JPH04288267A - Recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To properly hold the gap between a recording head and a recording medium regardless of the thickness of a recording medium and to prevent the contact of the recording medium capable of generating a bulge at the time of feed such as an envelope with the head. CONSTITUTION:The guide part 190b of a recording medium 10' is provided to the member 190 rotatable around a fulcrum 190A on the side opposite to the fulcrum 190A of the member 190 and a feed roller 118 is supported at the intermediate part of the member 190. The feed roller 118 is displaced corresponding to the thickness of paper and the guide part 190b is displaced with displacement quantity larger than that of the roller 118. Therefore, a gap is held regardless of the thickness of the paper and, even when a bulge is generated in an envelope by the large displacement of the guide part, the contact with a head can be avoided.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a recording device.

0002

[Prior Art] The gap (hereinafter referred to as gap) between a recording medium such as paper or OHP film (hereinafter also simply referred to as paper) and a recording head that records on it is relatively small, and this is due to the thickness of the recording medium. When printing on a thick recording medium (hereinafter also referred to as cardboard) such as a postcard or envelope in a recording device, such as an inkjet recording device, which is preferably maintained at almost the same level regardless of the thickness of the recording medium ( There is one that is designed to be displaced depending on the paper thickness (hereinafter also referred to as paper thickness).

FIG. 1 shows an example of such a recording device. Here, reference numeral 1 denotes a recording head in the form of an inkjet head, and a portion facing the recording medium 10 has an ejection orifice array surface (hereinafter referred to as an ejection surface) in which a plurality of ink ejection orifices are arranged in the recording medium conveyance direction (sub-scanning direction). ) is formed. 2 is a carriage on which the recording head 1 is mounted, and the guide shaft 3 at the bottom and the guide shaft 4 at the top are aligned in a direction perpendicular to the drawing (
The recording head 1 is supported so as to be slidable in the main scanning direction (main scanning direction), and by driving the recording head 1 while scanning in that direction, one line of recording is performed on the recording medium 10 .

Reference numeral 5 denotes a pinch roller lever that is rotatable around an axis 5A, and a spring 7 imparts a counterclockwise rotational behavior in the drawing to urge the pinch roller 6 toward the conveying roller 8. That is, the recording medium 10 is held between the conveyance roller 8 and the pinch roller 6, and is conveyed as a motor (not shown) engaged with the conveyance roller 8 is driven. In addition,
A platen 9 faces the ejection surface 1A and regulates the recording surface of the recording medium 10.

Further, the guide shaft 4 or the carriage 2 is rotatable around the guide shaft 3, and when a cardboard 10' such as an envelope is used as the recording medium, as shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, the recording head 1 is configured to be displaced by rotating the guide shaft 4 or the carriage 2 to adjust the gap.

[0006]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, this configuration has the following problems.

(1) It is necessary to adjust the guide shaft 4 depending on the thickness of the recording medium 10.

(2) If the amount of rotation of the recording head 1 is large, the distance between the ejection surface 1A of the recording head 1 and the recording medium 10 will not be uniform, and the ejection ports will become distant and near.

(3) When attempting to record on an envelope, the envelope swells in the area closer to the recording head 1 than the pressure contact area between the rollers 6 and 8, so that an appropriate gap with the ejection surface 1A of the recording head 1 cannot be maintained. In extreme cases, the envelope may come into contact with the ejection surface 1A and become contaminated with ink, or the ejection surface may be stained.

0010

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention aims to solve these problems, and for this purpose, the present invention provides a recording device for recording on a recording medium. a recording head, a conveying member for conveying the recording medium, a guide member for guiding the recording medium, the guide member and the conveying member, and is displaceable according to the thickness of the recording medium. It is characterized by comprising a holding means.

Further, the present invention has a conveyance member for conveying the recording medium with respect to the recording position by the recording head, and also has a guide member for guiding the recording medium, and has a guide member for guiding the recording medium according to the thickness of the recording medium. It is characterized by comprising a guide and holding means that can be displaced by moving.

[0012] Preferably, the conveyance member and the guide member are arranged near a recording position by the recording head.

[0013] Here, the amount of displacement of the guide member is made larger than the amount of displacement of the portion that holds the conveying member.

For this purpose, for example, the guide holding means has a member rotatable around a predetermined shaft provided at one end, the guide member is provided at the other end of the member, and an intermediate member is provided at the other end of the member. The conveying member may be supported at a portion thereof.

[0015] The conveyance member may have the form of a roller that carries out the conveyance as it rotates, but it may also have a conveyor belt or the like.

[0016] In the above, the recording head may be an inkjet recording head that performs recording by discharging ink, and the inkjet recording head applies film boiling to the ink as energy used for discharging the ink. It is also possible to include an electrothermal conversion element that generates thermal energy that causes .

[0017]

[Function] According to the present invention, the conveying member such as the conveying roller is displaced in accordance with the thickness of the recording medium, and the guide portion of the recording medium is also displaced preferably by a larger amount of displacement. The gap between the head and the recording medium can be adjusted appropriately without complicated operations, and there is no inconvenience such as contact with the head even with a recording medium that may bulge, such as an envelope.

[0018]

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an inkjet recording apparatus to which the present invention can be applied.

[0020] Here, the carriage 102 is connected to the driving force transmission gears 110 and 1 in conjunction with the forward and reverse rotation of the drive motor 113.
It has a pin (not shown) that engages with the helical groove 103A of the lead screw roller 103 rotating through the pins 11 and 109, and extends parallel to the lead screw roller 103 as the lead screw roller 103 rotates. It is reciprocated along the guide shaft 104 in the directions of arrows a and b. Mounted on the carriage 102 is a head cartridge 100 that integrally includes a recording head 101 having an electrothermal converter that generates thermal energy as energy used for ink ejection, and an ink tank 101T. Note that illustration of the configuration for this mounting and electrical signal connection between the recording head and the main body of the apparatus is omitted in FIG.
The material disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 081 can be used. Numerals 107 and 108 are photocouplers, which are home position detection means for confirming the presence of the light shielding plate 106 provided on the carriage 2 in this area and switching the rotational direction of the motor 113.

A conveyance roller 118 conveys the recording medium 10 fed into the apparatus through an opening 119, and as the drive motor 113 rotates, a gear 110 fixed to the motor shaft and a gear meshing with the gear 110 are rotated. 111, gear 121 fixed coaxially with this, gear 1 on the roller shaft that meshes with this
It is rotationally driven via 25.

The transmission mechanism consisting of the gears 111, 121 and their shafts is movable as shown by the arrow in the figure, and the gear 111 meshes with the gear 109 provided on the shaft of the lead screw roller 103, and It can be set to a main scanning position where the gear 121 does not mesh with the gear 125 provided on the shaft of the conveyance roller 118, and a sub-scanning position where the gear 121 meshes with the gear 125 and the gear 111 does not mesh with the gear 109. That is, at the main scanning position, the lead screw roller 103 rotates to perform main scanning (scanning of the recording head), and at the sub-scanning position, the conveying roller 118 rotates to perform sub-scanning (conveying the recording medium).

The recording medium 10 cooperates with the conveyance roller 118.
Pinch rollers for pinching and conveying the material and other unique structures used in this embodiment are provided, but illustration thereof is omitted in FIG. 3, and these will be described later with reference to FIG. 4 and the like.

Further, a cap member capable of capping the ejection surface of the recording head 101;
It is possible to provide a suction recovery means for applying suction force in the capping state to forcibly discharge foreign substances such as thickened ink, dust, and air bubbles, and a member that engages with the ejection surface and wipes it. can. These members can also be driven by the motor 113 by appropriately controlling the configuration of the transmission mechanism 123.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are a schematic side view and a front view, respectively, for explaining the mechanism related to the main part of this embodiment.

Here, reference numeral 150 denotes a pinch roller lever, which supports the pinch roller 160 that clamps the recording medium 10 in cooperation with the conveyance roller 118. 190 is a guide/holding member for supporting the conveyance roller 118 and guiding and holding the recording medium 10 in the ejection direction;
It can be rotated around 0A. This member has a lever-shaped portion provided at both ends of the conveyance roller 118 to rotatably support the conveyance roller 118 in the middle, and a recording medium provided at the other end of the rotation fulcrum. It has a guide portion 190B that extends in the width direction of the medium (main scanning direction) and connects both lever-like members. Furthermore, the spring 170 provides a clockwise rotation behavior in FIG. 4 (the direction in which the conveying roller 118 is biased toward the pinch roller 160).

Note that the guide portion 190B is provided with a taper 190C particularly for smoothly guiding the leading edge of the recording medium. Further, a recording medium pressing member biased toward the guide portion 190B is provided to ensure the flatness of the recording surface of the recording medium between the guide portion and the pressing member, and the conveyance roller 118 and the pinch roller 160. You may also do so. Alternatively, the guide portion 190B may be extended to the vicinity of the portion facing the ejection surface 101A, and this may be used as a platen.

In the above configuration, the recording medium 10 fed from the opening 119 side in FIG. The guide portion 190B of the member 190 is conveyed to the opposing position, and then the guide portion 190B of the member 190
It is discharged while being guided by. This transport operation is performed intermittently during the recording process, and the recording head 1
After one line is recorded by the main scan of 01, a predetermined amount of conveyance (sub-scanning) is performed.

In this example, instead of displacing the recording head in accordance with the paper thickness, the conveyance roller 118 or guide portion 190B is displaced. And, those displacements are controlled by the guide/holding member 190 with the axis 190A as the rotational fulcrum.
The guide portion 190
The guide part 190 assumes that the distance from B to the rotation fulcrum 190A is larger than the distance from the conveyance roller axis to the rotation fulcrum 190A.
The amount of displacement of B is larger than the amount of displacement of the conveying roller 118.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6, when the conveying roller 118 is displaced downward in the figure by the recording medium, the guide portion 190B is displaced downward more greatly as the member 190 rotates, so that the recording medium used is Even if the medium is cardboard and the recording medium 10' is like an inflatable envelope, interference between the recording medium 10' and the ejection surface 101A can be avoided and an appropriate gap can be maintained.

Furthermore, since the guide holding member integrally supports both ends of the conveyance roller, even if a lever is provided to release the conveyance roller, the phases of both ends will not shift.
It becomes possible to improve the degree of freedom when selecting the placement position of the release lever.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but can of course be modified in various ways.

For example, the guide portion 19 of the guide holding member 190
A roller is provided for 0B, and this is, for example, conveyance roller 1.
By rotationally driving the recording medium 18 as a driving source, it is possible to forcibly eject the recording medium 10 to improve ejection efficiency and perform a more reliable ejection operation.

Furthermore, the guide portion 190B itself can be replaced with a roller to reduce friction with the recording medium and to ensure ejection of the recording medium.

Furthermore, the fulcrum 190 of the guide/holding member 190
It is also possible to provide a paper feed guide section parallel to the guide section 190B near the portion A to perform smooth paper feed guide in response to the displacement of the conveyance roller 118. By using the paper feeding guide section as a roller that rotates using the transport roller 118 as a driving source, for example, forced paper feeding can be made possible and reliable paper feeding operation can be performed.

In addition, in the above-described embodiment, the main scanning mechanism uses a lead screw, but the carriage may be scanned by a timing belt. Furthermore, although the ejection surface of the recording head is arranged vertically downward, it goes without saying that the orientation can be selected as appropriate depending on the apparatus configuration. Further, in the above example, the recording medium is fed, conveyed, and ejected almost in a flat plane, but it may also be fed, conveyed, and ejected while being bent.

(Others) Although the present invention is effective when applied to various types of recording devices in which the distance between the recording head and the recording medium is a problem, it is particularly applicable to inkjet recording type devices. In some cases, a method is provided in which a means for generating thermal energy (for example, an electrothermal converter or a laser beam) is provided as the energy used to discharge ink, and the thermal energy causes a change in the state of the ink. This provides excellent effects in recording heads and recording devices. This is because such a system can achieve higher recording density and higher definition.

For its typical configuration and principles, see, for example, US Pat. Nos. 4,723,129 and 4,740.
Preferably, it is carried out using the basic principles disclosed in the '796 specification. This method is the so-called on-demand type.
It is applicable to both continuous types, but in particular, in the case of on-demand type, it is applicable to the electrothermal converter placed corresponding to the sheet holding the liquid (ink) or the liquid path. , by applying at least one drive signal that corresponds to recorded information and provides a rapid temperature rise exceeding nucleate boiling, the electrothermal transducer generates thermal energy to produce film boiling on the thermally active surface of the recording head. liquid (ink) that corresponds one-to-one to this drive signal.
This is effective because it can form air bubbles inside. The growth and contraction of the bubble causes liquid (ink) to be ejected through the ejection opening to form at least one droplet. It is more preferable to use this drive signal in a pulse form, since the growth and contraction of bubbles can be carried out immediately and appropriately, making it possible to eject liquid (ink) with particularly excellent responsiveness. This pulse-shaped drive signal is described in US Pat. No. 4,463,359 and US Pat.
345262 are suitable. Furthermore, if the conditions described in US Pat. No. 4,313,124 concerning the invention regarding the temperature increase rate of the heat acting surface are adopted, even more excellent recording can be performed.

In addition to the configuration of the recording head that is a combination of ejection ports, liquid paths, and electrothermal converters (straight liquid flow path or right-angled liquid flow path) as disclosed in the above-mentioned specifications, U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,333 and U.S. Pat. No. 44 disclose a configuration in which a heat acting part is arranged in a bending region.
A configuration using the specification of No. 59600 is also included in the present invention. In addition, JP-A-59-123670 discloses a configuration in which a common slit is used as a discharge part for a plurality of electrothermal converters, and a hole that absorbs pressure waves of thermal energy is disclosed. The effects of the present invention are also effective even with a configuration based on Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 138461/1985 which discloses a configuration corresponding to the discharge section. That is, regardless of the form of the recording head, according to the present invention, recording can be performed reliably and efficiently.

Furthermore, the present invention can be effectively applied to a full-line type recording head having a length corresponding to the maximum width of a recording medium that can be recorded by the recording apparatus. Such a recording head may have either a configuration in which the length is satisfied by a combination of a plurality of recording heads, or a configuration as a single recording head formed integrally.

In addition, even in the case of a serial type as in the above example, the recording head is fixed to the apparatus main body or is attached to the apparatus main body, so that electrical connection with the apparatus main body and ink flow from the apparatus main body can be achieved. The present invention is also effective when using a replaceable chip-type recording head that can be supplied with ink or a cartridge-type recording head in which an ink tank is integrally provided in the recording head itself.

Further, it is preferable to add ejection recovery means for the recording head, preliminary auxiliary means, etc. to the configuration of the recording apparatus of the present invention, since this further stabilizes the effects of the present invention. Specifically, these include heating the recording head using a capping means, a cleaning means, a pressure or suction means, an electrothermal transducer, a separate heating element, or a combination thereof. For example, there may be mentioned a pre-heating means for performing the ejection, and a pre-ejection means for ejecting other than recording.

Regarding the type and number of recording heads to be mounted, for example, in addition to a single head that corresponds to a single color ink, there are also systems that correspond to a plurality of inks of different recording colors and densities. A plurality of them may be provided. That is, for example, the recording mode of the recording apparatus is not limited to a recording mode for only a mainstream color such as black, but may also be a recording mode in which the recording head is configured integrally or in a combination of multiple colors, Alternatively, the present invention is extremely effective for an apparatus equipped with at least one of the full-color recording modes using color mixing.

In addition, in the embodiments of the present invention described above, the ink is described as a liquid, but an ink that solidifies at room temperature or lower, and that softens or liquefies at room temperature, may also be used. Generally speaking, in inkjet systems, the temperature of the ink itself is adjusted within the range of 30°C or higher and 70°C or lower to keep the viscosity of the ink within a stable ejection range. Sometimes, ink in liquid form may be used. In addition, in order to actively prevent temperature rise due to thermal energy by using the energy to change the state of the ink from a solid state to a liquid state, or to prevent ink from evaporating, it is possible to solidify and heat the ink when left standing. An ink that is liquefied by water may also be used. In any case, by applying thermal energy in accordance with the recording signal, the ink is liquefied and the liquid ink is ejected, or the ink has already begun to solidify by the time it reaches the recording medium. The present invention is also applicable when using ink that is liquefied for the first time. Ink in such cases is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 54-56847 or Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 60-71.
In a state where it is held as a liquid or solid in the porous sheet recesses or through holes, as described in Japanese Patent No. 260,
It may also be configured to face the electrothermal converter. In the present invention, the most effective method for each of the above-mentioned inks is to implement the above-mentioned film boiling method.

In addition, the inkjet recording apparatus of the present invention can be used as an image output terminal for information processing equipment such as a computer, a copying machine combined with a reader, or a facsimile machine having a transmitting/receiving function. It may also take a form.

[0046]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention,
This eliminates the need for a mechanism to adjust the distance between the recording medium and the recording head, improves recording accuracy on thick paper, and prevents the recording head from coming into contact with thick paper such as envelopes, preventing contamination with ink. It can now be prevented.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view showing a conventional head and recording medium gap adjustment mechanism.

FIG. 2 is a schematic side view for explaining the disadvantage.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration example of an inkjet recording apparatus to which the present invention is applicable.

FIG. 4 is a schematic side view showing an example of the configuration of main parts of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic front view as well.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1,101 Recording head 1A, 101A Discharge surface 2,102 Carriage 3,4,104 Guide shaft 5,150 Pinch roller lever 6,160 Pinch roller 8,118 Conveyance roller 10,10' Recording medium 170 spring 190 Guide/holding member 190A Rotating fulcrum 190B Information Department

Claims (8)

[Claims] Claim 1: A recording device for recording on a recording medium, comprising: a recording head for recording on the recording medium;
A conveyance member for conveying the recording medium, a guide member for guiding the recording medium, and a holding means having the guide member and the conveyance member and movable according to the thickness of the recording medium. A recording device characterized by: 2. Holding a conveying member for conveying the recording medium with respect to the recording position by the recording head, and
A recording device comprising a guide member for guiding the recording medium, and a holding means movable according to the thickness of the recording medium. 3. The conveyance member and the guide member include:
3. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording apparatus is arranged near a recording position by the recording head. 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the amount of displacement of the guide member is greater than the amount of displacement of a portion that holds the conveying member. 5. The holding means includes a member rotatable around a predetermined shaft provided at one end, the guide member is provided at the other end of the member, and the conveying means is provided at an intermediate portion. 5. The recording device according to claim 4, wherein the recording device supports a member. 6. The conveyance member according to claim 1, wherein the conveyance member has the form of a roller that performs the conveyance as it rotates.
6. The recording device according to any one of 5 to 5. 7. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording head is an inkjet recording head that performs recording by ejecting ink. 8. The inkjet recording head includes an electrothermal transducer that generates thermal energy that causes film boiling in the ink as energy used to eject the ink. Recording device as described.