Liquid Cartridge Protrusion Geometry Impact Absorption
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing liquid cartridges are prone to posture change upon collision with flat surfaces, leading to ink splashing and potential contamination, as well as damage to internal components like the circuit board and protrusions.
Innovation Solution
The liquid cartridge design features a housing with a circuit board and a liquid supply portion, including a first and second protrusion that absorb the impact upon collision, keeping the cartridge's outer surfaces below an imaginary plane, thereby minimizing posture change and reducing the likelihood of ink splashing and damage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If the liquid cartridge is dropped onto a flat surface, then the collision impact is absorbed, but the posture of the cartridge changes causing ink splashing and contamination
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies beforehand cushioning by designing the housing with specific geometric features (protrusions and recesses) that create an imaginary plane configuration. This configuration ensures that when the cartridge is dropped, the impact is absorbed in a controlled manner that prevents posture change and ink splashing, effectively cushioning the harmful effects before they can occur.
2Reliability
If the cartridge housing is designed with protrusions to prevent posture change, then collision resistance is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The housing is segmented into specific geometric features including protrusions and recesses that are positioned to define an imaginary plane. This segmentation allows the housing to absorb collision impacts effectively while maintaining a relatively simple overall structure that does not significantly increase device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a geometric dimensioning approach by defining an imaginary plane based on specific points of the protrusions. This dimensional configuration ensures that the housing maintains proper orientation during collision without requiring complex active control mechanisms, thus improving reliability while avoiding excessive complexity.
3Productivity
If the liquid supply portion is positioned forward, then liquid flow efficiency is improved, but the likelihood of ink splashing upon collision increases
Solution Approach 1:
The housing geometry with specifically positioned protrusions and recesses creates a cushioning effect that counteracts the vulnerability of the forward-positioned liquid supply portion. The imaginary plane configuration ensures that collision impacts are absorbed before they can cause the liquid supply portion to change posture and splash ink, thus protecting against harmful effects while maintaining flow efficiency.
Data Source
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AI summary
A liquid cartridge includes a housing (130), a circuit board (64) including an electrode (65), and a liquid supply portion (34) extending from the housing (130) in a depth direction. The housing (130) includes a top wall (39), and first and second protrusions protruding upward from the top wall (39). The first protrusion (43) is positioned rearward but the second protrusion (67) is positioned frontward relative to the circuit board (64). The first protrusion (43) is higher than an upper edge of a front end of the second protrusion (67). No part of the liquid cartridge is positioned higher in a height direction than an imaginary plane (150) in a region between a first point on the first protrusion and a second point on the second protrusion (the upper edge of the front end of the second protrusion) in the depth direction. The imaginary plane (150) passes through the first and second points, and extends perpendicularly to the depth direction.