Print cradle assembly for a printhead cartridge
View Patent ↗Provided is a print cradle assembly for a printhead cartridge. The cradle assembly includes a docking bay molding and a media feed drive assembly positioned on the docking bay molding and configured to feed media through the assembly. The cradle assembly also includes a printed circuit board (PCB) with a printer controller for controlling the media feed drive assembly and operation of the cartridge, as well as a heatshield mounted to the PCB for shielding the printer controller from electromagnetic interference (EMI) and user contact with the PCB.
1. A print cradle assembly for a printhead cartridge, said print cradle assembly comprising:
a docking bay molding for receiving the printhead cartridge;
a media feed drive assembly positioned on the docking bay molding and configured to feed media through the print cradle assembly;
a printed circuit board (PCB) with a printer controller for controlling the media feed drive assembly and operation of the cartridge;
a heatshield mounted to the PCB for shielding the printer controller from electromagnetic interference (EMI) and user contact with the PCB; and,
a printhead maintenance station for maintaining a printhead of the printhead cartridge in an operable condition, said maintenance station comprising:
an elastically deformable maintenance belt having a contact surface for sealing engagement with an ink ejection face of said printhead, said contact surface being sloped with respect to said face;
a conveyor mechanism for conveying said belt past said face, wherein said belt is supported by a drive spool and at least one other spool, said spools being mounted on a chassis, said chassis being reciprocally moveable between a first position in which part of said contact surface is sealingly engaged with said face, and a second position in which said contact surface is disengaged from said face; and,
a cleaning station for removing ink from the contact surface when the contact surface is being moved from the first position to the second position.
2. The print cradle assembly of claim 1 , wherein the docking bay molding includes a media guide molding to facilitate guiding media to the media feed drive assembly.
3. The print cradle assembly of claim 1 , having a cradle chassis for supporting the docking bay molding, the media feed drive assembly and the PCB.
4. The print cradle assembly of claim 1 , wherein the media feed drive assembly includes a maintenance drive assembly for driving a capping mechanism of a printhead of the cartridge.
5. The print cradle assembly of claim 4 , wherein the maintenance drive assembly includes a capper retraction shaft linked to an output drive shaft housed in a spike wheel bearing molding for actuating the capping mechanism.
6. The print cradle assembly of claim 3 , wherein the PCB includes sprung contacts for biased contacting engagement with a flex PCB on the printhead cartridge.