(19)
(11) EP 0 272 092 A3

(12) EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

(88) Date of publication A3:
25.10.1989 Bulletin 1989/43

(43) Date of publication A2:
22.06.1988 Bulletin 1988/25

(21) Application number: 87311046.4

(22) Date of filing: 15.12.1987
(51) International Patent Classification (IPC)4: B41J 2/04
(84) Designated Contracting States:
DE FR GB

(30) Priority: 19.12.1986 US 944701

(71) Applicant: XEROX CORPORATION
Rochester New York 14644 (US)

(72) Inventors:
  • Elrod, Scott Alan
    Menlo Park California (US)
  • Khuri-Yakub, Butrus T.
    Palo Alto§California (US)
  • Quate, Calvin F.
    Stanford California (US)

(74) Representative: Weatherald, Keith Baynes et al
Rank Xerox Ltd Patent Department Parkway
Marlow Buckinghamshire SL7 1YL
Marlow Buckinghamshire SL7 1YL (GB)


(56) References cited: : 
   
       


    (54) Acoustic printers


    (57) Sparse arrays (13) of ink droplet ejectors (14) are provided for acoustic printing. The arrays (13) are capable of performing at higher print rates than single ejector printheads because of their parallelism, and they avoid many of the design limitations of ordinary page-width arrays. The increased center-­to center spacing of the droplet ejectors (14) in these sparse arrays (13) significantly simplifies the design of acoustic-lens-type arrays, because larger lenses (14a-14i) and transducers (22) may be employed, thereby enabling the transducers (22) to operate at lower power densities, permitting the use of thicker substrates (21) for the lenses (14a-14i) while maintaining the diffraction of the acoustic power at a negligibly low level, and increasing the permissible focal length of the lenses (14a-14i) so as to permit the use of thicker layers of ink (17).







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