John BarinagaWest Linn, OR

6340220, Jan 22, 2002

Jan 31, 2000

09/494845

Dean A. Gaylor - Vancouver WA
Michael S. Millman - Vancouver WA
John A. Barinaga - Portland OR

Hewlett-Packard Company - Palo Alto CA

B41J 2165

347 35

A transferring spittoon system is provided for an inkjet printing mechanism to handle waste inkjet ink that has been spit from an inkjet printhead during a nozzle clearing, purging or âspittingâ routine. A rotating spit wheel receives ink residue spit from the printhead. A scraper removes the residue from the spit wheel and directs the residue into a temporary storage container. A transfer mechanism transports the ink residue from the temporary storage container to a permanent storage container. A second scraper may be used to remove the residue from the transfer mechanism and direct the residue into the permanent storage container. The transfer mechanism may be a rotating auger, a conveyor belt, or a turntable. A method of purging ink residue from an inkjet printhead, along with an inkjet printing mechanism having such a transferring spittoon system, are also provided.

6409303, Jun 25, 2002

Mar 31, 2000

09/540595

Jeffrey J. Anderson - Vancouver WA
Michael S. Millman - Vancouver WA
John A. Barinaga - Portland OR

Hewlett-Packard Company - Palo Alto CA

B41J 2165

347 28, 347 33

A two-stage scraper system having coarse and fine cleaning components is provided for cleaning ink residue from a wiper following wiping a printhead in an inkjet printing mechanism. A fixed, coarse scraper bar is sandwiched between a pair of moveable fine scraper bars. During the first scraping stage, the fine scrapers are retracted from the wiper path and the coarse scraper cleans one side of the wiper. During the second scraping stage, the fine scraper move into the wiper path and one of the fine scrapers removes ink residue from the wiper tip. Moving bi-directionally, the wiper reverses to first encounter the coarse scraper, then the other fine scraper, removing ink residue from the other side and tip of the wiper. The fine scrapers may be absorbent or impregnated with an ink solvent. A method of cleaning printhead and inkjet printing mechanisms having two-stage wiper cleaning systems are also provided.

6454385, Sep 24, 2002

Oct 4, 2000

09/679268

Jeffrey J. Anderson - Vancouver WA
John A. Barinaga - Portland OR

Hewlett-Packard Company - Palo Alto CA

B41J 2165

347 28, 347 33

A scraper system having coarse and fine cleaning components is provided for cleaning ink residue from a wiper after wiping ink residue from a printhead in an inkjet printing mechanism. The scraper system includes a stationary coarse scraper bar which the wiper passes over to remove the ink residue from the wiper body. The system a fine scraper of a foam material which may be impregnated with an ink solvent. The fine scraper foam is sliced to form segments separated by slits. As the wiper passes over the fine scraper, the wiper tip plunges into the slits to remove ink residue from the important wiper tips, leaving them clean for the next printhead wiping stroke. The fine scraper may be cam actuated to selectively engage the wiper or mounted stationarily. A method of cleaning printheads and inkjet printing mechanisms having scraper system are also provided.

6561619, May 13, 2003

Jan 31, 2000

09/495010

Alan Shibata - Camas WA
Todd R. Medin - Vancouver WA
John A. Barinaga - Portland OR
Dean A. Gaylor - Vancouver WA
Le Pham - Vancouver WA
Michael S. Millman - Vancouver WA
Tanya V. Burmeister - Vancouver WA

Hewlett-Packard Company - Palo Alto CA

B47J 2165

347 33

A flipping wiper scraper system for cleaning several inkjet printheads in an inkjet printing mechanism has a wiper support mechanism which moves several elastomeric wipers across the printheads to wipe off accumulations of ink residue. This ink residue is then scraped off of the wipers to ready them for the next wiping stroke using a scraper system. The wiper support mechanism inverts the wipers to engage scraper bars of the scraper system. The scraper bars have scraping heads and capillary channels to draw liquid ink residue away from the heads through capillary forces. The scraper bars are arranged so only one or two wipers are scraped at any given time to reduce noise and quiet overall unit operation. A method of cleaning an inkjet printhead, along with an inkjet printing mechanism having such a flipping wiper scraper system are also provided.

6585350, Jul 1, 2003

Jul 25, 2001

09/915073

John A. Barinaga - Portland OR

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

B41J 2165

347 33, 347 32

A printing mechanism includes a print module having a printhead, and includes a wiper assembly having a wiper to clean the printhead of ink residue when the wiper and the printhead are in contact and move relative to each other in a first direction. The wiper and the printhead also move relative to each other in a second direction to release a contact tension between the wiper and the printhead. The first direction and the second direction define an arc path that the wiper and/or printhead moves along to controllably release the wiper contact tension to prevent ink residue on the wiper from being deposited in a location that will impair or degrade a desired print quality.

6592200, Jul 15, 2003

Oct 30, 2001

10/015908

Geoff M. Wotton - Battle Ground WA
John A. Barinaga - Portland OR

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

B41J 2165

347 22, 347 42

A print unit, such as an inkjet printing mechanism, includes a printbar assembly that has print modules and integrated servicing assemblies to service printheads on the print modules. The one or more printheads of the print modules collectively span a width of a print media and deposit an imaging medium, such as ink, onto the print media. The integrated servicing assemblies move from a retracted position within the printbar assembly to a service position to clean and/or cap the one or more printheads of the print modules. A servicing assembly has one or more wipers that correspond to the one or more printheads, such that when the servicing assembly and the print module are positioned in the service position, the wipers clean the printheads. The servicing assembly also has one or more printhead caps that cover the one or more printheads on the print modules.

6595619, Jul 22, 2003

Oct 30, 2001

10/016564

John A. Barinaga - Portland OR
Daniel J. Fredrickson - Camas WA
Geoff M. Wotton - Battle Ground WA

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

B41J 2165

347 32, 347 42

A print unit, such as an inkjet printing mechanism, includes a printbar assembly that has print modules with one or more printheads that collectively span a print region corresponding to a width of a print media and deposit an imaging medium, such as ink, onto the print media. Wiper assemblies move from a print position to a service position in the print region to service the one or more printheads of the print modules. A wiper assembly has one or more wipers that correspond to the one or more printheads, such that when the wiper assembly and the print module are positioned in the service position, the wipers clean the printheads. The wiper assembly also has one or more printhead caps that cover the one or more printheads on the print modules.

6601943, Aug 5, 2003

Feb 28, 2001

09/795593

John A. Barinaga - Portland OR

Hewlett-Packard Company - Palo Alto CA

B41J 2165

347 33

An indexing wiper scraper cleaning system for cleaning a scraper, which has removed ink residue from a wiper following an inkjet printhead wiping routine where the residue was first removed from the printhead in an inkjet printing mechanism, has a reservoir filled with an ink solvent. Rotary scraper member having a series of scraper bars projecting radially from a cylindrical body is supported to periodically soak at least one of the scraper bars in the ink solvent bath. Following this soaking, the scraper bars are rotated through an indexing motion into a scraping position to scrape the ink residue from the wiper where the wiper is scraped across a positioned one of the scraper batrs, thereby leaving he remaining scraper bars untouched. After the scraping operation, the scraper bars are returned to the solvent bath to ready them for the next scraping operation. A method of cleaning an inkjet printhead, along with an inkjet printing mechanism having such a indexing wiper scraper cleaning system are also provided.