleaning web having wrinkles.