Compact inkjet printer for portable electronic devices
View Patent ↗A pagewidth inkjet printer for a portable electronic device, with a roll of media substrate wrapped on a central former having at least one ink reservoir for the printhead, and a media feed assembly for drawing the media substrate a substrate passed the printhead. This configuration allows the printers to be compact enough to be incorporated into portable devices without it becoming too bulky and unwieldy. A roll of media is more easily positioned amongst other components of the device that flat sheets of media. It is a space efficient form of media storage when the ink reservoirs are located within the central former and feeding the media from a roll passed a pagewidth printhead is mechanically simpler than feeding sheets passed a scanning printhead.
1. An inkjet printer for a portable electronic device, the printer comprising:
a pagewidth printhead for printing on a media substrate; a roll of media substrate wrapped on a central former a media feed assembly for drawing the media substrate past the printhead; and
an ink supply system for supplying ink to the printhead, the ink supply arrangement comprising:
at least one ink reservoir contained inside the former;
a corresponding ink chamber for each ink reservoir, each ink chamber being in fluid communication with its respective reservoir, wherein each ink chamber comprises a plurality of baffles for minimizing ink flow fluctuations in the ink supply system; and
an ink manifold in fluid communication with each ink chamber, the ink manifold comprising a plurality of ink channels configured to distribute ink from each ink chamber to a plurality of ink inlets in the printhead.
2. An inkjet printer according to claim 1 wherein the feed assembly has a roller configuration that bends the media substrate to remove residual curl caused by the storage in a roll.
3. An inkjet printer according to claim 1 further including a media cutter immediately downstream of the pagewidth printhead.
4. An inkjet printer according to claim 1 wherein the former comprises a plurality of ink reservoirs.
5. An inkjet printer according to claim 4 wherein the roll of media substrate and the ink reservoirs are provided in the form of a removable cartridge.
6. An inkjet printer according to claim 5 when the ink reservoirs establish a fluid connection with the printhead and the roll engages the drive assembly, in a single action upon installation of the cartridge into the device.
7. The ink supply system of claim 4 , wherein a plurality of ink chambers are formed by a baffle unit sealingly cooperating with a housing, the baffle unit being divided into a plurality of separate sections, each section corresponding to a respective ink chamber.
8. The ink supply system of claim 7 , wherein the baffle unit is elongate and divided into a plurality of elongate sections.
9. The ink supply system of claim 8 , wherein the baffle unit comprises a plurality of transverse baffles.
10. A portable electronic device comprising the ink jet printer of claim 1 .