JP2001146005A - Manual type ink-jet recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a manual type ink-jet printer which is compact, light- weight and consumes a small quantity of power to meet an increase of personal use in accordance with the widespread use of personal computers by solving the problems of conventional recording apparatuses in which a driving motor for feeding papers or for an ink-jet head carriage consumes a large quantity of power and driving devices are large, etc. SOLUTION: The apparatus has an ink-jet head 31 for discharging a liquid with the utilization of an electric energy, a discharge control means 54 for controlling the discharging of the head, an electric input switch 6 and a control state display LED 5. A printing paper 40 is manually transferred. A photosensor 42 is set to detect a transfer state. The ink-jet head 31 is constituted to discharge the liquid based on the detected state.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a manual ink jet recording apparatus (printer) provided with an ink jet head for discharging a liquid using electric energy.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of personal computers (personal computers), the use of printers of this type, which are typical as recording apparatuses, is increasing on an individual basis. In particular, ink jet printers are generally small in size and low in cost. Therefore, it is the most common in the personal use market.

[0003] On the other hand, many computers as information processing devices have been reduced in size and weight and have reduced power consumption so that they can be used, for example, on business trips or in moving Shinkansen cars.

[0004]

In view of the above background, printers as recording devices as well as these computers are required to be smaller and lighter and have lower power consumption.

However, this type of printer usually has a paper feed motor for transporting print paper, a carriage motor for driving a carriage on which an ink jet head is mounted, and the like. Consumes relatively much power. Further, since the size of a driving device such as a motor is relatively large, this is a serious problem for a printer aiming at small size, light weight and low power consumption.

The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and has as its object to provide a small-sized, light-weight, and low-power-consumption type manual ink-jet recording apparatus of this type.

[0007]

For this reason, the present invention relates to the following items (1) to (4) in which paper feeding is performed manually using a line type ink jet head that discharges a liquid using electric energy. The object is achieved by providing a manual type ink jet recording apparatus described in any one of the above.

(1) An ink jet head for discharging a liquid using electric energy, control means for controlling the discharge of the head, a switch for the power input means, and a display unit for displaying the control state, A manual ink jet recording apparatus, wherein a recording medium is manually conveyed, and a detecting means for detecting the conveyance state is provided, and the ink jet head discharges according to the detected state.

(2) parallel to the ink jet head nozzle row and downstream in the paper feed direction of the recording medium;
The manual ink jet recording apparatus according to the above (1), wherein each paper feeding means is provided upstream, and paper feeding and printing can be performed from both the downstream and the upstream of the paper feeding means.

(3) Each paper feed roller is provided in parallel with the nozzle row of the ink jet head and downstream and upstream in the paper feed direction of the recording medium, and further, a rotation transmitting means coaxially with each paper feed roller. The manual ink jet recording apparatus according to any one of (1) and (2), wherein the rotation transmitting means and the paper feed roller are connected by a one-way clutch.

(4) An ink jet head which discharges a liquid by using electric energy is provided by a pressure of bubbles generated in the liquid by applying thermal energy to the liquid. The manual ink jet recording apparatus according to any one of the above items (1) to (3).

[0012]

According to the structure of the present invention as described above, a small, lightweight, low power consumption manual printer can be obtained.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on a plurality of examples with reference to the drawings.

[0014]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a manual ink jet recording apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the internal structure of the apparatus. FIGS. 3 and 4 are cross-sectional views (1) and (2) of the side surface viewed from the direction of arrow C in FIG. 1, respectively. Also, FIG.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a control unit of the recording apparatus.

<Construction> As shown in FIG. 1, the main body 3 has a rectangular parallelepiped shape. As shown in FIGS. Each of the openings 2 and 4 for paper is provided. On the upper surface of the main body 3 in FIG. 1, a switch button 61 for pressing a switch 6 (FIGS. 2 and 5) as an input means, and an L indicating the state of the printer are provided.
LED window 51 in which the lighting state of ED5 (FIGS. 2 and 5) can be seen.
Is provided.

An IrDA window 43 through which infrared data (IrDA) can be exchanged with another personal computer or the like is provided on a side surface portion viewed from the direction of arrow C in FIG. In addition, there is a cylindrical knob 1 at the center, and FIG.
The knob 1 is coaxially fixed to the shaft 7 and rotatably inserted into a bearing 8 fixed to the main body 3 as shown in FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a gear 9 is fixed coaxially with the shaft 7, and each gear 10 and gear 11 are engaged with the gear 9, respectively.

The gear 10 is mounted on a shaft 12 by a one-way clutch 13. The shaft 12 is rotatably inserted into a bearing 14 and a bearing 22 fixed to the main body 3, and a sub knob 36 is provided at a distal end. Is provided.

Similarly, the gear 11 is a one-way clutch 1
5, the shaft 16 is attached to the main body 3
Are rotatably inserted into the bearings 18 and the bearings 23 fixed to the sub-knob 35, and a sub-knob 35 is provided at the tip.

The operation of the one-way (one-way) clutch will now be described: In FIG. 3, when the gear 9 rotates in the counterclockwise direction (the direction of arrow F), the gear 11 moves clockwise (the direction of arrow G) and the gear 10 rotates. Also rotates clockwise (direction of arrow H). At this time, the rotational force is transmitted to the shaft 16 and rotates together with the gear 11, but the rotational force is not transmitted to the shaft 12,
Does not rotate. Conversely, when the gear 9 is rotated clockwise, the gears 11 and 10 rotate counterclockwise. At this time, the torque is not transmitted to the shaft 16, but is transmitted to the shaft 12, and rotates together with the gear 10.

In FIG. 4, a roller 19 is provided coaxially with the shaft 12, and a roller 21 is provided coaxially with the shaft 16, and each of the rollers 19 and 21 has five spurs 17 (see FIG. 4). 2, 3, 4) are in pressure contact. Each spur 17
Is rotatably inserted into each spring shaft 24, and each spring shaft 24
Are fixed to support portions 26 (FIGS. 2 and 3) provided at a total of 12 places on the main body 3. Each spur 17 is regulated in the thrust direction by each regulation plate 25 (FIG. 4) provided on the main body 3. Each restriction plate 25 has an elongated hole 27 so that the spring shaft 24 can move freely in the direction of arrow E.

As shown in FIG. 4, an ink jet head 31 for ejecting ink is
1 is provided with an ink tank 33 for supplying ink. The head 31 has 360 nozzles per inch and has a total of 1200 nozzles in the longitudinal direction of the main body 3, and performs printing by discharging ink onto the printing paper 40.

In the facing portion of the head 31, an absorber 2 is provided inside.
8 is provided to absorb and hold useless ink ejected at the time of nozzle recovery of the inkjet head 31 or the like. In addition, the PCB 32 having the control unit 54 (FIG. 5) for controlling the ejection signal to the head 31 and transmitting and receiving the signal from the outside is connected to the PCB 32 having the head 31 and the PCB.
A battery 34 (FIG. 5) for supplying to the main body 32 is also provided in the main body 3.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the PCB 32
The LED 5 of the display unit indicating the state of the recording apparatus (FIG. 2,
5), an IrDA 41 for exchanging infrared data, a switch 6 for turning on / off the power, and the like are also provided. L
The lighting state of the ED 5 can be seen from the LED window 51 (FIG. 1) provided on the upper part of the main body 3.

The IrDA 41 plays a role of an interface for transferring infrared signals between the recording apparatus and a personal computer or the like through an IrDA window 43 (FIG. 1) provided on a side surface of the main body 3. Further, the switch 6 is connected to the main body 3.
The switch 32 is fixed to the PCB 32 so as to be turned on by pressing a switch button 61 provided on the upper part.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a disk-shaped encoder 20 is provided coaxially with the shaft 7, and in a power-on state, a photo sensor 42 (FIGS. 2, 3) provided on a PCB 32 is provided. According to 5), the rotation state of the shaft 7 can be read into the control unit 54 (FIG. 5).

<Operation> Next, a series of operations until recording in the above-described configuration will be described in detail: FIGS. 1 and 4
The printing paper 40 is inserted through the left opening 2 shown in (1), and the printing paper 40 is abutted and engaged with the press-contact portion between the paper feed roller 19 and the spur 17. Next, the sub-knob 36 is rotated clockwise to feed the printing paper 40 until the paper 40 hits the pressure contact portion between the roller 21 and the spur 17. In this state, the switch button 61 is pressed to turn on the power. When the switch 6 is depressed, the power is turned on and the recording apparatus is in a data receivable state.
Lights up.

When infrared data is sent from a personal computer (not shown), the recording apparatus receives the data from the IrDA 41,
The processing is performed by the control unit 54 in FIG.
LED 5 starts blinking. Subsequently, by rotating the knob 1 counterclockwise, the encoder 20 (FIG. 2, FIG.
3) rotates, and the photo sensor 42 (FIGS. 2, 3, and 5) detects the data of the encoder 20.

The control unit 54 analyzes the feeding state of the printing paper 40 based on the data, and supplies ink from the ink jet head 31 to the printing paper 40 in accordance with the feeding amount and the feeding speed.
To start printing.

At this time, each of the gears 11 and 10 rotates clockwise (FIG. 3).
Due to the functions of 5, 13, the clockwise rotational force acts on the shaft 16 from the gear 11, but the rotational force from the gear 10 does not act on the shaft 12.

However, since the paper 40 moves in the direction of arrow D in FIG. 4, the roller 19 swings clockwise in accordance with the amount of movement of the printing paper 40. Therefore, the printing paper 40
Is conveyed and printed between the roller 21 and the roller 19 while receiving an appropriate tension.

When there is no more data to be recorded, LED 5
The blinking (FIGS. 2 and 5) changes to lighting, but even if recording of one sheet is completed, if data to be recorded remains, the switch 6 is pressed to enter a recording standby state. At this time, the LED 5 blinks at a shorter interval than in the recordable state to notify the user that the apparatus is in the recording standby state. In the recording standby state, ink is not ejected from the head 31 even if the knob 1 and the like are rotated and the encoder 20 is rotated.

Referring again to FIG. 4, the paper print paper 40 is inserted through the left opening 2 and the paper feed roller 19 and the spur 17 are inserted.
The printing paper 40 is brought into contact with and pressed into the pressure contact portion with the above. Next, the sub-knob 36 (FIGS. 1 and 2) is rotated clockwise,
The printing paper 40 is fed until the paper 40 hits the pressure contact portion between the roller 21 and the spur 17.

Subsequently, the switch 6 is depressed to make a printable state (the blinking interval of the LED 5 becomes longer), the knob 1 is rotated counterclockwise, and the printing paper 40 is fed in the direction of arrow D to start printing. You.

The above operation is repeated, and when there is no more data to be recorded, the blinking of the LED 5 changes to lighting to indicate that the recording has been completed. Further, when the switch 6 is pressed, the lighting of the LED 5 is turned off and the power is turned off.

<Mirror Image Printing Operation> Next, a description will be given of a case of printing a mirror image (see FIG. 6 described later) to be printed on a back print film, a transfer sheet for a T-shirt, or the like. The printing paper 40 is inserted through the opening 4 in the direction, and the printing paper 40 is abutted and engaged with the pressure contact portion between the paper feed roller 21 and the spur 17. Next, the sub-knob 35 (FIG. 1) is rotated in a counterclockwise direction, and the printing paper 40 is fed until the paper 40 hits the pressure contact portion between the roller 19 and the spur 17. In this state, switch button 6
Press 1 to turn on the power. When the switch 6 is depressed, the power is turned on, the recording apparatus is in a data receivable state, and the LED 5 is turned on.

When infrared data is sent from a personal computer (not shown), the recording apparatus receives the data from the IrDA 41,
The processing is performed by the control unit 54 (FIG. 5) to be in a recordable state,
LED 5 starts blinking.

Subsequently, when the knob 1 is rotated clockwise, the encoder 20 is rotated, and the sensor 40 detects the data of the encoder 20. The control unit 54 analyzes the feeding state of the printing paper 40 based on this data, and discharges ink from the inkjet head 31 to the printing paper 40 in accordance with the feeding amount and the feeding speed to start recording.

At this time, the gears 11 and 10 shown in FIG. 4 rotate counterclockwise.
Due to the operations of the gears 5 and 13, the shaft 12 has a counterclockwise rotational force acting from the gear 10, but the shaft 16 has no rotational force from the gear 11. However, since the paper 40 moves in the direction opposite to the arrow D, the roller 21 rotates clockwise according to the amount of movement of the printing paper 40. Therefore, the printing paper 40 is conveyed and printed between the rollers 19 and 21 while receiving an appropriate tension.

In the normal printing shown in FIG. 1 in which the printing paper 40 is fed in the direction of arrow A, examples of mirror images (a) and (b) are shown.
In the printing of FIG. 6A in FIG.
Is sent in the direction of arrow B, the image is printed as shown in FIG. 3B, so that a mirror image can be obtained without changing the image processing on the main body 3 side.

(Second Embodiment) In the first embodiment, in order to easily obtain a mirror image, the printing paper 40
Is configured to be able to be fed in both directions, but a configuration in which the paper feeding direction is limited to one direction is also possible. In this case, in FIG. 3, the one-way clutch 15 provided on the gear 11 and the sub-knob 35 become unnecessary and cost is reduced.

The other one-way clutch 13 is
When the gear 10 is rotated clockwise to transmit the rotational force to the shaft 12 and the outer diameter of the roller 19 (FIG. 4) is made slightly smaller than that of the roller 21, the knob 1
By simply rotating the printing paper counterclockwise, the printing paper 40 inserted from the opening 2 is discharged from the opening 4, and during that time,
The printing paper 40 is transported between the roller 21 and the roller 19 while receiving an appropriate tension. Therefore, the sub-knobs 35 and 36 and the one-way clutch 15 can be eliminated.

Further, FIG. 4 in the first embodiment.
The corresponding configuration can be achieved by forming a cross-sectional view as shown in FIG. That is, the roller 19 and the spur 17 on the opening 2 side in FIG.
Instead, as shown in FIG. 7, a paper press 37 made of an elastic member such as a stainless steel plate is fixed to the main body 3, and the print paper 40 is lightly pressed by the main body 3 and the paper press 37. The knob 1 and the encoder 20 shown in FIG.
Is fixed coaxially with the shaft 16 in FIG. 3, and the one-way clutch 15 is also omitted. Naturally, the gears 10, 11, and 12 are not required. With this configuration, the printing paper 40 of FIG. 7 of this embodiment can be conveyed while applying tension between the roller 21 and the paper presser 37, and the cost is greatly reduced as compared with the first embodiment. Also.

Further, in the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, each of the rollers 19 and 21 uses a single elongated cylindrical member, but FIG. 8 shows a diagram of the first embodiment. As shown in the plan view corresponding to 2, the divided roller may be provided only in the portion facing the spur 17.

Further, in the first embodiment, the encoder 20 is provided coaxially with the knob 1, but may be provided coaxially with the rollers 19 and 21. Although the encoder 20 and the sensor 42 use optical members,
A magnetic member may be used.

[0046]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By providing a manual ink jet recording apparatus that performs paper feeding manually using an ink jet head that discharges a liquid using electric energy, a small, lightweight, low power consumption printer has become possible.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a manual ink jet recording apparatus according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the internal structure of the recording apparatus in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a sectional arrow view (1) of a side surface portion viewed from a direction C in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional arrow view (2) of a side surface portion viewed from a direction C in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a control unit configuration of the recording apparatus in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an example of a mirror image

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the configuration of the second embodiment corresponding to FIG.

FIG. 8 is a plan view of the second embodiment corresponding to FIG. 2;

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 knob 2 opening 3 main body 4 opening 5 LED 6 switch 7 shaft 9, 10, 11 gear 13, 15 one-way clutch 17 spur 19, 21 roller 20 encoder 31 inkjet head 33 ink tank 34 battery 35, 36 sub knob 37 paper press 40 printing paper (recording medium) 41 IrDA 42 photo sensor 51 LED window 54 control unit 61 switch button

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An ink jet head that discharges a liquid using electric energy, control means for controlling the discharge of the head, a switch for the power input means, and a display unit for indicating the control state, A manual ink jet recording apparatus, wherein a medium is manually conveyed, and a detecting means for detecting the conveyance state is provided, and the ink jet head discharges according to the detection state. 2. A paper feeding means parallel to the ink jet head nozzle row and downstream and upstream in the paper feeding direction of the recording medium, and paper is fed from either the downstream or the upstream of the paper feeding means. 2. A manual ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein printing is possible. 3. A paper feed roller is provided in parallel with the nozzle row of the ink jet head and downstream and upstream in the paper feed direction of the recording medium, and a rotation transmitting means is coaxial with each paper feed roller. 3. The manual ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said rotation transmitting means and said paper feed roller are connected by a one-way clutch. 4. An ink jet head which discharges a liquid by utilizing electric energy and discharges the liquid by applying pressure of bubbles generated in the liquid by applying thermal energy to the liquid. Item 4. A manual ink jet recording apparatus according to any one of Items 1 to 3.