1. An arrangement suitable for use in an ink jet printer, for separating air, at least partially, from ink, the arrangement comprising:
a fluid inlet for receiving ink from which air is to be separated;
a plate portion comprising a plurality of plates, including a first plate positioned below the fluid inlet so that ink that has been received by the fluid inlet flows onto an upper surface of the first plate and flows across at least a part of the upper surface;
a space below the plate portion for receiving ink that has passed over at least the first plate; and
a fluid outlet for ink that has been received in the said space,
and in which the plurality of plates are arranged at least partially overlapping each other and one above the next so that ink that has been received by the fluid inlet flows across the top surface of a plurality of plates in turn before being received in the said space, and at least one pair of adjacent plates is are separated by a gap of 2 mm to 5 mm where they overlap.
2. An arrangement according to claim 1 in which at least one pair of adjacent plates are separated by a gap of approximately 3 mm where they overlap.
3. An arrangement according to claim 1 in which at least one pair of adjacent plates are substantially parallel where they overlap.
4. An arrangement according to claim 1 in which the first plate is substantially planar.
5. An arrangement according to claim 1 in which the plate portion comprises at least one plate of which at least part of the upper surface is textured.
6. An arrangement according to claim 1 in which the plate portion comprises at least one plate of which at least a part has a rim to prevent ink from overflowing the edge of the at least a part of the plate.
7. An arrangement according to claim 6 in which the said at least one plate has a hole through it to allow ink to flow through the plate.
8. An arrangement according to claim 1 in which the plate portion comprises at least one plate of which at least a part is rimless, to allow ink to overflow at least a part of the edge of the plate.
9. An arrangement according to claim 1 comprising a sloping plate below the plate portion, positioned to receive ink from the plate portion and deliver it to the said space.
10. An arrangement according to claim 1 comprising a tank, the tank enclosing the said space, the plate portion being inside the tank, and the fluid inlet and the fluid outlet passing through a wall of the tank.
11. An arrangement according to claim 1 comprising an ink filter positioned in the space below the plate portion.
12. An inkair separator, suitable for use in a continuous ink jet printer, the separator comprising:
a tank;
a plurality of substantially planar plates within the tank arranged at least partially overlapping each other and one above the next, and at least one pair of adjacent plates being separated by a gap of 2 mm to 5 mm where they overlap;
an inlet for liquid entering the tank, the inlet being positioned so that if the tank is disposed in an orientation such that a first plate of the plurality of substantially planar plates is horizontal, liquid entering the tank via the inlet is delivered to a top surface of one of the plates and flows across the top surfaces of a plurality of the plates in turn;
there being space in the tank, lower than the plurality of substantially planar plates when the tank is in the said orientation, into which liquid that has flowed over said top surfaces may pass; and
the separator further comprising an outlet for liquid leaving the tank, the outlet being positioned to receive liquid from the said space.
13. A method of separating air from ink in a continuous ink jet printer, comprising passing an inkair mixture under a lower surface of a first plate and simultaneously over an upper surface of a second plate, the lower surface of the first plate and the upper surface of the second plate both contacting the inkair mixture, and collecting ink that has passed under the first plate and over the second plate in a space below the plates, wherein the inkair mixture comprises ink and air that have been received from a gutter of the continuous ink jet printer.
14. A method according to claim 13 in which there is a sloping plate, and the ink flows over the sloping plate after passing under the first plate and over the second plate and before being collected in the said space.
15. A method according to claim 13 in which the first and second plates are substantially planar.
16. A method according to claim 15 in which the first and second plates are substantially horizontal.
17. A method according to claim 13 in which at least part of at least one plate surface over which the ink flows is textured.
18. A method according to claim 13 in which the ink flows radially inwardly over the surface of one plate and then radially outwardly over the surface of another plate, or vice versa.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. Method for decoupling an incoming flow of piece-goods from a downstream device for further processing with stationary intermediate storage (1) with a plurality of store levels (6) and with an infeed-side elevator (2) with one or more transport levels for transferring the products incoming on conveyors (8) to intermediate storage (1) and a discharge-side elevator (3) for removing the temporarily stored products and the delivery thereof to forwarding conveyors (9), characterized in that a buffer device (4; 11) is arranged upstream from the infeed-side elevator (2) which picks up incoming products and delivers them at several different heights to the inlet-side elevator (2).
2. Method as set forth in claim 1, characterized in that a buffer device (5; 12) is arranged downstream from the discharge-side elevator (3) which picks up products removed from intermediate storage at several different heights from the discharge-side elevator (3) and delivers them to the forwarding conveyor (9; 10).
3. Method as set forth in claim 1, characterized in that several transport levels of the buffer device (4; 11) are successively filled on the infeed side and the products are delivered simultaneously to the downstream elevator (2).
4. Method as set forth in claim 2, characterized in that several transport levels of the discharge-side elevator (3) are filled simultaneously from intermediate storage (1) and delivered simultaneously to several transport levels of the downstream buffer device (5; 12), after which the products are delivered successively or simultaneously from the individual transport levels of the buffer device (5; 12) to the forwarding conveyors (9; 10).
5. Method as set forth in claim 2, characterized in that several transport levels of the discharge-side elevator (3) are filled simultaneously from intermediate storage (1) and delivered simultaneously to several levels of the downstream buffer device (5; 12), after which the products are delivered from the individual transport levels of the buffer device (5; 12) simultaneously to several forwarding conveyors (9; 10).
6. Product flow regulator for decoupling an incoming flow of piece-goods from a downstream device for further processing with a stationary intermediate storage (1) with a plurality of store levels (6) and with an infeed-side elevator (2) with one or more transport levels for transferring products incoming on conveyors (8) to intermediate storage (1) and a discharge-side elevator (3) for removing the temporarily stored products and delivering them to forwarding conveyors (9; 10), characterized by a buffer device (4; 11) arranged upstream from the infeed-side elevator (2) for picking up incoming products and for transferring them to the infeed-side elevator (2) at several different heights.
7. Product flow regulator as set forth in claim 6, characterized by a buffer device (5; 12) arranged downstream from the discharge-side elevator (3) for picking up products removed from intermediate storage (1) from the discharge-side elevator (3) at several different heights and delivering them to the forwarding conveyors (9; 10).
8. Product flow regulator as set forth in claim 6, characterized in that the buffer device (4) arranged upstream from the infeed-side elevator (2) is an elevator.
9. Product flow regulator as set forth in claim 6, characterized in that the buffer device (11) arranged upstream from the infeed-side elevator (2) comprises several levels of fixed height and a distributing device (13), the products being distributable by means of the distributing device (13) from the conveyors (8) to the several levels of fixed height.
10. Product flow regulator as set forth in claim 7, characterized in that the buffer device (5) arranged downstream from the discharge-side elevator (3) is an elevator.
11. Product flow regulator as set forth in claim 7, characterized in that the buffer device (12) arranged downstream from the discharge-side elevator (3) comprises levels of fixed height and a distributing device, the products being distributable by means of the distributing device from the several levels of fixed height to the forwarding conveyors (9; 10).
12. Product flow regulator as set forth in claim 6, characterized in that the elevators (2, 3) and the buffer devices (4, 5) have one or more transport levels arranged one over the other.