US-20260124834-A1 - COMPUTER IMPLEMENTED METHOD FOR CLEANING A SELF-CLEANING HEAD

Abstract

There is provided a computer implemented method for cleaning a self-cleaning marking head of an industrial printer, the method comprising, receiving, by the industrial printer and from an external controller, a control signal and executing, by the industrial printer, a self-cleaning operation of the self-cleaning marking head in response to receiving the control signal.

Inventors

• Michael Jeffrey Stamp
• David Andrew Horsnell
• John Folkers
• Amy Malevany
• Cac Diem Duc Nguyen

Assignees

• VIDEOJET TECHNOLOGIES INC.

Dates

Publication Date

20260507

Application Date

20231220

Priority Date

20221220

Claims (20)

1. 1 . A computer implemented method for cleaning a self-cleaning marking head of an industrial printer, the method comprising: receiving, by the industrial printer and from an external controller, a control signal; and executing, by the industrial printer, a self-cleaning operation of the self-cleaning marking head in response to receiving the control signal.
2. 2 . The computer implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein the self-cleaning operation comprises an intrinsic cleaning operation.
3. 3 . The computer implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein the self-cleaning operation does not comprise the use of an external cleaning apparatus.
4. 4 . The computer implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein the industrial printer is a continuous inkjet printer and the self-cleaning marking head is a self-cleaning print head.
5. 5 . The computer implemented method according to claim 4 , wherein the self-cleaning operation comprises actuating a sealing mechanism of the self-cleaning print head from a first configuration, in which a chamber of the self-cleaning print head is in communication with atmosphere via at least an ink aperture, to a second configuration in which the chamber is sealed.
6. 6 . The computer implemented method according to claim 5 , wherein the self-cleaning operation further comprises directing a cleaning fluid into the chamber to clean the chamber.
7. 7 . The computer implemented method according to claim 5 , wherein the sealing mechanism comprises a rotatable body rotatable about an axis of rotation between the first configuration and the second configuration, and wherein actuating the sealing mechanism of the self-cleaning print head from the first configuration to the second configuration comprises: rotating the rotatable body of the sealing mechanism of the self-cleaning print head from the first configuration to the second configuration in which the chamber is sealed by the rotatable body.
8. 8 . The computer implemented method according to claim 6 , wherein the chamber comprises a plurality of ports, the method further comprising: selecting, by the continuous inkjet printer, a port of the chamber as a fill port, and a port of the chamber as a drain port, based upon the orientation of the self-cleaning print head; wherein directing the cleaning fluid into the chamber to clean the chamber comprises directing a flow of cleaning fluid through the fill port, into the chamber, to clean the chamber; and draining the cleaning fluid from the chamber, through the drain port, to drain the chamber.
9. 9 . The computer implemented method according to claim 1 , wherein the control signal having been sent based on a predetermined condition being satisfied.
10. 10 . The computer implemented method according to claim 9 , wherein the predetermined condition is a status of a production line on which the industrial printer is operating.
11. 11 . The computer implemented method according to claim 10 , wherein the status comprises a halt on the production line on which the industrial printer is operating.
12. 12 . The computer implemented method according to claim 9 , wherein the predetermined condition comprises a predetermined time.
13. 13 . The computer implemented method according to claim 1 , the method further comprising: sending, by the external controller, the control signal to the industrial printer.
14. 14 . The computer implemented method according to claim 1 , further comprising: determining, by the industrial printer, completion of the self-cleaning operation; sending, by the industrial printer, data indicating that the self-cleaning operation is complete to the external controller.
15. 15 - 37 . (canceled)
16. 38 . A system comprising: an external controller configured to receive a control signal; and an industrial printer coupled to the external controller, wherein the industrial printer comprises a self-cleaning marking head, the industrial printer configured to, receive the control signal; and execute a self-cleaning operation of the self-cleaning marking head in response to receiving the control signal.
17. 39 . A computer readable medium storing computer readable instructions, which when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations for cleaning a self-cleaning marking head of an industrial printer, the instructions comprising: instructions to receive, by the industrial printer and from an external controller, a control signal; and instructions to execute, by the industrial printer, a self-cleaning operation of the self-cleaning marking head in response to receiving the control signal.
18. 40 . The computer implemented method according to claim 9 , wherein the predetermined condition comprises an elapsed time since a last failure of the industrial printer.
19. 41 . The computer implemented method according to claim 9 , wherein the predetermined condition is based on environmental data, the environmental data comprising ambient humidity, temperature, and/or pressure in the environment in which the industrial printer is operating.
20. 42 . The computer implemented method according to claim 41 , wherein the predetermined condition is a predetermined time over which one or more of the humidity, temperature and/or pressure are above or below a predetermined level.

Description

The present disclosure relates to a method of externally triggering maintenance of a self-cleaning marking head. Industrial printers, such as continuous inkjet printers, are typically used on production lines where products travelling along the production line are marked as they pass the continuous inkjet printer. In order to maintain operation of such printers, it is necessary to perform maintenance on the continuous inkjet printer. For example, continuous inkjet printers require that some of their components such as their deflection plates or gutters need to be cleaned in order to prevent the build-up of material that could affect printing quality. However, in order to clean a continuous inkjet printer that is operating on a production line, it is necessary to stop the production line and move a print head of the printer to a cleaning position. The cleaning position may be a position in which an external cleaning apparatus can gain access to the print head. Alternatively, the entire print head may need to be removed from the continuous inkjet printer and taken to a cleaning station to be cleaned. There exists a need to provide alternative methods and apparatuses that overcome one or more of the disadvantages of known systems, whether mentioned in this document or otherwise. In a first aspect there is provided a computer implemented method for cleaning a self-cleaning marking head of an industrial printer, the method comprising, receiving, by the industrial printer and from an external controller, a control signal, and executing, by the industrial printer, a self-cleaning operation of the self-cleaning marking head in response to receiving the control signal. Advantageously, the method enables a cleaning operation to take place with minimal disruption to a printing operation. A printing operation may be one such as marking objects or products on a production line. The external controller is external to the industrial printer. For example, the external controller could be a production line controller (e.g. a filling machine, weighing machine, cutting machine, or any other production equipment that operates on the production line). The external controller may have an overview of the running of the production line, and so can select an appropriate time to carry out cleaning, such as when the production line is halted. That is, the external controller may allow coordination of cleaning with production line downtime by only sending the control signal at the appropriate time. The control signal may take any suitable form, configured such that receipt of the control signal by the industrial printer causes the industrial printer to carry out the self-cleaning operation. Executing, by the industrial printer, a self-cleaning operation of the self-cleaning marking head in response to receiving the control signal may comprise executing, by a processor of the industrial printer, the self-cleaning operation of the self-cleaning marking head in response to receiving the control signal. That is, an internal controller, or processor, within the industrial printer may, on receipt of the control signal, cause the industrial printer to execute the self-cleaning operation of the self-cleaning marking head. Alternatively, the industrial printer (e.g. the processor or internal controller of the industrial printer) may determine that there is a service issue, for example by using one or more sensors of the industrial printer, or determine that a condition has been met, and in response send a message to the external controller to alert the external controller to the service issue. The external controller can then determine an appropriate time to send the control signal to the industrial printer to initiate cleaning. The condition may be a scheduled time. For example, the scheduled time may be a predetermined time known to the industrial printer by which the printer should carry out a self cleaning operation of the marking head. The condition may be a determination that no products have passed by the industrial printer for a predetermined period of time. For example, the industrial printer may have sensors (or access to data from external sensors), that detect the passing of products as they travel along a conveyor. If no products have passed by the industrial printer in the predetermined period of time, it may be assumed that the production line is idle and a self-cleaning operation of the self-cleaning marking head can be performed without holding up the production line. Sensor data may be combined with temporal data. For example, the condition may be both a determination that no products have passed by the industrial printer for a predetermined period of time and a determination that the present time corresponds to the scheduled time described above. The condition may comprise historical data. For example, the historical data may comprise an elapsed time and/or number of prints since a last failure event. For example, if it is d