Patent ID: 6030073
Filing Date: 2000-02-29
Classification: B41J

Abstract:
An ink supply station with a plurality of ink containers located off a carriage of an inkjet printer, comprising:at least two enclosures, each separate from the other and each having disposed therein a corresponding one of the containers holding a respective supply of ink;an elongated outer wall which defines a shape for each said enclosure, said outer wall including bottom and side wall portions, which together form an enclosure each said enclosures having a cross-section in a plane transverse to a longitudinal axis of said outer wall in the form of a diamond shaped parallelogram having first, second, third and fourth corners, the first corner opposed to the second corner along a first diagonal and separated therefrom by a first diagonal distance, the third corner opposed to the fourth corner along a second diagonal and separated therefrom by a second diagonal distance, and wherein the first distance is larger than the second distance;wherein each of said plurality of ink containers includes an elongated collapsible bag which is flat when empty, said bag having a width dimension disposed along the first diagonal of the corresponding enclosure and having an outlet opening at a front end of said bag to provide an open flow path for said supply of ink;a front-access shelf for supporting said at least two enclosures in side-by-side positions nested together with some overlapping between adjacent side wall portions of said at least two enclosures and with some overlapping between adjacent peripheral edge portions of the corresponding collapsible bags held in the at least two enclosures to reduce a width of said supply station.