Patent attributes
An ink tank for an ink jet printer having one or more ink reservoir chambers, and a priming piston or pistons incorporated into the tank. The piston can be activated by a linkage in the printer such that when the tank is installed in the printer, the piston is depressed to the end of its travel. This forces a volume of ink out of the ink exit orifice, through the ink channels in the printhead, and into the ink ejector chip, thereby priming the printhead. The priming piston contains a sealing section with annular rings and a venting section with a circuitous venting path such as helical rings. The interaction of these two sections of the piston with orifices on the walls of the priming cylinder allows the ink reservoir chambers to be vented during shipping and storage, pressurized during priming, and vented after priming.
