JP2001310476A - Ink-jet recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the ink amount remaining on a recording head at the time of wiping a nozzle forming surface of the recording head by a cleaning member. SOLUTION: A water repellent treatment is applied to a head cover 3 for covering a side surface part substantially orthogonal to a nozzle forming surface 2a of a recording head 2. Therefore, the ink amount remaining on the head cover 3 part according to the wiping operation of the nozzle forming surface 2a by a cleaning member 4 so that a problem of inadvertent dropping of an ink from the recording head, or the like, can be avoided. Thereby, deterioration of the reliability by pollution of a driving mechanism part of the recording device by an ink can be prevented as well as generation liability of a trouble of pollution of a recording paper by an ink can be reduced drastically.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus having a recording head mounted on a carriage which moves in the width direction of a recording sheet and ejecting ink droplets from nozzle openings, and more particularly to forming a nozzle of the recording head. The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus capable of reducing an amount of ink remaining on a side surface of a recording head when a surface is wiped by a cleaning member.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, an ink jet recording apparatus is provided with an ink jet recording head which receives supply of ink from an ink cartridge, and paper feed means for moving a recording sheet in a direction perpendicular to a moving direction of the recording head. Recording is performed by ejecting ink droplets onto the recording paper while moving the recording head on the carriage in the width direction of the recording paper.

[0003] The recording head used in this type of recording apparatus performs printing by discharging ink pressurized in the pressure generating chamber from a nozzle opening as ink droplets onto recording paper, and the solvent from the nozzle opening is printed. There is a problem that printing failure occurs due to an increase in ink viscosity due to evaporation, solidification of the ink, adhesion of dust, and mixing of air bubbles.

For this purpose, the ink jet recording apparatus is provided with capping means for sealing the nozzle openings of the recording head during non-printing and a cleaning member for cleaning the nozzle forming surface. The above-described capping unit not only functions as a lid that prevents drying of the ink in the nozzle opening during printing suspension, but also when the nozzle opening is clogged, seals the nozzle forming surface with the capping unit, A function to eliminate clogging due to solidification of ink near the nozzle opening and ink ejection failure due to air bubbles entering the ink flow path by sucking and discharging ink from the nozzle opening by negative pressure from the suction pump. Have.

[0005] Forcible suction and discharge processing of ink for eliminating clogging of the recording head and mixing of air bubbles into the ink flow path is called a cleaning operation, and printing is resumed after a long period of suspension of the apparatus. This is performed when the user operates the cleaning switch or recognizes that the quality of the recorded image has deteriorated. After the ink is discharged from the recording head by the negative pressure by the capping unit, an operation of wiping (wiping) the nozzle forming surface of the recording head by the cleaning member is involved.

[0006]

The cleaning member provided in the above-mentioned recording apparatus is made of an elastic material such as rubber, and is formed in a strip shape. In the wiping operation, the tip of the cleaning member is deformed and abuts on the nozzle forming surface of the recording head, and is relatively moved from one end of the nozzle forming surface to the other end. It operates to wipe off the ink attached to the nozzle forming surface after the suction and discharge.

In this case, although the ink attached to the nozzle forming surface can be wiped by the wiping operation described above, the ink collected by the wiping of the nozzle forming surface remains on the side surface of the recording head. A condition occurs that remains.

FIG. 4 shows this state. That is, in FIG. 4, reference numeral 1 denotes a carriage, and the carriage 1 is configured to reciprocate on the paper surface of FIG. 4 in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface. A recording head 2 is mounted on the carriage 1, and a cleaning member 4 that can relatively move from one end to the other end of the nozzle forming surface 2a of the recording head is provided.

When the cleaning member 4 wipes the nozzle forming surface 2a of the recording head, the cleaning member is formed of an elastic material such as rubber. The cleaning member 4 in the state is deformed and comes into contact with the nozzle forming surface 2a,
After wiping to the end of the nozzle forming surface, the cleaning member 4 returns to the upright state.

In this case, after the cleaning operation in which the ink is sucked and discharged from the nozzle opening of the recording head, the ink IK adheres to the nozzle forming surface 2a,
Therefore, the ink IK swept along with the wiping of the nozzle forming surface remains on the side surface of the recording head. This causes a large amount of ink to remain on the side surface at the end of the nozzle forming surface in the wiping direction by the cleaning member.

In addition, the ink remaining on the cleaning member 4 when the wiping operation was performed last time may adhere to the side surface of the starting end of the nozzle forming surface of the cleaning member in the wiping direction and remain.

Furthermore, when the nozzle forming surface is wiped by the cleaning member, a part of the ink swept along with the wiping of the nozzle forming surface overflows on both sides of the cleaning member orthogonal to the wiping direction, and this is the recording head. Also, a phenomenon of sticking to and remaining on both side surfaces of the film occurs.

Accordingly, a relatively large amount of ink remains on the side surface at the end of the nozzle forming surface in the wiping direction due to the above-described operation, and the ink also remains on the starting end of the nozzle forming surface in the wiping direction and both side surfaces in the wiping direction. A state occurs in which the remaining power is left. When such a condition occurs, there is a problem that the ink is dripped during the printing operation due to the movement of the carriage, thereby contaminating the driving mechanism portion of the recording apparatus or contaminating the recording paper. I do.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned technical problems, and the amount of ink remaining on the side surface of the recording head as much as possible with the wiping operation of the recording head by the cleaning member is reduced. It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus which can greatly reduce the degree of contamination caused by residual ink.

[0015]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention is mounted on a carriage which moves in the width direction of a recording sheet, and ejects ink droplets from nozzle openings. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: an ink jet recording head for discharging; and a cleaning member for wiping a nozzle forming surface of the recording head, wherein a water repellent treatment is performed on a side surface of the recording head that is substantially orthogonal to the nozzle forming surface. Configuration.

In this case, it is preferable to adopt a configuration in which a water repellent treatment is applied to the side surface on the wiping end portion side by the wiping operation of the nozzle forming surface by the cleaning member. In a preferred embodiment, a head cover that covers a side surface of the recording head is provided, and at least a surface of the head cover is subjected to a water-repellent treatment.

In this case, the head cover is formed by molding a metal plate material by a molding process, and at least the surface of the head cover is subjected to a water-repellent treatment by eutectoid plating. Since the occurrence of a step with the nozzle formation surface is suppressed, it can be suitably adopted.

Further, if the head cover is formed by molding a metal plate material by a molding process, and at least the surface of the head cover is subjected to a water repellent treatment by baking coating, the water repellency is adjusted according to the ink used. This is easy and can be suitably adopted.

In any of the above-mentioned methods, the nozzle forming surface of the recording head is disposed so as to be inclined, and the cleaning member is disposed from the oblique upper end to the oblique lower end of the nozzle forming surface of the recording head. When the present invention is applied to a recording apparatus configured to perform a wiping operation of a nozzle forming surface along the same direction, it is possible to obtain a preferable operation and effect described later.

According to the ink jet recording apparatus constructed as described above, when the cleaning member is subjected to the wiping operation of the nozzle forming surface, the ink adhering to the nozzle forming surface is swept in the moving direction of the cleaning member, The ink adhering to the nozzle forming surface can be eliminated. Since the water-repellent treatment is applied to the side surface of the recording head at the end of the cleaning member in the wiping direction, the cleaning member is swept by the cleaning member at the moment when the cleaning member is separated from the end of the nozzle forming surface in the wiping direction. Most of the ink that has been attracted adheres to the cleaning member and acts to flow down to the holding member that holds the cleaning member.

In addition, even in a situation where ink has adhered to the cleaning member due to the previous wiping operation,
By similarly applying a water-repellent treatment to the side surface of the recording head at the start end in the wiping direction by the cleaning member, the degree of adhesion of ink to the side surface can be greatly reduced. Further, by similarly applying a water-repellent treatment to both side surfaces of the recording head orthogonal to the wiping direction by the cleaning member, the degree of adhesion of ink to both side surfaces can be reduced.

Thus, the degree of contamination of the drive mechanism of the recording apparatus or the recording paper due to ink dripping from the recording head during the printing operation can be greatly reduced.

Further, the head cover covering the side surface of the recording head is subjected to a water-repellent treatment, so that the water-repellent treatment can be applied to the single unit in a state where the head cover is formed by eutectoid plating or baking. Therefore, it is possible to avoid the problem of adversely affecting the nozzle row of the recording head when performing the water-repellent treatment.

The nozzle forming surface of the recording head is disposed so as to be inclined, and the cleaning member wipes the nozzle forming surface from the oblique upper end to the oblique lower end of the nozzle forming surface of the recording head. In the case of adopting the recording apparatus configured as described above, the ink tends to accumulate on the side surface of the recording head particularly at the end portion in the wiping direction by the cleaning member, but by performing the above-described processing, the amount of the residual ink can be minimized. Can be reduced.

[0025]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention will be described based on an embodiment shown in the drawings. 1 and 2 are perspective views showing a carriage portion on which a recording head is mounted in a recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied. FIG. 1 shows a state in which the head cover of the recording head is removed, and FIG. 2 shows a state in which the head cover is attached and the product is completed.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a carriage, on which a recording head 2 is mounted. In this embodiment, the nozzle forming surface 2a of the recording head 2 is mounted on the carriage 1 at an inclination of about 65 degrees with respect to the horizontal direction.
The carriage 1 is configured to reciprocate in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the recording head 2.

A nozzle row 2b is formed on the nozzle forming surface 2a of the recording head 2 along the longitudinal direction of the recording head 2, and each nozzle opening constituting the nozzle row 2b is used to form a nozzle row based on print data. The ink droplets are selectively ejected and act so that printing is performed on recording paper.

A frame-shaped head cover 3 which can cover each side surface 2c orthogonal to the nozzle forming surface of the recording head 2 is provided, and the head cover 3 has mounting legs formed on each of four sides. 3a, it is attached to the recording head 2 as shown in FIG.

This head cover 3 is provided to protect the recording heads 2 formed in a stacked state, and when the recording paper conveyed to the printing area is slightly floated, the recording paper 2 Even if a part of the recording head collides with the end portion, the recording head 2 formed in a laminated state is prevented from being damaged.

The head cover 3 is formed by molding a plate made of, for example, stainless steel by molding. The surface of the head cover is subjected to a water-repellent treatment. Since the head cover 3 is formed of stainless steel as described above, eutectoid plating can be used for the water-repellent treatment. Further, since it has excellent heat resistance, it can be subjected to a water-repellent treatment by baking. In this case, Teflon (registered trademark) or the like can be used as a material for performing the water-repellent treatment in any of eutectoid plating and baking coating, but is not limited thereto.

FIG. 3 shows a state in which the nozzle forming surface of the recording head is wiped by the cleaning member in the above-described configuration. In FIG. 3, the carriage and the nozzle forming surface of the recording head mounted thereon are shown in a horizontal state, but the nozzle forming surface of the recording head is inclined at about 65 degrees with respect to the horizontal direction as described above. It is arranged with. That is, the cleaning member is configured to perform the wiping operation of the nozzle forming surface from the oblique upper end to the oblique lower end of the nozzle forming surface of the recording head along the direction of arrow A shown in FIG.

As described above, the cleaning member 4 is formed in a strip shape of an elastic material such as rubber. As the cleaning member 4 moves, the cleaning member 4 comes into contact with the oblique upper end of the nozzle forming surface 2a of the recording head 2. Touch This allows
The tip of the cleaning member 4 in the upright state is deformed into a curved state and slides on the nozzle forming surface 2a, and acts to sweep the ink IK attached to the nozzle forming surface 2a in the moving direction of the cleaning member 4. Thereby, the ink adhering to the nozzle forming surface 2a can be eliminated.

After the cleaning member 4 has been wiped to the end of the nozzle forming surface 2a, it returns to the upright state. In this case, the side surface of the recording head at the end portion in the wiping direction by the cleaning member, that is, reference numeral 3 in FIG.
Since the water repellent treatment is applied to the surface of the head cover indicated by b, most of the ink swept by the cleaning member is cleaned at the moment when the cleaning member 4 separates from the end of the nozzle forming surface in the wiping direction. Member 4
Acts to adhere to the side.

Accordingly, the side surface portion 3b of the recording head at the end portion in the wiping direction by the cleaning member 4 has:
A state is made in which little ink is left. And
The ink scraped off by the cleaning member 4 acts to flow down to a holding member (not shown) that holds the cleaning member.

Further, even in a situation where ink has adhered to the cleaning member 4 due to the previous wiping operation, the side surface of the recording head at the start end in the wiping direction by the cleaning member, that is, 3c in FIG. By similarly applying a water-repellent treatment to the surface portion of the head cover shown, the degree of adhesion of ink to the side surface portion can be significantly reduced.

Further, both sides of the recording head orthogonal to the direction of wiping by the cleaning member, that is, both surfaces in the longitudinal direction of the head cover indicated by reference numeral 3d in FIG. The degree to which ink adheres to the portion can be reduced.

Accordingly, it is possible to reduce the degree of contamination of the drive mechanism of the recording apparatus or the recording paper due to ink dripping from the recording head 2 during the printing operation.

In particular, in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the nozzle forming surface 2a of the recording head 2 is disposed in an inclined state. Since the side surface portion 3b of the recording head at the end portion is inclined with respect to the vertical direction, there is a problem that ink is more likely to accumulate. However, such a problem can be solved by taking the above measures.

In the above-described embodiment, the configuration provided with the head cover 3 is shown, but the present invention can of course be applied to a recording apparatus having no head cover. The present invention can of course be applied to a recording apparatus in which the nozzle forming surface of the recording head is substantially horizontal.

[0040]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the ink jet type recording apparatus of the present invention, since the water repellent treatment is applied to the side surface of the recording head substantially perpendicular to the nozzle forming surface, the recording is performed. It is possible to avoid such a problem that the ink is inadvertently dropped from the head. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a decrease in reliability due to the contamination of the drive mechanism portion of the recording apparatus with the ink, and to reduce the degree of inconvenience of contaminating the recording paper with the ink.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a state in which a head cover is removed from a carriage portion on which a recording head is mounted in a recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state in which a head cover is attached and the product is completed.

FIG. 3 is a side view illustrating a state where ink is removed when a nozzle forming surface of a recording head is wiped by a cleaning member when the present invention is applied.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a state in which ink is removed when a nozzle forming surface of a conventional recording head is wiped by a cleaning member.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Carriage 2 Recording head 2a Nozzle formation surface 2b Nozzle row 2c Side surface part 3 Head cover 3a Attachment leg part 3b-3d Head cover surface part 4 Cleaning member IK ink

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An ink jet recording head mounted on a carriage that moves in the width direction of a recording sheet and ejects ink droplets from nozzle openings, and an ink jet recording head including a cleaning member that wipes a nozzle forming surface of the recording head. An ink jet recording apparatus, wherein a side surface of the recording head that is substantially perpendicular to a nozzle forming surface is subjected to a water-repellent treatment. 2. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a water repellent treatment is applied to a side surface on a wiping end portion side by a wiping operation of the nozzle forming surface by the cleaning member. 3. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a head cover for covering a side surface of the recording head, wherein at least a surface of the head cover is subjected to a water-repellent treatment. 4. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the head cover is formed by molding a metal plate material, and at least a surface of the head cover is subjected to a water-repellent treatment by eutectoid plating. 5. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the head cover is formed by forming a metal plate material by a molding process, and at least a surface of the head cover is subjected to a water-repellent treatment by baking coating. 6. A nozzle forming surface of the recording head is disposed so as to be inclined, and the cleaning member performs a wiping operation of the nozzle forming surface along an oblique lower end from an oblique upper end of the nozzle forming surface of the recording head. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording is performed.