Printhead purging system with hammer action
View Patent ↗A printhead purging system comprises an ink conduit for supplying ink to a printhead, a hammer head for hammering a wall of a compressible part of the conduit, a spring-loading mechanism for priming the hammer head, and a release mechanism for releasing the primed hammer head. Release of the primed hammer head compresses the ink conduit and results in purging of ink from the printhead.
1. A printhead purging system comprising:
an ink conduit for supplying ink to a printhead;
a hammer head for hammering a wall of a compressible part of said conduit;
a spring-loading mechanism for priming said hammer head; and
a release mechanism for releasing the primed hammer head so as to compress said compressible part of said conduit and purge ink from said printhead.
2. The purging system of claim 1 , wherein said ink conduit interconnects said printhead and an ink reservoir.
3. The purging system of claim 2 , further comprising:
a first valve in said ink conduit positioned between said ink reservoir and said compressible part of said ink conduit.
4. The purging system of claim 3 , further comprising:
a second valve in said ink conduit positioned between said compressible part of said ink conduit and said printhead.
5. The purging system of claim 4 , wherein said first and second valves are pinch valves.
6. The purging system of claim 1 , further comprising a conduit expander for expanding said part of said ink conduit.
7. The purging system of claim 6 , wherein said conduit expander is positioned within said ink conduit.
8. The purging system of claim 7 , wherein said conduit expander is resiliently biased towards an expanded configuration.
9. The purging system of claim 8 , wherein said conduit expander comprises a diaphragm, a balloon or a spring.
10. The purging system of claim 1 , wherein said spring-loading mechanism has a plurality of spring-loaded configurations.
11. The purging system of claim 10 , wherein each spring-loaded configuration has an associated printhead purging pressure.
12. The purging system of claim 10 , wherein each spring-loaded configuration has an associated printhead purging volume.
13. The purging system of claim 1 , further comprising a controller for controlling operation of said purging system.