JP2009066862A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming device in which poor contact can be prevented by an inexpensive structure. <P>SOLUTION: A first contact 33a is provided in a carrier body 33, and a rotation axis 32a and a protruding portion 32b are provided in a carrier lid 32. When an ink cartridge 31 is mounted in the carrier body 33, it is provided with a second contact 31b which is in contact with the first contact 33a, and a curved protruding portion 31a is formed in the upper part. When the career lid 32 is closed, the protruding portion 32b presses one end 311 of the curved protruding portion 31a to move the ink cartridge 31. When the career lid 32 is completely closed, the protruding portion 32b is located in the other end 312 of the curved protruding portion 31a to release the press to the curved protruding portion 31a. As a result, the ink cartridge 31 reciprocates with the switching action of the career lid 32, and the second contact 31a slides to the first contact 33a in conjunction with the movement of the ink cartridge 31. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an ink jet image forming apparatus, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus capable of preventing contact failure of an ink cartridge.

  In recent years, an ink jet type image forming apparatus (hereinafter referred to as an ink jet printer) that forms an image on recording paper by applying ink droplets from a print head has been widely used. The ink applied from the print head is stored in an ink cartridge that is detachable from the ink jet printer. Some ink cartridges are provided with a memory for storing information such as the remaining amount of ink. In this memory, the stored information is read out and written by communication with the printer main body. Therefore, a contact for connecting to the printer main body is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the ink cartridge, and a contact for communicating with the memory is provided on the printer main body.

  The contact is made of metal, and a film such as an oxide film may be generated on the surface of the contact due to dirt or the like caused by human touch. In this type of ink jet printer, if an oxide film or the like is formed on the surface of the contact, conduction between the contacts cannot be obtained, and the ink jet printer and the memory may not be able to communicate.

On the other hand, Patent Document 1 discloses an ink jet printer in which a wiping portion is provided in an ink cartridge, and the wiping portion wipes a film covering the surface of the contact, thereby maintaining electrical connection between the contacts. ing. Further, in Patent Document 2, a wiping portion is provided on a carrier that accommodates an ink cartridge inside, and the wiping portion slides up and down on the surface of the contact to remove a film and the like attached to the surface of the contact. Inkjet printers that can maintain continuity between contacts are disclosed. However, these ink jet printers have a problem that manufacturing costs cannot be suppressed because it is necessary to provide a wiping portion.
JP 2006-240166 A JP-A-8-216977

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides an image forming apparatus that can prevent a contact failure with an inexpensive configuration.

  In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 includes a paper transport mechanism for transporting paper in the sub-scanning direction and a reciprocating movement in the main scanning direction orthogonal to the sub-scanning direction, and applying ink to the paper. A carrier for printing, an ink cartridge detachably attached to the carrier, and a control means for controlling each part of the apparatus, wherein the carrier is an openable / closable carrier lid for fixing the ink cartridge inside the carrier; A first contact for transmitting and receiving a predetermined signal to and from the control means, and the ink cartridge is in contact with the first contact and transmits and receives a signal when mounted in the carrier. In an image forming apparatus having two contacts, when the ink cartridge is mounted inside the carrier, the ink cartridge is used to open and close the carrier lid. The second contact is slid with respect to the first contact in conjunction with the movement of the ink cartridge, thereby removing the oxide film on the surfaces of the first contact and the second contact. It is possible.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the carrier lid is provided with a protrusion in a direction facing the ink cartridge, and the protrusion is formed when the carrier cover is closed. The ink cartridge is pressed in a predetermined direction, and when the carrier lid is completely closed, the ink cartridge is reciprocated by releasing the pressure on the ink cartridge.

  According to the present invention, the second contact can slide relative to the first contact in conjunction with the movement of the ink cartridge, and the oxide film on the surfaces of the first contact and the second contact can be removed. Contact failure can be prevented. In addition, since the number of parts is small as compared with the configuration in which the wiping unit is provided as described in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, the manufacturing cost of the image forming apparatus can be suppressed.

  Hereinafter, an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. 1 and 2 show a configuration of an image forming apparatus 1 such as an ink jet printer. The image forming apparatus 1 includes a paper transport mechanism 2 that transports the paper P in the sub-scanning direction (the white arrow direction in FIG. 1), a carrier 3 on which a print head (not shown) for printing on the paper P is mounted, A carrier motor 4 that drives the carrier 3 to reciprocate in the main scanning direction (the black arrow direction in FIG. 1) orthogonal to the sub-scanning direction, and a paper feed tray 5 on which the paper P is placed are provided. In addition, the image forming apparatus 1 is attached to the carrier 3, and in response to the reciprocation of the carrier 3, the image forming apparatus 1 scans the encoder strip 7 arranged along the main scanning direction on the frame of the image forming apparatus 1; And a control section (control means) 10 for controlling each section of the paper apparatus.

  The paper transport mechanism 2 includes a transport roller (not shown) that transports the paper P and a transport motor 2a that drives the transport roller. The transport motor 2a can rotate the transport roller so as to transport the paper P in the sub-scanning direction, and can transport the paper P in the reverse direction to the sub-scanning direction by rotating the transport roller in the reverse direction. .

  The carrier 3 includes a carrier body 33 (see FIG. 3) and a freely openable / closable carrier lid 32 (see FIG. 3) provided on the upper portion of the carrier body 33. Inside the carrier 3, an ink cartridge 31 in which a plurality of types of inks are independent is mounted. Details will be described later.

  The carrier encoder 6 and the encoder strip 7 are used to control the printing operation by controlling the movement of the carrier 3. The encoder strip 7 is such that, for example, slits at equal intervals are cut at 150 dpi. The carrier encoder 6 scans the encoder strip 7 according to the reciprocation of the carrier 3 and outputs, for example, two-phase pulse signals that are out of phase with each other. That is, this pulse signal is output according to the movement of the carrier 3. The control unit 10 calculates the position and speed of the carrier 3 based on the count number of the pulse signal, the interval between pulses, and the like. That is, the carrier encoder 6 measures the position of the carrier 3 in the main scanning direction by outputting a pulse signal.

  The control unit 10 includes a CPU 10a and a memory 10b that can communicate with the CPU 10a. The memory 10b has a ROM and a RAM, and stores data such as firmware used for the printing operation. The CPU 10a communicates with the memory 10b to operate the firmware, thereby controlling a printing operation for printing based on printing information sent from a computer or the like connected to the image forming apparatus 1 and information including the paper size. Further, the CPU 10a transmits and receives predetermined control signals to and from the ink cartridge 31, acquires information such as the remaining amount of ink, and controls various operations based on the acquired information.

  Next, the configuration of the carrier 3 and the ink cartridge 31 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C show schematic side views of the carrier 3 and the ink cartridge 31, and FIG. 4 shows the appearance of the ink cartridge 31 and the carrier lid 32. FIG. Inside the carrier body 33, a first contact 33a is provided for transmitting and receiving a predetermined control signal (signal) to and from the control unit 10. The carrier lid 32 is provided with a rotating shaft 32 a connected to the upper portion of the carrier main body 33 and a protrusion 32 b facing the ink cartridge 31. The carrier lid 32 fixes the ink cartridge 31 inside the carrier body 33 when the carrier lid 32 is in a closed state.

  The ink cartridge 31 is detachable inside the carrier body 33. When the ink cartridge 31 is mounted inside the carrier body 33, the outer periphery of the ink cartridge 31 comes into contact with the first contact 33a to transmit and receive control signals. A second contact 31b is provided. A curved protrusion 31 a that is curved in the direction of one side surface of the ink cartridge 31 is formed on the top of the ink cartridge 31. Inside the ink cartridge 31, a memory (not shown) in which information such as the remaining amount of ink is recorded is provided. This memory reads and writes stored information by transmitting and receiving control signals to and from the control unit 10.

  Next, a procedure for mounting the ink cartridge 31 to the carrier 3 will be described with reference to FIG. 3A, 3B, and 3C show the mounting procedure in order. First, as shown in FIG. 3A, when the carrier lid 32 is in an open state, the ink cartridge 31 is fitted into the carrier body 33. At this time, the first contact 33a and the second contact 31b are in contact with each other. Then, the carrier lid 32 is closed as shown in FIG. 3B, and the ink cartridge 31 is fixed inside the carrier body 33 as shown in FIG. At this time, after the protruding portion 32b presses the curved protruding portion 31a, the pressing is released. Details will be described later.

  Next, the operation in which the protrusion 32b presses the curved protrusion 31a will be described with reference to FIG. FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5C sequentially show the state after the protrusion 32b presses the curved protrusion 31a and then the pressure is released. First, as shown in FIG. 5A, when the carrier lid 32 is closed, the protrusion 32b presses one end 311 of the curved protrusion 31a. Then, as shown in FIG. 5B, the ink cartridge 31 is moved in the direction of the white arrow in the figure.

  When the carrier lid 32 is completely closed, as shown in FIG. 5C, the protrusion 32b is positioned at the other end 312 of the curved protrusion 31a and releases the pressure on the curved protrusion 31a. As a result, the ink cartridge 31 moves in the direction of the black arrow in the figure.

  Thus, the ink cartridge 31 is reciprocated in the same direction as the surface direction of the first contact 33 a and the second contact 31 in accordance with the opening / closing operation of the carrier lid 32, and the second contact 31 a is movable with respect to the ink cartridge 31. And slides relative to the first contact 33a.

  As described above, according to the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, the second contact 31b slides relative to the first contact 33a in conjunction with the movement of the ink cartridge 31, and the first contact 33a and the first contact Since the oxide film and the like on the surface of the two contacts 31b can be removed, contact failure can be prevented. In addition, since the number of parts is small as compared with the configuration in which the wiping unit described in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 is provided, the manufacturing cost of the image forming apparatus 1 can be suppressed.

  In addition, the user can open and close the carrier lid 32 and remove the oxide film and the like on the surfaces of the first contact 33a and the second contact 31b.

  In addition, this invention is not limited to the structure of the said embodiment, It is not limited to the structure of the said embodiment, A various change is possible in the range which does not change the meaning of invention.

1 is a perspective view illustrating a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of the image forming apparatus. (A) (b) (c) is explanatory drawing explaining the procedure which mounts an ink cartridge in the carrier part of the said image forming apparatus. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a carrier lid and an ink cartridge of the image forming apparatus. (A), (b), (c) is explanatory drawing explaining operation | movement at the time of the protrusion part of the carrier cover of the said image forming apparatus moving an ink cartridge.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 2 Paper conveyance mechanism 3 Carrier 3a Print head 4 Carrier motor 6 Carrier encoder 7 Encoder strip 9 Paper sensor 10 Control part (control means)
31 Ink cartridge 31b Second contact 32 Carrier lid 33 Carrier body 33a First contact P Paper

Claims (2)

A paper transport mechanism for transporting paper in the sub-scanning direction;
A carrier that is reciprocated in a main scanning direction orthogonal to the sub-scanning direction, and applies ink to the paper for printing;
An ink cartridge detachable from the carrier;
Control means for controlling each part of the device,
The carrier has an openable / closable carrier lid for fixing the ink cartridge inside the carrier, and a first contact for transmitting / receiving a predetermined signal to / from the control means,
In the image forming apparatus, the ink cartridge has a second contact for transmitting and receiving a signal in contact with the first contact when the ink cartridge is mounted inside the carrier.
When the ink cartridge is mounted inside the carrier, the ink cartridge is moved in accordance with the opening / closing operation of the carrier lid, and the second contact is connected to the first contact in conjunction with the movement of the ink cartridge. An image forming apparatus characterized in that the oxide film on the surfaces of the first contact and the second contact can be removed. The carrier lid is provided with a protrusion in a direction facing the ink cartridge,
The protrusion pushes the ink cartridge in a predetermined direction when the carrier lid is closed, and reciprocates the ink cartridge by releasing the pressure against the ink cartridge when the carrier lid is completely closed. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus is moved.

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