US 12,403,690 B2
Fault diagnosis in a continuous ink jet printer
Miguel Calvo, St Ives (GB); John Green, St Ives (GB); and Stephen Eric Baldwin, St Ives (GB)
Assigned to Linx Printing Technologies Limited, (GB)
Filed by Linx Printing Technologies Limited, St. Ives (GB)
Filed on Feb. 27, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/114,827.
Application 18/114,827 is a continuation of application No. PCT/GB2021/052175, filed on Aug. 23, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 2013607 (GB), filed on Aug. 29, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0202169 A1, Jun. 29, 2023
Int. Cl. B41J 2/125 (2006.01); B41J 2/165 (2006.01); B41J 2/21 (2006.01); B41J 29/393 (2006.01); B41J 29/46 (2006.01); B41J 2/02 (2006.01); B41J 2/08 (2006.01)
CPC B41J 2/125 (2013.01) [B41J 2/16579 (2013.01); B41J 2/2142 (2013.01); B41J 29/393 (2013.01); B41J 29/46 (2013.01); B41J 2/02 (2013.01); B41J 2002/022 (2013.01); B41J 2/08 (2013.01)] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A monitoring system comprising:
a processor and a memory, the processor configured to:
receive printer data of an electrostatic deflection continuous ink jet printer and obtain phase data from said printer data, said phase data being data (a) indicating which of a set of possible phase positions includes the break-up phase of an ink jet of the printer at each of a succession of analysis times and/or (b) indicating the change of the break-up phase of the ink jet from one of the possible phase positions to another; and
analyse the phase data, using at least one of: (a) the size, in number of possible phase positions or in angle of phase, of changes in break-up phase from one analysis time to the next; (b) the range of variation of the break-up phase within a set period of time; or (c) whether successive changes in phase are in the same direction as each other, to determine whether the break-up phase is unstable and output an alert if it determines that the break-up phase is unstable.
 
20. A monitoring method comprising:
receiving printer data of an electrostatic deflection continuous ink jet printer and obtaining phase data from said printer data, said phase data being data (a) indicating which of a set of possible phase positions includes the break-up phase of an ink jet of the printer at each of a succession of analysis times and/or (b) indicating the change of the break-up phase of the ink jet from one of the possible phase positions to another; and
analysing the phase data, using at least one of: (a) the size, in number of possible phase positions or in angle of phase, of changes in break-up phase from one analysis time to the next; (b) the range of variation of the break-up phase within a set period of time; or (c) whether successive changes in phase are in the same direction as each other, to determine whether the break-up phase is unstable and outputting an alert in response to a determination that the break-up phase is unstable.