Ink-jet printers are in widespread use today for printing functions in personal computers, graphics plotters, facsimile machines and other applications. Such printers typically include replaceable or semipermanent print cartridges which hold a supply of ink and carry the ink-jet printhead. The cartridge typically is secured into a printer carriage which supports one or a plurality of cartridges above the print medium, and traverses the medium in a direction transverse to the direction of medium travel through the printer. Electrical connections are made to the printhead by flexible wiring circuits attached to the outside of the cartridge. The carriage receptacle has a corresponding electrical circuit with exposed contact pads which contact cartridge interconnect pads when the cartridge is mounted in the carriage. Each printhead includes a number of tiny nozzles defined in a substrate and nozzle plate structure which are selectively fired by electrical signals applied to the interconnect pads to eject droplets of ink in a controlled fashion onto the print medium. The cartridge may be connectable to auxiliary supplies of ink for replenishing the internal supply held in the cartridge. In order to achieve accurate printing quality, each removable cartridge includes datum surfaces which engage against corresponding carriage surfaces to precisely locate the cartridge when inserted into the carriage. In this manner, when a cartridge ink supply is exhausted, the cartridge may be replaced with a fresh cartridge, and the printhead of the new cartridge will be precisely located relative to the carriage. The printer carriage receptacle and the cartridge are therefore designed together, so that the cartridge fits accurately within the carriage receptacle, the respective circuit pads and datum surfaces match up, and the cartridge can be removed and replaced with a fresh cartridge as needed.
Inkjet cartridges can be of varying shapes and sizes. Heretofore, a cartridge of one size could not be used in a printer carriage designed to receive a cartridge of a different size, since the datums and the electrical contacts on the cartridge and the carriage would not match up.
It would therefore be an advantage to provide a technique to allow a cartridge of one size or configuration to be used in a printer with a carriage receptacle designed for use with a cartridge of a different size or configuration.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds