Sensor for Determining Ink Drying Time in a Page-Wide Inkjet Printer

摘要

A page-wide inkjet printer for determining a drying time of a print swath of ink deposited on a sheet of media by a fixed printhead spanning a width of a printing zone in a subscan direction. The printer has a controller communicatively coupled to each of the printhead and a moveable gloss sensor or a scan bar for processing a respective output response for the determining the drying time of the print swath.

主权项

1. An ink jet printer for printing an image on a sheet of media comprising:
a printhead fixed from moving in a media feed direction and spanning a width of a printing zone in a subscan direction for depositing ink onto a surface of the sheet of media to form a print swath across a portion of a width of the sheet of media being processed in the ink jet printer; a gloss sensor positioned downstream of the printhead for scanning the print swath formed on the surface of the sheet of media, the gloss sensor providing an output response corresponding to an amount of specular reflection received from the print swath; and a controller in operative communication with each of the printhead and the gloss sensor, the controller being configured to control the operation of the printhead to effect printing of the print swath on the sheet of media as it moves past the printhead in a media feed direction and the controller being further configured to process the output response of the gloss sensor of the scanned print swath of the printed image to determine if the printed sheet of media is moveable without smearing.