JP2007111899A - Inkjet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a pigment ink tank system capable of sufficiently performing agitation. <P>SOLUTION: A groove structure inside an ink tank is arranged along a diagonal line with respect to a bottom surface. An object with low rolling resistance or a low coefficient of friction, the specific gravity of which is sufficiently greater than that of ink, is set in the tank. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printer that performs recording on a print medium while moving the print head while moving the print head, and a printer in which the concentration of the pigment component of the ink jet printer using the pigment ink is made constant by stirring.

  Conventionally, ink systems used in ink jet printers are composed of components mainly composed of dyes, and these have been suitable for ink jet printers. However, in recent years, there has been an increase in demand for high image quality and high durability of images, and in order to meet this demand, there is an increasing number of cases where pigment components are used in ink systems as materials that are better colored and that do not choose the environment in which printed materials are stored. It was.

As another conventional example, Patent Document 1 can be cited.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 07-060986

  However, most of the pigment ink components have a higher specific gravity than the solvent and tend to be released from the solvent. If the stationary state continues for a long time, a sedimentation phenomenon occurs, and the ink in the upper and lower portions of the ink container There was a concern that the concentration would change.

  According to the present invention, the ink tank is devised in shape, and a sphere or the like that is not affected by the ink is placed therein, whereby the problem can be solved by stirring the ink as needed.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to perform a normal printing operation without renewing the electromagnetic or chemical action from the outside on the pigment ink system and without requiring any special care in solving the above problems. An ink system and an ink tank that enable a stirring operation of the ink system at any time, and provide an effective stirring means that greatly exceeds the stirring effect of a normal ink tank.

  Next, details of the present invention will be described in accordance with the description of the embodiments.

  Examples of carrying out the present invention are shown below. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view suitable for an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 denotes a tank means for holding ink. Reference numeral 2 denotes an inclination means which is installed in the tank means and makes the bottom surface of the tank means 1 non-flat. This tilting means has a structure in which a flat groove is formed in the diagonal direction of the longitudinal direction of the bottom surface 2, and a smooth slope is formed on the bottom of the groove. Reference numeral 3 denotes a sphere means which is in the ink tank 1 and has a sufficiently higher specific gravity than ink described later. Numeral 4 is a sphere means in the ink tank means 1, which has a slightly higher specific gravity than the ink described later. Reference numeral 5 is in the ink tank 1 and is an ink composed of the pigment described above. The quoted line indicates the liquid level of the pigment ink. The actual operation will be described below. The ink tank 1 is disposed on a carriage of an inkjet printer (not shown), and moves together with the carriage by main scanning of the carriage by a printing operation. The ink tank 1 is filled with one color ink in one ink tank. Further, the ink containing the pigment as a component has a property that the ink component settles in the lower part of the ink tank in a long-term stationary state. Now, a description will be given of the printing operation of an unillustrated inkjet printer. First, the inkjet printer is ready for printing by a print signal from a host computer (not illustrated). A control circuit (not shown) of the ink jet printer interprets a signal from the host computer and guides printing paper prepared in advance for printing into the apparatus (not shown). The printing paper introduced into the machine is conveyed to the scanning position of the carriage means on which the print head and the ink tank 1 are mounted. When the paper is set to a predetermined position, the carriage means scans the print paper, and the control circuit appropriately transmits a print signal to the head. Printing is performed by discharging the supplied ink 5. By the way, in the description of FIG. 1 above, two spheres are included in the ink tank 1. Here, the operation of these spheres during the printing operation will be described. When performing the printing operation, printing is performed while the stopped carriage is accelerated to a specified speed after feeding and synchronized with the operation of the carriage. However, as shown in FIG. 2 extends in an oblique direction substantially perpendicular to the main scanning direction. A sphere 3 having a sufficiently high specific gravity is contained in the ink tank 1. During the acceleration period of the head movement during the printing operation, the sphere 3 having a sufficiently heavy specific gravity is assumed to be a discharge port in the front direction in the explanatory diagram of FIG. When the ink tank 1 is accelerated from the right end to the left end when the ink tank 1 is accelerated from the right end to the left end, the sphere 3 having a sufficiently high specific gravity moves forward, and the movement is performed until the carriage reaches a constant speed. . After moving to the left side, when the carriage starts to decelerate, the sphere 3 having a sufficiently high specific gravity moves toward the paper feed port. As a result, the ink component stagnated near the bottom surface is agitated by the sphere 3. Further, the sphere 4 having a slightly higher specific gravity floats at the interface between the dark portion and the thin portion of the ink component due to the lightness of the specific gravity until the carriage is driven. As the density distribution becomes thinner due to the agitation of No. 3, the ink component of the sphere 3 having a very high specific gravity is more efficiently agitated while gradually approaching the bottom of the ink tank 1.

It is a figure which shows the ink tank which implemented this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Ink tank 2 Inclination means 3 Sphere with heavy specific gravity 4 Sphere with slightly heavy specific gravity 5 Ink

Claims (6)

In the ink jet printer, which is formed by moving the print head in the main scanning direction, moving the print medium in the vertical direction with respect to the main scanning direction, and recording a desired image on the print medium, suitable ink for the ink jet printer is as follows. Consists of including a pigment component,
An ink jet printer characterized in that the ink used in the printer is divided into cartridges for each color and mounted on a carriage, and the ink tank is constituted by a container that can keep a resin or a similar shape.   2. The ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the surface which is in contact with the ink corresponding to the bottom surface of the container has a cylindrical recess in a diagonal direction.   2. The ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the container includes an ink made of a pigment and a sphere or a non-sphere having a specific gravity much heavier than that of the ink.   2. The inkjet printer according to claim 1, wherein the container is divided by the number of colors of ink.   2. The ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the container is a separate body for each ink.   2. The ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the container is integrated for each of several inks.

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