JP2001088321A - Ink tank for recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ink tank which can reduce a quantity of ink resident therein by partially changing a density of pores of a porous body filled in the ink tank and setting an ink guide-out port to a part of a high density of pores. SOLUTION: A density of pores of a porous body 2 filled in an ink tank 1 is made sequentially larger from a part far from an ink guide-out hole 4 towards the ink guide-out hole 4 (indicated by a line density of oblique lines in the drawing), and is made highest in the vicinity of the ink guide-out hole 4. Ink in the ink tank 1 is sequentially consumed from a lower-density part of the porous body 2 to a higher-density part. A last resident ink is present in the vicinity of the guide-out hole 4. When ink is replenished in this state, the ink is gradually impregnated from the higher-density part to the lower- density part and held, so that the ink in the ink tank 1 is restored to an original state.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an ink tank for a printing apparatus, and more particularly, to an ink supply system in a printing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ink tank in which a porous body is filled in an ink tank of a recording apparatus and the porous body absorbs ink is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-31.
No. 898 is known.

FIG. 5 is a view showing an example of an ink tank in which a porous body is filled in an ink tank. In the figure, 1 is an ink tank, 2 is a porous body, 3 is an air communication hole, and 4 is an ink tank. The ink outlet hole for guiding the ink inside the ink cartridge to the printing device, and the porous body 2 used in the conventional ink tank.
All had uniform pore density. As described above, the inside of the recording liquid storage section, for example, the inside of an ink tank or the like is filled with a porous body having micro continuous holes, and the inside of the porous body, that is, the pores are filled with the recording liquid (ink). In the ink tank, the recording liquid is confined in the pores of the porous body, so that the recording liquid moves little due to sudden vibration, impact, etc. Has the effect of preventing the mixing of
Practical. However, in this case, there is a problem in that the recording liquid permeates into the porous body and the remaining amount of ink in the ink tank is larger than that in the ink tank in which the porous body is not filled.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and in particular, partially changes the pore density of a porous body to be filled in an ink tank and increases the pore density of the porous body. An object of the present invention is to provide an ink tank in which an ink outlet is provided for a portion, so that the remaining amount of ink in the tank can be reduced.

[0005]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, in an ink tank of a recording apparatus, one kind of porous body having a uniform pore density and a uniform density is accommodated in the ink tank. And an ink lead-out hole for supplying ink to a printing device is provided for a portion of the porous body having a high degree of compression. Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

[0006]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an ink tank for a recording apparatus according to the present invention. Similar to the prior art shown in FIG. 5, 1 is an ink tank, 2 is a porous body, and 3 is an air communication hole. Numerals 4 and 4 indicate ink outlet holes.

In the first embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, the pore density of the porous body 2 filled in the ink tank 1 is increased from a portion far from the ink outlet hole 4 to the ink outlet hole 4. The ink outlet holes 4 are arranged so that the density is gradually reduced from the sparse one to the other (represented by the hatched line density in the figure), and the vicinity of the ink lead-out hole 4 is the densest state. Therefore, the ink in the ink tank 1 is sequentially consumed from a portion having a low pore density to a portion having a low pore density of the porous body 2, and the final residual ink is in the vicinity of the outlet hole 4. When ink is replenished in this state, the ink is gradually impregnated into a sparse part rather than a dense part, and is retained and the ink in the ink tank 1 is restored to the original state. By repeating this operation, the ink tank can be used for a long time. This way,
Compared with the prior art in which the ink tank is filled with a porous material having a uniform pore density, the amount of ink remaining in the ink tank can be significantly reduced.

The porous material used in the present invention is suitably made of a polymer material from the viewpoint of mass, processability, etc., for example, polyvinyl alcohol (Kanebo), Everlite SF (Product name: Bridgestone).

In the above, an example using a porous body formed with different pore densities in advance has been described. Alternatively, for example, a porous body having a uniform pore density may be used and the compression ratio may be changed. It is also possible to use it by storing it in an ink tank. This is to obtain the same function as a porous body having a different pore density by changing the degree of compression of a porous body having the same pore density. That is, as the compression ratio of the porous body increases, the pore density becomes “dense”, and conversely, the pore density becomes “sparse”.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show a uniform pore-tightness, respectively.
FIG. 2 shows an example in which a porous body (both in FIG. 2A) is compressed in a partly different compression ratio and stored in the ink tank 1 (both in FIG. 2B). While the shape of the ink tank 1 is not deformed (FIG. 7B), that is, the porous body 2 is kept in the same shape as the conventional ink tank,
Is processed in advance to change its shape to the state shown in (a), and the state shown in (a) is changed to the state shown in (b) to be stored in the ink tank 1, In other words, the degree of compression of the porous body 2 is partially changed so as to be accommodated in the ink tank. In FIG. 3, the shape of the porous body 2 is changed without being processed in advance. (A), and the shape of the ink tank 1 is changed as shown in (b), and the porous body 2 shown in (a) is accommodated therein, whereby The degree of compression of the material 2 is partially changed depending on the shape of the ink tank 1.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the present invention.
In this embodiment, the porous bodies 2a, 2b,
2c and 2d are accommodated in an ink tank, and ink outlet holes are provided in the porous body 2a having a high pore density.

[0012]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the pore density of the porous body filled in the ink tank is partially changed, and the ink outlet is provided in a portion having a high pore density. As a result, the remaining amount of ink in the ink tank can be significantly reduced as compared with the related art.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view illustrating an ink tank for a recording apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view for explaining one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view for explaining another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view for explaining another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a conventional ink tank.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Ink tank, 2 ... Porous body, 3 ... Atmospheric communication hole, 4
... Ink outlet.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an ink tank of a recording apparatus, one kind of a porous body having a uniform pore density and being compressed is stored in the ink tank, and a portion of the porous body having a high degree of compression is provided. And an ink outlet for supplying ink to the printing device.