Digital BW, The Print

I'm a lawyer, but not a patent lawyer and not an engineer, who for the 
last 3 years or so has used a CIS from MIS on my C84/88 printers with EZ 
inks.  So far it shows no sign of dying, but I am concerned about the 
longer haul.

It seems to me that it should be possible to design and fabricate an 
open frame that would have the outer dimensions of one of the Epson 
cartridges including its locking tabs and place for a chip.  (Imagine 
cutting the sides off an Epson cartridge but leaving the edges intact, 
probably with some internal or corner bracing to insure rigidity.)  This 
frame would snap into the same position as a cartridge, but would not 
itself hold any ink.  It would just provide a 
holder/valve/filter/connector/whatever between ink lines from outside 
reservoirs and the ink input to the heads themselves.  Using the 
existing cartridge dimensions and locking tab locations would insure 
solid connections for the ink path and the chip. 

It would take some factory to set up a new mold, and the big question 
would be whether the Epson patents would cover this kind of device.  But 
if it was outside the patent coverage, it would provide an "industrial 
strength" alternative to home-made/duct-tape devices at probably very 
little cost once the molds were amortized.  Somebody amortized the cost 
of manufacturing the third-party Epson-size cartridges, so doing the 
same thing with an Epson-size frame shouldn't be any tougher, once the 
size/location of any "internal" filter or valve was established.

Just an idea from a shoulda-been engineer.

Cheers,
Kip

Paul Roark wrote:
>
>
> >1) It seems that one obvious point is the need for a firm seal
> > between the tubes and the "nipples" in the head...
> > I have had good luck inserting tubes over these "nipples" ...
>
> Yes, the standard tubing I use for the vacuum loading fits nicely over the
> inlet posts.
>
> >However, the tube will eventually come loose if it's not more
> >securely clamped.
>
> They might. I'm sure this is easily solved.
>
> >2) There appears to be the need for some kind of "damper" such as
> >the ones used on the large format printers ...
>
> Yes, and MIS carries some. I've played with my 7500 dampers, and it 
> appears
> a different tubing size is needed, but I think the basic idea is sound.
>
> >3) Some large format carts are pressurized, some not...
>
> The fact that CISs work indicates suction is sufficient on the desktop
> units.
>
> >... most CIS systems are HIGHLY sensitive to
> > gravity and placing the bottles even a little too high will
> > result in a mess of ink dripping through the head. Bottles
> > too low will result in starvation and may even draw ink back
> > from the head causing air bubbles or air in the lines.
>
> But lots of people use these devices regularly without much worry 
> about ink
> level. It think some work here might make the units work better than they
> do already, however.
>
> I think there is a workable system here.
>
> Paul
> www.PaulRoark.com
>
>  
>
> __,___ 


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