JP4537460B2 - Wall mountable printer with removable cartridge - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a wall-mountable high speed printer, and more particularly to a printer that can print more than 30 pages per minute with high quality while at the same time being harmonized with the design of a home or office environment.

これらの同時係属出願の開示は、参照により本明細書に組み込まれる。上記出願は、その出願整理番号によって識別されており、この出願整理番号は譲渡後に、対応する出願番号で置き換えられる。 [Simultaneous pending application]
The following applications were filed by the applicant at the same time as this application.

The disclosures of these co-pending applications are hereby incorporated by reference. The application is identified by its application serial number, which is replaced with the corresponding application number after assignment.

いくつかの出願は、整理番号によって列挙した。これらは、出願番号が知られたときに置き換えられる。 [Cross-reference of related applications]
The following patents or patent applications filed by the assignee or assignee of the present invention are hereby incorporated by cross-reference.

Some applications are listed by reference number. These are replaced when the application number is known.

  With the recent trend of incorporating electronic devices into home or office decorations and providing smaller, more compact work terminals within the office environment, such devices can be used while maximizing the work space available. It has become necessary to design for such decoration. From the standpoint of reducing the amount of space occupied by conventional office equipment, such as printers, wall mountable printers have been proposed. Such proposals have succeeded in securing the size of the available space by removing the printer from the desk, but this usually reduces the printing capability, is less aesthetically appealing, and the user Increased complexity has resulted in printer units.

  That is, it can be harmonized with the design of the home or work space, while at the same time, for example, high speed exceeding 30 pages per minute (ppm), and high quality printing capability, for example, about 1200 dots per inch (dpi) and higher There is a need to provide a wall-mountable printer suitable for use in both home and office environments that provides a simplification of this.

  In a first aspect, the present invention provides a printer comprising: a print engine for printing on a print medium; and a main body that accommodates the print engine and is mounted in a suspended state in a substantially vertical plane. Providing a unit, the print engine incorporates a removable page-width printhead for printing on the print media.

  The print engine optionally includes a cradle unit removably attached to the main body and a cartridge unit that incorporates the print head and is removably received within the cradle unit.

  The cartridge unit optionally further incorporates at least one ink handling and storage reservoir from which the print head draws ink for printing into the print media.

  The cradle unit optionally incorporates drive electronics to control printing performed by the print head.

  The body optionally includes a back surface configured to be attachable to a substantially vertical plane and an internal section configured to accommodate the print engine.

  The back surface of the main body is optional, and is configured using an attachment boss for attaching the printer unit to a substantially vertical plane.

  The back surface of the main body is optional and is configured with a hook for mounting the printer unit on the top surface of a substantially vertical plane.

  Optionally, said substantially vertical plane is a wall.

  Optionally, the substantially vertical plane is the privacy screen of the office terminal.

  Optionally, the internal section of the body is further configured to attach to a print medium supply for supplying print media to the page width print head, and the back side of the body is further printed thereon by the page width print head. A printer unit is provided that is configured to mount an expandable print media collector for collecting print media.

  The body optionally has a front surface adapted to receive decoration.

  The body is optionally configured to accommodate a print media collector that is automatically expandable from the body to collect printed media at the start of printing.

  The page width print head is optionally configured as a two-dimensional array of at least 20000 print nozzles for printing across the width of the print medium.

  A page width print head optionally includes an array of ink ejection nozzles configured to print on the print medium by ejecting ink droplets across the width of the print medium at a rate of at least 50000000 droplets per second. Include.

  In a second aspect, the present invention provides a printer unit comprising: a print engine for printing on a print medium; and a main body that accommodates the print engine and is mounted in a suspended state in a substantially vertical plane. And the body has a front surface adapted to receive decoration.

  The decoration is optional and is one or more of those selected from the group consisting of pictures, photographs, printed matter, certificates, and paintings.

  The front surface is optional and has a transparent window and a frame configured around it to display the decoration.

  The frame is optional and has approximately the same size as the size of the front face of the body.

  The frame is optional and is configured to be removable from the front of the body.

  The body optionally has a back surface configured to be attachable to a substantially vertical plane and an internal section configured to accommodate the print engine.

  The back surface of the main body is optional, and is configured using an attachment boss for attaching the printer unit to a substantially vertical plane.

  The back surface of the main body is optional, and is configured using a hook for mounting the printer unit on the top surface of a substantially vertical plane.

  The print engine is optional and can be removed from the internal section of the body.

  In a further aspect, the internal section of the main body is further configured to attach a print medium supply for supplying the print medium to the print engine, and the back surface of the main body further includes a print medium printed thereon by the print engine. A printer unit is provided that is configured to mount an expandable print media collector for collection.

  Optionally, the substantially vertical plane is a wall.

  Optionally, said substantially vertical plane is the privacy screen of the office terminal.

  The print engine optionally incorporates a removable page width print head for printing on the print medium.

  The body is optionally configured to accommodate a print media collector that is automatically expandable from the body to collect printed media when printing begins.

  The print engine optionally incorporates a page width print head configured as a two-dimensional array of at least 20000 print nozzles for printing across the entire width of the print medium.

  The print engine is optionally configured as a page-width printhead configured to print on the print medium by ejecting ink drops across the width of the print medium at a rate of at least 50000000 drops per second. Incorporate an array of ink ejection nozzles.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer unit comprising: a print engine for printing on a print medium; and a main body that accommodates the print engine and is attached to be suspended in a substantially vertical plane. Providing and the body is further configured to accommodate a print media collector that is automatically expandable from the body to collect printed media at the start of printing.

  The body optionally has a back surface configured to be attachable to a substantially vertical plane and an internal section configured to accommodate the print engine.

  The print media collector is optionally retractable into an interior section of the body so that it does not substantially protrude from the body.

  Optionally, the interior section of the body further includes a winding for winding the wire attached to the top surface of the print media collector in two directions so that the print media collector contracts into the body and expands out of the body. Configured using a take-up configuration.

  The winding arrangement is optional and comprises a winder around which the wire is wound and unwound and a motor for operating the winder to wind and unwind the wire.

  A winding motor is optionally controlled to wind and unwind the wire in association with the print engine that prints on the print medium by the print engine drive electronics, which controls the printing performed by the print engine. Is done.

  The back surface of the main body is optional, and is configured using an attachment boss for attaching the printer unit to a substantially vertical plane.

  The back surface of the main body is optional, and is configured using a hook for mounting the printer unit on the top surface of a substantially vertical plane.

  Optionally, the substantially vertical plane is a wall.

  Optionally, said substantially vertical plane is the privacy screen of the office terminal.

  The print engine is optional and can be removed from the internal section of the body.

  Optionally, the internal section of the body is further configured to attach a print media supply for supplying print media to the print engine.

  The print engine optionally incorporates a removable page width print head for printing on the print medium.

  The body optionally has a front surface adapted to receive decoration.

  The print engine optionally incorporates a page width print head configured as a two-dimensional array of at least 20000 print nozzles for printing across the width of the print medium.

  The print engine is optionally configured as a page-width printhead configured to print on the print medium by ejecting ink drops across the width of the print medium at a rate of at least 50000000 drops per second. Incorporate an array of ink ejection nozzles.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer unit comprising: a print engine for printing on a print medium; and a main body that accommodates the print engine and is mounted in a suspended state in a substantially vertical plane. And the print engine incorporates a page-width printhead configured as a two-dimensional array of at least 20000 print nozzles for printing across the width of the print medium.

  The page width print head is optionally configured as a two-dimensional array of at least 30000 print nozzles for printing over the entire width of the print medium.

  The page width print head is optionally configured as a two-dimensional array of at least 40,000 print nozzles for printing across the width of the print medium.

  The page width print head is optionally configured as a two-dimensional array of at least 50000 print nozzles for printing across the width of the print medium.

  The body optionally has a back surface configured to be attachable to a substantially vertical plane and an internal section configured to accommodate the print engine.

  The back surface of the main body is optional, and is configured using an attachment boss for attaching the printer unit to a substantially vertical plane.

  The back surface of the main body is optional, and is configured using a hook for mounting the printer unit on the top surface of a substantially vertical plane.

  The print engine is optional and can be removed from the internal section of the body.

  In a further aspect, the internal section of the body is further adapted to attach a print media supply for supplying print media to the page width print head, and the back side of the body is further printed thereon by the page width print head. A printer unit is provided that is adapted to mount an expandable print media collector for collecting print media.

  Optionally, the substantially vertical plane is a wall.

  Optionally, said substantially vertical plane is the privacy screen of the office terminal.

  The print engine optionally incorporates a removable page width print head for printing on the print media.

  The body optionally has a front surface adapted to receive decoration.

  The body is optionally configured to accommodate a print media collector that is automatically expandable from the body to collect printed media at the start of printing.

  The print nozzle is optionally configured to print on the print medium by ejecting ink drops across the width of the print medium at a rate of at least 50000000 drops per second.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer unit comprising: a print engine for printing on a print medium; and a main body that accommodates the print engine and is attached to be suspended in a substantially vertical plane. A print engine is provided and configured as a page width printhead configured to print on the print medium by ejecting ink droplets across the width of the print medium at a rate of at least 50000000 droplets per second Incorporated array of ink ejection nozzles.

  The array of ink ejection nozzles is optionally configured to eject ink droplets across the width of the print medium at a rate of at least 100000000 droplets per second.

  The array of ink ejection nozzles is optionally configured to eject ink droplets across the width of the print medium at a rate of at least 300000000 droplets per second.

  The array of ink ejection nozzles is optionally configured to eject ink droplets across the width of the print medium at a rate of at least 1000 million droplets per second.

  The body optionally has a back surface configured to be attachable to a substantially vertical plane and an internal section configured to accommodate the print engine.

  The back surface of the main body is optional, and is configured using an attachment boss for attaching the printer unit to a substantially vertical plane.

  The back surface of the main body is optional, and is configured using a hook for mounting the printer unit on the top surface of a substantially vertical plane.

  The print engine is optional and can be removed from the internal section of the body.

  In a further aspect, the internal section of the body is further configured to attach a print media supply for supplying print media to the page width print head, and the back side of the body is further printed thereon by the page width print head. A printer unit is provided that is configured to attach an expandable print media collector for collecting print media.

  Optionally, the substantially vertical plane is a wall.

  Optionally, said substantially vertical plane is the privacy screen of the office terminal.

  The print engine optionally incorporates a removable page width print head for printing on the print medium.

  The body optionally has a front surface adapted to receive decoration.

  The body is optionally configured to accommodate a print media collector that is automatically expandable from the body to collect printed media at the start of printing.

  The array of ink ejection nozzles is optionally configured as a two-dimensional array of at least 20000 ink ejection nozzles for printing across the entire width of the print medium.

  1 and 2 are front views of a printer 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The printer 100 includes a main body 102, a print media source tray assembly 104 hinged to the main body 102 for storing print media to be printed by the printer 100, and a hinge on the exterior front of the source tray assembly 104. To assist in the hinge operation of the source tray assembly 104 from the main body 102, and to collect the printed media on the upper outer surface of the source tray assembly 104. And a print medium collector 110 that can be expanded from the bottom surface of the main body 102. Source tray assembly 104, faceplate 106, and collector 110 can be combined to form part of body 102 of printer 100.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the face plate 106 is source tray assembly 104 using a hinge 112 embedded in the back surface of the face plate 106 so that the face plate 106 fits in direct contact with the outer surface of the source tray assembly 104. It is attached to the hinge type. Faceplate 106 is hinged to source tray assembly 104 so as to provide access to user interface 114 and data connector 116 of printer 100, or some other component that may be provided on the outer surface of source tray assembly 104. Attached to the formula. Access to the inner surface of the faceplate 106 having an envelope portion 118 thereon is also provided in this manner. The envelope portion 118 is a housing of a picture, photograph, print, certificate, painting, and similar ornaments for display through a transparent portion or window 120 (see FIG. 1) provided on the outer surface of the faceplate 106. Provided in front of the printer 100. This aspect of the printer 100 is described in more detail below.

  Referring to FIG. 4, a print media collector 110 is coupled to a winding arrangement 122 provided to drive expansion (and contraction) of the collector 110 from (and into) the bottom surface of the body 102. Like the motor 124, it is accommodated in the back surface of the main body 102. As shown in FIG. 5, the collector 110 is substantially accommodated in the main body 102 in its contracted position, but the holding portion 126 of the collector 110 is provided outside the bottom surface of the main body 102. Nonetheless, when not used to collect printed media, the collector 110 is housed within the body 102 so that it is slightly visible from the front of the mounted printer 100. This is because the collector 110 is substantially concealed by the body 102 itself facing the wall or other substantially vertical surface to which the printer 100 is mounted, with the collector 110 on the back side of the body 102. . In order to attach the printer 100 to a wall or the like, an attachment boss 128, described in more detail below, can be provided (see FIG. 4).

  As can be seen from the bottom, top, and side views of FIGS. 6, 7, and 8, respectively, the printer 100 with the above-described components is relatively small. Therefore, when mounted on a wall or the like, the printer 100 protrudes by the shortest distance therefrom, thereby minimizing the amount of space occupied by the printer 100. This small size is further facilitated by a retractable / expandable collector 110 that expands from the printer 100 when printing is performed and contracts into the body 102 when not in use. Furthermore, by providing a face plate 106 on the front surface of the tray assembly 104 that can receive prints and the like, the actual printer 100 itself is not printing, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description. Sometimes it can be substantially concealed or camouflaged from view.

  FIG. 9 provides an exploded view of the printer 100 showing its various components. As can be seen, the printer 100 is basically constructed as an assembly of a body 102, a source tray assembly 104, a faceplate 106, and a collector 110, both of which are housed within the body 102 as further shown in FIG. A print engine assembly 130 for printing on the print media 132 supplied from the source tray assembly 104, and a power supply unit (PSU) for supplying power to the print engine assembly 130 and other electronic components of the printer 100. Related components such as 134 are provided.

  Referring to FIG. 10, the source tray assembly 104 is configured to store print media 132 for printing within its paper tray portion 136. The print media 132 can be provided in various sizes of print media stacks, each including about 250 sheets and up to 500 sheets or series of up to 300 gsm paper. For example, in FIG. 10, A4 paper is held by the source tray assembly 104. However, photographic print media such as 4 inch × 6 inch paper and other media can be held. In the following description, a print medium for use in the printer 100 is referred to as paper, but other forms of print media are also applicable.

  The printer 100 constructed in this way is at a speed of at least 30 pages per minute (ppm), preferably at least 60 ppm, with a print resolution resulting in a so-called photographic quality print of at least 1200 dots per inch (dpi), preferably 1600 dpi. Is intended for use as a printer that can print information on paper. In order to provide these capabilities while still attached to the wall, the manner in which the printer 100 operates will be discussed.

  Referring again to FIGS. 9 and 10, a cover portion 138 is provided in the source tray assembly 104 that “snaps” to form its outer surface. Cover portion 138 includes cutout portions 114a and 116a for receiving user interface 114 and data connector 116, respectively. The source tray assembly 104 is hingedly attached to the body 102 by a hinge arrangement 140 around a pivot (not shown).

  A stack of paper 132 is received and held on the surface (tray) 142 of the tray portion 136 that faces the body 102 when the source tray assembly 104 is attached to the body 102. That is, the stack 132 is loaded onto the source tray assembly 104 by being placed on the tray 142 and held in a desired position on the tray 142 using the stop plate 144 and the fence plate 146 of the tray 142. .

  To do this, a plurality of holes 142a are provided in the tray 142 as a matrix to provide various positions for the stop plate 144 and the fence plate 146. Stop plate 144 has tabs 144a configured to engage with some of the plurality of holes 142a in tray 142, and similarly fence plate 146 engages with some of holes 142a in tray 142. It has a tab 146a for matching. In addition, the fence plate 146 can have a clip element 146b that engages a rod (not shown) provided on the tray 142 so that it can slide laterally across the tray 142. The tray portion 136, and thus the source tray assembly 104, is made large enough to accept the largest size paper used with the printer 100. In the illustrated embodiment, the maximum paper size that can be accepted in this manner is A4 paper. However, the printer 100 can be configured to accept different maximum print media sizes. Different sizes of paper are received in the source tray assembly 104 by moving the stop plate 144 and fence plate 146 to different positions through the holes 142a, as shown in FIGS. The above arrangement for receiving stacks of paper of various sizes into the source tray assembly 104 is merely an example, and alternative structures and mechanisms are provided to securely hold such stacks of paper according to the present invention. Those skilled in the art will understand that can be used.

  The source tray assembly 104 also houses a picker assembly 148 that is used to extract and separate individual sheets of paper from the stack 132 for advancement to the print engine 130. The picker assembly 148 can include at least one “D-type” drive roller 150, most clearly shown in the cross-sectional view of the printer 100 of FIG. Multiple drive rollers 150 can be provided to extend across the sheets of the stack 132 as shown in FIG. 9, although a single drive roller 150 having a length to reach it is also within the scope of the present invention. Is included.

  In the configuration shown in FIG. 11, the drive roller 150 removes the bottom sheet 132a from the stack 132 exposed to the picker assembly 148, and the portion (s) of the roller 150 (see also FIG. 9). Is rotated clockwise by the motor 152 so as to be pulled through one or more gaps 153 provided in the tray 142. The operation and speed of the driving roller 150 are controlled by a control circuit (not shown) of the printer 100. The drive roller 150 has a surface such as rubber that holds a sheet of paper in the stack 132. It will be appreciated that other types of picker mechanisms can be used in accordance with the present invention.

  As can be seen from FIG. 11, the tray 142 can be easily pulled by the drive roller 150 of the picker assembly 148 to advance the sheet 132a at the bottom of the stack 132 to the print engine assembly 130 for printing. In order to position it so that it is tilted about 80 ° to 85 ° from the horizontal (ie 5 ° to 10 ° from the vertical). As the paper sheet is consumed during the printing process, the size of the stack 132 changes. That is, the stack 132 is directed toward the picker assembly 148 so that its bottom edge is pushed to the position shown in FIG. 11 by a spring mechanism 154 provided in the inner section of the body 102 and acting against the stack 132. Spring loaded.

  In this extraction process, when the stack 132 approaches the exhausted state, only a small number of sheets such as two sheets remain. In this situation, all of these sheets can be pulled together to produce multiple feeds, i.e., multiple sheets can be fed through the picker assembly 148 to the print engine assembly 130 at once, which is This is undesirable because it can lead to clogging and / or distortion. This situation can occur because the friction between the sheets can be greater than the friction between the sheet 132a at the bottom of the stack 132 and the drive roller 150. Thus, the pad 156 has a spring mechanism 154 so that a surface with a higher frictional force is provided between the last sheet of the stack 132 and the spring mechanism 154 than between the last sheet of the stack 132 and the penultimate sheet. Provided on top. The pad 156 can be formed of a material such as rubber, felt, or cork.

  As can be seen from FIGS. 9 and 10, the inner section of the body 102 includes a foil 158 that acts as a holding member for the sheets in the stack 132. The foil 158 extends across at least a portion of the width of the inner section of the body 102 so as to protrude from the surface of the inner section of the body 102. The foil 158 is made of a flexible material, such as plastic, but is fixed for elasticity with small forces. The purpose of the foil 158 is as follows.

  Because the tray 142 is tilted, there may be “sagging” in the paper in the stack 132, which can lead to errors in the drawing process, or individual sheets can leave the stack 132 and become jammed. is there. Accordingly, the foil 158 is provided to apply a holding force to the sheets in the stack 132, which pushes the sheets back toward the stack 132 so as to substantially prevent such sagging. The elastic nature of foil 158 provides a suitable holding force to keep the sheet in place. Although two foils 158 are shown, a greater or lesser number of foils may be configured to secure sheets in the stack 132 with respect to having recesses along their length rather than being continuous. As long as it is provided, it is included in the scope of the present invention.

  If extraction by the picker assembly 148 is successful, the bottom sheet 132a advances to the print engine assembly 130 for printing. The print engine assembly 130 may be of the type described in Applicant's US Patent Application Serial Numbers RRA01US to RRA33US, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. These applications are identified by their application serial number, but they are replaced with the corresponding application number after assignment. Accordingly, the print engine assembly 130 generally includes two parts, a cradle unit 160 and a cartridge unit 162, shown variously in FIGS.

  The cartridge unit 162 includes a print head 164 for printing thereon as it passes through a sheet of paper, and at least one ink handling and storage reservoir for supplying ink to the ink head 164. The print head 164 is a page width print head, which means that scanning of the print head 164 across the sheet is not required. This makes it possible to execute high-speed printing. However, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention is applicable to printers that use other types of printheads. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 11, the cartridge unit 162 includes a single print head. However, a double-sided printer using a cartridge unit with two page width print heads can be used, the print heads having their print surfaces facing each other and having a gap therebetween for receiving a sheet of paper. , Aligned.

  The cradle unit 160 has a guide plate 168 for guiding the sheet 132a into the print engine 130, and a forward movement of the sheet 132a as it passes through the print head 164 to control its trajectory and speed. It comprises a roller assembly 170 and associated motor 172, drive electronics 174 for controlling the printing performed by the print head 164, and a cap unit 176 for covering the print head 164 when printing is not performed.

  The cradle unit 160 is removably mounted within the main body 102, and the cartridge unit 162 is removably received within the cradle unit 160, whereby the print head 164 and the ink storage reservoir 166 and related components. Can be easily replaced as necessary. To control this removal, a release latch 178 is provided that can be easily manipulated by the user. In this way, the complexity of the printer 100 is minimized and is easy to use.

  By providing a plurality of ink handling and storage reservoirs 166 within the cartridge unit 162, various color inks and associated printing fluids such as fixers to help fix the printed ink can be stored. . The print head 164 draws ink from these reservoirs 166 for printing on the sheet. A refill port 180 is incorporated within the cartridge unit 162 and fills the reservoir 166 with a fill cartridge (not shown) so that the reservoir 166 is filled with a particular type of ink that may have been consumed by printing. Can be attached. To facilitate this filling process, an indicator light 184, such as an LED, can be provided on the cradle unit 160, which allows the filling to be performed in a manner as described in the above-mentioned application of the applicant. It can be controlled to indicate to the user when needed and / or when filling is complete. The need for filling is also indicated to the user by the user interface 114 or by print manager software loaded on the user's personal computer (PC) connected to the printer 100 as described below. Can do.

  The mounting position of the cradle unit 160 is supplied from the driving roller 150 of the picker assembly 148, and the leading edge of the sheet 132a guided by the guide plate 168 enters the roller assembly 170 of the cradle unit 160, and the roller assembly 170 (and Under the action of the drive roller 150) to some extent, the print head 164 is advanced so as to be printed. The leading edge of the sheet 132a advances through the cradle unit 160 and exits the main body 102 through the exit slot 186 after printing (see FIGS. 5, 6, and 11).

  During the printing process, the trailing edge of the sheet 132a transitions from being driven by the drive roller 150 to being driven only by the roller assembly 170 of the print engine assembly 130 because the D-type drive roller 150 is used in the picker assembly 148. Once printed, the trailing edge exits the body 102 through the exit slot 186 and the printed sheet 132a is collected by the expanded collector 110.

  The expanded collector 110 is shown variously in FIGS. As can be seen, the collector 110 is a connected collection tray with two sections, with the upper section 188 and the lower section 190 attached to each other in a hinge relationship using a hinge 192. The hinge 192 can be configured such that the lower section 190 can be removed from the upper section 188 when a suitable force is applied thereto. The overall length provided by the upper section 188 and the lower section 190 provides a sufficient gap between the collected paper and the bottom of the body 102 so that the user can easily collect the printed sheets, The maximum size paper can be collected.

  The lower section 190 is generally L-shaped and has an L-shaped foot 190a that acts as a stop surface for the collected sheet 132a, the foot having a retaining portion 126 of the collector 110 attached thereto. . The holding portion 126 is used to help hold the collected sheets, and the feet 190a “square” or “continuously” the continuously released sheets 132a so that the printed sheets 132a are collected in an orderly manner. It is provided so that the edges are aligned. The depth of the foot portion 190a is sufficient to hold a plurality of sheets, for example, the number of sheets provided in the stack 132 held by the source tray assembly 104.

  When the collection tray 110 is expanded, the lower section 190 is tilted with respect to the upper section 188 that is substantially parallel to the body 102 along its length. By configuring the collection tray 110 in this manner, the sheet 132a discharged from the print engine assembly 130 through the exit slot 186 of the main body 102 is the upper section 188 and the lower section 190 in the manner shown in FIGS. Reliably collected and retained on top. That is, as each sheet 132a exits the body 102, its leading edge contacts the surface of the lower section 190 or the previously collected sheet held therein and advances until it is stopped by the foot 190a of the lower section 190. . This is because the upper section 188 of the collection tray 110 is located behind the slot 186 with respect to the mounting direction of the printer 100 (see FIGS. 5 and 6), so that the lower section 190 is the exit passage of the sheet 132a. It is because it warps forward so that it may come in. In this manner, the sheet 132a is collected and held at an angle from the vertical (ie, approximately the angle of the lower section 190), which, together with the holding member 126, prevents the sheet 132a from tipping forward from the collection tray 110.

  The required angle, eg, about 5 ° from the vertical, is provided by a spring 194 disposed on the lower edge of the upper section 188, which spring 194 moves away from the plane of the upper section 188 around the hinge 192. It engages with the back surface of the lower section 190 so as to be pushed. At the contracted position of the collection tray 110, the lower section 190 is pushed to be in the plane of the upper section 188 by contact with the back surface of the main body 102, as shown in FIG. In this way, the shrunken tray 110 is placed in the body 102 in a compact manner. It is to be understood that other mechanisms for reliably collecting printed paper sheets are included within the scope of the present invention, such as guide ribs used on the surface of the collection tray to impart lateral curvature to the sheet. Those skilled in the art will understand.

  As shown in FIGS. 12 and 14, a winding arrangement 122 is provided for manipulating the collection tray 110 to and from its retracted position, and the winding arrangement 122 includes an upper section 188 and a body 102. A wire 196 connected to a winder 198 disposed in the upper surface, and operates the winder 198 to change the length of the wire 196 by winding the wire 196 around the winder 198 A motor 124 is provided.

  The upper section 188 has a tab 188 a provided at the top of each longitudinal side thereof, and this tab 188 a engages in a running slot 200 provided in the main body 102. Thus, in operation, as the length of the wire 196 varies with the winding configuration 122, the upper section 188, and consequently the lower section 190, is lowered or raised by the tab 188a that slides along the running slot 200. Be made. This winding is performed by the drive electronics 174 of the control circuit or print engine assembly 130 that receives expansion / reduction commands through the user interface 114 or through print manager software loaded on the user PC connected to the printer 100. Can be controlled. Alternatively, the operation is collected in conjunction with printing performed by the printer 100 and / or pressure sensor (s) (not shown) provided in the foot 190a of the collection tray 110. As a result of sensing that the printed material has been removed from the collection tray 110, this can be done automatically.

  In addition to acting as a means of collecting prints, the collector 110 may serve as an upper section 188 (and optionally as a means of providing the user with an indication of the status of the printer 100 and / or the printing performed by it. A light pipe 202 can be provided on the lower section 190). Such a light pipe 202 is composed of a hollow transparent material, such as plastic, provided as a channel for transmitting light along its length from a light source 204 (or additional light pipe) disposed within the body 102. (See FIG. 9 and FIG. 11). This is achieved by incorporating a lining where the inner surface of the hollow material is highly reflective of light that impinges on the surface at some angles and transmits light that impinges on other angles. The channel is formed into a shape such as a rib provided on the surface of the upper section 188 and the lower section 190 of the collection tray 110 as shown in FIG.

  The light source 204 can include three different colored light sources, each of which can be an LED, a red, green, and blue light source. By using these differently colored light sources, a wide spectrum of colors can be emitted from the light pipe 202 when the light sources are selectively operated individually or in combination. Alternatively, the light source 204 can enable multicolor emission, such as a three-color LED. Thus, by controlling the light emission of the light source 204 using the control circuitry of the printer 100 and / or the drive electronics 174 of the print engine assembly 130, to indicate various states of the printer 100 and / or the printing performed thereby. In addition, various colors of light can be used.

  For example, blue light emitted by the light pipe 202 used as a rib on the collector 110 can indicate that the printer 100 is in a standby state, and green light indicates that the printer 100 is in a printing state. The red light can indicate that the printer 100 is malfunctioning, such as a paper jam is present or more paper or ink is needed. Alternatively, other combinations such as lighting, strobe emission, flash emission, etc. can be used for such purposes. For example, the aesthetics of the printer 100 can be enhanced by indicating the standby state using a cycle across the color spectrum. The operating state of the printer 100, such as the occurrence of a paper jam, can be determined by the printer 100 in a conventional manner, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art.

  In this configuration, if a problem with the functionality of the printer 100 occurs, the light pipe 202 can be used to indicate that a problem has occurred, at which time the user can either use the user interface 114 or the user's With reference to the print manager software loaded on the PC, it is possible to determine what problems have occurred and where. Another part of the printer 100 can be constructed using the light pipe 202 for this purpose, such as the light source 204 itself, or the face plate 106 of the printer 100 holds printed matter as shown in FIG. Instead, it may be configured as a stylized face plate as shown in FIG. 16, and the stylized face plate 106 also includes a light pipe 202 and a user interface 114 configured as shown. In this manner, the wall mountable printer of FIG. 16 has a printer-like appearance than the wall mountable printer of FIG. 15, but still provides a higher aesthetic than the conventional printer. In this configuration, the cover portion 138 of the source tray assembly 104 can be omitted or replaced by the face plate 106 with the face plate 106 snapped into the source tray assembly 104.

  In some form of the printer 100 of the present invention, the user interface 114 is a display screen such as a liquid crystal display device used to display information about the status of the printer 100 as shown in FIGS. Preferably, it is a touch screen on which the user can operate the printer 100. This means that it is not necessary to provide a mechanical button or the like on the printer 100, which facilitates the compact design of the printer 100. However, such a button can be provided with a simple display screen if necessary.

  Accordingly, the user interface 114 may be used alone or with the light pipe 202 to determine the status of the printer 100, such as the ink capacity remaining in the ink storage reservoir 166 of the print engine assembly 130, the occurrence of a paper jam in the transport system, and so forth. As well as instructions and information menus for operation of the printer 100 can be displayed. To accomplish this, the user interface 114 stores software for such menus and a memory and processing device for processing instructions entered by the user touching an area of the touch screen. (Not shown) can further be provided. Alternatively, such components may be provided by the drive electronics 174 of the print engine assembly 130 with an appropriate connection provided between the user interface 114 and the drive electronics 174 within the body 102.

  The command and information menu displayed by the user interface 114 can also be used to display information about print jobs being executed by the printer 100 or to be executed. To receive a print job, the printer 100 can be connected directly to a user terminal (not shown) such as a PC, or can be connected to a plurality of such terminals over a network, such terminals. Transmits the print job to the drive electronics 174 of the print engine assembly 130 for processing and printing by the print head 164. Such menus can also be easily adapted to display in various languages, etc., which makes it easier to provide the printer 100 for use in various countries. This method allows the user interface 114 to display information about the operation of the printer 100 to the user, which is a print manager on a PC connected to the printer, which is typical of conventional printers. More useful than what is normally provided at the level.

  Connections to external data devices / terminals and networks are through a data connector 116 disposed in a cover portion 138 that snaps into the source tray assembly 104 and / or as shown in FIG. 3 and / or FIGS. Through the USB connector 206 and the Ethernet connector 208 provided at the bottom of the main body 102 as shown in FIG. 3, an appropriate connection is established between such a connector and the user interface 114 and the driving electronic component 174 accommodated in the main body 102. By wiring, it can be provided by wire. Alternatively, the data connection can be achieved by using a WIFI card 210 and / or a Bluetooth card 212 that is located behind the foil 158 in the interior section of the body 102 as shown in FIGS. Can be provided wirelessly. Alternatively or in addition, the printer 100 can download an image stored on a photo card or the like into the memory of the printer 100 or drive electronics 174 for direct printing, a photo card for accepting a photo card or the like By incorporating a slot or the like (not shown), a means for directly receiving image data for a print job can be incorporated.

  User interface 114, print engine assembly 130 (especially for motor 172, print head 164, drive electronics 174 and cap unit 176 for roller assembly 170), picker assembly 148 (especially for motor 152 of drive roller 150), The power for the winding arrangement 122 (for the winding motor 124), the light pipe 202 and the light source 204, and other electronic components of the printer 100 are within the bottom surface of the body 102, as shown in FIGS. Supplied by a PSU 132, which is powered by an external power supply (not shown) connected to it by a power connector 214 provided on the device. Alternatively, battery power (not shown) can be supplied to the PSU 132, which is coupled with the wireless data communication described above and does not require any cable connection to the printer 100. Corresponding connections from the PSU 132 to various electronic components can be provided by suitable wiring housed within the body 102.

  In the wired printer 100, data and power connections are provided on the bottom surface of the body 102 of the printer 100, behind the exit slot 186 with respect to the mounting direction of the printer 100 (see FIG. 5). This means that any cable from an external device such as a PC can be easily connected to the printer 100 without disturbing the collector 110. On the other hand, such a connection can be provided on the back side of the main body 102 and coupled with means for providing such a cable through a wall space to which the printer 100 is attached.

  Regarding the attachment of the printer 100 to the wall or the like as described above, an attachment boss 128 can be provided on the back surface of the main body 102 as shown in FIG. In this manner, a securing means such as a screw can be engaged with the mounting boss 128 through the wall so that the printer 100 is suspended from the wall or the like. Any manner of attachment is applicable as long as it is sufficient to support the combined weight of the printer 100 and the stack of paper 132 provided therein. The components of the printer 100, including the main body 102, the source tray assembly 104, the faceplate 106, and their various components, are designed to provide maximum flexibility for the type of mounting configuration used. Note that can be molded from lightweight materials such as plastic.

  When attached, the printer 100 in its non-operating state, that is, in a state where the collector 110 is contracted in the main body 102, has an appearance as shown in FIG. 17A in which a photograph (or picture) 216 is provided in the face plate be able to. As described above, to place the photo 216 within the faceplate 106, the faceplate 106 is hingedly opened from the source tray assembly 104 attached to the body 102 of the printer 100, and the photo 216 is exposed to the outer surface of the faceplate 106. As posted through the transparent window 120 provided above, it is inserted into the envelope portion 118 through the slot 118a (see FIG. 3). A cutout portion 118b can also be provided in the envelope portion 118 to facilitate removal of the photo 216.

  As can be seen most clearly from FIG. 17A, the faceplate 106 further comprises a frame portion 218 around the transparent window 120 on its front surface. By this method, when the printer 100 is in a non-operating state, the appearance of the printer 100 becomes an appearance of a picture with a frame hanging on a wall or the like. This is because the frame portion 218 is approximately the same size as the size of the face plate 106 and the front surface of the main body 102 of the printer 100. Such a configuration provides a means that allows the printer 100 to be fused to a room or office decoration. That is, the presence of the printer 100 can be hidden until operation is required. In operation, the collector 110 is expanded from the main body 102 of the printer 100 as described above, and the printed material 132a is collected thereon for removal by the user 220, as shown in FIG. 17B. When the printed matter 132a is collected, the collector 110 is contracted back into the main body 102 of the printer 100, and again enters the state shown in FIG. 17A.

  The printer 100 can be adapted to be attached to another substantially vertical surface. For example, it may be desirable to install the printer 100 in an office environment, such as a work terminal partition or privacy screen. In such a configuration, the back surface of the main body 102 can be fitted to the cover 222 as shown in FIG. As can be seen, the cover 222 may include a plurality of slots 224 in its surface configured to engage a mounting bracket or hook 226 for mounting the printer 100 on the partition wall. In other words, the engaging portion 226a of the bracket 226 is configured to engage with any one of the slots 224 at a time, and the hook portion 226b of the bracket 226 protruding from the back surface of the main body 102 has the protruding portion 226a as the slot. When engaged with one of 224, it is configured to engage beyond the top surface of the partition wall. In this manner, the plurality of slots 224 provide a number of reconfigurable positions for the bracket 226, thereby providing a number of different mounting heights for the printer 100. This variety of printer heights allows flexibility in mounting the printer 100 to fully accommodate the space required for the expanded collector 110.

  The printer 100 attached to the partition wall 228 of the work terminal 230 with this mounting arrangement 224/226 having a printer 100 suspension height suitable for the extended collector 110 is shown in FIGS. 19A and 19B. As can be seen, the printer 100 in this configuration has sufficient space for the user's PC or the like left on the desk in this configuration as described above, and the orderly connection of the PC 232 to the printer 100 is achieved by the cable 234. As provided, it is provided in an unobtrusive manner within the work terminal 230.

  The bracket 226 can be specifically configured to fit over a particular sized partition wall 228 or can be provided as a “universal size” configuration. In any case, the construction of the bracket 226 in the slot 224 and the attachment of the cover 222 to the body 102 is such that it fully supports the combined weight of the printer 100 and the stack of paper 132 supplied therein. Must. Accordingly, the cover 222 can be snapped onto the body 102 with a sufficiently strong clipping configuration, or attached to the body 102 by any other suitable means, or provided as part of the body itself.

  Given the various locations where the printer 100 can be mounted to a wall or the like, various faceplate styles for the printer 100 may be desirable. That is, the printer 100 can be adapted so that a single printer unit 100 can accept various faceplates 106. For example, the frame portion 218 “snaps” onto the faceplate 106 so that various styles of frame can be readily provided and modified, such as the various styles of frame portions 218 shown in FIGS. 17A and 19A. It can be provided as a part. Alternatively, the face plate 106 itself can be removed by allowing the hinge 112 of the face plate 106 to be removed from the source tray assembly 104, so that the frame face plate 106 shown in FIGS. It can be removed to replace a stylized faceplate or any other suitable faceplate that provides aesthetics and / or functionality to the printer 100 depending on where the printer 100 is installed.

  An exemplary structure and operation of the wall mountable printer of the present invention will now be described.

  In the printer 100 configured to print A4 paper as the largest size paper, the page width print head 164 of the print engine assembly 130 has a print head width of 224 mm or 8.8 inches. To form this print width, the print head 164 includes a plurality of print head integrated circuits (such as those described in Applicants' above-referenced applications RRA01US to RRA33US, which incorporate printing or ink ejection nozzles therein ( IC).

  In accordance with the present invention, at least 5000 nozzles can be incorporated to provide the desired quality, ie, at least 1600 dpi printing at a high speed of at least 30 pages per minute, preferably at least 60 pages per minute. However, depending on the print quality and speed required, the print head comprises at least 10000 nozzles, preferably 20000 nozzles, and more preferably at least 50000 nozzles for high speed and high quality applications. be able to.

  These nozzles traverse the width of the print head to eject another print fluid, such as ink and fixer, onto the surface of the passing print medium to print an image on the surface of the passing print medium. Configured as a two-dimensional array. Each nozzle corresponds to a printed point on the print medium, so the higher the number of nozzles and the higher their mounting density in the print head, the closer the printed dots will be and thus the print resolution Becomes higher. Drive potential component 174 receives and processes image data from an external data source through one or more of data connectors 116, 206, and 208, or data devices 210 and 212, and printhead nozzles are processed. Drive according to image data (described in more detail below).

  With respect to the type of nozzle scheme applicable to the printhead 164, any type of inkjet nozzle array that can be integrated on the printhead IC is suitable. That is, a continuous ink method, an electrostatic method, and a drop-on-demand method including a thermal method and a piezoelectric method can be used.

  There are various known types of thermal drop-on-demand systems, which typically include an ink reservoir adjacent to the nozzle and a heater in thermal contact therewith. The heater element heats the ink, thereby creating bubbles in the ink. The bubbles generate pressure in the ink, whereby droplets are ejected through the nozzles onto the print medium. The amount of ink ejected by each nozzle onto the print medium and when this occurs is controlled by the drive electronics. However, with such thermal methods, the ink must be heat resistant, so the type of ink that can be used is limited and a cooling process is also required, which may reduce the optimum printing speed. There is.

  Various types of piezoelectric drop-on-demand systems are also known, which typically use a piezoelectric crystal configured adjacent to the ink reservoir and deflected as current flows through it. To do. This deflection causes ink droplets to be ejected from the nozzles in a manner similar to the thermal method. Such a piezoelectric method allows more sophisticated control of ink droplet shape and size than the thermal method, eliminating the need to heat and cool the ink between cycles and using a wide variety of ink types. It becomes possible.

  Furthermore, a nozzle micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) can be used that includes a thermoactuator that causes ink droplets to be ejected onto the nozzle. Such nozzle systems are described in Applicants' following co-pending and approved applications: US Pat. Nos. 6,188,415, 6,209,989, 6,213,588. No. 6,213,589, No. 6,217,153, No. 6,220,694, No. 6,227,652, No. 6,227,653, No. 6,227 No. 6,654, No. 6,231,163, No. 6,234,609, No. 6,234,610, No. 6,234,611, No. 6,238,040, No. No. 6,338,547, No. 6,239,821, No. 6,241,342, No. 6,243,113, No. 6,244,691, No. 6,247, No. 790, No. 6,247,791, No. 6,247,792, No. 6, 47,793, 6,247,794, 6,247,795, 6,247,796, 6,254,220, 6,257,704, 6,257,705, 6,260,953, 6,264,306, 6,264,307, 6,267,469, 6,283 5,811, 6,283,582, 6,293,653, 6,302,528, 6,312,107, 6,336,710, 6,362,843, 6,390,603, 6,394,581, 6,416,167, 6,416,168, 6,557, No. 977, No. 6,273,544, No. 6,299,289, No. 6,299,290 6,309,048, 6,378,989, 6,420,196, 6,425,654, 6,439,689, 6,443 , 558, and 6,634,735, U.S. Patent Application No. 09 / 425,420, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,623,101, 6,406,129, 6,457, No. 809, No. 6,457,812, No. 6,505,916, No. 6,550,895, No. 6,428,133, No. 6,305,788, No. 6,315,399, 6,322,194, 6,322,195, 6,328,425, 6,328,431, 6,338,548 Nos. 6,364,453, 6,383,833, 6,390,5 No. 91, No. 6,390,605, No. 6,417,757, No. 6,425,971, No. 6,426,014, No. 6,428,139, No. 6,428,142, 6,439,693, 6,439,908, 6,457,795, 6,502,306, 6,565,193 No. 6,588,885, No. 6,595,624, No. 6,460,778, No. 6,464,332, No. 6,478,406, No. 6 480, 089, 6,540,319, 6,575,549, 6,609,786, 6,609,787, 6,612,110 No. 6,623,106, No. 6,629,745, No. 6,652,071, No. 6, 59,590, U.S. Patent Application Nos. 09 / 575,127, 09 / 575,152, 09 / 575,176, 09 / 575,177, 09 / 608,780 No. 09 / 693,079, 09 / 693,154, 09 / 693,735, 10 / 129,433, 10 / 129,437, 10 No. 129,503, No. 10 / 407,207, and No. 10 / 407,212, application control numbers JUM003 and JUM004, U.S. patent application Nos. 10 / 302,274 and 10 / 302,297. No. 10 / 302,577, No. 10 / 302,617, No. 10 / 302,618, No. 10 / 302,644, No. 10 / 302,668, No. 10 / 302, No. 69, No. 10 / 303,312, No. 10 / 303,348, No. 10 / 303,352 and No. 10 / 303,433, and application serial numbers MTB01 to MTB14. All of which are hereby incorporated by reference. Some of the above applications are identified by their reference number, but they are replaced with the corresponding application number after assignment.

  With reference to FIGS. 20-33, an exemplary MEMS nozzle system applicable to print head 164 and an exemplary manner in which drive electronics process image data and drive such nozzle system are described below. I will explain it.

  FIG. 20 shows an array of nozzle configurations 300. Although the illustrated nozzle configurations 300 are the same, different nozzle configurations can be used in which different colors of ink and fixer are supplied. Preferably, the print head 164 prints one row each for printing one of five colors, ie, cyan, magenta, yellow, black (CMYK), and infrared (IR), and the fixing agent (F). Configured to include a nozzle configuration 300 in a row having one row for. CMY is provided for normal color printing, K is provided for black text, line drawing, and grayscale printing, IR is provided for applications that require “invisible” printing, F Is provided to help prevent printing output smudging at high speeds.

  However, the printhead 164 can be adapted for printing using any desired number of colors and, depending on the implementation, may comprise a monolithic printhead IC or may require multiple substrates. In addition, the rows of nozzle configurations 300 are offset relative to each other, allowing for closer ink dot spacing when printing than is possible with a single row of nozzles. Multiple rows also allow for redundancy (if necessary), thereby allowing a predetermined failure rate per nozzle.

  The printhead IC of the printhead 164 is manufactured using integrated circuit fabrication techniques and implements a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) as indicated above. Referring to FIG. 21, which shows a single nozzle, each printhead IC comprises a silicon wafer substrate 301 and a CMOS microcomputing circuit formed thereon. This is done by depositing a silicon dioxide layer 302 as a dielectric layer on the substrate 301 and depositing an aluminum electrode contact layer 303 on the silicon dioxide layer 302. Both substrate 301 and layer 302 are etched to define an ink channel 304 and an aluminum diffusion barrier 305 is disposed around the ink channel 304.

  On the aluminum contact layer 303 and the layer 302, an inert layer 306 of silicon nitride is deposited. A portion of the inactive layer 306 disposed over the contact layer 303 has an opening 307 therein for providing access to the contact layer 303.

  Each nozzle comprises a nozzle chamber 308 defined by a nozzle wall 309, a nozzle roof 310, and a radially inner nozzle rim 311. Ink channel 304 is in fluid communication with chamber 308.

  A movable rim 312 having a movable sealing lip 313 is disposed at the lower end of the nozzle wall 309. A surrounding wall 314 surrounds the nozzle and provides a fixed sealing lip 315. This fixed sealing lip is adjacent to the movable rim 312 when the nozzle is at rest as shown in FIG. The fluid seal 316 is formed by the surface tension of the ink confined between the fixed sealing lip 315 and the movable sealing lip 313. This prevents ink leakage from the chamber 308 while providing a low resistance coupling between the enclosure wall 314 and the nozzle wall 309.

  The nozzle wall 309 forms part of a lever configuration attached to the carrier 317, which has a generally U-shaped profile and has a base 318 attached to the layer 306. The lever configuration also includes a lever arm 319 that extends from the nozzle wall 309 and incorporates a lateral enhancement beam 320. The lever arm 319 is attached to a pair of inert beams 321 that are formed from titanium nitride and placed on each side of the nozzle (most commonly seen in FIGS. 24 and 25). The other end of the inert beam 321 is attached to the carrier 317.

  The lever arm 319 is also attached to an actuator beam 322 formed from TiN. This attachment to the actuator beam is performed at a point that is slightly but decisively higher than the attachment to the inert beam 321.

  As best seen in FIGS. 24 and 25, the actuator beam 322 is substantially U-shaped in plan and defines a current path between the electrode 323 and the counter electrode 324. Each electrode 323 and 324 is electrically connected at a respective point in the contact layer 303.

  The actuator beam 322 is also mechanically secured to the anchor 325, and the anchor 325 is configured to inhibit the movement of the anchor beam 322 from FIG. 21 to the left in FIG. 23 when the nozzle arrangement 300 is activated. The The actuator beam 322 is electrically conductive and composed of TiN, but has a sufficiently high electrical resistance to create self-heating when current is passed between the electrodes 323 and 324. Since no current flows through the inert beam 321, the inert beam 321 does not thermally expand.

  In operation, the nozzles are filled with ink 326 and the ink 326 defines a meniscus 327 under the influence of surface tension. This ink 326 is held in the chamber 308 by the meniscus 327 and generally does not leak unless there is some other physical effect.

  Current is passed through the actuator beam 322 between the contacts 323 and 324 to eject ink from the nozzles. The self-heating of the beam 322 causes the beam 322 to expand with the dimensions and shape such that it expands mainly in the horizontal direction with respect to FIGS. Expansion is suppressed by the anchor 325 in the left direction so that the end of the actuator beam 322 adjacent to the lever arm 319 is pushed to the right.

  The inert beams 321 are relatively inflexible in the horizontal direction, thereby preventing them from causing the lever arm 319 to move significantly horizontally. However, the relative movement of the attachment points of the inert beam 321 and the actuator beam 322 to the lever arm 319 causes a torsional movement, which causes the lever arm 319 to move substantially downward with a pivot or hinge movement. However, the absence of a true pivot point means that rotation occurs around the pivot region defined by the bending of the inert beam 321.

  The downward movement (and slight rotation) of the lever arm 319 is amplified by the distance of the nozzle wall 309 from the inert beam 321. The downward movement of the nozzle wall 309 and the roof 310 causes an increase in pressure in the chamber 308, causing the meniscus 327 to bulge as shown in FIG. The fluid seal 316 is extended by this movement due to the surface tension of the ink, but the ink does not leak.

  As shown in FIG. 23, the drive current is stopped at the appropriate time, and the actuator beam 322 is rapidly cooled and contracts. This contraction causes the lever arm 319 to return to the rest position, thereby causing a pressure drop in the chamber 308. The interaction between the bulging ink momentum and its inherent surface tension, and the negative pressure generated by the upward movement of the nozzle chamber 308, causes the bulging meniscus 327 to become thinner and eventually cut off. 328 is defined and the ink droplet continues to rise until it contacts the passing print media.

  Immediately after the droplet 328 leaves, the meniscus 327 forms the concave shape shown in FIG. The pressure in chamber 308 remains relatively low due to surface tension until ink is drawn up through the inlet or ink channel 304, thereby returning the nozzle configuration and ink to the quiescent state shown in FIG. Become.

  Print engine assembly 130 uses drive electronics 174 to control the delivery of droplets from each nozzle. As described above, the drive electronic component 174 receives image data of a print job printed by the printer 100. Referring to FIG. 26, this image data can be received from an external data source, such as a computer system or a user's PC 232. PC 232 is programmed to perform the various steps involved in printing image data (ie, a document), which receives the document (step 400), buffers the document, and rasterizes it to provide a page description. (Steps 401 and 402), this is compressed (step 403) to provide a page image suitable for transmission to the print engine assembly 130 of the printer 100.

  At the drive electronics 174 of the print engine assembly 130 provided within the printer 100, the compressed multilayer page image is buffered (step 404) and then decompressed to separate into separate layers of the page image. (Step 405). The decompressed continuous tone layer is dithered (step 406), and then the black layer is composited onto the dithered continuous tone layer (step 407). The encoded data can be rendered (step 408) to form additional layers that are printed, for example, with infrared ink that is substantially invisible to the human eye. The black layer, dithered continuous tone layer, and infrared layer are combined (step 409) to form a page that is printed for printing, preferably in five colors as described above. The configured print head 164 is supplied (step 410).

  Further, the document data is preferably divided into a high resolution bi-level mask layer for text and line art and a medium resolution continuous tone color image layer for images and background colors. Optionally support color text by adding a medium to high resolution continuous tone texture layer for text and line art textures using color data extracted from an image or uniform color it can. Continuous tone layers are generalized by representing continuous tone layers with abstract “image” and “texture” layers that can reference image data or uniform color data. This partitioning of data into layers based on content follows a base mode mixed-strata content (MRC) model known to those skilled in the art. Similar to the MRC-based mode, in some examples, correction occurs when the printed data overlaps. For example, all overlaps are replaced with a three-layer representation in the process of explicitly performing correction (collision resolution).

  The main data structure is a generalized three-layer representation called page element 500, shown in the simplified UML diagram of FIG. The page element 500 can be used to represent units that range from a single rendered element appearing from the rendering engine to the entire print job band. Conceptually, the binary symbol region selects between two color sources, as will be described in more detail below with reference to FIGS. The device components shown in FIG. 28, which perform steps 400 through 410 shown in FIG. 26, typically in that they process the data in the form required by further downstream software or hardware components. It will be understood that it is device dependent.

  In FIG. 28, to render the file to be printed and deliver the rendered elements to the pipeline data receiver 412 (step 400), the renderer 411 displays a more general print as shown in FIG. Provided outside the system pipeline, the renderer 411 uses an application programming interface (API) exposed by the data receiver 412 for that purpose. The rendered elements are delivered in sequence according to a painter algorithm well known to those skilled in the art. Data passed through the API is converted by the data receiving unit 412 into a dictionary list and page elements for later processing.

  The data is then rasterized as follows (step 402 of FIG. 26). The conflict resolver 413 accepts a simple page element created by the data acceptor 412 (by buffering in step 401) for each intersection of the background and some existing element with the new element. To create a "resolved" fully opaque page element. Fundamentally, the conflict resolver 413 ensures that the entire page is tiled with opaque elements. The stripper 414 divides the data band into horizontally overlapping pieces. This is done because the printer 100 is relatively fast and therefore uses multiple parallel devices to achieve the required output dot speed. In such a case, each horizontally overlapping piece is fed into a corresponding device downstream. If such data division is not required, the stripper 414 can be omitted.

  Different printing configurations require different configurations of layers for delivery to downstream hardware. The layer reorganizer 415 converts the three layer page elements into the appropriate two or three layer form for a particular configuration. Again, there may be cases where this function is not required, in which case the layer organization device 415 can be omitted. The continuous tone combiner 416 combines and clips the image and texture layers of all page elements in the strip into a single image as required by downstream hardware.

  The color converter 417 converts the continuous tone plane of all page elements from the input color space to a device specific color space (usually CMYK). Mask combiner 418 performs the same operations on the mask layer as continuous tone combiner 416 performs on the continuous tone layer. All elements are clipped to strip boundaries and drawn in a single mask buffer.

  A densitometer 419 measures the density of the current page as a percentage of the total possible density. This operation is necessary when the power source of the printer 100 cannot process a complete density page at a sufficient speed. A continuous tone compressor 420 compresses the continuous tone layer of all page elements in order to reduce downstream memory and / or transmission bandwidth requirements. The mask formatter 421 converts the mask layer of the page element that can be expressed as a reference area of the arranged symbol into a form expected by the downstream mask expander.

  The size limiter 422 ensures that all band and page size limits are respected by splitting the band into smaller bands or recompressing the data and repeating it until the constraints are satisfied. Guarantee. When data is sent to the printer 100 between pipeline stages, a serialized form of the data structure is created (in the serializer 423), transmitted, and then deserialized (in the deserializer 424). .

  Within the drive electronics 174 of the print engine assembly 130 incorporated in the printer 100, the distributor 425 converts the data from a proprietary representation to a hardware specific representation and any constraints on data transmission to those devices. Or, while observing the requirements, ensure that the data for each strip is sent to the correct hardware device. The distributor 425 distributes the converted data to an appropriate one of the plurality of pipelines 426. The pipelines 426 are identical to each other and basically provide stretching, scaling, and dot compositing functions to create a set of printable dot outputs for the nozzles of the print head 164. .

  Each pipeline 426 includes a buffer 427 for receiving page image data from the PC 232 (step 404 in FIG. 26). The continuous tone stretcher 428 stretches the color continuous tone plane, and the mask stretcher 429 stretches the monotone (text) layer (step 405 in FIG. 26). In addition, the continuous tone scaler 430 and the mask scaler 431 scale the stretched continuous tone and mask plane, respectively, taking into account the size of the print medium on which the processed page is printed by the print head 164. .

  The scaled continuous tone plane is then dithered by the dithering device 432 using probabilistic dot dispersion dithering (step 406 of FIG. 26). A dot concentration or amplitude modulation dithering device is not used. This is because dot dispersion or frequency modulation dithering devices reproduce high spatial frequencies (ie image details) to near the limit of dot resolution, while at the same time lower spatial frequencies are spatially integrated by the eye. This is because the maximum color depth is reproduced. The probabilistic dithering matrix is carefully designed so that it has relatively few undesirable low frequency patterns when tiled across the entire image. Thus, its size typically exceeds the minimum size required to support a particular numerical luminance level (eg, 16 × 16 × 8 bits for luminance level 257).

  The dithered plane is then synthesized on a dot-by-dot basis in the dot synthesizer 433 to provide dot data suitable for printing (steps 407 and 409 in FIG. 26). This data is sent to a data distribution and drive circuit 434, which distributes the data to the correct nozzle actuator 322 of the print head 164, which causes ink to be ejected from the correct nozzle at the correct time. (Step 410 in FIG. 26).

  In the above system, a PC portion 232 that is mainly software-based is provided before the serializer 423, and a print engine assembly portion 130 that is mainly hardware-based and is disposed in the printer 100 spaced apart from the PC 232 is provided as a deserializer. Included are all included after 424. However, it will be understood that the division between the indicated computer system and the printer is somewhat arbitrary, and various components can be placed in different side divisions without substantially changing the operation as a whole. I will. It will also be appreciated that some device components can be processed in hardware or software, remote from the computer system and printer. For example, rather than relying on a general purpose processor on a PC, dedicated hardware can be used to speed up some components in the architecture.

  Preferably, the hardware pipeline 426 is implemented within the controller of the print engine assembly 130, which controller is also configured to perform some or all of the above functions related to the print pipeline, preferably One or more system-on-chip (SoC) components as well as logic specific to the print engine assembly pipeline control application.

  Referring to FIG. 29 from the highest perspective, the controller of the print engine assembly 130 has three distinct subsystems: a central processing unit (CPU) subsystem 435, a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) subsystem 436, And a print engine assembly pipeline (PEP) subsystem 437. The various components of these subsystems 435-437 are described below, along with a more detailed description of these components, including their various functions provided below in Tables 1-3.

  The CPU subsystem 435 includes a CPU 438 that controls and configures all aspects of the other subsystems, and a general purpose for interfacing and synchronizing the various components of the printer 100 with the print engine assembly 130. Provide basic support. This also controls low speed communication to quality assurance (QA) devices (described in more detail below). The CPU subsystem 435 also includes general purpose input / output (“GPIO”), including motor control, interrupt controller unit (“ICU”), low speed serial (“LSS”) master, and general purpose timer (“TIM”), etc. Various peripheral devices for supporting the CPU 438 are provided.

  The DRAM subsystem 436 receives requests from the CPU 438, the serial communication block (“SCB”) on the CPU subsystem 435, and the blocks in the PEP subsystem 437, and the SCB is a full-speed USB 1.1 interface with the host, As well as an interface (“INT”) with another controller of the print engine assembly 130. The DRAM subsystem 436 and its particular DRAM interface unit ("DIU") arbitrate various requests and determine which requests should gain access to the DRAM incorporated therein. The DIU arbitrates based on the configured parameters so that all requesters have sufficient access to the DRAM. The DIU also hides DRAM implementation specifications such as page size, number of banks, and playback rate.

  The PEP subsystem 437 receives binary compressed pages from the DRAM and binaries for a given print line to the print head interface (“PHI”) that communicates directly with the print head IC of the print head 164. Render to dot. The first stage of the page decompression pipeline comprises a continuous tone decoder unit (“CDU”), a lossless binary decoder (“LBD”), and a tag encoder (“TE”). CDU decompresses a continuous tone (usually CMYK) layer compressed in JPEG format, LBD decompresses a compressed binary layer (usually K), and TE renders an infrared tag for later rendering. Encode (usually in IR or K ink). The output from the first stage is a set of buffers: a continuous tone FIFO unit (“CFU”), a spot FIFO unit (“SFU”), and a tag FIFO unit (“TFU”). CFU and SFU buffers are implemented in dynamic random access memory.

  The second stage comprises a halftone synthesizer unit (“HCU”), which dithers the continuous tone layer and places the position tag and binary spot layer into the resulting binary dithering. On the specified layer. Depending on the print head 164 used with the controller, a number of synthesis options can be implemented. Up to six channels of binary data are created at this stage, but not all channels may be present on the printhead 164. For example, the print head 164 can be CMY only, K can be pushed into the CMY channel, and IR can be ignored. Alternatively, the encoded tag can be printed in K if IR ink is not available (or for testing purposes).

  In the third stage, a dead nozzle compensator (“DNC”) compensates for dead nozzles in the print head 164 by color redundancy and error diffusion of dead nozzle data into surrounding dots. To do. The resulting binary 6-channel dot data (usually CMYK, IR, and fixer) is buffered and written through a dot line writer unit (DWU) to a set of line buffers stored in DRAM. It is. Finally, the dot data is reloaded from the DRAM and passed to the PHI through a dot FIFO (not shown). While the dot FIFO receives data from the line loader unit (“LLU”) at the system clock speed, the PHI retrieves the data from the dot FIFO and passes it to the print head 164 at two thirds of the system clock speed. send.

好ましくは、ＤＲＡＭサブシステム４３６のＤＲＡＭは、サイズが２．５Ｍバイトであり、そのうち約２Ｍバイトが、圧縮ページ記憶データにとって使用可能である。圧縮されたページは、メモリ内に記憶された多くのバンドを用いて、２つ以上のバンドとして受け取られる。ページのバンドが、印刷のためにＰＥＰサブシステム４３７によって消費されるとき、新しいバンドをダウンロードすることができる。新しいバンドは、現在のページまたは次のページ用とすることができる。バンディングを使用すると、圧縮されたページが完全にダウンロードされる前にページの印刷を開始することができるが、データが常に印刷用に常に利用可能であることが保証されるよう注意しなければならない。さもなければバッファアンダーランが生じることがある。 Details and functions of the above-described components of subsystems 435 to 437 and components not shown above but shown in FIG. Each is provided in Tables 1 through 3 below.

Preferably, the DRAM of DRAM subsystem 436 is 2.5 Mbytes in size, of which approximately 2 Mbytes are available for compressed page storage data. Compressed pages are received as two or more bands using many bands stored in memory. When a band of pages is consumed by the PEP subsystem 437 for printing, a new band can be downloaded. The new band can be for the current page or the next page. With banding, you can start printing a page before the compressed page is completely downloaded, but you must be careful to ensure that the data is always available for printing . Otherwise, a buffer underrun may occur.

  The built-in USB 1.1 device accepts compressed page data and control commands from PC 232 (FIG. 26) and facilitates data transmission to DRAM or another controller in the multi-controller print engine assembly. The multi-controller print engine assembly 130 can be used to perform various functions, depending on the particular implementation. For example, in some examples, one controller can simply be used for its on-board DRAM while another controller performs the various decompression and formatting functions described above. This allows the print head 164 to start printing the page before all the data for the page has been received, and possible buffer underruns that can occur if the remaining data is not received in time. Can be reduced. Adding an additional controller due to its memory buffering capability doubles the amount of data that can be buffered even if the other capabilities of the additional controller are not used.

  Each controller can have several QA devices, which guarantee the quality of the mechanism of the printer 100 and the quality of the ink supply so that the nozzles of the print head 164 are not damaged during printing. Designed to cooperate with each other to ensure the quality of the software to ensure and to ensure that the printhead 164 and printer 100 mechanisms are not damaged.

  Typically, each controller of the print engine assembly 130 has a coupled QA device (not shown) that stores information about printer 100 attributes such as maximum print speed. The cartridge unit 162 of the print engine assembly 130 also includes an ink QA device (not shown) that stores information about the cartridge unit 162, such as the amount of ink remaining in the ink storage and operation reservoir 166. The print head 164 is also a QA device (not shown) configured to operate as a ROM (effectively as an EEPROM) that stores print head specific information, such as inactive nozzle mapping and print head 164 characteristics. Have The CPU 438 in the controller's CPU subsystem 435 also activates a logic (software) QA device (not shown), optionally loading and executing program code from a QA device that effectively operates as a serial EEPROM. To do. In general, all QA devices are physically identical and only the contents of the flash memory differentiate them from each other.

  Each controller has two LSS system buses that can communicate with the QA device for system authentication and ink usage accounting. Multiple QA devices can be used per bus, and their position within the system is that the print head QA device and the ink QA device should be on separate LSS system buses on the LSS bus. It is not restricted except.

  In use, the logical QA device communicates with the ink QA device to determine the remaining amount of ink. The response from the ink QA is authenticated with reference to the printhead QA device. The verification from the printhead QA device is itself authenticated by the logical QA device, thereby indirectly adding an additional authentication level to the response from the ink QA device.

  Data sent between QA devices other than the print head QA device is authenticated by a digital signature. For example, HMAC-SHA1 authentication can be used for data and RSA can be used for program code, but another scheme can be used instead.

  A single controller can control multiple printhead ICs of printhead 164 and up to six print fluid channels (eg, CMYK, IR, and F). However, the control device preferably does not recognize the color space. Thus, the controller receives continuous tone data as CMYX or RGBX, where X is an optional fourth channel, which can receive continuous tone data in any print color space. In addition, the controller provides a mechanism for arbitrarily mapping input channels to output channels, including combining dots for ink optimization and generating channels based on some number of other channels. However, the input is usually CMYK for continuous tone input and K for binary input, any IR tag dot is usually rendered into the infrared layer, and the fixer channel is Generated.

  In addition, the controller also preferably does not recognize resolution, so it only provides a mapping between input resolution and output resolution by a scale factor and has knowledge of the physical resolution of the printhead 164. Absent. In addition, the controller preferably does not even recognize the page length so that successive pages are usually divided into bands and downloaded to the page storage as each band's information is consumed.

  Now, moving from FIG. 30 to FIG. 33, the print head IC of the print head 164 will be further described. For clarity, only one printhead IC 439 is shown in FIG. 30, but it will be understood that a corresponding configuration is implemented for other printhead ICs.

  FIG. 30 shows an overview of the printhead IC and the connection between the printhead IC and the controller for the drive electronics 174 of the print engine assembly 130. The print head IC 439 includes a nozzle core array 440 including iterative logic for firing each nozzle provided in the print head IC 439 and a timing signal for firing the nozzles according to data received from the controller via the high speed link 442. Nozzle control logic 441 for generating. The nozzle control logic 441 is configured to send serial data over the link 443 to the nozzle core array 440 for printing. Status and other operational information about the nozzle core array 440 is sent back to the nozzle control logic 441 through another link 444.

  The nozzle core array 440 is shown in detail in FIGS. As shown in FIG. 31, the nozzle core array 440 comprises an array of nozzle rows 445, a fire / select shift register 446 and up to six channels, each represented by a corresponding dot shift register 447.

  As shown in FIG. 32, the fire / select shift register 446 includes a forward path fire shift register 448, a reverse path fire shift register 449, and a select shift register 450, and each dot shift register 447 is an odd dot shift register. 451 and even dot shift register 452. The odd shift register 451 and the even shift register 452 are connected at one end so that data is clocked in one direction through the odd shift register 451 and then clocked in the reverse direction through the even shift register 452. The outputs of all even dot shift registers 452 other than the last are supplied to one input of a plurality of multiplexers 453. This input of multiplexer 453 is selected by a signal (CoreScan) during post-production testing. In normal operation, the CoreScan signal selects a dot data input Dot [x] that is supplied to the other input of each multiplexer 453. As a result, Dot [x] for each color is supplied to each dot shift register 447.

  FIG. 32 also shows a single row N of an array of nozzle rows 445. In the illustrated embodiment, column N comprises 12 data values, including odd data value 454 and even data value 455 for each of the six dot shift registers 447. Column N also comprises an odd firing value 456 from forward firing shift register 448 and an even firing value 457 from backward firing shift register 449, which are provided as inputs to multiplexer 458. The output of the multiplexer 458 is controlled by the selection value 459 in the selection shift register 450. When the selection value 459 is 0, the odd firing value 456 is output, and when the selection value 459 is 1, the even firing value 457 is output.

  Odd data value 454 and even data value 455 are provided as inputs corresponding to odd dot latch 460 and even dot latch 461, respectively. Each dot latch 460 and 461 and its associated data value 454 and 455 form a unit cell, such as the unit cell 462 shown in FIG. 32 for the odd latch 460 and the odd data value 454. This situation of the odd dot shift register 451 is shown in FIG. This is also applicable to the even dot shift register 452 situation.

  Referring to FIG. 33, the odd dot latch 460 is a D-type flip-flop that receives an output of an odd data value 454, and the output of the odd data value 454 is a unit cell (D type) that forms an element of the odd dot shift register 451. Flip-flop) 462. The data input to flip-flop 462 is that of the previous element in odd shift register 451 (unless the element considered is the first element in shift register 447 whose input is a Dot [x] value). Provided from output. Data is clocked from the output of flip-flop 462 and into odd dot latch 460 upon receipt of a negative pulse supplied on line LsyncL.

  The output of odd dot latch 460 is provided as one of the inputs of 3-input AND gate 463. Another input to AND gate 463 is a fire enable (Fr) signal (from the output of multiplexer 458) and a pulse profile (Pr) signal. The firing time of the nozzle is controlled by the pulse profile signal Pr, and in the situation where the power source of the printer 100 is provided as a battery element (not shown) mounted in the main body 102, for example, a low voltage caused by battery power reduction It can be extended in consideration of the condition. This is to ensure that a relatively constant amount of ink is effectively ejected from each nozzle as it is fired. The profile signal Pr can be the same in each dot shift register 260, thereby providing a balance between complexity, cost, and performance. However, the Pr signal can be applied globally (i.e., the same for all nozzles) or can be individually adjusted for each unit cell or even each nozzle.

  When data is loaded into odd dot latch 460, Fr and Pr signals are applied to AND gate 463 and combined to cause the nozzle to eject a dot of ink for each odd dot latch 460 including logic one. Trigger.

図３３に示すように、Ｆｒ信号は、現在の列内の１つの色、後続の列内の次の色などの発射をイネーブルするために、対角線上に送られる。これは、電流需要を、時間遅延させたやり方で６つの列上に分散させることによって平均化する。 The signals for each nozzle channel, as shown in FIGS. 32 and 33, are outlined in Table 4 below.

As shown in FIG. 33, the Fr signal is sent diagonally to enable firing of one color in the current column, the next color in the subsequent column, and the like. This averages the current demand by distributing it over the six columns in a time delayed manner.

  The dot latches and the latches that form the various shift registers are sufficiently static and CMOS based. The design and structure of the latch is well known to those skilled in the art and will not be described in detail herein.

  As described above, the print head 164 having a print surface or area that traverses the width of the largest sized page of print media that can be printed using the printer 100 allows the printer 100 to print at high speed across this page width. At least 5000 nozzles or even more than 50000 nozzles can be incorporated to provide the required print quality. For example, the combined printhead IC 252 can define a printhead having 13824 nozzles per channel, including color ink and fixer channels.

  The nozzle speed can be as high as 20 kHz with a printer 100 that can print about 60 pages per minute or more at higher speeds. At nozzle speeds in this range, the amount of ink that can be ejected from the entire print head 164 is at least about 50 million drops per second. However, when the number of nozzles is increased to provide faster and higher quality printing, it may deliver at least 100 million drops per second, preferably at least 300 million drops per second, and more preferably at least 1,000,000 drops per second. it can.

  Consequently, to accommodate printing at these speeds, the drive electronics 174, and in particular its controller (s), have nozzles that drop ink drops at least 50 million dots per second, and printing speeds. Depending on the speed, at least 100 million dots per second, preferably at least 300 million dots per second, more preferably at a speed of at least 1,000,000 dots per second for higher speed and high quality printing applications must be calculated.

In a color printer 100 that prints at the maximum width of A4 paper, the number of nozzles and printing speeds in the above range are at least 50 cm ² per ^second , and at least 100 cm ² per ^second , preferably at least 200 cm ² per ^second , and more preferably depending on the printing speed. Provides higher area printing speeds of at least 500 cm ² per second.

  Although the invention has been illustrated and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, various modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Can be produced. Accordingly, the scope of the claims appended hereto is not limited to the description set forth herein, but is intended to be construed broadly.

1 is a perspective view illustrating a printer according to an aspect of the present invention. It is a front view which shows the printer of FIG. It is a figure which shows the open position of the face plate of the printer of FIG. It is a rear view which shows the printer of FIG. It is a perspective view which shows the lower side of the printer of FIG. It is a bottom view which shows the printer of FIG. It is a top view which shows the printer of FIG. It is a side view which shows the printer of FIG. FIG. 2 is an exploded view showing various components of the printer of FIG. 1. FIG. 10 illustrates the open position of the print media source tray assembly of the printer as shown in FIG. 9 loaded with A4 print media. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the printer, taken along line AA in FIG. FIG. 2 is a rear perspective view showing a print medium collector of the printer of FIG. 1. FIG. 13 is a front perspective view of the print medium collector of FIG. 12. FIG. 13 illustrates the print media collector and printer shown in FIG. 12 with print media collected thereon. FIG. 14 illustrates the print media collector and printer shown in FIG. 13 with print media collected thereon. FIG. 16 shows a print media collector as shown in FIG. 15 with an alternative faceplate according to the invention. It is a figure which shows the application example of the printer shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the application example of the printer shown in FIG. FIG. 15 shows a print media collector as shown in FIG. 14 with an alternative mounting configuration for a printer according to the present invention. It is a figure which shows one application example of a printer as shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows one application example of a printer as shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a perspective view (partially cross-sectional view) showing a portion of a nozzle system of a printhead integrated circuit incorporated into the printhead of the printer of FIG. 1. FIG. 21 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a single nozzle (of the nozzle system shown in FIG. 20) in a stationary state. FIG. 22 is a vertical sectional view showing the nozzle of FIG. 21 in an initial operating state. FIG. 23 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing the nozzle of FIG. 22 in a late operating state. It is a perspective view which shows the vertical partial cross section of the nozzle in the initial stage operation state shown in FIG. It is a perspective view which shows the vertical partial cross section of the nozzle in the late stage operation state shown in FIG. It is the schematic which shows the flow of the document data of the printer of FIG. It is a figure which shows the data representation of the page element used in FIG. FIG. 27 is a more detailed schematic diagram illustrating the architecture used in FIG. 26; FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a controller that incorporates the print engine assembly of the printer of FIG. 1. FIG. 27 is a schematic diagram illustrating a CMOS drive and control block for use in FIG. FIG. 31 is a schematic diagram illustrating a relationship between a nozzle row and a dot shift register in the CMOS block of FIG. 30. FIG. 32 is a more detailed schematic diagram illustrating a unit cell and the relationship between the nozzle row and dot shift register of FIG. 31. FIG. 27 is a circuit diagram illustrating logic for the single nozzle of FIG. 26.

Claims (13)

A main body mounted in a suspended state on a vertical plane;
A cradle unit detachably arranged with respect to the main body;
A cartridge unit including a page width print head for printing on a print medium, the cartridge unit being detachably accommodated in the cradle unit; and
A collection tray for collecting print media after printing, the collection tray configured to be movable between a position retracted in the main body and a position protruding outward from the main body;
Comprising
The cradle unit includes a control circuit that controls the operation of the page width print head and the movement of the collection tray,
The collection tray is in a state of being housed and hidden in the main body at a position retracted in the main body.
Printer unit. 2. The printer unit according to claim 1 , wherein the cartridge unit further includes at least one ink storage reservoir from which the page width print head takes out ink for printing on the print medium. The printer unit according to claim 1 , wherein the cradle unit includes a drive electronic circuit that controls printing performed by the page width print head. The body is
A back surface configured to be attachable to the vertical surface;
An internal section that houses the cradle unit;
The printer unit according to claim 1, comprising: The printer unit according to claim 4 , wherein an attachment boss for attaching the printer unit to the vertical plane is provided on the back surface of the main body. The printer unit according to claim 4 , wherein a hook for mounting the printer unit on the top surface of the vertical plane is provided on the back surface of the main body. The printer unit according to claim 4 , wherein the vertical plane is a wall. The printer unit according to claim 4 , wherein the vertical plane is a privacy screen of an office terminal. A print medium supply unit for supplying a print medium to the page width print head is attached to the inner section of the main body.
The printer unit according to claim 4 , wherein an expandable print medium collector for collecting print media printed by the page width print head is attached to the back surface of the main body.   The printer unit according to claim 1, wherein the main body includes a front surface that can be decorated. The body is
A print media collector that is automatically expandable from the main body at the start of printing to collect printed print media,
The printer unit according to claim 1, wherein the printer unit is configured to accommodate the printer.   The printer unit according to claim 1, wherein the page width print head is configured as a two-dimensional array of at least 20000 print nozzles for printing over the entire width of the print medium. The page width print head is
An array of ink ejection nozzles configured to print on the print medium by ejecting ink droplets across the width of the print medium at a rate of at least 50 million drops per second;
The printer unit according to claim 1, comprising:

Images