JP2013202805A - Inkjet recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recording device which avoids damage to a recording head which is given by a wiping liquid and realizes longer life of the recording head and resultant high reliability while preventing wrong recording by using the wiping liquid when the recording head is wiped by a wiping member.SOLUTION: An inkjet recording device has a wiping member 30 having a portion 38 impregnated with a wiping liquid, a portion 39 not impregnated with the wiping liquid. When the power supply of the inkjet recording device is switched from on to off, a nozzle face 10 is wiped by the portion 39 not impregnated with the wiping liquid of the wiping member 30. When the power supply of the inkjet recording device is switched from off to on, the nozzle face 10 is wiped by the portion 38 impregnated with the wiping liquid of the wiping member 30.

Description

  The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus that performs recording by discharging ink from a recording head to a recording medium.

  In an ink jet recording apparatus, it is known that ink adheres to the surface (nozzle surface) of a recording head on which ejection ports (nozzles) are formed, and finally adheres to hinder normal ejection. In addition, in the case of a recording apparatus that forms an image by using inks that are reactive with each other and a reaction liquid that solidifies the components in the ink and the ink, the above-described ink sticking firmly occurs, so that it is difficult to remove. It is known that The same applies to a recording apparatus that uses ultraviolet rays, microwaves, heat, or the like to solidify ink and improve fastness. In order to solve these problems, a recording apparatus such as a so-called solvent ink jet printer or UV curable ink jet printer may require manual maintenance by the user.

  In order to eliminate such a state that may cause ejection failure due to ink mist or media powder adhering to the nozzle surface as described above, an ink jet recording apparatus is generally equipped with a mechanism called a wiper for wiping the nozzle surface. . Using the wiper, an operation of removing foreign matters such as ink mist, media powder, and dust adhering to the nozzle surface is performed as appropriate. In addition, the wiper may be wiped because the ink mist adhering to the nozzle surface is thickened due to evaporation of the ink solvent promoted by the high temperature of the recording head, or the recording requires a long time and cannot be wiped during that time. There are cases where there is a concern about the deterioration of the foreign matter removal performance. In such a case, some measures are taken such as removing the foreign matter after the wiper is previously wetted with a wiper liquid composed of a single substance or a mixture of an ink, a solvent, and a surfactant.

  On the other hand, in the same manner as in these techniques, the nozzle surface of the recording head is made of a sheet-like cloth-like material (generally non-woven fabric is used in the following, also referred to as a wiping member) in order to remove ink mist and media powder. There has also been proposed a method for removing ink and absorbing or removing ink residues.

  While such a wiping member can be used as a substitute for the above-described wiper, it is also possible to operate both the wiper and the wiping member to function each. Patent Document 1 discloses a recording apparatus using such a wiping member and a wiper together.

  In Patent Document 1, wiping is performed by impregnating the wiping member with a wiping liquid. The main purpose of using wiping liquid is to improve wiping performance when wiping with a wiping member and to prevent ink from adhering to the nozzle surface and solidifying as it remains on the nozzle surface. It is done. Other effects include reducing the sliding load during the wiping operation and preventing dust from adhering to the nozzle surface due to static electricity.

JP 2009-286077 A

  As described above, it is a useful wiping liquid at the time of wiping operation, but a so-called organic solvent or surfactant is often used as the wiping liquid. Since these organic solvent and surfactant-based compositions have the effect of dissolving and swelling organic substances such as adhesives and liquid seals, they are left standing for a long time while adhering to the nozzle surface. Damage the recording head. In particular, due to the recent evolution of recording head manufacturing methods, there are many recording heads using a photolithography process that can be manufactured at a lower cost. In such heads, recording heads that use a lot of resin material due to the ease of manufacturing. It has become. A recording head using a resin material as a constituent member is generally easily affected by a solvent or a surfactant, and easily causes phenomena such as swelling and delamination between layers. In particular, when wiring, heaters, etc. are formed on the wafer, and an ink liquid chamber, etc., is formed on the resin, peeling between the inorganic layer and the organic layer formed by the resin is performed. In addition, ink permeation between layers of organic substances and inorganic substances may be a problem. Thus, when peeling or ink permeation between layers occurs, there is a risk of head breakage due to disconnection or short circuit of the head wiring.

  The present invention prevents the recording head from being damaged by using the wiping liquid when wiping the recording head with the wiping member, while avoiding damage to the recording head by the wiping liquid, extending the life of the recording head and accompanying it. An object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus that achieves high reliability.

  The inkjet recording apparatus of the present invention includes a recording head, a sheet-like wiping member for wiping the nozzle surface of the recording head, a take-up roller for winding the wiping member, and the wiping member in contact with the nozzle surface. A moving unit that moves the wiping member in a direction in which the wiping member is brought into contact with the nozzle surface, and a winding direction of the wiping member relative to the corresponding contacting member. And a supply unit that supplies a wiping liquid to the wiping member, and the wiping member moves in a direction in which the contact member contacts the nozzle surface, and the wiping member A wiping liquid impregnated portion impregnated with a wiping liquid formed by winding the member by the take-up roller and a wiping liquid non-impregnated portion not impregnated with the wiping liquid are formed. When the power of the ink jet recording apparatus is turned off from on, the nozzle surface is wiped by the wiping liquid non-impregnated portion of the wiping member, and when the power of the ink jet recording apparatus is turned on from the off, The nozzle surface is wiped by the wiping liquid impregnated portion of the wiping member.

  The present invention uses a wiping liquid when wiping the recording head with a wiping member to prevent recording defects while avoiding damage to the recording head due to the wiping liquid, extending the life of the recording head and the accompanying high A recording apparatus that realizes reliability can be provided.

  In the present invention, when the power of the recording apparatus is turned off from on, the recording apparatus is stopped after the amount of wiping liquid around the nozzle surface is reduced. As a result, the recording head is less likely to be damaged by the wiping liquid during the rest period. On the other hand, when the power of the recording device is turned on, the wiping liquid is applied to the nozzle surface prior to the recording operation, and the recording preparation operation is performed to return to the state before the normal recording. Recording failure due to media powder can be prevented.

1 is an overall view of an ink jet recording apparatus according to a first embodiment. It is a perspective view of the recovery unit concerning a 1st embodiment. FIG. 3 is a layout diagram of a wiping unit, a recovery unit, a recording head, and the like. It is a section lineblock diagram of the wiping unit concerning a 1st embodiment. It is a block diagram of the movement unit which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart of the hibernation preparation sequence which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart of the recording preparation sequence which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart of the hibernation preparation sequence which concerns on 2nd Embodiment.

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

  FIG. 1 is an overall view of an ink jet recording apparatus (hereinafter also referred to as a printer) according to a first embodiment. This is a so-called serial scan type printer, which forms an image by scanning (main scanning) the recording head in a direction (main scanning direction) orthogonal to the conveyance direction of the recording medium. The carriage 2 stops at a home position (hereinafter also abbreviated as HP) as needed before or during recording. A recovery system unit 5 including a cap 28 and a wiper 27 is disposed near the HP, and a wiping unit 35 holding a wiping member is disposed near the back position (hereinafter also abbreviated as BP).

  FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing a configuration example of the recovery system unit. The cap 28 is supported by an elevating mechanism (not shown) so as to be movable up and down, and the nozzle surface 10 can be capped at the raised position to protect it during non-recording operation or to recover suction. It is. In a recording operation, the position may be set at a lowered position that avoids interference with the recording head 9 and may be configured to allow preliminary ejection into the cap by facing the nozzle surface 10.

  Generally, in order to wipe off ink adhering to the nozzle surface 10, so-called wiping is performed in which the nozzle surface 10 is rubbed with a rubber wiper 27 as shown in FIG. On the other hand, as described above, when wiping is performed, the ink component on the surface of the recording head 9 evaporates, and it may be difficult to wipe off only by wiping. For example, the ink may contain a low-boiling solvent that tends to volatilize in low molecular alcohols such as IPA (IsoPropyl Alcohol), ketones such as MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone), and esters such as ethyl acetate. . In addition, there are a case where aggregation is likely to occur due to weak dispersibility of the pigment of the ink, and a case where a large amount of polymer for dispersing the pigment is included. It is known that wiping with the wiper 27 is difficult for an ink configured to contain a large amount of polymer components because it is used for applications that place importance on rubbing and fastness. In such an ink, the initial viscosity is not significantly different from that of other inks, and there is often no problem with wiping properties during wiping. However, at the time of evaporation, the viscosity tends to increase more than other inks, and it becomes difficult to remove the ink by wiping as compared with the case where a general ink is similarly evaporated.

  In addition, for inks that have functionality due to changes that occur due to evaporation, such as phase changes that accompany evaporation and heating, or dispersion destruction that occurs due to concentration increases due to evaporation, and insolubilization and solidification, the simple evaporation as described above The recoverability is further deteriorated than the viscosity increase due to.

  Thus, when wiping is difficult with the conventional wiping mechanism, or when the ink residue after wiping is likely to solidify, the wiping operation of the recording head 9 may be performed using the sheet-like wiping member 30. . As the wiping member 30, porous urethane foam or melamine foam, or cloth or nonwoven fabric using polyolefin, polyester, or nylon is used.

  FIG. 3 is a layout diagram of the wiping unit 35 and the recovery unit 5 used in the present embodiment in the recording apparatus. The recovery unit 5 installed on the HP side across the platen 4 and the wiping unit 35 arranged on the BP side are arranged so that the HP-side recovery unit 5 is at the recording start position in the forward recording scan of the carriage 2 and the BP side. The wiping unit 35 is arranged on the recording end side. Conversely, in the backward recording scan, the HP-side recovery unit 5 is disposed at the recording end position, and the BP-side wiping unit 35 is disposed at the recording start position. When recording is performed in the arrangement as shown in FIG. 6, the carriage 2 first performs preliminary ejection performed before recording on the wiping member 30 of the wiping unit 35 on the BP side. The carriage 2 moves to the recording start position after the preliminary ejection is completed, and performs recording on the recording medium on the platen 4. After the first recording scan is completed, recording is performed from the HP side toward the BP side. In this manner, recording for one page is repeated by repeating recording from the BP side to the HP side and from the HP side to the BP side.

  FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional configuration diagram of the wiping unit 35 used in the present embodiment. When the recording operation of the recording head 9 is completed, the recording head 9 is moved to a position before the position facing the wiping unit 35 as shown in FIG. The wiping member 30 used for the wiping operation is raised by the moving unit 25 in the B direction in the drawing to a position where it contacts the recording head 9 as shown in FIG. Thereafter, the carriage 2 moves in the direction A in the figure along the scanning direction (main scanning direction) of the recording head 9, so that the nozzle surface 10 provided with a plurality of ejection openings slides in a direction substantially perpendicular to the nozzle arrangement. Then wipe it off. As for the wiping operation, it is possible to move to the wiping member 30 fixed by the moving unit 25 continuously as the extension of the recording operation and perform the wiping operation because there is no temporary stop before the wiping unit 35. Efficient. After the wiping operation, the wiping portion of the wiping member 30 is taken up by the take-up roller 32, and the new wiping member 30 is supplied from the supply roller 31 so that the new wiping portion is wiped each time. Yes.

  In the case of this embodiment, preliminary ejection is performed on the portion where the wiping of the wiping member has been completed. The mechanism that performs preliminary ejection on the wiping member in this way is very effective as a means that can prevent sticking of the so-called emulsion-based ink in the path for collecting the waste ink. Emulsion inks are dispersion pigment inks, especially polymer components such as rubber dispersed in water that exceed the dispersion limit by evaporation of water and organic solvents and other solvents and dispersions to form a film. Formed by.

  FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the moving unit 25. The moving unit 25 includes a contact member 26 and a wiping liquid supply unit 36. The moving unit 25 is movable in a direction in which the wiping member 30 is brought into contact with the nozzle surface 10.

  The contact member 26 is constituted by a rubber blade or the like, and presses the wiping member 30 against the nozzle surface 10 of the recording head 9.

  The wiping liquid supplied from the wiping liquid supply unit 36 is configured to be supplied to the wiping member 30. The wiping liquid supply unit 36 is made of rubber having capillaries as shown in FIG. 5A. For example, the wiping liquid is supplied to the wiping member 30 such as an open-cell porous member as shown in FIG. Anything that can be supplied can be used. Further, in this embodiment, the wiping liquid is supplied from the lower part of the wiping member. For example, the wiping liquid is supplied from the upper part of the wiping member 30 by a method such as dripping or contact with a member impregnated with the wiping liquid similar to the above example. It is also possible to do.

  In the case of this embodiment, the wiping operation by the wiping member is performed in accordance with the carriage scanning in the backward direction in the reciprocating operation of the carriage 2. As shown in FIG. 4A, before starting the recording in the backward direction, the moving unit 25 is raised in the direction B in the figure with the recording head 9 at a position slightly before the wiping unit 35. . Thereafter, as shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, the recording head 9 mounted on the carriage 2 is configured to perform a wiping operation as it returns to the HP. The supply of the wiping liquid from the wiping liquid supply unit 36 to the wiping member 30 is performed by the wiping liquid supply unit 36 coming into contact with the wiping member 30 on the upstream side of the wiping portion during the wiping operation in FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b). . As a result, the wiping liquid impregnated portion 38 of the wiping member 30 is formed. On the other hand, the wiping liquid non-impregnated part 39 is other than the wiping liquid impregnated part.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a pause preparation sequence according to this embodiment. First, data waiting is performed in the recording standby state (step S17). A normal recording apparatus is in a data input waiting state when the power is turned on, unless it is in an offline state. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the power is turned off from the recording standby state, but the same processing can be performed when the power is turned off from the offline state. When the power is turned off from the recording standby state, first, the counter M for measuring the number of wiping is reset (step S19). Then, the wiping member 30 is wound up by the driving force applied to the winding roller 32 without raising the wiping unit 35. The wiping liquid non-impregnated portion 39 of the wiping member 30 moves until the wiping liquid non-impregnated portion 39 of the wiping member 30 reaches just above the contact member 26 so that the wiping liquid non-impregnated portion 39 of the wiping member 30 contacts the nozzle surface 10 (step S20). Thereafter, the contact member 26 is raised, and only the wiping operation without the recording operation is performed in the wiping liquid non-impregnated portion 39 of the wiping member 30. In the present embodiment, in order to remove the wiping liquid on the nozzle surface 10 more reliably, the process continues repeatedly until the counter M in FIG. 6 reaches a predetermined value X. When the counter reaches a predetermined value, the wiping member impregnated part 38 of the wiping member 30, that is, the wiping member 30 located immediately above the wiping liquid supply part 36 or 37 is moved to just above the contact member 26 and the process is ended. As described above, in the present embodiment, the winding amount is the distance between the wiping liquid supply unit 36 or 37 and the contact member 26.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a recording preparation sequence performed at the time of startup. When the power is turned on with respect to the recording apparatus in the standby state (step S27) with power off, predetermined start-up operations such as initialization, reading of the memory recorded in the nonvolatile area, and temperature acquisition of the head / recording apparatus main body are performed. Is called. After the predetermined start-up operation is completed, a counter P that measures the number of wiping operations for recording preparation is initialized (step S30). In the recording apparatus of the present embodiment, the wiping liquid impregnated portion 38 of the wiping member 30 is sent to the positions of the recording head 9 and the contact member 26 at the end of the previous time (when the power is off). Therefore, it is possible to start a sequence for recording preparation without moving the wiping member 30 as it is at the time of activation. In the wiping operation (step S31), only the wiping operation without recording is performed. When the wiping operation is completed, the wiping member 30 immediately above the wiping liquid supply unit 36 or 37 is moved directly above the contact member 26 by the take-up roller 32. In step S33, the number of repetitions is measured, and the wiping operation for recording preparation is repeated until the predetermined number of times Y is reached.

  In the present embodiment, the power source is turned off as a trigger for shifting to sleep preparation. In addition to turning off the power, for example, it is possible to detect a trigger such as a transition to the sleep mode or a recording pause for a predetermined time, and the pause preparation sequence of FIG. 6 can be activated.

  According to the configuration of the present embodiment, high reliability is maintained because the wiping liquid is supplied to the nozzle surface 10 during recording. By removing the wiping liquid containing components that have an influence on the recording head 9 from the nozzle surface 10 during the rest, it is possible to extend the life of the recording head 9.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a pause preparation sequence according to the second embodiment. In the configuration of the present embodiment, the wiping member 30 is unitized in a form that is already impregnated with a wiping liquid including a solvent, a surfactant, and the like used for wiping. Therefore, the wiping liquid removal operation in the preparation for the pause is not performed by the wiping member, but is performed by the wiper 27 provided in the recovery unit 5 separately.

  As a merit of such a configuration, since the two consumables, the wiping member 30 and the wiping liquid, are integrated, they are individually replaced at the time of replacement, or are sequentially replaced due to a difference in replacement time. Can be omitted. Moreover, the point that complicated control, such as wiping empty feeding and rewinding, does not need wiping member 30, is also mentioned as an advantage. On the other hand, since the wiper 27 itself has no absorbability, complete removal is difficult. The wiper 27 removes the wiping liquid from the nozzle surface 10, and the removed wiping liquid is absorbed by the wiper cleaner or the like or applied to the wiper 27. The wiping liquid is replaced with the wiper liquid.

  When the latter replacement is performed, a wiping solution containing a surfactant as a main component is used. For example, anionic surfactants such as fatty acid sodium and alkylbenzene sulfonate, and cationic surfactants such as alkyltrimethylammonium salt are used. In addition, amphoteric surfactants such as alkyldimethylamine oxide and nonionic surfactants such as polyoxyethylene alkyl ether are also used. As the wiper liquid applied to the wiper 27, for example, glycerin, ethylene glycol or the like is used. These are composed of those that cause less damage to various members constituting the recording head 9 than the wiping liquid.

  Furthermore, when the relationship between the wiping liquid and the wiper liquid used in the present embodiment is added, the magnitude of damage greatly differs depending on the interaction with the wiping liquid. It can also be judged to some extent from the physical property values that the larger the contact angle to the nozzle surface, the larger the interaction, and the smaller the contact angle, the smaller the interaction. However, there are those such as 2-pyrrolidone and cellosolves that tend to damage components even if the surface activity is small. It goes without saying that the substances exemplified above are merely examples, and are selected in consideration of the interaction with various components within a range that does not impair the spirit of the present invention.

  FIG. 9 shows an operation sequence of the configuration as in this embodiment. When a signal such as power off is received from the standby state (step S37) (step S38), the wiper count counter is reset (step S39). Then, a wiper liquid is applied to the wiper 27 (step S40), the recording head 9 is moved to a position facing the wiper 27 (step S41), and a wiping operation is performed. When the wiping operation is completed, the counter is added to the counter, and it is determined whether the wiping has been performed a predetermined number of times. If the predetermined number of times has not been reached, the wiping is performed again. This is repeated a predetermined number of times, and finally preliminary ejection (step S45) is performed and the process ends. Even in the case of this embodiment, it is possible to use the same sequence as that shown in FIG.

  If the configuration as in this embodiment is used, in addition to the effects described in the previous embodiment, a process for pausing the recording head 9 can be performed without performing a complicated control operation for the feeding operation of the wiping member 30. Can do. Therefore, the wiping member 30 can be used efficiently, and the configuration of the wiping unit can be simplified, which is efficient.

9 Recording head 10 Nozzle surface 27 Wiper 30 Wiping member 32 Winding roller

Claims (7)

A recording head, a sheet-like wiping member for wiping the nozzle surface of the recording head, a take-up roller for winding the wiping member, and a moving unit for moving the wiping member in a direction in contact with the nozzle surface; ,
An inkjet recording apparatus comprising:
The moving unit is a contact member that brings the wiping member into contact with the nozzle surface, a supply unit that is upstream of the contact member in the winding direction of the wiping member, and supplies a wiping liquid to the wiping member; Have
The wiping member is impregnated with a wiping liquid that is formed by the contact member moving in a direction to bring the wiping member into contact with the nozzle surface, and the wiping member being wound by the winding roller. A liquid-impregnated part and a wiping liquid non-impregnated part not impregnated with the wiping liquid are formed,
The nozzle surface is wiped by the wiping liquid non-impregnated portion of the wiping member when the power source of the ink jet recording apparatus is turned off, and the wiping member is turned on when the power source of the ink jet recording apparatus is turned on from off. The ink jet recording apparatus, wherein the nozzle surface is wiped by the wiping liquid impregnated portion.   2. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the power of the ink jet recording apparatus is turned from on to off, the nozzle surface is wiped a predetermined number of times by the wiping liquid non-impregnated portion of the wiping member.   3. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the power supply of the ink jet recording apparatus is turned on from off, the nozzle surface is wiped a predetermined number of times by the wiping liquid impregnation portion of the wiping member. A recording head, a sheet-like wiping member for wiping the nozzle surface of the recording head, a take-up roller for winding the wiping member, and a moving unit for moving the wiping member in a direction to contact the nozzle surface A wiper for wiping the nozzle surface;
An inkjet recording apparatus comprising:
The moving unit has a contact member that brings the wiping member into contact with the nozzle surface;
The wiping member is impregnated with a wiping solution, and when the power of the ink jet recording apparatus is turned off from on, the nozzle surface is wiped by the wiper, and the power of the ink jet recording apparatus is turned on from off The ink jet recording apparatus, wherein the nozzle surface is wiped by the wiping member.   The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 4, wherein when the nozzle surface is wiped by the wiper, a wiper liquid formed of glycerin or ethylene glycol is applied to the wiper.   6. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 4, wherein when the power of the ink jet recording apparatus is turned off from on, the nozzle surface is wiped by the wiper a predetermined number of times.   The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 4, wherein when the power of the ink jet recording apparatus is turned on from off, the nozzle surface is wiped by the wiping member a predetermined number of times.

Images