Recycle Ink Tray With Partitioned Pools For Direct To Garment Printing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Direct to garment printing devices generate a significant amount of waste ink during standby operations, which can lead to nozzle clogging and result in inefficient printing due to the mixing of different ink colors, making it difficult to recycle and reuse the ink effectively.
Innovation Solution
A fabric printing device with a recycle ink tray featuring partitioned ink pools that isolate ink from each nozzle group, preventing mixing with adjacent colors and allowing for separate collection and storage of each color, which can then be filtered and reused.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If ink is sprayed into a single waste ink tray during standby operations, then nozzle clogging is prevented, but ink mixing occurs and recycling becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The waste ink tray is divided into multiple partitioned sections, each corresponding to a specific ink color. This segmentation allows different colored inks to be collected separately while still capturing all waste ink, thus preventing nozzle clogging and enabling effective recycling of each ink type independently
2Productivity
If multiple ink colors are collected in the same tray, then collection efficiency is high, but ink colors mix and cannot be reused effectively
Solution Approach 1:
The ink tray includes multiple partitions that separate waste ink by color. Each partition collects ink from corresponding nozzles, maintaining high collection efficiency while preventing color mixing, thereby enabling effective reuse of each ink type
3Loss of substance
If a partitioned ink tray is used to separate ink colors, then ink recycling is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The ink tray is segmented into color-specific partitions with a simple wall structure. This segmentation achieves effective ink separation and recycling while maintaining relatively simple construction, balancing recycling effectiveness with device complexity
Data Source
AI summary
A fabric printing device includes a printing surface for holding a fabric to be printed and an ink nozzle array movable between a print position and a standby position. The ink nozzle array is located over the printing surface when in the print position and includes a plurality of ink nozzle groups. Each ink nozzle group is configured to spray a different color ink than an adjacent ink nozzle group. The fabric printing device also includes a recycle ink tray defining a plurality of partitioned ink pools, each ink pool associated with one of the plurality of ink nozzle groups. The ink nozzle array is positioned over the recycle ink tray when in the standby position such that substantially all of the ink sprayed from a particular ink nozzle group is received in a respective partitioned ink pool and isolated from ink in an adjacent partitioned ink pool.