An apparatus for a thermal actuator for a micromechanical device, especially a liquid drop emitter such as an ink jet printhead, is disclosed. The cradle unit has a body complementary to a removable inkjet cartridge of a type having a pagewidth printhead and an ink supply, a controller for controlling the operation of the printhead to facilitate printing, and a plurality of terminals in electrical communication with the controller for transmitting control signals from the controller to corresponding terminals provided on the cartridge. Using a cooling device, at least one shaping surface of the shaping tool, with the material blank inserted, is at least partially cooled. Asynchronous buffers may be provided to transfer data across the variable and constant clock domains.