Ink jet printers are a popular form of printer used with computers and similar applications involving document printing or graphics preparation. Typical ink jet printers have replaceable ink jet cartridges with built-in print heads. While replaceable ink jet cartridges are a convenient manner of supplying ink to such printers, the cartridges are necessarily expensive due to their complexity and the provision of print heads with the cartridges. Cartridges provided by manufacturers are typically not designed to be refilled when the ink supply runs out. It is well known, however, that such cartridges have useful lives significantly longer than that provided by the initial supply of ink. As a result, there have been substantial efforts directed at providing a simple, easy-to-use system for refilling cartridges with ink.
Known ink cartridge refill systems may have certain drawbacks related to ink flow from the ink refill system to the printer cartridge. Therefore, additional efforts have been directed at providing reliable, consistently functioning systems for refilling printer cartridges with ink.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds