Appeal No. 1999-1652 Page 2
Application No. 08/758,369
disposed above a head body 1. An ink inlet tube 8 and an ink
outlet tube 9 connect the reservoir and head body. The
reservoir uses gravity to feed liquid ink 13 into the ink
inlet tube. As shown in Figure 3 of the specification, the
gravity-fed ink flows through the ink inlet tube into an ink
chamber 2 of the head body via an ink inlet port 10A.
An electrophoretic electrode 6 is disposed at the rear of
the ink chamber. When a voltage having the same polarity as
the charged toner particles is applied to the electrophoretic
electrode, the charged toner particles migrate toward the
front of the ink chamber, which causes the liquid ink to flow
in the direction of arrow 14. The liquid ink flowing within
the ink chamber is either ejected through an ejection slit
provided at the front end of the ink chamber based on the
action of ejection electrodes 5 or returned to the reservoir
via an ink outlet port 11A. Accordingly, the appellants’
recording head provides an ink circulating feature without the
conventional need for an ink circulating pump. Furthermore,
the ink circulating feature provides a constant supply of
charged toner particles toward the ejection slit.
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