JP2007245599A - Medium carrier, liquid injection apparatus and recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a medium carrier to correct a skewed motion of a roll-like carrying medium, which is generated in a holding portion when the medium is held, drawn and carried, and also to provide a liquid injection apparatus and a recorder which are provided with the medium carrier. <P>SOLUTION: A friction force providing member 149 is formed in the center of a carrying roller 141 so that the carrying medium R is restrained more strongly in the center of the roller in a width direction than in the outside portions. The moment due to a restraining force in the width direction at both end supporting portions of the carrying medium is thereby made larger than that due to a restraining force of the outside portions in the width direction in the roller portion of the carrying medium. As a result, the skewed motion generated in the portion held by the carrying roller and driven rollers 142 is corrected by using the restraining force in the width direction at both end supporting portions of the carrying medium. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a medium transport apparatus that transports a transported medium wound in a roll and supported at both ends by a transport roller and a driven roller, and a liquid ejecting apparatus and a recording apparatus including the medium transport apparatus.

  Some printers, which are one of recording apparatuses, have a function capable of recording on paper wound in a roll shape. In such a printer, the roll paper set in the roll paper holder is nipped by a paper feed roller and a driven roller, pulled out, conveyed, and recorded by a recording head. For this reason, the drawn roll paper may be skewed, and the recording accuracy may be reduced. Therefore, the roll paper holder regulates the position in the width direction of the roll paper to prevent the skew of the roll paper, or a skew prevention roller is provided between the roll paper holder and the paper feed roller to prevent the skew. There has been proposed a printer that regulates the position of the roller in the paper width direction to prevent the skew of the roll paper (see Patent Document 1).

JP-A-6-24074

  Since the roll paper sandwiched between the paper feed roller and the driven roller of the printer described above is restrained over the entire width of the paper, the skew feeding prevention mechanism cannot correct the skew that has once occurred in the sandwiched portion. Have difficulty.

  The present invention has been made in view of the various problems as described above, and an object of the present invention is to correct skewing in the sandwiched portion that occurs when the roll-shaped transported medium is sandwiched, pulled out, and transported. It is an object of the present invention to provide a medium transport apparatus capable of performing the above, a liquid ejecting apparatus including the medium transport apparatus, and a recording apparatus.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the medium conveying apparatus of the present invention, the medium conveying apparatus is configured such that the medium to be conveyed wound in a roll shape and supported at both ends is sandwiched and conveyed by the conveying roller and the driven roller provided on the downstream side. The apparatus is configured such that the restraining force of the central part in the width direction of the transported medium in a state of sandwiching the transported medium is larger than the restraining force of the outer part, and the restraining force in the central part, The skew of the medium to be transported is corrected by using the regulating force in the width direction at both end support portions of the medium to be transported. As a result, the moment due to the regulating force in the width direction at the support portions at both ends of the transported medium exceeds the moment due to the restraining force of the outer portion in the width direction at the roller portion of the transported medium. It is possible to correct the skew that occurs in the sandwiched portion.

  Further, a friction force applying member for the medium to be transported is provided at a central portion of the transport roller. Thereby, the restraining force of the center part in the width direction in the roller part of a to-be-conveyed medium can be made larger than the restraining force of an outer side part. Further, the driven roller is arranged only at a central portion of the transport roller. Thereby, the restraining force of the center part in the width direction in the roller part of a to-be-conveyed medium can be made larger than the restraining force of an outer side part.

  In order to achieve the above object, in order to achieve the above object, the liquid ejecting apparatus of the present invention is a liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects liquid while transporting a medium to be ejected, and includes the above medium transporting apparatuses. Yes. The recording apparatus of the present invention is a recording apparatus for recording while conveying a recording medium, and is characterized by including the above-described medium conveying apparatuses. 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.

  1 and 2 are perspective views of an external configuration example of an ink jet printer that is one of recording apparatuses according to an embodiment of the present invention as viewed from the front side, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the same as viewed from the back side. 4 and 4 are perspective views showing the internal structure thereof. The ink jet printer 100 includes, for example, a relatively large size cut paper (conveyed medium, ejected medium, recording medium) such as JIS standard A0 size or JIS standard B0 size, and roll paper having the width of the paper. This is a large printer capable of recording up to (transported medium, ejected medium, recording medium) R. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the ink jet printer 100 includes a rectangular parallelepiped printer body 110 and printer legs 120 that support the printer body 110.

  The printer main body 110 is divided into upper and lower layers as shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, and a roll paper storage portion 130 is disposed at the boundary between the upper and lower layers on the back side as shown in FIG. ing. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, a paper supply / discharge unit 140 and a recording unit 150 including characteristic portions of the present invention are disposed in the upper layer. Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, a sheet suction unit 160 is disposed at the center of the lower layer, and an ink supply unit 170 is disposed on the left side of the lower layer as viewed from the front side. A head characteristic recovery unit 180 and a drive control unit 190 are arranged vertically on the right side of the lower layer. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, a waste ink collection unit 200 is disposed below the drive control unit 190 and beside the printer leg 120.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the printer main body 110 includes an upper housing 111 made of plastic or sheet metal that covers the paper supply / discharge unit 140 and the recording unit 150, a paper suction unit 160, an ink supply unit 170, and head characteristics recovery. A lower housing 112 made of plastic or sheet metal that covers the part 180 and the drive control part 190 is provided. As shown in FIG. 2, the upper housing 111 is provided with a body cover 113 made of plastic or sheet metal so as to be openable from the center front surface to the center upper surface. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the lower housing 112 is provided with an ink cover 114 made of plastic or sheet metal so that the front surface of the ink supply unit 170 can be opened.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the main body cover 113 is supported so that the rear portion is rotatable with respect to the upper housing 111, and the user puts his / her finger into a recessed finger-hanging portion 113 a formed on the front surface. It opens and closes by being pushed up or pushed down. The user can open the main body cover 113 to largely open the upper part of the paper supply / discharge unit 140 and the recording unit 150, so that the maintenance operation of the recording head 152, the carriage 153, etc., the paper jam during recording or transporting, etc. It is possible to easily perform the operation of canceling the paper conveyance error. Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the main body cover 113 is provided with a window 113 b made of transparent or translucent plastic on a part of its upper surface. The user can visually recognize the recording state and the conveyance state by looking inside the window 113b without opening the main body cover 113.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the ink cover 114 is supported so that both sides thereof are slidable with respect to the lower housing 112, and the user puts his / her finger into a recessed finger-hanging portion 114 a formed on the front surface. It opens and closes by being pushed up or pushed down. Since the user can open the front surface of the ink supply unit 170 by opening the ink cover 114, the user can easily replace the ink cartridge 10 or the like. Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the ink cover 114 is provided with a window 114b made of a transparent or translucent plastic on a part of the front surface. The user can view the state of the ink cartridge 10 by looking through the window 114b without opening the ink cover 114.

  Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the printer main body 110 is provided with an operation panel 115 for the user to operate recording control and the like on the upper surface of the upper right layer when viewed from the front side. . The operation panel 115 is provided with a liquid crystal screen and various buttons so that the user can operate the buttons while checking the liquid crystal screen. Since the user can perform a reliable operation by visual recognition, an operation error, an operation error, and the like can be eliminated.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the printer leg portion 120 includes two inverted T-shaped support columns 121 and a reinforcing column 122 spanned between the support columns 121. The printer main body 110 is placed on the support column 121 and fixed with screws. Since the printer main body 110 is lifted by the printer legs 120, the user can easily perform the paper supply / discharge process and various maintenance processes. Furthermore, it is possible to install a paper discharge receiving portion in the space of the printer leg 120, so that the recorded paper can be efficiently collected and contamination of the recorded paper can be prevented.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the roll paper storage unit 130 is inserted in the inner periphery of the roll paper R to support the roll paper R, and the both ends of the spindle 131 are pivotally supported. Has no bearing. The back surface of the sheet suction unit 160 is formed so as to be recessed from the back surfaces of the ink supply unit 170 and the back surfaces of the head characteristic recovery unit 180 and the drive control unit 190 on both sides of the sheet suction unit 160. 130 is disposed. That is, bearings (not shown) are provided on opposite sides of the ink supply unit 170, the head characteristic recovery unit 180, and the drive control unit 190 so as to pivotally support both ends of the spindle 131 in the main scanning direction. . Then, the roll paper R can be set without protruding from the back side of the printer main body 110 by bridging the spindle 131 penetrating the inner periphery of the roll paper R between these bearings.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the paper supply / discharge unit 140 includes a paper feed roller (conveyance roller) 141 and its paper feed follower roller 142 which are characteristic parts of the present invention. The paper feed roller 141 and the paper feed follower roller 142 are arranged so that the shaft faces the main scanning direction and the circumferential surface is up and down on the downstream side of the paper feed immediately from the roll paper storage unit 130, that is, the rear side in the printer main body 110. It arrange | positions so that it may oppose. Both ends of the paper feed roller 141 are axially supported by side frames 116 via bearings (not shown), and are driven to rotate forward and backward by a driving force transmitted from the paper feed motor 143 through the pulley 144 and the belt 145. It has become.

  The paper feed driven roller 142 is formed as a plurality of short rollers, and is pivotally supported by a plurality of driven roller support members 146 arranged in parallel in the axial direction above the paper feed roller 141. The paper feed driven roller 142 is pressed against the paper feed roller 141 by a biasing member such as a spring (not shown) attached to the driven roller support member 146, and follows the forward / reverse rotation drive of the paper feed roller 141. It is designed to rotate forward and reverse. Thus, the sheet can be firmly pressed from both sides and sent out, so that highly accurate recording can be performed.

  The paper feed roller 141 and the paper feed driven roller 142 sandwich the roll paper R and the cut paper fed from the paper feed port 147 formed between the upper and lower layers of the printer main body 110 shown in FIG. 2 and 4 are sent out onto the platen 151 of the recording unit 150 and discharged from a paper discharge port 148 formed between upper and lower layers of the printer main body 110 shown in FIG. The details of the paper feed roller 141 and the paper feed driven roller 142, which are characteristic parts of the present invention, will be described later.

  As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the recording unit 150 is mounted on the platen 151 disposed immediately downstream of the paper feed roller 141, the carriage 153 on which the recording head 152 is mounted, and the carriage 153. A cutter 154 is provided. Further, the recording unit 150 includes a flexible flat cable (hereinafter referred to as FFC) (not shown) that electrically connects the recording head 152 and a drive control unit 190 for executing recording, an ink cartridge containing the recording head 151 and ink. And an ink tube (not shown) that connects to the printer 10.

  The platen 151 is formed in a rectangular flat plate shape having a length slightly larger than the maximum recordable paper width, and is disposed along the paper feed roller 141. The platen 151 has a plurality of holes (not shown) connected to the paper suction unit 160 from the front surface to the back surface, and a plurality of uneven portions (not shown) that absorb a cockling of the paper caused by moisture absorption is formed on the surface. Yes. As a result, the paper being recorded can be held in a substantially flat shape, so that highly accurate recording can be performed. Further, a cutter groove 151 a extending in the main scanning direction is formed on the surface of the platen 151. The cutter groove 151a is sized so that the cutting edge of the cutter 154 protruding from the lower surface of the roll paper R can enter so that the cutter 154 does not damage the surface of the platen 151 when the roll paper R is cut in the width direction. Is formed. Thereby, the recording part and unrecorded part of the roll paper R can be reliably separated.

  The recording head 152 is disposed at a lower portion of the carriage 153 so as to face the cut paper or the roll paper R supplied to the upper surface of the platen 151 with a predetermined interval, and ejects two types of black ink. And a plurality of color ink recording heads that eject ink of each color such as cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan, light magenta, and dark yellow. The recording head 152 is provided with a pressure generating chamber and a nozzle opening connected to the pressure generating chamber, and a cut supplied to the upper surface of the platen 151 from the nozzle opening by storing ink in the pressure generating chamber and pressurizing it with a predetermined pressure. Controlled ink droplets are ejected toward the paper or roll paper R.

  The carriage 153 is placed on a carriage guide shaft 155 provided in the main scanning direction via a bearing (not shown), and is coupled to the belt 156. The carriage 153 is entrained by the movement of the belt 156 when the pulley 157 constituting the moving means is rotated by the carriage motor constituting the moving means (not shown) and the belt 156 constituting the moving means is rotated. Guided by 155, it reciprocates in the main scanning direction. As a result, the carriage 153 can be moved with high accuracy, so that highly accurate recording can be performed.

  The cutter 154 is disposed so as to be movable up and down in the vertical direction and movable in the main scanning direction so that the blade edge faces downward. The cutter 154 is moved up and down by, for example, a solenoid and moved in the main scanning direction together with the carriage 153. Therefore, it is not necessary to provide a separate means for moving the cutter 154, so that space can be saved and costs can be reduced. The cutter 154 may be separated from the carriage 153 and moved in the main scanning direction by a unique belt mechanism, a motor, or the like.

  The FFC has one end connected to the connector of the drive control unit 190 and the other end connected to the connector of the recording head 152, and sends a recording signal from the drive control unit 190 to the recording head 152. The ink tubes are provided for the inks of the respective colors, and one end of each ink tube is connected to the corresponding ink cartridge 10 via an ink pressurizing and supplying means (not shown), and the other end of each color recording head. 152 is connected. The ink tube is configured to send ink of each color pressurized by the ink pressure supply means from the ink cartridge 10 to the recording head 152.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the sheet suction unit 160 includes a pressure chamber 161 disposed in the lower part of the platen 151 and a fan (not shown) disposed in the lower part of the pressure chamber 161. The pressure chamber 161 is formed in a box shape in which a part of the upper surface and the bottom surface is opened, a platen 151 is attached to the open portion of the upper surface, and a fan is attached to the open portion of the bottom surface. By rotating the fan, the air is sucked into the pressure chamber 161 from the hole formed in the platen 151 and exhausted to the outside through the fan. Accordingly, when cut paper or roll paper R is supplied to the upper surface of the platen 151, negative pressure is generated on the lower surface side of the cut paper or roll paper R, so that the cut paper or roll paper R is attracted to the upper surface of the platen 151. As a result, the cut paper or the roll paper R can be prevented from being lifted, and the recording accuracy can be maintained with high accuracy.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the ink supply unit 170 includes a box-shaped cartridge storage unit 171 and a cartridge pressing unit 172 attached to the front side of the cartridge storage unit 171. The cartridge storage portion 171 is partitioned so that two types of ink cartridges 10 in total, black, cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan, light magenta, and dark yellow, can be pulled out from the front side and pushed in sequentially from the left side of the figure. It has been. The cartridge pressing portion 172 is attached to each partition portion of the cartridge storage portion 171 so as to be freely opened and closed. The cartridge pressing portion 172 presses the ink cartridge 10 in the partition portion in conjunction with the closing operation, and ink cartridges in the partition portion in conjunction with the opening operation. 10 is popping out.

  Here, the ink cartridge 10 is hermetically sealed, for example, in an outer case formed in a rectangular parallelepiped shape with a hard plastic material, for example, in a bag shape made of a flexible material and filled with ink inside. . An ink supply port connected to the ink tank and a positioning hole in the cartridge housing portion 171 are formed on the surface on the insertion side to the cartridge housing portion 171. On the other hand, an ink supply needle inserted into the ink supply port of the ink cartridge 10 and a positioning needle inserted into the positioning hole of the ink cartridge 10 are pulled out and pushed in the ink cartridge 10 on the inner rear surface of the cartridge housing portion 171. It is arrange | positioned so that it may protrude.

  Therefore, the ink cartridge 10 accommodated in the cartridge accommodating portion 171 is automatically positioned when the positioning needle is inserted into the positioning hole when the cartridge pressing portion 172 is closed, and at the same time, the ink supplying needle is automatically The ink can be supplied to the recording head 152 by entering the ink supply port. When the cartridge pressing portion 172 is opened, the positioning needle is automatically extracted from the positioning hole, and at the same time, the ink supply needle is automatically extracted from the ink supply port.

  The head characteristic recovery unit 180 is disposed below the carriage 153 located at the home position shown in FIG. 4, and includes wiping means, capping means, suction means, and drive means for these. The wiping means includes a wiper formed in a substantially rectangular flat plate shape using rubber, felt, plastic, or the like, and rubs against the nozzle forming surface of the recording head 152 so as to wipe off ink adhering to the nozzle forming surface. It has become. The capping means is provided with a cap formed in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape by rubber, and a recess provided in the upper part is pressed against the nozzle forming surface of the recording head 152 to seal the nozzle opening. The suction means forcibly sucks and discharges the ink in order to remove clogged nozzle openings and mixed bubbles. Accordingly, it is possible to perform processing for maintaining the ink ejection characteristics of the recording head 152 in a constant state when the carriage 153 is in the home position.

  The waste ink collection unit 200 includes a detachable waste liquid cartridge 201. The waste liquid cartridge 201 stores waste liquid such as ink used when initially filling the ink supply system reaching the recording head 152 or cleaning liquid used when cleaning the ink supply system reaching the recording head 152. It has become. Thus, since the waste liquid processing can be completed only by replacing the waste liquid cartridge 201, the number of work steps can be reduced, and contamination of the peripheral portion of the printer can be prevented.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the paper feed roller 141 and the paper feed driven roller 142 and their peripheral portions. The paper feed roller 141 is formed as one long roller, and is coated with a frictional force applying member 149 such as ceramic powder that applies a frictional force to the paper only on the peripheral surface portion of the central portion. Thereby, the restraining force with the frictional force applying member 149 of the paper feed roller 141 at the central portion in the paper width direction is larger than the restraining force with the paper feed roller 141 at the outer portion in the paper width direction. Therefore, particularly in the case of the roll paper R, the moment due to the restriction force in the width direction at the both end support portions of the spindle 131 that supports the roll paper R is the moment due to the binding force with the paper feed roller 141 in the outer portion in the paper width direction. Therefore, the roll paper R can be rotated in the direction of the arrow a with the frictional force applying member 149 of the paper feed roller 141 as a rotation fulcrum, and at the sandwiched portion of the paper feed roller 141 and the paper feed driven roller 142 The generated skew of the roll paper R indicated by the one-dot chain line in the figure can be corrected to a normal state indicated by the two-dot chain line in the figure.

  As shown in FIG. 6, even if the paper feed driven roller 142 is disposed only at the central portion of the paper feed roller 141, the paper feed roller 141 and the binding force at the central portion in the paper width direction are arranged. However, it can be made larger than the restraining force with the paper feed roller 141 at the outer portion in the width direction of the paper. Therefore, particularly in the case of the roll paper R, the moment due to the restriction force in the width direction at the both end support portions of the spindle 131 that supports the roll paper R is the moment due to the binding force with the paper feed roller 141 in the outer portion in the paper width direction. Therefore, the roll paper R can be rotated in the direction of the arrow a with the central portion of the paper feed roller 141 as a rotation fulcrum, and the figure generated in the sandwiched portion of the paper feed roller 141 and the paper feed driven roller 142 is illustrated. The skew of the roll paper R indicated by the one-dot chain line can be corrected to a normal state indicated by the two-dot chain line in the drawing.

  Any recording apparatus provided with a medium conveying apparatus can be applied to, for example, a facsimile apparatus and a copying apparatus. 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 first perspective view of an external configuration example of an ink jet printer that is one of recording apparatuses according to an embodiment of the present invention, viewed from the front side. FIG. 3 is a second perspective view of an external configuration example of the printer of FIG. 1 viewed from the front side. It is the perspective view which looked at the printer of FIG. 1 from the back side. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an internal structure of the printer of FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a paper feed roller, a paper feed driven roller, and a peripheral portion of the printer of FIG. 1. It is a figure which shows another example of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Inkjet printer, 110 Printer main-body part, 120 Printer leg part, 130 Roll paper storage part, 140 Paper feed / discharge part, 141 Paper feed roller, 142 Paper feed follower roller, 149 Friction force giving member, 150 Recording part, 160 Paper Suction unit, 170 ink supply unit, 180 head characteristic recovery unit, 190 drive control unit, 200 waste ink recovery unit

Claims (5)

A medium conveying apparatus that conveys a medium to be conveyed that is wound in a roll shape and supported at both ends by a conveyance roller and a driven roller provided on the downstream side, and draws and conveys the medium.
The restraint force of the central part in the width direction of the transported medium in a state where the transported medium is sandwiched is larger than the restraining force of the outer part, and the restraining force in the central part and the transported medium A medium conveying apparatus characterized in that skewing of the medium to be conveyed is corrected using a regulating force in a width direction at both end support portions. The medium conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a frictional force applying member for the medium to be conveyed is provided at a central portion of the conveying roller. The medium conveying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the driven roller is disposed only at a central portion of the conveying roller. A liquid ejecting apparatus that ejects liquid while conveying an ejection target medium,
A liquid ejecting apparatus comprising the medium conveying device according to claim 1. A recording apparatus for recording while conveying a recording medium,
A recording apparatus comprising the medium conveyance device according to claim 1.

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