Continuous refill of spring bag reservoir in an ink-jet printer/plotter

摘要

A closed ink replenishment system for replenishing the supply of ink in negative pressure spring-bag reservoirs in a printer/plotter (1000). A tube (1310-1340) runs between each cartridge reservoir and an auxiliary reservoir (1410-1440) mounted to the printer/plotter frame to form the closed ink system. As ink is depleted from the spring-bag reservoir during printing operation, the negative pressure in the cartridge increases, drawing ink through the tube from the auxiliary reservoir into the cartridge until the negative pressure decreases to an equilibrium point. As a result, the volume of ink within the spring-bag reservoir remains substantially constant so long as there is ink remaining within the auxiliary reservoir. This maintains the print quality. The auxiliary reservoir is a flat bag mounted on a spring-biased platform (1510), which acts as a height regulating system. As ink is depleted from the auxiliary bag, the height of the platform and bag increases to maintain a constant pressure and elevation head at the spring-bag reservoir.