JP2002052770A - Power transmission device and ink-jet recording apparatus having the power transmission device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a power transmission device which efficiently transmits power between a driving motor and a plurality of devices to which the power is to be supplied from the driving motor. SOLUTION: The driving motor 21 is set to the left side of a frame 11 as a base of a printer body. The driving motor 21 drives a transfer driving roller 9 via a first gear engagement mechanism at the left side of the frame 11. The power transmission from the driving motor 21 to the paper feed roller 4 and the pump 20 set to the right side of the frame 11 is carried out via a second gear engagement mechanism 40 by a power transmission gear 9b fitted to a right end of the highly rigid and sturdy transfer driving roller 9.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transport driving roller having high rigidity for transporting a recording material to a recording head for performing recording on the recording material, and a drive for transmitting power to the transport driving roller. A motor, a common driving source for the driving motor, a paper feeding roller for feeding the recording material to the transport driving roller, and a common driving source for the driving motor, and a suction unit for suctioning ink to the recording head unit. And a pump device for generating a negative pressure for driving the power transmission device, the power transmission device transmitting power of the drive motor from the drive motor to the pump device and the paper feed roller in an ink jet recording apparatus including:

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an ink jet recording apparatus,
For example, printing paper (hereinafter simply referred to as “paper”) as a recording material
), A driving source for reciprocating a carriage having a recording head unit for performing recording in the main scanning direction, a transport driving roller for transporting the paper to the recording head unit at a constant pitch, and the paper being transported to the transport driving roller. A drive source for driving these devices, such as a paper feed roller for feeding and a pump device for generating a negative pressure for sucking ink to the recording head unit, is required. However, in order to reduce the size and cost of the recording apparatus, a driving source for driving these apparatuses is often used in many cases. In particular, the drive source of the carriage is a dedicated drive motor, and the above-mentioned transport drive roller / feed roller / pump device and the like often use the drive motor also.

[0003]

When one of the plurality of devices also serves as one drive motor, a power of a gear meshing device or the like for supplying power from the one drive motor to the plurality of devices is provided. It is necessary to install a transmission device. Therefore, it is desirable that the plurality of devices supplied with power from one drive motor are all arranged in the vicinity of the one drive motor.

However, mainly from the viewpoint of miniaturization of the recording apparatus, there are cases where restrictions are placed on the arrangement location (layout) of the devices inside the recording apparatus. As a result, the drive motor and the power from the drive motor are supplied. In some cases, a plurality of devices to be supplied must be arranged at positions separated from each other. In such a case, the power transmission between the drive motor and the plurality of devices arranged at a separated position,
There is a need for a power transmission device that performs high-efficiency and reliable power transmission while adopting a complicated configuration, reducing cost, and generating no power transmission loss.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide a low-cost and high-efficiency method between a drive motor and a plurality of devices supplied with power from the drive motor. An object of the present invention is to provide a power transmission device capable of transmitting power.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a power transmission device having a high rigidity for conveying a recording material to a recording head for recording on the recording material. A transport drive roller provided with a drive motor for driving the transport drive roller, a feed roller for feeding the recording material to the transport drive roller using the drive motor as a common drive source, and the drive motor. And a pump device for generating a negative pressure for sucking ink to the print head unit as a common drive source, wherein the power of the drive motor is supplied to the pump device and the paper feed roller in an ink jet printing apparatus. A power transmission device for transmitting the power, wherein the drive motor is disposed at one end of the transport drive roller and configured to transmit the power to one end of the transport drive roller; And at least one of the pump device and the pump device is disposed on the other end side of the transport drive roller facing the position of the drive motor, and uses the rotating power of the transport drive roller to generate the power. It is characterized in that it is configured to obtain.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, power transmission from the drive motor to the paper feed roller or the pump device can be performed at low cost and with high efficiency. Hereinafter, this will be described in detail. The drive motor is disposed at one end of the transport drive roller to drive the transport drive roller for transporting the recording material, and drives the transport drive roller. Here, the transport driving roller needs to transport the recording material with extremely high precision to the recording head unit that performs recording on the recording material according to the print information transmitted from the control unit. Further, for this purpose, it is necessary to squeeze the recording material between the transport driving roller and the transport driven roller, and the transport driving roller receives a large pressing force from the transport driven roller. Therefore, the transport drive roller is configured to have high rigidity without twisting or the like in order to perform paper feeding with high accuracy while receiving a large pressing force from the transport driven roller.

On the other hand, from the viewpoint of reducing the size of the recording apparatus, a pump device using the drive motor as a common drive source may be installed at the other end of the transport drive roller facing the position where the drive motor is disposed. is there. Also, in order to reduce the cost of the recording apparatus, a case in which a paper feed roller using the drive motor as a common drive source is arranged only near the other end of the transport drive roller facing the first gear meshing device There is also. Therefore, in such a case, the drive motor and the paper feed roller or the pump device are arranged at positions facing each other with the transport drive roller interposed therebetween. Therefore, in order to transmit the power of the drive motor to the paper feed roller or the pump device arranged at such a distant position, a dedicated power transmission shaft is provided or the rotation shaft of the paper discharge roller is used. Although it is possible to do so, the former requires extra cost, and the latter uses a low-rigidity soft material because the paper discharge roller generally does not require a large torque to drive it. It is not appropriate to use the shaft because the strength is weak and a transmission loss or a transmission delay due to twisting or the like occurs.

However, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the power of the paper feed roller or the pump device is obtained from the transport drive roller having a high rigidity and a strong structure. That is, as described above, a high-rigidity transport drive roller is used as a power transmission shaft for transmitting the power of the drive motor to the paper feed roller or the pump device disposed at a position separated from the drive motor, as described above. Thus, the power transmission device according to claim 2, which can perform inexpensive and reliable power transmission using existing components without causing transmission loss or transmission delay due to twisting of the power transmission shaft or the like, In claim 1, in claim 1, both the paper feed roller and the pump device are arranged on the other end side of the transport driving roller facing the arrangement position of the drive motor,
Further, it is characterized in that the power is obtained by utilizing the rotating power of the transport driving roller. According to the invention described in claim 2 of the present application, both the paper feed roller and the pump device are disposed on the other end side of the transport drive roller facing the position where the drive motor is disposed. It is possible to further obtain the effects described. Further, by disposing the paper feed roller only near the other end of the transport drive roller, the paper feed roller shaft to which the paper feed roller is attached can be shortened, and in this regard, the cost can be further reduced. It becomes possible.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the power transmission device according to the first or second aspect, one of the sheet feeding rollers is disposed at the other end of the transport driving roller opposite to the position where the driving motor is disposed. It is characterized by being. Claim 3 of the present application
According to the described invention, since only one paper feed roller is provided in the ink jet recording apparatus, the ink jet recording apparatus can be configured at lower cost.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the power transmission device according to any one of the first to third aspects, a transport drive roller drive gear receiving power of the drive motor is attached to one end of the transport drive roller. A power transmission gear for transmitting the rotational power of the transport driving roller to the paper feed roller and / or the pump device is attached to the other end of the transport driving roller, and a power transmission gear is provided from the driving motor to the transport driving roller. And the power transmission from the transport drive roller to the paper feed roller and / or the pump device is performed via a gear meshing mechanism. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the power transmission from the drive motor to the transport drive roller and from the transport drive roller to the paper feed roller and / or the pump device is performed via the gear meshing mechanism, so that the transmission loss is small. Reliable power transmission can be performed.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a power transmission device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, further comprising a discharge roller for discharging the recording material, wherein the drive motor drives the discharge roller. It is characterized by comprising. According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the drive source of the discharge roller for discharging the recording material is also used as the drive motor for driving the transport drive roller / paper feed roller / pump device. There is no need to provide a drive source dedicated to the rollers, and the cost of the ink jet recording apparatus can be reduced.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the power transmission device according to any one of the first to fifth aspects, the transport drive roller is formed of a stainless steel rod. According to the invention as set forth in claim 6 of the present application, since the transport drive roller is made of a stainless steel bar, a transport drive roller having higher rigidity can be obtained. And high-efficiency power transmission can be performed.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet recording apparatus including the power transmission device according to any one of the first to sixth aspects. Claim 7 of the present application
According to the invention described in the above, in the ink jet recording apparatus, it is possible to obtain the same functions and effects as those of the invention described in any one of the first to sixth aspects of the present invention.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, an external configuration of an ink jet printer as an “ink jet recording apparatus” according to the present invention will be outlined with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an ink jet printer 100 according to the present embodiment. Ink jet
Printer (hereinafter simply referred to as “printer”) 100
Is the printing paper (cut sheet, hereafter,
A paper feeder 1 for stacking a plurality of sheets of paper “paper P” is provided on the back of the printer 100.

The paper P is set so as to be inserted from the rear side of the printer 100, and the paper P
A plurality of sheets. The paper P is fed from the rear side of the apparatus to a carriage 7 located in the middle of the main body by the paper feeding apparatus 1, and printing is performed by a recording head unit (not shown) provided at the bottom of the carriage 7. The internal configuration of the printer 100 including the carriage 7 will be outlined later. The paper P on which printing has been completed is discharged from the opening 3b on the front surface of the main body.

The outside of the printer 100 is constituted by a plurality of resin members, and a main body cover 3 for covering the entire apparatus, and an upper cover for covering a window provided at the center of the main body cover 3 for maintenance inside the apparatus. 3a, the apparatus main body is covered by front covers 3c and 3d which are located at the front part of the apparatus main body and constitute operation parts such as a power button. On the back of the main body cover 3, paper supports 2 and 2a for supporting the deposited paper P from the back side are provided. In the front of the main body cover 3, the front covers 3c,
3d, a discharge stacker 13 for receiving the discharged paper P
Is attached. These are all formed of a resin material. Except for the front covers 3c and 3d,
It is configured so that it can be easily removed as needed.

Next, referring to FIG.
The internal configuration of the main body will be outlined. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the apparatus main body of the printer 100, showing a state in which all covers except for the front covers 3c and 3d described above are removed. The base of the printer 100 is constituted by a frame 11, and the frame 11 is connected to both side frames of the apparatus main body, and is erected and formed so as to partition the apparatus main body into a front side and a rear side. Have been. Therefore, the above-described paper feeding device 1 is provided rearward from the frame 11.
On the front side from the frame 11, a transport drive roller 9 described later
And the like, the main components of the printing unit are arranged.

Between both side frames of the frame 11,
A carriage shaft 12 for guiding the carriage 7 is provided. A carriage motor 5 for reciprocating the carriage 7 is provided on the right side of the frame 11, and a driving pulley 14 is provided on a rotation shaft of the carriage motor 5. It is arranged. Further, a driven pulley 15 is disposed on the left side of the frame 11, and a driving belt 16 is suspended between the driving pulley 14 and the driven pulley 15. In addition, the driven pulley 15
The driven pulley 15 is attached to a tensioning device 17 of the drive belt 16 that urges the driven pulley 15 in the tensioning direction of the drive belt 16, and the drive belt 16 is always in a constant tension by the tensioning device 17. It is kept in. The carriage 7 is connected to a part of the drive belt 16, and the rotation of the carriage motor 5 drives the drive belt 1.
6 is driven to reciprocate in the main scanning direction (the left-right direction in FIG. 2) while being guided by the carriage shaft 12.

The carriage 7 has a recording head (not shown) for recording on the paper P at the bottom. Further, an ink cartridge 8 is detachably attached to the carriage 7, and the ink in the ink cartridge 8 is sent to the recording head unit provided at the bottom of the carriage 7. The recording head unit transfers ink from a nozzle row (not shown) formed on a surface facing the paper P to a carriage 7 by a transport driving roller 9 and a transport driven roller 10.
Is discharged onto the upper surface of the sheet P conveyed to the lower part of the sheet, and printing is performed. The outline of the internal configuration of the printer 100 has been described above.

Next, the internal structure of the printer 100 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, a transport drive roller 9 is provided below the carriage shaft 12 between both side frames of the frame 11. The transport drive roller 9 transfers the sheet P to a control unit (not shown) of the printer 100.
Paper P at a constant pitch according to the print information transmitted from
Is transported in the sub-scanning direction. Here, in order to carry out the paper feeding with high precision, the paper P is securely pressed between the transport driven roller 9 and the transport driven roller 9. Therefore, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, the transport driven roller 10 is a holder member 19 (two in this embodiment, four transport driven rollers 10).
The transport drive roller is provided by a coil spring 19a that is rotatably mounted on the holder member 19 and the frame member 11 and biases the holder member 19 toward the transport drive roller 9. 9. As described above, the transport drive roller 9 needs to have high rigidity. Therefore, in this embodiment, the transport drive roller 9 uses a stainless steel rod.

A paper discharge frame 18 is provided on the front side of the printer 100 from the transport driving roller 9. A discharge roller shaft 6 is provided below the discharge frame 18, and the discharge roller shaft 6 includes a discharge roller 6a and a discharge driven roller 6b that rotates according to the rotation of the discharge roller 6a. The paper P on which printing has been performed in the recording head unit is discharged to the front surface of the printer 100 by the rotation of the discharge roller 6a and the discharge driven roller 6b. .

A pump device 20 is provided on the right side of the frame 11.
Is installed. The pump device 20 generates a negative pressure in capping means (not shown) for preventing clogging of the nozzle opening of the recording head unit. This capping means serves as a lid for sealing the nozzle opening at rest, and when the recording head is filled with new ink or when the nozzle opening is clogged, a pump device is provided at the nozzle opening. It acts as a sealing means for applying the negative pressure from Therefore, the pump device 20 functions as a means for sucking ink from such an ink opening. The pump device 20 handles a plastic tube (for example, a silicon tube) using a planetary gear mechanism,
Thus, a negative pressure is generated. Therefore, the drive of the pump device 20 is performed by rotating the drive shaft of the pump device 20.

The paper feed roller 4 installed on the right side of the frame 11 like the pump device 20 has a substantially D-shape when viewed from the side.
A rubber material with a high coefficient of friction is wound. Paper feed roller 4
Is attached to a paper feed roller shaft 4a extending leftward from the right side wall of the frame 11. In the present embodiment, only one paper feed roller 4 is provided to reduce the cost of the printer 100. .

The transport drive roller 9 / pump device 20 / feed roller 4 (feed roller shaft 4a) / discharge roller 6a (discharge roller shaft 6) described above all use the drive motor 21 as a common drive source. I do. Hereinafter, with reference to FIG. 3 to FIG.
Transport drive roller 9 by drive motor 21 / pump device 2
The driving of the 0 / paper feed roller 4 / paper discharge roller 6a will be described.

As shown in FIG. 3, the drive motor 21 is installed on the left side of the frame 11. A pinion gear 21 a is attached to a rotation shaft of the drive motor 21, and the pinion gear 21 a is connected to a transport drive roller drive gear 9 a attached to the left end of the transport drive roller 9 via a first gear meshing device 30. Transmit power. FIG. 4 is a front view of a group of gears disposed on the left side of the frame 11, showing the configuration of the first gear meshing device 30. As shown in FIG.
The pinion gear 21a attached to one of the rotating shafts transmits power to the first gear meshing device 30, and in the first gear meshing device 30, the gear 31, the gear 32, and the transport driving roller driving gear 9a are arranged in this order. The power of the drive motor 21 is transmitted to the transport drive roller 9. The power of the drive motor 21 is transmitted to the discharge roller shaft 6 in the order of the gear 33, the gear 34, and the discharge roller drive gear 35.

On the other hand, as described above, the paper feed roller 4 and the pump device 20 are disposed on the other end of the transport drive roller 9 facing the position where the drive motor 21 is disposed, and attached to the right end of the transport drive roller 9. It is driven by the power transmission gear 9b via the second gear meshing device 40. FIG. 5 shows the second
It is a front view of the gear group arrange | positioned at the right side of the frame 11 which shows the structure of a gear meshing apparatus. In the figure, reference numeral 1
Reference numeral 1a denotes a feed roller mounting frame in which the feed roller 4 is installed on the frame 11. As shown in FIG. 5, the power transmission gear 9b attached to the right end of the transport drive roller 9 transmits power to the second gear meshing device 40,
In the second gear meshing device, the gear 41, the gear 42,
The rotational power of the transport drive roller 9 is transmitted to the paper feed roller 4 in the order of the gear 43 and the paper feed roller drive gear 44. In the drawing, reference numeral 4a is the above-described paper feed roller shaft.

The rotating power of the transport driving roller 9 is transmitted to the pump device 20 in the order of the gear 41, the gear 42, the gear 45, the gear 46, the gear 47, and the pump device driving gear 48. In the drawing, reference numeral 48a is a rotation shaft for operating the pump device 20.

As described above, the feed roller 4 and the pump device 2 which are disposed at the other end of the transport drive roller 9 and which are opposed to one end of the transport drive roller 9 where the drive motor 21 is disposed.
0 is driven by adopting a configuration utilizing the rotational power of the transport drive roller 9, and the advantage of the transport drive roller 9 having high rigidity is effectively used.

The present embodiment is an example, and the power transmission from the transport driving roller 9 to the pump device 20 is not performed by using a gear meshing mechanism as in the present embodiment but by using, for example, a driving belt / pulley. Alternatively, any other configuration may be used as long as it utilizes the rotational power of the transport drive roller 9.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The paper feed roller or the pump device obtains its power from a transport drive roller that is configured to be rigid and strong. That is, as a power transmission shaft for transmitting the power of the drive motor to a paper feed roller or a pump device that is disposed at a position separated from the drive motor and uses the drive motor as a common drive source, a highly rigid transport drive roller Therefore, high-efficiency and reliable power transmission can be performed without causing transmission loss or transmission delay due to twisting of the power transmission shaft or the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an ink jet printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an apparatus main body, showing an internal configuration of an ink jet printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a main part of the apparatus main body, showing an internal configuration of the ink jet printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows an ink jet printer according to the present invention;
It is a front view of a gear group arranged at the left side of the device.

FIG. 5 shows an ink jet printer according to the present invention.
It is a front view of a gear group arranged at the right side of the device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 4 feed roller 6 discharge roller shaft 6a discharge roller 9 transport driving roller 9a transport driving roller driving gear 9b power transmission gear 10 transport driven roller 11 frame 20 pump device 21 drive motor 21a pinion gear 30 first gear meshing device 35 discharging Paper roller drive gear 40 Second gear meshing device 44 Feed roller drive gear 48 Pump device drive gear

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) B41J 19/20 F16C 13/00 A 3J009 B65H 3/06 350 E 3J103 5/06 F16H 1/20 F16C 13 / 00 B41J 3/04 101Z 102R F16H 1/20 F term (reference) 2C056 HA56 JC06 2C059 AA26 AA29 2C480 CA01 CB02 CB07 CB15 3F049 AA10 DA12 LA07 LB03 3F343 FA02 FB04 GA02 GB01 GC01 GD01 JA18 LD10 EB01 3 FA18 3J103 AA02 AA12 BA31 CA01 CA78 GA02 GA52 HA03 HA33

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A transport drive roller having high rigidity for transporting a recording material to a recording head unit that performs recording on a recording material, a drive motor for driving the transport drive roller, and the drive motor being common. A feed roller that feeds a recording material to the transport drive roller, and a pump that uses the drive motor as a common drive source and generates a negative pressure for sucking ink to the print head unit A power transmission device for transmitting the power of the drive motor to the pump device and the paper feed roller, wherein the drive motor is disposed at one end of the transport drive roller; Further, the transport drive roller is configured to transmit its power to one end side thereof, and at least one of the paper feed roller and the pump device is provided with the drive motor. It is disposed on the other end side of the transporting drive roller facing the location, and the transport driving roller rotating force by utilizing is configured to obtain the power, it power transmission device according to claim. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein both the paper feed roller and the pump device are arranged on the other end side of the transport drive roller facing an arrangement position of the drive motor,
In addition, the power transmission device is configured to obtain the power by using the rotating power of the transport driving roller. 3. The power transmission according to claim 1, wherein one of the paper feed rollers is disposed at the other end of the transport driving roller opposite to a position where the driving motor is disposed. apparatus. 4. The transport driving roller according to claim 1, wherein a transport driving roller driving gear receiving power of the driving motor is attached to one end of the transport driving roller, and the other end of the transport driving roller is attached to the other end of the transport driving roller. A power transmission gear for transmitting the rotational power of the transport drive roller to the paper feed roller and / or the pump device; and a power transmission from the drive motor to the transport drive roller, and the transport drive roller. Power transmission from the power transmission device to the paper feed roller and / or the pump device via a gear meshing mechanism. 5. The recording medium according to claim 1, further comprising a discharge roller for discharging a recording material, wherein the drive motor drives the discharge roller. Power transmission device. 6. The power transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the transport drive roller is formed of a stainless steel rod. 7. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising the power transmission device according to claim 1. Description: