JP2562401B2 - Ink cassette - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink cassette used in an ink jet recording apparatus for ejecting ink for recording, and more particularly to an ink cassette capable of treating ink bleeding from an ink containing portion.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Ink jet recording apparatuses are characterized by less noise and are suitable for high-speed printing as compared with wire-dot type or heat-sensitive type ones, and they are easy to perform color printing. It is used in output devices (printers) or facsimiles of equipment.

In this ink jet recording apparatus, ink in an ink container is guided to a recording head, and a plurality of nozzles provided in the recording head are driven according to a print pattern signal to eject the ink toward a recording material. Is configured. In an inkjet recording apparatus for color printing, for example, four colors of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow are used, and four recording heads and four ink containers are mounted according to the number of colors.

In this type of ink jet recording apparatus, when the ink solvent evaporates from the openings such as the nozzles to increase the viscosity and dust or the like adheres to the ink supply system during standby, nozzle clogging occurs and printing defects occur. . Therefore, as a method of recovering the ink property, a recovery operation of performing idle ejection of ink in the same direction as during recording is performed prior to the recording operation. The ink discharged from the nozzle in this recovery operation is collected in the waste ink container. In general, the ink container and the waste ink container are detachably mounted so that they can be replaced with new ones after they are used, and the waste ink container having an ink absorber installed therein is used.

[0005]

By the way, in a conventional ink jet recording apparatus of this type, when a plurality of ink containers for color printing are mounted, a waste ink container is provided separately from these ink containers, The ink discharged from all the recording heads is guided to one waste ink container. For this reason, the capacity of the waste ink container (or the absorption capacity of the ink absorber) must be matched to the total amount of ink in each ink container, resulting in a problem that the size becomes large.

Further, even in the case of an independent waste ink container,
In some cases, this is combined with an ink container of a certain color to form an integrated structure, and the ink containers of the remaining colors are also integrated into an integrated structure. At the same time, the waste ink container that can be used must be replaced, and the waste ink container is wasted. Further, in the conventional ink container, there is also a problem that the ink oozes out from the air pressure holding vent or the vent passage to stain the surroundings.

The present invention has been made for the purpose of preventing the above-mentioned various problems, and in particular, preventing the inside of the apparatus from being contaminated by the exudation of the ink from the ink cassette, which may reduce the reliability of the printed matter and the apparatus. It is a thing. The inventor
As a result of earnest studies to achieve the above-mentioned object, it was found that the ink bleeding from the ink cassette can be absorbed by an absorber provided in the ink cassette to prevent the ink from flowing out. .

[0008]

The present invention has been made on the basis of the above-mentioned findings, and is used for an ink jet recording apparatus having an attaching portion provided with a ventilating needle having a hollow portion, and an ink for directly containing the ink. An ink cassette integrally including a storage portion and a porous member storage portion that stores a porous member, the ink cassette including a wall that separates the ink storage portion from the porous member storage portion. A part of which forms a receiving port into which the ventilating needle is inserted, and the porous member accommodating portion is provided adjacent to the porous member that communicates with the atmosphere communicating port for introducing outside air into the inside and the atmosphere communicating port. And a space portion formed therein, and the ventilation needle is inserted into the receiving port and reaches the space portion when attached to the attachment portion, so that the space portion extends from the space portion to the inside of the ink containing portion through the hollow portion. Introduce fresh air to And wherein the Rukoto.

[0009]

According to the structure of the present invention, the recording is provided with the ventilating needle having the hollow portion which is formed inside the ink cassette as the porous member containing portion having the atmosphere communicating port and the ink containing portion for directly containing the ink. By mounting the ink cassette on the mounting portion on the device side, a communication passage that connects the ink storage portion and the porous member storage portion is formed by the ventilation needle, and the ventilation needle is passed from the atmosphere communication port through the ventilation needle. The outside air is introduced into the ink container. On the other hand, since the tip of the ventilating needle reaches the space adjacent to the porous member, the ink that oozes through the ventilating needle will be absorbed and retained by the porous member, and the ink from the atmosphere communication port will be retained. Leakage is prevented. In other words, even if the internal pressure of the ink cassette fluctuates due to environmental changes such as ambient pressure changes and temperature changes, ink may seep out,
Since the path passes through the porous member accommodating portion accommodating the ink absorber, the oozing ink is well absorbed by the porous member and does not leak out to the outside from the atmosphere port or the like.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3, platen rolls 1 and 1
Four recording heads 3 and four ink containers (ink cassettes) 4 for supplying ink to the respective recording heads are mounted on a carriage 2 that moves along. The platen rolls 1 and 1 are recording materials (paper) 5 as shown in FIG.
Back up and paper feed. The carriage 2 is a guide shaft 6 and a guide rail 7 provided on the main body of the recording apparatus.
It is supported above and the left end position in FIG. 1 is set to the home position (standby position).

A recovery device 8 is provided near the home position of the main body. If the ink solvent evaporates during standby, the ink becomes highly viscous, resulting in printing failure. Also, if foreign matter such as dust adheres to the printing surface of the recording head 3 (the surface where the nozzles open), the ink ejection operation will malfunction and printing will occur. breaking bad. The recovery device 8 is for preventing such a printing failure, and moves forward when the carriage 2 is at the home position to cover the printing surface of the recording head 3 and at the time of recording before the recording operation. It is configured to discharge ink in the same direction.

At the time of recording operation, as shown in FIG. 3, the ink 9 in the ink container (ink cassette) 4 is introduced into the common liquid chamber 11 of the recording head 3 through the ink supply pipe 10, and a plurality of inks are provided in the recording head 3. Ink is ejected from a predetermined nozzle toward the recording material 5 by driving the nozzle 12 according to the print pattern signal. The four ink containers 4 are filled with black, cyan, magenta, and yellow inks, for example, and the inks are supplied to the recording heads 3 that print the corresponding colors. These ink containers 4 are replaceably mounted, and an ink supply hollow needle 13 and a ventilation needle 14 are fixed to the container mounting portion on the carriage 2. The ink supply hollow needle 13 is the ink supply pipe 10.
It is connected to the.

The ink container (ink cassette) 4 is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 3, it is divided into upper and lower chambers, ink 9 is stored in the lower chamber (ink storage portion), and an ink absorber 15 formed by solidifying resin fiber or the like is stored in the upper chamber. . In the illustrated example, each ink container 4 is mounted from above, and the ink supply hollow needle 13 is pierced into the receiving port 16 at the bottom to form an ink take-out port, and at the same time, the vent needle 14 is pierced into the two receiving ports 17 and 18. As a result, a ventilation path that connects the ink reservoir (lower chamber) to the atmosphere is formed. In the illustrated example, the vent hole 19 is formed in the upper chamber of the container 4, and the passage formed in the vent needle 14 connects the lower chamber (ink reservoir) with the vicinity of the inner end of the vent hole 19 of the upper chamber. A ventilation path is formed. Further, in this mounted state, the ink absorber 15 is arranged close to the outer opening of the ventilation needle 14.

In this way, by arranging the ink absorber 15 around the opening of the ventilating needle 14, pressure change in the lower chamber due to environmental change such as temperature change or movement of the carriage. Even if the ink leaks from the lower chamber through the ventilation needle 14 due to vibration of the ink or the like, all the leaked ink is absorbed by the ink absorber 15, so that the ink is leaked to the outside from the ventilation port 19. Exudation is prevented. This prevents ink from leaking into the device and prevents contamination within the device,
The quality of printing can be ensured, the electric system including the drive source of the apparatus is not adversely affected, and the apparatus has excellent reliability. In the embodiment described above, the lower chamber communicates with the vent through the upper chamber when the ink cassette is attached to the carriage, but the lower chamber and the upper chamber normally exist. The present invention can be applied without any problem even in the state of communicating with.

On the other hand, the waste ink discharged from each nozzle 12 by the recovery operation is discharged from the recovery device 8 through the waste ink discharge pipe 20 into the waste ink reservoir 21 provided on the carriage 2. An ink absorber 22 is installed in the waste ink reservoir 21. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the upper chamber of each ink container 4 is provided with a downward opening 23 on the front side thereof so that a part of the ink absorber 15 inside is exposed to the outside. Further, an opening 24 is provided at the rear side of the waste ink reservoir 21 on the carriage 2, and the ink absorber 22 is exposed in the opening.

Then, on the carriage 2, for contacting the exposed portion of the ink absorber 22 in the waste ink reservoir 21 and the exposed portion of each ink absorber 15 in the upper chamber of the four ink containers 4. Ink absorber 25 is installed. That is, the waste ink that has flowed into the waste ink reservoir 21 on the carriage 2 through the waste ink discharge pipe 20 of the recovery device 8 first permeates into the ink absorber 22 and then comes into contact with it for distribution as shown by the arrow. Of the ink absorber 25 and is distributed to the ink absorber 15 in the upper chamber of each ink container 4 through the ink absorber 25.

According to the embodiment described above, even if ink oozes out of the ink reservoir (the lower chamber of the ink container 4) due to a change in environment or a pressure change due to recording. Since the path to the outside passes through the absorber housing part (absorber filling part = upper chamber of the ink container 4) containing (filling) the ink absorber 15, the bleeding ink is favorably absorbed by the absorber 15. The ink is prevented from leaking from the atmosphere port (ventilation port) 19 and the like, the ink does not leak into the device, the contamination in the device is prevented, the printing quality can be secured, and the drive source of the device is also secured. It is possible to provide an inkjet recording apparatus having excellent reliability without adversely affecting the electric system including the above.

[0018]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, there is used an ink jet recording apparatus having an attaching portion provided with a ventilating needle having a hollow portion, and an ink containing portion for directly containing ink, An ink cassette integrally provided with a porous member accommodating portion accommodating a porous member, comprising a wall for partitioning the ink accommodating portion and the porous member accommodating portion, and a part of the wall. The porous member accommodating portion is formed with an opening through which the ventilating needle is inserted, and the porous member accommodating portion communicates with the atmosphere communication port and a space provided adjacent to the porous member and communicating with the atmosphere communication port. When the ventilating needle is inserted into the receiving port and reaches the space portion when attached to the attachment portion, the outside air is introduced from the space portion into the ink containing portion through the hollow portion. And the configuration Therefore, even if the pressure inside the ink container fluctuates due to environmental changes such as ambient pressure changes and temperature changes, the ink may bleed out, but this bleeding ink is good on the way to the outside. There is provided an ink cassette that can be absorbed by the ink and can reliably prevent ink leakage from the air port and the like.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a main part of an embodiment of an inkjet recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

2 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken along the line 2-2 in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken along line 3-3 in FIG. 1 and showing a printing operation state.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 carriage 3 recording head 4 ink container (ink cassette) 5 recording material (paper) 8 recovery device 9 ink 12 nozzle 14 ventilation needle (passage) 15 ink absorber (ink container) 19 ventilation port (atmosphere communication port) 20 waste ink Ejection nozzle 21 Waste ink reservoir 22 Ink absorber (waste ink reservoir) 25 Ink absorber (for waste ink distribution)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An ink accommodating section for directly accommodating ink, which is used in an ink jet recording apparatus having a mounting section provided with a ventilating needle having a hollow section, and a porous member accommodating section accommodating a porous member. An ink cassette integrally provided, comprising a wall for partitioning the ink containing portion and the porous member containing portion, a part of the wall forming a receiving port into which the ventilating needle is inserted, and The porous member accommodating portion has an atmosphere communicating port for introducing outside air into the inside and a space portion provided adjacent to the porous member and communicating with the atmosphere communicating port, and is used for mounting on the mounting portion. With the vent needle inserted into the receiving port and reaching the space,
An ink cassette, wherein external air is introduced into the ink containing portion from the space portion through the hollow portion.