Inventing the Ink Jet Printer

In 1968 Edmond Kyser and Stephan Sears formed a partnership to design and develop an ink jet printer. The outcome of that partnership was the first Drop on Demand Ink Jet patent. This patent has been cited as ‘relevant prior art’ for more than 400 subsequent patents issued worldwide. In this presentation, the development of the invention is detailed. The patent application process is discussed, along with relevant competing technologies. A computer model of the ink ejection process is shown. Finally, the factors for success and/or failure of this invention and its subsequent printer product are discussed.

Presenter(s)

Edmond L Kyser is a bay area product, having received a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford, a MS in Civil Engineering from SJSU, and a PhD in Applied Mechanics from UC Berkeley. He has held positions in R&D at Lockheed, System Industries, Silonics, Tandem Computers, Compaq, and Cisco. He was the founder of three startup companies. He holds 8 patents and has published 20 technical papers, two of which have received special recognition.