CN218171806U

CN218171806U - Consumable chip, consumable container and electronic imaging device

Info

Publication number: CN218171806U
Application number: CN202221674091.3U
Authority: CN
Inventors: 杨晓锋
Original assignee: Print Rite Unicorn Image Products Co Ltd
Current assignee: Print Rite Unicorn Image Products Co Ltd
Priority date: 2022-06-30
Filing date: 2022-06-30
Publication date: 2022-12-30
Anticipated expiration: 2032-06-30

Abstract

The utility model provides a consumptive material chip and consumptive material container, electronic imaging equipment, this consumptive material chip includes the base plate, be provided with storage unit and a plurality of electrical contact more than two on the base plate, and, still be provided with press the switch group on the base plate, press the switch group including a plurality of press the switch, each press the switch to have one and press the splenium, each press the switch to connect between a storage unit and electrical contact, and press the switch group to be provided with interlocking mechanism so that at most only one press the switch under same moment is in the closed state. The consumable container is provided with a shell, and the shell is provided with the consumable chip. The above consumable container is detachably mounted on the electronic imaging device. The utility model discloses can the convenience of customers switch the memory cell operation.

Description

Consumable chip, consumable container and electronic imaging equipment

Technical Field

The utility model relates to an electron imaging's technical field relates to a consumptive material chip, still relates to consumptive material container, the electronic imaging equipment that has this kind of consumptive material chip.

Background

The electronic imaging equipment is used as common office equipment and provides great convenience for modern office, the common electronic imaging equipment comprises a printer, a copying machine and the like, the existing printer is divided into an ink-jet printer and a laser printer, and the ink-jet printer uses an ink box containing ink as a consumable container to jet the ink to paper so as to form characters or patterns to be printed on the paper; the laser printer uses a toner cartridge containing carbon powder as a consumable container to form characters or patterns to be printed on a medium.

Electronic imaging equipment is provided with the organism, is provided with the consumptive material container installation position that is used for installing the consumptive material container in the organism, and consumptive material container detachable such as ink horn or cartridge installs in the installation of consumptive material container. Taking an ink-jet printer as an example, a machine core is arranged in a casing, a sliding rod is arranged in the casing, and a carriage is driven by a motor to reciprocate along the sliding rod. A chip main control circuit board is arranged in the printing carriage and is communicated with the machine core through a flat cable. And a chip is arranged on the side wall of the ink box and comprises a storage unit, and an electric contact is arranged on the chip and contacts with an electric contact on a chip main control circuit board so as to realize the communication between the ink-jet printer and the ink box chip.

Generally, the storage unit of the consumable container stores information related to the consumable container, including variable information and invariable information, the variable information is information that can be constantly changed along with printing operation, such as information of consumable allowance, printing duration, printing paper quantity, and the invariable information is information that can not be changed along with printing operation, such as model of the consumable container, model of applicable electronic imaging equipment, and the like.

Along with the printing operation, the consumable allowance in the consumable container is gradually reduced, and the data of the consumable allowance recorded by the consumable chip is correspondingly reduced. Once the electronic imaging equipment reads that the consumptive material surplus data that the consumptive material chip recorded is less than predetermined threshold value, then think that the consumptive material surplus in the consumptive material container is not enough, electronic imaging equipment is unable work to the suggestion needs to be changed the consumptive material container. However, the shell of the consumable container, the consumable chip, etc. may still be used, which would result in waste if the consumable container is discarded. It is common practice to refill consumable containers, for example by filling them with ink or powder. However, since the consumable remaining data recorded by the storage unit of the consumable chip is small, the electronic imaging device still considers that the consumable reservation of the consumable container is too small to continue working.

Therefore, the chinese utility model patent CN 103395296A discloses a processing box chip with two memory cells, when the consumable allowance data recorded by one of the memory cells is less, the user can control the on-off of the electrical connection between the electrical contact and each memory cell in the chip through the knob switch or the toggle switch, thereby selecting a new memory cell to communicate with the electronic imaging device, so as to avoid the problem that the consumable container can not be used continuously.

However, since the space of the installation position of the consumable container is very small, if the knob switch or the toggle switch is arranged on the consumable chip, the knob switch or the toggle switch needs to be set very small, which causes inconvenience to the screwing operation or the toggling operation of the user, and even the screwing operation or the toggling operation can be performed by means of a special tool.

Disclosure of Invention

The utility model discloses a first purpose provides a can the convenience of customers switch the consumptive material chip of memory cell operation.

The second objective of the present invention is to provide a consumable container with the consumable chip.

A third object of the present invention is to provide an electronic imaging device with the above consumable container.

In order to realize foretell first purpose, the utility model provides a consumable chip includes the base plate, be provided with more than two memory cell and a plurality of electrical contact on the base plate to, still be provided with press the switch group on the base plate, press the switch group including a plurality of press the switch, each press the switch has one and presses the splenium, each press the switch connection between a memory cell and electrical contact, and press the switch group and be provided with interlocking mechanism so that under same moment at most only one press the switch be in the closure state.

According to the scheme, the consumable chip is provided with the press switch group, and when a user needs to switch the currently used storage unit, the user only needs to press the corresponding press switch. Because the motion of press switch is the up-and-down direction motion, only need the user's finger press down promptly can, need not twist soon or the operation of stirring, consequently can use the press switch that the volume is less to realize to set up press switch in very little space.

And, be provided with interlocking mechanism in the push switch group, make at most only push switch be in the closure state under the same moment through interlocking mechanism, just have a memory cell to be connected with the electric contact under the same moment promptly, avoid because having more than two memory cells and electric contact to be connected and lead to the condition emergence of communication confusion under the same moment.

One preferred scheme is that the interlocking mechanism comprises a sliding clamping block and a first elastic resetting piece, the first elastic resetting piece is located at the end part of the sliding clamping block, the sliding clamping block is provided with a plurality of clamping parts, each clamping part is provided with an abutting surface and a sliding surface located above the abutting surface, and a first conductive layer is arranged on the abutting surface; press the switch's lower extreme and be provided with butt portion, but butt portion butt below at the butt face, but the surface of butt portion is provided with the second conducting layer, and butt portion can be followed the slip plane and slided to the below of joint portion, and press the switch is provided with the second elasticity piece that resets, and the second elasticity piece that resets drives press the switch and moves towards the direction of keeping away from joint portion.

Therefore, the abutting part of the pressed press switch can be limited below the clamping part of the sliding clamping block, so that the first conducting layer is electrically connected with the second conducting layer, and the function of closing the press switch is realized. And when one push switch is pressed down, the push switches which are not pressed down move upwards under the action of the second elastic reset piece, so that the push switches which are not pressed down are in an off state, and only one push switch is ensured to be in an on state at the same time.

Further, the sliding surface is provided obliquely to the abutment surface. Therefore, when the push switch is pressed down, the push switch can slide downwards along the sliding surface, so that the push switch can slide along a preset path, and the sliding accuracy of the push switch is ensured.

The further scheme is that the number of the clamping parts is equal to that of the press switches, and one clamping part corresponds to one press switch.

Therefore, each push switch can be abutted to the lower part of the corresponding clamping part, and each push switch can be opened and closed independently.

Further scheme is, interlocking mechanism still includes support piece, and the upper end butt that the second elasticity resets is in the lower extreme of pressing the portion, and the lower extreme butt that the second elasticity resets is in the upper surface of support piece.

It is thus clear that can drive each push switch through the effect of second elasticity piece that resets and reset, when a push switch was pressed down, the push switch who was pressed down before can reset under the control of second elasticity piece that resets, and it is in the closure state to ensure only a push switch at most at the same moment.

Still further scheme is that press the switch still including connecting pressing the connecting rod between portion and the butt portion, the connecting rod passes support piece, and second elasticity resets and suits outside the connecting rod.

For realizing foretell second purpose, the utility model provides a consumptive material container includes the casing, and the casing encloses into the consumptive material and holds the chamber, and the consumptive material holds the intracavity and is equipped with printing consumables to, be provided with foretell consumptive material chip on the lateral wall of casing.

For realizing foretell third mesh, the utility model provides an electronic imaging equipment includes the organism, is provided with consumptive material container installation position in the organism to, consumptive material container installation position detachable installs foretell consumptive material container.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is an electrical schematic block diagram of a consumable chip embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is the structural schematic diagram of the push switch assembly in the embodiment of the consumable chip of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the operation method of the embodiment of the consumable chip of the present invention.

The present invention will be further explained with reference to the drawings and examples.

Detailed Description

The utility model discloses an electronic imaging equipment can be ink jet printer or laser printer, and detachable installs the consumptive material container in the electronic imaging equipment, for example ink horn or cartridge, installs the consumptive material chip on the consumptive material container. The consumable chip will be described below by taking the toner cartridge as an example.

Consumable chip embodiment:

the consumptive material chip has a base plate, and the base plate can be a printed circuit board, is provided with a plurality of electrical contact on the base plate, and is preferred, and a plurality of electrical contact are back to the casing of cartridge, expose promptly in the cartridge, after laser printer was installed to the cartridge, last electrical contact of laser printer can with the electrical contact on the consumptive material chip and with consumptive material chip communicate.

Referring to fig. 1, the substrate of the consumable chip is provided with electrical contacts 11, and is provided with a plurality of storage units, for example, four storage units, respectively, a storage unit 21, a storage unit 22, a storage unit 23, and a storage unit 24, each of which stores a set of data related to the consumable container, for example, data storing the remaining amount of the consumable. Preferably, each storage unit is provided with a single chip microcomputer and a memory, the memory can be an EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory), consumable balance data are stored in the memory, and the consumable balance data stored in each storage unit are mutually independent, namely the consumable balance data stored in each storage unit are not influenced by the consumable balance data stored in other storage units.

The consumable chip is further provided with a control unit 25, the control unit 25 can communicate with the plurality of storage units and interact data, for example, the control unit 25 can read data of consumable allowance stored in each storage unit, if the data of consumable allowance stored in a certain storage unit is too low, for example, is lower than a certain preset threshold value, the consumable allowance recorded by the storage unit is considered to be insufficient, prompt information can be sent, and a user is prompted to replace the storage unit which works currently.

In order to ensure that at most one storage unit is in a working state at the same time, that is, only one storage unit performs data interaction with the laser printer, a push switch group 10 is arranged on the consumable chip, referring to fig. 2, a plurality of

push switches

30, 51, 53, 55 are arranged in the push switch group 10, each

push switch

30, 51, 53, 55 can be independently pressed, and an interlocking mechanism is arranged in the push switch group 10, so that the interlocking among the plurality of push switches can be realized through the interlocking mechanism, and only one push switch is in a closed state at the same time, and other push switches are in an open state.

The interlocking mechanism includes a sliding latch 17, a spring 16 is disposed at one end of the sliding latch 17, the spring 16 is a first elastic reset member of the present embodiment, one end of the spring abuts against a sidewall of the sliding latch 17, and the other end of the spring abuts against a wall plate, when the sliding latch 17 slides towards the spring 16, the spring 16 is compressed, and when the force applied to the sliding latch 17 disappears, the spring 16 pushes the sliding latch 17 to move away from the spring 16 and drives the sliding latch 17 to reset.

The sliding block 17 is provided with four engaging portions, namely

engaging portions

40, 52, 54 and 56, the number of the engaging portions is equal to the number of the push switches, and each push switch corresponds to one engaging portion. The structure of each push switch is the same, and the structure of each snap-in portion is the same, and the push switch 30 and the snap-in portion 40 are described as an example below.

The push switch 30 has a pressing portion 31 and an abutting portion 33, the pressing portion 31 is located at the top of the push switch 30, a user can press the pressing portion 31 with a finger or a tool, the abutting portion 33 is located at the bottom of the push switch 30, a connecting rod 32 is connected between the pressing portion 31 and the abutting portion 33, the connecting rod 32 is a rigid rod, and when the user presses the pressing portion 31 and exerts downward force, the connecting rod 32 pushes the abutting portion 33 to move downward. A second conductive layer is provided on the upper surface 34 of the abutting portion 33, and may be, for example, a thin copper foil. Further, the outer peripheral wall of the tie bar 32 may be formed with a conductive layer, the second conductive layer may communicate with the conductive layer of the outer peripheral wall of the tie bar 32, and the outer peripheral wall of the tie bar 32 may be connected to the storage unit 21 through a conductive medium such as a wire.

The clip portion 40 has a generally triangular shape, the clip portion 40 has a contact surface 41 and a sliding surface 42 located above the contact surface 41, the contact surface 41 is located at the lower end of the clip portion 40 and is disposed in a plane, and preferably, the contact surface 41 is parallel to the contact portion 33. The sliding surface 42 is disposed obliquely with respect to the contact surface 41, and the contact portion 33 can slide from top to bottom along the sliding surface 42, so that the contact portion 33 can slide to below the contact surface 41 along the sliding surface 42. A first conductive layer is provided on the contact surface 41, and for example, the first conductive layer may be a thin copper foil. Also, the first conductive layer may be connected to the end of the sliding latch 17 by one wire 43, and the end of the sliding latch 17 may be connected to the electrical contact 11 by an electrical connector.

The push switch unit 10 is further provided with a support member 15, the support member 15 is a thin plate, and the connecting rod 32 of the push switch 30 can pass through the support member 15, so that a plurality of through holes are required to be provided in the support member 15 to facilitate the passage of the connecting rods of the plurality of push switches. The push switch 30 is further provided with a spring 35, and the spring 35 is a second elastic restoring member of the present embodiment, and is fitted around the outer periphery of the connecting rod 32. The upper end of the spring 35 abuts against the lower end of the pressing portion 31, and the lower end of the spring 35 abuts against the upper surface of the holder 15. The spring 35 applies an elastic restoring force to the pressing portion 31, so that the push switch 30 moves upward without being stressed, that is, the second elastic restoring member can drive the push switch 30 to move in a direction away from the clamping portion 40.

In the initial state, all the push switches are in the off state, that is, the push switch group 10 is in the state shown in fig. 2. When the user needs to gate the memory cell 21, the corresponding push switch is pressed. For example, when the user presses the push switch 30, the connecting rod 32 drives the abutting portion 33 to move downward, and as the abutting portion 33 continues to move downward, the abutting portion 33 pushes the clamping portion 40 to move toward the spring 16, so that the entire sliding latch 17 moves toward the spring 16, and the spring 16 is compressed. Due to the existence of the sliding surface 42, the sliding of the sliding latch 17 can be more smoothly performed.

When the upper surface of the abutting portion 33 moves downward and passes over the abutting surface 41, that is, when the upper surface of the abutting portion 33 is lower than the abutting surface 41, the slide latch 17 moves in a direction away from the spring 16 by the elastic restoring force of the spring 16, so that the abutting portion 33 abuts on the lower surface of the abutting surface 41, and the upward movement of the push switch 30 is restricted. At this time, the first conductive layer of the contact surface 41 comes into contact with the second conductive layer of the contact portion 33, and an electrical circuit is formed between the memory cell 21 and the electrical contact 11. Since the other push switches 51, 53, and 55 are not pushed, the other push switches are in the off state, and only the push switch 30 is in the on state.

When the remaining amount of consumable supplies recorded in the storage unit 21 is insufficient, another storage unit is required as the currently used storage unit, for example, the storage unit 22 is used, and the corresponding push switch 51 needs to be pushed. In the process of downward movement of the push switch 51, the sliding latch 17 is driven to move towards the spring 16, when the abutting portion of the push switch 51 goes over the abutting surface of the clamping portion 52, the abutting portion 33 of the push switch 30 is separated from the clamping portion 40, and the push switch 30 is not loaded with a downward force at this time, so that the push switch 30 is released under the action of the spring 35, and is restored to the initial state, and the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer are not in contact with each other any more.

The abutting portion of the push switch 51 is limited by the engaging portion 52, and the first conductive layer of the engaging portion 52 contacts the second conductive layer of the push switch 51 to communicate the memory unit 22 with the electrical contact 11. It can be seen that only one push switch is in the closed state at the same time, i.e. only one memory cell is in electrical communication with the electrical contacts, by means of the interlock mechanism.

Therefore, when the user needs to switch the currently used storage unit, the user only needs to press the corresponding press switch. Because the motion of press switch is the up-and-down direction motion, only need the user's finger press down promptly can, need not twist soon or the operation of stirring, consequently can use the press switch that the volume is less to realize to set up press switch in very little space.

And because the interlocking mechanism is arranged in the press switch group, at most only one press switch is in a closed state at the same time through the interlocking mechanism, namely only one storage unit is connected with the electric contact at the same time, and the situation that communication is disordered due to the fact that more than two storage units are connected with the electric contact at the same time is avoided.

The embodiment of the working method of the consumable chip comprises the following steps:

the operation of the consumable chip will be described with reference to FIG. 3. First, step S1 is executed, and the control unit acquires data of the remaining amount of consumable supplies of the currently operating storage unit. Since the control unit is electrically connected with the plurality of storage units and performs data interaction, the control unit can acquire the data of the consumable material residual quantity recorded by each storage unit. For example, each push switch may output a status signal to the control unit, and the control unit receives the status signal that the push switch is closed when the push switch is closed, so that the control unit determines the currently operating memory cell according to the status of the respective push switch.

After the currently working storage unit is determined, the control unit acquires consumable remaining amount data recorded by the currently working storage unit, and executes step S2 to determine whether the consumable remaining amount data recorded by the currently working storage unit is greater than a preset lower threshold, for example, whether the consumable remaining amount data is lower than 1%, if yes, execute step S4, otherwise, execute step S3. If the consumable remaining amount data recorded by the currently operating storage unit is larger, in step S3, the currently operating storage unit is still used to communicate with the laser printer, that is, the laser printer still reads the data of the currently operating storage unit.

If the consumable remaining amount data recorded by the currently working storage unit is lower than the lower threshold, in step S4, the control unit sends a prompt message for switching the storage unit. For example, carry out the in-process of data interaction at consumptive material chip and laser printer, the consumptive material chip can send special instruction to laser printer to it is less that laser printer knows current consumptive material surplus, and send audible and visual alarm information by laser printer.

Next, step S5 is executed to determine whether a signal for switching the currently used storage unit is received, for example, whether the operating state of each push switch has changed is determined by receiving a signal for a user to push one of the push switches, and if a signal for switching the currently used storage unit is received, step S6 is executed to stop the operation of the old storage unit and start the new storage unit. For example, the control unit sends a control signal for stopping the operation to the old memory cell, and the old memory cell is put into a sleep state. And, the new storage unit is activated, and the laser printer can read the data of the remaining amount of the consumable material from the new storage unit.

Consumable container embodiment:

the consumptive material container of this embodiment can be ink horn or cartridge, and the consumptive material container has a casing, and the casing encloses into the consumptive material and holds the chamber, and the consumptive material holds the intracavity and is equipped with the printing consumables to, be provided with foretell consumptive material chip on the lateral wall of casing.

Electronic imaging device embodiment:

the electronic imaging equipment of this embodiment can be inkjet printer or laser printer, and electronic imaging equipment includes the organism, is provided with consumptive material container installation position in the organism to, consumptive material container installation position detachable installs foretell consumptive material container.

Above embodiment is only the preferred example of the utility model discloses a do not limit the utility model discloses the implementation scope, the event all is according to the utility model discloses the equivalent change or the decoration that structure, characteristic and principle were done of application for patent scope all should be included in the utility model discloses the patent application scope.

Claims

1. A consumable chip comprising:

a substrate on which two or more memory cells and a plurality of electrical contacts are disposed;

the method is characterized in that:

the base plate is further provided with a press switch group, the press switch group comprises a plurality of press switches, each press switch is provided with a press part, each press switch is connected between one storage unit and the electric contact, and the press switch group is provided with an interlocking mechanism so that at most only one press switch is in a closed state at the same moment.

2. The consumable chip of claim 1, wherein:

the interlocking mechanism comprises a sliding clamping block and a first elastic resetting piece, the first elastic resetting piece is positioned at the end part of the sliding clamping block, the sliding clamping block is provided with a plurality of clamping parts, each clamping part is provided with an abutting surface and a sliding surface positioned above the abutting surface, and a first conductive layer is arranged on the abutting surface;

the lower extreme of press switch is provided with butt portion, but butt portion butt is in the below of butt face, the surface of butt portion is provided with the second conducting layer, butt portion can follow the glide plane slides extremely the below of joint portion, press switch is provided with the second elasticity piece that resets, the second elasticity piece that resets drives press switch is towards keeping away from the direction motion of joint portion.

3. The consumable chip of claim 2, wherein:

the sliding surface is disposed obliquely with respect to the abutting surface.

4. The consumable chip of claim 2 or 3, wherein:

the number of the clamping parts is equal to that of the press switches, and one clamping part corresponds to one press switch.

5. The consumable chip of claim 2 or 3, wherein:

the interlocking mechanism further comprises a supporting piece, the upper end of the second elastic resetting piece abuts against the lower end of the pressing portion, and the lower end of the second elastic resetting piece abuts against the upper surface of the supporting piece.

6. The consumable chip of claim 5, wherein:

the press switch further comprises a connecting rod connected between the press part and the abutting part, the connecting rod penetrates through the supporting part, and the second elastic reset part is sleeved outside the connecting rod.

7. A consumable container comprising:

the casing, the casing encloses into the consumptive material and holds the chamber, the consumptive material holds the intracavity and is equipped with printing consumables, its characterized in that:

the consumable chip according to any one of claims 1 to 6 is provided on a side wall of the housing.

8. An electronic imaging device comprising:

the consumable container mounting position is arranged in the machine body;

the method is characterized in that:

the consumable container mounting site detachably mounting the consumable container of claim 7.