JP2003048330A - Ink cartridge take-out regulator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ink cartridge take-out regulator arranged such that any of a plurality of ink cartridges cannot be taken out at the home position thereof when a carriage is in print mode. SOLUTION: A recorder body 3 having an opening 11 for loading/removing a cartridge, a carriage 13 having a section 23 for capable of containing a plurality of ink cartridges 17 and performing scanning in the recorder body, and a cover 25 disposed to be opened/closed freely above the containing section of the carriage and blocking take-out of the contained ink cartridge upon closure are provided. A home position where the carriage is located when print operation is not performed in print mode and a replacing position where the carriage is located in the opening for loading/removing the cartridge in maintenance mode are provided, and the cover cannot be opened when the carriage is located at the home position.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a carriage capable of accommodating a plurality of ink cartridges and, more particularly, to an ink cartridge ejection regulation device that functions when the carriage is located at a home position and an ink jet provided with the regulation device. Type printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional ink jet color printer, each color ink is stored separately in a single cartridge. Therefore, when one color ink is used up, the entire cartridge must be replaced even if other colors remain. did not become. On the other hand, recently, a product has been developed in which each color ink required for color printing is placed in each independent cartridge, and when one color ink is exhausted, only that color ink cartridge can be replaced independently. Has been done.

In such a carriage that accommodates a plurality of ink cartridges, since the width of each ink cartridge is narrow, when the carriage is at the home position which is located when printing is not performed, some ink cartridges If the structure faces the opening for maintenance, the user can inadvertently take out the ink cartridge and return it to the original position. However, when the user inserts or removes the ink cartridge, that is, when the ink cartridge is removed, for example, when the ink cartridge is removed, air enters the ink supply needle provided on the carriage side, and when the ink cartridge is installed again, the ink There arises a problem that air remains in the supply needle. If printing is performed in this state, the ink supply is cut off in the air-filled portion, so that a faint print or a non-printed portion occurs.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to take out any of a plurality of ink cartridges when the carriage is at the home position in order to prevent such a printing defect that may be caused by a user's action. It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink cartridge take-out regulation device in which the loading / unloading position of the ink cartridge is provided separately from the home position, and an ink jet printer including the regulation device.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, an ink cartridge ejection restricting device according to a first aspect of the present invention includes a recording device main body having a cartridge loading / unloading opening, and a recording device main body having the cartridge loading / unloading opening. A carriage that is scannable and includes a storage unit that can store a plurality of ink cartridges, and a carriage that is openably and closably provided above the storage unit of the carriage and that makes it impossible to take out the ink cartridge stored in the storage unit when closed. With a cover,
The carriage has a home position that is located when the carriage is not performing printing within its scannable range, and a replacement position that the carriage is located within the cartridge loading / unloading opening during maintenance. When in the position, the cover is configured to be unopenable.

According to the present invention, when the carriage is at the home position, the cover cannot be opened, so that the user cannot accidentally pull out the ink cartridge or re-install it. Therefore, problems such as air entering the ink supply needle and causing a problem in printing can be reliably prevented. On the other hand, when the ink in the ink cartridge is exhausted, the user switches to the maintenance mode so that the carriage comes to the replacement position, so that the cover can be opened to replace the ink cartridge. In the maintenance mode, since the air bleeding operation inside the ink supply needle is automatically performed when the ink cartridge is replaced, no trouble occurs in printing.

Further, in the ink cartridge ejection restricting device according to claim 2 of the present application, in claim 1, the cover can be pivotally opened upward about a pivotal fulcrum, and at the home position. Is characterized in that at least a part of the cover is in contact with the inner surface of the recording apparatus main body to restrict the rotation of the cover. According to the present invention, when the carriage is located at the home position, even if the cover is rotated upward to open it, a part of the cover comes into contact with the inner surface of the recording apparatus main body and physically rotates. Can not.

Further, in the ink cartridge take-out restricting device according to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, the home position is the cartridge loading / unloading opening corresponding to the replacement position in the scanning direction of the carriage. And a part of the carriage faces the cartridge loading / unloading opening when the carriage is at the home position.

According to the present invention, when the home position is changed to the exchange position or vice versa, the home position and the exchange position are easily switched in a short time by simply scanning the carriage. be able to. Further, when the carriage is located at the home position, a part of the carriage faces the cartridge loading / unloading opening, that is, the home position and the replacement position partially overlap. In providing the home position for positioning the carriage at the time of printing, it is possible to obtain the effect that the size of the recording apparatus main body in the width direction does not need to be increased by a large amount.

The ink cartridge take-out restricting device according to claim 4 of the present application is the device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein each of the plurality of ink cartridges contains ink of a different color. The back surface of the cover is provided with a display indicating the position in the storage portion where the ink cartridge of each color should be inserted. According to the present invention, when the ink cartridge is exchanged with the cover opened, the color display provided on the newly inserted ink cartridge is compared with the display provided on the back surface of the cover to compare the ink cartridge. It is possible to prevent erroneous mounting. In particular, the effect is remarkable when a plurality of ink cartridges are replaced together.

An ink jet printer according to a fifth aspect of the present invention is characterized by including the ink cartridge ejection regulation device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects. According to the inkjet printer of the present invention, it is possible to reliably prevent a user from accidentally removing the ink cartridge from the carriage located at the home position or re-installing the ink cartridge. Printing problems can be resolved.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an ink jet printer 1 to which a cartridge ejection restricting device according to the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is a plan view of an ink jet printer to which the ejection restricting device for an ink cartridge of the present invention is applied, showing a state in which the carriage is located at the exchange position. FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view showing the vicinity of the cartridge loading / unloading opening. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a state in which the cover of the carriage can be opened to replace the ink cartridge.

The ink jet printer 1 comprises a printer main body 3, a paper feed section 5 provided in the upper rear part of the printer main body 3, and a paper discharge section 7 formed in front of the printer main body 3. A notch 9 that is long in the width direction is formed on the upper surface of the printer body 3, and the right side of the notch 9 has a dimension that is longer in the front-rear direction than the other parts of the notch 9, and will be described later. A cartridge loading / unloading opening 11 that is slightly larger than the carriage is formed.

Inside the printer body 3, a support bar 15 is provided.
A carriage 13 that can scan in the left-right direction is provided. The carriage 13 stands by at the home position located on the right side of the printer body 3 when the printing operation is not performed (state shown in FIG. 1). The present invention relates to the relationship between the home position of the carriage 13 and the cartridge mountable exchange position. Before describing the relationship, the structures of the carriage 13 and the ink cartridges 17 mounted on the carriage 13 will be described.

As shown in FIG. 5, the carriage 13 is in the form of a bucket having an open upper surface, a print head 19 is provided at the lower end thereof, and a support bar 15 is provided at the rear surface.
A guide portion 21 guided by is formed. A storage unit 23 for storing a plurality of ink cartridges 17 is formed inside the carriage 13, and the storage state of the ink cartridge 17 is maintained above the storage unit 23 so that the ink cartridge 17 can be taken out carelessly. A cover 25 is provided so that it cannot be performed.

The cover 25 pivots upward on the front side about a pivot fulcrum 27 on the front side, so that the storage section 23 is rotated.
The upper part of is opened to allow the ink cartridge 17 to be taken in and out. Ink cartridge 1 on cover 25
A window portion 29 is formed corresponding to the position of the 7 color display portion 28 so that the color display portion 28 can be seen. Also cover 2
On the back surface of No. 5, an ink color display (not shown) and a color name display (not shown) are attached to show the set positions of the ink cartridges 17 of the respective colors.

Here, the ink cartridge 17 housed in the carriage 13 will be described. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the seven types of ink cartridges 17 used in the present invention as seen from below, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the side surface and the top surface side of the ink cartridges. FIG. 8 is an enlarged perspective view showing the inside of the carriage housing, and FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a state in which some ink cartridges are housed in the carriage housing.

There are seven types of ink cartridges, dark yellow, black, dark cyan, light cyan, dark magenta, light magenta, and yellow in this order from the far right side of FIG.
It distinguishes as 7a-17g. Each ink cartridge 1
7a to 17g are separated from each other so that they can be replaced independently of each other, and the action of the snap fitting portion 26 allows the ink cartridge to be fixed by being snap fit into a predetermined position of the housing portion 23 of the carriage 13. ing.

An ink supply unit 31 for supplying ink to the print head 19 is formed on the lower surface of each of the ink cartridges 17a to 17g, and each ink cartridge is located on the front side when the lower surface of the cartridge is mounted. 1
Engagement guide portions 33a to 33g for confirming the positions of 7a to 17g in the storage portion 23 are formed. Each of the engagement guide portions 33a to 33g is configured by a combination of various shapes of the protruding ribs 35 and the receiving recesses 37, and the combination of the shapes of the protruding ribs 35 and the receiving recesses 37 depends on the ink color. Different for each.

The ink cartridges 17a to 17g have such a structure, and the structure of the carriage 13 corresponding to such an ink cartridge will be described below. FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing the inside of the storage portion 23 of the carriage 13. An ink receiving portion 38 is formed on the lower surface of the storage portion 23 at a position corresponding to the ink supply portion 31 of each of the ink cartridges 17a to 17g. The ink receiving portion 38 has an ink supply needle 40 that communicates with the print head 19. Is provided. The ink supply needle 40 can guide the ink to the print head 19 by being stuck in the ink supply unit 31 of the ink cartridge 17.

Engagement receiving portions 39a to 39g are formed on the lower surface of the housing portion 23 at positions corresponding to the engaging guide portions 33a to 33g of the ink cartridges 17a to 17g. Each of the engagement receiving portions 39a to 39g has a projecting rib 35 and a receiving concave portion 37 corresponding to the engagement guide portions 33a to 33g of each ink cartridge, and each engagement receiving portion 39a to 39g has a relationship like a key and a lock. The parts 39a to 39g are adapted to engage only with the corresponding specific engagement guide parts 33a to 33g.

By adopting such a structure, for example, the yellow ink cartridge 17g is accommodated in the accommodating portion 23.
Even if an attempt is made to set it at a position other than a predetermined position (that is, a position where the engagement receiving portion 39g is formed), the engagement guide portion 33g of the yellow ink cartridge 17g does not engage the engagement receiving portion 39g. Since it is not possible to engage with any of the receiving portions 39a to 39f, it is possible to reliably prevent the cartridge from being erroneously set to a position other than the predetermined position. Since such a relationship is applicable to all the ink cartridges except for the case of the black ink described later, all the ink cartridges 17a to 17g can be set at the predetermined positions without making a mistake.

In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8, the engagement receiving portion 39b at the position for setting the black ink cartridge 17b has the form of the engagement receiving portion 39a at the position for setting the dark yellow ink cartridge 17a. Almost the same, the specific rib 42 in the engagement receiving portion 39b
The only difference is that b is longer than the specific rib 42a in the engagement receiving portion 39a. Corresponding to this, the specific rib 42 in the dark yellow ink cartridge 17a
The receiving recess 44a at a position corresponding to a is provided with the specific rib 42
The length corresponds to the length of a, and the receiving recess 44b at the position corresponding to the specific rib 42b in the black ink cartridge 17b has the length corresponding to the length of the specific rib 42b. There is.

As a result, the black ink cartridge 17b is originally the dark yellow ink cartridge 1
7a can also be set at the position (the rightmost position in FIG. 8) where the dark yellow ink cartridge 17a should originally be set in the black ink cartridge 17b (from the rightmost position in FIG. 8). The second position) cannot be set.

By adopting such a structure, in the text printing with the black ink, the dark ink cartridge 17a is set in addition to the original position of the black ink cartridge 17b in the storage section 23. The position can be set (the rightmost position in FIG. 8). This doubles the number of nozzles in the ink cartridge that supplies the black ink. Therefore, if only two passes (the head must pass the same line twice) can be used to print beautiful text, the first pass (head It is possible to perform similar printing by passing only once. As a result, the printing throughput can be increased. On the other hand, since the color printing can be performed even if the dark yellow ink is not present, the dark yellow ink cartridge 17a may be used only when high quality color printing is desired.

In this embodiment, the engagement guide portions 33a to 33 are provided.
g is constituted by a combination of the projecting rib 35 and the receiving concave portion 37, and each of the engaging receiving portions 39a to 39g has a form corresponding thereto, but in addition to this, for example, as shown in FIG. One of the guide portion 33 or the engagement receiving portion 39 includes a protrusion 41 that extends in a vertical direction at a predetermined position,
The other has a receiving hole 43 at a position that exactly corresponds to the position of the protrusion 41, which can receive the protrusion 41, and the positions of the protrusion 41 and the receiving hole 43 are changed for each ink cartridge 17a to 17g. You may do it.

Further, as shown in FIG. 11, one of the engagement guide portion 33 and the engagement receiving portion 39 is provided with a shape projection 45 having, for example, a triangular shape or a square shape, and the other is provided at a position corresponding to the shape projection 45. A shape recess 47 having a shape and a size exactly matching the shape projection 45 is provided, and the shape of the shape projection 45 and the shape recess 47 are formed in each ink cartridge 17.
It may be changed every a to 17 g.

Next, returning to FIGS. 1 to 4, the replacement position of the ink cartridge 17, which is a feature of the present invention, will be described. As described above, the carriage 13 stands by at the home position located on the right side of the printer body 3 when the printing operation is not performed (state shown in FIG. 1). When the carriage 13 is located at the home position, a substantially right third portion of the carriage 13 is located on the right side of the cartridge loading / unloading opening 11 in the printer body 3 (reference numeral 4).
(Indicated by 9).

As is apparent from FIG. 1, in this state, the cover 25 is in contact with the inside of the printer body 3 and cannot be opened, so that the printer user mistakenly takes out and reinserts the ink cartridge 17. Can't do. Therefore, when the ink cartridge 17 is taken out, air enters the ink supply needle 40, and it is possible to prevent such a problem that the supply of ink is temporarily interrupted during printing.

Any one of the ink cartridges 1 can be used by the user.
In order to replace No. 7, it is necessary to press the operation button 51 on the printer body 3 to switch from the print mode to the maintenance mode. When switched to the maintenance mode, the carriage 13 moves slightly from the position shown in FIG. 1 to the left side, and the cartridge loading / unloading opening 11 as shown in FIG.
To be located inside. Since the cover 25 can be rotated upward at this position, the user opens the cover 25 and the ink cartridge 1 running out of ink.
You can take out 7 and replace it with a new one.

Even if the user does not notice that the color of the ink in the new ink cartridge 17 is different from the desired one, even if the user tries to set the ink in the storage portion 23, the engagement guide portion 33 and the engagement receiving portion 39 described above are not used. Since the ink cartridge 17 cannot fit in the storage portion 23 due to the mismatch of the shapes, the user cannot select the ink cartridge 1 of the wrong color.
You can see I was trying to set 7.

By pressing the operation button 51 again after replacing the ink cartridge 17 in the maintenance mode, the air discharging operation is started to remove the air that has entered the ink supply needle 40 when the ink cartridge 17 is inserted. When the air discharging operation is completed, the carriage 13 returns to the home position, and the print mode is set.

[0033]

According to the present invention, since the cover cannot be opened when the carriage is at the home position, the user cannot accidentally remove the ink cartridge or re-install it. Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent air from entering the ink supply needle and causing a problem in printing. On the other hand, when the ink in the ink cartridge is exhausted, the user switches to the maintenance mode so that the carriage comes to the replacement position, so that the cover can be opened to replace the ink cartridge. In the maintenance mode, since the air bleeding operation inside the ink supply needle is automatically performed when the ink cartridge is replaced, no trouble occurs in printing.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an inkjet printer to which an ink cartridge ejection regulation device of the present invention is applied,
The state where the carriage is located at the home position is shown.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of an inkjet printer to which the ink cartridge ejection restricting device of the invention is applied.
The state where the carriage is located at the exchange position is shown.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view showing the vicinity of the cartridge loading / unloading opening.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a state where an ink cartridge can be replaced by opening a cover of a carriage.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of a carriage.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the lower surface side of seven types of ink cartridges.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a side surface and an upper surface side of seven types of ink cartridges.

FIG. 8 is an enlarged perspective view showing the inside of the storage portion of the carriage.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a state where some ink cartridges are stored in the storage portion of the carriage.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a form in which the positions of the protrusions and the receiving holes corresponding to the protrusions are changed in order to prevent the incorrect mounting of the ink cartridge.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing a form in which the shape protrusion and the shape recess are changed in order to prevent the ink cartridge from being erroneously attached.

[Explanation of symbols]

3 Printer body 9 Notch 11 Cartridge loading / unloading opening 13 carriage 17, 17a-17g ink cartridge 19 print head 23 Storage 25 covers 26 Snap fitting 27 Rotation fulcrum 28-color display 29 window 31 Ink supply section 33, 33a to 33g Engagement guide portion 35 protruding rib 37 receiving recess 38 Ink receiving part 39, 39a to 39g Engagement receiving portion 40 ink supply needle 41 Protrusion 42a, 42b Specific rib 43 receiving hole 44a, 44b receiving recess 45-shaped protrusion 47 shaped recess 49 Printer area 51 operation buttons

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A recording apparatus main body having a cartridge loading / unloading opening, a carriage having a storage section capable of scanning in the recording apparatus main body and capable of storing a plurality of ink cartridges, and an upper section of the storage section of the carriage. A cover that is openable and closable and that prevents the ink cartridge stored in the storage unit from being taken out when closed, and is located when the carriage is not performing printing operation within its scannable range. A position and a replacement position in which the carriage is located in the cartridge loading / unloading opening during maintenance, and the cover is configured to be unopenable when the carriage is in the home position. Control device for removing ink cartridges. 2. The cover according to claim 1, wherein the cover can be pivotally opened upward about a pivot, and at the home position, at least a part of the cover is an inner surface of the recording apparatus main body. An ink cartridge take-out restricting device, characterized in that the cover is restricted by contacting with the ink cartridge. 3. The home position according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the home position is slightly displaced in a scanning direction of the carriage from a cartridge loading / unloading opening corresponding to the replacement position, and the carriage is at the home position. A part of the carriage faces the cartridge loading / unloading opening when being positioned, and an ink cartridge ejection regulation device. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein
The plurality of ink cartridges store inks of different colors, and the back surface of the cover is provided with an indication indicating the position in the storage portion into which the ink cartridges of each color should be inserted. Cartridge removal regulation device. 5. An ink jet printer comprising the ink cartridge ejection regulation device according to any one of claims 1 to 4.