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Figure 1 Ink Flow
Ink Sticks
Ink sticks are loaded into the IME through an access door near the control panel. The ink sticks
pass through the ink loader key plate as they drop into the ink loader. The shapes of the ink
sticks are keyed to prevent an incorrect stick from being loaded. There are four sets of ink stick
shapes; NA, EU, metered, and DMO sold. Each Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) set is unique to the
market segment.
Figure 2
shows the various ink stick shapes.
Each SKU family consists of 4 colors, resulting in a total of 16 unique ink stick shapes. In all
cases, features unique to each color of ink prevent insertion into the wrong color key plate
opening. The ink loader uses an adaptable key plate, mechanically actuated by software to
adjust the key plate opening to accept the appropriate SKU version. The adaptable key plate
allows insertion of NA/EU and DMO sticks into a metered printer, but does not allow any other
cross-SKU insertions.
Principles of Operation
Ink Melt Heaters
Ink sticks are delivered by the ink loader and held against the ink melt plates by gravity. The
system contains four melt heater / plate assemblies, one for each ink stick colour (cyan,
magenta, yellow and black). The ink melt plate is heated using a ceramic Positive Thermal
Coefficient (PTC) disk as a safety measure in the ink melt system; as the temperature of the
melt plate rises, the electrical resistance increases reducing the electrical current drawn by the
heater. When the melt heater reaches the correct temperature the end of the ink stick contact-
ing the plate melts and the liquid ink runs into the low pressure ink reservoir below.
Ink Reservoir
The function of the ink reservoir is to:
•
Receive melted ink from the Ink melt heaters
•
Maintain liquefied ink at the set point temperature
•
Deliver liquefied ink to the Umbilicals
February 2013
8-26
Figure 2 Ink stick shapes
ColorQube® 9303 Family
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