Appeal No. 1999-1629
Application 08/510,491
said set of nozzles, when said print head is at said
print position and there is no mail item in front of the
print head in order to eject ink from said other nozzles
to prevent said other nozzles from becoming clogged over
time; and
a reservoir disposed below said print head at
said print position into which said ink is ejected by
said other of said nozzles.
THE PRIOR ART
The Examiner relies on the following references:
Dagna et al. (Dagna) 4,485,386 November 27,
1984
Fisher et al. (Fisher) 5,051,761 September 24,
1991
Herbert 5,189,442 February 23,
1993
Nakagawa2 JP 63-252748 October 19,
1988
(Japanese Kokai)
Herbert discloses a franking machine with an ink jet
printer. Debris from mail items which is liable to be
deposited on the nozzles of the print head is removed
periodically by a cleaning device (roller 26 having a wiper
pad 27) operating when there is a gap between successive mail
items (abstract; col. 3, line 52 to col. 4, line 26; Fig. 1).
A translation has been prepared by the U.S. Patent and2
Trademark Office and accompanies this opinion. We rely only
on the English-language abstract in making our decision.
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