Agitating member for ink cartridge

摘要

A printhead assembly for an inkjet printer has a ink filter tower portion that contains filtered ink and includes multiple, substantially parallel extending elements. Settling of ink in an ink filter tower could clog the printhead nozzles and lessen the print quality. Therefore, in order to prevent the settling of the ink in the ink filter tower of the present design, a free-floating weighted slider is installed within the ink filter tower. The weighted slider has a top bridging member and downward-pointing shafts that are movable within trenches formed between the extending elements. During a reciprocating motion of the printhead assembly, the slider moves in a direction opposite to the direction of the printhead assembly and thereby agitates the ink within the tower. In addition to sliding from side to side of the printhead assembly, the slider may also be designed to pivot about an upper axis as it moves to further agitate the ink.

主权项

1. A printhead assembly, comprising:
an ink cartridge body; an ink reservoir disposed within the ink cartridge body and adapted to receive and contain ink; a filter disposed adjacent the ink reservoir to filter ink supplied from the ink reservoir as the ink passes through the filter; a printhead chip provided on the ink cartridge body and in fluid communication with the ink reservoir so as to receive the filtered ink for ejection of the ink onto a print medium; an ink filter tower disposed between the filter and the printhead chip, the ink filter tower comprising:
an ink entrance passage that receives the filtered ink;a chamber that holds the filtered ink received through the ink entrance passage;a plurality of extending elements disposed within the chamber, the filtered ink passing through the chamber and around the plurality of extending elements, wherein the extending elements are spaced apart from, and are substantially parallel to, one another;a plurality of trenches disposed within the chamber, wherein the plurality of trenches are defined by the extending elements; anda slider positioned within and unattached to the ink filter tower so that the slider is free-floating and agitates the filtered ink within the ink filter tower, the slider comprising a bridging member and a plurality of shafts extending from the bridging member substantially parallel to one another.