NON-SPHERICAL PARTICLE SEPARATOR FOR INK JET PRINTER

摘要

A device is disposed within an ink flow channel of an ink jet printer and is arranged to remove particles from ink. The device includes an alignment region that aligns non-spherical particles along their major dimension in the ink flow channel. A guiding region is arranged to direct the non-spherical particles towards a first streamline region of the ink flow channel and away from a second streamline region of the ink flow channel. During operation of the ink jet printer, particle-rich ink flows in the first streamline region and particle-free ink flows in the second streamline region. A splitting region arranged downstream from the guiding region splits the ink flow channel into first and second branches. The first channel branch is arranged to carry the particle-rich ink and the second channel branch is arranged to carry the particle-free ink.

主权项

1. A device for removing particles from ink in an ink flow channel of an ink jet printer, comprising:
a hyperbolic contraction of the ink flow channel; a guiding region disposed in the ink flow channel downstream from the hyperbolic contraction and including one or more obstacles that extend at least partially across a width of ink flow channel, obstacles arranged to direct particles toward a first streamline region arranged to carry particle-rich ink and away from a second streamline region arranged to carry particle-free ink that includes fewer particles than the particle-rich ink; and a splitting region arranged downstream from the guiding region, the splitting region configured to split the ink flow channel into first and second channel branches, the first channel branch arranged to carry the particle-rich ink and the second channel branch arranged to carry the particle-free ink.