JP2004299401A - Ink jet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ink jet printer capable of printing without leaving unprinted parts at the edges of a recording medium. <P>SOLUTION: The ink jet printer for printing, by an ink jet system, a recording medium dispensed and transferred from a cartridge comprises a recording medium transfer means 221 to transfer the recording medium, a head carriage means 202 to mount a print head, and a print drive control means 100 to control the above means and set a printing range for the recording medium. The print drive control means 100 sets the ranges of printing by the print head in the transfer direction and in the direction orthogonal to the transfer direction up to the positions outside the edges based on the size of each recording medium in order to print without leaving unprinted parts at the edges of the recording medium. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a printer having an inkjet print head. More specifically, the present invention relates to an ink jet printer capable of painting a surface of a recording medium such as a tape without gaps.

  Various types of inkjet printers are known. In these printers, the printable range is individually set for a specified recording medium size, and usually, the print range is set to be upper, lower, right, Defined as left margin. Each margin is set to a value within a range of about 3 to 13 mm. Therefore, there has not been proposed a printing medium capable of printing up to the edge of the recording medium.

  As an ink jet printer, a small printer configured to perform color printing on a tape of each color as a recording medium has been proposed. This type of small ink jet printer supplies color ink on a tape by supplying ink from ink tanks of cyan (C), magenta (M) and yellow (Y) to an ink jet type print head. It can be performed.

  As a tape, an adhesive layer is formed on the back side of the tape, the adhesive layer is covered with release paper, cut to a fixed length after printing, and peeled off the release paper, as a label at the desired place Some can be pasted. Printers that perform printing on such tapes are called label printers, label word processors, and the like, and have been on the market in recent years.

  When printing (solid printing) is performed on a recording medium, for example, a tape without gaps, using this ink jet printer, there is a problem that an uncoated portion may be left on the edge of the tape (for example, in the width direction). There is.

  In other words, if the print head is reciprocated in the width direction of the tape, for example, and solid printing is performed so as to eliminate the remaining paint on the edge in the tape width direction, the print head is aligned with the edge on the printing start side in the tape width direction. It is necessary to start the printing operation by the print head and stop the printing operation in accordance with the edge on the printing end side in the width direction of the tape.

  However, it is generally difficult to drive the print head to start printing accurately at the printing start position or to stop printing exactly at the printing stop position. This is because the transport position of the tape slightly shifts in the width direction, or there is an influence such as a shift between the reciprocating movement of the print head and the ink droplet ejection operation.

  If an accurate printing operation cannot be realized, for example, if the start of the printing operation is later than the time when the print head is positioned at the edge of the tape, unpainted portions will occur at the edge in the width direction of the tape.

  In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printing method that fills a part, the entire width, the entire length, or the entire surface of the edge of a recording medium without gaps without leaving unpainted edges of the recording medium such as a tape. Hereinafter, such a printing operation is collectively referred to as “solid printing”.) It is an object of the present invention to realize an ink jet printer capable of performing the printing operation.

  An ink jet printer according to the present invention is an ink jet printer that performs printing by an ink jet method on a recording medium fed from a cartridge and conveyed in one direction by a print head that reciprocates in a direction orthogonal to the conveying direction. , A head carriage means for mounting the print head and reciprocating the print head, controlling the print medium transport means, the head carriage means and the print head, and setting a print range of the print medium. Printing drive control means, the print drive control means, the printing range of the print head in the transport direction and the print range in the direction perpendicular to the transport direction, in order to perform printing without unpainted on the edge of the recording medium , Depending on the size of the recording medium, And setting.

  In this case, it is preferable to further include an ink recovery unit that receives the ink of the print head ejected outside the edge of the recording medium at a position outside the recording medium, and absorbs and holds the received ink. .

  In this case, it is preferable that an ink discharging unit that sucks the collected and held ink is connected to the ink collecting unit.

  In these cases, it is preferable that the ink recovery unit is disposed in a guide member that is disposed to face the print head and guides the conveyance of the recording medium.

  In this case, it is preferable that the ink collecting means includes an ink absorbing portion that absorbs and holds the ink, and a mesh filter disposed on the surface of the ink absorbing portion, and the mesh filter also serves as a guide surface of the guide member. .

  In these cases, the printing apparatus further includes width detection means for detecting a medium width in a direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the recording medium, and the printing drive control means determines a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction based on a detection result of the width detection means. Is preferably set.

  In these cases, the recording medium is a long tape having a fixed width, the recording medium is housed in the cartridge so as to be able to be fed out in a state wound in a roll shape, and the cartridge is opened and closed in the apparatus main body. It is preferable that the cartridge is detachably attached to a cartridge attachment portion having a lid.

  In this case, a plurality of types of recording media having different medium widths are prepared, the recording medium is a long tape having a fixed width, and the recording medium is wound in a roll. The cartridge is removably accommodated in the cartridge, the cartridge is detachably mounted on a cartridge mounting portion having an open / close lid formed on the apparatus main body, and the width detecting means is attached to the open / close lid to detect a type of the recording medium. It is preferable that the cartridge has a display unit that displays the medium width of the recording medium and faces the detection unit.

  In this case, it is preferable to further include a rotary cutter for cutting the printed portion of the recording medium.

In these cases, it is preferable that the recording medium is a transparent recording medium.
(Action)

  For example, in the case where the ink jet printer of the present invention performs solid printing in which the width direction or the length direction of the recording medium is filled without gaps, the printing drive control means sets a printing range wider than the width or the length of the recording medium. You. Therefore, printing by the print head is started before reaching the printing start side edge of the recording medium being conveyed, and is ended at a point in time after passing the printing end side edge of the recording medium. . By setting the printing start position to a position that is a sufficient distance before the edge on the printing start side and the printing end position to a position that passes a sufficient distance from the edge on the printing end side, the width direction of the recording medium Also, there is no occurrence of an unpainted state at the edge in the longitudinal direction.

  Here, the ink droplets ejected from the print head during the printing operation before and after the recording medium are collected by the ink collecting means. Therefore, it is possible to avoid such an adverse effect that the ink droplets ejected during the overflow printing adhere to, for example, the surface of the guide member disposed opposite to the print head, and contaminate the subsequent recording medium.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
(First embodiment)

  FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an ink jet printer to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a portion cut along the line II-II. The ink jet printer 1 of the present example is of a type called a “label printer”, a “label word processor”, or the like that prints on the surface of a tape provided with an adhesive layer covered on the back side with release paper. is there.

  Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the ink jet printer 1 has a thin rectangular parallelepiped casing 101 as a whole, and an operation surface 102 is a front half of an upper surface thereof. Here, various keys are arranged, and a print button 103 for instructing a printing operation, a power button 104, and the like are also included. An opening / closing lid 105 is attached to the rear half of the casing 101. The opening / closing lid 105 can be opened and closed around its rear end so that the inside is opened when viewed from the operation surface 102 side, and the lock is released by operating the lid opening / closing buttons 106 arranged on the operation surface 102. You can open it.

  When the lid 105 is opened, a mounting portion 23 of the tape cartridge 3 described later is formed inside. Therefore, the tape cartridge 3 can be attached and detached by opening the lid. A transparent window 105a is attached to the lid 105, through which it is possible to confirm whether or not the tape cartridge 3 is mounted. At a position adjacent to the lid 105, a liquid crystal display unit 107 for displaying character information and the like input via keys on the operation surface 102 is arranged.

  On the other hand, a tape discharge port 101b is formed in the back side surface 101a of the casing 101, and the tape after printing is discharged to the outside through the tape discharge port 101b. The tape discharged from here is guided by a tape discharge guide plate 108. A power supply unit 112, a battery 113 such as a nickel-cadmium battery, and the like are mounted inside the casing 101 on the back side of the operation surface 102.

  Next, FIG. 3 shows a schematic configuration of a main part of the ink jet printer 1 mounted in the casing 101. In the figure, reference numeral 2 denotes a base for mounting each component, which is mounted on a bottom plate of the casing 101. On this, a tape cartridge 3, three ink tanks 4 (4C, 4M, 4Y) and an ink jet type print head 5 are arranged. The print head 5 is supported by a head carriage 6, and the head carriage 6 is supported by lead screws 7 that are bridged between left and right side walls 21 and 22 of the base 2. The carriage 6 is supported by a guide shaft (not shown) arranged in parallel with the lead screw 7 so as to be rotatable left and right (in the axial direction of the lead screw) in a non-rotatable state. Therefore, by rotating the lead screw 7, the head carriage 6 and the print head 5 carried thereon can be reciprocated in the left-right direction (first direction) indicated by arrows A and B in the figure.

  A tape guide member 8 is disposed at the center of the moving range of the print head 5 so as to face the print head 5. The tape guide member 8 is a member corresponding to a platen that is disposed to face a print head of another print format such as a thermal printer, and defines a print position of the print head 5.

  Here, in this example, the guide member 8 constitutes an ink collecting means. As shown in FIG. 5, the surface of the guide member 8 of this embodiment is formed by a rectangular ink filter 81 capable of absorbing and passing ink. The ink filter 81 can be formed of, for example, a stainless steel mesh filter. The ink filter 81 is attached to the surface of a rectangular parallelepiped ink absorbing portion 82 made of an ink absorbing material. Therefore, the ink attached to the surface of the guide member 8 passes through the ink filter 81 and is absorbed by the ink absorber 82.

  Referring to FIG. 3 again, a head cap mechanism 9 is disposed at a position closer to the side wall 22 than the guide member 8. The head cap mechanism 9 is located at a position outside the reciprocating movement range of the print head 5 during printing. In a non-use state, the print head 5 moves to the position of the head cap mechanism 9 and is held in a state of being closed by the cap surface 91 of the cap mechanism 9. At a side position of the tape cartridge 3, an ink pump 11 for manually forcibly supplying ink from the ink tank 4 to the print head 5 before starting printing or the like is arranged.

  Next, FIG. 4 shows an arrangement configuration when main components of the inkjet printer 1 of FIG. 3 are viewed from above. The configuration of the main part of the ink jet printer 1 of the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

  First, the tape cartridge 3 includes a case 31 having a fixed thickness, a core shaft 32 rotatably housed therein, and a tape T having a fixed width W1 wound around the outer periphery thereof. I have. The upper half portion of the front end surface of the case 31 projects forward, and this portion is composed of a tape guide 33 formed of a PET film and a tape pressing roller 34 pressed against this surface with a constant elastic force. Tape feeding portion is formed. The leading end of the tape T is initialized to a state sandwiched between them. The support member 35 of the tape pressing roller 34 is supported by the case 31 via a coil spring 36 in a state where it can move up and down with respect to the tape guide 33. The support member 35 is connected to a lever 37. The lever 37 has a front end surface 37a protruding from the upper surface of the case 31 to the outside. When the distal end surface 37a is pushed in, the tape pressing roller 34 is pressed against the tape guide 33 in conjunction with the pushing. Further, on the upper surface of the case 31, six display portions 38 for displaying the width dimension of the built-in tape T are formed.

  On the side of the ink jet printer main body to which the tape cartridge 3 having this configuration is removably mounted, a mounting portion 23 for mounting the tape cartridge 3 is formed. In the mounting section 23, the tape feed roller 12 is disposed at a position directly below a tape guide 33 that defines a tape feeding section of the tape cartridge 3. The roller 12 has a shape in which large-diameter portions and small-diameter portions are alternately formed. As described above, the opening / closing lid 105 for attaching / detaching the tape cartridge to / from the mounting portion 23 is attached directly above the tape cartridge 3.

  As described above, in this example, the recording medium supply source is basically configured by the tape cartridge 3 in which the tape T is stored and the mounting unit 23 in which the tape cartridge 3 is mounted.

  As can be seen from FIG. 2, the opening / closing lid 105 is formed with a pushing portion 105b capable of pushing the tip end surface 37a of the lever 37 projecting from the upper surface of the tape cartridge when the lid is closed. Further, a detection unit 105c for detecting the tape width is formed on the opening / closing lid 105 facing the display unit 38 for displaying the tape width dimension formed on the upper surface of the case of the tape cartridge 3.

  Next, the transport path of the tape T fed from the tape cartridge 3 will be described. The tape T is paid out by rotating the tape feed roller 12. A plurality of tape guide pieces 13 made of a PET film are arranged in contact with the outer circumference of the small diameter portion of the tape feed roller 12. By these tape guide pieces 13, the leading end of the tape T is reliably guided toward the front side in the transport direction. A stainless steel tape guide 14 is disposed in front of the tape guide pieces 13 in the transport direction. The tape T is guided toward the printing position by the guide 14 and the guide 15 opposed thereto. The printing position is defined by the print head 5 and the guide member 8 opposed thereto. The surface of the guide member 8 is a mesh filter 81, which is arranged on the surface of an ink absorbing portion 82 formed of an ink absorbing material. The tape T that has passed the printing position passes through the tape cutting position 17 and is carried out of the tape discharge port 101b to the outside while being pressed against the tape guide 16 by the tape pressing roller 15.

  A driving force transmission system of the above-described tape feed roller 12 and the head carriage 6 carrying the print head 5 will be described. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a tape feed motor 18 is mounted inside the side wall 22 of the base 2. The motor output shaft 18a is connected to the end of the rotation shaft 121 of the tape feed roller 12 via a gear train 181. In this example, the gear train 181 has a power switching function. When the head carriage 6 moves to the side wall 22 and presses the projection 182 projecting from the side, the power transmission path is switched. , And the power of the motor 18 is transmitted to the cap mechanism 9 side. As described above, in the present example, the transport means of the tape as the recording medium is basically constituted by the tape feed roller 12, the motor 18 as the driving source, and the gear train 181 for transmitting power from the motor 18 to the roller 12. It is configured.

  On the other hand, a head drive motor 19 is disposed inside the other side wall 21 on the base. The motor output shaft 19a is connected to an end of the lead screw 7 via a speed reduction mechanism 191 composed of a gear train.

  Next, the ink supply means manually supplies the ink tank 4, the three ink tubes 41 (41Y, 41M, 41C) for supplying the ink to the print head 5 side, and manually supplies the ink. It basically comprises an ink pump 11 for performing the above. The three ink tanks 4C, 4M, and 4Y store cyan, magenta, and yellow inks, respectively, and color printing can be performed using these inks.

  Here, in the inkjet printer 1 of the present example, the maximum width of the tape T that can be mounted is set to W (max) as shown in FIG. The printable range W (p) of the print head 5 in the tape width direction (moving direction of the print head 5) is slightly wider left and right than the maximum tape width W (max). The mesh filter 81 that defines the surface of the guide member 8 described above is arranged over the printable range.

  Therefore, in the case of the example shown in the figure, the width of the mounted tape is W1, and the printable range by the print head 5 is set to the range W (p1) that includes this.

  The tape width of the tape cartridge 3 to be mounted can be detected by reading the six display portions 38 arranged on the upper surface of the case 31. For example, a tape width dimension is displayed depending on whether or not a hole is formed in each display unit 38, and the presence or absence of the holes in these display units is determined by a mechanical sensor or an optical sensor constituting the detection unit 105c of the inkjet printer. It may be detected by a simple sensor.

  FIG. 6 shows a schematic configuration of a control system of the inkjet printer 1 of the present embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 100 denotes a control circuit composed of a microcomputer. An input unit 110 composed of a group of keys arranged on an operation surface 102 of the inkjet printer 1 is connected to the input side. Further, a detection unit 105c for detecting the tape width is connected. On the output side of the control circuit 100, a display unit 107 such as a liquid crystal display device for performing various displays, a printer controller 140 for controlling a printing operation by the print head 5, and a drive control for each of the motors 18 and 19 are provided. Motor drivers 150 and 160 are connected. Based on a control program stored in advance in the ROM of the control circuit 100, a printable range corresponding to the tape width stored in the mounted tape cartridge 3 is set under the control of the control circuit 100. The operation such as solid printing described in (1) is performed. As described above, in the present embodiment, the print drive control unit is configured around the control circuit 100.

  A description will be given of solid printing in which the entire width of the tape T is filled with ink by the inkjet printer 1 of the present embodiment configured as described above. In this case, no margin is set at both ends in the width direction of the tape T, and the printing range is set to a range W (p1) wider than the tape width W1. By driving the motor 18 to rotate the tape feed roller 12, the tape T is fed out of the tape cartridge 3 and is conveyed toward the printing position. The print head 5 is moved by the carriage 6 by rotating the lead screw 7 by the motor 19 in synchronization with the transport operation of the tape T. The print head 5 is moved in the direction indicated by the arrow A in the drawing, and printing is started at the time when the tape T reaches the edge T1 of the tape T conveyed to the printing position, that is, at the time T0 in FIG. Further, the end point of the printing due to the forward movement is a point in time after passing the other edge T2 of the tape T, that is, a point in time T3 in FIG.

  As described above, in the ink jet printer 1 of the present embodiment, printing is performed in a printing range wider than the tape width W1 being conveyed, so that no unpainted portion occurs at the edge T1 or T2 of the tape T. .

  Here, when such printing is performed, the ink droplets ejected from the print head during the printing operation before the edge T1 of the tape T and the printing operation after passing through the edge T2 of the tape T And fly to the guide member 8 side without adhering on the tape T. In this example, since the surface 81 of the guide member 8 is arranged over the printable range, the ejected ink droplets do not fly to other portions and adhere to the other portions. Adhere to. Further, in this example, the guide member 8 is configured by a mesh filter 81 and an ink absorbing portion 82 continuous with the mesh filter 81. Accordingly, the ink droplets ejected toward the surface 81 of the guide member and adhering thereto pass through the mesh filter 81, reach the ink absorbing portion 82 on the rear side, and are absorbed and held there. Therefore, the ink droplets remain on the surface of the guide member, and the tape T, which is transported later, is not contaminated by the ink droplets.

  In this manner, with the ink jet printer 1 of the present example, it is possible to perform solid printing of the entire width of the tape without causing any unpainted portions and without staining other parts of the tape with ink droplets. It is.

  After printing, the head carriage 6 carrying the print head 5 moves in the direction of arrow B and returns to the end as shown in the figure, and the rotary cutter 61 mounted on the carriage 6 is driven. In this state, the carriage 6 moves in the direction of arrow A. As a result, the tape T is cut into a predetermined length and discharged to the outside.

  Thereafter, the roller 18 is rotated in the reverse direction by the motor 18, and the leading end of the tape T is returned to just before the printing position. Further, the carriage 6 moves to the other side wall 22 and pushes the projection 182 outward by the side surface. As a result, the connection between the motor 18 and the tape feed roller 12 is broken, and the roller 12 stops. Instead, the cap mechanism 9 is driven, and the print head 5 is capped.

  When the opening / closing lid 105 covering the mounting portion 23 is opened to replace the tape cartridge 3, the tape T whose leading end is located in front of the printing position is rewound, and the leading end of the tape T is The tape returns to the position between the pressing roller 34 and the tape guide 33 which defines the tape feeding portion.

  As described above, in the ink jet printer 1 of the present embodiment, a printing range wider to the left and right than the width of the attached tape is set, and the solid printing of the entire width of the tape is performed. The one having an ink absorbing surface capable of absorbing ink over a range including a possible range is employed. Accordingly, the solid coating can be performed without leaving uncoated portions at both ends of the tape. Further, ink droplets ejected by printing at positions deviated from both ends of the tape are absorbed by the guide member, so that the conveyed tape is not stained.

  If only one edge of the tape surface in the width direction is to be solid-printed, the printing range is set so that the printing operation is performed from a point just before the edge or a point when the edge has passed through the edge. Just set it.

Further, in the above description, the operation of performing printing so as not to cause unpainted portions on both ends of the tape has been described. Of course, printing can also be performed so that no residual paint remains on the front and rear edges of the tape. For example, printing can be started before the front end of the tape reaches the print position by the print head in order to prevent the uncoated portion from being generated at the front end of the tape. Also, in order to prevent the tape from being left uncoated on the rear end, printing is continued until the rear end (print end) of the tape has passed the print position, and the tape is cut at the position of the print end. What should I do? In this case, as the ink collecting means, an ink collecting means having an ink absorbing surface having a required width in the tape conveying direction may be used.
(Second embodiment)

  FIGS. 7, 8, and 9 show main parts of an ink jet printer most suitable for performing solid printing on a large-sized recording medium such as a poster. However, it is needless to say that this embodiment can be applied to a recording medium having a relatively small size such as the tape described in the first embodiment.

  The ink jet printer 200 of this example is different from the above in that the recording medium is a paper sheet such as a poster, the carriage mechanism of the print head is a belt pulley type, and the configuration of the ink recovery means formed on the paper guide is different. Is basically the same as in the first embodiment. Therefore, in the following description, only these differences will be described.

  First, as shown in FIG. 7, in the ink jet printer 200 of the present example, the carriage 202 carrying the print head on the lower surface also carries three color ink cartridges 203Y, 203M, and 203C. The carriage 202 is supported so that one side thereof can reciprocate along the surface of the carriage guide plate 204 in the width direction of the recording paper 205. The other side of the carriage 202 is supported by a carriage guide shaft 206 running parallel to the guide plate 204 so as to be able to reciprocate in the same direction. The carriage 202 supported in this manner is connected to a timing belt 209 that extends between a driving pulley 207 and a driven pulley 208. The drive pulley 207 is attached to an output shaft of the carriage motor 210. Accordingly, by driving the motor 210, the print head carried by the carriage 202 can be reciprocated in the width direction of the recording paper 205 being conveyed.

  A paper feed roller 221 and a pair of paper pressing rollers 222 and 223 pressed against the outer peripheral surface are provided on the front side (upstream) of the carriage 202 carrying the print head in the conveying direction of the recording paper 205. Are arranged, and the recording paper 205 is conveyed toward the printing position by the print head through these spaces.

  A guide member for the recording medium 205 is provided below the print head at least over a reciprocating range of the print head, and an ink recovery mechanism 211 is arranged on the guide member. As shown in FIG. 8, the ink collecting mechanism 211 conveys a rectangular ink collecting container 212 having a width sufficiently larger than the width of the recording paper to be conveyed, and an ink absorbing material 213 disposed therein. A plurality of guide ribs 214 for guiding the recording paper are provided. The ink collection container 212 has a bottom plate 212a and front, rear, left and right side walls 212b, 212c, 212d, 212e rising from the periphery thereof, and the upper side is open. The ink absorbing material 213 is arranged in a U-shape on the bottom surface 212a of the ink collection container 212 so as to extend from the side wall 212b to the left and right side walls 212c and 212d. A fan-shaped guide rib 214 is formed so as to project vertically at an equal pitch in the width direction from a bottom wall 212a surrounded by a three-side inner peripheral edge of the ink absorbing material 213 and a front side wall 212e of the ink recovery container. Have been. The upper ends of these ribs 214 protrude slightly above the upper end surface of the ink recovery container 212, so that the recording paper 205 passing over the ink recovery container 212 is guided by the upper ends of these ribs 214. Is done.

  Here, the bottom wall 212a of the ink collection container 212 is provided with an ink discharging means. That is, the ink absorbing tube 215 is connected, and communicates with the ink absorbing material 213 side. The other side of the ink collection tube 215 is connected to an ink suction pump (not shown).

  In the printer according to the present embodiment having the ink collection mechanism as described above, as shown in FIG. 9, the left and right ink absorbing portions include the passing positions of both ends of the recording paper 205 to be conveyed. The width is set to include the print width W (p) that is set wider than the maximum width W (max) of the recording paper 205. Then, as in the first embodiment, in the width direction of the recording paper 205 being conveyed, printing starts from a point in time before the print head reaches the end 205L of the recording paper, and has passed through the end 205R of the recording paper. By continuing printing until later, solid printing with no paint left on both ends is performed. When such printing is performed, the ink droplets that have flown to the back side without adhering to the surface of the recording paper reach the surface of the ink absorbing material 213 of the ink recovery mechanism 211 and are absorbed therein. . Therefore, there is no adverse effect such as the subsequent recording paper being stained.

  Further, in this example, the following is performed in order to perform solid coating so that the front and rear ends of the recording paper 205 in the transport direction are not left uncoated. The print position by the print head is indicated by a line P in FIG. The printing position is set so as to be located substantially in the middle of the width (between lines L1 and L2) of the ink absorbing material in the transport direction. Printing by the print head is started at a point before (upstream) the front end 205F of the recording paper 205 reaches the line P. Further, printing is continued until after the rear end 205R of the recording paper 205 has passed the line P. By performing printing in this manner, it is possible to perform solid printing in which the front and rear ends (downstream end and upstream end in the transport direction) of the recording paper 205 are not left uncoated. Further, even if such printing is performed, the ink droplets flying without adhering to the recording paper are surely captured by the ink absorbing material on the back surface side and absorbed therein. Therefore, it is possible to avoid a problem that the ink droplets adhere to an undesired portion and stain the subsequent recording paper.

  Here, in this example, the ink absorbing material 213 is arranged in a U-shape. Of course, a rectangular ink absorbing material 213 may be arranged over the entire bottom surface of the ink recovery container 212. Further, they may be arranged in a frame shape. However, in this example, since the ink absorbing material 213 is disposed only in the portion where the ink droplet flies, the amount of use is small, which is economical. Further, the installation space for the ink absorbing material can be reduced. Even if the amount of use is reduced in this manner, there is no problem, as described below, since the present embodiment includes the ink discharge means.

  That is, in this example, the ink absorbing member 213 is connected to the ink collecting tube 215, so that the ink collected here can be collected and removed. Therefore, it is possible to avoid such a problem that the ink is excessively accumulated in the ink absorbing material 213 and the collection efficiency is reduced.

In this embodiment, the width of the recording paper 205 is detected as follows. That is, the reflection type optical sensor 231 is attached to the side surface of the head carriage 202. The sensor 231 detects a width dimension of the conveyed recording paper or a position where an end in the width direction of the recording paper passes. Based on this detection result, a printing range that is wider than both ends of the recording paper is set. The sensors 231 may be installed on both sides of the carriage, and detect both end positions based on the detection results of both sensors. Alternatively, when one sensor is used, the carriage may be moved in the width direction before printing to detect both end positions of the recording paper.
(Modification of Second Embodiment)

  FIG. 10 shows a modification of the ink recovery mechanism according to the second embodiment. The ink collecting mechanism 311 of this example also includes an ink collecting container 312 and an ink absorbing material 313 disposed inside the ink collecting container 312. The ink collecting mechanism 311 itself reciprocates integrally with the print head carriage 315 by the carriage 314. It is configured to move.

  That is, the ink recovery mechanism 311 is supported by the carriage 314, and the carriage 314 is supported by a pair of guide shafts 316 and 317 extending in parallel so as to reciprocate. The carriage 314 is connected to a timing belt 318, and the timing belt 318 is stretched between a driving pulley 319 and a driven pulley 320. The drive pulley 319 is connected to the output shaft of the carriage motor 322 via a reduction gear train 321. On the other hand, the head carriage 315 carrying the print head is supported by the guide plate 332 and the guide shaft 333 so as to be able to reciprocate, as in the case of the second embodiment. And, it is connected to a timing belt 336 extending between the driving pulley 334 and the driven pulley 335. The drive pulley 334 is connected to the output shaft of the carriage motor 322 via a gear train 337. In this example, by driving the two timing belts 318 and 336 in synchronization with each other, the ink recovery mechanism 311 is reciprocated integrally with the print head.

  A guide member 361 that is wider than the maximum printing width is disposed between the head carriage 315 and the ink recovery mechanism 314, and the guide member 361 moves toward the near side (upstream) in the transport direction of the recording paper 362. Extends for the length of.

  Since the ink recovery mechanism 311 of this embodiment configured as described above moves together with the print head, it is not necessary to arrange the ink absorbing material over the width including the reciprocating movement range of the print head as in the second embodiment. Therefore, the ink collecting mechanism can be made compact. In particular, in an ink jet printer that prints recording paper having a width of 1 meter, such as a large poster, etc., the ink collection mechanism of the present embodiment is more effective than forming an ink recovery mechanism over the entire width as in the second embodiment. Thus, it may be advantageous to configure the ink recovery mechanism so as to move integrally with the print head.

Also in this example, it is desirable that the ink absorbing material 313 be sucked by the ink collecting pump 342 through the ink collecting pipe 341 and collected in the ink tank 343.
(Other embodiments)

  In each of the above embodiments, in order to perform color printing, three ink tanks each containing three color inks of cyan, magenta, and yellow are mounted. However, the present invention is not limited to a color printer, and it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to an ink jet printer in which only a black ink tank or only one color ink tank is mounted.

  When performing color printing, it is desirable to use a white ink in addition to the three inks of cyan, magenta, and yellow instead of the above-described embodiments. In this way, even when the ground color of the recording medium is other than white, each color can be printed with good reproducibility.

  That is, the colors formed by mixing the respective colors of cyan, magenta, and yellow are only red, green, blue, and black, and the other colors are expressed by applying the area gradation by the dither method. Therefore, these colors are often inferior to the colors expressed by normal printing, and the color reproducibility is poor. When printing on a recording medium whose ground color is not white, black characters can be printed by mixing three colors, but white characters cannot be reproduced using three colors of cyan, magenta, and yellow. However, if white ink is used in addition to these three colors, such an adverse effect can be avoided.

  On the other hand, the background color of the recording medium was not particularly mentioned. Basically, any color recording medium can be used in the printer of the present invention. As described above, in the case of an inkjet printer equipped with four color inks of cyan, magenta, yellow and white, it is preferable to prepare a transparent recording medium, for example, a transparent tape, since all colors can be reproduced. .

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an inkjet printer according to a first embodiment to which the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a portion of the printer of FIG. 1 taken along line II-II. FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a configuration of a main part of the printer in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a configuration of a main part of the inkjet printer of FIG. 1 when viewed from above. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram illustrating only a paper guide of the printer illustrated in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a control system of the inkjet printer in FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a configuration of a main part of an inkjet printer according to a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram illustrating the ink collection container of the printer illustrated in FIG. 7 taken out therefrom. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a printing operation of the printer in FIG. 7. FIG. 8 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a main part of an inkjet printer that is a modification of the printer in FIG. 7.

Explanation of reference numerals

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Inkjet printer, 2 ... Base, 3 ... Tape cartridge, 38 ... Display part of tape width, 4 ... Ink tank, 5 ... Inkjet print head, 6 ... Head carriage, 7 ... Lead screw, 8 ... Guide member, 81 ... Mesh screen (paper guide surface) 82 ... Ink absorbing part, 120 ... Tape width detecting part, T ... Tape (recording medium), W1 ... Tape width, W (p1) ... Printing range for solid printing, 200 ... Ink jet printer, 211: ink recovery mechanism, 212: ink recovery container, 213: ink absorbing material, 215: ink recovery tube, 205: recording paper, 311: ink recovery mechanism, 314: carriage of the ink recovery mechanism, 341: ink recovery Tube, 342: ink recovery pump, 343: ink tank, P: printing position

Claims (10)

For a recording medium that is fed out of a cartridge and conveyed in one direction, an ink jet printer that performs printing by an ink jet method by a print head that reciprocates in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction,
Recording medium conveying means for conveying the recording medium,
Head carriage means for mounting the print head and reciprocating the print head,
A print drive control unit that controls the recording medium transport unit, the head carriage unit, and the print head, and sets a print range of the recording medium;
The print drive control unit is configured to record the print range in the transport direction and the print range in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction by the print head in order to perform printing without leaving unpainted edges of the recording medium. An ink-jet printer wherein the position is set to a position outside the edge of the medium based on the size of the medium.   An ink collecting means for receiving the ink of the print head ejected outside the edge of the recording medium at a position off the recording medium and absorbing and holding the received ink is further provided. The inkjet printer according to claim 1, wherein   3. An ink jet printer according to claim 2, wherein said ink collecting means is connected to an ink discharging means for sucking the collected and held ink.   The ink jet printer according to claim 2, wherein the ink collecting unit is installed in a guide member that faces the print head and guides the conveyance of the recording medium. The ink collecting means includes an ink absorbing portion that absorbs and holds the ink, and a mesh filter disposed on a surface of the ink absorbing portion,
The inkjet printer according to claim 4, wherein the mesh filter also serves as a guide surface of the guide member. Width detecting means for detecting a medium width of the recording medium in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction, further comprising:
6. The ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the print drive control unit sets a print range in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction based on a detection result of the width detection unit. The recording medium is a long tape of a fixed width, the recording medium is housed in the cartridge so as to be able to be fed out in a state wound in a roll shape,
7. The ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the cartridge is detachably mounted on a cartridge mounting portion having an opening / closing lid formed on an apparatus main body. A plurality of types of recording media having different medium widths are prepared,
The recording medium is a long tape of a fixed width, the recording medium is housed in the cartridge so as to be able to be fed out in a state wound in a roll shape,
The cartridge is detachably mounted on a cartridge mounting portion having an open / close lid formed on the apparatus main body,
The width detecting means has a detecting unit attached to the open / close lid for detecting a type of the recording medium, and the cartridge displays a medium width of the recording medium and a display unit facing the detecting unit. The inkjet printer according to claim 6, wherein the inkjet printer has:   The ink jet printer according to claim 8, further comprising a rotary cutter for cutting a printed portion of the recording medium.   10. The ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the recording medium is a transparent recording medium.

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