JP2000158662A - Manufacture for ink cartridge for ink-jet recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently produce an ink cartridge of an ink-jet recording apparatus. SOLUTION: A container main body 1 with the upper part open is provided with foam chambers 6 which store porous bodies 5 of an elastic material for absorbing ink. An ink feed port 8 is formed to a bottom face of the container main body. The container main body is set to a pallet with the bottom face turned upside. A packing is inserted to the ink feed port 8 and a seal film is thermally fused to the ink feed port 8. The container main body 1 is reversed upside down and reset to the pallet. A filter material is fixed to the side of an inflow port connected to the ink feed port 8. The porous material is inserted to the foam chambers 6 in a state to be compressed. A lid material 11 which has an ink injection port, an air communication port, and thin grooves formed to a surface and connected to the air communication port is bonded to the opening part of the container main body 1, whereby a container is formed. A specified amount of ink is injected to the foam chambers 6 and an air- shielding film is bonded to cover at least the ink injection port and an area of the thin grooves of the surface of the lid material 11.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an ink cartridge for an ink jet recording apparatus in which an ink jet recording head and an ink cartridge are mounted on a carriage and ink is supplied by replacing the cartridge.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an ink-jet printer of a type in which an ink container is mounted on a carriage having an ink-jet recording head, fluctuations in water head pressure due to ink swing due to movement of the carriage, and printing due to foaming. To prevent defects, the ink container is divided into two regions as described in European Patent Publication No. 581531, and a porous body is stored on the recording head side, and ink is stored in the other region. It has been proposed to do so. With such a structure, ink is supplied to the recording head through the porous body, so that inconvenience caused by the ink swing can be prevented as much as possible.

[0003]

However, in the ink jet type recording apparatus, the pressure is reduced when the ink contains bubbles, because the ink in the pressure generating chamber is pressurized to generate ink droplets. Since the ejection performance of droplets is also deteriorated, ink that eliminates dissolved air is required. In this way, after the porous body is loaded into the container body and sealed with the lid, the degassed ink is filled, and furthermore, packaging and the like for guaranteeing the quality in the distribution process are indispensable, and complicated. There is a problem that productivity is reduced due to the necessity of a complicated manufacturing process. The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and it is an object of the invention to provide a method of manufacturing an ink cartridge that can efficiently manufacture an ink cartridge used in an ink jet recording apparatus.

[0004]

According to the present invention, there is provided a foam chamber for accommodating a porous body made of an elastic material absorbing at least ink, and an ink supply port formed on a bottom surface. Further, a step of preparing a substantially rectangular parallelepiped container body having an opened upper part, setting it on a pallet so that the bottom face is the upper part, inserting packing into the ink supply port, and sealing the ink supply port with A step of heat-welding the film, a step of turning the container body upside down and resetting it on the pallet, a step of fixing a filter material on an inflow port side communicating with the ink supply port, and a porous material in the foam chamber. A porous material press-fitting step of inserting the container body into a compressed state, and a lid member having an ink injection port, an air communication port, and a narrow groove formed on the surface to be connected to the air communication port. A lid material bonding step of bonding to the opening to form a container, an ink injection step of storing the container under a reduced pressure environment and injecting a predetermined amount of ink into the foam chamber, and at least the surface of the lid material A sealing step of bonding an air-shielding film so as to cover the ink inlet and the area of the narrow groove.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of an ink cartridge to which the manufacturing method of the present invention is applied, which stores three kinds of inks of cyan, magenta and yellow. Is a substantially rectangular parallelepiped container body whose opening side is slightly divergent, and is formed by injection-molding a polymer material such as polypropylene, polyethylene, or polystyrene in order to facilitate joining with each member by heat welding.

The container body 1 includes foam chambers 6, 6, 6 for accommodating a porous body 5 made of an elastic material suitable for absorbing ink from the partition plates 2, 3, 4, and an ink chamber for accommodating the ink as it is. 7, 7, and 7.

At the lower end of each foam chamber 6, there is provided an ink supply port 8 which engages with an ink supply needle of the recording head, and the opening of the container body 1 is located near the ink supply port 8 of the foam chamber. It is sealed with a lid 11 having air communication ports 9, 9, 9 and ink injection ports 10, 10, 10.

At the bottom of each foam chamber 6, a convex portion 12 for compressing the porous body 5 in cooperation with the lid 11 is formed, and a vacant space having a constant opening area is formed at the upper end thereof. A recess 13 is formed, and a passage 14 extending to the ink supply port 8 is formed, and a packing member 15 that fits in a liquid-tight manner with the ink supply needle of the recording head is inserted into the passage 14. At the tip of the ink supply port, an air-shielding film 16 that can be broken by inserting an ink supply needle is attached.

One end of the lid 11 is connected to the air communication port 9.
, And meandering grooves 17, 17, 17 extending at the other end to the other side of the lid 11 are formed.
0, tongue piece 19 so as to cover air communication port 9 and groove 17.
An air-shielding film 19 is attached so that the leading end 17a of the groove can be opened to the atmosphere by peeling a.

Next, the manufacturing method will be described. FIG.
Shows an embodiment of a pallet for transferring the container body during the manufacturing process, wherein the pallet 20 has a position where the outer periphery of the bottom surface 1a of the container body 1 fits on its surface,
At least four pins 21 and 22 are implanted at positions where the inner surface of the opening 1b is fitted, and a recess 23 is formed at a position facing the ink supply port 8 so as to be able to accommodate the pin 21 and 22. A step portion 24 for forming a seal portion in an ink injection step described later is formed.

First, the container body 1 (FIG. 5 (I)) formed in advance by injection molding is set on the pallet 20 while being positioned on the pins 21 with the bottom surface facing upward. 15 is press-fitted, and then the pressing jig 30 is rotated about the center to press-fit it to a predetermined position while reducing friction (FIG. 5 (II)). When the press-fitting is performed while giving a twist as described above, the packing 15 is fitted into the ink supply port 8 without turning up or twisting of an end area such as a peripheral edge.
Can be reliably prevented from jumping out of the ink supply port 8.

Air-tight film 1 made of heat-welding material
6 is set so as to cover the ink supply port 8, the periphery of the ink supply port 8 is heated and pressed by the jig 31, and the ink supply port 8 is sealed with the film 16 (FIG. 5 (III)).
The lot number and the expiration date are printed or stamped on the bottom surface 1a and the side surface 1b as necessary.

When all operations on the bottom surface of the container body 1 are completed, the container body 1 is turned over and the container body 1 is reset on the pallet 20 so that the opening of the container body 1 is directed upward.

Convex part 1 that passes through ink supply port 8
Cut a tape of a filter material such as a non-rust steel mesh material or a non-woven fabric, which becomes a filter having a width slightly larger than the width of the concave portion 13 formed in 2, into a predetermined size obliquely to the longitudinal direction. To form the filter material 18,
This is set so as to cover the concave portion 13, and is heated and pressed by a jig 32 so that the container body 1 is slightly softened after setting, and is thermally welded (FIG. 6 (I)). When the tape of the filter material 18 is formed by weaving a non-rust steel wire, it is possible to prevent fraying by cutting the tape so as to be non-parallel to the direction of the wires serving as the warp and the weft. it can.

If the occurrence of frays is completely eliminated, the following effects are obtained. In other words, when the wire constituting the filter material 18 enters the region of the packing member 15, the wire is caught between the ink supply needle of the recording head and the packing member 15 when the cartridge is mounted on the recording head, and this causes As a result, the airtightness between the ink supply needles of the recording head and the cartridge is reduced, causing the ink supply needles of the recording head to become clogged, which hinders the supply of ink to the recording head. This problem can be reliably avoided by eliminating.

Further, the projection 12 to which the filter material is fixed is provided.
Compared with the shaping method of punching out the filter material with a press in accordance with the shape of the filter material, usually circular or elliptical, the shaping method of obliquely cutting the tape material as described above can prevent wire fraying. Thus, the tape material can be effectively used.

Next, the process proceeds to the step of press-fitting the porous body 5. FIGS. 8 (a) and 8 (b) show an embodiment of a porous material insertion device and a porous material insertion step, respectively. The porous material insertion device is shown in FIG. 8 (a). Members 33, 33 formed in a comb-like shape and movable in the opposite direction
And a pressing member 34 which can be moved up and down and located between them.

The compression members 33, 33 are moved in the horizontal direction to sandwich the porous member 5 (I in FIG. 2B).
The compression members 33, 33 are moved to the pressing member 34 side until the width of the outer end of 3 becomes smaller than the inner width of the foam chamber 6, so that the width of the porous material 5 becomes smaller than the width of the foam chamber 6. (FIG. 8 (b) II).

Then, the porous material 5 is moved into the foam chamber 6 from the upper end by moving the pressing member 34 between the two compression members 33, 33 to the container 1 side (FIG. 8).
(B) III). Next, after the pressing member 34 is further lowered slightly, the container 1 is retracted from the porous insertion device.

As a result, as shown in FIG. 6 (II), the porous material 5 which is slightly larger than the volume of the foam chamber 6 is set in the foam chamber 6 in a compressed state.

Next, the cover 11 is positioned at the opening 1b of the container body 1, and the cover 11 is pressed through the jig 35 in a plane including the opening 1b while pressing the cover member 11 against the container body 1 with a predetermined pressure. Ultrasonic vibration is applied in a direction including a plane, a vertical direction, or a diagonal direction, or a combined direction, and the opening 1b of the container body 1 and the back surface of the lid member 11 are frictionally fused and bonded. (FIG. 6 (III)). After welding,
A heating rod 36 heated to a temperature sufficient to soften the material constituting the container body 1 and the lid member 11 is brought into contact with the periphery of the joint, or hot air is jetted from the jet nozzle 37 to generate heat during joining. Burrs are removed.

When the container is completed in this way, it is moved to the ink injection station. FIG. 9 shows an embodiment of the ink injection device. In the drawing, reference numeral 40 denotes a receiving table for holding the pallet 20, which is configured to be vertically movable by a driving mechanism (not shown) as shown by an arrow A. I have. 4
Reference numeral 1 denotes a base having a through hole, a lower surface formed by a step portion 24 on the peripheral surface of the pallet 20, and a top surface formed by a lid member 4 described later.
2 form an injection chamber 43, and are connected to a vacuum pump 45 by a flow path 44.

Reference numeral 42 denotes the above-mentioned lid member, which is provided with a through-hole 46 in a region facing the injection chamber 43, and a piston which can move up and down as shown by the arrow B in the figure while maintaining an airtight state. The member 47 is inserted.

The piston member 47 is connected to an injection needle 48 at a position opposed to the ink injection port 10 of the container 1 set in the injection chamber 43 and to an air supply device (not shown) so as to be opposed to the atmosphere communication port 9 of the container 1. A communication channel 50 is provided. The injection needle 48 is connected to a branch pipe 52 via a flow path 49 and a tube 51.

Reference numeral 53 denotes a gas-liquid separation unit. In this embodiment, the upper end and the lower end are fixed to a cylinder 55 in a liquid-tight manner so that the hollow fiber bundle 54 serves as a liquid flow path, and the cylinder 55 is connected to a vacuum pump 56. A negative pressure is applied to the outer periphery of the hollow fiber. One end of a cylinder 55 is connected to an ink tank 58 by a tube 57, and the other end is connected to a branch pipe 52 via a stop valve 58. .

Reference numeral 60 denotes a measuring tube which is constituted by a cylinder 61 and a piston 62, and whose top dead center is connected to the branch tube 52 by a tube 63. In the drawing, reference numeral 64 denotes a stop valve, and 65 denotes a pump for pressure feeding ink.

When the pallet 20 on which the container 1 in which the components have been assembled by the above-described steps is placed reaches the ink injection device and is set below the injection chamber 43 (FIG. 10).
(I)), the pedestal 40 is raised until it comes into close contact with the lower surface of the base 41 (FIG. 10 (II)).

Next, the piston 45 is connected to the lid member 11 of the container 1.
Then, the vacuum pump 45 is operated by opening the stop valve 64 while keeping the stop valve 58 communicating with the gas-liquid separation unit 60 in the closed state, and lowering the space to such an extent that a space can be secured between them. Injection chamber 43, tubes 51 and 63, and measuring tube 6
0 is reduced to a predetermined pressure (FIG. 11 (I)).

At the stage when the pressure has been reduced to a predetermined pressure, the stop valve 64 is closed, and the stop valve 58 is opened to inject a predetermined amount of ink 67 into the measuring pipe 63. The member 47 is lowered to the bottom dead center. As a result, the packing members 65 and 66 at the lower end of the piston member 47 resiliently contact the ink supply port 10 and the atmosphere communication port 9 of the container 1, and the injection needle 48 penetrates near the bottom surface of the container 1 (FIG. 11).
(II)). Since the gas-liquid separation unit 53 is connected near the measuring pipe 60, the ink immediately after being degassed by the gas-liquid separating unit 53 flows into the measuring pipe 60.

Then, with the stop valve 64 opened and shut off from the gas-liquid separation unit 53, the stop valve 58 is closed and the piston of the measuring pipe 60 is pressed to discharge a predetermined amount of ink 67. A predetermined amount of ink is injected into the container 1 (see FIG. 1).
2).

At this time, since the ink which has been surely degassed by the gas-liquid separation unit 60 is injected into the porous body 5,
The ink easily dissolves the gas adsorbed in the pores of the porous body 5 that could not be completely discharged in the above-described depressurizing step (FIG. 11 (I)) to form bubbles in the porous material 5. Without being generated, it is uniformly absorbed by the porous body 5.

As a result, at the time when the ink injection is completed, at least the gas does not exist in the porous material 5, so that the flow path communicating with the ink exhaust device supplied to the recording head through the porous material 5 is provided. 50 can guarantee print quality without containing air bubbles.

At the stage when the ink injection is completed, the exhaust port 5
0 is released to the atmosphere, and the ink remaining on the upper portion of the porous material 5 is completely absorbed by the porous material 5 by a pressure difference from the atmospheric pressure.
After that, the receiving table 40 is lowered, the pallet 20 is moved to the next step, and the ink adhering to the ink inlet 10 or the like is wiped off by vacuum suction or a cloth.
A small positive pressure is applied by bringing a conduit into contact with the
Is wiped off the porous body 5 side.

The container 1 is housed in a decompression container with the air communication port 9 inclined so that the air communication port 9 is directed upward.
The air-shielding film 19 cut to a size that covers the ink inlet 10 and the narrow groove 17 is temporarily fixed by thermal welding using a jig 38 (FIG. 7 (II)). At this time, even if the pressure in the container 1 increases due to the temperature rise, the air communication port 9 is located as high as possible, so that the expanded air is quickly discharged from the air communication port 9 and 10 can be prevented from leaking.

Next, the area covering the groove 17 is heated to weld one half of the film 19, and the other half of the film 19 is welded to the extent that it can be peeled off to form a capillary with the narrow groove 17 and the film 19.

In the ink cartridge 70 completed in this way, as shown in FIG. 13, at least the buffer material 71 is brought into contact with at least the ink supply port 8 so as not to damage the seal 16 of the ink supply port 8, and After folding the tongue piece 19a of the air shielding film 19, it is inserted into the bag 72 with the gore 72a made of the air shielding film.

After the gore 72a near the opening is folded inward to form an even thickness, the area near the opening is heat-sealed and sealed under a reduced pressure environment (FIG. 14A). It is put into a product and finished (Fig. 14 (b)).

In the above embodiment, the cartridge having the ink chamber has been described as an example. However, as shown in FIG. 15, the container 1 is filled with the porous material 5 and the porous material 5 is filled. It is obvious that the present invention can be applied to the manufacture of the cartridge 75 that stores the ink only in the cartridge 75.

Further, as shown in FIG. 16, only one opening 77 which is used as an ink inlet and an air opening is formed in a small cartridge 76, but in such a case, As shown in FIG.
And the flow path 50 communicating with the exhaust device are coaxially arranged, so that one opening 77 can be used simultaneously for the ink injection operation and the exhaust operation.

[0040]

As described above, in the present invention,
A foam chamber for accommodating at least a porous body made of an elastic material that absorbs ink is provided, an ink supply port is formed on the bottom surface, and a substantially rectangular parallelepiped container body having an upper portion opened is prepared. A step of inserting a packing into the ink supply port and thermally welding a sealing film to the ink supply port; a step of turning the container body upside down and resetting it on the pallet; A step of fixing the filter material to the inflow side communicating with the porous material, a porous material press-fitting step of inserting the porous material into the foam chamber in a compressed state, an ink injection port, an atmosphere communication port,
And a lid material bonding step of bonding a lid material having a narrow groove formed on the surface to be connected to the air communication port to an opening of the container body to form a container, and storing the container in a reduced pressure environment to a predetermined amount of ink. And a sealing step of bonding an air-shielding film so as to cover at least the ink injection port on the surface of the lid material and the area of the narrow groove. By transferring to the process,
It can be manufactured efficiently.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an assembly perspective view showing an embodiment of an ink cartridge to which the present invention is applied.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are cross-sectional views showing an embodiment of the ink cartridge according to the first embodiment; FIGS.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are diagrams showing the structure of a lid of an ink cartridge with a film removed, and FIGS.
It is a figure showing in the state where a film was stuck.

FIG. 4 is a view showing one embodiment of a pallet for holding and transporting containers.

FIGS. 5 (I), (II) and (III) are diagrams showing initial steps of the ink manufacturing process, respectively.

FIGS. 6 (I), (II), and (III) are diagrams showing a middle stage of the ink manufacturing process.

FIGS. 7 (I) and (II) are diagrams each showing a final stage in the ink manufacturing process.

FIG. 8 (a) shows an embodiment of a porous material insertion device,
(B) and (I) to (III) of the figure (b) are views showing a process of inserting the porous material into the container body.

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram illustrating an embodiment of an ink injection device.

FIGS. 10A and 10B are diagrams showing an initial step of the ink injection step, respectively.

FIGS. 11A and 11B are diagrams showing a middle stage of the ink injection process.

FIG. 12 is a view showing the last step of the ink injection step.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a first half of a packaging process.

FIGS. 14A and 14B are diagrams showing a latter half of the packaging process.

FIG. 15 is a view showing another embodiment of an ink cartridge to which the manufacturing method of the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 16 is a view showing another embodiment of an ink cartridge to which the manufacturing method of the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the ink injection device suitable for the ink cartridge of the above.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Container main body 5 Porous body 6 Foam chamber 7 Ink chamber 8 Ink supply port 11 Lid material 20 Pallet

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Kazuo Yamada 3-3-5 Yamato, Suwa-shi, Nagano Seiko Epson Corporation (72) Inventor Takashi Hara 3-5-35 Yamato, Suwa-shi, Nagano Seiko Epson (72) Inventor Masahiko Fukasawa 3-3-5 Yamato, Suwa-shi, Nagano Seiko Epson Corporation (72) Inventor Shinichi Yanagisawa 3-3-5, Yamato, Suwa-shi, Nagano Seiko Epson Corporation ( 72) Inventor Takao Kobayashi 3-5-5 Yamato, Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture Seiko Epson Corporation (72) Inventor Masahide Matsuyama 3-5-5 Yamato Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture Seiko Epson Corporation (72) Inventor Morio Sato 3-5-5 Yamato, Suwa-shi, Nagano Seiko Epson Corporation (72) Akita Kazunori Ito 3-3-5 Yamato, Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture Seiko Epson Corporation (72) Inventor Yuichi Nakamura 3-3-5 Yamato Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture Seiko Epson Corporation (72) Inventor Masakazu Sato 3-5-5 Yamato, Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture Seiko Epson Corporation (72) Inventor Taeko Nishimura 3-3-5 Yamato Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture Seiko Epson Corporation (72) Inventor Tadatoshi Motozawa Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture 3-5-5 Yamato Seiko Epson Corporation (72) Inventor Takashi Koike 3-3-5 Yamato Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture F term in Seiko Epson Corporation 2C056 EA15 EA24 KC12 KC18 KD08

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A substantially rectangular parallelepiped container body having at least a foam chamber for accommodating a porous body made of an elastic material that absorbs ink, an ink supply port formed on a bottom surface, and an upper portion opened. Setting on a pallet such that the upper part is set as an upper part; inserting a packing into the ink supply port, and thermally welding a sealing film to the ink supply port; Resetting; fixing a filter material on an inflow side communicating with the ink supply port; porous material press-fitting step of inserting a porous material into the foam chamber in a compressed state; A lid material bonding step of bonding a lid material having an inlet, an air communication port, and a narrow groove formed on the surface thereof to be connected to the air communication port to an opening of the container body to form a container; An ink injecting step of injecting a prescribed amount of ink into the foam chamber while being housed in a pressure environment, and bonding an air-shielding film so as to cover at least the ink inlet and the narrow groove area on the surface of the lid member. And a method of manufacturing an ink cartridge for an ink jet recording apparatus, comprising: 2. The ink cartridge for an ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in the porous material press-fitting step, the porous material is compressed and inserted from both sides by a comb-shaped compression member. Method. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the lid material bonding step is performed by an ultrasonic bonding method, and further includes a heating step of heating the outer periphery of the bonded portion to a softening temperature of a container and a material forming the lid material after bonding. A method for producing the ink cartridge for an ink jet recording apparatus according to the above. 4. The method for manufacturing an ink cartridge for an ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a step of measuring a predetermined amount of degassed ink in a measuring tube in accordance with the degassing step of the container in the ink injection step. . 5. The gas-liquid separation unit according to claim 1, wherein the supply of the degassed ink is performed on the upstream side of the measuring tube using a hollow fiber bundle as an ink flow path and applying a negative pressure on the outer periphery of the hollow fiber bundle. A method for producing the ink cartridge for an ink jet recording apparatus according to the above. 6. The ink jet recording according to claim 1, further comprising, after the ink injection step, a step of removing ink attached near the ink injection port and applying a minute positive pressure to the ink injection port. A method for manufacturing an ink cartridge for an apparatus 7. In the sealing step, the container is set to be inclined so that the ink injection port is located upward,
The method for manufacturing an ink cartridge for an ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a step of temporarily fixing the air-shielding film by heat welding. 8. A step of bringing a buffer material into contact with at least an ink supply port and inserting it into a bag with a gore formed of an air-shielding film, and a step of forming a gore near an opening of the bag to have a uniform thickness. 2. The method for manufacturing an ink cartridge for an ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a step of heat sealing the vicinity of the opening under a reduced pressure environment to seal the opening.