Patent ID: 7980674

Claim:
An inkjet printer comprising: a printhead having a plurality of ink chambers fed be an ink inlet, each ink chamber having a heater element for ejecting drops of ink from a nozzle aperture of each chamber; a plurality of pressure pulse diffusing structure positioned between the plurality of ink chambers fed by the ink inlet, the plurality of pressure pulse diffusing structures for retarding a propagation of pressure waves generated by each ink chamber to adjacent ink chambers; and a controller for receiving print data and generating drive pulses to energize the heater elements in accordance with the print data, wherein the controller increases the drive pulse energy during the printhead lifetime such that the drive pulse energy is never less than that of a preceding drive pulse, wherein, the heater element is formed from a TiAlX alloy where Ti contributes more than 40% by weight, Al contributes more than 40% by weight and X contributes less than 5% by weight and comprises W and one or more of Ag, Cr, Mo, Nb, Si, and Ta, wherein the TiAlX alloy provides a surface oxide of Al203 and TiO2 on the heater element, the surface oxide being directly in contact with ink in the ink chamber, and wherein W contributes between 1.7% and 4.5% by weight to enhance Al203 and suppress TiO2 surface oxide.