JP2009160894A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the degradation of recording quality by effectively preventing the distortion of a frame member having an upper part opening structure when a carriage whose substrate includes the frame member, performs acceleration and deceleration operation. <P>SOLUTION: In the carriage 17, the substrate includes a sub-carriage frame 18 having the upper part opening structure having: a bottom part frame part 19 in which an opening for exposing the head surface of a recording head when an assembly unit 25 including the recording head is attached is formed and a right side frame part 20; and a left side frame part 21 which are erected on both sides of the bottom part frame part 19. The top end part of the right side frame part 20 is connected to the assembly unit 25 and the top end part of the left side frame part 21 is connected to the assembly unit 25. A case-like structure includes the sub-carriage frame 18 having the upper part opening structure and the assembly unit 25. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a recording apparatus including a recording head that performs recording on a recording medium and a carriage that is movably provided in a scanning direction of the recording head.

An ink jet printer (hereinafter abbreviated as “printer”) as an example of a recording apparatus includes an ink jet recording head (hereinafter abbreviated as “recording head”) for ejecting ink at the bottom of the carriage. The carriage has a substantially box shape, and moves in the main scanning direction according to recording data while being guided by a guide shaft extending in the scanning direction of the recording head (hereinafter referred to as “main scanning direction”). As an example of the carriage structure, Patent Document 1 discloses a carriage configured to include a main carriage guided by a guide shaft and a sub-carriage having an upper opening structure connected to the main carriage. It is shown.
JP 2007-276289 A

Hereinafter, problems of the prior art will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a conventional carriage 150, and FIG. 7 is a front view thereof.
As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the carriage 150 includes a main carriage 160 and a sub-carriage 170, and does not mount an ink cartridge on the carriage body, and is an ink tank (not shown) arranged independently from the carriage. ) To the recording head via an ink tube (not shown).

  The main carriage 160 is guided in the main scanning direction by the first guide shaft 110 and the second guide shaft 120 extending in the main scanning direction, and moves in the main scanning direction by receiving the power of a driving unit (not shown).

  The sub-carriage 170 is connected and fixed to the main carriage 160, and an assembly unit 250 is fixed to a sub-carriage frame 180 that constitutes the base body. The assembly unit 250 is a unit body (heavy object) in which the head assembly 260 including the recording head, the ink selector 290, the collecting flow path portion 280, the ink inlet 270, and the self-sealing valve 300 are assembled. Note that description of these components constituting the assembly unit 250 is omitted here.

  The sub-carriage frame 180 includes a bottom frame portion 190, a right side frame portion 200 and a left side frame portion 210 that are erected on both sides of the bottom frame portion 190, and an upper portion is denoted by reference numeral 180a. It has an open structure. The sub-carriage described in Patent Document 1 also includes a frame having a similar structure, but the upper open structure is used in this way because of the ease of work when attaching the assembly unit 250 to the sub-carriage frame 180 and the members. This is to ensure cost reduction.

  Here, in the sub-carriage 170 configured as described above, the assembly unit 250 is fixed to the bottom frame portion 190 by a fixing screw 350. However, since the assembly unit 250 is heavy, a large inertia force is generated during the acceleration / deceleration operation of the carriage 150, which causes distortion of the sub-carriage frame 180 via the bottom frame portion 190 and is discharged from the recording head. There is a possibility that the ink landing accuracy may be lowered.

  Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and an object of the present invention is to prevent distortion of the frame member when a carriage having a base formed of a frame member having an upper open structure performs acceleration / deceleration operations. This is to effectively prevent the deterioration of the recording quality.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, a first aspect of the present invention includes a recording head that performs recording on a recording medium, and a carriage that includes the recording head and is provided so as to be movable in the scanning direction of the recording head. A bottom frame portion in which an opening for exposing a head surface of the recording head when the assembly unit including the recording head is attached to a carriage frame constituting the base of the carriage; A right side frame portion and a left side frame portion that are erected on both sides of the bottom frame portion. Each of the left side frame portions is connected and fixed to the assembly unit.

  According to this aspect, in the carriage frame having the upper opening structure, the right side frame portion and the left side frame portion positioned on the left and right of the assembly unit are connected and fixed to the assembly unit, respectively. A box-shaped structure is constructed by the carriage frame having the structure and the assembly unit. Accordingly, the rigidity of the carriage frame is improved, which effectively prevents the carriage frame from being distorted when the carriage performs acceleration / deceleration operations, thereby preventing the recording quality from deteriorating. In addition, the rigidity of the carriage frame can be improved at low cost without increasing the thickness of the carriage frame or changing the material.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the recording apparatus according to the first aspect, the assembly unit is fixed to the bottom frame portion, a connection portion between the right side frame portion and the assembly unit, and the left A connecting portion between the side frame portion and the assembly unit is formed of a flexible material.

  According to this aspect, by fixing the assembly unit to the bottom frame portion, the mounting and fixing of the assembly unit to the carriage frame is ensured, and the connection portion between the left and right side frame portions and the assembly unit is possible. Since it is formed of a flexible material, the left and right side frame portions and the assembly unit can be connected without causing distortion in the overall shape of the carriage frame due to dimensional errors of the members.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the recording apparatus according to the first or second aspect, connection means between the right side frame portion and the assembly unit, and connection between the left side frame portion and the assembly unit. The means includes a connection screw and a connection material having a long hole in which the connection screw is loosely inserted.

  According to this aspect, the connection means for connecting the left and right side frame portions and the assembly unit includes a connection screw and a connection material in which a long hole for loosely inserting the connection screw is formed. Therefore, the dimensional error of the member can be absorbed by the long hole, and therefore, the upper end portions of the left and right side frame portions can be connected to the assembly unit without causing distortion in the overall shape of the carriage frame. it can.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5. FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an inkjet printer (hereinafter referred to as “printer”) 1 as an embodiment of a “recording apparatus” according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a carriage 15 according to an embodiment of the present invention. 3 and 4 show a simplified configuration of the carriage 15 according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a perspective view and FIG. 4 is a front view. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the sub-carriage frame 18.

  A printer 1 shown in FIG. 1 is a large-sized printer capable of recording up to a roll paper P as a recording medium having a large size width such as a JIS standard A0 size or B0 size. The main body unit 2 including the unit 4 and the paper discharge receiving unit 5 are provided.

  The main body 2 is provided on an upper portion of a support column 8 erected on the base 9 and has a discharge port 6 for discharging the recorded roll paper P obliquely downward. An opening 7 of the stacker 10 is located below the discharge port 6, and the recorded roll paper P is discharged from the discharge port 6 toward the opening 7 and received by the stacker 10.

  The roll paper supply unit 3 is configured so that a roll paper roll (hereinafter referred to as “roll”) R can be accommodated, and the roll paper P is fed out from the roll R and supplied obliquely downward toward an area where recording is performed. . The roll R is set in a roll paper holder (not shown). When the roll paper is supplied, the roll paper holder is rotated by a drive mechanism (not shown), whereby the roll paper P is supplied downstream.

  The recording execution unit 4 which is the supply destination of the roll paper P is provided with a paper transport unit (not shown), and the roll paper P is precisely fed to the recording head side by the paper transport unit. In FIG. 1, reference numerals 11 and 12 respectively denote a first guide shaft and a second guide shaft extending in the scanning direction (main scanning direction) of the recording head, and the recording head 26a (FIG. 4) constituting the recording execution unit 4 is shown. The carriage 15 to be mounted is driven in the main scanning direction by the power of a motor (not shown) while being guided by the first guide shaft 11 and the second guide shaft 12.

  The above is the general configuration of the printer 1, and the carriage 15 will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. The carriage 15 according to an embodiment of the present invention is a so-called off-carriage type in which no ink cartridge is mounted, and an ink tank (not shown) arranged independently from the carriage 15 is passed through an ink tube (not shown). Ink is supplied.

  The carriage 15 includes a main carriage 16 and a sub-carriage 17, and the main carriage 16 is guided in the main scanning direction by a first guide shaft 11 and a second guide shaft 12 that extend in the main scanning direction, and a motor (not shown). It is configured to move in the main scanning direction by receiving the power of.

  The sub-carriage 17 is connected and fixed to the main carriage 16, and an assembly unit 25 is fixed to a sub-carriage frame 18 constituting the base body. The assembly unit 25 includes a head assembly 26 including a recording head 26a, an ink selector 29 (indicated by reference numerals 29A and 29B in FIG. 2), a collecting flow path portion 28, an ink inlet 27 (indicated by reference numerals 27A and 27B in FIG. 2), self The sealing valve 30 (indicated by reference numerals 30A and 30B in FIG. 2) is an assembled unit body (heavy object).

  The carriage 15 according to the present embodiment includes two sets of recording heads. Accordingly, in FIG. 2, two sets of ink inlets 27 (27A and 27B), an ink selector 29 (29A and 29B), and a self-sealing unit are provided. Valve 30 (30A, 30B) is shown. However, for the sake of easy comparison with the carriage 150 according to the prior art shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the configuration of the carriage 15 according to the present embodiment is also shown in a simplified manner on the assumption that the carriage 15 according to the present embodiment also includes a set of recording heads. This will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4 showing an embodiment of the present invention correspond to FIGS. 6 and 7 showing the prior art, respectively.

  The ink inlet 27 constituting the assembly unit 25 is an ink intake port, and includes a plurality of ink tubes (not shown) extending from a plurality of color ink tanks (not shown) arranged independently from the carriage 15. , Connected to the ink inlet 27. Ink taken from the ink inlet 27 passes through a flow path formed inside the collecting flow path portion 28, and some colors of ink are guided to the self-sealing valve 30 via the ink selector 29, The color ink is guided to the self-sealing valve 30 as it is.

  Here, in the printer 1 according to the present embodiment, two types of black ink (for example, dye-based black ink and pigment-based black ink) are selectively used according to the type of recording paper. The ink selector 29 is for selecting the black ink to be supplied to the recording head 26a. For this reason, different types of black ink are selected as inks to be used for recording via the ink selector 29. Later, it is guided to the self-sealing valve 30. The self-sealing valve 30 supplies the ink to the recording head 26a after adjusting the pressure of the ink supplied from the ink tank (not shown) by the pressure of the pump (not shown).

  The head assembly 26 is an assembly unit including a recording head 26 a and includes a mounting plate 26 b. The mounting plate 26 b is fixed to the subcarriage frame 18 with fixing screws 35, so that the entire assembly unit 25 is attached to the subcarriage frame 18. To be fixed.

  The sub-carriage frame 18 includes a bottom frame portion 19, and a right side frame portion 20 and a left side frame portion 21 erected on both sides of the bottom frame portion 19, and is entirely formed by bending a metal plate material. It is formed integrally, and the upper part of the frame alone has an open structure as shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 5, a window hole (opening) 19a for projecting (exposing) the recording head 26a to the lower side of the frame is formed in the bottom frame portion 19, and mounting plates 26b of the head assembly 26 are fixed to both sides thereof. Screw holes 19b and 19b for fixing at 35 are formed.

  A tongue-like connecting piece 20a is integrally formed at the upper end of the right side frame part 20, and a long hole 20b extending in the lateral direction is formed in the connecting piece 20a. Similarly, a connecting piece 21 a and a long hole 21 b are formed in the upper end portion of the left side frame portion 21.

  As described above, the assembly unit 25 is fixed to the bottom frame portion 19 via the mounting plate 26b, and tongue-like connection pieces 28a and 28b are formed on the left and right sides of the upper portion, respectively. As shown in FIG. 4, the right connection piece 28 a is formed at the upper end of the right side frame 20, and the left connection piece 28 b is formed at the upper end of the left side frame 21. The connection screws 36 are connected and fixed.

  Thereby, the following effects can be obtained. That is, the assembly unit 25 is fixed to the bottom frame portion 19 by the fixing screw 35. However, since the assembly unit 25 is heavy, a large inertia force is generated during the acceleration / deceleration operation of the carriage 15, and this causes the bottom frame portion 19 to move. As a result, the sub-carriage frame 18 may be distorted to reduce the landing accuracy of the ink ejected from the recording head 26a.

  However, as described above, the upper end portions of the right side frame portion 20 and the left side frame portion 21 located on the left and right of the assembly unit 25 and the upper surface portion of the assembly unit 25 are connected and fixed, so that an upper open structure is provided. A box-shaped structure is constructed by the sub-carriage frame 18 and the assembly unit 25. Accordingly, the rigidity of the sub-carriage frame 18 is improved, whereby the distortion of the sub-carriage frame 18 when the carriage 15 performs the acceleration / deceleration operation can be effectively prevented, thereby preventing the recording quality from being deteriorated. In addition, the rigidity of the sub-carriage frame 18 can be improved at low cost without increasing the thickness of the sub-carriage frame 18 or changing the material.

  Further, the connecting means between the upper end of the right side frame portion 20 and the assembly unit 25 and the connecting means between the upper end of the left side frame portion 21 and the assembly unit 25 are a connection screw 36 and upper ends of both left and right side frame portions. Since the long holes 20b are formed in the connecting pieces 20a and 21a, respectively, into which the connecting screws 36 are loosely inserted, the long holes can absorb the dimensional error of the member. The upper ends of the left and right side frame portions and the assembly unit 25 can be connected to each other without causing distortion in the overall shape of the sub-carriage frame 18 after assembly.

  Even if the connecting pieces 20a and 21a at the upper end portions of the left and right side frame portions are formed of a flexible material, the dimensional error of the member can be absorbed, and similarly the shape of the entire sub-carriage frame 18 is obtained. A box-shaped structure can be constructed by connecting the upper ends of the left and right side frame parts and the assembly unit 25 at the upper part without causing distortion.

  The embodiment described above is an example, and it goes without saying that various modifications are possible. For example, the carriage 15 according to this embodiment is a so-called off-carriage type in which no ink cartridge is mounted, but may be a so-called on-carriage type that moves in the main scanning direction while mounting the ink cartridge. In addition, the carriage 15 according to the present embodiment is configured by the two structures of the main carriage 16 and the sub-carriage 17, but may be a carriage configured by one structure. In addition, there is a frame member corresponding to the sub-carriage frame 18 according to the present embodiment, and any frame member can be used as long as the box member is formed by connecting the left and right side walls of the frame member with a structure corresponding to the assembly unit 25. You may be something like this.

1 is an external perspective view of a printer according to the present invention. 1 is a perspective view of a carriage according to the present invention. The perspective view which simplifies and shows the structure of the carriage which concerns on this invention. The front view which simplifies and shows the structure of the carriage which concerns on this invention. The perspective view of a subcarriage frame. The perspective view of the carriage which concerns on a prior art. The front view of the carriage which concerns on a prior art.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Inkjet printer, 2 main-body part, 3 roll paper supply part, 4 recording execution part, 5 discharge receiving part, 6 roll paper discharge port, 7 opening part, 8 support | pillar, 9 base, 10 roll paper stacker, 11 1st guide Shaft, 12 Second guide shaft, 15 Carriage, 16 Main carriage, 17 Subcarriage, 18 Subcarriage frame, 19 Bottom frame part, 19a Opening part, 19b Screw hole, 20 Right side frame part, 20a Connection piece, 20b Long hole 21 left side frame part, 21a connecting piece, 21b long hole, 25 assembly unit, 26 head assembly, 26a recording head, 27 ink inlet, 28 collecting flow path part, 29 ink selector, 30 self-sealing valve, 35 fixing screw 36 Connection screw, P roll paper, R roll paper roll

Claims (3)

A recording head for recording on a recording medium;
A recording apparatus comprising the recording head and a carriage provided so as to be movable in a scanning direction of the recording head,
A carriage frame constituting the base of the carriage has a bottom frame portion formed with an opening for exposing the head surface of the recording head when an assembly unit including the recording head is attached, and both sides of the bottom frame portion. It has an upper open structure with a right side frame part and a left side frame part that are erected,
The right side frame part and the left side frame part located on the left and right of the assembly unit are connected and fixed to the assembly unit, respectively.
A recording apparatus. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the assembly unit is fixed to the bottom frame portion, a connection portion between the right side frame portion and the assembly unit, and a left side frame portion and the assembly unit. The connecting portion is formed of a flexible material;
A recording apparatus.   3. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a connection means between the right side frame portion and the assembly unit, and a connection means between the left side frame portion and the assembly unit are a connection screw and the connection And a connecting material having a long hole into which a screw is loosely inserted.

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