JP2003237162A - Recording medium transfer auxiliary member - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recording medium transfer auxiliary member which can carry out margin-less printing without staining a platen with ink. <P>SOLUTION: The recording medium transfer auxiliary member 10 has a plate-shaped base part 12 having a predetermined size surface. An ink receiving part 14 for receiving ink is formed at the surface of the base part 12. Many cylindrical recording medium fixing parts 16 project from the base member 12. Upper parts of the cylindrical recording medium fixing parts 16 are positioned upper than the ink receiving part 14, and a recording medium 20 is fixed above the ink receiving part 14 to upper faces 16a of the recording medium fixing parts 16. The ink receiving part 14 is constituted of a porous ink absorber for absorbing ink. The upper face 16a of the recording medium fixing part 16 has a tackiness. The recording medium 20 is fixed releasably to the recording medium fixing parts 16. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording medium conveyance assisting member that fixes a recording medium and conveys it integrally with the recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As one of output devices for computers and workstations, an ink jet type image forming apparatus is known which ejects ink onto a recording medium such as recording paper to form an image. This ink jet type image forming apparatus generally includes a print head having a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink, a carriage that carries the print head and reciprocates in the main scanning direction, and a platen on which a recording medium is placed. It has and.

When an image is formed on a recording medium by such an ink jet type image forming apparatus, the recording medium being conveyed on the platen is temporarily stopped and the carriage is reciprocated in the main scanning direction while the image information is recorded. Ink is selectively ejected from a plurality of nozzles based on an image signal carrying
An image for one band is formed on the portion of the recording medium located in the image forming area facing the nozzle outlet (ink ejection port). After that, the recording medium is conveyed by the width of one band and stopped, and while the carriage reciprocates in the main scanning direction again, ink is ejected from the nozzles based on the image signal, and the ink is discharged to the image forming area of the recording medium. An image is formed on the newly located portion. An image is formed on the recording medium by repeating such operations.

By the way, there are cases where it is desired to form an image (printing without a margin) so that there is no margin when forming an image on a recording medium. The margin here refers to a region (portion) where the image is not formed, which is a peripheral region of the recording medium. In order to form an image on a recording medium without a blank space, the image forming area (printing range) in which the image is formed needs to match the size of the recording medium. However, in order to match the image forming area and the recording medium size in this way, it is necessary to maintain the position of the recording medium on the platen and the position of the print head with high accuracy. It is actually very difficult to maintain such a position with high accuracy.

Therefore, an ink receiver for receiving ink is provided on the platen, and image data having a size larger than that of the recording medium is printed in a print range exceeding the size of the recording medium.
A technique has been proposed in which the excess ink is received by an ink receiver and collected. Further, the formed margin may be cut off by the user to form a recording medium having no margin.

[0006]

In the technique of providing the above-described ink receiver on the platen, the platen is provided with an ink receiver having a size suitable for the recording medium. Therefore, in an image forming apparatus in which such an ink receiver is not provided on the platen, blankless printing cannot be performed.

Further, even in the image forming apparatus capable of printing without margins, the size of the recording medium capable of printing without margins is determined. For this reason, for example, when printing without margins on a postcard-sized recording medium using an image forming apparatus capable of printing without margins on an A4-sized recording medium, ink mist may adhere to the platen. The ink mist adhering to the platen may stain the A4 size recording medium to be printed next. In order to prevent such stains, it is necessary to clean the platen, for example, each time a postcard-sized recording medium is printed without margins. Since this platen is installed on the main body of the apparatus, it is difficult to clean the platen.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a recording medium conveyance assisting member capable of printing without margins without staining the platen with ink.

[0009]

A recording medium conveyance assisting member of the present invention for achieving the above object is (1) a plate-shaped base portion having a surface of a predetermined area, and (2) a base portion of the base portion. An ink receiving portion formed on the surface for receiving ink, and (3)
A recording medium fixing portion for fixing the recording medium above the ink receiving portion is provided.

Here, (4) the ink receiving portion may be composed of an ink absorber that absorbs ink.

(5) The ink receiving portion may be provided with a groove into which ink flows.

Further, the recording medium conveyance assisting member is (6)
A position display indicating a reference position when fixing the recording medium may be formed on the recording medium fixing portion.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a recording medium conveyance assisting member of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. [First Embodiment]

A first embodiment of a recording medium conveyance assisting member will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

FIG. 1A is a plan view showing an example of a recording medium conveyance assisting member, and FIG. 1B is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 2A is a plan view showing the recording medium conveyance assisting member of FIG. 1 with the recording paper fixed, and FIG.
It is a BB sectional view of (a). FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a state in which an image is formed on the recording paper while the recording paper is being conveyed together with the recording medium conveyance auxiliary member.

The recording medium conveyance assisting member 10 is a plate-shaped member on which the recording medium 20 such as recording paper is fixed and which is conveyed integrally with the recording medium 20. The recording medium conveyance assisting member 10 is a plate-shaped base portion 1 having a surface of a predetermined size.
Have two. An ink receiving portion 14 that receives ink is formed on the surface of the base portion 12. Base part 12
A large number of cylindrical recording medium fixing portions 16 are projected from. The upper portion of the cylindrical recording medium fixing portion 16 is located above the ink receiving portion 14, and the ink receiving portion 14
The recording medium 20 is positioned above the upper surface 16 of the recording medium fixing portion 16.
It is fixed to a.

The base portion 12 is made of, for example, resin and is flexible. The ink receiving portion 14 is composed of a porous ink absorber that absorbs ink. The ink attached to the ink receiving portion 14 is immediately absorbed by the ink receiving portion 14.

It is desirable that the upper surface 16a of the recording medium fixing portion 16 be adhesive, so that the recording medium 20 is detachably fixed to the recording medium fixing portion 16. The entire recording medium fixing portion 16 may be made to have adhesiveness.

A position indicator 18 is formed on the surface of the ink receiving portion 14 to indicate a reference position when the recording medium 20 is fixed to the recording medium fixing portion 16. The position indicator 18 is composed of two orthogonal lines. When fixing the recording medium 20 to the recording medium conveyance assisting member 10, as shown in FIG. 2, the corner of the recording medium 20 is aligned with the corner of the position indicator 18, and the recording surface (printing surface) of the recording medium 20 is turned up. By fixing the recording medium 20 to the recording medium fixing portion 16 as described above, the recording medium 20 can be accurately fixed to the reference position of the recording medium conveyance assisting member 10.

As described above, the recording medium conveyance assisting member 1
A process of performing marginless printing on the recording medium 20 fixed at 0 will be described.

In order to perform printing without margins on the recording medium 20 fixed to the recording medium conveyance assisting member 10, the recording medium conveyance assisting member 10 is placed on the platen 22 with the recording medium 20 facing upward. Subsequently, the recording medium conveyance assisting member 10 is nipped by the conveyance roller 24 having a part of the outer peripheral surface exposed through an opening (not shown) formed in the platen 22 and the pinch roller 26 that holds the conveyance roller 24 from above. Meanwhile, the recording medium 20 and the recording medium conveyance auxiliary member 10 are rotated by rotating the conveyance roller 24 by a conveyance motor (not shown).
Is conveyed in the direction of arrow C.

The recording medium 20 being conveyed is temporarily stopped, and the carriage 28 is reciprocated above the recording medium 20 in the main scanning direction (the direction of arrow D) while the image data carrying the image information is carried out. Ink is ejected from the print head 30 to form an image for one band on a portion of the recording medium 20 facing the print head 30. When forming an image for one band, the length of one band is set to the recording medium 20.
Ink is ejected from the print head 30 by determining the image data so as to be larger than the width (length in the direction of arrow D). Such image data is formed by the user previously designating the image data size to be larger than the size of the recording medium 20. Alternatively, the image forming apparatus may be configured to automatically perform printing without margins by selecting the use of the recording medium conveyance assisting member 10 with a printer driver or the like.

Of the ink ejected from the print head 30, the ink that has come off the recording medium 20 (that has not adhered to the recording medium 20) adheres to the ink receiving portion 14 and is absorbed. After forming an image for one band on the recording medium 20, the recording medium 20 is conveyed together with the recording medium conveyance assisting member 10 by a width corresponding to one band and stopped, and the carriage 28 is reciprocated in the main scanning direction again. Ink is ejected from the print head 30 based on the image data, and an image for one band is formed on a portion of the recording medium 20 facing the print head 30. By repeating such an operation, an image is formed on the entire recording medium 20 without any margin.

As described above, the recording medium conveyance assisting member 1
By fixing the recording medium 20 to 0 and ejecting ink from the print head 30 while integrally conveying these,
The ink removed from the recording medium 20 is received by the ink receiving portion 14. Therefore, even if the inkjet type image forming apparatus does not support printing without margins, the platen 22
It is possible to print without margins without making the ink dirty. Therefore, it is not necessary to clean the platen 22 every time printing is performed without a margin. Further, by removing the recording medium 20 from the recording medium conveyance assisting member 10 after printing without margins on the recording medium 20, the recording medium conveyance assisting member 10 can be easily cleaned. Moreover, since the recording medium 20 is fixed above the ink receiving portion 14, the ink received by the ink receiving portion 14 does not adhere to the recording medium 20.

Although the recording medium fixing portion 16 is projected from the base portion 12 in this embodiment, the recording medium fixing portion may be projected from the ink receiving portion formed on the surface of the base portion 12. Further, although the recording medium fixing portion is illustrated in a cylindrical shape, it is not limited to this and may be a spherical shape. [Second Embodiment]

Another example of the recording medium conveyance assisting member will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing another example of the recording medium conveyance assisting member.

The characteristic feature of the recording medium conveyance assisting member 40 is that it has an ink receiving portion 42 in which a groove 42a into which ink flows is formed. The grooves 42a are formed innumerable vertically and horizontally. Therefore, the ink receiving portion 42 is the side wall of the groove 42a, and the base portion 12 is the bottom wall of the groove 42a.

By thus forming the groove 42a into which the ink flows in the ink receiving portion 42, the ink received by the ink receiving portion 42 flows into the groove 42a, so that not only ink scattering can be prevented but also the ink is recorded. It can be more reliably prevented from adhering to the medium.

[0030]

As described above, when a recording medium having a smaller width than the ink receiving portion is fixed to the recording medium fixing portion of the recording medium conveyance assisting member of the present invention and ink is ejected onto the recording medium. The ink removed from the recording medium is received by the ink receiving portion. Therefore, even with an ink jet type image forming apparatus that is not compatible with marginless printing, marginless printing can be performed without soiling the platen with ink. Therefore, it is not necessary to clean the platen every time printing is performed without a margin.
In addition, by removing the recording medium from the recording medium conveyance assisting member after printing on the recording medium without margins, the recording medium conveyance assisting member can be easily cleaned. Further, since the recording medium is fixed above the ink receiving portion, the ink received by the ink receiving portion does not adhere to this recording medium.

Here, in the case where the ink receiving portion is composed of an ink absorber that absorbs ink, the ink received by the ink receiving portion is absorbed by the ink receiving portion, so It can prevent scattering.

In the case where the ink receiving portion is formed with a groove through which the ink flows, the ink received by the ink receiving portion flows into the groove, so that not only the ink scattering is prevented but also the ink is prevented. It can be more reliably prevented from adhering to the recording medium.

Further, when the position indication indicating the reference position when fixing the recording medium is formed on the recording medium fixing portion, the recording medium can be accurately fixed at the reference position.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1A is a plan view showing an example of a recording medium conveyance auxiliary member, and FIG. 1B is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG.

2A is a plan view showing the recording medium conveyance assisting member of FIG. 1 with a recording paper fixed, and FIG. 2B is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a state in which an image is formed on a recording sheet while the recording sheet is being conveyed together with a recording medium conveyance auxiliary member.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing another example of the recording medium conveyance auxiliary member.

[Explanation of symbols]

10, 40 Recording medium conveyance auxiliary member 12 Base 14,42 Ink receiver 16 Recording medium fixed part 20 recording media 42a groove

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plate-shaped base portion having a surface of a predetermined area, an ink receiving portion formed on the surface of the base portion for receiving ink, and a recording medium fixed above the ink receiving portion. A recording medium conveyance assisting member, comprising: a recording medium fixing portion to be placed. 2. The recording medium conveyance assisting member according to claim 1, wherein the ink receiving portion is composed of an ink absorber that absorbs ink. 3. The recording medium conveyance auxiliary member according to claim 1, wherein the ink receiving portion is formed with a groove into which ink flows. 4. The recording medium conveyance assisting member according to claim 1, wherein a position display indicating a reference position when fixing the recording medium is formed on the recording medium fixing portion.