JP2007131420A - Medium feeding mechanism, liquid ejection apparatus and recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a medium feeding mechanism having a highly convenient medium supporting means for manual feeding, a liquid ejection apparatus and a recorder having the medium feeding mechanism. <P>SOLUTION: A medium supporting means 142 for supporting a medium to be manually fed from a manual feeding port 141 is accommodated while fitted to a back side of a printer 100, and the manual feeding port is closable. Thus, the medium supporting means need not be attached/detached to/from the printer having a medium feeding mechanism, and can be accommodated. Problems such as losses, and troubles of attachment/detachment, and a large occupied space can be solved, ingress of the dust can be prevented, and convenience can be enhanced. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a medium supply mechanism capable of manually supplying a medium to be supplied, a liquid ejecting apparatus including the medium supply mechanism, and a recording apparatus.

  Some ink jet printers, which are one type of recording apparatus, include a manual paper feed unit at the upper part on the back side of the printer body. A manual paper feed port is formed in the manual paper feed unit, and the user inserts paper from the manual paper feed port to feed paper (see Patent Document 1).

JP-A-6-91966

  Since the manual paper feed unit of the conventional ink jet printer described above is not provided with a paper support that supports the paper in an inclined state, skewing occurs during paper feeding, resulting in a paper feeding failure. Recording accuracy may be reduced. Therefore, there is a printer equipped with a so-called attachment type paper support that is removed from the printer main body when the ink jet printer is not used and is inserted into the printer main body when the ink jet printer is used.

  However, this type of paper support has a problem in convenience as described below. That is, when the printer is removed from the printer main body, it may be lost due to carelessness of the user. Further, since the inside of the printer is exposed, dust or dust may enter. Also, it takes time to attach or remove the printer main body, and when it is inserted into the printer main body, it protrudes from the back side of the printer main body, increasing the occupied space.

  The present invention has been made in view of the various problems as described above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a medium supply mechanism provided with a highly convenient manual feed medium support means and a liquid ejecting apparatus provided with the medium supply mechanism. And providing a recording apparatus.

  To achieve the above object, in the medium supply mechanism of the present invention, the medium to be supplied manually from the manual supply port in the medium supply mechanism capable of manually supplying the medium to be supplied from the manual supply port provided on the back of the apparatus. The supporting medium supporting means can be stored while being attached to the back side of the apparatus, and the manual feed port can be closed. This eliminates the need to attach / detach the medium support means to / from the apparatus equipped with the medium supply mechanism, and can be stored, thereby eliminating problems such as loss, labor of attaching / detaching, large occupied space, etc. Intrusion can be prevented and convenience can be improved.

  Further, the medium support means is configured in a multi-stage which can be expanded and contracted, and a guide means for guiding the supply of the medium to be supplied is provided at the most advanced stage. As a result, it is possible to accurately supply a medium to be supplied having various sizes. Further, the medium supporting means is characterized by opening and closing the manual supply port by rotating around one end as an axis. Thereby, the invasion of dust and dust can be prevented and convenience can be improved. In addition, the medium support means is flush with the back surface of the apparatus when stored. As a result, the occupied space can be further reduced, and the design can be improved.

  In order to achieve the above object, the liquid ejecting apparatus of the present invention is a liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects a liquid onto a medium to be ejected, and includes the above-described medium supply mechanisms. The recording apparatus of the present invention is a recording apparatus for recording on a recording medium, and includes the above-described medium supply mechanisms. Thereby, it is possible to provide a liquid ejecting apparatus or a recording apparatus that exhibits the above-described effects.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The embodiments described below do not limit the invention according to the claims, and all the combinations of features described in the embodiments are not necessarily essential to the solution means of the invention. Absent.

  FIGS. 1 and 2 are perspective views of an overall appearance configuration of an ink jet printer, which is one of recording apparatuses according to an embodiment of the present invention, seen obliquely from the front and rear, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the outline, and FIG. 4 is a sectional side view showing the outline of the internal configuration. This ink jet printer 100 is, for example, a sheet of paper of a size such as L size / 2L size, postcard, JIS standard A4 size, A3 size nobi, A2 size, etc. Recording medium)) with a function capable of recording with ink (liquid).

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the inkjet printer 100 is entirely covered with a substantially rectangular parallelepiped housing 101. An operation unit 110 is provided on the upper right front side of the housing 101 shown in FIG. 1, and a cartridge storage unit 120 is provided on the upper left front side of the housing 101 shown in FIG. Further, a first rear paper feeding unit 130 is disposed on the rear side of the upper surface shown in FIG. 1, and a second rear paper feeding unit (medium supply mechanism) including a characteristic portion of the present invention is provided on the rear side shown in FIG. 140) is provided. A paper discharge unit 150 and a front paper supply unit 160 are arranged on the front side shown in FIG. 1, and a waste ink collection unit 170 is arranged on the right side of the front side shown in FIG. In addition, a paper transport unit 180 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a control unit 190 shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, and a recording unit 200 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 are disposed inside the ink jet printer 100. Yes.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a rectangular opening 102 is formed between the operation unit 110 and the cartridge storage unit 120 on the upper surface of the housing 101 and the first rear paper feeding unit 130. . The opening 102 is covered with a printer cover 210 having a substantially rectangular flat plate shape. The printer cover 210 is attached so as to be rotatable in the direction of the arrow a in the figure around a rotation axis at the rear end. The user can easily perform maintenance work of internal mechanisms such as the paper transport unit 180 and the recording unit 200 through the opening 102 by lifting the printer cover 210 and opening the opening 102.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the operation unit 110 includes a substantially rectangular operation panel 111, and a liquid crystal panel 112 that displays an operation state and the like is disposed at a substantially central portion of the operation panel 111. Buttons 113 such as a power system for turning on / off the power, an operation system for operating a paper cueing or ink flushing, a processing system for performing image processing, etc. are disposed on both sides of the panel 112. . Since the user can operate the button 113 while checking the liquid crystal panel 112 for confirmation, an erroneous operation can be prevented.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the cartridge storage unit 120 stores the ink cartridges 121 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 that store inks of various colors for printing (9 colors in this example) in a detachable manner. ing. The cartridge storage unit 120 is covered with a cartridge cover 122 having an L-shaped cross section. The cartridge cover 122 is attached so as to be rotatable in the direction of the arrow b shown in the figure around the rotation shaft at the rear end. Since the user can easily replace the ink cartridge 121 by lifting the cartridge cover 122 and opening the cartridge storage unit 120, work efficiency can be improved.

  The first rear paper feeding unit 130 is for automatic paper feeding (ASF), and as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the first rear paper feeding unit 130 opens and closes a first paper feeding port 131 that opens upward in a rectangular shape, A four-stage first paper support 132 having a function of supporting one sheet or a plurality of sheets to be fed is provided. The first paper support 132 is attached so as to be rotatable in the direction of the arrow c shown in the drawing with the rotation axis at the rear end as a center. As the paper fed by the first rear paper feeding unit 130, relatively thin paper (for example, plain paper or photographic paper having a thickness of about 0.08 mm to 0.27 mm) is used.

  Before using the ink jet printer 100, the user completes the setting by placing a finger on the hole 132 a provided in the center of the front of the first paper support 132 and lifting the first paper support 132 and pulling out the multistage portion. Therefore, the storage and management necessary for the detachable paper support becomes unnecessary. Furthermore, since the first paper support 132 has a multistage structure, it is possible to reliably support papers to be fed of various sizes. In addition, after the ink jet printer 100 is used, the first paper support 132 can be closed by pushing the multi-stage portion into the first paper support 132 to close the first paper feed port 131, thus preventing dust from entering the printer body. In addition, the first paper support 132 can be stored compactly.

  The second rear paper feed unit 140 is for manual paper feed, and, as shown in FIG. 2, has a function of opening and closing a second paper feed port (manual paper feed port) 141 that opens in a rectangular shape toward the rear, A two-stage second paper support (medium support means) 142 having a function of supporting one sheet to be fed is provided. The sheet fed by the second rear sheet feeding unit 140 is a sheet having a thickness that cannot be fed at the conveyance angle in the first rear sheet feeding unit 130 (for example, an image material sheet having a thickness of about 0.29 mm to 0.48 mm). Or special paper). Further, since the first rear paper feeding unit 130 is used for automatic paper feeding (ASF), the paper is picked up by the paper feeding roller 82. Therefore, when paper dust adheres to the paper feeding roller 82 and accumulates, the paper is fed. There is a possibility that the paper roller 82 slips and causes poor feeding. For this reason, paper that easily generates paper dust (for example, Velvet Fine Art Paper with a thickness of about 0.48 mm or Ultra Smooth Fine Art Paper with a thickness of about 0.46 mm) is manually fed by the second rear paper feeding unit 140. Need to make paper. Details of the second paper support 142 will be described later.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the paper discharge unit 150 has a function of opening and closing a paper discharge port 151 that opens in a rectangular shape toward the front and a function of stacking one or a plurality of paper to be discharged. 3 is provided with a two-stage stacker 152 of a first stacker 51 and a second stacker 52 shown in FIG. The first stacker 51 is attached to the tip end side of the second stacker 52 so as to be rotatable in the direction of the arrow e shown in the figure around the rotation axis. The second stacker 52 is attached so as to be able to project and retract by moving in parallel obliquely up and down with respect to the paper discharge outlet 151.

  Before using the ink jet printer 100, the user puts his finger on the top of the first stacker 51, rotates the first stacker 51 to open the paper discharge outlet 151, and touches the tip of the first stacker 51 with his finger. Since the setting is completed by picking and pulling the second stacker 52 in parallel and projecting the second stacker 52 obliquely upward, storage and management required for a detachable stacker are not required. Furthermore, since the stacker 152 has a multi-stage structure, sheets of paper of various sizes can be reliably stacked and loaded, and the recorded paper is always discharged from the front side, so that the user can The paper can be easily taken out. After the use of the ink jet printer 100, the second stacker 52 is moved obliquely downward and stored by pushing the tip of the first stacker 51 by hand, and the first stacker 51 is attached to the first stacker 51 with a hand. Since the one stacker 51 can be rotated backward to close the paper discharge port 151, dust can be prevented from entering the printer body, and the stacker 152 can be stored compactly.

  The front paper feed unit 160 is for manual paper feed, and includes a paper feed tray 161 disposed above the stacker 152 at the paper discharge outlet 151 as shown in FIG. The paper feed tray 161 is provided so as to be horizontally movable with respect to the paper discharge outlet 151. As the sheet fed by the front sheet feeding unit 160, a relatively thick sheet (for example, matboard sheet having a thickness of about 1.2 mm) that cannot be folded during conveyance is used.

  Before using the ink jet printer 100, the user gently pushes the front end of the paper feed tray 161 to remove the stopper of the paper feed tray 161 and the paper feed tray 161 protrudes from the paper discharge outlet 151. Further, after using the ink jet printer 100, the paper feed tray 161 is put in the paper discharge outlet 151 by pushing the front end of the paper feed tray 161 lightly so that the stopper of the paper feed tray 161 is engaged. Therefore, the arrangement space efficiency of the paper feed tray 161 can be increased.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the waste ink collection unit 170 accommodates a waste ink tank 171 that stores waste ink and the like so as to be removable. The waste ink tank 171 stores waste ink or the like that is discarded when the recording head 202 is cleaned or the ink cartridge is replaced. When the waste ink tank 171 is full of waste ink or the like, the user only has to pull out the waste ink tank 171 and insert a new waste ink tank 171. Therefore, the user can easily replace the waste ink tank 171. be able to.

  As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the paper transport unit 180 is disposed from the first rear paper feed unit 130 and the second rear paper feed unit 140 to the paper discharge unit 150, and the automatic paper feed mechanism 181. , A transport mechanism 182 and a paper discharge mechanism 183 are provided. As shown in FIG. 4, the automatic paper feed mechanism 181 includes a hopper 81 that lifts the paper supported by the first paper support 132, a paper feed roller 82 that picks up the paper lifted by the hopper 81, A retard roller 83 that separates the sheets fed by the sheet feeding roller 82 into only one sheet, and a paper return lever 84 that returns the remaining sheets separated by the retard roller 83 to the hopper 81 are provided.

  The hopper 81 is formed in a flat plate shape on which paper can be placed, and is disposed substantially in parallel with the rear wall. The lower end is located near the paper feed roller 82 and the upper end is located near the top of the rear wall. It is arranged to do. The hopper 81 is attached such that the other end of a compression spring (not shown) having one end attached to the rear wall is attached to the back surface on the lower end side, and the lower end side turns around the upper end side by expansion and contraction of the compression spring. It is installed.

  The paper feed roller 82 is formed in a D-shape with a part of the cross-section cut away, and is disposed in the vicinity of the lower end of the hopper 81. The paper feed roller 82 intermittently rotates and frictionally feeds the paper lifted by the hopper 81. It is supposed to send. The retard roller 83 is disposed so as to be able to come into contact with the paper feed roller 82, and when the paper is fed by the paper feed roller 82, only the uppermost paper is frictionally separated from the lower paper. Yes. The paper return lever 84 is formed in a claw shape and is disposed in the vicinity of the paper feed roller 82 so that the lower layer paper separated by the retard roller 83 is hooked on the claw and returned to the hopper 81.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the transport mechanism 182 is provided with a paper feed roller 85 that feeds paper in the sub-scanning direction in synchronization with the recording operation, a driven roller 86, and the like. The paper feed roller 85 is disposed on the upstream side of the transport of the platen 203 and feeds the paper fed by the paper feed roller 82 together with the driven roller 86 to the platen 203.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the paper discharge mechanism 183 includes a paper discharge roller 87, a first jagged roller 88a, a second jagged roller 88b, and the like. The first knurled roller 88 a is disposed on the downstream side of the platen 203, and the second knurled roller 88 b and the paper discharge roller 87 are disposed on the downstream side of the first knurled roller 88 a so as to pass through the platen 203. The incoming paper is first discharged by the first jagged roller 88a, and is then nipped by the second jagged roller 88b and the paper discharge roller 87 to be discharged onto the stacker 152. Note that the first and second serrated rollers 88a and 88b are held by the same holding member (not shown).

  As shown in FIG. 4, the control unit 190 includes a main board 191 that constitutes a printer controller. The main board 191 is mounted with control elements and storage elements such as CPU, ROM, RAM, and ASIC (not shown) and other various circuit elements. Then, the paper conveyance unit 180, the recording unit 200, and the like constituting the print engine are controlled.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the recording unit 200 includes a carriage 201 that moves in the main scanning direction in synchronization with the recording operation, a recording head 202 that ejects ink in synchronization with the recording operation, and a flat sheet during recording. A holding platen 203 and the like are disposed. As shown in FIG. 3, the carriage 201 is inserted into the carriage guide shaft 204 and connected to the carriage belt 205 above the platen 203. When the carriage belt 205 is actuated by a carriage motor (not shown), Along with the movement, it is guided by the carriage guide shaft 204 to reciprocate.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the recording head 202 is mounted on the carriage 201 so as to be spaced from the platen 203 by a predetermined distance, and two types of black, for example, photo black and matte black ink, yellow, cyan, Seven inks of light cyan, magenta, light magenta, gray, and red can be ejected. That is, the recording head 202 is provided with a pressure generating chamber and a nozzle opening connected to the nozzle plate, and is controlled from the nozzle opening toward the sheet by storing ink in the pressure generating chamber and pressurizing it with a predetermined pressure. Ink droplets of different sizes are ejected. The platen 203 is disposed between the paper feed roller 85 and the paper discharge roller 87 so as to face the recording head 202, and supports the conveyed paper surface. Next, details of the second paper support 142, which is a characteristic part of the present invention, will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the second paper support 142, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an operation of using the second paper support 142 in the ink jet printer 100. As shown in FIG. 5, the second paper support 142 includes a first support 31 and a second support 32 that support the back side of the paper, a fixed edge guide 33 that guides both side edges of the paper, a movable edge guide 34, and the like. I have.

  The first support 31 is formed in a substantially U-shaped flat plate shape when viewed from above. The second support 32 is formed in a flat plate shape that is substantially the same shape as the first support 31 and is slidable up and down inside the first support 31. As a result, the second support 32 can be stored in the first support 31 as shown in FIG. 5A, and can be pulled out from the first support 31 as shown in FIG. 5B. . As described above, since the second paper support 142 has a two-stage structure, papers of various sizes can be reliably supported, and paper feeding can be performed with high accuracy. In addition, it is not restricted to a two-stage structure, It is good also as a multistage structure of three or more stages.

  The fixed edge guide 33 is integrally formed as a side wall on the right side of the second support 32 in the figure, and the movable edge guide 34 is in a state substantially parallel to the fixed edge guide 33 between the left side and the right side of the second support 32 in the figure. It is attached so that it can be moved while keeping. As described above, since the interval between the fixed edge guide 33 and the movable edge guide 34 can be arbitrarily set, both sides of the paper can be reliably guided even when the paper size is different, and the paper feeding can be performed with high accuracy. It can be carried out.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the second paper support 142 having such a configuration is attached to the second paper feed port 141 so as to be rotatable in the direction of the arrow d shown in the drawing with the rotation shaft at the lower end as a center. Before manually feeding the ink jet printer 100, the user puts a finger on the upper part of the second paper support 142 shown in FIG. 6A, and turns the second paper support 142 as shown in FIG. 6B. Then, the second paper feed port 141 is opened, and the second support 32 is pulled out from the first support 31 as shown in FIG. This eliminates the need for attaching to or detaching from the printer body, which is necessary in the case of a detachable paper support, and can be easily set.

  Further, after the manual feeding of the ink jet printer 100, the second support 32 is pushed into the first support 31, the second paper support 142 is turned, and the second paper feeding port 141 is closed. Accordingly, since the second paper feed port 141 can be closed, dust can be prevented from entering the printer body, and the second paper support 142 can be stored in a compact manner. Can be reduced. Further, since storage and management necessary for the detachable paper support are not required, there is no possibility of the second paper support 142 being lost.

  Although an ink jet printer has been described as an example of the recording apparatus, any recording apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus and a copying apparatus can be applied. In addition to a recording apparatus, the meaning of a liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects a liquid corresponding to its use from a liquid ejecting head onto an ejected medium instead of ink and attaches the liquid to the ejected medium is, for example, a liquid crystal display or the like Color material jet head used for manufacturing color filters, electrode material (conductive paste) jet head used for electrode formation for organic EL display and surface emitting display (FED), bio-organic jet head used for biochip manufacturing, precision pipette The present invention can also be applied to an apparatus equipped with a sample ejection head or the like.

1 is a perspective view of an overall appearance configuration of an ink jet printer that is one of recording apparatuses according to an embodiment of the present invention, viewed obliquely from the front. FIG. It is the perspective view which looked at the whole external appearance structure of the printer of FIG. 1 from diagonally back. FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating an outline of an internal configuration of the printer of FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional side view illustrating an outline of an internal configuration of the printer of FIG. 1. It is a perspective view which shows the 2nd paper support of the printer of FIG. FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an operation of using a second paper support in the printer of FIG. 1.

Explanation of symbols

31 First Support, 32 Second Support, 33 Fixed Edge Guide, 34 Movable Edge Guide, 100 Inkjet Printer, 110 Operation Unit, 120 Cartridge Storage Unit, 130 First Rear Paper Feed Unit, 140 Second Rear Paper Feed Unit, 142 Second paper support, 150 paper discharge unit, 160 front paper feed unit, 170 waste ink collection unit, 180 paper transport unit, 181 automatic paper feed mechanism, 190 control unit, 200 recording unit, 210 printer cover

Claims (6)

In a medium supply mechanism capable of manually supplying a medium to be supplied from a manual supply port provided on the back of the apparatus,
A medium supply mechanism characterized in that medium support means for supporting the medium to be manually supplied from the manual supply port can be stored while being attached to the back of the apparatus, and the manual supply port can be closed. . 2. The medium supply according to claim 1, wherein the medium support means is configured to be extendable in multiple stages, and a guide means for guiding the supply of the medium to be supplied is provided at the most advanced stage. mechanism. 3. The medium supply mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the medium support unit opens and closes the manual supply port by rotating around one end of the medium support unit. The medium supply mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the medium support unit is flush with the back surface of the apparatus when stored. A liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects liquid onto a medium to be ejected,
A liquid ejecting apparatus comprising the medium supply mechanism according to claim 1. A recording device for recording on a recording medium,
A recording apparatus comprising the medium supply mechanism according to claim 1.

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