JP2009172952A - Recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recording device efficiently recovering liquid sticking to an ejecting surface. <P>SOLUTION: In a wiping operation of wiping the ink ejecting surface 3a, the contact area with the ink ejecting surface 3a of the wiper 62 is inclined in a wiping direction. A suction box 63 is disposed adjacent to the downstream surface of the wiper 62 in the wiping direction. Suction ports 63a and 63b are formed in the top surface of the suction box 63 so as to communicate with a suction chamber and also arrayed in the extending direction of the wiper 62. By sucking the air in the suction chamber by a suction pump, the ink wiped by the wiper 62 is sucked from the suction ports 63a and 63b. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a recording apparatus that records an image on a recording medium by discharging droplets.

  2. Description of the Related Art Some inkjet printers that record images by ejecting ink droplets onto a recording medium such as recording paper include an inkjet head having an ink ejection surface in which a plurality of nozzles that eject ink droplets are opened on the recording medium. In such a recording apparatus, in order to clean the ink discharge surface, it is known to wipe the ink discharge surface by moving a wiper made of an elastic member having a plate shape while being in contact with the ink discharge surface. Yes. However, when the ink discharge surface is wiped with the wiper, the wiped ink is pushed out of the ink discharge surface along the wiper, and the ink may adhere to the periphery of the ink discharge surface and become dirty. Therefore, there is a technique for cleaning the ink discharge surface by directly sucking unnecessary ink adhering to the ink discharge surface with a suction device (see Patent Document 1).

JP-A-9-150523 (FIG. 1)

  According to the technique described above, suction unevenness may occur in the suction device, and it is difficult to efficiently collect ink, and unnecessary ink may remain on the ink ejection surface.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides a recording apparatus that can efficiently recover a liquid adhering to an ejection surface.

  The recording apparatus of the present invention is provided adjacent to the wiper having a recording head having a discharge surface in which a plurality of nozzles for discharging droplets are opened, a wiper having a plate shape for wiping the discharge surface, and the like. And a suction mechanism for sucking liquid from the ejection surface wiped by the wiper, and a moving mechanism for relatively moving at least one of the wiper and the recording head in a state where the tip of the wiper is in contact with the ejection surface. And the extending direction of the contact area that contacts the discharge surface of the wiper is inclined with respect to the moving direction with respect to the moving mechanism, and the suction means is at least the extending of the wiper. The liquid is sucked in the vicinity of the upstream end portion in the moving direction among the end portions in the direction.

  According to the present invention, since the contact area of the wiper with the discharge surface is inclined with respect to the moving direction, when the wiper wipes the discharge surface, the liquid wiped by the wiper moves among the end portions of the wiper. Move towards the upstream end in the direction. And since a suction means attracts | sucks the liquid which has moved to the said edge part of a wiper, the liquid which remains on a discharge surface can be collect | recovered efficiently.

  In the present invention, the suction means is disposed on the downstream surface of the wiper in the moving direction and communicates with the outside through a suction port that opens toward the contact area of the wiper. A suction pump for sucking air in the suction chamber, and the suction port is formed in the vicinity of the upstream end in the moving direction among the end portions in the extending direction of the wiper. It is preferable that According to this, the liquid remaining on the ejection surface can be recovered more efficiently.

  At this time, it is more preferable that the suction port is further formed in the vicinity of the downstream end portion in the moving direction among the end portions in the extending direction of the wiper. According to this, the liquid remaining on the discharge surface can be reliably recovered.

  Furthermore, at this time, it is still more preferable that the plurality of suction ports are formed so as to be arranged between both end portions in the extending direction of the wiper. According to this, the liquid remaining on the ejection surface can be collected more reliably.

  In the present invention, the suction means may be a porous body. According to this, the suction means can be configured at low cost.

  At this time, it is preferable that the suction means further includes a suction pump for sucking the liquid in the porous body. According to this, it is possible to collect a large amount of liquid while configuring the suction means at low cost.

  Furthermore, in this invention, the said porous body may be fixed to the upstream edge part regarding the said moving direction among the edge parts which concern on the said extension direction of the said wiper. According to this, it is possible to prevent the liquid from protruding from the end of the wiper.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional side view of an ink jet printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the main part of the inkjet printer.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the inkjet printer 1 is a color inkjet printer having eight inkjet heads 2. The inkjet printer 1 includes a paper feed mechanism 11 on the left side in FIG. 1 and a paper discharge unit 12 on the right side in FIG.

  Inside the inkjet printer 1, a paper conveyance path is formed through which a paper as a recording medium is conveyed from the paper supply mechanism 11 toward the paper discharge unit 12. The paper feed mechanism 11 is provided with a pickup roller 22 that sends out the uppermost sheet among the plurality of sheets stored in the sheet tray 21. The sheet is fed from the left to the right in FIG. Two belt rollers 6 and 7 and an endless conveyor belt 8 wound around the rollers 6 and 7 are disposed in an intermediate portion of the sheet conveyance path. The outer peripheral surface of the conveyor belt 8, that is, the conveyor surface 8a is subjected to silicone treatment and has adhesiveness. A pressing roller 5 is disposed immediately downstream of the sheet feeding mechanism 11 at a position facing the conveying belt 8, and presses the sheet fed from the sheet feeding mechanism 11 against the conveying surface 8 a of the conveying belt 8. . As a result, the sheet pressed against the transport surface 8a is transported toward the downstream side while being held by the adhesive force of the transport surface 8a. At this time, the belt roller 6 on the downstream side in the paper conveyance direction is applied with a driving force from a driving motor (not shown) and is rotated clockwise (in the direction of arrow A) in FIG.

  An area facing the inkjet head 2 in an intermediate portion of the sheet conveyance path is an image forming area where an image is formed on the sheet. Further, a peeling plate 13 is provided immediately downstream of the conveying belt 8 along the sheet conveying path. The peeling plate 13 is configured to peel the paper held on the conveyance surface 8 a of the conveyance belt 8 from the conveyance surface 8 a and send it to the right paper discharge unit 12.

  In a region surrounded by the conveyor belt 8, a substantially rectangular parallelepiped platen 9 that supports the conveyor belt 8 is disposed by contacting the inner peripheral surface of the conveyor belt 8 at a position facing the inkjet head 2. Yes. As a result, the conveyed paper faces the inkjet head 2 with a predetermined gap, and an image having a desired image quality is formed.

  The eight inkjet heads 2 are arranged in a staggered pattern in two rows in the paper conveyance direction (direction from the lower side to the upper side in FIG. 2) B. Each of the two inkjet heads 2 that appear in order from the upstream side in the paper conveyance direction B forms an inkjet head set. As a result, four ink jet head sets are arranged in the paper transport direction B. These four inkjet head sets correspond to four different color inks (magenta, yellow, cyan, and black), and each inkjet head 2 ejects ink droplets of the corresponding color. The two inkjet heads 2 of each inkjet head set are fixed so as to partially overlap with respect to the sheet conveyance direction B, and are adjacent to each other in the main scanning direction orthogonal to the sheet conveyance direction B. That is, the ink jet printer 1 is a line printer.

  The inkjet head 2 has an elongated rectangular parallelepiped shape that is long in a direction orthogonal to the paper conveyance direction B. The lower end of the inkjet head 2 has a head body 3 (a laminated body in which a flow path unit in which an ink flow path including a pressure chamber is formed and an actuator that applies pressure to the ink in the pressure chamber are bonded) 3. ing.

  A reservoir unit 10 that is partially covered by a cover 14 and temporarily stores ink is fixed to the upper surface of the head body 3. Inside the reservoir unit 10, an ink reservoir for storing ink supplied from an ink tank (not shown) is formed. The ink stored in the ink reservoir of the reservoir unit 10 is supplied to an ink flow path (not shown) of the head body 3. On the bottom surface of the head main body 3, a large number of openings of minute diameter nozzles 3b (see FIG. 5) communicating with the ink flow path are formed side by side, and this bottom surface becomes the ink ejection surface 3a facing the transport surface 8a. Yes. A water repellent film (not shown) is formed on the surface of the ink discharge surface 3a. This water repellent film prevents excess ink from adhering around the opening of the nozzle 3b.

  The head body 3 is arranged such that the ink discharge surface 3a and the transport surface 8a of the transport belt 8 are parallel to each other, and a small amount of gap is formed between these surfaces. This gap portion is configured as a part of the sheet conveyance path. With this configuration, when the paper transported on the transport belt 8 sequentially passes immediately below the eight head bodies 3, ink of each color is ejected from the nozzle 3b toward the upper surface of the paper, that is, the printing surface. Thus, a desired color image is printed on the paper.

  The eight inkjet heads 2 are fixed to the frame 4. The ink discharge surface 3 a of each inkjet head 2 is exposed on the lower surface of the frame 4. In the present embodiment, each ink ejection surface 3a and the lower surface of the frame 4 are arranged on the same plane. Thereby, the gap between the ink ejection surfaces 3 a is closed by the frame 4. The frame supports each inkjet head 2 so that the ink discharge surface 3a is located further below the lower surface of the frame, and closes the gap between the ink discharge surfaces 3a with a separately prepared plate member (filler plate). You may comprise. The frame 4 is supported by a frame moving mechanism (not shown) provided in the inkjet printer 1 so as to be movable up and down.

  Usually, the frame 4 is arranged at a printing position (see FIG. 4A) where the eight inkjet heads 2 eject ink droplets onto the paper, and is moved by the frame moving mechanism only during maintenance of the inkjet head 2. Thus, the eight inkjet heads 2 are arranged at the head maintenance position above the printing position (see FIG. 4B).

  Next, the maintenance unit 70 for performing maintenance on the inkjet head 2 will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, in the inkjet printer 1, a maintenance unit 70 is disposed on the left side of the inkjet head 2 for performing cleaning (wiping operation) of the ink ejection surface 3 a which is one of the maintenance for the head body 3. Yes. The maintenance unit 70 is disposed in the vicinity of both ends in the paper transport direction B of the inkjet printer 1 and has a pair of shafts 72 extending in a direction orthogonal to the paper transport direction B (longitudinal direction of the ink discharge surface 3a), and a pair The tray 71 is slidably supported with respect to the shaft 72, and eight wiping units 60 are disposed on the upper surface of the tray 71.

  On the upper surface of the tray 71, eight guide rails 73 extending along the longitudinal direction of the ink discharge surface 3a are formed. The eight guide rails 73 are arranged in a staggered pattern in the paper transport direction B so as to correspond to the ink ejection surfaces 3a of the eight inkjet heads 2, respectively. Eight wiping units 60 that run on the guide rail 73 are attached to each guide rail 73 by an actuator (not shown). As a result, the wiping unit 60 can travel along the longitudinal direction of the ink discharge surface 3a. Thus, the actuator and the guide rail 73 constitute a moving mechanism that moves the wiping unit 60.

  As will be described later, when the wiping operation for wiping the ink discharge surface 3a is performed, each wiping unit 60 moves in the wiping direction from the inside to the outside of the tray 71 with respect to the longitudinal direction of the ink discharge surface 3a. At this time, since the eight guide rails 73 are arranged in a staggered manner in the paper transport direction B, the wiping directions for the adjacent wiping units 60 in the paper transport direction B are opposite to each other (see FIG. 5). As a result, even if ink droplets remain on the wiping end portion of the ink ejection surface 3a, the ink droplets do not fall and stain the paper. That is, the wiping end portion is located outside the printing area.

  The wiping unit 60 will be described with further reference to FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of the wiping unit 60, FIG. 3A is a top view of the wiping unit 60, and FIG. 3B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line IIIB-IIIB shown in FIG. It is sectional drawing. As shown in FIG. 3, the wiping unit 60 includes a wiper 62 for wiping the ink discharge surface 3a, a suction box 63 for sucking ink wiped by the wiper 62, and a holder for supporting the wiper 62 and the suction box 63. 61.

  The wiper 62 is a rectangular plate member made of an elastic material such as rubber or resin and extending in the horizontal direction, and is in contact with a plane including the ink discharge surface 3a at a predetermined angle (acute angle). It is supported by the holder 61 in a state where it is inclined. Here, the predetermined angle is preferably 45 ° or less. A tapered surface 62 a is formed on the downstream surface of the wiper 62 in the wiping direction. The taper surface 62a includes a contact region that comes into contact with the ink ejection surface 3a when performing a wiping operation for wiping the ink ejection surface 3a with the wiper 62. And the wiping unit 60 is arrange | positioned so that the extension direction of the wiper 62 may incline with respect to the wiping direction (refer FIG. 5 arrow) which concerns on a wiping operation | movement.

  The suction box 63 is a box having a rectangular parallelepiped shape extending in one direction, and is supported by the holder 61 so as to be adjacent to the downstream surface of the wiper 62 in the wiping direction. In addition, on the upper surface of the holder 61, two suction ports 63a and three suction ports that open upward toward the tapered surface 62a (contact region) of the wiper 62 and are arranged in the extending direction of the tapered surface 62a. 63b is formed. The two suction ports 63a are arranged near both ends in the extending direction of the taper surface 62a (the longitudinal direction of the holder 61), and the three suction ports 63b are arranged between the two suction ports 63a. The opening area of the suction port 63a is larger than that of the suction port 63b.

  In the suction box 63, a suction chamber 63c is formed which communicates with the outside through the suction ports 63a and 63b. In the wiping operation, the suction pump 65 sucks the air in the suction chamber 63 c through the suction tube 64 connected to the opening communicating with the suction chamber 63 c formed on the bottom surface of the suction box 63. Thereby, in the wiping operation, when the wiper 62 wipes the ink ejection surface 3a, the ink wiped by the wiper 62 is sucked into the suction box 63 via the suction ports 63a and 63b. The ink sucked into the suction box 63 is stored in a waste ink tank (not shown) via the suction tube 64.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the maintenance unit 70 is moved away from the inkjet head 2 as shown in FIG. 2 when the maintenance described later is not performed (the left position not facing the inkjet head 2 in FIG. 2: FIG. 4A). See). When maintenance is performed, after the frame 4 is moved to the upper head maintenance position in advance, a space for the maintenance unit 70 is secured between the eight ink discharge surfaces 3a and the transport surface 8a ( From this retracted position, the maintenance unit 70 is horizontally moved to the “maintenance position” facing the ink ejection surface 3a of the inkjet head 2 (see FIG. 4C). At this time, since the inkjet head 2 is disposed at the head maintenance position, the tip of the wiper 62 does not contact the ink ejection surface 3a.

  Next, the operation of the maintenance unit 70 will be described with reference to FIGS. Maintenance for the inkjet head 2 is mainly performed to improve / recover ejection failure caused by adhesion of foreign matter to the nozzle 3b or thickening of ink near the nozzle 3b. At this time, a predetermined amount of ink is forcibly discharged (purged) from the nozzle 3b. Maintenance is also performed to prevent such discharge defects. At this time, a predetermined number of ink droplets are ejected (flushed) from the nozzle 3b.

  4A and 4B are diagrams illustrating an operation state of the maintenance unit 70. FIG. 4A illustrates a state before maintenance is performed, and FIG. 4B illustrates a state when the inkjet head 2 is moved to the head maintenance position. FIG. 4C shows a state when the maintenance unit 70 has moved to the maintenance position, and FIG. 4D shows a state when the wiping operation is started. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the wiping unit 60 when performing the wiping operation. FIG. 5 shows a state where two ink ejection surfaces 3a related to one ink jet set are wiped.

  As shown in FIG. 4A, during normal printing, the inkjet head 2 is disposed at the printing position, and the maintenance unit 70 is disposed at the retracted position. When the inkjet printer 1 is activated, when a predetermined time has elapsed after the inkjet printer 1 is activated, or when a maintenance command is issued from the user, nozzle inspection is performed, and as a result, ejection failure occurs in the nozzle 3b. When it is confirmed, maintenance of the inkjet head 2 is started. When maintenance of the inkjet head 2 is started, as shown in FIG. 4B, the frame 4 is moved upward by the frame moving mechanism, and the inkjet head 2 is placed in head maintenance. As a result, a space in which the maintenance unit 70 can be disposed is formed between the ink ejection surface 3a and the transport belt 8. At this time, the plane including the ink ejection surface 3 a of the inkjet head 2 at the head maintenance position is separated from the tip of the wiper 62.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 4C, the tray 71 is moved to the maintenance position. At this time, since the plane including the ink discharge surface 3a is separated from the tip of the wiper 62, the tip of the wiper 62 does not contact the ink discharge surface 3a. When the tray 71 moves to the maintenance position, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 5, each wiping unit 60 is positioned at the wiping start position on the upstream side in the wiping direction of the corresponding ink ejection surface 3 a. Yes. In this state, a purge operation for forcibly discharging ink from all the nozzles 3b related to each ink ejection surface 3a toward the tray 71 is performed. As a result, the thickened ink and impurities in the nozzle 3b are discharged, and the nozzle 3b that has fallen into a defective discharge is recovered. The ink discharged on the tray 71 flows down the waste ink tank (not shown) after flowing on the surface of the tray 71. However, some ink remains as ink droplets on the ink ejection surface 3a.

  Next, a wiping operation for wiping the ink ejection surface 3a is performed. As shown in FIG. 4D, the inkjet head 2 is moved from the head maintenance position so that the taper surface 62a of the wiper 62 contacts the ink discharge surface 3a by moving the frame 4 downward by the frame moving mechanism. Place it slightly below. In this state, as shown in FIG. 5, each wiping unit 60 is made to travel in the wiping direction. As a result, the wiper 62 wipes the ink discharge surface 3 a, and the ink remaining on the ink discharge surface 3 a flows down along the downstream surface of the wiper 62 in the wiping direction. The ink that has flowed down is sucked into the suction box 63 via the suction ports 63a and 63b. The ink sucked into the suction box 63 is stored in a waste ink tank (not shown) via the suction tube 64. When the wiping unit 60 passes through the ink ejection surface 3a, the wiping operation is completed.

  At this time, since the contact area of the wiper 62 with the ink ejection surface 3 a is inclined with respect to the wiping direction, the ink wiped off by the wiper 62 is the upstream end in the wiping direction among the ends related to the wiper 62. Move towards the department. Thereby, the ink wiped by the wiper 62 is guided toward the suction port 63a located in the vicinity of the end portion. Since the suction port 63a has an opening area larger than that of the suction port 63b, a large amount of the induced ink can be positively sucked.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 5, when attention is paid to one inkjet head set, the upstream end of each wiper 62 in the wiping direction is in the vicinity of both ends in the arrangement direction (paper transport direction B) related to the inkjet head set. Therefore, the ink wiped by the wiper 62 moves toward the outside related to the inkjet head set.

  When the wiping operation is completed, the inkjet head 2 is returned to the head maintenance position, and the wiping unit 60 is returned to the wiping start position while moving the maintenance unit 70 from the maintenance position to the retracted position. Thereafter, the maintenance is completed by placing the inkjet head 2 again at the printing position.

  According to the ink jet printer 1 according to the present embodiment as described above, since the contact area of the wiper 62 with the ink ejection surface 3a is inclined with respect to the wiping direction, when the wiper 62 wipes the ink ejection surface 3a, the wiper The ink wiped by 62 moves toward the upstream end of the wiper 62 in the wiping direction. The suction box 63 actively sucks ink that has moved to the end portion related to the wiper 62 at the suction port 63a located at the upstream end portion in the wiping direction, so that the ink remains on the ink ejection surface 3a. The ink to be collected can be collected efficiently.

  Moreover, since the ink wiped by the wiper 62 is sucked into the suction box 63 when the suction pump 65 sucks the air in the suction chamber 63c, the ink remaining on the ink discharge surface 3a can be collected more efficiently. Can do.

  Further, since the suction box 63 has a suction port 63a disposed in the vicinity of the downstream end with respect to the wiping direction and three suction ports 63b arranged between the two suction ports 63a, the ink The ink remaining on the ejection surface 3a can be reliably collected.

<Modification>
In the present embodiment, the suction pump 65 sucks the air in the suction chamber 63c, so that the suction box 63 actively sucks the ink wiped by the wiper 62. The configuration may be such that the ink wiped by the wiper 62 is sucked. For example, as shown in FIG. 6, the porous body 163 capable of sucking ink is fixed to the upstream end portion in the wiping direction among the end portions in the extending direction of the wiper 162, and the suction pump 165 is A configuration in which the ink sucked into the porous body 163 is further sucked may be employed.

  According to this, a large amount of wiped ink can be collected with an inexpensive configuration. Further, it is possible to prevent ink from protruding from the upstream end of the wiper 162 in the wiping direction. Note that the ink sucked into the porous body 163 by the suction pump 165 may not be further sucked, or the porous body may be disposed at both ends in the extending direction of the wiper 162. Good.

  The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made as long as they are described in the claims. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the suction box 63 has two suction ports 63a arranged near both ends in the wiping direction, and three suction ports 63b arranged between the two suction ports 63a. However, it is only necessary that the suction box 63 has at least one suction port 63a disposed in the vicinity of the upstream end in the wiping direction, and the suction box 63 has at least one of the other suction ports 63a and 63b. The structure which does not have may be sufficient.

  In addition, in the above-described embodiment, in the wiping operation, the ink ejection surface 3a is wiped by running the wiping unit 60 while the position of the inkjet head 2 is fixed. The ink ejection surface 3a may be wiped by running the inkjet head 2 in a fixed state, or the ink ejection surface 3a is wiped by running the inkjet head 2 and the wiping unit 60 simultaneously. It may be a configuration.

1 is a schematic cross-sectional side view of an inkjet printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of a main part of the ink jet printer shown in FIG. 1. It is a figure which shows the structure of the wiping unit shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the operation state of the maintenance unit shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows operation | movement of the wiping unit shown in FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating a modification.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Inkjet printer 2 Inkjet head 3 Head main body 3a Ink discharge surface 3b Nozzle 4 Frame 60 Wiping unit 61 Block 61 Holder 62a Tapered surface 62 Wiper 63 Suction box 63a, 63b Suction port 63c Suction chamber 64 Suction tube 65 Suction pump 70 Maintenance unit 71 Tray 72 Shaft 73 Guide rail 162 Wiper 163 Porous body 165 Suction pump

Claims (7)

A recording head having an ejection surface in which a plurality of nozzles that eject droplets are opened; and
A wiper having a plate shape for wiping the discharge surface;
A suction means that is provided adjacent to the wiper and sucks the liquid from the ejection surface wiped by the wiper;
A moving mechanism that relatively moves at least one of the wiper and the recording head in a state in which the tip of the wiper is in contact with the ejection surface;
The extending direction of the contact area that contacts the discharge surface of the wiper is inclined with respect to the moving direction related to the moving mechanism,
The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the suction unit sucks liquid at least in the vicinity of an upstream end portion in the moving direction among end portions of the wiper in the extending direction. The suction means is disposed on the surface of the wiper on the downstream side in the moving direction and communicates with the outside via a suction port that opens toward the contact area of the wiper; and the suction A suction pump for sucking indoor air,
The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the suction port is formed in the vicinity of an upstream end portion in the moving direction among end portions in the extending direction of the wiper.   The recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the suction port is further formed in the vicinity of an end portion on the downstream side in the moving direction among the end portions in the extending direction of the wiper.   The recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the plurality of suction ports are formed so as to be arranged between both end portions of the wiper in the extending direction.   The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the suction unit is a porous body.   The recording apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the suction unit further includes a suction pump that sucks the liquid in the porous body.   The recording apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the porous body is fixed to an upstream end portion in the moving direction among end portions in the extending direction of the wiper.

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