JP2001071521A - Ink jet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ink jet printer capable of performing maintenance work even with respect to a printing head having long constitution for a short time by a simple mechanism. SOLUTION: At a time of non-printing, a printing head 28 is hermetically sealed from the open air by the cap 42 of a rotary body 25. In starting printing, at first, a head unit 24 is slightly moved in an upward direction and the rotary body 25 is rotated clockwise at the same time to clean the nozzle arranging surface of the printing head 28 by a cleaning blade 44 integrated with the rotary body 25. The rotary body 25 is further rotated and the opening 43-1 of the slot 43 formed thereto is stopped at the position opposed to the nozzle surface of the printing head 28. Herein, the printing head 28 carries out priming and all of emitted ink 46 passes through the slot 43 to be absorbed by a waste ink absorbing member 26. The rotary body 25 is further rotated and a platen part 41 is arranged at a paper support position and the head unit 24 having retreated upwardly falls to approach the platen part 41 in opposed relationship to form a printing state.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet printer capable of performing a maintenance work for always properly ejecting ink with a simple mechanism in a short time even when a print head becomes long.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, ink jet printers have been widely used. Printers using the ink jet system include a piezo system in which ink droplets are ejected by deformation of a piezoresistive element (piezoelectric element) and a thermal system in which ink droplets are ejected by force that generates film bubbles.

[0003] As a small printer that is used personally at home, a serial printer that is relatively simple is mainly used and widely used. Serial type printers often have a small ink jet head and ink cartridge integrally formed, and print characters and images on the paper surface conveyed vertically while reciprocating the ink jet head in the width direction of the paper. (Print.

However, in recent years, with the spread of information equipment, the demand for a printer that performs high-speed printing has increased, and complaints that the printing speed of the above-described serial type printer is low have been increasing. Therefore, an ink jet head is formed in the main scanning direction of the printing, that is, a printing area in the width direction of the paper is formed so as to be long, and this is fixed to the apparatus main body, and printing is performed while conveying only the paper in the sub-scanning direction. Printers are attracting attention.

FIGS. 8 (a), 8 (b) and 8 (c) are views respectively showing a configuration assumed as a long ink jet head of such a line type printer. FIG. 2A shows a head chip 1 formed on a long single chip substrate and a mounting substrate 2 mounted thereon.
FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration implemented in the first embodiment. The head chip 1 composed of such a single chip substrate has a drawback that only a few head chips can be taken along the center line of the silicon wafer and the yield is low.

In FIG. 1B, small head chips 3 having good yield are alternately arranged in a zigzag manner in the main scanning direction (longitudinal direction) of the mounting substrate 2 'in a zigzag manner (staggered arrangement). The staggered arrangement is employed to maintain an appropriate interval in the main scanning direction between the nozzles at the ends of the adjacent head chips 3 in the main scanning direction. There is a disadvantage that the size in the scanning direction (transverse direction) becomes large.

FIG. 1C shows a small head chip 3 similar to that described above, which is arranged in a multi-array manner in a straight line on the mounting substrate 2 ″ in order to reduce the size of the mounting substrate in the sub-scanning direction. Is considered to be the most preferable configuration for a long inkjet head of a line type printer, however, this configuration is based on the printing dots (ejected to paper) ejected from the nozzle at the end of the adjacent head chip. At this stage, various methods for properly forming the interval between the landed inks) have been proposed.

FIG. 9A is a plan view showing a schematic configuration of the above-mentioned head chip 3, and FIG. 9C is a plan view of A in FIG.
FIG. 4 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along arrow A ′. As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the head chip 3 has a drive circuit 5 composed of an LSI and a resistance heating section 6 formed of a thin film on a chip substrate 4. , And a drive circuit 5, an individual wiring electrode 7 is connected, and a common electrode 8 is connected to a power supply terminal (not shown). The resistance heating portions 6 and the individual wiring electrodes 7 are arranged by the number of nozzles 11 of the nozzle row 9 formed later. And on these, the partition 1
2 are stacked.

The chip substrate 4 is provided with an ink supply groove 13 extending in parallel with the nozzle row 9 to be formed later.
An ink supply hole 14 is formed in the lower surface of the ink supply hole.
An orifice plate 15 is further laminated thereon, and the above-mentioned nozzles 11 for ejecting ink are formed on the orifice plate 15 at intervals of, for example, 42 μm.
By laminating the orifice plate 15, an ink passage 16 having a height of about 10 μm corresponding to the thickness of the partition wall 12 is formed between the resistance heating portion 6 and the ink supply groove 13. Thereafter, ink is supplied to the ink passage 16 from an external ink cartridge or the like via the ink supply hole 14 and the ink supply groove 13.

[0010] Ink jet printers, whether of the piezo type, the thermal type, or the serial type or the line type, always have ink stagnant in the nozzles of the ink jet head. Tends to dry out.

On the other hand, not all nozzles participate in printing during printing by the ink jet head. Depending on the state of a printed image, nozzles that do not eject ink for a long time often occur during printing. In particular, when a line type printer is used as a long ink jet head as shown in FIGS. 8 (a), 8 (b) and 8 (c), the number of discharges per nozzle is smaller than that of a serial type ink jet head (discharge time). Probability is low), and depending on the print data, 1
Unused nozzles that do not discharge ink at all are generated during printing of a page.

If this is left as it is, the ink in the unused nozzle dries and the viscosity of the ink increases and the fluidity decreases, or the ink solidifies and causes clogging of the nozzle. Therefore, in any of the above-described ink jet printers, before the start of printing or after printing of one page is completed even during printing, the nozzle surface is cleaned by wiping, dried, and dried. A so-called priming operation of forcibly ejecting ink from ejection nozzles and removing the ink is performed relatively frequently on at least the nozzles not involved in printing.

In addition, the ink jet printer needs to cover the nozzle arrangement surface of the ink jet head, that is, the ink discharge surface, and seal it from the outside air in order to prevent drying of the ink when printing is stopped or stopped. There is. For this reason, the ink jet printer also includes a cap member for covering and sealing the ink ejection surface of the ink jet head, and a capping drive mechanism for attaching and detaching the cap member to and from the ink jet head according to printing / non-printing. .

[0014]

In an ink jet head (hereinafter, referred to as a print head), maintenance work such as wiping, priming, or capping is performed by retracting the ink jet head from a print area to a lateral position. Or, if the head itself becomes large like a line type print head, on the contrary, the maintenance member is moved from the position on the side of the print area to the position of the ink jet head, I have.

However, in this case, there is a problem that the entire apparatus becomes extremely large and the time required for maintenance becomes long. In particular, the configuration in which the maintenance member is moved from the position on the side of the printing area to the position of the inkjet head has a problem that a mechanism for performing the movement is complicated and the apparatus is further enlarged. .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances,
An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printer that can perform maintenance work in a short time with a simple mechanism even when the print head has a long structure.

[0017]

The structure of an ink jet printer according to the present invention will be described below.

An ink jet printer according to the present invention includes a discharge nozzle array including a plurality of discharge nozzles, and discharges ink from the discharge nozzles according to input print data to record an image on a facing recording medium; An ink jet printer comprising: a maintenance member for maintaining normal ink ejection performance of the print head, wherein the maintenance member is arranged below the print head in the ink ejection direction.

In the print head, for example, the discharge nozzle row is formed so as to correspond to the entire print area in the print main scanning direction. In the maintenance member, for example, a platen portion that supports the back surface of the recording medium is formed on at least a part of the peripheral surface, and a rotation axis is parallel to a main scanning direction of the print head. And a rotating body arranged in various directions.

It is preferable that a cap covering the discharge surface of the print head is formed on a part of the peripheral surface of the rotating body. As described in the fifth aspect, it is preferable to have a square shape having a double structure side wall made of an elastic member and having different heights.

Further, the maintenance member comprises the rotating body and a waste ink absorber disposed below the rotating body, wherein the rotating body is arranged in a diametrical direction of the rotating body. It has an elongated hole penetrating through, the waste ink absorber is configured to have a length corresponding to the elongated hole,
Further, for example, as described in claim 7, a platen movably provided between a support position for supporting a recording medium in at least a region immediately below the print head and a retracted position retracted from the region directly below the print head. Be composed.

Further, the maintenance member is disposed below the print head and selectively covers a discharge surface of the print head during non-printing. It is composed of a cleaning blade for wiping the ejection surface, and a waste ink absorber installed on the bottom surface of the cap so as to be able to contact and separate.

[0023]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view schematically showing the configuration of the ink jet printer according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view schematically illustrating a configuration of a main part of the inkjet printer. 1 and 2 are:
This shows a state during printing (printing).

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, this ink-jet printer (main body device) 20 has four ink tanks 22 detachably attached to a tank mounting portion 21 of the main body device 20.
And a long head unit 24 connected to the four ink tanks 22 via four pipes 23. Further, a rotating body 25 disposed immediately below the head unit 24 and a waste A maintenance unit 27 including an ink absorber 26 is provided.

On the lower surface of the head unit 24, for example, the mounting board 2 shown in FIG. 8 (a), (b) or FIG.
Print head 2 formed on the same mounting board as 2 ′ and 2 ″
8 are provided. A printing section is formed at a portion where the print head 28 and the rotating body 25 of the maintenance unit 27 face each other.

The front of the printing unit (right side in the figure) is on the upstream side in the paper transport direction, and a guide plate 29 and a pair of transport rollers 31 are sequentially arranged substantially horizontally on the upstream side in the paper transport direction of the printing unit. The feed roller 32 is located slightly above the
Is provided. A paper insertion slot 33 is formed in the front surface of the apparatus on the upstream side of the paper feeding roller 32, and a paper feeding tray 34 is inserted through the paper insertion opening 33 and disposed in contact with the lower part of the paper feeding roller 32. Have been.

A guide plate 35 and a carry-out roller pair 36 are sequentially and substantially horizontally provided on the downstream side (left side in the drawing) of the printing unit in the paper transport direction. A paper discharge tray 38 is provided outside and connected to the discharge port 37.

The rotating body 25 of the maintenance unit 27 supports a sheet as a recording medium from the back surface on at least a part of the peripheral surface (approximately 上方 above the peripheral surface in the example shown in FIGS. 1 and 2). Platen portion 41 is formed. Also, at least a part of the peripheral surface of the rotating body 25 (approximately 1/6 of the peripheral surface on the opposite side of the platen portion 41 in the example shown in FIGS. A cap 42 for covering the ejection surface 28 is formed. The cap 42 is made of an elastic member, and has a square shape having double side walls having different heights, as will be described in detail later.

The above-mentioned rotator 25 is further provided with
And an elongate hole 43 penetrating in the diametrical direction. Further, between one opening of the elongate hole 43 (the right side in FIG. 1 and the opposite side in FIG. 2) and the cap 42,
A cleaning blade 44 for selectively wiping the ejection surface of the print head 28 during non-printing is provided.

The rotating body 25 has a rotating shaft 45 whose main scanning direction is the printing main scanning direction of the print head 28 (in the direction perpendicular to the plane of FIG.
2 (in FIG. 2, the longitudinal direction).
Further, the waste ink absorber 26 is formed to be slightly longer than the length corresponding to the elongated hole 43 of the rotating body 25.

In FIG. 1, when power is turned on to the main unit 20, paper (not shown) is placed on the paper feed tray 34 and inserted through the paper insertion slot 33, and an instruction to execute printing is input. The paper feed roller 32 feeds the paper to the transport roller pair 31, and the transport roller pair 31 transports the paper to the printing unit via the guide plate 29.

At the timing when the printing start position of the paper is conveyed to the printing section, the print head 28 ejects ink droplets and starts printing (printing). The paper is supported on the lower surface by the platen section 41 and an image is printed on the paper while passing through the printing section. The leading end of the printed sheet is guided by a guide plate 35, is nipped by a pair of unloading rollers 36, is taken over, and the sheet is discharged from a discharge port 37 to a discharge tray 38.

In the state where printing is stopped or paused before the printing is started, the ink jet printer 20
However, if the printing is stopped or the pause period is long, the inside of the nozzle may be dry even if the capping is performed. Therefore, wiping and priming by the maintenance unit 27 are usually performed before printing starts. Hereinafter, the wiping and priming will be described.

FIGS. 3A to 3E are diagrams showing the operation of the rotation of the rotating body 25 of the maintenance unit 27 and the priming of the print head 28. In FIG. 3A, the same components as those in FIGS. 1 and 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals as in FIGS. 1 and 2, and FIGS. The above numbers are given only to necessary parts and shown.

FIG. 4A shows a state in which the print head 28 is covered by the cap 42 of the rotating body 25 of the maintenance unit 27. Close contact with the peripheral surface of the head 28,
The state where the nozzle surface of the print head 28 is sealed from the outside air is shown.

From the above state, as shown in FIG.
The rotating body 25 rotates in the clockwise direction indicated by the arrow A in FIG. 3B around the rotating shaft 45 shown in FIG. 2 and the cap 42 comes off the nozzle surface of the print head 28, whereby the nozzle surface of the print head 28 is removed. At the same time, the head unit 24 moves upward in the direction indicated by the arrow B in FIG. Surface).

Subsequently, as shown in FIG.
5 continues to rotate, and the cleaning blade 44 of the rotator 25 rubs the nozzle arrangement surface of the print head 28 to perform cleaning. Thus, the maintenance unit 27
When the rotator 25 rotates, the head unit 24 moves upward.
The cleaning blade 44 rotates without contacting the nozzle surface, and only the cleaning blade 44 contacts the nozzle surface.

The above rotating body 25 further rotates, and FIG.
As shown in (a), the cap 42 stops at a position rotated by 90 degrees from the capping position where the print head shown in FIG. Thus, one opening 43-1 of the elongated hole 43 faces the nozzle surface of the print head 28, and the other opening 43-2 of the elongated hole 43 faces the waste ink absorber 26. As a result, the slot 43 is provided immediately below the print head 28.
, The waste ink absorber 26 is opposed. Here, when the print head 28 performs priming, all the ink 46 discharged by this priming passes through the elongated holes 43 and is absorbed by the waste ink absorbing member 26.

When the priming operation is completed and the print head 28 is ready for printing, the rotating body 25
As shown in FIG. 9E, the motor is further rotated by 90 degrees and stopped.
Then, the head unit 24 that has been retracted upward descends. As a result, the rib-shaped platen portion 41 returns to the paper supporting position, and the print head 28 and the rotating body 2 shown in FIG.
The state at the time of printing in which the platen portion 41 of No. 5 faces is formed.

As described above, the maintenance unit 27
Is disposed immediately below the head unit 24, and after the rotator 25 rotates, the wiping process is performed from the capping state, the priming environment is formed, and the print head 28 performs the priming. After that, the platen section 41 is arranged in the printing section to form a print standby state, and the state is switched between four types of capping, cleaning, priming, and printing.

In the above-described series of operations, during printing, the states of FIGS. 3B to 3E are repeated from the state of FIG. 3E. Then, when printing is paused,
It stops in the state of (a). As described above, a series of maintenance operations such as capping, cleaning, and priming can be performed in addition to printing by the rotation operation of the rotating body 25 immediately below the head unit 24, so that a complicated and large-scale maintenance member and its moving mechanism are used. Therefore, the time required for maintenance processing in an ink jet printer having a long head unit can be greatly reduced.

FIG. 4A is a sectional view showing the structure of the double edge of the cap 42, and FIG. 4B is a view showing the operating state thereof. The cap 42 shown in FIG. 3A is made of a flexible member, and its edge is a double edge of an inner edge 42-1 and an outer edge 42-2. The inner edge 42-1 has a relatively large width t1 and a low height h1, and the outer edge 42-2 has a thinner width t2 and a higher height h2.

With the above-described structure of the cap 42, the cap 42 is pressed from below as shown by the arrow C in FIG. 4 (b), and the print head is pressed as shown in FIG. 3 (a). 4B, the outer edge 42-2 of the double edge of the cap 42 becomes the inner edge 42 as shown in FIG.
The sheet is turned outward by an amount higher than −1 and closely adheres to the peripheral surface of the print head 28. Thus, even when the peripheral surface of the print head 28 or the edge contact surface of the cap 42 is not smooth or has some irregularities, the cap 42 can completely seal the print head 28 from the outside air.

FIG. 5 is a side view schematically showing the configuration of an ink jet printer according to the second embodiment.
FIG. 2 shows a state in which printing is possible or during printing. In the ink jet printer 50 shown in FIG.
A tank mounting portion 51, four ink tanks 52 detachable from the tank mounting portion 51, four pipes 53 each having one end connected to the four ink tanks 52, and connected to the other ends of the four pipes 53; A head unit 54 having a long structure, and a print head 5 disposed on the lower surface of the head unit 54
The configuration of the ink jet printer 20 shown in FIG.
, Four ink tanks 22, four pipes 23, a long head unit 24, and a print head 28.

A pair of transport rollers 56 disposed in front of the head unit 54, that is, upstream of the paper transport direction,
Paper feed roller 57, paper insertion slot 58, and paper feed tray 59
1 and the configurations of the discharge roller pair 61, the discharge port 62, and the paper discharge tray 63 disposed behind the head unit 54, that is, on the downstream side in the paper transport direction, respectively.
Transport roller pair 3 of the inkjet printer 20 shown in FIG.
1. paper feed roller 32, paper insertion slot 33 and paper feed tray 3
4 and the configurations of the discharge roller pair 36, the discharge port 37, and the paper discharge tray 38.

The configuration of the guide plate 64 on the upstream side of the head unit 54 and the guide plate 65 on the downstream side are slightly different in shape, but are substantially the same as the guide plates 29 and 35 of the ink jet printer 20 shown in FIG. Configuration. In this example, the configuration of the maintenance unit disposed immediately below the head unit 54 is different from that in the case of FIG.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the maintenance unit 70 includes a platen shutter 71 immediately below the head unit 54, a cap unit 74 including a cap 72 and a hole shutter 73, a waste ink absorbing member 75, Is constituted by a cleaning blade 76 waiting on the side of the cleaning blade. The cleaning blade 76, which will be described in detail later, is supported by being erected on a support member 77. The support member 77 is fitted on a screw shaft 78 and slidably supported.

FIGS. 6A to 6D are diagrams showing the operation state of the maintenance unit 70 described above. It should be noted that FIG.
In FIG. 5D, the same components as those in FIG.
The same reference numerals are used to denote them. FIG. 6A shows the printable or printing state shown in FIG. FIG. 6A does not show the cleaning blade 76, the support member 77 and the screw shaft 78 in the maintenance unit 70, and FIG. 5 shows a slider member which is not shown.

In the printing state shown in FIG. 6A, the platen shutter 71 is in the closed position and the head unit 54
It functions as a platen directly below. The cap 72 of the cap unit 74 is in close contact with the waste ink absorbing member 75 via the hole shutter 73. At this time, the hole shutter 73 is located at the open position while being prevented from moving by the slider member 79, and the hole provided in the hole shutter 73 and the cap 7.
The inside of the cap 72 and the upper surface of the waste ink absorbing member 75 are electrically connected to each other by matching the ink discharge holes provided at the bottom of the second container 2.

When the above printing state is completed, as shown in FIG. 6B, the platen shutter 71 moves from the paper supporting position indicated by the broken line 71 'in the drawing to the right opening position as indicated by the arrow D in the drawing. The print head 5 of the head unit 54
5 and the cap 72 of the cap unit 74 immediately below are arranged so as to directly face each other. In this state, the gap between the print head 55 and the cap 72 is sewn, and the cleaning blade 76 performs a wiping operation, which will be described in detail later. In this state, priming is performed from the print head 55, and the ink discharged by this priming flows into the cap 72.

The inside of the cap 72 is subjected to a water-repellent treatment so that the liquid can easily flow, and a slope is formed on the bottom surface which is inclined downward from the periphery toward the central ink discharge hole. Thus, the ink discharged into the cap 72 easily passes through the ink discharge hole of the cap 72 and the hole of the hole shutter 73 and is absorbed by the waste ink absorbing member 75.

Thereafter, when the cap unit 74 is raised toward the print head 55 as shown by the arrow E in the figure, the engagement with the slider member 79 is released, as shown in FIG. The hole shutter 73 slides to the closed position on the left as shown by the arrow F in the figure by the urging force of the urging member (not shown) to seal the ink discharge hole at the bottom of the cap 72.

Thereafter, the cap unit 74 continues to rise, and the square edge of the cap 72 is brought into close contact with the peripheral surface of the print head 55 as shown in FIG. Capping. Since the waste ink discharge hole at the bottom of the cap 72 is sealed from the outside by the hole shutter 73, the inside of the cap 72 is in a sealed state. Thus, during non-printing, it is possible to prevent the ink that has reached the nozzle surface of the print head 55 from drying.

From the state at the time of non-printing in FIG.
To move to the state at the time of printing shown in (d), change from (d) to (c)
Then, the operation is performed in the opposite manner to that of FIG.

FIG. 7A is a view of the operation state of the cleaning blade 76 as viewed from the sheet discharging side (downstream in the sheet conveying direction). FIG. 2A shows a state at the time of printing.
The platen shutter 71 is at a closed position facing the print head 55 and functions as a platen for supporting a sheet. Then, the cleaning blade 76 is at a standby position outside the platen shutter 71. This standby position is
It is also set outside the left side of the platen shutter 71 (not shown).

FIG. 7B shows a state where the cleaning blade 76 is cleaning the nozzle surface of the print head 55. At this time, as shown in FIG. 6B, the platen shutter 71 shown in FIG. 6A has been previously rotated to the open position, whereby the sliding path of the cleaning blade 76 is opened. Cleaning blade 76
Is slid to the left along with the support member 77 that slides to the left as shown by the arrow H in the figure by rotating the screw shaft 78 in the rightward screw retreat direction as shown by the arrow G in the figure. I do. Then, due to this sliding, the tip of the cleaning blade 76 rubs the nozzle surface of the print head 55 for cleaning.

FIG. 7B shows the cleaning blade 7.
6 shows a state in which the nozzle 6 slides to the left to clean the nozzle surface of the print head 55. After that, the cleaning blade 76 moves to the left of the platen shutter 71, not shown in FIG. At the standby position that is also set outside the printer until the next cleaning. Then, at the time of the next cleaning, the support member 77 starts sliding to the right by rotating the screw shaft 78 in the right-handed screw advancing direction, and accompanying this, the cleaning blade 76 slides to the right. While cleaning the nozzle surface of the print head 55, the print head 55 is stopped again at the right standby position shown in FIG.

As described above, also in this case, maintenance can be performed without moving the long head unit 54, and the time required for maintenance can be reduced.

In the first embodiment, the cleaning blade is formed integrally with the rotating member. However, depending on the cleaning direction of the nozzle surface of the print head, the cleaning blade may be formed separately from the rotating member. The print head side may be moved.

In the second embodiment, the cleaning blade is separately driven so as to be independent of the other components. However, depending on the direction of cleaning, the cleaning blade may be integrally formed with the platen shutter so as to be driven by the platen shutter. You may.

[0062]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the maintenance unit is disposed immediately below the head unit and is rotated or simply rotated and moved up and down.
By performing maintenance of capping, wiping, and priming, it is not necessary to move any of the constituent members largely back and forth or left and right, so that the time required for maintenance can be shortened and the drive system of the maintenance mechanism can be simplified, so that the printer It is possible to promote cost reduction and miniaturization of the main body.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view schematically illustrating a configuration of an inkjet printer according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view schematically illustrating a configuration of a main part of the inkjet printer.

FIGS. 3A to 3E are diagrams showing the operation state of rotation of a rotating body of a maintenance unit and priming of a print head.

FIG. 4A is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration of a double edge of a cap,
(b) is a diagram showing the operation state.

FIG. 5 is a side view schematically illustrating a configuration of an ink jet printer according to a second embodiment.

FIGS. 6A to 6D are diagrams showing the operation state of the maintenance unit.

7A is a diagram illustrating a state of the cleaning blade during printing, and FIG. 7B is a diagram illustrating a state of the cleaning blade cleaning the nozzle surface of the print head.

FIGS. 8A, 8B, and 8C are diagrams respectively showing configurations assumed as a long inkjet head of a line printer.

9A is a plan view showing a schematic configuration of a head chip, and FIG. 9C is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line AA ′ of FIG. 9A.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 long head chip 2, 2 ', 2 "mounting substrate 3 small head chip 4 chip substrate 5 drive circuit 6 resistance heating part 7 individual wiring electrode 8 common electrode 9 nozzle row 11 nozzle 12 partition wall 13 ink supply groove 14 ink Supply hole 15 Orifice plate 16 Ink passage 20 Inkjet printer (apparatus main body) 21 Tank mounting part 22 Ink tank 23 Pipe 24 Head unit 25 Rotating body 26 Waste ink absorber 27 Maintenance unit 28 Print head 29 Guide plate 31 Feed roller pair 32 Feed Paper roller 33 paper insertion port 34 paper feed tray 35 guide plate 36 carry-out roller pair 37 discharge port 38 paper discharge tray 41 platen section 42 cap 42-1 inner edge 42-2 outer edge 43 elongated hole 44 cleaning blade 45 rotation axis 46 ink 50 ink Printer 51 tank mounting part 52 ink tank 53 pipe 54 head unit 55 print head 56 transport roller pair 57 paper feed roller 58 paper insertion port 59 paper feed tray 61 carry-out roller pair 62 discharge port 63 discharge tray 64, 65 guide plate 70 Maintenance unit 71 Platen shutter 72 Cap 73 Hole shutter 74 Cap unit 75 Waste ink absorbing member 76 Cleaning blade 77 Support member 78 Screw shaft

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A print head, comprising: a discharge nozzle array composed of a plurality of discharge nozzles; and a print head that discharges ink from the discharge nozzles in accordance with input print data and records an image on a recording medium facing the print head. An ink jet printer comprising: a maintenance member for maintaining excellent ink ejection performance, wherein the maintenance member is arranged below the print head along an ink ejection direction. 2. The ink-jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the print head is formed so that the discharge nozzle row corresponds to an entire printing area in a printing main scanning direction. 3. The maintenance member has a platen portion formed on at least a part of a peripheral surface for supporting a back surface of the recording medium, and a rotation axis is arranged in a direction parallel to a main printing direction of the print head. The inkjet printer according to claim 1, further comprising a rotating body. 4. The ink-jet printer according to claim 3, wherein the rotating body has a cap formed on a part of a peripheral surface thereof to cover a discharge surface of the print head. 5. The ink jet printer according to claim 4, wherein the cap is formed of an elastic member and has a square shape having a double-structured side wall having different heights. 6. The maintenance member comprises the rotating body and a waste ink absorber installed below the rotating body, wherein the rotating body has an elongated hole penetrating in a diameter direction of the rotating body. 5. The ink jet printer according to claim 3, wherein the waste ink absorber has a length corresponding to the elongated hole. 7. A platen movably provided between a support position for supporting a recording medium at least in a region immediately below the print head and a retracted position retracted from the region directly below the print head. The inkjet printer according to claim 1. 8. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the maintenance member is disposed below the print head and selectively covers a discharge surface of the print head during non-printing, and a cleaning device that selectively wipes the discharge surface during non-printing. Blade and
8. The ink jet printer according to claim 7, comprising a waste ink absorber that is detachably mounted on a bottom surface of the cap.