公开(公告)号：BR9504390A

公开(公告)日：1997-05-27

申请号：BR9504390

申请日：1995-10-11

Applicant: XEROX CORP

Inventor： ANDERSON DAVID G ,  CLAFIN ALFRED J ,  HUBBLE FRED F III ,  MARTIN JAMES P

IPC: B41J2/05 ,  B41J2/125 ,  B41J2/165 ,  B41J2/175 ,  B41J2/18 ,  B41J2/185 ,  B41J29/393 ,  B05B15/02

Abstract: A maintenance system for an ink jet printer of the type having a full width array printhead has a movable carriage with a droplet sensor and a nozzle recovery device. As the carriage moves along the length of the printhead, each nozzle checked, one at a time, by the droplet sensor for the presence or absence of an ejected droplet and if the droplet has the correct directionality. Any problem nozzle is identified during a single traversal of the carriage across the printhead, and during a second traversal, the identified problem nozzles have a recovery operation performed on them such as being cleaned to remove any dried ink or other contaminating particles or being primed in the case of a clogged nozzle. The problem nozzles which have had a recovery operation performed on them and checked again by the droplet sensor is required for the entire array of nozzles, and ink is conserved since only predetermined nozzles are printed.