Drying assembly

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10076903-B2
Application number	US-201715659025-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 25, 2017
Priority date	Sep 21, 2012
Publication date	Sep 18, 2018
Grant date	Sep 18, 2018

Abstract

A drying assembly is disclosed. An example apparatus includes fans; a temperature sensor; a print engine to access instructions to cause a printer to perform a printing operation on media; and a processor responsive to an output of the temperature sensor to control the fans to force air onto the media to cause a substantially uniform temperature to be maintained across a width of the media during the printing operation and to cause a sum of air flow output by the fans to be maintained at a substantially constant value.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
fans;
a temperature sensor;
a print engine to access instructions to cause a printer to perform a printing operation on media; and
a processor responsive to an output of the temperature sensor to control the fans to force air onto the media to cause a substantially uniform temperature to be maintained across a width of the media during the printing operation and to cause a sum of air flow output by the fans to be maintained at a substantially constant value.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is to:
dynamically adjust the fans; or
dynamically adjust a heater.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the processor is to dynamically adjust the fans a rate of once per second or greater.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the processor is to:
independently adjust the fans; or
independently adjust the heater.

5. An apparatus, comprising:
a print bar to print on media;
a first heater;
a second heater;
a first fan associated with the first heater;
a second fan associated with the second heater; and
a processor to access and monitor temperature values associated with the first and second fans, to maintain a sum of air flow generated by the first and second fans at a substantially constant value, and to dynamically adjust (1) the first fan, (2) the second fan, (3) the first heater, or (4) the second heater to maintain a substantially uniform temperature across a width of the media.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the processor is to access the temperature values approximately every second.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 , further including a first temperature sensor associated with the first fan and a second temperature sensor associated with the second fan, the first and second temperature sensors to measure the temperature values.

8. The apparatus of claim 5 , further including a support to which the first fan or the second fan is coupled.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the first fan is longitudinally spaced away from the second fan on the support.

10. The apparatus of claim 5 , further including a first housing in which the first fan and the first heater are disposed and a second housing in which the second fan and the second heater are disposed.

11. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the processor is to control the first heater and the second heater using a single signal.

12. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the processor is to:
independently adjust the first fan or the second fan.

13. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the processor is to:
independently adjust the first heater or the second heater.

14. A computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to:
obtain temperature values associated with first and second fans; and
dynamically adjust (1) the first fan, (2) the second fan, (3) a first heater associated with the first fan, or (4) a second heater associated with the second fan to maintain a substantially uniform temperature across a width of media during a printing operation and to maintain a sum of air flow generated by the fans to be at a substantially constant value.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the printing operation includes depositing printing fluid onto the media.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the instructions cause the machine to:
independently adjust the first or second fans.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the instructions cause the machine to dynamically adjust the first or second fans approximately every second.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the instructions cause the machine to control the first heater and the second heater using a single signal.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the instructions cause the machine to:
independently adjust the first or second heaters.

Assignees

• Hewlett Packard Dev Compnay L P
• Hewlett Packard Development Co

Inventors

• Perez Gellida Francisco Javier
• Zuza Irurueta Mikel
• Borrell Avila Oriol
• Valero Navazo Juan Manuel
• Bastardas Puigoriol Roger

Classifications

• B41J29/377

  Cooling or ventilating arrangements · CPC title

• B41F23/04

  by heat drying, by cooling, by applying powders {(B41F23/005 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• B41J23/04

  with driven mechanism arranged to be clutched to continuously- operating power source · CPC title

• B41J11/0015

  for treating before, during or after printing or for uniform coating or laminating the copy material before or after printing (selective coating B41J2/2114) · CPC title

• F26B21/50

  Ducting arrangements from the source of air or other gases to the materials or objects being dried · CPC title