JP2007237664A - Liquid ejector and recorder equipped with the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a liquid ejector capable of quickly discharging discarded liquid, and a recorder equipped with the same. <P>SOLUTION: A perforated member 60 is provided to a liquid discarding part 632 formed in a medium guide part 630, to catch and drop the discarded liquid with the perforated member. Thereby, the discarded liquid can be involved in the perforation and surely captured, eliminating mists caused by the rebounding discarded liquid, which occurs in conventional liquid absorbing members. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects liquid while guiding a medium to be ejected, and a recording apparatus including the liquid ejecting apparatus.

  For example, an ink jet printer that is one of recording apparatuses includes a recording head having a plurality of nozzle arrays that eject ink droplets toward a sheet as one of recording media, and a sheet for the recording head that supports the sheet. A platen that defines the position of the plate is provided. Some ink jet printers are capable of performing so-called borderless recording, in which recording is performed on paper without margins. An ink jet printer capable of performing borderless recording has a slot formed in the upper surface of the platen for discarding ink that has fallen off the edge of the paper, and a void such as sponge-like polyurethane is formed in the ink discard slot. An ink absorbing material made of a material having a high rate and good ink absorbability is filled and mounted. The ink discarded in the ink discarding groove is absorbed by the ink absorbing material, guided to the waste liquid portion, and stored (see Patent Documents 1 and 2).

JP 2005-280007 A JP 2003-225998 A

  Inkjet printers include a type that uses dye-based ink and a type that uses pigment-based ink. However, since pigment-based inks are easier to solidify than dye-based inks, in the above-described ink jet printer, some pigment-based inks are contained in the ink absorbing material while the pigment-based ink is guided to the waste liquid part. Alternatively, the ink may remain on the ink absorbing material. For this reason, pigment-based ink may be laminated on the ink absorbing material to form a so-called ink peak. The back surface of the paper comes into contact with the ink peak and stains the back surface of the paper, or the head surface of the recording head. And the distance between the recording surface and the recording surface becomes narrow, which causes problems such as adversely affecting the recording image quality.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides a liquid ejecting apparatus capable of quickly discharging a discarded liquid and a recording apparatus including the liquid ejecting apparatus. There is.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the liquid ejecting apparatus of the present invention, the liquid ejecting apparatus ejects liquid while guiding the medium to be ejected, and the punching member is formed in the liquid discarding section formed in the medium guiding section. The liquid to be thrown away is captured by the perforated member and dropped. Thereby, since the liquid to be discarded can be caught in the hole and reliably caught, it is possible to eliminate the possibility that the liquid rebounds and becomes mist like the conventional liquid absorbent material. Further, a liquid transmission member is provided below the perforated member so as to open a space and connect to the waste liquid absorbing member. Thereby, even when the liquid dropped from the perforated member is accumulated without being transmitted by the liquid transmission member, since the space portion is interposed, contamination of the perforated member by the deposit can be prevented. In order to achieve the above object, the recording apparatus of the present invention is a recording apparatus that records by ejecting ink onto a recording medium, and is characterized by including each of the liquid ejecting apparatuses. Thereby, a recording apparatus that exhibits the above-described effects can be provided.

  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.

  FIG. 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 as viewed obliquely from the front, and FIG. 2 is an internal configuration of the ink jet printer of FIG. FIG. The ink jet printer 100 is a so-called cut sheet (jetting medium, recording medium) having a relatively large size such as JIS standard A4 size to JIS standard A2 size, and roll-shaped paper (jetting medium, This is a large desktop printer that can print on a recording medium, and is entirely covered with a substantially rectangular parallelepiped housing 101 extending long in the width direction.

  A rectangular window portion 102 is formed on the upper surface of the housing 101. The window 102 is covered with a transparent or translucent window cover 103. The window cover 103 is attached so as to be rotatable in the direction of the arrow a in the figure around the upper rotation shaft. The user can perform maintenance work of the internal mechanism through the window portion 102 by lifting the window cover 103 and opening the window portion 102. On both sides of the front surface of the housing 101, cartridge storage portions 104 into which a plurality of ink cartridges are inserted and removed are formed. Each ink cartridge stores ink of each color for printing. Each cartridge housing portion 104 is covered with a transparent or translucent cartridge cover 105. The cartridge cover 105 is attached so as to be rotatable in the direction of the arrow b shown in the figure around a rotation shaft at the lower part thereof. The user can perform an ink cartridge replacement operation or the like by lightly pressing the cartridge cover 105 to release the locking portion and opening the cartridge storage portion 104.

  An operation unit 110 for instructing a printer operation is disposed on an upper portion of the cartridge housing unit 104 on the right side of the front surface of the housing 101. The operation unit 110 includes buttons 111 such as a power system for turning on / off power, an operation system for operating paper cueing and the like, operating an ink (liquid) flushing, a processing system for performing image processing, and the like. A liquid crystal panel 112 or the like is provided. The user can operate the button 111 while looking at the liquid crystal panel 112 for confirmation. A tank housing portion 106 into which the waste liquid tank 120 is inserted and removed is formed at the lower part of the cartridge housing portion 104 on the right side of the front surface of the housing 101. The waste liquid tank 120 stores waste ink or the like that is discarded when the recording head 162 is cleaned, when the ink cartridge is replaced, or when marginless recording is performed. By pulling out the waste liquid tank 120, the user can perform a waste operation such as waste ink accumulated inside.

  On the back surface of the housing 101, a paper feed unit 130 that feeds roll-shaped paper is disposed so as to protrude rearward from the upper part. A roll paper holder (not shown) capable of setting one roll-shaped paper is disposed inside the paper supply unit 130, and a flip-up-type openable and rollable roll paper cover 131 is provided on the front surface of the paper supply unit 130. Is attached so as to cover a roll paper holder (not shown). The user can perform operations such as attaching / removing roll paper by lifting the roll paper cover 131 and opening the paper supply unit 130. The upper surface of the roll paper cover 131 is formed as a paper feed guide surface capable of manually feeding and feeding the cut paper.

  Between the front center of the housing 101, that is, between the pair of cartridge storage portions 104, the paper supply / discharge tray 200 for loading the cut paper before printing and the cut paper after printing or roll-shaped paper is inserted and removed. A paper feed / discharge unit 140 is formed. The paper feed / discharge unit 140 is also formed so that thick paper that cannot be bent during conveyance can be manually fed. A front portion of the paper supply / discharge tray 200 is inserted into the paper supply / discharge portion 140 and fixed so that the rear portion of the paper supply / discharge tray 200 protrudes. The paper supply / discharge tray 200 is formed in a cassette type, and cut sheets to be fed before printing are stacked and stored therein, and cut sheets to be ejected after printing or roll-shaped are placed on the top. Sheets are stacked and placed.

  In the housing 101, a paper supply / discharge unit 140, a transport unit 150, a recording unit (liquid ejecting apparatus) 160 including a characteristic portion of the present invention, and the like are disposed. The paper supply / discharge unit 140 is provided with a hopper 141, a paper supply roller 142, a separation member 143, and the like for feeding cut paper. The hopper 141 is formed in a flat plate shape on which a cut sheet can be placed. One end of the hopper 141 is located in the vicinity of the paper feed roller 142 and the separating member 143 and the other end of the paper feed / discharge tray 200 is mounted. It is arrange | positioned so that it may be located close to a bottom face. The hopper 141 has the other end of the compression spring 144 attached at one end to the bottom surface of the housing 101 on the back surface at one end side, and the one end side pivots around the other end side by the expansion and contraction of the compression spring 144. It is arranged like this. The paper feed roller 142 is formed in a D shape with a part of a cross section cut out, and rotates intermittently to frictionally convey the cut paper on the hopper 141. The separation member 143 is formed with a rough upper surface, and when the paper cut by the paper feed roller 142 is double fed, the lower cut paper is frictionally separated from the uppermost cut paper. It has become.

  The transport unit 150 includes a sub roller 151 for transporting paper and its driven rollers 152a, 152b, and 152c, a paper feed roller 153 and its driven roller 154, a paper discharge roller 155, a jagged roller 156, and a detection sensor 157a for detecting the paper. 157b and the like are provided. The sub-roller 151 sandwiches the cut sheet together with the driven rollers 152a, 152b, and 152c into a U-shape in order to discharge the cut sheet fed from the sheet feeding tray 210 to the sheet feeding / discharging tray 200. It is designed to be reversed. Further, the sub-roller 151 sandwiches and conveys the roll-shaped paper together with the driven roller 152c in order to eject the roll-shaped paper fed from the paper feeding unit 130 to the paper feed / discharge tray 200. Yes.

  The paper feed roller 153 is configured to feed the cut paper that has been reversely conveyed or the roll-shaped paper that is fed together with the driven roller 154 to the platen 163. The paper discharge roller 155 sandwiches the paper passing through the platen 163 together with the jagged roller 156 and discharges the paper onto the paper supply / discharge tray 200. The detection sensor 157a detects the transport amount when the skew of the cut paper that is fed is taken. The detection sensor 157b is configured to detect a conveyance amount when cueing a cut sheet that is reversely conveyed or a roll-shaped sheet that is conveyed.

  The recording unit 160 includes a carriage 161 and a recording head 162, and an ink capturing member (perforating member) 60 and an ink transmission member (liquid transmission member) 61 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 which are characteristic portions of the present invention. A platen (medium guide portion) 163 having a suction duct, a suction duct 164, a waste ink tray 165, and the like are disposed. The carriage 161 is connected to a carriage belt (not shown). When the carriage belt is actuated by a carriage driving device (not shown), the carriage 161 is entrained by the movement of the carriage belt and is guided by a carriage guide shaft (not shown) to reciprocate. Yes.

  The recording head 162 is, for example, a plurality of black ink recording heads that eject two types of black ink, and a plurality of color inks that respectively eject six colors of yellow, dark yellow, cyan, light cyan, magenta, and light magenta. And a recording head. The recording head 162 is provided with a pressure generating chamber and a nozzle opening connected to the pressure generating chamber. The size of the recording head 162 is controlled from the nozzle opening toward the sheet by storing ink in the pressure generating chamber and pressurizing the ink with a predetermined pressure. Ink droplets are discharged.

  The platen 163 has a platen main body 630 formed in an elongated substantially rectangular flat plate shape having a length slightly larger than the maximum recordable paper width and extending in the main scanning direction, and a vertically downward direction from the lower surface on the upstream side in the transport direction of the platen main body 630. And a hollow platen vertical portion 631 extending in the horizontal direction. The platen 163 is disposed between the paper feed roller 153 and the paper discharge roller 155 so as to face the recording head 162, and supports the conveyed paper on the platen main body 630. ing. Details of the platen 163 having such a configuration will be described with reference to the drawings.

  3 and 4 are a perspective view and a cross-sectional view taken along line AA showing details of the platen 163. FIG. The platen main body 630 is formed with a substantially rectangular ink discarding groove hole (liquid discarding portion) 632 for discarding ink droplets that have come off from the paper edge during borderless recording. The ink discarding groove 632 is formed so as to penetrate the platen main body 630 in the vertical direction and to be connected to the hollow portion 631a of the platen vertical portion 631. The ink capturing member 60 is disposed so as to close the upper portion of the ink discarding groove hole 632, and the ink transmission member 61 is disposed so as to close the upper portion of the platen vertical portion 631. In other words, the ink capturing member 60 and the ink transmission member 61 are arranged so as to face each other vertically through the hollow portion (space portion) 632a of the discarding slot 632.

  On the upper surface of the platen main body 630, a plurality of ribs 633 extending in the paper transport direction with the ink discarding groove 632 interposed therebetween are arranged with a predetermined interval. Each rib 633 has a substantially trapezoidal cross section in the main scanning direction and is formed in a rail shape. A plurality of suction holes 634 communicating with the suction duct 164 are formed in two rows in the main scanning direction on the top surface of each rib 633. The suction duct 164 is disposed immediately below the platen 163 and is formed in a bowl shape extending in the main scanning direction so as to cover all the suction holes 634. A suction fan (not shown) is connected to one end side of the suction duct 164. In such a configuration, by rotating the suction fan, the air sucked from each suction hole 634 is exhausted to the outside through the suction duct 164. As a result, when a sheet is supplied to the upper surface of the platen 163, a negative pressure is generated on the lower surface side of the sheet, and the sheet is attracted to the top surface of each rib 633, so that the sheet can be prevented from being lifted. The recording accuracy can be maintained with high accuracy.

  The ink capturing member 60 has a function of capturing and dropping ink droplets that have come off the edge of the paper during borderless recording. The ink capturing member 60 is made of a mesh-like sheet made of, for example, plastic fibers such as polyester or metal fibers such as stainless steel, and is cut into a substantially rectangular shape covering the upper surface of the ink discarding groove 632. The ink transmission member 61 has a function of receiving and absorbing ink droplets falling from the ink capturing member 60 and guiding the absorbed waste ink to the waste ink tray 165. The ink transmission member 61 is made of, for example, a porous material such as sponge-like polyurethane or non-woven fabric, and extends downward in the ink absorbing portion 61a covering the upper surface of the platen vertical portion 631 and in the hollow portion 631a of the platen vertical portion 631. Thus, an ink guiding portion 61b reaching the waste ink tray 165 is integrally cut and formed. The waste ink tray 165 is formed in a container shape extending in the main scanning direction with an open upper surface. The waste ink tray 165 collects waste ink at the time of borderless recording that flows down through the ink transmission member 61 and flows it into the waste liquid tank 120.

  Since the ink catching member 60 has a perforated structure in this way, the ink droplets to be discarded can be caught in the holes and caught reliably, so that the liquid may rebound and become mist like a conventional liquid absorber. Can be eliminated. Since the hollow portion 632a is provided below the ink capturing member 60 and above the ink transmitting member 61, even when the ink droplets dropped from the ink capturing member 60 accumulate without being transmitted by the ink transmitting member 61. The contamination of the ink capturing member 60 by the deposit can be prevented. If the ink capturing member 60 has a perforated structure, the above-described effects can be obtained. For example, the ink capturing member 60 may be formed of punching metal.

  An operation when printing on a sheet cut by the ink jet printer 100 in such a configuration will be described. The cut sheets stacked and stored in the sheet feeding tray 210 of the sheet feeding / discharging tray 200 attached to the sheet feeding / discharging unit 140 are compressed by a compression spring 144 whose sheet bundle is mechanically synchronized with the rotation of the sheet feeding roller 142. When the hopper 141 is raised by the restoration, it is pressed against the paper feed roller 142, and only the uppermost cut sheet is separated by the separating member 143 and fed to the transport unit 150. When the cut sheet to be fed reaches the contact point between the sub roller 151 and the driven roller 152a, the cut sheet is skewed.

  The cut sheet after skew removal is sandwiched between a sub-roller 151 driven by a paper feed motor (not shown) and its driven rollers 152a, 152b, and 152c and reversed in a U-shaped path, that is, in a direction opposite to the paper feeding direction. It is conveyed to. When the leading edge of the cut sheet reaches the detection position of the detection sensor 157b, cueing that is a recording start positioning of the cut sheet is performed. Thereafter, the cut sheet that has been cued is sandwiched between a paper feed roller 153 and a driven roller 154 that are driven by a paper feed motor (not shown) and conveyed to the recording unit 160. Accordingly, the nipping of the cut paper by the sub roller 151 and its driven rollers 152a, 152b, and 152c causes the conveyance accuracy to deteriorate, so that each of the driven rollers 152a, 152b, and 152c is released from the sub roller 151.

  The cut sheet conveyed is sucked and flattened on a platen 163 by a suction fan (not shown), and is recorded by a recording head 162 mounted on a carriage 161 scanned by a carriage motor (not shown) and a timing belt. At this time, the control unit of the ink jet recording apparatus 100 supplies each color ink to the recording head 162 from a total of seven ink cartridges, for example, yellow, dark yellow, magenta, light magenta, cyan, light cyan, and black. By controlling ejection timing and driving of the carriage 161 and the paper feed roller 153, highly accurate ink dot control, halftone processing, and the like are executed.

  When this recording is borderless recording, the ink droplets that are discarded in the ink discarding groove 632 are captured by the ink capturing member 60. Then, when the ink droplets captured by the ink capturing member 60 accumulate to some extent, the ink droplets fall due to their own weight and are absorbed by the ink transmission member 61. The absorbed ink droplets are guided to the waste ink tray 165 and flown into the waste liquid tank 120. The cut paper that has been printed is sandwiched between a paper discharge roller 155 and a knurled roller 156 driven by a paper feed motor (not shown), and is discharged to the paper supply / discharge unit 140 and stacked on the paper supply / discharge tray 200. Placed.

  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. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional side view illustrating an outline of an internal configuration of the printer of FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating details of a platen of the printer in FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the platen of FIG. 3 taken along the line AA.

Explanation of symbols

60 Ink capture member, 61 Ink transmission member, 100 Inkjet printer, 110 Operation unit, 130 Paper feed unit, 140 Feed / discharge unit, 150 Transport unit, 160 Recording unit, 163 Platen, 200 Feed / discharge tray, 630 Platen main body 631 Platen vertical part, 631a hollow part, 632 Ink discard slot, 632a hollow part

Claims (3)

A liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects liquid while guiding a medium to be ejected,
A liquid ejecting apparatus, wherein a punching member is provided in the liquid discarding portion formed in the medium guiding portion, and the discarded liquid is captured and dropped by the punching member. The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a liquid transmission member is provided below the perforated member so as to open a space and connect to the waste liquid absorbing member. A recording apparatus for recording by discharging ink on a recording medium,
A recording apparatus comprising the liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 1.

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