JP2004160778A - Inkjet recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To thin an inkjet recording device without decreasing an ink suction force by a pump. <P>SOLUTION: The inkjet recording device is configured to have a tube 113 fitted into a cap 9 while communicating with a suction opening; press rollers 116a and 116b for pressing to elastically deform the tube 113; a pump roller 117 rotatably set with a face orthogonal to a rotary shaft disposed in a horizontal direction for holding the press rollers 116a and 116b; the pump 112; and a motor 119 for driving the pump 112 while having a face orthogonal to a rotary shaft arranged in the horizontal direction. The pump 112 rotates the pump roller 117 to move a pressing position of the tube 113 by the press rollers 116a and 116b, thereby sucking and removing ink from a discharge opening formation face of a recording head 2. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus that records an image by attaching ink ejected from a recording head to a recording medium.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Recording devices such as printers, copiers, and facsimile devices connected to computers and word processors are configured to form images on recording media such as paper or plastic thin plates based on image information. Type, wire dot type, thermal type, laser beam type, pen plot type, etc.
[0003]
Among them, an ink-jet type recording means (ink-jet head) uses a pressure change caused by the generation and shrinkage of bubbles due to film boiling formed by thermal energy applied by an electrothermal energy converter to a recording medium. One that is configured to perform recording by ejecting and flying ink, or one that performs recording by ejecting and flying ink to a recording medium by changing the volume of the ink chamber by an electromechanical transducer such as a piezo element There are things that are being done.
[0004]
Hereinafter, a conventional ink jet recording apparatus will be described.
[0005]
FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a part of a conventional ink jet printing apparatus in a cutaway manner, FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the vicinity of a recording head recovery unit in the ink jet printing apparatus shown in FIG. 5, and FIG. FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG.
[0006]
5 to 8, the inkjet recording apparatus 1 includes a carriage 4 on which a recording head 2 and an ink tank 3 are mounted. The carriage 4 is movable through a carriage shaft 5 arranged along the main scanning direction (the arrow X direction in FIG. 5), and is guided by the carriage shaft 5 while reciprocating in the main scanning direction. Printing is performed by ejecting ink from the recording head 2 to the recording medium 6. It should be noted that the recording medium 6 is conveyed in the sub-scanning direction (the direction of arrow Y in FIG. 5) orthogonal to the main scanning direction after the printing in the main scanning direction is performed once by the recording head 2. Such printing in the main scanning direction and conveyance in the sub-scanning direction are alternately repeated.
[0007]
At the home position of the carriage 4, a wiping member 7 for wiping (cleaning) an ejection port forming surface, which is an ink ejection surface of the recording head 2, is provided to be held by a wiping holding member 8. In addition, in the vicinity of the wiping member 7, at the time of printing standby, it is possible to prevent the ink in the discharge port of the recording head 2 and the ink around the discharge port from drying due to moisture evaporation and to reduce the print quality, and to suck the ink from the recording head 2. A cap 9 having a suction port at the time is provided while being held by a cap holding member 10.
[0008]
A tube 13 communicating with the suction port is attached to the cap 9, and part or all of the tube 13 is formed of an elastic body. A pump 12 for applying a suction force to the discharge port forming surface of the recording head 2 via the cap 9 is connected to the end of the tube 13 opposite to the cap 9. The pump 12 has a pump base 14 on which a semicircular tube regulating surface 15 is formed. Further, pressing rollers (pressing members) 16a and 16b for pressing the tube 13 along the tube regulating surface 15 and elastically deforming the tube 13 are held by a pump roller (pressing and holding member) 17 rotating around a rotation shaft 18. It is provided. The driving force from a motor (drive source) 19 is transmitted to the pump 12 by transmission members 20a, 20b, and 20c, which are gear trains.
[0009]
Accordingly, when the pump 12 is driven by the motor 19, the pump base 14 rotates, whereby the pressing position of the tube 13 by the pressing rollers 16 a and 16 b moves, and ink flows from the ejection port forming surface of the recording head 2 through the tube 13. Is removed by suction.
[0010]
An air release valve 11 that opens the inside of the cap 9 to the atmosphere when the cap 9 comes into close contact with the recording head 2 is attached to the cap 9 via a tube 21.
[0011]
Next, a description will be given of an ink suction operation of the conventional ink jet recording apparatus thus configured.
[0012]
In the printing state, as shown in FIG. 5, the recording head 2 and the cap 9 are separated. When the ink is sucked from the recording head 2, when the carriage 4 is stopped at the home position facing the cap 9, the cap 9 is raised and is brought into close contact with the recording head 2. Next, the atmosphere release valve 11 is brought to the closed position, and the force of the motor 19 is transmitted to the pump roller 17 via the transmission members 20a, 20b, 20c, and the pump roller 17 rotates about the rotation shaft 18 so that the pressing is performed. The rollers 16a and 16b continuously elastically deform the tube 13 disposed along the tube regulating surface 15 of the pump base 14, so that the ink is sucked by the pump 12 from the ejection port forming surface of the recording head 2 ( For example, see Patent Document 1).
[0013]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-6-8460, pp. 3-7, FIG.
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the above-described conventional ink jet recording apparatus, the height of the ink jet recording apparatus is reduced due to the size of a pump necessary for sucking ink from a recording head and a motor for moving the pump when downsizing, especially thinning. Becomes limited. That is, since the rotation axis of the pump roller and the rotation axis of the motor are arranged parallel to each other with respect to the height direction of the ink jet recording apparatus as in the related art, there is a problem that the ink jet recording apparatus cannot be made thin. there were.
[0015]
Further, when the pump performs the ink suction operation, the pressing roller rotates in the direction of gravity, so that the load of the motor greatly fluctuates due to the weight of the pressing roller. In order to rotate the motor at high speed, the motor size must be increased.
[0016]
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus that can be made thinner without reducing the ink suction force of a pump.
[0017]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve this problem, an ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention is provided with a recording head for ejecting ink on a recording medium, a carriage reciprocating in a main scanning direction, and a suction port for sucking ink. A cap that covers the ejection port molding surface from which ink is ejected, a wiping member that wipes the ejection port molding surface, a tube that is attached to the cap in communication with the suction port, and that is at least partially formed of an elastic body; A pressing member that presses the elastic body of the tube to elastically deform it, a rotatably provided surface orthogonal to the rotation axis is disposed in a horizontal direction, and a pressing holding member that holds the pressing member; and a pressing holding member. A pump that rotates to move the pressing position of the elastic body by the pressing member and sucks and removes ink from the ejection port forming surface of the recording head through a tube; A plane perpendicular to the are arranged in a horizontal direction, in which a structure and a driving source for driving the pump.
[0018]
Thus, it is possible to reduce the thickness without reducing the ink suction force of the pump.
[0019]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium on which a recording head for discharging ink is mounted, a carriage which reciprocates in a main scanning direction, and a suction port for sucking ink. A cap covering the formed discharge port surface, a wiping member for wiping the formed discharge port surface, a tube which is attached to the cap in communication with the suction port, and at least a part of which is formed of an elastic body; A pressing member that presses the pressing member to elastically deform the pressing member, a rotatably provided surface orthogonal to the rotation axis is disposed in a horizontal direction, and a pressing holding member that holds the pressing member, and pressing by rotating the pressing holding member. A pump that moves the pressing position of the elastic body by the member to suction and remove ink from the ejection port forming surface of the recording head through a tube, and a surface orthogonal to the rotation axis is arranged in a horizontal direction. Is, an ink jet recording apparatus and a driving source for driving the pump has the effect that it is possible to reduce the thickness of without lowering the ink suction force by the pump.
[0020]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the drive source further feeds the recording medium, drives the cap and the wiping member, and drives an atmosphere release valve that opens the inside of the cap to the atmosphere. This is an ink jet recording apparatus that performs at least one of the above, and has an effect that the number of parts and the number of assembly steps can be reduced.
[0021]
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In these drawings, the same members are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.
[0022]
FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view of an ink jet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view specifically showing the vicinity of a recording head recovery unit in the ink jet recording apparatus of FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of FIG.
[0023]
1 to 4, the inkjet recording apparatus 1 includes a carriage 4 on which a recording head 2 and an ink tank 3 are mounted. The carriage 4 is movable through a carriage shaft 5 arranged along the main scanning direction (the arrow X direction in FIG. 1), and is guided by the carriage shaft 5 while reciprocating in the main scanning direction. Printing is performed by ejecting ink from the recording head 2 to the recording medium 6. It should be noted that the recording medium 6 is conveyed in the sub-scanning direction (the direction of arrow Y in FIG. 1) orthogonal to the main scanning direction if the printing in the main scanning direction is performed once by the recording head 2. Such printing in the main scanning direction and conveyance in the sub-scanning direction are alternately repeated.
[0024]
The print head 2 includes a black print head that discharges black ink, a cyan print head that discharges cyan ink, a magenta print head that discharges magenta, and a yellow print head that discharges yellow ink. A plurality of nozzles (not shown) from which ink is ejected are formed. The above-described ink tanks 3 are provided corresponding to the recording heads 2 and store respective inks. The recording head 2 and the ink tank 3 are provided side by side in the main scanning direction, which is the direction in which the carriage 4 moves.
[0025]
The recording heads 2 may exist independently or may be integrated. The number of colors is four in the present embodiment, but is not limited to this, and may be any number of colors. In that case, the number of recording heads 2 and ink tanks 3 (or tubes for supplying ink from an external ink tank) and the like increase or decrease according to the number of colors.
[0026]
When ink is filled at a position corresponding to the nozzle of the recording head 2, a pressure chamber and a piezoelectric element are provided, and the piezoelectric element is deformed so as to reduce the volume of the pressure chamber by applying a pulsed voltage to the piezoelectric element. A piezoelectric actuator is provided (neither is shown). When the piezoelectric actuator is operated by a drive circuit (not shown) arranged around the carriage 4, the ink in the pressure chamber is positioned below the nozzle. The ink is ejected toward the recording medium 6. In this embodiment, a piezoelectric element is used as the actuator, but a conventionally known actuator such as a thermal method or an electrostatic method may be used.
[0027]
The recording head 2 is fixed to a carriage 4, and the carriage 4 can reciprocate in a main scanning direction along a carriage shaft 5.
[0028]
At the home position of the carriage 4, a wiping member 7 for wiping (cleaning) an ejection port forming surface, which is an ink ejection surface of the recording head 2, is provided to be held by a wiping holding member 8.
[0029]
The wiping member 7 is moved relative to the carriage 4 by the movement of the carriage 4 in the main scanning direction, and is movable in the vertical direction. When the carriage 4 is moved when the wiping member 7 is located above, recording is performed. The wiping (cleaning) operation of the head 2 is performed. Here, the wiping (cleaning) operation is performed by using the main scanning movement of the carriage 4, but the wiping holding member 8 is moved up and down, back and forth, and left and right by the motor 119 serving as a driving source and the wiping member movable mechanism. The wiping (cleaning) operation of the recording head 2 may be performed.
[0030]
In addition, in the vicinity of the wiping member 7, at the time of printing standby, it is possible to prevent the ink in the discharge port of the recording head 2 and the ink around the discharge port from drying due to moisture evaporation and to reduce the print quality, and to suck the ink from the recording head 2. A cap 9 serving as a suction port at the time or a receiving port for receiving ink that has been ejected idly from the recording head 2 is held by a cap holding member 10.
[0031]
The cap 9 moves vertically in a position facing the recording head 2 by the driving force of the motor 119, and can cover a nozzle (not shown) of the recording head 2. Here, the vertical movement of the cap 9 is performed by the motor 119, but the cap holding member 10 may be slid and moved in the vertical direction by the main scanning movement of the carriage 4. Further, one cap 9 may cover all color nozzles of the recording head 2, or the number of caps 9 may be increased or decreased according to the number of colors.
[0032]
A tube 113 communicating with the suction port is attached to the cap 9, and part or all of the tube 113 is formed of an elastic body. A pump 112 for applying a suction force to the discharge port forming surface of the recording head 2 via the cap 9 is connected to the end of the tube 113 opposite to the cap 9. The pump 112 has a pump base 114 having a semicircular tube regulating surface 115 formed thereon and a tube 113 attached along the tube regulating surface 115. Further, pressing rollers (pressing members) 116a and 116b for pressing the tube 113 along the tube regulating surface 115 and elastically deforming the tube 113 are held by a pump roller (pressing and holding member) 117 rotating around a rotation shaft 118. It is provided. The driving force from a motor (drive source) 119 is transmitted to the pump 112 by transmission members 20a, 20b, and 20c, which are gear trains. Although the number of pressing rollers is two in the present embodiment, one or three or more pressing rollers may be used.
[0033]
As shown in the figure, the pump roller 117 and the motor 119 rotate perpendicularly to the height direction of the ink jet recording apparatus, that is, the surface orthogonal to the rotation axis of the pump roller 117 and the motor 119 is oriented in the horizontal direction. , Is located.
[0034]
Then, when the pump 112 is driven by the motor 119, the pump base 114 rotates, whereby the pressing position of the tube 113 by the pressing rollers 116a and 116b moves, and ink (waste ink) is discharged from the ejection port forming surface of the recording head 2. It is removed by suction through the tube 113. Then, this waste ink is guided to a waste ink holding place (not shown) via the pump 113.
[0035]
An air release valve 11 that opens the inside of the cap 9 to the atmosphere when the cap 9 comes into close contact with the recording head 2 is attached to the cap 9 via a tube 21. Accordingly, the inside of the cap 9 is opened / closed to the atmosphere in accordance with the opening / closing of the atmosphere opening valve 11. The air release valve 11 may perform an opening and closing operation by driving an opening and closing member (not shown) with the driving force of the motor 119, or may be an electromagnetic valve.
[0036]
In addition to the operation of driving the pump 112, the motor 119 serving as a driving source operates in the vertical direction of the cap 9, the wiping (cleaning) operation of the wiping member 7, the opening and closing operation of the atmosphere release valve 11, and the feeding of the recording medium 6. At least one of the operations may be shared. This makes it possible to reduce the number of parts and the number of assembly steps.
[0037]
Next, an ink suction operation of the ink jet recording apparatus according to the present embodiment thus configured will be described.
[0038]
When the motor 119 of the driving source rotates, the driving force is transmitted to the gears 120a, 120b, 120c, and the pump roller 117 rotates in the direction of arrow a in FIG. Thus, the pressing rollers 116a and 116b held by the pump roller 117 rotate around the rotating shaft 118 in the direction of the arrow b in FIG. 4 while pressing the tube 113 against the tube regulating surface 115, thereby forming the tube 113. The pressing position of the elastic body moves and a negative pressure is generated in the space reaching the cap 9, and the waste ink is sucked from the nozzles of the recording head 2. The ink suction operation of the pump 112 may be performed when the cap 9 covers the nozzles of the recording head 2 or may be performed when the cap 9 does not cover the nozzles.
[0039]
In the present embodiment, as described above, the pump roller 117 holding the pressing rollers 116a and 116b for elastically deforming the tube 113 to generate a negative pressure, and the motor 119 serving as a driving source include a rotating shaft. Since the plane perpendicular to the horizontal direction is arranged in the horizontal direction, the thickness of the ink jet recording apparatus can be reduced.
[0040]
Further, during the ink suction operation of the pump 112, the pressing rollers 116a and 116b rotate in the horizontal direction, so that the load fluctuation on the motor 119 is reduced, and the pump roller 117 is rotated at high speed without increasing the size of the motor. This makes it possible to generate a strong suction force during the ink suction operation of the pump.
[0041]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, since the pressing and holding member and the driving source are arranged such that the plane orthogonal to the rotation axis is in the horizontal direction, the thickness of the inkjet recording apparatus can be reduced. This is an effective effect.
[0042]
Further, when the ink is suctioned by the pump, the pressing member rotates in the horizontal direction, so that the load fluctuation on the driving source is reduced, the pressing and holding member can be rotated at a high speed, and strong suction is performed during the ink suction operation of the driving source. An effective effect that a force can be generated can be obtained.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view of an ink jet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 3 is a side view of FIG. 2; FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 3; FIG. FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing in detail the vicinity of a recording head recovery section in the recording apparatus. FIG. 7 is a plan view of FIG. 6; FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view taken along line BB of FIG.
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Ink jet recording apparatus 2 Recording head 4 Carriage 6 Recording medium 7 Wiping member 9 Cap 112 Pump 113 Tubes 116a and 116b Pressing roller (pressing member)
117 pump roller (press and hold member)
119 Motor (drive source)

Claims (2)

A carriage mounted with a recording head for discharging ink on a recording medium, and reciprocating in a main scanning direction;
A cap having a suction port for sucking ink, and covering a discharge port forming surface from which ink is discharged in the recording head;
A wiping member for wiping the discharge port forming surface,
A tube attached to the cap in communication with the suction port, at least a part of which is formed of an elastic body,
A pressing member that presses the elastic body of the tube to elastically deform it,
A pressing and holding member that is rotatably provided and a surface orthogonal to the rotation axis is arranged in the horizontal direction, and holds the pressing member,
A pump that rotates the pressing and holding member to move a pressing position of the elastic body by the pressing member, and sucks and removes ink from the discharge port forming surface of the recording head through the tube;
An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a drive source for driving the pump, wherein a surface orthogonal to a rotation axis is arranged in a horizontal direction. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the driving source further performs at least one of feeding of the recording medium, driving of the cap and the wiping member, and driving of an air release valve that opens the inside of the cap to the atmosphere. 2. The ink jet recording apparatus according to 1.

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