EP0216589A2 - Ejecteurs de fuite de goutelettes liquides sans buses réagissant aux ondes de Rayleigh - Google Patents

Ejecteurs de fuite de goutelettes liquides sans buses réagissant aux ondes de Rayleigh Download PDF

Info

Publication number
EP0216589A2
EP0216589A2 EP86307099A EP86307099A EP0216589A2 EP 0216589 A2 EP0216589 A2 EP 0216589A2 EP 86307099 A EP86307099 A EP 86307099A EP 86307099 A EP86307099 A EP 86307099A EP 0216589 A2 EP0216589 A2 EP 0216589A2
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
reservoir
liquid
acoustic waves
droplets
transducer
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Granted
Application number
EP86307099A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP0216589B1 (fr
EP0216589A3 (en
Inventor
Calvin F. Quate
Butrus T. Khuri-Yakub
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Xerox Corp
Original Assignee
Xerox Corp
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Xerox Corp filed Critical Xerox Corp
Publication of EP0216589A2 publication Critical patent/EP0216589A2/fr
Publication of EP0216589A3 publication Critical patent/EP0216589A3/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0216589B1 publication Critical patent/EP0216589B1/fr
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

Links

Images

Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/135—Nozzles
    • B41J2/14—Structure thereof only for on-demand ink jet heads
    • B41J2/14008—Structure of acoustic ink jet print heads
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/135—Nozzles
    • B41J2/14—Structure thereof only for on-demand ink jet heads
    • B41J2002/14322—Print head without nozzle

Definitions

  • This invention relates to a nozzleless droplet ejector for ejecting droplets of liquid from the surface of a liquid filled reservoir.
  • Such droplet ejectors are useful as print heads for ink jet printers and the like.
  • the patent also proposes an alternative embodiment which utlizes a planar piezoelectric crystal for generating the acoustic energy, or a conical or wedged shaped horn for bringing the acoustic energy to focus, and a moving belt or web for transporting the ink into position to be propelled by the focused acoustic energy.
  • a planar piezoelectric crystal for generating the acoustic energy
  • a conical or wedged shaped horn for bringing the acoustic energy to focus
  • a moving belt or web for transporting the ink into position to be propelled by the focused acoustic energy.
  • the present invention provides a nozzleless droplet ejector for ejecting droplets of liquid from a surface of a liquid filled reservoir, characterised by a planar surface acoustic wave transducer, which is submerged at a predetermined depth in said reservoir, drive means coupled to said transducer for energizing said transducer to launch a cone of acoustic waves into said liquid at an angle selected to cause said acoustic waves to come to a generally circular focus of predetermined waist diameter approximately at the surface of said reservoir, whereby said focused acoustic waves impinge upon and acoustically excite liquid near the surface of said reservoir to an elevated energy level within a limited area determined by said waist diameter, thereby causing liquid droplets of predetermined diameter to be propelled from said reservoir on demand.
  • the acoustic beam may be intensity modulated or focused/defocused to control the ejection timing, or an external source may be used to extract droplets from the acoustically excited liquid on the surface of the pool on demand. Regardless of the timing mechanism employed, the size of the ejected droplets is determined by the waist diameter of the focused acoustic beam.
  • the transducer has a pair of multi- element, ring-shaped electrodes which are concentrically deposited in interdigitated relationship on the upper surface of an essentially planar piezoelectric substrate, whereby radially propagating, coherent Rayleigh waves are piezoelectrically generated on that surface (the "active surface” of the transducer) when an ac. power supply is coupled across the electrodes. Due to the incompressability of the liquid and the relatively low velocity of sound through it, these surface acoustic waves cause a generally circular pattern of leaky, coherent Rayleigh waves to propagate into reservoir at a predetermined acute angle with respect to the active surface of the transducer, thereby producing the focused acoustic beam.
  • Electrically independent interdigitated outrigger electrodes may be deposited on the transducer substrate radially outwardly from the ring-shaped electrodes to allow for acoustic steering of the focused acoustic beam in a plane parallel to the surface of the reservoir.
  • two orthogonal sets of outrigger electrodes may be provided to perform the acoustic steering required for matrix printing and the like.
  • a beam steering capability may be built into the transducer by circumferentially segmenting its interdigitated ring-shaped electrodies, thereby permitting them to be differentially excited.
  • a nozzleless droplet ejector 11 comprising a surface acoustic wave transducer 12 which is submerged at a predetermined depth in a liquid filled reservoir 13 for ejecting individual droplets of liquid 14 therefrom on demand. Provision (not shown) may be made for replenishing the liquid level of the reservoir 13 during operation to ensure that the submersion depth of the transducer 12 remains essentially constant.
  • the ejector 11 emits a time sequenced series of liquid ink droplets 14 from the reservoir 13 to print an image on a suitable recording medium 16, such as plain paper.
  • the recording medium 16 is located a short distance above the liquid/air interface (i.e., the surface) 17 of the reservoir 13, so the velocity at which the droplets 14 are ejected from the reservoir 13 is selected to cause them to traverse that air gap with substantial directional stability.
  • baffles may be provided for suppressing at least some of the ambient air current which might otherwise cause unwanted deflection of the droplets 14.
  • the recording medium 16 typically is advanced in a cross-line direction, as indicated by the arrow 18, while an image is being printed.
  • the ejector 11 may be mounted on a carriage (not shown) for reciprocating movement in an orthogonal direction parallel to the plane of the recording medium 16, thereby permitting the image to be printed in accordance with a raster scanning pattern.
  • a line length, linear array of ejectors 11 may be provided for printing the image on a line-by-line basic. Such an array may be shifted (by means not shown) back and forth in the orthogonal direction while the image is being printed to more competely fill the spaces beween the ejectors 11, without having to reduce their centre-to-centre spacing.
  • Areal ejector arrays also may be constructed in accordance with this invention, but an areal array having the large number of ejectors 11 which would be required for printing a standard paper size image at an acceptable resolution without any relative movement of the recording medium 16 is likely to be too expensive for most applications.
  • the transducer 12 comprises a pair of ring-­shaped electrodes 21 and 22, each of which is radially patterned to have a plurality of electrically interconnected, ring-like elements 23 a -23 i and 24 a -24 i , respectively.
  • the electrode elements 23 a -23 i and 24 a -24 i are concentrically deposited in interdigitated relationship on a generally planar surface 26 of a piezoelectric substrate 27.
  • the electrode elements 23 a -23 i and 24 a -24 i are of essentially uniform width and have a fixed radial pitch, but it is to be understood that their width and/or pitch may be varied without departing from this invention.
  • the width of the electrodes elements 23 a -23 i and 24 a -24 i may be varied radially of the transducer 12 to acoustically apodize it.
  • the pitch of the electrodes elements 23 a -23 i and 24 a -24 i may be varied radially of the transducer 12 to permit its acoustic focal length to be increased or decreased under electrical control.
  • the substrate 27 may be a piezoelectric cyrstal, such as LiNbO3, or a piezoelectric polymer, such as PVF2.
  • the transducer 12 is a significant advantage, especially for the cost effective production of the linear and areal transducer arrays which may be needed for applications requiring precisely aligned arrays of droplet ejectors 11.
  • the transducer 12 is oriented with its active surface 26 facing and in generally parallel alignment with the surface 17 of the reservoir 13. Furthermore, an ac. power supply 31 having a predetermined, output frequency of between approximately 1 MHz and 500 MHz is coupled across its electrodes 21 and 22, whereby its piezoelectirc substrate 27 is excited to generate a Rayleigh-type acoustic wave which travels along the surface 26. Due to the ring-­like shape of the electrodes 21 and 22, the Rayleigh wave has a pair of nearly circular, opposed wavefronts which propagate radially inwardly and outwardly, respectively, with respect to the electrodes 21 and 22.
  • the outwardly propagating or expanding wavefront is gradually attenuated as it expands away from the electrodes 21 and 22, but the inwardly propagating or contracting wavefromt is more abruptly terminated baecause of the destructive interference which it experiences centrally of the electrodes 21 and 22.
  • the output frequency of the power supply 31 is matched with the radial pitch (or one of the radial pitches) of the interdigitated electrode elements 23 a -23 i and 24 a -24 i to efficiently transform the electrical energy into acoustic energy.
  • Coherent acoustic waves are induced into the incompressible liquid 32 within the reservoir 13 in response to the Rayleigh waves generated by the transducer 12. More particularly, a converging cone of leaky Rayleigh waves are launched into the liquid 32 in response to the contracting wavefront of surface acoustic waves, and a diverging, doughnut-­like cone of leaky Rayleigh waves are launched into the liquid 32 in response to the expanding wavefront of surface acoustic waves.
  • the converging cone of induced or so-­called leaky Rayleigh waves form an acoustic beam 33 for ejecting the droplets 14 from the reservoir 13 on demand.
  • the diverging leaky Rayleigh waves can be ignored because they are suppressed, such as by sizing or otherwise constructing the reservoir 13 to prevent any significant reflection of them.
  • acoustic beam 33 to a generally circular focus approximately at the surface 17 of the reservoir 13.
  • the focus is in practice contained within a small volume, but for the purposes of the present discussion it will be assumed to be generally circular, in or very close to the plane of the surface 17.
  • the speed (S p ) at which sound travels through the piezoelectric substrate 27 of the transducer 12 characteristically is much greater than the speed (S1) at which it travels through the liquid 32.
  • S1 sin1(S1/S p ) (1)
  • Equation (2) assumes a diffraction limited focus of the acoustic beam 33, such that the wavelength, ⁇ , of the transdsucer generated Rayleigh waves determines the waist diameter of the acoustic beam 33 at focus.
  • ⁇ S p /f (3)
  • f the output frequency of the power supply 31.
  • the surface tension and the mass density of the liquid 32 determine the minimum threshold energy level for ejecting droplets 14 from the reservoir 13. Moreover, additional energy is required to eject the droplets 14 at the desired ejection velocity. To meet these energy requirements, suitable provision may be made for controlling the ac. power supply 31 so that it intensity modulates the acoustic beam 33 to acoustically propel the droplets 14 from the reservoir 13 on demand. Alternatively, as indicated by the arrow 36, provision may be made for selectively focusing and defocusing the acoustic beam 33 on the surface 17 of the reservoir 13, such as by mechanically moving the transducer 12 up and down in the reservoir 13 or by modulating the frequency at which it is being driven. Still another option is to provide an external source 34 for controlling the ejection timing of the droplets 14.
  • the intensity of the acoustic beam 33 advantageously is selected to acoustically excite the liquid 32 within the beam waist to a sub-threshold, incipient droplet formation energy state (i.e., an energy level just slightly below the threshold level for forming a droplet 14 at room temperature), whereby the external source 34 need only supply a small amount of supplemental energy to cause the ejection of the droplet 14.
  • the supplemental energy supplied by the external source 34 may be in any suitable form, such as thermal energy for heating the acoustically excited liquid 32 to reduce its surface tension, or electrostatic or magnetically responsive, respectively, liquid 32.
  • the size of the ejected droplets 14 is primarily determined by the waist diameter of the acoustic beam 33 as measured at the surface 17 of the reservoir 13.
  • the transducers 12 aa -12 ai are linearly aligned on uniformally separated centres, so they are suitably configured to enable the droplet ejectors 11 a to function as a multi-element print head for ink jet line printing.
  • the transducers 12 aa -12 ai are integrated on and share a single or common piezoelectric substrate 27 a , thereby permitting the alignment of the transducers 12 aa -12 ai to be performed while they are being manufactured.
  • a piezoelectric polymer is the favoured substate 27 a for such a prealigned transducer array.
  • the transducers 12 aa -12 ai are identical to each other and are similar in construction and operation to the above-described transducer 12, except that the transducers 12 aa -12 ai further include provision for acoustically steering their focused acoustic beams 33 a .
  • the droplet ejectors 11 a have greater flexibility than the ejector 11 (for instance, the ejectors 11 a may be used for dot matrix ink jet printing or they may peform solid line printing without the need for any mechanical motion of the transducers 12 aa -12 ai ), but they otherwise are related closely to the ejector 11.
  • like parts are identified by like reference numerals using a convention, whereby the addition of a single or double letter suffix to a reference numberal used hereinabove identifies a modified part shown once or more than once, respectively.
  • Unique references are used to identify unique parts.
  • the transducer 12 aa is generally representative of the transducers within the array 41. It has a pair of radially patterned, interdigitated, ring-shaped electrodes 21 and 22, so it may launch an acoustic beam 33 a into a liquid filled reservoir 13 a and bring the beam 33 a to a generally circular focus approximately at the surface 17 of the reservoir 13 a as described hereinabove. Additionally, the transducer 12 aa has interdigitated outrigger electrodes 43, 44 and 45, 46, which are deposited on the surface 26 a of the piezoelectric substrate 27 a concentrically with the electrodes 21 and 22 and radially outwardly therefrom. The outrigger electrodes 43, 44 and 45, 46 are electrically independent of the electrodes 21 and 22, but they may be fabricated concurrently therewith using the same metallization patterning process.
  • the outrigger electrodes 43, 44 and 45, 46 are of relatively short arc length, so that they cause circumferentially asymmetrical Rayleigh waves to propagate along the surface 26 a when they are energized.
  • the electrodes 21 and 22 and the outrigger electrodes 43, 44 and 45, 46 may be coherently or incoherently driven. However, if they are coherently driven, it is important that they be suitably phase synchronized to avoid destructive interference among the Rayleigh waves they generate.
  • the circumferentially asymmetrical Rayleigh waves that are produced by energizing the outrigger electrodes 43, 44 and/or 45, 46 induce asymmetrical leaky Rayleigh waves into the liquid 32, thereby causing the focused beam 33 a to shift parallel to the surface 17 of the reservoir 13 a until it reaches an acoustic equilibrium.
  • the outrigger electrodes 43, 44 and 45, 46 are electrically independent of one another and are positioned orthogonally with respect to one another, thereby permitting the beam 33 a to be orthogonally steered for dot matrix ink jet printing and similar applications.
  • differential phase and/or amplitude excitation of an electrically segmented surface acoustic wave transducer 12 ba also may be employed for beam steering purposes.
  • the transducer 12 ba has a ring-like interdigitated electrode structure which is circumferentially segmented to form a plurality of electrically independent sets of electrodes 21 b 1, 22 b 1; 22 b 2,22 b 2; and 21 b 3, 22 b 3.
  • Three sets of electrodes are shown, two of which (21 b 1, 22 b 1 and 21 b 2, 22 b 2) span arcs of approximagely 90° each and the third of which (21 b 3 and 22 b 3) spans an arc of approximately 180°, but it will be understood that the number of independent electrode sets and the arc spanned by each of them may be selected as required to best accommodate a given application of beam steering function.
  • Unidirectional steering of the acoustic beam 33 is achieved by adjusting the relative amplitudes of the ac. drive voltages applied across the electrodes 21 b 1, 22 b 1; 21 b 2, 22 b 2 and 21 b 3, 22 b 3, while bidirectional steering is achieved by adjusting the relative phases of those voltages.
  • the axes about which such steering occurs are orthogonal to one another in the illustrated embodiment, so there is a full 360° control over the direction in which the droplet 14 b is ejected from the reservoir.
  • a linear or areal array of transducers 12 ba may be employed to form an array of droplet ejectors (see Fig. 3), preferably on a common piezoelectric substrate 27 a .
  • the present invention provides relatively inexpensive and reliable nozzleless liquid droplet ejectors, which may be appropriately configured for a wide variety of applications.

Landscapes

  • Particle Formation And Scattering Control In Inkjet Printers (AREA)
  • Ink Jet (AREA)
EP19860307099 1985-09-16 1986-09-16 Ejecteurs de fuite de goutelettes liquides sans buses réagissant aux ondes de Rayleigh Expired - Lifetime EP0216589B1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US77629185A 1985-09-16 1985-09-16
US776291 1985-09-16

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0216589A2 true EP0216589A2 (fr) 1987-04-01
EP0216589A3 EP0216589A3 (en) 1988-09-14
EP0216589B1 EP0216589B1 (fr) 1992-04-15

Family

ID=25106974

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP19860307099 Expired - Lifetime EP0216589B1 (fr) 1985-09-16 1986-09-16 Ejecteurs de fuite de goutelettes liquides sans buses réagissant aux ondes de Rayleigh

Country Status (5)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0216589B1 (fr)
JP (1) JPH078561B2 (fr)
BR (1) BR8604299A (fr)
CA (1) CA1265702A (fr)
DE (1) DE3684850D1 (fr)

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0272092A2 (fr) * 1986-12-19 1988-06-22 Xerox Corporation Imprimantes acoustiques
EP0272154A2 (fr) * 1986-12-19 1988-06-22 Xerox Corporation Têtes d'impression acoustiques
EP0739732A1 (fr) * 1995-04-27 1996-10-30 Xerox Corporation Tête d'impression acoustique à encre avec distance focale variable

Families Citing this family (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JP2939504B2 (ja) * 1995-12-28 1999-08-25 富士ゼロックス株式会社 インクジェット記録装置およびインクジェット記録方法
US5917521A (en) * 1996-02-26 1999-06-29 Fuji Xerox Co.,Ltd. Ink jet recording apparatus and method for jetting an ink droplet from a free surface of an ink material using vibrational energy

Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3211088A (en) * 1962-05-04 1965-10-12 Sperry Rand Corp Exponential horn printer
DE2812372A1 (de) * 1977-03-23 1978-09-28 Ibm Tintenstrahldruckkopf
US4308547A (en) * 1978-04-13 1981-12-29 Recognition Equipment Incorporated Liquid drop emitter

Patent Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3211088A (en) * 1962-05-04 1965-10-12 Sperry Rand Corp Exponential horn printer
DE2812372A1 (de) * 1977-03-23 1978-09-28 Ibm Tintenstrahldruckkopf
US4308547A (en) * 1978-04-13 1981-12-29 Recognition Equipment Incorporated Liquid drop emitter

Cited By (5)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0272092A2 (fr) * 1986-12-19 1988-06-22 Xerox Corporation Imprimantes acoustiques
EP0272154A2 (fr) * 1986-12-19 1988-06-22 Xerox Corporation Têtes d'impression acoustiques
EP0272154A3 (en) * 1986-12-19 1989-10-18 Xerox Corporation Acoustic printheads
EP0272092A3 (en) * 1986-12-19 1989-10-25 Xerox Corporation Acoustic printers
EP0739732A1 (fr) * 1995-04-27 1996-10-30 Xerox Corporation Tête d'impression acoustique à encre avec distance focale variable

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
JPS6266943A (ja) 1987-03-26
DE3684850D1 (de) 1992-05-21
BR8604299A (pt) 1987-05-05
JPH078561B2 (ja) 1995-02-01
EP0216589B1 (fr) 1992-04-15
EP0216589A3 (en) 1988-09-14
CA1265702A (fr) 1990-02-13

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US4697195A (en) Nozzleless liquid droplet ejectors
US4308547A (en) Liquid drop emitter
US4748461A (en) Capillary wave controllers for nozzleless droplet ejectors
EP0243117B1 (fr) Ejecteurs de gouttelettes par ondes capillaires et adressables dans l'espace
US4719480A (en) Spatial stablization of standing capillary surface waves
JP2842320B2 (ja) 液滴噴射装置および液滴噴射方法
JPH0635177B2 (ja) 音響印刷用プリントヘッド
US5898446A (en) Acoustic ink jet head and ink jet recording apparatus having the same
JP2861980B2 (ja) インク滴噴射装置
EP0273664B1 (fr) Ejecteur de gouttelettes
EP0216589B1 (fr) Ejecteurs de fuite de goutelettes liquides sans buses réagissant aux ondes de Rayleigh
JP2004291563A (ja) インクジェット記録装置
JP2939504B2 (ja) インクジェット記録装置およびインクジェット記録方法
JPH1058672A (ja) インクジェットヘッド
EP0234718B1 (fr) Ejecteurs de gouttelettes
US5917521A (en) Ink jet recording apparatus and method for jetting an ink droplet from a free surface of an ink material using vibrational energy
EP0272092B1 (fr) Imprimantes acoustiques
JPH09226111A (ja) 記録方法および記録装置
JPH1034909A (ja) 液体噴射装置
JPH10193592A (ja) 液体噴射装置
JPH09150502A (ja) 液滴噴射装置
JPH11235825A (ja) 記録ヘッド
JPH09267473A (ja) 液体噴射装置
JPH0976493A (ja) インクジェット記録装置
JP2001270101A (ja) インクジェットプリンタ

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
PUAI Public reference made under article 153(3) epc to a published international application that has entered the european phase

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009012

AK Designated contracting states

Kind code of ref document: A2

Designated state(s): DE GB IT

PUAL Search report despatched

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009013

AK Designated contracting states

Kind code of ref document: A3

Designated state(s): DE GB IT

17P Request for examination filed

Effective date: 19890313

17Q First examination report despatched

Effective date: 19900723

GRAA (expected) grant

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009210

AK Designated contracting states

Kind code of ref document: B1

Designated state(s): DE GB IT

REF Corresponds to:

Ref document number: 3684850

Country of ref document: DE

Date of ref document: 19920521

ITF It: translation for a ep patent filed

Owner name: MODIANO & ASSOCIATI S.R.L.

PLBE No opposition filed within time limit

Free format text: ORIGINAL CODE: 0009261

STAA Information on the status of an ep patent application or granted ep patent

Free format text: STATUS: NO OPPOSITION FILED WITHIN TIME LIMIT

26N No opposition filed
REG Reference to a national code

Ref country code: GB

Ref legal event code: IF02

PGFP Annual fee paid to national office [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: DE

Payment date: 20050909

Year of fee payment: 20

PGFP Annual fee paid to national office [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: GB

Payment date: 20050914

Year of fee payment: 20

PGFP Annual fee paid to national office [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: IT

Payment date: 20050927

Year of fee payment: 20

PG25 Lapsed in a contracting state [announced via postgrant information from national office to epo]

Ref country code: GB

Free format text: LAPSE BECAUSE OF EXPIRATION OF PROTECTION

Effective date: 20060915

REG Reference to a national code

Ref country code: GB

Ref legal event code: PE20