JP2002331691A - Ink jet recorder with scanner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To manufacture a recording head with a high yield at a low cost. SOLUTION: The ink jet recorder with a scanner comprises an ink jet recording head 1 covering the width of a recording sheet by arranging a chain of small array type recording heads 3, two ink supply paths for supplying ink to the ink jet recording head 1, a cap covering an ink discharge opening 5 and a reliability recovering mechanism formed by connecting a negative pressure generating section with the inside of the cap, a reading mechanism using a scanner, and a plurality of recording sheet supplying means.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus with a scanner in which a large number of ink discharge ports are arranged along the width of a recording sheet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A recording method using a non-impact type printer has attracted attention for office use and the like because noise generated during recording is so small as to be negligible. Among them, an ink jet recording method capable of high-speed recording and capable of recording without applying a special fixing process to so-called plain paper is an extremely effective method, and various ink jet recording methods have been proposed and commercialized. Has been

In such an ink jet recording method, recording is performed by causing small droplets of a recording liquid, so-called ink, to fly from an ejection port and adhere to recording paper.
There are several control methods for controlling the generation of droplets of the recording liquid and the flight direction of the droplets.
In this configuration, the ink is caused to fly from the fine ejection ports.

[0004]

In recent years, in order to print at a higher speed, an ink jet printer having a large array type recording head in which a large number of ink discharge ports are arranged over a length corresponding to the entire width of a recording sheet. There is a demand for a complete recording device.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an ink jet recording head that covers a recording paper width by adding a small array type recording head, two ink supply paths for supplying ink to the ink jet recording head, It has a cap for covering the discharge port, a reliability recovery mechanism in which a negative pressure generating section is connected inside the cap, a reading mechanism by a scanner, and a plurality of recording paper supply means.

[0006]

According to the present invention, a small array type recording head is added to cover the width of the recording paper, so that the production yield of the recording head is high and the recording head can be produced at low cost.

[0007]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a recording head. This recording head 1 has a length corresponding to the maximum width of the paper to be used,
The grooved plate 3 is formed by joining a substrate 2 serving as a heating element substrate and a grooved plate 3, and an ink supply tube 4 for supplying ink to an ink reservoir formed therein is connected to the grooved plate 3. Further, at the front edge of the grooved plate 3, there are provided several hundreds to several tens of ink ejection ports 5 having an opening size of several tens of μm.
00 pieces are arranged in a line.

Next, the structure of the recording head 1 will be described. FIG. 5 is an enlarged front view of a part of the recording head 1, and FIG.
FIG. 7 is a vertical sectional side view taken along line AA in FIG. 5, and FIG. 7 is a horizontal sectional view taken along line BB in FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, a number of grooves 6 are formed in parallel on the lower surface of the grooved plate 3,
The ink discharge ports 5 are opened at the tips of these grooves 6. The grooved plate 3 is formed with an ink reservoir (not shown) to which a part of each groove 6 is connected. On the upper surface of the substrate 2, a heating resistance layer 7 located at the bottom of the groove 6 is provided.
(Heating element), electrodes 8 and 9 for applying a voltage to these heating resistance layers 7, and a protective layer 10 are formed in a laminated state. The protective layer 10 is formed of a liquid (ink) to be used.
The pair of electrodes 8 and 9 are formed to protect the heat generating resistance layer 7 chemically and physically from being short-circuited, and to prevent electrical leakage between the electrodes 8 and 9 by short-circuiting through the liquid. . The heat generating portion 11 is located above the heat generating resistive layer 7 at the portion where the ends of the electrodes 8 and 9 are separated and opposed.

Thus, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a suction device 12 is provided. The suction device 12 has a carriage 14 as a movable body slidably guided by a guide rod 13 erected along the ink ejection port 5 of the recording head 1, and is orthogonal to the guide rod 13 on the carriage 14. Slider 1 slidably fitted in direction
5, a cap 16 formed of an elastic member and fixed to the tip of a slider 15, and an ink absorbing roller 17 rotatably held on both sides of the cap 16 and in contact with the front edge of the recording head 1. 18, a tube joint 19 connected to the rear end of the slider 15, and a contact / separation mechanism 20 for bringing the slider 15 into and out of contact with the ink discharge port 5. The contact / separation mechanism 20 includes the carriage 14
And a connecting rod 23 connecting the plunger 22 and the tube joint 19 of the solenoid 21. The inside of the slider 15 and the cap 16 is formed in a hollow shape, and is connected to a negative pressure generating unit (not shown) via the tube joint 19 and the tube 24. The ink absorbing rollers 17 and 18 are made of an elastic material that easily absorbs liquid like a sponge. The width of the cap 16 is set to a narrow width corresponding to a part of the ink discharge ports 5.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a drive mechanism 25 for reciprocatingly driving the suction device 12 along the recording head 1 is provided. This drive mechanism 25
A screw rod 26 to which the carriage 14 is screwed, and a forward / reverse rotatable motor 27 to which one end of the screw rod 26 is connected.
And As shown in FIG. 2, a mark 28 is formed on the upper surface of the carriage 14 as identification means located on a vertical line passing through the center of the cap 16.

In such a configuration, after the recording paper is supplied to the leading edge of the recording head 1, an arbitrary ink ejection port 5 is formed.
The recording is performed by causing the ink to fly from above and causing the ink droplets to adhere to the recording paper. The principle of flying the ink in this embodiment is that a voltage is applied to the heating resistance layer 7 via the electrodes 8 and 9, bubbles are generated in the ink by the heat generated in the heat generating section 11, and the internal pressure due to the expansion of the bubbles is increased. Is a thermal ink jet system in which ink is caused to fly by the rise of the temperature.

Here, a method of using the above-described ink jet recording apparatus will be described. By observing the result of flying the ink from all the ink discharge ports 5 on the recording paper, it is possible to inspect the ink discharge ports 5 in which a problem such as clogging or idle hit occurs. If a problem occurs, the motor 27 is driven to move the carriage 14 so that the mark 28 is positioned with respect to the corresponding ink discharge port 5, and the cap 16 is moved by the suction action of the solenoid 21. To drive the negative pressure generator. Thereby, it is possible to suck out the ink from the ink discharge port 5 where the problem has occurred. As described above, the cap 16 can be moved together with the carriage 14 while viewing the mark 28 from the outside.
6 can be easily adjusted. Also,
By the movement of the carriage 14, ink and foreign matters adhering to the front edge of the recording head 1 are wiped by the ink absorbing rollers 17 and 18.

As described above, by sucking ink only from some of the ink discharge ports 5 where a problem has occurred,
In order to reduce the size of the cap 16 and reduce the suction force of the negative pressure generating portion, and to recover from problems such as clogging of the ink discharge ports 5, ink from all the ink discharge ports 5 is conventionally used. Ink consumption can be significantly reduced as compared with the method of sucking ink. Thereby, initial cost and running cost can be reduced.

In the above embodiment, the recording head 1 of the thermal ink jet system has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a piezoelectric element is used as a driving force for ink ejection, such as a Gould system described in US Pat. No. 3,683,212 (hereinafter referred to as USP), a stem system described in US Pat. The present invention is also applied to a drop-on-demand type recording head to be used. Also, USP 3,596,275
No. 3,298,030, a charge control type recording head known as a sweet type can be suitably used when a large number of nozzles are arranged to form a large array type. Further, the present invention is also applicable to a recording head of an electrostatic suction type known as a teletype system described in US Pat. No. 3,060,429, and a recording head known as a Hearts type described in US Pat. No. 3,416,153.

Further, in the present embodiment, a so-called edge shooter type in which ink is jetted in a direction substantially parallel to the heating resistor layer 7 has been described as an example.
As described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 95156, the present invention can be applied to a so-called side shooter type recording head that causes ink to fly in a direction substantially perpendicular to the heat generating resistance layer.

Further, as shown in FIG.
A large array type recording head 1 in which grooved plates 3 (small array type recording heads) each having a limited number of ink ejection ports 5 are alternately arranged in a staggered pattern on both surfaces of the present invention. The invention applies. Of course, various recording heads including the recording head 1 of the present embodiment may be changed to yellow, magenta,
It goes without saying that the present invention is also applicable to a color printer using a plurality of printers for each of the cyan and black colors.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The same parts as those in the above embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description is omitted. The printer body 29 includes the recording head 1, the suction device 12, a transport unit 31 that supplies roll paper 30 to the recording head 1, and a transport unit that supplies cut paper 32 in a paper cassette to the recording head 1. 33 are provided. Further, a cutter 34 for cutting the roll paper 30 is provided in the transport path of the roll paper 30. Further, a platen roller 35 and a pressing roller 36 that hold the supplied roll paper 30 or cut paper 32 in a tension state and face the recording head 1 are provided above and below the recording head 1.

Further, the printer body 29 has a storage means (not shown) in which a fixed test recording pattern output by the recording head 1 is stored, and an image recorded based on the test recording pattern is optically stored. A collating unit (not shown) for comparing the read result of the scanner 37 with the test recording pattern to detect the ink ejection port 5 in which a defect such as clogging or blanking occurs. A drive mechanism 25 is provided as drive means for driving the carriage (movable body) 14 to an arbitrary position on the recording head 1 based on the result of the check by the check means.

In such a configuration, the test recording pattern stored in the storage means is output by the recording head 1 before recording. Subsequently, the result of the test recording read by the scanner 37 and output from the CCD image sensor is collated with the test recording pattern stored in the storage unit by the collation unit. Exit 5 is automatically recognized. Based on the result, the driving means moves the cap 16 together with the carriage 14 to a desired position, and ink is sucked out according to the above-described operation. Therefore, operability can be significantly improved.

[0020]

According to the present invention, a small array type recording head is added to cover the width of the recording paper, so that the production yield of the recording head is high and the recording head can be produced at low cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a suction device.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional side view showing a suction device.

FIG. 4 is a horizontal sectional view showing a suction device.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged front view of a part of the recording head.

6 is a vertical sectional side view taken along line AA in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a horizontal sectional view taken along the line BB in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a front view showing another example of the recording head.

FIG. 9 is a side view schematically showing a printer and a scanner according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Recording head 5 Ink ejection port 14 Movable body 16 Cap 25 Driving means 28 Identification means 37 Scanner

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ink jet recording head that covers a recording paper width by adding a small array type recording head, two ink supply paths for supplying ink to the ink jet recording head, a cap covering an ink discharge port, and the cap An inkjet recording apparatus with a scanner, comprising: a reliability recovery mechanism internally connected to a negative pressure generating unit; a reading mechanism by a scanner; and a plurality of recording paper supply units.