JP2008260183A - Height adjusting mechanism for movable rail - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a movable rail adjusting mechanism capable of easily and surely adjusting the height of a movable rail guiding a printer head and performing cost reduction. <P>SOLUTION: A height adjusting mechanism for the movable rail 1 guiding the printer head is composed of a supporting stage 2, a flat vertically movable member 3 placed on this supporting stage 2 and caulked, screwed or fixed on the supporting stage 2 between the supporting post 4, a plurality of supporting posts 4 placed and fitted on this vertically movable member 3 at a specified interval and fitted with a movable rail 1 on the opposite side of the supporting stage 2, and a plurality of adjusting screws 5 whose upper faces are brought into contact with the underside of the respective supporting posts 4, penetrating through the vertically movable member 3 and screwed in the supporting stage 2. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention provides a movable rail capable of easily and reliably adjusting the height of a movable rail for guiding a printer head in a large-sized ink jet printer that performs recording (printing) on A0, A1, and the like. The present invention relates to a height adjustment mechanism.

  In general, an ink jet printer is used as an output device such as a computer or a word processor.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an ink jet printer is provided with a movable rail in parallel with a printing unit, and a printer head is mounted on the movable rail so that the printer head can reciprocate. Both ends of the movable rail are supported by the frame of the inkjet printer, and the parallel accuracy with respect to the printing unit is maintained by improving the component accuracy of the movable rail and the component accuracy of the printer frame. However, some large inkjet printers that print on A0, A1 recording paper or even larger recording paper have a length of the movable rail exceeding 1 meter, and the movable rail is bent by its own weight. There arises a problem that the plane cannot be kept parallel.

To solve this problem, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-228707 proposes a mechanism for adjusting the height of the movable rail for holding the movable rail parallel to the print surface.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-208052

  In Patent Document 1, as shown in FIG. 5, as a mechanism for adjusting the height of the movable rail 10 for holding the movable rail 10 in parallel with the print surface, the movable rail 10 and an inkjet printer are provided. A flat plate-like vertical movement member 30 is disposed between the vertical support member 20 and the both ends of the vertical movement member 30 have a trapezoidal shape, and the upper edge is an arc shape along the outer peripheral surface of the movable rail 10. In the figure, the support posts 40 formed on each other are erected.

  The vertical movement member 30 is provided with two height adjustment screws 50 for adjusting the height of the vertical movement member 30 at both ends in parallel with each other in a direction perpendicular to the movable rail 10. It has been entered. The height adjusting screw 50 is threaded through the vertical movement member 30 from above, and the lower end is in contact with the upper surface of the support base 20. Furthermore, two fixing screws 60 are penetrated in parallel in a direction orthogonal to the movable rail 10 at both ends of the vertical movement member 30 outside the height adjustment screw 50 screwed in. Yes. In order to fix the vertical movement member 30 and the support base 20, the fixing screw 60 penetrates the vertical movement member 30 from above and is screwed into a screw hole 70 formed in the upper surface of the support base 20.

  When adjusting the height of the movable rail 10, the height adjustment screw 50 is screwed into or out of the vertical movement member 30 with the fixing screw 60 penetrating the vertical movement member 30 being loosened. Then, the vertical movement member 30 moves away from or approaches the support base 20, and accordingly, the two support posts 40 erected on both ends of the vertical movement member 30 move away from the support base 20. Accordingly, the height of the movable rail 10 is adjusted, and the parallelism between the printing surface and the movable rail 10 is adjusted. After the adjustment of the parallelism between the printing surface and the movable rail 10 is finished, the vertical movement member 30 and the support base 20 are fixed by tightening the loosened fixing screw 60 so that the height of the movable rail 10 is increased. The adjustment is complete.

  However, in the mechanism for adjusting the height of the movable rail 10 as described above, in order to hold the movable rail 10 parallel to the printing surface, the number of screws that have to be screwed and unscrewed is large. There is a problem that it is troublesome. In particular, in addition to the printer head, a height adjusting screw 50 and a fixing screw 60 in a place where printer parts such as a tube that freely reciprocates the printer head, an ink cartridge, etc. are gathered are screwed in or screwed out by inserting a screwdriver. Since the height of the moving member 30 needs to be adjusted, there is a problem that these printer parts may be damaged by using a screwdriver several times for fine adjustment or the like.

  Accordingly, the present invention has been proposed in view of the above circumstances, and a mechanism for adjusting the height of the movable rail can be devised to adjust the height of the movable rail for guiding the printer head easily and reliably. An object of the present invention is to provide a movable rail height adjusting mechanism that can reduce the height of the rail, simplify the operation, and reduce the cost.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a movable rail height adjusting mechanism for adjusting the height of a movable rail that guides a printer head, and a support base and a vertically moving member mounted on the support base. And a plurality of support posts mounted on the vertical movement member at predetermined intervals, the movable rail being mounted on the opposite side of the support base, and the upper surface in contact with the lower side of each of the support posts, It comprises a plurality of adjustment screws that pass through a vertical movement member and are screwed to the support base.

  And it is preferable to provide unevenness in the circumferential direction on the upper surface of the adjusting screw, and to provide unevenness that meshes with the unevenness of the adjusting screw in the contact portion of the support post that contacts the upper surface of the adjusting screw.

  In the present invention, the height adjustment mechanism of the movable rail is devised, the fixing screw that has been required in the past is omitted, and the vertical movement member is moved up and down simply by screwing and unscrewing one adjustment screw per one support post. Since the height of the movable rail can be adjusted by moving, the height of the movable rail for guiding the printer head can be easily and reliably adjusted while reducing the work and simplifying the operation. In addition, since the number of parts necessary for adjusting the height of the movable rail can be reduced, the cost of the printer can be reduced.

  In particular, unevenness is provided on the upper surface of the adjustment screw in the circumferential direction, and furthermore, unevenness that meshes with the unevenness of the adjustment screw is also provided on the contact portion of the support post that contacts the upper surface of the adjustment screw. Thus, the upper surface of the adjustment screw is firmly fixed by the weight of the movable rail and the support post, and the adjustment screw is securely fixed to the support base and the support post without loosening, so that the movable rail and the printing surface Parallelism can be maintained.

Hereinafter, an embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of a movable rail height adjusting mechanism according to the present invention. FIG. 2A is an enlarged plan view of the upper end portion of the adjusting screw used in one embodiment of the movable rail height adjusting mechanism according to the present invention, and FIG. 2B is a movable rail height according to the present invention. It is an enlarged front view of the upper end part of an adjustment screw used for one embodiment of a length adjustment mechanism. FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the case where the movable rail height adjusting mechanism according to the present invention is provided at a plurality of locations of the movable rail, and FIG. 4 shows the movable rail height adjusting mechanism according to the present invention. It is a fragmentary sectional view showing the case where it provides in a plurality of places of a movable rail.

  In the present invention, as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, a support base 2 made of a reinforced flat plate and the support base 2 placed on the support base 2 are caulked or screwed or fixed to the support base 2 described later. A flat plate-like vertical movement member 3 and a plurality of support posts 4 which are mounted on the vertical movement member 3 so as to be placed at predetermined intervals, and on which the movable rail 1 is attached on the opposite side of the support base 2; The height adjustment mechanism of the movable rail 1 for guiding the printer head, comprising a plurality of adjustment screws 5 that are in contact with the lower surface of the support post 4 and are threaded into the support base 2 through the vertical movement member 3. In particular, FIG. 1 shows the height adjusting mechanism of the movable rail 1 at one location among the height adjusting mechanisms of the movable rail 1 having a plurality of locations in the inkjet printer.

  First, one adjustment screw 5 is provided to move the vertical movement member 3 up and down with respect to the height adjustment mechanism of the movable rail 1 at one location. The adjustment screw 5 penetrates the vertical movement member 3 from above, and the screw portion 5 c is screwed to the support base 2. A flange 5b is formed at the upper end of the adjusting screw 5 along with the screw head 5a along the periphery of the screw head 5a. As shown in FIG. 2, the upper surface of the flange 5b is provided with irregularities in the circumferential direction.

In FIG. 1, the movable rail 1 is attached to the support post 4 mounted on the vertical movement member 3 by a mounting screw 41 on the mounting portion 4 a on the opposite side of the support base 2. Furthermore, an insertion hole 4b for inserting or screwing the adjustment screw 5 is provided.
The mounting screw 41 connects the movable rail 1 and the vertical movement member 3 via the support post 4 and moves the movable rail 1 up and down as the vertical movement member 3 moves up and down.

  The insertion hole 4b has a shape in which a large-diameter hole is concentrically continuous under a small-diameter hole, and a screw contact portion 4c (a ceiling portion of the large-diameter hole) with which the upper surface of the flange portion 5b of the adjustment screw 5 is in contact. Is provided. Specifically, the flange portion 5b of the adjustment screw 5 is accommodated in the insertion hole 4b from the lower side, so that the flange portion 5b of the adjustment screw 5 comes into contact with the screw contact portion 4c. 5a can be seen from the upper side of the insertion hole 4b. Further, the screw contact portion 4 c of the support post 4 is provided with unevenness that meshes with the unevenness provided on the flange portion 5 b of the adjustment screw 5.

  Therefore, in the height adjusting mechanism of the movable rail 1 according to the present invention, the screw head 5a at the upper end of the adjusting screw 5 accommodated in the insertion hole 4b of the support post 4 is screwed or screwed out with a screwdriver or the like. As a result, the vertical movement member 3 moves away from or approaches the support base 2, and accordingly, the support post 4 placed on the vertical movement member 3 moves away from or approaches the support base 2. Then, as the support post 4 moves up and down, the height of the movable rail 1 moves up and down, so that the parallelism between the printing surface and the movable rail 1 can be adjusted.

  In particular, after the adjustment of the parallelism between the printing surface and the movable rail 1 is finished, the movable rail 1 and the support post 4 are subjected to their own weight on the flange portion 5b provided with the unevenness on the upper surface of the adjusting screw 5, and the support is supported. Since the unevenness provided on the screw contact portion 4 c of the post 4 meshes, the upper end portion of the adjustment screw 5 is firmly fixed to the support post 4. Since the screw portion 5c of the adjustment screw 5 is screwed and fixed to the support base 2, the print surface and the movable rail 1 are kept parallel without operating the fixing screw as in the prior art. be able to.

  That is, the height adjustment mechanism of the movable rail 1 according to the present invention moves the vertical movement member 3 up and down only by an operation of screwing or unscrewing one adjustment screw 5 with respect to one support post 4. Thus, since the height of the movable rail 1 can be adjusted, the height of the movable rail 1 for guiding the printer head can be easily and reliably adjusted by simple and few operations. Furthermore, since the number of parts required for height adjustment of the movable rail 1 can be suppressed, the cost of the ink jet printer can be reduced.

  In the height adjusting mechanism of the movable rail 1 according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, the vertical movement member 3 is provided with a positioning hole 3a for fixing the position for placing the support post 4, and the support The post 4 is also provided with a positioning dowel 4d corresponding to the positioning hole 3a of the vertical movement member 3, and the positioning dowel 4d of the support post 4 is fitted into the positioning hole 3a of the vertical movement member 3 and fixed. 4 may be placed on the vertically moving member 3. Then, since the vertical movement member 3 and the support post 4 are firmly fixed, the parallel holding of the movable rail 1 and the printing surface after adjusting the height of the movable rail 1 is more reliable. can do.

  As mentioned above, although one Embodiment of this invention was explained in full detail, this invention is not limited to said one Embodiment. The present invention can be modified in various ways without departing from the scope of the claims.

In the above-described embodiment, an example in which the screw contact portion 4c of the support post 4 and the flange portion 5b of the adjustment screw 5 are provided with unevenness has been described. Therefore, even if there is no unevenness on the flange at the upper end of the adjustment screw and no unevenness on the screw contact part of the corresponding insertion hole of the support post, Since the moving member and the support base are securely fixed, the effect according to the present invention can be sufficiently expected. Further, the same effect can be obtained by providing irregularities on at least one of the screw contact portion of the support post and the flange portion of the adjustment screw.
This eliminates the trouble of forming irregularities in the flange portion at the upper end of the height adjusting screw, or eliminates the trouble of forming irregularities in the screw contact portion of the mounting portion of the support post, thereby further reducing the cost. It becomes possible.

It is a fragmentary sectional view showing one embodiment of the movable rail height adjustment mechanism concerning the present invention. (A) is an enlarged plan view of the upper end part of an adjustment screw used for one embodiment of the movable rail height adjustment mechanism according to the present invention. (B) is an enlarged front view of the upper end portion of the adjusting screw used in one embodiment of the movable rail height adjusting mechanism according to the present invention. It is a top view which shows the case where the height adjustment mechanism of the movable rail which concerns on this invention is provided in the multiple places of a movable rail. It is a fragmentary sectional view showing the case where the height adjustment mechanism of the movable rail concerning the present invention is provided in a plurality of places of the movable rail. It is a fragmentary sectional view which shows the conventional movable rail adjustment mechanism.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Movable rail 2 Support stand 3 Vertical moving member 3a Positioning hole 4 Support post 41 Mounting screw 4a Mounting part 4b Insertion hole
4c Screw contact portion 4d Positioning dowel 5 Adjustment screw 5a Screw head
5b collar 5c thread
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Movable rail 20 Support stand 30 Vertically moving member 40 Support post 50 Height adjustment screw 60 Fixing screw 70 Screw hole

Claims (2)

A movable rail height adjusting mechanism for adjusting the height of the movable rail for guiding the printer head,
A support base;
A vertically moving member placed on the support;
A plurality of support posts mounted on the vertically moving member at a predetermined interval, the movable rail being mounted on the opposite side of the support base;
The upper surface is in contact with the lower side of each support post, and includes a plurality of adjustment screws that pass through the vertical movement member and are screwed into the support base.
A movable rail height adjustment mechanism characterized by that. The movable rail height adjusting mechanism according to claim 1,
On the upper surface of the adjustment screw, unevenness is provided in the circumferential direction,
The contact portion of the support post that is in contact with the upper surface of the adjustment screw is provided with unevenness that meshes with the unevenness of the adjustment screw.
A movable rail height adjustment mechanism characterized by that.

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