OEM acquires patents for “removable input tray assembly” and “aqueous-based UV-curable fluid composition”.
Lexmark International has been awarded two new patents for its printing technology, with one patent being given for a “removable input tray assembly” for use in a printer or any image forming device.
Invented by Brian Allen Blair, Stacey Vaughan Mitchell, Daniel Lee Thomas and Edward Lynn Triplett, the tray has “a bottom surface” for storing media sheets which has “a wall extending upward”. An “inclined media dam […] has a media contact surface for directing media from the media storage location” and a channel in the wall “extends the height of the wall for directing media passing therethrough”, with a “roller nip” being formed by a pair of rollers in the channel “for advancing media through the channel”.
The second patent awarded to Lexmark is for “an aqueous-based UV-curable fluid composition for use in a micro-fluid ejection device” invented by Robert Lee Cornell and Robert Wilson Cornell. Composed of “a mixture of poly-functional compounds, a colorant compound, a photo-initiator and less than about 50 weight percent water”, the fluid is “substantially devoid of volatile organic carrier fluids”.
Advantages of using this fluid include “minimal nozzle plate flooding thereby greatly improving droplet ejection directionality and droplet placement on a substrate” and a fire frequency “40 percent less than a fire frequency of a conventional aqueous-based ink composition”.