This paper discusses three key concepts we used to develop a pagewide printhead designed for a long service life. First we analyzed the product goals as well as past products' strengths and weaknesses. This resulted in a product reliability specifications and an initial identification of which areas needed reliability improvements. Then we introduce the concept of Discovery Testing. This technique stresses the system, subsystems and components to higher levels of stress than what would be experienced in a typical customer environment. This allows for rapid discovery of design weakness with fewer parts and in less time. Finally, following the Discovery Testing phase, a classic build-test-fix cycle was followed. Weaknesses identified in the Analyze and Discover phases are eliminated or improved through design or assembly changes. To help make this process more tangible, the paper deals with four case studies of actual problems we discovered and took to resolution.
Stephen Conner, Lisa Underwood, Minal Shah, Thom Sabo, Clayton Holstun, Brian Canfield, Curt Voss, "Designing a Long-Life, Page-wide Print-head" in Proc. IS&T Int'l Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies and Digital Fabrication (NIP31), 2015, pp 332 - 335, https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.2015.31.1.art00073_1