Patent ID: 8801157

Claim:
A liquid ink transport assembly for transporting ink to a printhead comprising: a plurality of conduits, each conduit in the plurality having a length between a first end and a second end, the conduits in the plurality being arranged to enable a substantial portion of the lengths of the conduits between the first and the second ends to be in parallel with one another, and a portion of the length between the first end and the second end of at least one conduit being spatially separated from a portion of a length between the first and the second end of an adjacent and parallel conduit by a first distance that is greater than a second distance spatially separating the lengths of other adjacent and parallel conduits in the plurality of conduits; a heater, the plurality of conduits being positioned proximate a first side of the heater to enable the heater to heat ink being carried between the first and the second ends of the plurality of conduits; and a flexible sheet disposed underneath each conduit in the plurality of conduits, the flexible sheet having at least one opening in a portion of the flexible sheet between the portion of the length between the first end and the second end of the at least one conduit spatially separated from the adjacent and parallel conduit by the first distance and the portion of the length between the first end and the second end of the adjacent and parallel conduit.