Pumping and regulation life tests of an ink system

Abstract

The current project deals with the design and development of a test rig to test through a series of experiments a new application for the large format printers. These tests want to experiment with the new printer’s accessory added to supply ink during more time. This application, named ‘refill while printing’, will permit to refill the printer’s cartridges without stopping the printing job by pumping ink from a larger ones. Firstly, the test rig has been built and assembled from various components. Secondly, the system regulation have been developed by means of an adequate programming language. Then, a series of tests have been performed to characterize the behavior of the mechanical components of this setup and to determine the operating conditions related to the real printer’s system. After this, similar tests have been performed with real printers. The main objective of these tests is to determine the life of the system’s components located in the new accessory and verify its proper operation. The duration of the tests has been around for one month. Finally, the results obtained with both type of tests, on the test rig and on the printer, have permitted to deduce that the working conditions as the flow given by the pumps are similar in both cases. The conclusions of the work expose that referring to raised objectives, they have been accomplished; and referring to the obtained results, the tested components can assume the new assigned tasks introduced by the new added accessory.