JP2017071142A - Liquid discharge device and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent image failure and head breakage generated due to deposition of liquid such as ink on a wiper cleaner and adhesion of dry/non-dry ink or the like to a head.SOLUTION: Discharge detection means provided in a liquid discharge device includes: a landing member on which droplets are landed; a wiping member 202 for wiping a landing surface of the landing member; a slider 200 which holds the wiping member and causing the wiping member to perform a wiping operation; and cleaning means for removing liquid adhered to the wiping member. A cleaning section 111 of the cleaning means and the wiping member 202 are relatively moved while being sequentially brought into contact with each other so that the liquid adhered to the wiping member 202 is removed. The slider 200 is provided with a liquid scraping section 200a to regulate a deposition height of liquid deposited on the cleaning section 111.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 7

Description

  The present invention relates to a liquid ejection apparatus and an image forming apparatus that eject liquid droplets.

  2. Description of the Related Art An ink jet recording apparatus or the like is known as an image forming apparatus that discharges and records liquid droplets on a recording medium from an ejection head (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as a head or a recording head). The “liquid ejecting apparatus” means an apparatus that ejects liquid from an ejection head, and is not limited to an apparatus that performs image formation and image recording.

  Such a liquid ejecting apparatus includes a detection mechanism that detects whether or not a liquid such as ink is properly ejected from the nozzle. As the discharge detection mechanism, a system that detects discharge / non-discharge by measuring the electrical change when droplets are discharged from the head toward the electrode plate and the droplets land on the electrode plate. It has been known. In this type of discharge detection mechanism, if liquid is continuously discharged onto the electrode plate, ink (liquid) accumulates on the electrode plate, and there is a concern that the detectability may deteriorate and the ink adheres to the nozzle surface. Head damage may occur. Therefore, there is a mechanism for suppressing the accumulation of ink (liquid) by wiping the electrode plate with a wiping member (hereinafter referred to as a wiper). Furthermore, if the ink continues to adhere to the wiper, the wiping property is lowered. Therefore, it is already known to provide a wiper cleaner for cleaning the wiper.

  Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-151504 (Patent Document 1) has an electrode plate disposed outside a recording area, and applies a potential difference between the nozzle surface of the recording head and the electrode plate to thereby provide a nozzle surface of the recording head. A cleaning means that detects the electrical discharge of the electrode plate that occurs when the droplets ejected from the nozzles of the recording head land on the electrode plate with the electrode facing the electrode plate, and detects the presence or absence of droplet ejection. Includes a wiper member that wipes the electrode plate, moves the wiper member relative to the electrode plate in a direction parallel to the nozzle arrangement direction, wipes the electrode plate, and removes waste liquid adhering to the wiper member A discharge detection mechanism having a wiper cleaner for cleaning is disclosed.

  However, in the discharge detection mechanism that detects whether ink is properly discharged by discharging ink to the electrode plate, when the wiper is pressed against the wiper cleaner, liquid such as ink gathers at both ends of the wiper, There has been a problem that liquid such as ink is deposited on the wiper cleaner, and liquid such as dry or non-dry ink adheres to the head, resulting in defective images and damage to the head. Even in the discharge detection mechanism described in Patent Document 1, when the wiper is pressed against the wiper cleaner, the ink is collected at both ends of the wiper and accumulated on the wiper cleaner, and the dry / non-dry ink adheres to the head. The problem that the image is bad or the head is broken cannot be solved.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems in the conventional liquid ejecting apparatus and image forming apparatus, and liquid such as ink is deposited on the wiper cleaner, and dried / non-dried ink or the like adheres to the head. It is an object of the present invention to provide a liquid ejection apparatus and an image forming apparatus that can prevent image defects and head damage caused by the above-described problem.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a liquid discharge apparatus including discharge detection means for detecting whether or not a droplet is discharged from a discharge head, wherein the discharge detection means includes a landing member on which a droplet is landed, A wiping member for wiping the landing surface of the landing member, a slider for holding the wiping member to perform a wiping operation, and a cleaning means for removing the liquid adhering to the wiping member. The cleaning unit and the wiping member move relative to each other while sequentially contacting each other, so that the liquid adhering to the wiping member is removed, and the slider has a height of liquid deposited on the cleaning unit. A liquid scraping part for regulating the thickness is provided.

  According to the liquid ejecting apparatus and the image forming apparatus of the present invention, since the liquid scraping unit that regulates the height of the liquid deposited on the cleaning unit is provided, the liquid such as ink deposited on the cleaning unit is written down. Thus, the height of ink accumulation can be regulated. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent liquid such as ink deposited on the cleaning unit from adhering to the ejection head and causing image defects and head failure.

1 is a plan view showing a schematic configuration of an ink jet recording apparatus equipped with a liquid ejection apparatus according to the present invention. It is a perspective view of a discharge detection means. It is a top view (plan view) of the discharge detection means. It is a side view of a discharge detection means. It is a figure which shows the cleaning operation | movement of the wiper by the wiper cleaner of a conventional structure. It is a front view which shows the characteristic structure of this invention. It is a side view which shows the characteristic structure of this invention.

  FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a schematic configuration of an ink jet recording apparatus which is an example of an image forming apparatus equipped with a liquid ejection apparatus according to the present invention. The ink jet recording apparatus shown in this figure is configured as a serial type ink jet recording apparatus, and a carriage 3 is movably held by a main guide member 1 and a sub guide member that are horizontally mounted on left and right side plates. A recording head (ejection head) 4 is mounted on the carriage 3. Then, the main scanning motor 5 causes the carriage 3 to reciprocate in the main scanning direction (carriage movement direction) via the timing belt 8 spanned between the driving pulley 6 and the driven pulley 7, and from the recording head (discharge head) 4. Image recording is performed by discharging ink (droplets).

  A discharge detection unit 100 for detecting the presence or absence of liquid droplet discharge is disposed outside the recording area between the conveyance belt 12 and the maintenance / recovery mechanism 20 and capable of facing the recording head 4. On the other hand, the carriage 3 is provided with a slider 200 for cleaning the electrode plate 101 of the discharge detection unit 100.

  The discharge detection means includes a discharge detection unit 100 and a slider 200. The wiper 202 as a wiping member is held by the slider 200 and performs a wiping operation when the slider 200 moves.

  FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the discharge detection means. FIG. 3 is a top view (plan view) thereof. FIG. 4 is a side view thereof. In the discharge detection unit 100 shown in these drawings, an electrode plate 101 that is a landing member is disposed on the upper surface of the holder member 102 that can face the nozzle surface 41 of the recording head 4. The surface (opposing surface) of the electrode plate 101 is the landing surface. The holder member 102 is made of an insulating material such as plastic. The electrode plate 101 is a conductive metal plate, and is preferably formed of a material that is not easily rusted and hardly deteriorates with respect to ink.

  The holder member 102 is provided with a cleaning means (wiper cleaner) 104 for removing waste liquid adhering to the wiper 202 on the end side in the wiping direction by the wiper 202. The cleaning means 104 contacts the wiper 202 to remove the waste liquid, and a plurality of (here, two) scrapers 111a and 111b, which are cleaning parts, and a waste liquid storage section that stores the waste liquid removed by the scrapers 111a and 111b. 105.

  The two scrapers 111a and 111b are sequentially arranged in the relative movement direction of the wiper 202 (here, since it is the same as the “wiping direction”, hereinafter referred to as “wiping direction”). Openings 110a to 110b communicating with the waste liquid container 105 are provided on the upstream side in the wiping direction of the scraper 111a, between the scrapers 111a and 111b, and on the downstream side in the wiping direction of the scraper 111b.

  A cover 106 is provided downstream of the scrapers 111a and 111b. Below the scrapers 111a and 111b and the cover 106, there is a waste liquid storage unit 105. When the slider 200 or the motor 121 fails and needs to be replaced, the waste liquid storage unit 105 is tilted to spill ink. The cover 106 prevents the inside of the machine from getting dirty.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a wiper cleaning operation by a conventional cleaning means (wiper cleaner). In order to clean the ink adhering to the wiper 202 with the scraper 111, the wiper 202 is moved from the front side of FIG. 5 to the back side (from the front side of the drawing to the back side in a direction orthogonal to the drawing). At this time, the ink 201 pushed out to both ends of the wiper 202 accumulates on the scraper 111. The ink 201 that has been continuously deposited eventually adheres to the ejection head, causing image defects and head failure.

  The scraper 111 is wider than the wiper so that the entire surface of the wiper 202 can be cleaned. Therefore, liquid such as ink that protrudes from both sides of the wiper 202 is accumulated on the scraper 111 during cleaning by the scraper 111. Therefore, in the present invention, the liquid such as ink deposited on the scraper 111 is configured not to adhere to the ejection head, and the characteristics thereof will be described below. In addition, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the part same as or equivalent to the conventional structure shown in FIG.

6 and 7 are diagrams showing a characteristic configuration of the present invention.
2 to 4, the wiper 202 is located on the left side of the electrode plate 101 (landing member). When the slider 200 moves in the right direction in the figure, the wiper 202 moves together with the slider 200 so that the electrode plate 101 is landed. Clean the surface. When the slider 200 further moves in the right direction in the figure, the wiper 202 moves on the scraper 111 (the wiper 202 and the scraper 111 move relative to each other while sequentially contacting), and the ink attached to the wiper 202 is cleaned by the scraper 111. The Note that the movement direction of the wiper 202 and the slider 200 is a direction orthogonal to the drawing in FIG.

  As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, an ink scraping portion (liquid scraping portion) 200 a is provided at the lower portion of the slider 200. The ink scraping unit 200 a is provided above the scraper 111 so as to face the scraper 111 (at a position facing the scraper 111 when the slider 200 moves above the scraper 111). The deposition height of the ink 201 that accumulates on the ink is regulated. In this example, the shape and size of the ink scraping portion 200a are set so that the ink accumulation height (ink accumulation height on the scraper 111) is smaller than the distance between the scraper 111 and the head 4. . That is, the distance between the scraper 111 and the ink scraping part 200 a is set smaller than the distance between the scraper 111 and the head 4.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the ink 201 pushed out to both sides of the wiper 202 by the cleaning operation accumulates on the scraper 111. However, unlike the conventional configuration of FIG. 5, the ink 201 deposited on the scraper 111 is written down by the ink scraping unit 200 a and the ink accumulation height is regulated (the ink is more than the distance between the scraper 111 and the head 4. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the accumulated ink from adhering to the recording head 4 and causing an image defect or a head failure.

  As shown in FIG. 6, in the illustrated example, an example in which an ink scraping portion 200 a is provided on the downstream side of the wiper 202 (wiping member) (downstream side in the wiper wiping direction) is shown. The ink scraping part 200a may be provided on the side (upstream side in the wiper wiping direction). Alternatively, the ink scraping part 200a may be provided on both the downstream side and the upstream side of the wiper 202. Furthermore, the ink scraping part 200a may be provided on the entire periphery of the wiper 202, that is, on the entire circumference. Here, the entire circumference of the wiper 202 means the entire circumference when the wiper 202 is viewed in a plan view as shown in FIG.

  As described above, in the present invention, the slider 200 is provided with the liquid scraping portion (200a) that regulates the height of the liquid deposited on the cleaning portion. Therefore, the slider 200 is deposited on the cleaning portion (scraper 111). The ink accumulation height can be regulated by writing down the liquid such as ink. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent liquid such as ink deposited on the cleaning unit from adhering to the ejection head and causing image defects and head failure.

  Further, since the liquid scraping part (200a) is provided, it is possible to prevent in-machine contamination due to liquid jumping of ink or the like adhering to the wiper due to the reaction force of the wiping member (wiper 202).

  Ink deposited on the cleaning unit is because the distance between the liquid scraping unit (200a) provided on the wiping member (slider 200) and the cleaning unit (scraper 111) is smaller than the distance between the cleaning unit and the ejection head. Since liquid such as ink is scraped off by the liquid scraping portion (200a) before adhering to the ejection head, it is possible to prevent liquid such as ink from adhering to the ejection head.

  Since the liquid scraping unit is provided at a position facing the cleaning unit when the slider moves above the cleaning unit, the accumulated ink or the like on the cleaning unit is removed by moving the slider for cleaning the wiper. Can be written down. Therefore, it is not necessary to move the slider only for removing volume ink or the like.

  The liquid scraping part (200a) was deposited on the cleaning part by providing the wiping member (wiper) on either the downstream side or the upstream side in the wiping direction or both the downstream side and the upstream side in the wiping direction. Liquids such as ink can be efficiently scraped off.

By providing the liquid scraping part (200a) on the entire periphery of the planar shape of the wiping member (wiper), the liquid such as ink deposited on the cleaning part can be efficiently scraped off.
As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated by the example of illustration, this invention is not limited to this. The “liquid” is not limited to recording liquid and ink, and is not particularly limited as long as it becomes a fluid when ejected. The “liquid ejecting apparatus” means an apparatus that ejects liquid from a liquid ejecting head, and is not limited to an apparatus that performs image formation and image recording. Further, the configuration of the ejection head is arbitrary. Any method can be adopted as the discharge method. Further, the liquid discharge direction can be set in an appropriate direction. In an image forming apparatus including a liquid ejecting apparatus, the number of ink colors is not limited to four, and can be configured with an arbitrary number of colors. As the configuration of each part of the image forming apparatus, an appropriate configuration can be adopted as long as the present invention can be implemented.

3 Carriage 4 Recording head (ejection head)
8 Timing belt 100 Discharge detection unit 101 Electrode plate (landing member)
104 Wiper cleaner (cleaning means)
111 Scraper (cleaning part)
200 Slider 200a Liquid scraping part 202 Wiper (wiping member)

JP 2014-151504 A

Claims (6)

In a liquid ejection apparatus provided with ejection detection means for detecting whether or not droplets are ejected from an ejection head,
The discharge detection means is attached to the wiping member, a landing member on which a droplet is landed, a wiping member for wiping the landing surface of the landing member, a slider for holding the wiping member to perform a wiping operation, and Cleaning means for removing the liquid, and the cleaning unit of the cleaning means and the wiping member are configured to remove the liquid adhering to the wiping member by moving relatively while sequentially contacting the cleaning means,
The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the slider is provided with a liquid scraping portion that regulates a deposition height of the liquid deposited on the cleaning unit.   The liquid ejection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a distance between the liquid scraping unit and the cleaning unit is smaller than a distance between the cleaning unit and the ejection head.   The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the liquid scraping portion is provided at a position facing the cleaning portion when the slider moves above the cleaning portion.   The liquid scraping portion is provided on either the downstream side or the upstream side in the wiping direction of the wiping member, or is provided on both the downstream side and the upstream side in the wiping direction. The liquid discharge apparatus according to claim 1.   The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the liquid scraping portion is provided on the entire circumference of the wiping member in a planar shape. An image forming apparatus comprising the liquid ejection device according to claim 1.

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