CN111845085B

CN111845085B - Refillable ink cartridge

Info

Publication number: CN111845085B
Application number: CN201910360193.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 莫皓然; 罗进添; 李富纬; 陈宏泽; 刘采柔; 黄启峰; 韩永隆; 李伟铭
Original assignee: Microjet Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Microjet Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-04-30
Filing date: 2019-04-30
Publication date: 2022-03-15
Anticipated expiration: 2039-04-30
Also published as: CN111845085A

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a refillable ink cartridge, comprising: an ink cartridge body having an opening, a liquid storage chamber and a nozzle portion, the liquid storage chamber being communicated between the opening and the nozzle portion; an ink cartridge cover plate, which seals the opening of the ink cartridge body and is provided with an ink inlet hole and an air inlet hole; and a pressure regulating assembly, set up in this black casket apron, include: the pressure regulating valve is arranged on the ink box cover plate and covers the air inlet hole, and is provided with an accommodating groove, an air flow channel and at least one air saving hole; and a porous material, which is accommodated in the accommodating groove; the regulating assembly is located in the liquid storage chamber and used for balancing the pressure outside the liquid storage chamber and the ink cartridge body.

Description

Refillable ink cartridge

Technical Field

The present invention relates to an ink cartridge for an inkjet printer, and more particularly, to an ink cartridge that can be refilled with ink.

Background

The present ink jet printer is widely popular with consumers because of its advantages of simple operation, convenient printing, etc., after a period of time, when the ink in the ink cartridge is exhausted, the new ink cartridge needs to be replaced, and the replaced ink cartridge is usually discarded directly, but the replaced ink cartridge usually has no ink inside for printing, and other ink cartridges, such as ink cartridge body, nozzle, chip, etc., are not necessarily lost at the same time, so the action is not environment-friendly, and wastes a lot of ink cartridges which are not damaged originally and can be used continuously.

In addition, the sponge is disposed inside the conventional ink cartridge as a liquid storage material, and the sponge is used to coordinate the pressure inside and outside the ink cartridge, but the sponge has a certain volume, so that the sponge occupies the space inside the ink cartridge, and the residual ink in the sponge, which cannot be completely released, occupies about sixty percent of the ink that can be actually used in the liquid storage chamber of the ink cartridge.

Therefore, it is an urgent need to solve the above-mentioned problems by developing an ink cartridge that can improve the above-mentioned deficiencies of the prior art.

Disclosure of Invention

The main objective of the present invention is to provide a refillable ink cartridge to avoid the environmental problem caused by the ink cartridge being lost after being used, and to balance the pressure in the ink cartridge through a pressure regulating valve and a porous material, so that no sponge needs to be filled in the ink cartridge, the ink capacity in the ink cartridge can be effectively increased, and the problem of reduced ink absorption effect of the sponge due to repeated use can be avoided.

To achieve the above objects, the present invention in its broader aspects provides a refillable ink cartridge comprising: an ink cartridge body having an opening, a liquid storage chamber and a nozzle portion, the liquid storage chamber being communicated between the opening and the nozzle portion; an ink cartridge cover plate, which seals the opening of the ink cartridge body and is provided with an ink inlet hole and an air inlet hole; and a pressure regulating assembly, set up in this black casket apron, include: the pressure regulating valve is arranged on the ink box cover plate and covers the air inlet hole, and is provided with an accommodating groove, an air flow channel and at least one air saving hole; and a porous material, which is accommodated in the accommodating groove; the pressure regulating assembly is located in the liquid storage chamber and used for balancing pressure outside the liquid storage chamber and the ink cartridge body.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a refillable ink cartridge.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the refillable ink cartridge.

FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the refillable ink cartridge from another perspective.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the refillable ink cartridge of FIG. 1.

Description of the reference numerals

100: refillable ink cartridge

1: ink cartridge body

11: opening of the container

12: liquid storage chamber

13: spray head

2: ink box cover plate

21: ink inlet hole

22: air intake

23: positioning ring

24: fixed hook part

3: pressure regulating assembly

31: pressure regulating valve

311: tip end

312: bottom end

313: containing groove

314: air flow passage

315: air-saving hole

316: locating slot

317: fixing structure

32: porous material

Detailed Description

Embodiments that embody the features and advantages of this disclosure will be described in detail in the description that follows. It will be understood that the present disclosure is capable of various modifications without departing from the scope of the disclosure, and that the description and drawings are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.

Referring to fig. 1 and 2, fig. 1 is a perspective view of a refillable ink cartridge, and fig. 2 is an exploded view of the refillable ink cartridge. The refillable ink cartridge 100 includes an ink cartridge body 1, an ink cartridge cover 2, and a pressure regulating assembly 3. The ink cartridge body 1 has an opening 11, a liquid storage chamber 12 and a head portion 13, and the liquid storage chamber 12 is connected between the opening 11 and the head portion 13. The ink cartridge cover 2 is fixed to the opening 11 of the ink cartridge body 1 in a sealing manner, the ink cartridge cover 2 has an ink inlet 21 and an air inlet 22, and the ink inlet 21 and the air inlet 22 are respectively communicated with the liquid storage chamber 12 of the ink cartridge body 1. The pressure regulating assembly 3 is disposed on the ink cartridge cover 2, and an ink plug (not shown) is detachably disposed on the ink inlet 21 of the ink cartridge cover 2 for sealing the ink inlet 21.

Referring to fig. 3 and 4, fig. 3 is an exploded view of the refillable ink cartridge shown in fig. 1, and fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the refillable ink cartridge shown in fig. 3. The pressure regulating assembly 3 includes a pressure regulating valve 31 and a porous material 32, the pressure regulating valve 31 is disposed on the ink cartridge cover plate 2 and covers the air inlet 22 of the ink cartridge cover plate 2. The pressure regulating valve 31 has a top end 311, a bottom end 312, an accommodating groove 313, an air flow passage 314 and at least one air-regulating hole 315. The receiving groove 313 is adjacent to the bottom end 312 and is in communication with the air flow passage 314 on the same axis. The orifice 315 is adjacent to the top end 311 of the pressure regulating valve 31 and communicates with the air flow passage 314. The bottom end 312 of the pressure regulating valve 31 is sealed in the air inlet 22 of the ink cartridge cover plate 2. The porous material 32 is accommodated in the accommodation groove 313. The pressure regulating assembly 3 is disposed on the ink cartridge cover 2 and located in the liquid storage chamber 12 of the ink cartridge body 1, and is used for balancing the pressure outside the liquid storage chamber 12 and the ink cartridge body 1.

Referring to fig. 3 and 4, the ink cartridge cover plate 2 has a positioning ring 23 and two fixing hooks 24, the positioning ring 23 is located at the periphery of the air inlet 22 and surrounds the air inlet 22, and the two fixing hooks 24 are respectively disposed at two sides of the positioning ring 23, so that the positioning ring 23 is located between the two fixing hooks 24. The pressure regulating valve 31 has a positioning groove 316 and two fixing structures 317, the positioning groove 316 is located inside the pressure regulating valve 31 and is adjacent to the bottom end 312 and is disposed around the receiving groove 313, and the two fixing structures 317 respectively extend outward from an outer surface (not shown) adjacent to the bottom end 312 of the pressure regulating valve 31 and are located at two opposite sides of the pressure regulating valve 31. When the pressure regulating assembly 3 is disposed on the ink cartridge cover plate 2, the positioning groove 316 of the pressure regulating assembly 3 is aligned with and sleeved on the positioning ring 23 of the ink cartridge cover plate 2, and then the two fixing hooks 24 of the ink cartridge cover plate 2 are respectively fastened with the two fixing structures 317 of the pressure regulating assembly 3, so that the pressure regulating assembly 3 is fixedly disposed on the ink cartridge cover plate 2.

The pressure regulating valve 31 of the pressure regulating assembly 3 is an elastic material, in the embodiment, the elastic material is a silica gel, and the porous material 32 is a low density Polyethylene (PE), in another embodiment, the pores of the porous material 32 have irregular pore diameters and positions, and the porous material 32 having irregular pores can be formed by polymerizing a plurality of low density Polyethylene (PE) particles by adhesion, sintering, and the like.

When the refillable ink cartridge 100 is loaded in an inkjet printer (not shown), an inkjet chip (not shown) ejects ink in a liquid storage chamber 12 of the cartridge body 1 from a head 13 to paper in the inkjet printer to complete printing, and as the ink in the liquid storage chamber 12 begins to decrease, the pressure inside the cartridge body 1 is lower than the external pressure, and at this time, the pressure regulating assembly 3 begins to intake air through an air inlet 22 of a cartridge cover plate 2, so that air passes through a porous material 32 and an air flow channel 314, and finally enters the liquid storage chamber 12 through an air throttle hole 315, so that the internal and external pressures of the cartridge body 1 are kept balanced, and ink overflow and ink leakage are avoided. When the ink in the reservoir 12 is depleted, the ink plug (not shown) may be opened to fill the reservoir 12 with ink from the ink inlet 21, and the ink plug may be closed to the ink inlet 21 after the ink is filled.

In summary, the present invention provides a refillable ink cartridge, which can avoid the problems of insufficient ink usage due to sponge filling and reduced water absorption due to sponge recycling, and can fill ink into the ink inlet hole quickly and conveniently, and then close the ink inlet hole with an ink plug to prevent ink from overflowing, and can complete the pressure balance between the inside and the outside of the ink cartridge through a pressure regulating valve and a porous material of a pressure regulating assembly.

Various modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A refillable ink cartridge, comprising:

an ink cartridge body having an opening, a liquid storage chamber and a nozzle portion, the liquid storage chamber being communicated between the opening and the nozzle portion;

an ink cartridge cover plate, which seals the opening of the ink cartridge body and is provided with an ink inlet hole and an air inlet hole; and

a pressure regulating assembly disposed on the ink cartridge cover plate, comprising:

the pressure regulating valve is arranged on the ink box cover plate and covers the air inlet hole, and is provided with an accommodating groove, an air flow channel and at least one air saving hole, and the pressure regulating valve is made of elastic materials; and

a porous material, which is accommodated in the accommodating groove;

the pressure regulating assembly is located in the liquid storage chamber and used for balancing pressure outside the liquid storage chamber and the ink cartridge body.

2. The refillable ink cartridge of claim 1, wherein the cartridge cover has a positioning ring.

3. The refillable ink cartridge of claim 2, wherein the pressure regulating valve has a positioning groove that is received by the positioning ring of the cover plate.

4. The refillable ink cartridge of claim 3, wherein the cartridge cover has two opposing securing hooks.

5. The refillable ink cartridge of claim 4, wherein the pressure regulating valve has two fixing structures disposed opposite to each other, and the two fixing structures are fixed in the two fixing hook portions respectively.

6. The refillable ink cartridge of claim 4, wherein the positioning ring of the cartridge cover is located between the two securing hooks.

7. The refillable ink cartridge of claim 1, wherein the resilient material is a silicone rubber.

8. The refillable ink cartridge of claim 1, wherein the porous material is a low density Polyethylene (PE).

9. The refillable ink cartridge of claim 1, wherein the porous material is formed by polymerizing a plurality of low density Polyethylene (PE) particles.