Shutter based ink jet printing mechanism

摘要

An ink jet printer uses a shutter based ink jet nozzle. An ink chamber having an oscillating ink pressure is interconnected to a nozzle chamber, which includes a grilled shutter having a first open state permitting the expulsion of ink from the nozzle and a second closed state substantially restricting the expulsion of ink from the nozzle. A shutter activator drives, on demand, the grilled shutter from a closed to open state. A lock is provided to lock the grilled shutter in an open or closed state as required. The shutter activator can be a thermal actuation device having two arms, one arm having a thermal jacket of low thermal conductivity and a thinned portion to increase the travel of the actuator upon activation.