JP2014104635A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

An attitude of a head holder detachably held on a carriage is affected by a reaction force of a supply tube.
Head holders 51A and 51B are detachably held on a reference shaft member 71 of a carriage 5, and a supply tube 16 is wound around from the ink cartridge 10 side to the upper part on the carriage 5 side, and then on the carriage 5 side. The direction is bent downward from the upper part in the vertical direction, and further bent in the horizontal direction in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the carriage 5, and is wound around the head holders 51A and 51B to be connected to the recording head 11 and supplied. The tube 16 has a tube guide member 200 for guiding scooping from the carriage 5 side to the head holders 51A, 51B side. The tube guide member 200 is attached to the carriage cover 55 of the carriage 5 so that the vertical position can be adjusted. It has been.
[Selection] Figure 6

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.

  As an image forming apparatus such as a printer, a facsimile, a copying machine, a plotter, or a complex machine of these, for example, a liquid discharge recording type image forming apparatus using a liquid discharge head (droplet discharge head) for discharging droplets as a recording head An ink jet recording apparatus is known.

  As a liquid supply system of such an image forming apparatus, a liquid cartridge containing liquid to be supplied to the recording head is replaceably mounted on the apparatus main body side, and the liquid is supplied from the liquid cartridge to the recording head side through a supply tube. Tube supply systems are known.

  In a liquid supply system using such a supply tube, there is a problem that the carriage posture is affected by the reaction force of the supply tube and the image quality is deteriorated.

  Therefore, conventionally, with respect to scooping of the supply tube, for example, a first end is connected to the carriage side, and a second end opposite to the first end is fixed to the liquid cartridge side. A supply tube in which the first portion having flexibility between the second end changes in posture following the reciprocating movement of the carriage, a support member having a wire portion that supports the first portion of the supply tube, and a support member The thing provided with the tubular member wound by the wire part of this is known (patent document 1).

  Further, regarding the carriage configuration, the carriage is reciprocally moved along a main carriage guide shaft and a sub carriage guide shaft provided in the main scanning direction, and is rotatable with respect to the carriage body via the sub carriage, and is sub-scanned. A recording head mounted movably in a direction, and a first and a second that are interposed between the carriage main body and the sub-carriage and press and urge the recording head against the main carriage guide shaft and the sub-carriage guide shaft, respectively. A device including an urging member is known (Patent Document 2).

Japanese Patent No. 4883004 JP 2007-190868 A

  By the way, in order to make it easy to replace the recording head, the carriage has a reference member arranged in the same direction as the guide member on the carriage movable along the guide member arranged in the main scanning direction. It is conceivable to adopt a configuration in which a head holder on which is mounted is held by a reference member.

  When such a carriage configuration is adopted, the reaction force due to the above-described scooping of the supply tube not only affects the carriage but also affects the posture of the head holder held by the carriage, resulting in a reduction in image quality. The problem of doing.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to reduce the influence of a reaction force caused by scooping a supply tube on the posture of a head holder held by a carriage.

In order to solve the above problems, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention provides:
A recording head for discharging droplets;
A head holder for holding the recording head;
A carriage for holding the head holder;
A supply tube for feeding the liquid from the liquid cartridge containing the liquid to the recording head side,
The carriage is movable along a guide member arranged in the main scanning direction,
The carriage has a reference member on which the head holder is detachably hooked and held,
The supply tube is
After being swung from the liquid cartridge side to the upper part of the carriage side, the direction is bent downward from the upper part of the carriage side in the vertical direction, and further, the direction is bent in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the carriage in the horizontal direction. , It is wound around the head holder side and connected to the recording head side,
A tube guide member for guiding scooping from the carriage side of the supply tube to the head holder side;
The tube guide member guides a portion of the supply tube that bends from the downward in the vertical direction to the direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the carriage in the horizontal direction,
The tube guide member is attached to the carriage side so that the vertical position can be adjusted.

  According to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the influence of the reaction force caused by the supply tube scooping on the posture of the head holder held by the carriage is reduced.

1 is a schematic external perspective view of an example of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. It is typical side surface explanatory drawing of the apparatus. 2 is an explanatory plan view of a main part of an image forming unit of the apparatus. FIG. It is a typical perspective explanatory view of a carriage part explaining a state before mounting a head holder on a carriage. It is a perspective explanatory view of the carriage part explaining the state where the head holder was similarly attached to the carriage. It is typical side surface explanatory drawing of the carriage part with which it uses for description of the structure regarding the scooping of a supply tube. It is a schematic front explanatory view of the carriage portion. FIG. 5 is a perspective explanatory view for explaining an attachment state of a carriage cover and a guide member. It is an expansion perspective explanatory view of a guide member. FIG. 6 is a perspective explanatory view of the guide member viewed from the carriage side.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. An example of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a schematic external perspective view of the image forming apparatus, FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of the apparatus, and FIG. 3 is a plan view of an essential part of an image forming unit of the apparatus.

  This image forming apparatus is a serial type image forming apparatus, and includes an apparatus main body 101 and a paper feeding device 102 disposed below the apparatus main body 101. The sheet feeding device 102 is separate from the apparatus main body 101 and is disposed below the apparatus main body 101, but may be provided integrally with the apparatus main body 101 for convenience as shown in FIG.

  Inside the apparatus main body 101, guide rods 1 and guide stays 2, which are guide members, are spanned on both side plates (not shown), and a carriage 5 is placed on the guide rod 1 and guide stay 2 in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 3 in the main scanning direction and the carriage movement direction).

  The main scanning mechanism that moves and scans the carriage 5 includes a main scanning motor 6 disposed on one side in the main scanning direction, a drive pulley 7 that is rotationally driven by the main scanning motor 6, and the other side in the main scanning direction. A driven pulley 8 is provided, and a timing belt 9 that is a pulling member that is wound between the driving pulley 7 and the driven pulley 8 is provided.

  As shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of (here, five) liquids that eject ink droplets of each color of black (K), yellow (Y), magenta (M), and cyan (C) are also applied to the carriage 5. The recording heads 11a to 11e (collectively referred to as “recording head 11” when not distinguished from each other) are integrated with a discharge head and a head tank that supplies liquid to the liquid discharge head. They are arranged in the orthogonal sub-scanning direction and mounted with the droplet discharge direction facing downward.

  Here, the recording head 11a and the recording heads 11b to 11e are arranged by shifting the position of one head (one nozzle row) in the sub-scanning direction that is a direction orthogonal to the main scanning direction. Each of the recording heads 11a to 11e has two nozzle rows. The recording heads 11a and 11b eject black droplets having the same color, and the recording heads 11c to 11e eject magenta (M), cyan (C), and yellow (Y) droplets, respectively.

  As a result, monochrome images can be formed with a width of two heads in one scan (main scan) using the recording heads 11a and 11b, and color images are formed using, for example, the recording heads 11b to 11e. be able to. The head configuration is not limited to this, and a plurality of recording heads may be arranged side by side in the main scanning direction.

  Ink of each color is supplied to the head tank of the recording head 11 via a supply tube 16 that can be bent from ink cartridges 10k, 10c, 10m, and 10y, which are main tanks that are replaceably attached to the apparatus main body 101. Is done. At this time, ink is supplied from one ink cartridge 10k to the two recording heads 11a and 11b that discharge droplets of the same color.

  On the other hand, in the recording area of the main scanning area of the carriage 5, a roll paper 120 is fed from a paper feeding device 102 to be described later, and a direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction of the carriage 5 (sub-scanning direction, paper It is intermittently conveyed in the conveyance direction (arrow B direction).

  The transport unit 21 includes a transport roller 23 that transports the roll paper 120 that is a roll-shaped medium fed from the paper feeder 102, a pressure roller 24 that is disposed opposite the transport roller 23, and a plurality of suction holes. A conveyance guide member 25 and a suction fan 26 as a suction unit that performs suction from a suction hole of the conveyance guide member 25 are provided.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a cutter 27 serving as a cutting means for cutting the roll paper 120 on which the image is formed by the recording head 11 at a predetermined length is disposed on the downstream side of the conveying means 21.

  The cutter 27 is attached to a wire or a timing belt 28, for example. The timing belt 28 is wound around a driving pulley driven by a driving motor (not shown) and a driven pulley, and the timing belt 28 is moved in the main scanning direction A by the driving motor via the driving pulley. 27, the paper is cut into a predetermined length.

  Further, a maintenance / recovery mechanism 30 that performs maintenance / recovery of the recording head 11 is disposed on one side of the carriage 5 in the main scanning direction on the side of the conveyance guide member 25, and recording is performed on the side of the conveyance guide member 25 on the other side. Empty discharge receptacles 34 that perform empty discharge for discharging liquid droplets that do not contribute to image formation from the head 11 are respectively disposed.

  The maintenance / recovery mechanism 30 includes a first maintenance / recovery unit 31 held by the frame member of the apparatus main body 101, and a second maintenance / recovery unit 32 held by the frame member of the maintenance / recovery mechanism 30 so as to be capable of reciprocating in the sub-scanning direction. have. The second maintenance / recovery unit 32 is at the position shown in FIG. 3 when performing the maintenance / recovery of the recording head 11a, and moves to the same position in the sub-scanning direction as the first maintenance / recovery unit 31 when performing the maintenance / recovery of the recording heads 11b to 11e.

  The maintenance / recovery mechanism 30 includes, for example, a suction cap 41 and a moisturizing cap 42 that also serve as a moisturizing cap for capping the nozzle surface (surface on which the nozzle is formed) of the recording head 11, a wiper member 43 for wiping the nozzle surface, and image formation. And a blank discharge receiver 44 for receiving droplets (empty discharge droplets) that do not contribute to.

  The sheet feeding device 102 has upper and lower spool bearing bases 111A and 111B (hereinafter referred to as “spool bearing base 111” unless otherwise distinguished. And the lower member is distinguished by adding “B” to the reference numeral. Inside the spool bearing base 111, there is provided a feeding mechanism that feeds the roll paper 120 from the roll body 112 and rewinds the roll paper 120.

  The roll body 112 is obtained by winding a sheet (hereinafter referred to as “roll paper”) 120 which is a long roll-shaped medium around a tube 114 which is a core member in a roll shape. Note that the roll body is a general term for members including the tube 114 and the roll paper 120.

  Here, in the present embodiment, the roll body 112 is a roll body 120 in which the end of the roll paper 120 is fixed to the tube 114 by bonding such as gluing (hereinafter referred to as “adhesive roll”), and the end of the roll paper 120 is connected to the tube 114. Any non-fixed one that is not bonded by gluing or the like (hereinafter referred to as “non-adhesive roll”) can be mounted.

  Then, the roll body 112 mounted on the spool bearing base 111 is rotated to feed the roll paper 120 downstream along the guide member 130.

  On the downstream side of the spool bearing base 111 in the feed direction, a pair of transport rollers 131 that curves and feeds the roll paper 120 fed from the roll body 112 is disposed. A guide member 130 that guides the lower surface of the roll paper 120 is disposed between the spool bearing base 111 and the conveying roller pair 131.

  By rotating the conveyance roller pair 131, the roll paper 120 fed out from the roll body 112 is conveyed by the conveyance roller pair 131, passes through the conveyance roller pair 131, and the conveyance roller 23 and the pressure roller 24 of the conveyance unit 21. It is sent in between.

  In the image forming apparatus configured as described above, the recording head 11 is moved while the carriage 5 is moved in the main scanning direction and the roll paper 120 fed from the paper feeding device 102 is intermittently fed by the conveying means 21. A required image is formed on the roll paper 120 by ejecting droplets by driving according to image information (printing information). Then, the roll paper 120 after image formation is cut to a predetermined length by the cutter 27 and discharged to a paper discharge tray (not shown) disposed on the front side of the apparatus main body 101.

  Next, an example of a carriage configuration in this image forming apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective explanatory view of the carriage portion for explaining a state before the head holder is mounted on the carriage in the embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a perspective explanatory view of the carriage portion for explaining a state where the head holder is mounted on the carriage. is there.

  The carriage 5 holds a black head holder 51A and a color head holder 51B.

  The head holder 51A is equipped with two recording heads 11a and 11b that discharge black droplets arranged in a staggered manner in the sub-scanning direction. In the head holder 51B, three recording heads 11c, 11d, and 11e that discharge yellow, magenta, and cyan droplets are mounted side by side with the recording head 11b in the main scanning direction. As described above, when the recording heads are not distinguished, they are referred to as “recording head 11”. The number of the recording heads 11 held by the head holders 51A and 51B may be one.

  Here, the carriage 5 is provided with a reference shaft member 71 as a reference member in the same direction as the guide rod 1. The head holders 51A and 51B (hereinafter referred to as “head holder 51” when not distinguished from each other) are provided with hook-shaped hook portions 53 that are detachably fitted to the reference shaft member 71, and the head holders 51A and 51B. Is held by the carriage 5 by hooking the hook portion 53 on the reference shaft member 71. Note that the reference shaft member 71 may have a cylindrical shape or a polygonal shape.

  A carriage cover 55 that also serves as a pressure member that pressurizes the head holders 51A and 51B is attached to the carriage 5.

  Thus, by arranging the reference shaft member 71 in the same direction as the guide rod 1 that is the guide member of the carriage 5, the positional accuracy of the tilt in the sub-scanning direction, the height direction, the tilt direction, and the main scanning direction is improved. .

  In this embodiment, when head replacement is performed, for example, when the recording heads 11a and 11b are replaced, the head holder 51A is removed from the reference shaft member 71, and the replaced head holder 51A is hooked on the reference shaft member 71 and held. .

  As a result, the head position accuracy of the replaced head holder 51A can be reproduced, and a high position accuracy can be obtained for the recording head 11 of the other head holder 51B.

  As described above, the recording head includes a recording head having a plurality of nozzles for discharging droplets, one or a plurality of head holders that hold one or more recording heads, and a carriage that holds the head holder, and the carriage performs main scanning. The carriage has a reference member arranged in the same direction as the guide member, and the head holder is detachably hooked and held by the reference member. With this configuration, the head can be easily positioned with high accuracy, and the head can be easily replaced.

  Next, a configuration related to scooping the supply tube in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. FIG. 6 is a schematic side explanatory view of the carriage portion, and FIG. 7 is a schematic front explanatory view of the carriage portion.

  The supply tube 16 having one end connected to the ink cartridge 10 side is rolled up from one side in the main scanning direction of the carriage 5 and then passes through the carriage cover 55 from the top of the carriage 5 to move in the vertical direction. The direction is bent downward, and the direction is bent in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the carriage 5 in the horizontal direction (paper transport direction: sub-scanning direction) and scoops forward of the head holder 51 (downstream in the sub-scanning direction). It is rotated and further bent in the main scanning direction and connected to the recording head 11 side mounted on each head holder 51.

  In the present embodiment, the supply tube 16 includes two supply tubes 16A for the recording heads 11a and 11b and three supply tubes 16B for the recording heads 11c to 11e. In order to simplify the illustration, one is shown in each figure.

  At this time, the supply tube 16 guided into the carriage 5 is divided into a supply tube 16A and a supply tube 16B on one side of the carriage 5 in the main scanning direction. 5 is wound obliquely from one side in the main scanning direction toward the lower side of the other side. On the other hand, when viewed from the front of the carriage 5, the supply tube 16 </ b> B is wound around from one side in the main scanning direction of the carriage 5 almost directly below.

  Here, on the carriage cover 55 of the carriage 5, cylindrical tube guide members 200 </ b> A and 200 </ b> B that guide the turning of the supply tubes 16 </ b> A and 16 </ b> B from the carriage 5 side to the head holder 51 side at both ends in the carriage movement direction. (Hereinafter referred to as “tube guide member 200” when not distinguished from each other) is provided so that the vertical position can be adjusted.

  The tube guide member 200 has a guide portion 201 that is curved in the horizontal direction from the vertical direction. By guiding through the supply tube 16 into the guide part 201, the position of the supply tube 16 at the recording head 11 side outlet 220, that is, the position in the height direction, is advanced to the recording head 11 side.

  Here, when the supply tube 16 is bent in the vertical direction as described above, and further bent in the horizontal direction, the supply tube 16 tries to restore it in a direction to reduce the curvature by the restoring force. Therefore, when there is no tube guide member 200, the horizontal portion 16a of the supply tube 16 shown in FIG. 6 tries to move downward (arrow direction), and the reaction force of the supply tube 16 acts on the recording head 11. To do.

  At this time, if the recording head 11 is fixed to the carriage 5, the recording head 11 is prevented from being displaced by the restoring force (reaction force) of the supply tube 16.

  However, in this embodiment, the recording head 11 is mounted on the head holder 51, and the head holder 51 is detachably held by being hooked on the reference shaft member 71 of the carriage 5. In such a carriage configuration, when a downward force is applied to the head holder 51 (recording head 11) by the supply tube 16, the head holder 51 is downstream of the reference shaft member 71 of the carriage 5 in the sheet conveyance direction. The side will rotate downward.

  When the head holder 51 rotates in this way, the gap between the recording head 11 and the transport surface fluctuates, and a droplet landing position shift occurs, resulting in a reduction in image quality.

  Therefore, the position of the supply tube 16 in the height direction is defined by providing the tube guide member 200 and restricting the movement (restoration) of the supply tube 16 in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction when the supply tube 16 is turned.

  As a result, the displacement of the head holder 51 caused by scooping the supply tube 16 can be reduced.

  Further, by providing the tube guide member 200 so that the vertical position of the tube guide member 200 can be adjusted, the position of the supply tube 16 in the height direction at the outlet of the tube guide member 200 can be adjusted. The supply tube 16 can be swung at a position where it can be reduced as much as possible.

  That is, when the tube guide member 200 is fixed, variations in the height of the recording head 11 in the form of the head holder 51, variations in the length of the supply tube 16, variations in the fitting position of the supply tube 16 into the tube guide member 200, and the like. As a result, downward stress may remain in the head holder 51. However, by making it possible to adjust the position in the height direction at the outlet of the tube guide member 200, it is possible to select a position where the downward stress caused by the supply tube can be reduced most.

  As described above, the supply tube is rolled from the liquid cartridge side to the upper part of the carriage, then bent upward and downward from the upper part of the carriage, and further oriented in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the carriage in the horizontal direction. It has a guide member that is bent and wound around the head holder side and connected to the recording head side, and guides the feed tube from the carriage side to the head holder side. The guide member adjusts the vertical position. By adopting a configuration that allows the carriage to be attached to the carriage, it is possible to reduce the influence of the reaction force caused by the supply tube scooping on the posture of the head holder held by the carriage.

  Next, an example of the tube guide member 200 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 8 is an explanatory perspective view for explaining the attachment state of the carriage cover and the guide member, FIG. 9 is an enlarged perspective explanatory view of the guide member, and FIG. 10 is an explanatory perspective view of the guide member as viewed from the carriage 5 side. .

  The tube guide member 200 includes a guide portion 201 that guides the supply tube 16 from the vertical direction to the horizontal direction, and an attachment portion 202 that attaches the guide portion 201 to the carriage 5.

  First, the guide portion 201 is curved in the horizontal direction from the vertical direction, and is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape having a bottom surface portion 201a and a top surface portion 201b in the vertical direction and side surface portions 201c and 201d in the carriage movement direction.

  Thus, when the guide part 201 has a shape having the bottom face part 201a and the top face part 201b, the supply tube 16 can be prevented from spreading in the vertical direction and the apparatus front-rear direction.

  Further, by forming the guide portion 201 into the shape having the side portions 201c and 201d, when the supply tube 16 is passed, the supply tube 16 expands in the horizontal direction (main scanning direction) (virtual lines 116, FIG. 7). 116).

  A tube for fitting the supply tube 16 into the inside from the side surface side of the guide member 200 between the top surface portion 201b and the side surface portion 201c on the side surface portion 201c (one side in the main scanning direction) of the guide portion 201. Mounting grooves 212 and 212 are formed.

  That is, when the guide part 201 is a complete cylindrical part whose periphery is closed, the operation of passing the supply tube 16 from the inlet side to the outlet side of the guide part 201 is performed. When such an operation of passing the supply tube 16 is performed, the tip of the supply tube 16 may be damaged, or dust may enter the supply tube 16.

  Therefore, an attachment groove 212 is formed on the side surface side of the guide portion 201 so that the supply tube 16 can be inserted from the side surface of the guide portion 201, and the tip end portion of the supply tube 16 is damaged, or the inside of the supply tube 16 It prevents the intrusion of garbage.

  In this case, the position where the supply tube 16 is fitted (passed through) is preferably the position where the curvature of the supply tube 16 is the largest (the radius of curvature is small), that is, the corner portion between the top surface portion 201b and the side surface portion 201c.

  That is, when the supply tube 16 is passed through the guide portion 201, the supply tube 16 tends to return to the direction of reducing the curvature (the radius of curvature is large) with a restoring force, and thus naturally moves away from the attachment groove 212, The guide groove 201 does not slip out of position with the mounting groove 212.

  Next, the mounting portion 202 is provided with notches 210 a and 210 b for fixing the tube guide member 200 to the carriage cover 55 of the carriage 5. The notch 210a is positioned above the notch 210b in the up-down direction, and is formed with a shorter length in the carriage movement direction (main scanning direction).

  Further, the attachment portion 202 is provided with a hole 57 provided in the carriage cover 55 of the carriage 5 and an engaging portion 211 fitted into the notch portion 58. The engaging portion 211, the hole 57, and the cutout portion 58 are formed in such a size that the position can be adjusted by relatively moving in the vertical direction.

  Then, when the tube guide member 200 is attached to the carriage cover 55, as shown in FIG. 8, the screw 300 is fastened and fixed to the screw hole 56 of the carriage cover 55 via the notch portion 210 a or 210 b of the attachment portion 202.

  At this time, the width in the vertical direction of the notch 210a or 210b of the mounting portion 202 is formed wider than the screw 300, and the tube guide member 200 is mounted so that the position of the tube guide member 200 can be adjusted in the vertical direction by adjusting the tightening position. Can do.

  Further, as described above, the supply tube 16A is wound obliquely downward and pulled out through the tube pull-out groove 59A, so that when entering the tube guide member 200, the supply tube 16A enters from the lateral direction, and the supply tube 16A is supplied. The restoring force of the tube 16A is a force acting in the lateral direction. Therefore, the tube guide member 200A for guiding the supply tube 16A is fixed to the carriage cover 55 using the lower cutout portion 210b as shown in FIG.

  As a result, the tube guide member 200A is fixed to the carriage cover 55 in the vicinity of the guide portion 201, and the tube guide member 200A rotates laterally due to the lateral restoring force of the supply tube 16A. It is suppressed.

  On the other hand, the supply tube 16B is wound in a substantially vertical direction as described above and pulled out through the tube pull-out groove 59B. Therefore, when entering the tube guide member 200, the supply tube 16B enters from the vertical direction, and the restoring force is Does not work much in the horizontal direction. Therefore, the tube guide member 200B that guides the supply tube 16B is fixed to the carriage cover 55 using the upper cutout portion 210a as shown in FIG.

  Thereby, the tube guide member 200B can perform a fixing operation at a position away from the guide portion 201, and workability and the like can be improved.

  In the present application, the “paper” is not limited to paper, but includes OHP, cloth, glass, a substrate, etc., and means a material to which ink droplets or other liquids can be attached. , Recording media, recording paper, recording paper, and the like. In addition, image formation, recording, printing, printing, and printing are all synonymous.

  The “image forming apparatus” means an apparatus that forms an image by discharging liquid onto a medium such as paper, thread, fiber, fabric, leather, metal, plastic, glass, wood, ceramics, etc. “Formation” means not only giving an image having a meaning such as a character or a figure to a medium but also giving an image having no meaning such as a pattern to the medium (simply causing a droplet to land on the medium). ) Also means.

  The “ink” is not limited to an ink unless otherwise specified, but includes any liquid that can form an image, such as a recording liquid, a fixing processing liquid, or a liquid. Used generically, for example, includes DNA samples, resists, pattern materials, resins, and the like.

  In addition, the “image” is not limited to a planar image, and includes an image given to a three-dimensionally formed image and an image formed by three-dimensionally modeling a solid itself.

  Further, the image forming apparatus includes both a serial type image forming apparatus and a line type image forming apparatus, unless otherwise limited.

  Further, in the above embodiment, the image forming apparatus using roll paper is described, but the present invention can be similarly applied to an image forming apparatus using a sheet.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Apparatus main body 5 Carriage 11, 11a-11e Recording head 10, 10k, 10c, 10m, 10y Ink cartridge 16, 16A, 16B Supply tube 51, 51A, 51B Head holder 55 Carriage cover 71 Reference shaft member (reference member)
200 Guide member 201 Guide portion 202 Mounting portion

Claims (7)

A recording head for discharging droplets;
A head holder for holding the recording head;
A carriage for holding the head holder;
A supply tube for feeding the liquid from the liquid cartridge containing the liquid to the recording head side,
The carriage is movable along a guide member arranged in the main scanning direction,
The carriage has a reference member on which the head holder is detachably hooked and held,
The supply tube is
After being swung from the liquid cartridge side to the upper part of the carriage side, the direction is bent downward from the upper part of the carriage side in the vertical direction, and further, the direction is bent in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the carriage in the horizontal direction. , It is wound around the head holder side and connected to the recording head side,
A tube guide member for guiding scooping from the carriage side of the supply tube to the head holder side;
The tube guide member guides a portion of the supply tube that bends from the downward in the vertical direction to the direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the carriage in the horizontal direction,
The image forming apparatus, wherein the tube guide member is attached to the carriage side so that the position in the vertical direction can be adjusted.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the tube guide member has a cylindrical guide portion that curves in a horizontal direction from an up-down direction. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the guide portion includes a wall portion that restricts movement of the supply tube in a carriage movement direction. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the guide portion is provided with an attachment groove into which the supply tube is fitted into the guide tube from a direction along a moving direction of the carriage. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the attachment groove is provided on a side where the curvature of the supply tube is increased. The tube guide member has an attachment portion for fixing the tube guide member to the carriage side,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the attachment portion is provided with a hole or a notch portion in which at least one of a vertical position and a carriage movement direction is different. The image forming apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the attachment groove is provided on a side where the bending of the supply tube is increased.

Images