Office jet Pro K5400dn measures 19.5 inches wide, 15 inches deep, and 8.1 inches tall, and weighs a little more than 19 pounds. Printer also consists of 250 sheet input tray with adjustable paper guide. It consists of four ink cartridge, one black and three colors. A black page printed from this cheap printer costs about 1.5 cents per page and 6 cents per page for color. K5400dn include an auto duplexer and built-in networking. This cheap printer does not contain an extra input tray.

Text print quality is very good for an inkjet printer. The text was a rich black and characters were formed well. “Near laser” is an appropriate description; the K5400dn’s text prints were better than those of nearly all the multifunction inkjet printers. The graphics print revealed smooth color gradients along with pleasing color saturation and accuracy. HP Officejet Pro K5400dn is good for the occasional photo that may serve as a reference, perhaps for a small insurance company or a real estate agent.

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Hand stamp with adhesively held ink cartridge Abstract

A hand stamp that has a frame member that holds an ink cartridge. The cartridge has an ink storage layer and an image forming layer. An upstanding wall surrounds the ink storage layer forming an ink reservoir. There is a ledge surrounding the inside of the stamp frame that has an adhesive applied to it. The top of the upstanding wall on the ink storage layer is attached to the frame member by the adhesive. There is an ink impervious coating applied to the top of the upstanding wall where the ink cartridge attaches to the stamp frame so that the bond between the ink cartridge and frame is not compromised.

The HP LaserJet P2015x series are fairly compact, making them a good fit for cluttered home offices and cramped apartments and dorm rooms. The $600, P2015x model measures 13.8 inches wide, 14.3 inches deep, and 10.1 inches tall, and weighs just 24.3 pounds. The muted light- and dark-gray color scheme gives HP Laser Jet P2015x printer a plain look. The main paper cassette of this mono laser printer holds up to 250 sheets of plain paper. This model also consist of an additional 500 sheet input tray. Using the high-capacity cartridge, print costs work out to about 2.1 cents per page for text–a reasonable cost that’s in line with other printers of its class. The $400 P2015x adds a built-in duplexer. This cheap printer consists of 400MHz processor and 32MB of RAM, which can be upgraded to 288MB.

The $600, cheap P2015x is a fast mono printer, churning out text at a rate of 22.13ppm and graphics at a rate of 21.29ppm. The text quality of P2015x text is excellent. The text obtained is sharp, clean and characters were consistently formed. Graphics prints of this mono laser printer showed decent quality. A bit of compression in the light end of the grayscale can also be seen on the paper. Additionally, the photo elements were grainy. Overall, the print quality of HP Laser Jet P2015x is better than its competitors.

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Hand stamp with adhesively held ink cartridge Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A hand stamp unit comprising: an ink cartridge having an ink storage layer and an image forming layer, the image forming layer having an outer surface that is selectively sealable to form ink impermeable areas and ink permeable areas thereby creating an image, the ink cartridge having an outer edge and a border area adjacent to the outer edge on the ink storage layer, an upstanding wall in the border area having a top surface, sealing means on the top surface for inhibiting the flow of ink through the outer wall to the top surface for keeping the top surface ink free, an ink reservoir having an open top and a bottom formed by the ink storage layer and the upstanding wall, the ink storage layer forming the bottom of the ink reservoir and the open top surrounded by the upstanding wall, a frame member having a top, a bottom and side walls, a ledge on the frame member extending inward from the side walls, and an adhesive applied between the ledge and the upstanding wall for affixing the upstanding wall to the ledge.

2. The hand stamp unit of claim 1 wherein the sealing means is comprised of an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer.

3. The hand stamp unit of claim 2 and further comprising a removable cover sheet that covers the adhesive until the ink cartridge is to be affixed to the ledge at which time it is removed thereby exposing the adhesive.

4. The hand stamp of claim 1 wherein the ink storage layer is oriented in a first plane and the upstanding wall is mounted to the ink storage layer and extends perpendicular to the first plane.

5. The hand stamp of claim 1 wherein the adhesive is a liquid adhesive applied to the ledge.

6. The hand stamp of claim 1 and further comprising an insert dimensioned to be received within the reservoir.

7. The hand stamp of claim 6 wherein the insert and the upstanding wall are made of the same material.

8. The hand stamp of claim 1 wherein the upstanding wall of the ink cartridge is made of porous material for absorbing and storing ink.

The HP LaserJet P2015dn series are fairly compact, making them a good fit for cluttered home offices and cramped apartments and dorm rooms. The $500, P2015dn model measures 13.8 inches wide, 14.3 inches deep, and 10.1 inches tall, and weighs just 24.3 pounds. The muted light- and dark-gray color scheme gives HP Laser Jet P2015dn printer a plain look. The main paper cassette of this mono laser printer holds up to 250 sheets of plain paper. Using the high-capacity cartridge, print costs work out to about 2.1 cents per page for text–a reasonable cost that’s in line with other printers of its class. The $400 P2015dn adds a built-in duplexer. This cheap printer consists of 400MHz processor and 32MB of RAM, which can be upgraded to 288MB.

The $500, cheap P2015dn is a fast mono printer, churning out text at a rate of 22.13ppm and graphics at a rate of 21.29ppm. The text quality of P2015dn text is excellent. The text obtained is sharp, clean and characters were consistently formed. Graphics prints of this mono laser printer showed decent quality. A bit of compression in the light end of the grayscale can also be seen on the paper. Additionally, the photo elements were grainy. Overall, the print quality of HP Laser Jet P2015dn is better than its competitors.

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Ink cartridge Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A sub-tank comprising: an ink inlet for receiving ink; an ink outlet for supplying ink; an ink storage chamber connected to said ink outlet; a valve housing chamber connected to said ink inlet; a valve disposed in said valve housing chamber; a partition wall provided between said ink storage chamber and said valve housing chamber, and formed with a communicating hole communicating with said ink storage chamber and said valve housing chamber; and an urging unit disposed in said valve housing chamber and urging said valve toward said partition wall wherein when a pressure in the ink storage chamber is above a predetermined value, said valve is brought into contact with said partition wall and seals said communicating hole; and wherein when the pressure in the ink storage chamber is below a predetermined value, said valve is seperated from said partition wall and opens said communicating hole, so that ink flows through said communicating hole from said valve housing chamber to said ink storage chamber.

2. The sub-tank according to claim 1, wherein said partition wall has a rigidity so that said urging unit urges said valve toward said partition wall to seal said communicating hole.

3. The sub-tank according to claim 1, wherein said ink storing chamber is so constructed that a recess portion is sealed by a film which can elastically deform according to pressure change in said ink storage chamber.

The HP LaserJet P2015d series are fairly compact, making them a good fit for cluttered home offices and cramped apartments and dorm rooms. The $400, P2015d model measures 13.8 inches wide, 14.3 inches deep, and 10.1 inches tall, and weighs just 24.3 pounds. The muted light- and dark-gray color scheme gives HP Laser Jet P2015d printer a plain look. The main paper cassette of this mono laser printer holds up to 250 sheets of plain paper. Using the high-capacity cartridge, print costs work out to about 2.1 cents per page for text–a reasonable cost that’s in line with other printers of its class. The $400 P2015d adds a built-in duplexer. This cheap printer consists of 400MHz processor and 32MB of RAM, which can be upgraded to 288MB.

The $400, cheap P2015d is a fast mono printer, churning out text at a rate of 22.13ppm and graphics at a rate of 21.29ppm. The text quality of P2015d text is excellent. The text obtained is sharp, clean and characters were consistently formed. Graphics prints of this mono laser printer showed decent quality. A bit of compression in the light end of the grayscale can also be seen on the paper. Additionally, the photo elements were grainy. Overall, the print quality of HP Laser Jet P2015d is better than its competitors.

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Hand stamp with adhesively held ink cartridge Description

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to hand stamps and more particularly to a self-inking hand stamp that does not require a stamp pad. The hand stamp utilizes a porous foam layer and an ink cartridge mounted together in intimate contact with each other to create the printing aspect of the device. The porous foam layer has the image forming stamp material on its surface. This invention also relates to the design and manufacture of the stamp frame that adhesively holds the porous foam layer and ink cartridge to the stamp frame.

Many conventional stamps require manufacturing the printing surface from rubber or other flexible material. The printing surface is securely mounted on a handle that is grasped by the user. The printing surface is placed into contact with an inkpad where ink transfers to the printing surface. The inked printing surface is then pressed against the surface onto which the stamp image is to be transferred. Repetition of the stamping process requires that the printing surface be pressed against the inkpad each time an image is to be transferred. This is a disadvantage to the user as it requires extra time for each re-inking step and slows down the stamping process if multiple stampings are to be done. It also requires the use of a separate inkpad that must be periodically re-inked.

The HP Color LaserJet CM1017 MFP measures 17.3 inches wide, 20 inches deep, and 21.3 inches tall, and it weighs nearly 50 pounds. The top-mounted flatbed scanner and control panel sit atop the body like a flat hat..

Although multifunction laser printers are generally office-oriented, the Color LaserJet CM1017 MFP lacks fax functionality, which may be a deal breaker for some offices. This Laser jet printer also consists of a media card reader for printing descent quality photos that can be useful in certain industries such as real estate or insurance. The cheap CM1017 comes with a 300MHz processor and 94MB of RAM standard (upgradeable to 224MB). Duplex, or two-sided, printing is a manual operation, as the CM1017 lacks a built-in duplexer. The copy features of CM1017 are basic. This cheap printer consists of black and color cartridge. New 2,500-page black cartridge costs about $75, while each 2,000-page color cartridge (cyan, magenta, and yellow) costs about $83.

HP Color LaserJet CM1017 prints black text at 6.81ppm, black graphics at 6.31ppm, color text at 5.91ppm, and color graphics at 6.16ppm. It scanned a grayscale document at a rate of 3.39ppm and a color document at 2.61ppm. Black text obtained from the printer is dark, sharp, clean, and well-formed.

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Ink cartridge Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates to an ink cartridge in which pressurized air is applied into an air chamber between an outer case and an ink pack thereby to discharge ink from the ink pack.

RELATED ART

Generally, an ink jet recording apparatus for business use is constructed so that a large-volume ink cartridge is exchangeably set in a body of the recording apparatus and ink is supplied through an ink supply tube to a recording head mounted on a carriage directly, or through a sub-tank, as shown in Japanese Patent Publication JP-A-2001-199080 for example.

Further, the ink cartridge is so constructed that a deformable ink pack under external pressure is housed in an outer case which can hold air-tightness, exposing only an ink outlet of the ink pack. Pressurized air is supplied to the outer case from an air source for pressure in which the air pressure is adjusted at a constant pressure in advance, and the ink pack is pressurized by the air pressure thereby to supply ink to the recording head.

In such the construction, even if the air pressure in the air source for pressure is appropriately adjusted, unevenness in ink supply capacity is raised among the respective ink cartridges to the recording head, thereby causing a problem of deterioration in printing quality, in case that unevenness in flowing passage resistance is raised by differences in length of ink supply tubes connecting the respective ink cartridges and the recording head, or the sub-tanks, or in case that head differences are produced between the ink cartridges by arranging the ink cartridges vertically.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an ink cartridge having a pressure adjusting function with which the air force for pressurizing an ink pack can be set independently in the respective ink cartridges without depending on the air pressure supplied from the air source for pressure.

Lexmark sells toner cartridges in two sizes: the 2,500-page version ships with the printer and costs $74 to replace, and a 6,000-page model sells for $119. The back of the cheap E332n sports a 10/100 Ethernet interface, a USB 2.0 port, and even an old-fashioned parallel port. Lexmark provides drivers for Macintosh OS 8.6 and later, Red Hat and SuSE Linux, numerous versions of UNIX, IBM OS/400, and all versions of Windows since 98. The E332n supports up to 160MB of memory, but it comes with a standard 32MB, which is too limited for demanding. Instead of auto duplexing, this printer has an option for manual duplexing.

Lexmark E332n is among the top five fastest printers. This printer prints 21 pages of text per minute. The Lexmark also did very well with graphics, pumping out up to 16ppm, an impressive score for a small machine.

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Active energy ray curable aqueous ink composition, and inkjet recording method, ink cartridge, recording unit, and inkjet recording apparatus using the same Abstract

To provide an active energy ray curable aqueous ink composition exhibiting excellent curing performance by including a water-soluble polymerizable substance with high reactivity and a water-soluble polymerization initiator having high initiation efficiency; and an inkjet recording method, ink cartridge, recording unit, and inkjet recording apparatus all using the active energy ray curable aqueous ink composition. The active energy ray curable aqueous ink composition includes at least water; a polymerizable substance which undergoes radical polymerization by active energy rays; and a polymerization initiator which generates radicals by active energy rays, in which the polymerizable substance is a water-soluble compound having 2 to 6 (meth)acrylic groups; and the polymerization initiator is a water-soluble acylphosphine oxide compound.

Lexmark C510 weighs 67 pounds and measures 19.5 inches by 16.5 inches by 15.2 inches (W, D, and H), an average size for a workgroup printer these days. Lexmark C510 comes with only 64MB of memory and a USB or parallel port. This color laser printer consists of four toner cartridge which resides behind the front panel. At the bottom of the unit lives a 250-sheet paper tray, which is small for all but a home office or an individual user. Another expensive yet very practical option is the automatic duplexer for two-sided printing, priced at $599. Lexmark C510n’s best feature is its coverage estimator, which automatically calculates the amount of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black toner used to print a given image and displays those figures on the printed sheet.

The color printing of Lexmark C510n’s is also impressive. This cheap printer prints about 6.8ppm for color text and 6.3 ppm for color graphics. The color text printed from this cheap printer is sharp and clean with no banding here and there. Overall the prints of Lexmark C510 had very good image quality, even comparable to that produced by a photo inkjet.

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Printer capable of controlling position of covering a nozzle of an ink cartridge Abstract

A printer capable of controlling position of covering a nozzle of an ink cartridge includes a housing, a shaft installed inside the housing, a carriage installed on the shaft in a sliding manner for carrying a first ink cartridge, a first cover for covering a nozzle of the first ink cartridge, and a means for determining type of the first ink cartridge and controlling stopping position of the carriage and the first cover after the first cover covers the nozzle of the first ink cartridge according to the type of the first ink cartridge.

The P3150′s angular edges and sloping sides give the 10-by-23.3-by-15.2-inch (W, D, and H) multifunction printer an attractive modern-architecture look. The input tray of this cheap printer folds down flat and that the output tray slides completely underneath when the device is idle. Another convenience is the removable scanner lid, which makes it possible to scan and copy bulky documents. The Lexmark PrinTrio P3150 uses three ink cartridges but only two at a time: the basic three-color cartridge and either a black or photo ink cartridge. Other software of this cheap printer includes Memory Card Formatter, a utility that prepares new flash-memory cards in the printer’s card reader slots, and Memory Card Manager, a separate utility for copying images from cards to your computer.

The cheap PrinTrio P3150 prints text at a bearable 4.3 pages per minute and it prints photos at 4.7 minutes per page about three times faster than the HP but only two-thirds of the Epson’s speed. It takes 46 seconds to copy a monochrome document, where the Epson requires 19 seconds. This cheap printer prints text on inkjet paper with near-perfect definition, no shadowing or spatter, with even weighting–in short, it looks almost as good as laser printer output.

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Active energy ray curable aqueous ink composition, and inkjet recording method, ink cartridge, recording unit, and inkjet recording apparatus using the same Claims

What is claimed is:

1. An active energy ray curable aqueous ink composition comprising at least water, a polymerizable substance which undergoes radical polymerization by an active energy ray, and a polymerization initiator which generates radicals by an active energy ray, wherein the polymerizable substance is a water-soluble (meth)acrylate compound represented by the following general formula (1): ##STR00014## wherein Z represents a residue of a polyol or an epoxy ester of a polyol having (x1+y1) hydroxyl groups, x1 represents an integer of 0 to 2, y1 represents an integer of 2 to 6, and x1+y1 represents an integer of 2 to 6, R.sub.1 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a methyl group, and R.sub.2 each independently represent an atomic group A represented by the following formula: ##STR00015## wherein R.sub.3 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a methyl group, m1 represents an integer of 1 to 5, and n1 represents 0 or 1, wherein the content of the water is 40 to 90% by mass with respect to the total amount of the aqueous ink composition, and wherein the polymerization initiator is either one of the following compounds

The input slot holds about 150 sheets of 20-pound paper, and the output tray holds 100 sheets–both averages for a personal laser printer. For heavier paper stocks that curl after printing, simply snap down a door at the front of the printer to create an almost completely straight paper path. The E321 has the standard USB and parallel connectors; neither cable is included in the box. Lexmark also offers several external Ethernet networking options for this model.

The cheap Lexmark E321 also contains several beefed-up features. It includes 8MB of onboard RAM to handle large print jobs from its USB or parallel port, and the memory is expandable to 72MB. The E321 prints up to 20 pages per minute, with the first page coming out in less than 10 seconds. Its standard toner cartridge yields 3,000 pages at 5 percent coverage, with Lexmark’s high-yield cartridge doubling that.

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Printer capable of controlling position of covering a nozzle of an ink cartridge Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A printer capable of controlling position of a nozzle of an ink cartridge, the printer comprising: a housing; a shaft, installed in the housing; a carriage, installed on the shaft in a sliding manner, for carrying a first ink cartridge; a first cover for covering a nozzle of the first ink cartridge; and a means for determining a type of the first ink cartridge and controlling a stopping position of the carriage and the first cover as the first cover covers the nozzle of the first ink cartridge according to the type of the first ink cartridge.

2. The printer of claim 1 further comprising: a pump device, coupled to the first cover, for pumping ink out of the nozzle of the first ink cartridge.

3. The printer of claim 1 wherein the carriage is utilized for carrying the first ink cartridge and a second ink cartridge, the printer further comprising a second cover for covering the nozzle of the second ink cartridge.

4. The printer of claim 3 further comprising: a pump device, coupled to the first cover and the second cover, for pumping ink out of the nozzle of the first ink cartridge and out of the nozzle of the second ink cartridge.

5. The printer of claim 3 wherein before the second cover covers the nozzle of the second ink cartridge, a distance between the second cover and the second ink cartridge is less than a distance between the first cover and the first ink cartridge.

6. The printer of claim 1 wherein the means is utilized for controlling a movement of the carriage and the first cover to stop at a first position when the first ink cartridge is an ink cartridge of substantial black ink, and the means is further utilized for controlling the movement of the carriage and the first cover to stop at a second position when the first ink cartridge is an ink cartridge of substantial non-black ink, a proximity of the first cover at the second position to the first ink cartridge is greater than a proximity of the first cover at the first position to the first ink cartridge.

Lexmark E320 also supports a variety of environments, including Windows 95, 98, Me, NT 4.0 (Server), and 2000; Mac OS 8.6 or later via USB, standard Ethernet connection, or MarkNet Print Server; and Red Hat Linux 6.1, 6.2, and 7.0. In addition to USB, the printer also sports a parallel port (cables not included) and offers an optional external serial adapter ($103) and Ethernet and Token Ring ports (ranging from $255 to $530, depending on the number of ports).

The performance of Lexmark E320 is head and shoulder above that of other printer in this price range. This printer prints an impressive 12.1 pages per minute as compared to 11.4 pages per minute for LaserJet 1200 and the Brother HL-1440. The E320′s text was sharp and legible, but at smaller point sizes, the letters appeared light and lost some detail, especially italicized and serif text. The graphics documents of this printer also looked good. The standard toner cartridge with the E320 yields 3,000 sheets at 5 percent coverage and runs $109, putting your estimated cost per page at just less than 4 cents.

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Active energy ray curable aqueous ink composition, and inkjet recording method, ink cartridge, recording unit, and inkjet recording apparatus using the same Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a novel active energy ray curable aqueous ink composition exhibiting excellent curing performance by including a water-soluble polymerizable substance having high reactivity which undergoes radical polymerization by active energy rays and a water-soluble polymerization initiator having high initiation efficiency which generates radicals by active energy rays, and to an inkjet recording method, ink cartridge, recording unit, and inkjet recording apparatus using the active energy ray curable aqueous ink composition.

2. Related Background Art

Active energy ray curable aqueous ink can be preferably used for image printing, pretreatment for providing printability to a recording medium, aftertreatment for protection or decoration of the printed image, and the like. Further, the active energy ray curable aqueous ink technology has numerous excellent features and possibilities in that the ink can keep up with tightening of regulations on. VOC, can be applied to a high density inkjet recording head through reduction of ink viscosity, etc.

A polymerizable substance which undergoes radical polymerization by active energy rays (hereinafter, referred to as polymerizable substance) and a polymerization initiator which generates radicals by active energy rays (hereinafter, referred to as polymerization initiator), which are basic components of the active energy ray curable aqueous ink, each had been generally prepared in a form of emulsion in a water-based solvent initially. However, the polymerizable substance and the polymerization initiator themselves must be water-soluble or hydrophilic to prepare homogenous ink from the viewpoints of film formation properties of the ink during polymerization, discharge stability thereof applied to an inkjet system, and the like.

A first example of a water-soluble or hydrophilic polymerizable substance in practical use is a compound having an acidic group, and a (meth)acryloyl group or vinyl group in a molecule such as an ester of succinic anhydride and 2-hydroxyethyl(meth)acrylate, an ester of phthalic anhydride and 2-hydroxyethyl(meth)acrylate, or vinylnaphthalene sulfonic acid.