JP2006103092A - Gutter of inkjet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a gutter of an inkjet printer capable of not disturbing adequate printing by preventing an ink solid from being created on an outer circumference of an ink receptive hole. <P>SOLUTION: This cylindrical gutter 1 is equipped with the ink receptive hole 23 that receives unnecessary ink particles D0 not used in the printing in ink particles ejected from a nozzle of the inkjet printer. The inner circumference face 23A and/or the outer circumference face 23B of the ink receptive hole 23 is covered with a coating film 31 having a surface tension smaller than that of the ink. For example, a fluorine resin, a material including a fluorine resin, a silicone resin and a material including silicone are cited as a material forming the coating film 31. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a gutter of a continuous ink jet printer that receives and reuses unnecessary ink particles that are not used for printing.

  Conventionally, this type of ink jet printer is described, for example, in Patent Document 1 below. Such an inkjet printer disclosed in the literature includes an ink supply pump, a print head including a gutter, an ink recovery pump, and an ink tank. The ink pressurized by the ink supply pump is ejected from the nozzle as regular ink particles by the operation of the piezoelectric element in the nozzle head. The ink particles are charged by the charging electrode according to the contents of printing, and when passing through the electrostatic deflection field between the deflection electrodes, the flight direction is changed and used for printing. On the other hand, ink particles that have not been charged by the charging electrode go straight without being deflected by the deflecting electrode and are received by the gutter, pass through the ink recovery path by the suction force of the ink recovery pump, return to the ink tank, and be reused. It has become. Gutter is often made of stainless steel with high strength and corrosion resistance. The ink particles fired from the nozzles generally have a particle size of several tens to 100 μm, a firing number of 6000 to 7000 particles / second, and fly at a speed of about 20 m / second. The ink used in the industrial inkjet printer is obtained by dissolving an oil-soluble dye soluble in alcohol or oil and a synthetic resin binder in a solvent, and has a viscosity of 3 to 8 mPa · s. As the solvent, lower alcohols such as ethyl alcohol and ketones such as methyl ethyl ketone are generally used and occupy about 80% by weight of the total ink.

  FIG. 8 shows a gutter used in the above-described conventional ink jet printer. The illustrated gutter 51 is a stainless steel cylinder, and the opening 24 of the ink receiving section 23 is directed so as to face the nozzle of the ink jet printer. Therefore, among the ink particles ejected from the nozzles of the ink jet printer, the used ink particles used for printing are changed in flight direction between the deflection electrodes. For example, the ink of the gutter 51 as indicated by D1 in FIG. It deviates from the opening 23 and heads for the substrate. On the other hand, unnecessary ink particles D0 that are not used for printing fly straight on the flight trajectory Q0, enter the gutter 51 from the opening 24 of the ink receiving portion 23, and collide with the inner peripheral surface of the bent portion 32, thereby causing ink It is designed to be reused via the collection path.

JP-A-10-264410

Introduction to Adhesives and Adhesive Technology (Book, first edition, author: Alphanus V. Pocius, published by Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, page 123 (1999))

  By the way, the above-described conventional gutter 51 is made of metal such as stainless steel and has a high surface tension. Therefore, the ink received by the gutter 51 adheres to the inner peripheral surface of the bent portion 32 by the wetting action and spreads. Among them, the solvent is volatilized from the ink and taken out of the gutter 51 with the air flowing through the passage in the gutter. As a result, an ink solidified product is generated on the inner peripheral surface of the bent portion 32 as shown in FIG. The solidified ink in the bent portion 32 grows toward the back side of the bent portion 32 as indicated by L1 in the figure. On the other hand, an ink solidified product is also generated from the ink that collides with the ink solidified material generated at the bent portion 32 and repels forward, and this ink solidified product grows forward from the bent portion 32 as indicated by K1 in the figure. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 5C, the solidified ink in the bent portion 32 grows in the rear direction like L2 and grows in the forward direction like K2. Among them, the forward ink solidified material K2 reaches the edge of the receiving opening 24.

  The solidified ink that has reached the edge of the receiving opening 24 wraps around the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving section 23 from the edge and grows at that position, as indicated by K3 in FIG. By the way, the ink in the gutter passage is hard to dry because the solvent vapor is filled, but since the solvent tends to evaporate outside, the ink accumulates as ink solidified on the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion 23. It's easy to do. As the ink solidified material K3 continues to grow, the used ink particles D1 flying near the gutter 51 collide with the ink solidified material K3. In this way, when the used ink particles D1 collide with the solidified ink K3 on the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion 23, the print portion that was scheduled to be represented by the used ink particles D1 is thinned out, thereby preventing normal printing. Further, when the used ink particle D1 collides with the ink solidified material K3 as described above, the growth of the ink solidified material is accelerated at a stretch, and it becomes enormous as K4 in FIG. It becomes.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional problems, and is an ink jet printer that does not prevent normal printing by preventing ink solidified matter from being generated on the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion. For the purpose of providing gutter

  In order to achieve the above object, an ink jet printer gutter according to the present invention collects unnecessary ink that is not used for printing and recovers and reuses unnecessary ink that is not used for printing. In a cylindrical gutter having an ink receiving portion for receiving particles, the inner peripheral surface and / or the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion is covered with a coating film having a surface tension smaller than the surface tension of the ink. It is. Examples of the material constituting the coating film include a fluororesin, a material containing a fluororesin, a silicone resin, and a material containing silicone.

  Further, in the above structure, the coating film is made of a fluorine-based coating material or a silicon-based coating material.

  The gutter of the ink jet printer according to the present invention is an ink receiving port that receives unnecessary ink particles that are not used for printing out of the ink particles ejected from the nozzles of the ink jet printer that collects and reuses unnecessary ink that is not used for printing. In the cylindrical gutter provided with a portion, at least the ink receiving portion is made of a material having a surface tension smaller than the surface tension of the ink.

  Further, in the above configuration, a fluorine-based material or a silicon-based material is used as a material having a surface tension smaller than the surface tension of the ink.

  The gutter of the ink jet printer according to the present invention includes an ink particle ejected from a nozzle of an ink jet printer that uses ink containing a hydrophilic solvent and collects and reuses unnecessary ink that is not used for printing. In a cylindrical gutter having an ink receiving portion that receives unnecessary ink particles that are not used for printing, at least the ink receiving portion is made of a water-repellent material or an oil-repellent material. Examples of the hydrophilic solvent include ethyl alcohol, methyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, ethylene glycol, propylene glycol and the like. Examples of the water repellent material include fluorine resin, silicone resin, polyethylene, and polypropylene. Examples of the oil repellent material include a fluororesin.

  According to the gutter of the ink jet printer according to claim 1 of the present invention, the inner peripheral surface and / or the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion is covered with the coating film having a surface tension smaller than the surface tension of the ink. When the inner peripheral surface of the ink receiving port is covered with the coating film, unnecessary ink particles received by the ink receiving port are repelled on the inner peripheral surface of the ink receiving port. As a result, unnecessary ink particles are immediately collected downstream without wetting and spreading on the inner peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion. Accordingly, the solidified ink does not occur on the inner peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion and does not grow, and as a result, the solidified ink does not reach the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion. On the other hand, when only the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving port is covered with the coating film, an ink solidified product may be generated on the inner peripheral surface of the ink receiving port and grow to the opening edge of the ink receiving port. However, since the ink is repelled without being wetted by the coating film on the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion, ink solidified material is not generated on the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion. Therefore, in any case, it is possible to prevent the printing from being hindered by the collision of the used ink particles. Of course, when both the inner peripheral surface and the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion are covered with the coating film, the normal printing can be prevented more reliably and the inside and outside of the gutter can be kept clean.

  In addition, when the coating film in the above configuration is made of a fluorine-based coating material, the coating film made of the fluorine-based coating material gets wet with ink because the surface tension difference with the ink falls into a very large class even among various materials. In addition, since the water repellency and the oil repellency are high, it is possible to prevent the solidified ink from being generated on the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion. On the other hand, when the coating film is made of a silicon-based coating material, the silicon-based coating material also has high water repellency and is easier to obtain and less expensive than the fluorine-based coating material.

  According to the gutter of the ink jet printer according to claim 3 of the present invention, at least the ink receiving portion is made of a material having a surface tension smaller than the surface tension of the ink. Of course, normal printing can be performed by preventing the formation of solidified ink, and the entire gutter and the main parts of the gutter can be easily obtained by molding or the like. A coating operation is not required, and it can be provided at low cost by simple manufacturing.

  Further, when a fluorine-based material is used as a material having a surface tension smaller than the surface tension of the ink in the above configuration, the difference in surface tension between the ink and the coating film becomes very large, making it difficult to wet and water and oil repellency. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the ink solidified product from being generated on the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion even more reliably. On the other hand, when a silicon-based material is used, the silicon-based material also has high water repellency and is easily available and inexpensive compared to a fluorine-based material.

  In addition, in an inkjet printer using ink containing a hydrophilic solvent, even if at least the ink receiving portion of the gutter is made of a water-repellent material or an oil-repellent material, the ink is bounced and collected in the ink receiving portion. Therefore, solidified ink is not generated on the outer peripheral surface as well as the inner peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion, and normal printing is possible. Of course, a material having oil repellency also has water repellency.

The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The embodiment described below is merely an example embodying the present invention, and does not limit the technical scope of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an ink jet printer using a gutter according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a print head of the ink jet printer.
In each of the drawings, an ink jet printer J according to this embodiment is a device that collects and reuses unnecessary ink that is not used for printing, and is directed toward a substrate W that moves relative (in the direction of arrow F in FIG. 2). A print head 2 for ejecting used ink particles Dn used for printing is provided.

  In this ink jet printer J, reference numeral 5 is an ink tank storing printing ink, 8 is a solvent tank storing a solvent for diluting ink, and 12 is a mixture for adjusting the ink viscosity to a predetermined ink viscosity by mixing the ink and the solvent. Viscosity adjusting tank, 7 is an ink passage connecting the ink tank 5 and solvent tank 8 and the suction side of the pump 10, 11 is an ink passage connecting the discharge side of the pump 10 and the viscosity adjusting tank 12, and 13 is a viscosity adjusting tank. 12 is an ink passage connecting the suction side of the ink supply pump 14, 16 is an ink supply path connecting the discharge side of the ink supply pump 14 and the print head 2, and 17 is a suction side of the print head 2 and the ink recovery pump 18. An ink recovery path 19 for connecting the ink recovery pump 18 and an ink supply path for connecting the ink tank 5 to the discharge side of the ink recovery pump 18. That. In the middle of the ink passage 7 from the ink tank 5, an electric valve 6 for adjusting the ink supply amount is provided. In the middle of the ink passage 7 from the solvent tank 8, an electric valve 9 for adjusting the solvent supply amount is provided. In the middle of the ink supply path 16, an electric valve 15 for adjusting the supply amount of the viscosity-adjusted ink is provided.

  The print head 2 includes, in a main body casing (not shown), a nozzle head 3 having a nozzle 4 for ejecting ink on the front surface, and a voltage (in accordance with the output from the power source 21 on the ink particles D ejected from the nozzle 4). In this example, the charging electrode 20 for applying a negative charge), the deflection electrode 22 for changing the flight direction of the charged ink particles D, and the unnecessary ink particles D0 that are not used for printing because no charge is added by the charging electrode 20 are received. And a gutter 1 to be collected. The charging voltage PnV applied to the ink particles D from the charging electrode 20 is, for example, 100 to 300V. When the charging voltage is 100V (= P1V), the amount of deflection of the unnecessary ink particles D0 from the flight trajectory Q0 is the smallest and adheres to the printing medium W as the used ink particles D1 at the lowest position. On the other hand, when the charging voltage is 300 V (= PnV), the amount of deflection of the unnecessary ink particles D0 from the flight trajectory Q0 is the largest, and the uppermost used ink particles Dn adhere to the printing medium W. The ink components used in this embodiment are, for example, ethyl alcohol 70 to 75 wt%, propylene glycol 5 to 10 wt%, synthetic resin such as polyester 10 wt%, and oil-soluble dye 10 wt%. Is 28 dynes / cm.

  By the way, as surface tension (unit = dynes / cm, solid is critical surface tension) of various substances, generally, paper is 43, water is 71, iron is 4000, organic solvent is 23 to 25, and general-purpose industrial oil is about 20 It is known that polytetrafluoroethylene is 18, fluorine-based coating material film is 15 to 18, polyethylene and polypropylene are 31, and silicone resin is 21. Some of these are described, for example, in Non-Patent Document 1 described above. The surface tension of these liquids and solids is measured according to a conventional method by, for example, an annular pulling method, a pendant drop method, a contact angle measurement method, or the like.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the gutter 1 according to this embodiment is mainly configured from a gutter main body 34 formed in a cylindrical shape bent at a plurality of locations using stainless steel as a material. The gutter main body 34 includes an ink outlet 23 (cylinder inner diameter = 0.8 to 1 mm) for receiving unnecessary ink particles D0 and an ink outlet 25 connected to the ink recovery path 17 for reusing unnecessary ink D0. And an intermediate part 26 interposed between the ink receiving part 23 and the ink outlet part 25, and a bent part 32 existing between the ink receiving part 23 and the intermediate part 26. The bent portion 32 is disposed at a position that intersects the flight trajectory Q0 of the unnecessary ink particles D0. The gutter body 34 is covered with a coating film 31 made of a fluorine-based coating material on the entire inner peripheral surface and the outer peripheral surface 23B of the ink receiving portion 23. The coating film 31 has a surface tension smaller than the surface tension of the ink. The opening end surface of the receiving opening 24 of the ink receiving portion 23 and the opening end surface of the ink outlet portion 25 are also covered with the coating film 31. In the coating film 31, reference numeral 31 a is a coating film covering the inner peripheral surface 23 A from the receiving opening 24 to the bent portion 32 of the ink receiving portion 23, and 31 b is a covering covering the inner peripheral surface of the ink outlet portion 25. A covering film 31c is a covering film covering the inner peripheral surface of the intermediate portion 26 from the ink outlet 25 to the bent portion 32, and is integrally connected to the covering film 31a and the covering film 31b. A coating film 31d covers the outer peripheral surface 23B from the receiving opening 24 of the ink receiving port 23, and is integrally connected to the coating film 31a.

  In practice, the gutter body 34 of the gutter 1 has an intermediate portion 26 formed in the mounting block 27, and the ink receiving port 23 protruding from the upper surface of the mounting block 27 is connected to one end of the intermediate portion 26, so that the mounting block An ink outlet portion 25 protruding from the lower surface of 27 is connected to the other end of the intermediate portion 26. The gutter 1 has a print head 2 in a state where the receiving opening 24 of the ink receiving portion 23 faces the nozzle 4 of the nozzle head 3 by a screw (not shown) passed through the screw hole 28 of the mounting block 27. The deflection electrode 22 is attached to the front position.

  The coating operation of the above gutter 1 will be described. Prior to the coating work, 100 g of fluorine coating material solution (manufactured by Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. CTL-109A (trade name): perfluorobutenyl vinyl ether cyclized polymer perfluoro solvent solution) was added to fluorine solvent (manufactured by Asahi Glass Co., Ltd.). CT-SOLV-100 (trade name): Perfluoro solvent) is diluted with 100 g to prepare a fluorine coating material solution having a viscosity that is easy to handle. The perfluoro solvent is not particularly limited as long as it is a liquid compound under normal temperature and normal pressure in which all hydrogen atoms such as hydrocarbons, alkyl groups, and aryl groups are fluorine-substituted, and dissolves the fluorine coating material. Not.

Therefore, the discharge port of the injector 30 containing the fluorine coating material solution and the ink outlet 25 of the gutter 1 are connected by the connection tube 29 under normal temperature and normal pressure. The piston of the injector 30 is pushed by hand, and about 10 mL of the fluorine coating material solution is injected from the ink outlet portion 25, and the intermediate portion 26, the bent portion 32, and the ink receiving portion 23 are filled with the fluorine coating material solution and left as it is for several minutes. The fluorine coating material solution is adapted to the inner surface of the gutter 1. At this time, the fluorine coating material solution is also applied to the outer peripheral surface of the ink outlet 25 using a dropper or the like.
Next, the connection tube 29 is removed from the ink outlet 25 and the discharge nozzle of the air compressor is connected to the ink outlet 25. The air compressor is driven to circulate air of about 10 to 1000 mL / min in the gutter 1. As a result, the fluorine-based solvent is evaporated from the fluorine coating material solution to form a semi-dry film of the fluorine coating material. The gutter 1 is put in an oven and heated at 180 ° C. for 1 hour. As a result, the fluorine-based solvent is completely volatilized, and the robust coating film 31 is formed from the semi-dry film of the fluorine coating material. The surface tension of the coating film 31 is 16 mN / m (= dynes / cm), which is considerably smaller than the surface tension of ink (= 28 mN / m).

  In the ink jet printer J configured as described above, the ink supplied from the ink supply path 16 to the nozzle head 3 by the ink supply pump 14 is ejected from the nozzle 4 by the operation of a piezoelectric element (not shown). Among the ejected ink particles D, used ink particles Dn (n = 1 to n) used for printing are charged with an amount corresponding to the print pattern at the charging electrode 20, and the flight direction is changed at the deflection electrode 22. To the substrate W. Of the ink D ejected from the nozzles 4, unnecessary ink particles D0 that are not used for printing fly on the flight trajectory Q 0 and jump into the receiving opening 24 of the ink receiving port 23. During the printing operation, the ink recovery pump 18 is driven, and air is sucked into the gutter 1 from the ink receiving port 23. Therefore, the unnecessary ink particles D0 that have jumped in as described above collide with the bent portion 32 and then flow through the in-gutter passage 33 from the intermediate portion 26 to the ink outlet portion 25. The ink that has reached the ink outlet 25 returns from the ink recovery path 17 to the ink tank 5 via the ink recovery pump 18 and the ink path 19 and is reused.

  As described above, the ink that has collided with the coating film 31 on the inner peripheral surface of the bent portion 32 is bounced without getting wet on the surface of the coating film 31, so that the solvent is volatilized and the intermediate portion 26 moves to the ink outlet portion 25. And return to the ink tank 5 through the ink recovery path 17. Accordingly, the ink solidified material is not generated and does not grow in the bent portion 32, and the in-gutter passage 33 of the gutter 1 is always clean. As a result, no ink solidified material (see K3 and K4 in FIGS. 8D and 8E) is generated at the edge of the ink receiving opening 24 of the ink receiving opening 23 and the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving opening 23. The used ink particles D1 flying in the closest position of the ink receiving portion 23 do not collide with the ink solidified materials K3 and K4 and do not obstruct printing as in the prior art.

  In addition, as in the case of the gutter 1a shown in FIG. 5, the present invention includes a case where only the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion 23 is covered with a coating film 31d made of a fluorine coating material. In the case of the gutter 1a, when the unnecessary ink particles D0 collide with the inner peripheral surface of the bent portion 32, the ink spreads wet on the inner peripheral surface of the bent portion 32, and only the solvent evaporates over time to produce an ink solidified product. Then, the ink solidified material at the bent portion 32 grows downward to become the ink solidified material L2 toward the intermediate portion 26, or grows upward to become the ink solidified material K2 toward the ink receiving portion 23. In this case, the upper ink solidified material K2 grows and advances and reaches the edge of the receiving opening 24. However, since there is a coating film 31d on the edge of the opening 24 and the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving section 23, the coating film 31d is repelled on the edge of the receiving opening 24 and the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving section 23. Therefore, the ink solidified product is not generated. That is, since the ink solidified material does not accumulate on the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving port 23, the used ink particles D1 flying near the ink receiving port 23 do not collide with the ink solidified material and prevent printing. The gutter 1a can be used for a relatively long period of time until the ink receiving port 23 is clogged with the ink solidified material K2, or until the intermediate portion 26 and the ink outlet 25 are clogged with the ink solidified material L2.

  In addition, as in the gutter 1b shown in FIG. 6, the present invention includes the case where only the inner peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion 23 and the bent portion 32 are covered with the coating film 31a. In the case of this gutter 1b, the ink colliding with the coating film 31a on the inner peripheral surface of the bent portion 32 is bounced without getting wet by the coating film 31a and immediately moves from the intermediate portion 26 to the ink outlet portion 25. Accordingly, not only the inner peripheral surface of the bent portion 32 but also the inner peripheral surface and outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion 23 do not produce ink solidified material, and printing inhibition can be prevented.

Furthermore, a gutter in which the coating film 31 is not provided on the inner peripheral surface of the bent portion 32 and the coating film 31 is provided only on the inner peripheral surface 23A of the ink receiving portion 23 is also included in the present invention.
The coating method for forming the coating film in the present invention is not limited to the method of drying after immersing or applying the fluorine coating material solution as in the above example, and other known methods may be used.

  And the coating film of this invention can also be formed using a silicon-type coating material. Also in this case, the silicon-based coating material is coated under almost the same conditions and mode as those of the above-described fluorine coating material. As the silicon coating material, for example, methyl hydrogen silicone oil KF99 (trade name) manufactured by Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. was used as it was. That is, about 10 mL of methyl hydrogen silicone oil KF99 was injected into the gutter 1 with the injector 30 and applied to the outer peripheral surface of the ink outlet portion 25 with a dropper or the like. In addition, the oven heating conditions of the silicon coating material semi-dry film were set at 150 ° C. for 20 minutes to obtain a robust coating film made of the silicon coating material. The coating film thus obtained has high water repellency, and is easily available and inexpensive as compared with a fluorine-based coating material.

In the above description, the coating film 31 is formed on the gutter body 34. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the gutter itself may be made of a material having a surface tension smaller than the surface tension of the ink. I do not care. For example, in the gutter 1c shown in FIG. 7, the entire gutter body 34a is made of tetrafluoroethylene resin (fluorine), which is a material having a surface tension (= 18 mN / m) smaller than the surface tension (= 28 mN / m) of the ink. System material).
Of course, this gutter 1c also prevents normalization of the ink solidified material on the outer peripheral surface of the ink receiving port 23, and normal printing can be performed. The entire gutter and the main part of the gutter can be easily obtained by molding or the like. As in the above-described embodiment, the time-consuming coating work is not required when the coating film is manufactured. In addition, although the site | part comprised with a tetrafluoroethylene resin may not be the whole gutter main body, it is good to comprise at least an ink-receiving part of a gutter main body with a tetrafluoroethylene resin. Furthermore, the entire gutter body or at least the ink receiving portion may be formed of a silicon resin molded product (a silicon-based material having a surface tension of 21 mN / m).

  Further, when using an ink containing ethyl alcohol and propylene glycol (hydrophilic solvent) as described above, the entire gutter like the gutter 1c or at least the ink receiving portion of the gutter, for example, polyethylene, polypropylene, silicon It can be comprised with water-repellent materials, such as resin. Also in such a case, since ink is bounced and collected at the ink receiving portion, ink solidified material is not generated on the outer peripheral surface as well as the inner peripheral surface of the ink receiving portion, and normal printing is possible.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an ink jet printer using a gutter according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a schematic block diagram of the print head of the said inkjet printer. It is a sectional side view of the gutter concerning the one embodiment. It is an external view which shows the aspect which performs a coating process to the said gutter. It is a sectional side view of the gutter concerning another embodiment of the present invention. It is a sectional side view of the gutter which concerns on other embodiment of this invention. It is a sectional side view of the gutter concerning other embodiments of the present invention. It is a sectional side view which shows the solidified state of the ink in the conventional gutter sequentially to (a)-(e).

Explanation of symbols

J Inkjet printer 1, 1a, 1b, 1c Gutter 4 Nozzle 23 Ink receiving portion 23A Inner peripheral surface 23B Outer peripheral surface 31a, 31d Coating film 32 Bent portion 33 Gutter inner passage 34, 34a Gutter main body D Ink particle D0 Unnecessary ink particle K1, K2, K3, K4, L1, L2 Ink solidified product

Claims (5)

Of the ink particles ejected from the nozzles of an inkjet printer that collects and reuses unnecessary ink that is not used for printing, the ink is received in a cylindrical gutter having an ink receiving portion that receives unnecessary ink particles that are not used for printing. A gutter for an ink jet printer, wherein the inner peripheral surface and / or the outer peripheral surface of the mouth portion is covered with a coating film having a surface tension smaller than the surface tension of the ink. The gutter for an ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the coating film is made of a fluorine-based coating material or a silicon-based coating material. At least ink in a cylindrical gutter having an ink receiving portion for receiving unnecessary ink particles that are not used for printing out of ink particles ejected from nozzles of an ink jet printer that collects and reuses unnecessary ink that is not used for printing A gutter for an ink jet printer, wherein the receiving portion is made of a material having a surface tension smaller than the surface tension of the ink. The gutter for an ink jet printer according to claim 3, wherein the material having a surface tension smaller than the surface tension of the ink is a fluorine-based material or a silicon-based material. Ink receiving ink particles that are not used for printing out of ink particles ejected from the nozzles of inkjet printers that use ink containing a hydrophilic solvent and collect and reuse unnecessary ink that is not used for printing. An ink jet printer gutter comprising a cylindrical gutter having a mouth portion, wherein at least the ink receiving portion is made of a water-repellent material or an oil-repellent material.

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