| 摘要 |
A continuous color ink jet print head (40) for an electronic printing device is composed of a nozzle (42), pressurized ink sources (46, 48), and a print head surface (50) having channels (61, 62, 64, 66) disposed therein such that each channel (61, 62, 64, 66) is in communication with the nozzle (42). The continuous color ink jet print head (40) also includes a microvalve (52, 56) disposed within each of the channels (61, 62, 64, 66) such that each channel (61, 62, 64, 66) is connected through the microvalve (52, 56) to a pressurized ink source (46, 48), thereby permitting ink from the pressurized ink source (46, 48) to flow through the channel (61, 62, 64,66) and thereafter be ejected from the nozzle (42) when the pressurized ink source (46, 48) has attained a particular threshold pressure. The microvalve (52, 56) itself is a thermally activated microvalve (52, 56) that permits colored patterns of dots of varying intensities to be ejected from the nozzle (42) onto a receiver at a constant rate, thereby maintaining a static ink printed pixel size. By selectively controlling the length of time the microvalve (52, 56) is actuated, a range of colored inks is permitted to be ejected from the nozzle (42) onto the receiver.
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