Line printer incorporating liquid ink jet recording

Claim 1

A line printer, comprising in combination a. means to generate a controlled ink jet in a mirror-reversed form; b. movable transfer substrate means having a thin-layered insulating surface and being adapted to receive directly on its surface said ink jet and form transferable liquid indicia thereon, the surface of said substrate means being formed of a material which does not absorb said liquid ink and over which said liquid ink does not spread through surface tension forces; c. a plurality of movable web strips adapted for continuous, simultaneous contacting of said transfer substrate means at successive points of its movement; d. pressure applying roll means associated with each of said webs and adapted to maintain contact between said web and said transfer substrate means with a pressure adjusted to permit the direct transfer of a portion of said liquid indicia onto each of said webs and to move said webs through engagement with said transfer substrate means, the last of said pressure applying roll means being electrically conductive; e. means to move said transfer substrate means and said web means at the same linear speed thereby to form a right-reading copy of said indicia on each of said webs; f. means to remove residual ink from said transfer substrate means subsequent to transfer of said liquid indicia onto the last of said web strips; and g. means to deposit an electrical charge of one sign on said transfer substrate means just prior to its contacting the last of said webs and means to deposit an electrical charge of the opposite sign on said last of said webs thereby to serve at least in part as said means to remove residual ink from said transfer substrate means.