JP2009274377A - Droplet discharging head supporting stand, droplet discharging unit, droplet discharging device and droplet discharging head - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a droplet discharging head supporting stand easily enabling to handle a droplet discharging head having a mechanical part such as an ink supplying part and a droplet discharging part such as a printing part. <P>SOLUTION: This droplet discharging head supporting stand has a frame body 42 arranged opposite to a conveying drum 26 for conveying a recording medium and at least one pair of vertically moving guides 44 and 46, which are provided radially to the axis line of the conveying drum 26 and with which the edge parts at both the sides of an inkjet recording head 20 engage, under the condition being provided onto the frame body 42. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a droplet discharge head support, a droplet discharge unit, a droplet discharge device, and a droplet discharge head.

  In recent years, so-called paper width printing is performed in which a long print head extending over the entire width of the recording medium is stopped along the width direction of the recording medium such as recording paper or film, and the recording medium is continuously conveyed to perform printing. Type ink jet printers are widely used.

  As such an ink jet printer, for example, an ink jet recording apparatus that performs recording on a recording medium by discharging ink from nozzles, a main body unit, and a line head unit that is detachably attached to the main body unit; The line head includes a nozzle and an element for ejecting ink from the nozzle, the plurality of nozzle heads arranged in parallel in the width direction over the entire width of the recording medium, and the plurality of nozzles There is an ink jet recording apparatus in which each head has a relay board connected to the element via a transmission line for transmitting a signal, and the relay board has a connector detachably connected to the main unit. (Patent Document 1).

  When printing with an inkjet printer, the distance from a print head such as a long print head to a recording medium is usually maintained at about 1 mm. Therefore, in the recovery operation and the nozzle surface protection operation, which are operations unique to the ink jet printer, it is necessary to move the nozzle surface of the print head relative to the recording medium conveyance system that conveys the recording medium.

  In the ink jet printer, the print head retracting type and the paper transporting system retracting type can be arbitrarily selected.For example, in an ink jet printer in which the paper is transported by a belt, it is easy to retract the paper transporting belt. The paper conveyance system retractable type can be easily adopted. In this case, since the print head does not need to be retracted, a highly rigid print head can be configured by individually fixing the print unit, ink supply unit, and drive circuit unit constituting the print head to the frame.

  On the other hand, in an ink jet printer in which a sheet is conveyed by a drum, it is not practical to retract the sheet conveying system, so the print head retracting type is selected.

  In general, an inkjet printer has a plurality of print heads. Therefore, in a print head retractable inkjet printer, the plurality of print heads are collectively retracted in relation to the operation of the recovery unit. It is necessary to be able to select whether to evacuate or individually.

In addition, in the print head, there is a request to reduce the resistance of the ink supply flow path and a request to reduce the electric resistance of the drive circuit that drives the print head. To satisfy these requests, the print head In this case, it is required to engage the printing portion that actually discharges ink and the other portion through the shortest path. Therefore, in the print head, it is necessary to integrally form a print unit, an ink supply unit that supplies ink to the print unit, and a drive circuit unit having the drive circuit.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-074763

  However, a print head having such an ink supply unit and a printing unit tends to be large in both volume and mass. Therefore, in a print head retractable ink jet printer, it is necessary to easily handle a print head having a large volume and mass.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and can easily handle a droplet discharge head having a mechanism unit such as an ink supply unit and a droplet discharge unit such as a printing unit. An object is to provide a discharge head support.

  According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a frame disposed so as to face a conveyance drum that conveys a recording medium, the frame is provided radially with respect to an axis of the conveyance drum, and the droplets The present invention relates to a droplet discharge head support having at least one pair of lifting guides with which both side edges of the discharge head are engaged.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the droplet discharge head support base according to the first aspect, one of the pair of lifting guides is higher in height than the other.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the droplet discharge head support base according to the second aspect, the lower one of the pair of lift guides is detachable from the frame. .

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the droplet discharge head support base according to any one of the first to third aspects, at least one of the masses of the droplet discharge head when the droplet discharge head is mounted on the lifting guide. It is related with what is provided with the elastic member which receives a part.

  A fifth aspect of the invention includes the liquid droplet ejection head support base according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, and a liquid droplet ejection head mounted on an elevation guide of the liquid droplet ejection head support base. The present invention relates to a droplet discharge unit.

  The invention of claim 6 comprises the droplet discharge unit according to claim 5 and a transport drum for transporting a recording medium, wherein the nozzle for discharging the droplets of the droplet discharge head in the droplet discharge unit comprises: The present invention relates to a droplet discharge device arranged to face the drum surface of the transport drum.

  According to a seventh aspect of the invention, there is provided a liquid droplet ejection head mounted on the liquid droplet ejection head support base according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, in the vicinity of the center of gravity of the liquid droplet ejection head on both side edges. The present invention relates to a droplet discharge unit that includes an arm member mounting portion that is provided and an arm member that constitutes a part of a handle of the droplet discharge head is rotatably mounted around the center of gravity.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the liquid droplet ejection head can be attached to and detached from the liquid droplet ejection head support by raising or lowering the liquid droplet ejection head with both side edges engaged with the lift guide. Therefore, a droplet discharge head support that can be easily handled even if the droplet discharge head has a large weight and volume is provided.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, the droplet discharge head mounted on the lifting guide can be horizontally moved and extracted from the lower side of the lifting guide, and the droplet discharge head can be more easily attached and detached. A droplet discharge head support is provided.

  According to the invention of claim 3, with the lower lift guide of the pair of lift guides removed, the droplet discharge head is moved toward the higher lift guide. Engage one side edge with the higher elevation guide, then engage the lower elevation guide with the other side edge, and then lower the droplet discharge head toward the frame By doing so, a droplet discharge head support base to which the droplet discharge head can be mounted is provided.

  According to the invention of claim 4, since at least a part of the mass of the droplet discharge head is received by the elastic member when the droplet discharge head is mounted on the lifting guide, There is provided a droplet discharge head support base in which the deformation is less than that without the elastic member and the droplet discharge head can be easily attached and detached.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a droplet discharge unit that can be easily attached to and detached from the droplet discharge head support base even if the droplet discharge head has a large weight and volume.

  According to the invention of claim 6, there is provided a droplet discharge device having a transport drum, which can be easily attached to and detached from the droplet discharge head support even if the droplet discharge head has a large weight and volume. The

  According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, since the handle of which the arm member forms a part is located near the center of gravity of the droplet discharge head, the droplet discharge head when the handle formed by the arm member is gripped. The droplet discharge that can suppress the rotation of the droplet discharge head, can be easily attached to and detached from the droplet discharge head support base according to any one of claims 1 to 4, and can be prevented from being damaged due to a collision with the surroundings during movement. A head is provided.

  An ink jet recording apparatus that is an example of a liquid droplet ejection apparatus according to the present invention and an ink jet recording head that is an example of the liquid droplet ejection head of the present invention and that is included in the ink jet recording apparatus will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the inkjet recording apparatus 10 records an image on a sheet feeding unit 12 that stores a recording sheet P before an image is recorded, and a recording sheet P supplied from the sheet feeding unit 12. An image recording unit, a conveying unit that conveys the recording paper P to the image recording unit, and a paper discharge unit that accommodates the recording paper P after the image is recorded by the image recording unit. Yes.

  The image recording unit 14 corresponds to a droplet discharge unit of the present invention, and inkjet recording heads 20Y, 20M, 20C, corresponding to each color of Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan), and K (black). 20K (hereinafter collectively referred to as “inkjet recording head 20”) and a later-described nozzle surface 22 (nozzle surfaces 22Y, 22M, 22C, 22K) of the inkjet recording head 20 are the surfaces of a transport drum 26 described later in the transport unit 16. And a recording head support 40 for supporting the recording head so as to be opposed to each other. The recording head support 40 corresponds to the droplet discharge head support of the present invention.

  The ink jet recording head 20 has a nozzle surface 22 on which a plurality of nozzles (not shown) are formed. The nozzle surface 22 is an example of the recording medium of the present invention, and has a recordable area that is about the same as or larger than the maximum width of the recording paper P on which an image is formed by the inkjet recording apparatus 10.

  Further, the inkjet recording head 20 performs recording so that yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K) are arranged in this order from the downstream side in the conveyance direction of the recording paper P. It is supported by the head support 40 and is configured such that ink droplets are ejected by a known means such as a thermal method or a piezoelectric method. As the ink, various inks such as water-based ink, oil-based ink, and solvent-based ink can be used. The ink-jet recording apparatus 10 is provided with an ink tank (not shown) that supplies ink to each of the ink-jet recording heads 20Y to 20K. ) Is arranged.

  The conveying means 16 corresponds to the conveying drum of the present invention, and picks up the recording paper P in the paper feeding section 12 one by one (pickup) and the recording paper P to the ink jet recording head 20 of the image recording section 14. A transport drum 26 as a transport body that faces the ink jet recording head 20 and a delivery drum 28 that feeds the recording paper P on which an image is recorded to the paper discharge unit 18. ing. The pickup drum 24, the transport drum 26, and the delivery drum 28 are each configured such that the recording paper P is held on the peripheral surface thereof by an electrostatic suction means or a non-electrostatic suction means such as suction or adhesion. ing.

  The pickup drum 24, the transport drum 26, and the delivery drum 28 are provided with, for example, two sets of grippers 30 as holding means for holding the downstream end of the recording paper P in the transport direction. Each of the three drums 24, 26, and 28 is configured to be able to hold a recording sheet P on its peripheral surface, in this case up to two sheets. And the gripper 30 is provided in the recessed part 24A, 26A, 28A formed in the circumferential surface of each drum 24,26,28 2 each.

  That is, a rotation shaft 34 is mounted in parallel with the rotation shaft 32 of each drum 24, 26, 28 at a predetermined position in the recess 24 A, 26 A, 28 A of each drum 24, 26, 28. A plurality of grippers 30 are fixed to 34 at predetermined intervals in the axial direction (for example, at equal intervals). Therefore, when the rotary shaft 34 is rotated in both forward and reverse directions by an actuator (not shown), the gripper 30 is rotated in both forward and reverse directions along the substantially circumferential direction of each drum 24, 26, 28, and the recording paper P is transported downstream in the conveyance direction. The side end portion can be held and separated.

  In other words, the gripper 30 is rotated so that the front end thereof slightly protrudes from the peripheral surfaces of the drums 24, 26, and 28, so that the peripheral surface of the pickup drum 24 and the peripheral surface of the transport drum 26 face each other. 36, the recording paper P can be transferred from the gripper 30 of the pickup drum 24 to the gripper 30 of the transport drum 26, and transported at a transfer position 38 where the peripheral surface of the transport drum 26 and the peripheral surface of the delivery drum 28 face each other. The recording paper P can be transferred from the gripper 30 of the drum 26 to the gripper 30 of the delivery drum 28.

  Although not shown, the ink jet recording apparatus 10 determines the ink droplet ejection timing and the nozzle to be used according to the image signal, and applies control signals to the ink jet recording head 20 for applying a drive signal to the nozzle. System control means for controlling the operation of the entire recording apparatus 10 is provided.

  Hereinafter, the recording head support 40 will be described in detail.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the recording head support base 40 is disposed so as to face the conveyance drum 26, and is provided substantially radially with respect to the substantially rectangular frame 42 and the axis of the conveyance drum 26, and performs ink jet recording. The frame body 42 includes four pairs of elevating guides 44 and 46 with which both side edges of the head 20 are engaged, and the elevating guide 44.

  The elevating guides 44 and 46 each have a substantially U-shaped cross section, and are attached to the short side of the frame body 42 by substantially fan-shaped mounting members 48 and 50 so that the U-shaped opening faces each other. The lifting guides 44 and 46 are not strictly located radially with respect to the axis of the transport drum 26 as long as the inkjet recording head 20 can be supported so that the nozzle surface 22 faces the surface of the transport drum 26. Good.

  The elevating guide 44 is fixed to the frame body 42 by an attachment member 48. On the other hand, the attachment member 50 may be formed so as to fix the elevating guide 46 to the frame body 42, and is formed so that the elevating guide 46 can be attached to or detached from the frame body 42. Also good.

  Further, in the example shown in FIG. 2, the elevating guide 46 is formed to be lower than the elevating guide 44, but as shown in FIG. 6, the elevating guide 46 has the same height as the elevating guide 44. Also good.

  On the side edge of the ink jet recording head 20, that is, the end surface on the side positioned substantially parallel to the rotation direction of the transport drum 26 in a state of being mounted on the recording head support 40, in other words, on one of the edges, FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, two engagement rollers 21 that engage with the lifting guide 44 are provided along the vertical direction, and the other of the side edges engages with the lifting guide 46 as shown in FIG. One engagement roller 23 is provided. The ink jet recording head 20 (20Y, 20M, 20C, 20K) is moved downward toward the frame body 42 with the engaging roller 21 engaged with the elevating guide 44 and the engaging roller 23 engaged with the elevating guide 46. As shown in FIG. 3, the recording head support 40 is mounted. In FIG. 3, the ink jet recording head 20K is omitted.

  On both sides of the lift guide 44, spring shock absorbers 52 are provided as shown in FIG. In FIG. 7, the spring shock absorber 52 provided on the rightmost lifting guide 44 is omitted. The spring shock absorber 52 corresponds to an elastic member of the present invention, and has the yesterday to receive a part of its mass when the ink jet recording head 20 is mounted on the lift guide 44, and the ink jet recording head 20 is placed thereon. The mounting table 52A, a guide part 52B for guiding the mounting table 52A in parallel with the lifting guide 44, a coil spring 52C inserted between the mounting table 52A and the guide part 52B, and parallel to the guide part 52B. The auxiliary guide 52D provided in the. The guide portion 52B may be a damper such as a dash pod. The spring shock absorber 52 is fixed to the inner surface of the mounting member 48 at the base portion of the guide portion 52B. Similarly, the spring shock absorbers 52 are provided on both sides of each lifting guide 46.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 8, the inkjet recording head 20 is provided with an arm member mounting portion 25 that is a small cylindrical protruding portion that can rotate around the axis line in the vicinity of the center of gravity at both side edge portions. The arm member 60 may be attached to the portion 25. The arm member 60 is mounted on the arm member mounting portion 25 projecting from both side edge portions, and a grip 62 that is a rod-shaped member is inserted into the opening at the upper end of the arm member 60 to form the handle 64.

  The procedure for mounting the inkjet recording head 20 on the recording head support 40 will be described below.

  As shown in FIG. 9A, the ink jet recording head 20 to be mounted on the image recording unit 14 is moved above the frame 42 of the recording head support base 40, as shown in FIG. Then, the engagement roller 21 of the inkjet recording head 20 is engaged with the elevation guide 44.

  Next, with the engagement roller 21 engaged with the elevation guide 44, the inkjet recording head 20 is lowered along the elevation guide 44, and the engagement roller 23 is moved along the elevation guide 46 as shown in FIG. Engage with.

  Then, the inkjet recording head 20 is lowered with the engagement roller 21 engaged with the elevation guide 44 and the engagement roller 23 engaged with the elevation guide 46 so that the inkjet recording head 20 is supported from below by the frame body 42. To.

  In the recording head support 40 in which the shorter lifting guide 46 can be attached to and detached from the frame body 42, the lifting guide 46 is detached from the recording head support 40 as shown in FIGS. Thus, the engagement roller 21 of the inkjet recording head 20 is engaged with the elevation guide 44 and lowered toward the frame body 42.

  When the ink jet recording head 20 is lowered, a shorter lifting guide 46 is attached to the frame body 42 as shown in FIG. 5C, and the ink jet recording head 20 is moved as shown in FIG. The engaging roller 23 is engaged with the lifting guide 46.

  When the engagement roller 23 is engaged with the elevation guide 46, the inkjet recording head 20 is further lowered and fixed to the frame body 42 as shown in FIG.

  In the recording head support base 40 in which the shorter lift guide 46 is provided so as to be able to rise and fall with respect to the frame body 42, the lift guide 46 is mounted on the frame body as shown in FIGS. The engagement roller 21 of the inkjet recording head 20 is engaged with the elevation guide 44 in a state of being tilted with respect to 42.

  When the ink jet recording head 20 is lowered toward the frame body 42 in this state, the shorter lifting guide 46 is raised with respect to the frame body 42 as shown in FIG. The engaging roller 23 is engaged with the lifting guide 46. Then, the ink jet recording head 20 is further lowered and fixed to the frame body 42 as shown in FIGS.

  In the recording head support 40 in which the elevation guide 44 and the elevation guide 46 are at the same height, the inkjet recording head 20 is temporarily moved more than the elevation guides 44 and 46 as shown in FIGS. The inkjet recording head 20 is lowered and fixed toward the frame body 42 with the engagement roller 21 engaged with the elevation guide 44 and the engagement roller 23 engaged with the elevation guide 46.

  As described above, the example in which the droplet discharge head is a print head of an inkjet printer type droplet discharge device has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to an inkjet type image formation device that forms an image by discharging ink, such as copper or aluminum. The present invention can also be applied to an apparatus for forming a circuit pattern by discharging a suspension of fine particles of a metal such as ITO or a conductive oxide such as ITO in an organic solvent or water onto a substrate or a film.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating an overall configuration of the ink jet recording apparatus according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating an overall configuration of an example of a recording head support that supports an inkjet recording head in an image recording unit included in the inkjet recording apparatus according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a state where the ink jet recording head is mounted on the recording head support shown in FIG. FIG. 4 shows an engagement provided on one side edge of the ink jet recording head on one of the raising and lowering guides of the recording head support in a state where the ink jet recording head is mounted on the recording head support shown in FIG. It is a perspective view which shows the place which the roller engaged. FIG. 5 shows an engagement provided on the other side edge portion of the ink jet recording head on the other side of the lifting guide of the recording head support base in a state where the ink jet recording head is mounted on the recording head support base shown in FIG. It is a perspective view which shows the place which the roller engaged. FIG. 6 is a perspective view illustrating an overall configuration of another example of a recording head support that supports an inkjet recording head in an image recording unit included in the inkjet recording apparatus according to the first embodiment. FIG. 7 is a partial perspective view showing an example in which a spring shock absorber is provided in the vicinity of the lifting guide in the recording head support shown in FIG. FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing an example in which an arm member mounting portion for mounting the arm portion of the handle is formed on both side edges in the ink jet recording head mounted on the recording head support shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a procedure for mounting the ink jet recording head on the recording head support shown in FIG. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a procedure for mounting the ink jet recording head on the recording head support shown in FIG. 2 in which the lower elevation guide is removable from the frame. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a procedure for mounting the ink jet recording head on the recording head support shown in FIG. 2 in which the lower elevation guide can be raised and lowered with respect to the frame body. FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing a procedure for mounting the ink jet recording head on the recording head support shown in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Inkjet recording device 12 Paper supply part 14 Image recording part 16 Conveyance means 18 Paper discharge part 20 Inkjet recording head 21 Engagement roller 22 Nozzle surface 23 Engagement roller 25 Arm member mounting part 26 Conveyance drum 40 Recording head support stand 42 Frame body 44 Lifting guide 46 Lifting guide 48 Mounting member 50 Mounting member 52 Spring shock absorber 52A Mounting base 52B Guide portion 52C Coil spring 52D Auxiliary guide 60 Arm member 64 Handle

Claims (7)

A frame disposed so as to face a conveyance drum for conveying a recording medium;
At least one pair of lifting guides provided radially on the frame body with respect to the axis of the transport drum and engaged with both side edges of the droplet discharge head;
A droplet discharge head support.   The droplet discharge head support according to claim 1, wherein one of the pair of lifting guides has a height higher than the other.   The droplet discharge head support according to claim 2, wherein the lower one of the pair of lift guides is detachable from the frame.   The droplet discharge head support according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising an elastic member that receives at least a part of the mass of the droplet discharge head when the droplet discharge head is attached to the lift guide. A droplet discharge head support according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
A droplet discharge head mounted on a lifting guide of the droplet discharge head support;
A droplet discharge unit. A droplet discharge unit according to claim 5;
A transport drum for transporting a recording medium;
With
A droplet discharge device in which a nozzle for discharging droplets of a droplet discharge head in the droplet discharge unit is disposed so as to face the drum surface of the transport drum. A droplet discharge head mounted on the droplet discharge head support base according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
A droplet having an arm member mounting portion that is provided near the center of gravity of the droplet discharge head on both side edges, and on which an arm member constituting a part of a handle of the droplet discharge head is rotatably mounted around the center of gravity. Discharge unit.

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