JP2005096224A - Recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recording apparatus which can efficiently perform lubrication by feeding oil to a sliding bearing while eliminating waste, without damage to recording quality. <P>SOLUTION: The recording apparatus comprises a carriage 1 which is slidably supported on a guide shaft 3 so as to reciprocate a recording head, the bearing 2 for slidably supporting the carriage 1 on the guide shaft 3, an oil feeding member 4 for absorbing lubricating oil leaking from a sliding surface between the bearing 2 and the guide shaft 3 and for feeding the lubricating oil to the bearing 2, and a holding member 5 for holding the member 4; and the oil feeding members 4 are provided on both the sides of the bearing 2. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a recording apparatus such as an ink jet printer, and more particularly to a recording apparatus that can supply and lubricate a slide bearing without wasting oil without deteriorating recording quality.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an ink jet printer, a device that reciprocates as a carriage on which a recording head is mounted slides around a shaft member is known. A sliding bearing processed so as to have a low coefficient of friction with the shaft member is used for the sliding portion, and the sliding bearing is made of resin or metal. In order to smoothly slide the slide bearing and the shaft member, lubrication with oil is performed.

  As a means for lubrication, an apparatus described in Patent Document 1 is known. The outline of the apparatus will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the carriage 50 moves in the direction of arrow A so as to slide around the guide shaft 51. Slide bearings 52 are provided at both ends of the carriage 50, and a sliding surface is formed between the periphery of the guide shaft 51 and the carriage 50.

  An oil supply member 53 filled with oil is provided at the center of the carriage 50, and the oil passes through the gap between the carriage 50 and the guide shaft 51 and is lubricated to the slide bearing 52.

  In the apparatus described in Patent Document 1, when the carriage 50 is moved, oil may overflow from the outside of the slide bearing 52, and if the overflowed oil falls on a recording medium such as recording paper, the recording quality is impaired. There is a problem.

  Therefore, in the illustrated apparatus, a groove 54 is provided from the outer surface to the bottom surface of the carriage 50 so that the oil is passed in the direction of the arrow B and the oil that has overflowed is absorbed by the oil absorbing member 55.

  However, in the illustrated apparatus, there is a problem that oil overflowing from the slide bearing 52 is absorbed by the oil absorbing member 55 and is not used for lubrication.

  Therefore, in the devices described in Patent Document 2 and Patent Document 3, the oil overflowing from the sliding bearing is returned to the oil supply member so that it can be used for lubrication, and the lubricating oil is effectively used. FIG. 4 shows a cross-sectional view that is an outline of the apparatus. In FIG. 4, the same reference numerals as those in FIG.

  Part of the oil supplied from the oil supply member 53 spills on the opposite end surface in contact with the oil supply member 53 after lubricating the slide bearing 52. The overflowing oil returns to the oil supply member 53 through a groove provided in the carriage 50. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 56 denotes a holding member (holder) for the oil supply member 53.

However, since the oil that has returned to the oil supply member 53 is located on the outer periphery of the oil supply member that is separated from the sliding portion between the slide bearing 52 and the guide shaft 51, there is a drawback that it is difficult to supply the oil to the slide bearing 52 again.
Patent No. 2901775 Japanese Patent No. 2614333 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-185370

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus that can efficiently lubricate by supplying oil to a sliding bearing without waste without impairing recording quality.

  The above problems are solved by the following inventions.

  (Claim 1) A carriage that is slidably supported on a guide shaft and reciprocally moves the recording head, a bearing that slidably supports the carriage on the guide shaft, and a space between the bearing and the guide shaft It has an oil supply member that absorbs the lubricant leaking from the sliding surface and supplies the lubricant to the bearing, and a holding member that holds the oil supply member, and has a plurality of carriage portions at the lower end of the carriage. Each of the plurality of carriage portions is provided with the bearing, the oil supply member is provided on both sides of the bearing, and the holding member is provided on both sides of the oil supply member. Is fixed to the carriage unit.

  (Claim 2) A carriage that is slidably supported by the guide shaft and reciprocally moves the recording head, a bearing that slidably supports the carriage on the guide shaft, and a space between the bearing and the guide shaft A sealed space that absorbs lubricating oil leaking from the sliding surface and supplies lubricating oil to the bearing, and a holding member that holds the lubricating member, and stores oil in a lower portion of the carriage. The oil reservoir has the guide shaft inserted through the oil reservoir, and has bearings at both ends of the oil reservoir. The oil supply member is in contact with the outside of the bearing. A recording apparatus provided, wherein the oil supply member is held by a holding member.

  (Claim 3) The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the oil reservoir is formed into a cavity by processing a lower portion of the carriage.

  (4) The recording apparatus according to (2) or (3), wherein the distance between the carriage wall surface, which is a gap between the oil reservoir spaces, and the guide shaft surface is in the range of 0.1 to 1.0 mm.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a recording apparatus capable of efficiently performing lubrication by supplying oil to a sliding bearing without waste without impairing recording quality.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of the recording apparatus of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a carriage on which a recording head (not shown) is mounted, and includes two (the number is not limited) carriage parts 1a and 1b as shown. The carriage portions 1a and 1b may be formed integrally with the carriage 1, or may be formed by fixing separate members.

  In the illustrated example, the carriage portions 1a and 1b are located at the lower end of the carriage 1 (strictly, it is not necessary to be the lower end portion). The positional relationship between the carriage 1 and the carriage portions 1a and 1b is such that, for example, the carriage 1 is positioned upward and the carriage portions 1a and 1b are positioned downward as illustrated.

  Slide bearings 2 and 2 are respectively attached to the lower ends of the carriage portions 1a and 1b. The means for attaching the slide bearings 2 and 2 to the carriage portions 1a and 1b is not particularly limited.

  A guide shaft 3 is provided below the carriage portions 1a and 1b, and the carriage portions 1a and 1b can move in the direction of arrow A by sliding with the guide shaft 3 via the slide bearings 2 and 2. It is configured. The carriage portions 1 a and 1 b are provided on the upper portion of the guide shaft 3.

  Oil supply members 4 and 4 are provided at both ends (both sides) of each of the slide bearings 2 and 2. The oil supply member 4 is preferably made of a material capable of holding lubricating oil, and can be formed of felt such as non-woven fabric.

  The oil supply members 4 and 4 are provided at the lower ends of the carriage portions 1a and 1b. In the illustrated example, the lower ends of the carriage portions 1a and 1b are partially cut out and fixed so as to be fitted exactly into the cutout portions.

  The inner sides of the two oil supply members 4 and 4 are in contact with each other so as to sandwich both sides of one slide bearing 2, and the outer sides of both the oil supply members 4 and 4 are held and fixed so as to be sandwiched between the holding members 5 and 5. . Therefore, the oil supply members 4 and 4 are provided in contact with and sandwiching both ends of the slide bearing 2.

  The oil supply members 4, 4 are provided in contact with and sandwiched at both ends of the slide bearing 2, so that the oil overflowing from the slide bearing 2 is absorbed by the oil supply members 4, 4 at both ends.

  Since the overflowing oil is absorbed at the portion in contact with the slide bearing 2, it is easy to supply the oil to the slide bearing 2 again.

  FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing another example of the recording apparatus of the present invention.

  In the illustrated apparatus, a gap (also referred to as a cavity) is provided between the slide bearing 2 and the other slide bearing 2 from the outside, and a gap (also referred to as a cavity) is provided between the slide bearing 2 and the oil reservoir 6. is there.

  In this embodiment, as means for sealing from the outside, means for penetrating the guide shaft 3 in the lower part of the carriage 1 is employed. An oil reservoir 6 is formed by providing a gap between the guide shaft 3 and the carriage 1.

  The oil overflowing from the slide bearing 2 remains in the oil reservoir 6. The gap constituting the oil reservoir 6 is preferably extremely small, for example, 0.1 to 1.0 mm.

  By providing the oil retaining portion 6, the oil remaining in the oil reservoir portion can be supplied to the slide bearing 2. Further, the oil reservoir 6 sealed from the outside prevents oil from leaking out of the carriage and contaminating the recording medium.

  Therefore, according to this apparatus, it is possible to efficiently perform the lubrication without impairing the recording quality. Further, according to the apparatus shown in FIG. 2, there is an effect that it is possible to prevent an increase in the movement load of the carriage due to friction between the oil supply members 4 and 4 and the guide shaft 3.

  In the above description, a slide bearing is employed as the bearing, but there is no particular limitation as long as it is a bearing.

Sectional drawing which shows an example of the recording device of this invention Sectional drawing which shows the other example of the recording device of this invention Sectional drawing which shows the conventional memory | storage device Sectional drawing which shows the conventional memory | storage device

Explanation of symbols

1: Carriage 1a, 1b: Carriage 2: Slide bearing 3: Guide shaft 4: Oil supply member 5: Holding member 6: Oil reservoir 50: Carriage 51: Guide shaft 52: Slide bearing 53: Oil supply member 54: Groove 55: Oil absorption Member 56: Holding member

Claims (4)

A carriage that is slidably supported by the guide shaft and reciprocally moves the recording head, a bearing that slidably supports the carriage on the guide shaft, and a sliding surface between the bearing and the guide shaft leaks. An oil supply member for absorbing the lubricant and supplying the bearing with the lubricant, and a holding member for holding the oil supply member,
The lower end of the carriage has a plurality of carriage portions, the bearings are provided at the lower ends of the carriage portions, the oil supply members are in contact with both sides of the bearings, and both sides of the oil supply members An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the holding member is provided, and one end of the holding member is fixed to the carriage portion. A carriage that is slidably supported by the guide shaft and reciprocally moves the recording head, a bearing that slidably supports the carriage on the guide shaft, and a sliding surface between the bearing and the guide shaft leaks. An oil supply member for absorbing the lubricant and supplying the bearing with the lubricant, and a holding member for holding the oil supply member,
The lower part of the carriage has an oil reservoir that is a sealed space for storing oil, the guide shaft is inserted through the oil reservoir, and bearings are provided at both ends of the oil reservoir. An oil supply member is provided in contact with the outside of the bearing, and the oil supply member is held by a holding member.   The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the oil reservoir is formed into a cavity by processing a lower portion of the carriage. 4. A recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the distance between the carriage wall surface, which is a gap between the oil reservoir spaces, and the guide shaft surface is in the range of 0.1 to 1.0 mm.

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