JP2575147B2 - Ink jet recording device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus, and more particularly to an ink jet recording apparatus provided with a heater for promoting fixing of ink adhered to a recording medium.

2. Description of the Related Art Ink jet recording apparatuses have many advantages such as extremely low noise during recording and high-density recording, and have been receiving more and more attention in recent years.

In addition, the inkjet recording apparatus has a great advantage that plain paper can be selected as a recording medium,
Depending on the type, a problem may occur in the fixing property. That is, since the ink jet recording apparatus uses liquid ink as a recording agent, when the ink absorbability of the recording medium is poor, the ink does not immediately penetrate into the recording medium, and the ink that cannot be absorbed remains in liquid. This is because it remains on the recording medium.

When such a state occurs, the conveying member such as a roller is contaminated, and the ink contaminating the conveying member is transferred to the surface of a subsequent recording medium, thereby significantly deteriorating the recording quality. Furthermore, when the operator handles the recorded recording medium,
Not only can the hands be contaminated, but also rubbing can cause the ink to flow and disrupt the quality of the image. Alternatively, when a recorded recording medium is stacked on a tray or the like, such a problem may occur due to rubbing between the recording media.

As one method of preventing such a problem and improving the fixability of the ink to the recording medium, the recording medium is heated using a heater, and the evaporation of the water contained in the ink is promoted so that the ink on the recording medium can be quickly discharged. Some of them are dried and solidified. In response to requests for shortening the length of the recording medium conveyance path and speeding up fixing for preventing contamination of the conveyance member, the fixing heater is arranged near the recording position of the recording head, for example, facing the recording head. It is disposed on a platen for regulating the medium flat. Further, paying attention to the fact that the ink absorbency increases when the recording medium is dried, a heater may be provided upstream of the recording position on the conveyance path in advance to heat and dry the recording medium.

At this time, the recording medium is not warped, and good and quick fixing is performed when the temperature of the recording medium is 80 ° C to 60 ° C.
It has been confirmed by the applicant's experiment that it should be just about the same.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, when heating is performed by disposing a heater as described above, dew condensation may occur on a surface of a recording head provided with ink discharge ports (hereinafter referred to as a discharge surface). is there. This is because the vicinity of the ejection surface of the recording head becomes a humid atmosphere due to evaporation of moisture from the recording medium due to heating or evaporation of ink moisture, while the recording head takes room temperature ( It is considered that the temperature is kept at about 40 ° C., for example, about 20 ° C., that is, the temperature is lower than the ambient temperature due to heating for fixing.

Generally, in the ink jet recording method, ink droplets adhere to a desired position on a recording surface in order to improve recording quality, that is, the ejection direction of flying ink droplets to be recorded is constant and the ejection speed is constant. Further, it is required that the particle diameter of the flying ink droplet is uniform.

However, when dew condensation occurs on the ejection surface, water droplets and the like adhere to the ejection surface unevenly, and the ink is unevenly pulled when the ink is ejected from the ink ejection port and moves away. In addition, the particle size of the ink droplets varies, resulting in a decrease in recording quality. Also, paper dust, dust and the like tend to adhere due to the wetting of the ejection surface, which may cause a decrease in recording quality.

The present invention solves such a problem, and minimizes dew condensation on the ejection surface, stabilizes the ejection direction, ejection speed, and ink droplet diameter of the ink, thereby preventing deterioration in recording quality. It is an object to provide a recording device.

[Means for Solving the Problems] For this purpose, the present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus which performs recording by discharging an ink liquid onto a recording medium conveyed to a recording position. Heating means arranged on the side for heating the recording medium;
The stacker has an opening through which the recording medium passes when transported to the recording position, and has a stacker for storing the recording medium transported to the recording position, and a platen for regulating the recording surface of the recording medium at the recording position. A heat conducting member integrally formed to support the heating means and to conduct heat of the heating means to the stacker, wherein the heating means heats the recording medium housed in the stacker and the recording medium after recording. It is characterized by.

[Operation] According to the present invention, the unrecorded recording medium and the recorded recording medium stored in the stacker are heated by the heating means, so that the ink attached to the recorded recording medium by one heating means is heated. Immediately evaporates the water content of the droplets to promote good fixing, and heats the heat used for fixing efficiently without using a separate heat source inside the stacker to raise the temperature inside the stacker. By removing the water content of the medium and drying the medium before recording, the fixability is improved. Further, since the unrecorded recording medium stored in the stacker is heated, the water content of the recording medium is removed without applying a large amount of heat to the recording medium in a short time. Water vapor due to the contained water does not reach the recording head. Therefore, dew condensation hardly occurs on the surface of the recording head on which the ink ejection ports are provided.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail and specifically with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2 show one embodiment of the present invention. This example shows a configuration example of a line printer type ink jet recording apparatus having a so-called full multi-type recording head in which ink ejection ports are aligned over the entire width of a recording medium, where 1 is the recording head. Reference numeral 3 denotes a surface of the recording head 1 on which ink ejection ports are provided (hereinafter, referred to as an ejection surface). Reference numeral 4 denotes a plate-shaped fixed platen provided at a position facing the ejection surface 3, and reference numeral 6 denotes a stacker for storing a recording medium to be used for printing. In this example, the platen 4 and the stacker 6 It is integrally formed using a good member, for example, a metal. Reference numerals 5A and 5B denote transport rollers and pinch rollers for feeding recording media (fanfold paper in the form of continuous paper in this embodiment) stored in the stacker 6 to the position of the platen 4, respectively. A transport roller and a pinch roller for transporting the recording medium 7 to a recording position on the recording medium 4;

Reference numeral 9 denotes a front door for opening the inside of the stacker 6 to enable replenishment of the recording medium 7 and the like. Reference numeral 12 denotes a drain hole provided in the stacker 6. Reference numeral 10 denotes a fixing heater provided on the surface of the platen 4 opposite to the surface facing the ejection surface 3, that is, on the back surface.

In this configuration, when the fixing heater 10 is turned on at the time of recording, the recording medium 7 near the recording position is
Is heated to quickly evaporate the moisture of the attached ink to promote fixing. On the other hand, since the platen 4 and the stacker 6 are formed integrally, the heat generated by the fixing heater 10 is conducted to the stacker 6, and the inside thereof is heated.
Therefore, the recording medium 7 in the stacker 6 releases moisture contained therein, and is dried before being conveyed to the recording position, thereby improving the fixing property. The resulting steam atmosphere in the stacker 6 is replaced with the atmosphere via the drain hole 12.

That is, according to this example, since the recording medium 7 is dried in the stacker 6, it is sufficiently dried when transported to the recording position, and the atmosphere near the ejection surface 3 of the recording head 1 contains water vapor. The amount is low, and condensate hardly occurs on the discharge surface 3. In addition, the recording medium 7 that has been heated and dried in advance has an extremely good fixing property, in combination with the effect of promoting the evaporation of the ink moisture by heating near the recording position.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, dew condensation on the ejection surface 3 is prevented or significantly reduced. As a result, uneven leakage does not occur on the ejection surface 3 and the ejection direction, ejection speed, The ink droplet diameter was stabilized, and high-quality image recording became possible. In addition, it was possible to prevent dust, paper powder, and the like, which are likely to be generated when the discharge surface 3 is condensed and wet. further,
In general, the cleaning of the discharge surface 3 performed by connecting an appropriate absorbing member or a wiper member to the discharge surface 3 performed in the ink jet recording apparatus is unnecessary or at least reduced in the frequency of dew condensation.

Further, in this embodiment, the temperature inside the stacker 6 is raised by utilizing the heat of the fixing heater 10, so that the ink jet recording apparatus can be configured at low cost and small size.

Further, the fixing heater 10 should be disposed not only at the rear side of the platen 4 facing the recording head 1 as in the above example, but also at a desired position as long as the fixing can be performed effectively. Can be. In particular, if sufficient fixability can be obtained only by heating and drying the recording medium in the stacker 6, it is not necessary to dispose the recording medium at the above-described portion for the purpose of evaporating the ink moisture.

In addition, in the above example, the case where the present invention is applied to a line printer type ink jet recording apparatus has been described, but the present invention is a so-called serial type ink jet that performs recording while scanning a recording medium in a predetermined direction with a recording head. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied very effectively and easily to a recording apparatus, and the form of a recording medium to be used may be not only fanfold paper but also roll paper or cut sheet form as in the above example. Needless to say.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, it is possible to quickly evaporate the water content of the ink droplets adhered to the recording medium after recording by one heating means, thereby facilitating the fixing, and By removing the water content of the recording medium before recording and drying it before recording, it is possible to improve the fixing property, and to apply a large amount of heat in a short time to the unrecorded recording medium stored in the stacker. The water content of the recording medium is removed, and the water vapor generated by heating can be prevented from condensing on the ejection surface of the recording head or can be significantly reduced,
Therefore, the ink ejection direction, ejection speed,
Since the ink droplet diameter can be stabilized, high-quality image recording has become possible. In addition, since the degree of freedom of the arrangement of the heating means is increased, and the heat for fixing the ink liquid of the recording medium after recording is used, the heating for raising the temperature in the stacker can be performed. Can be unified.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 and 2 are a perspective view and a side sectional view, respectively, showing an example of the configuration of the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention. 1 print head, 3 discharge surface, 4 platen, 5A, 8A transport roller, 5B, 8B pinch roller, 6 stacker, 7 recording medium, 10 fixing heater, 12 ... Drain hole.

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An ink jet recording apparatus which performs recording by discharging an ink liquid onto a recording medium conveyed to a recording position, wherein the recording medium is disposed downstream from the recording position in a recording medium transport direction to heat the recording medium. Heating means for transporting the recording medium to the recording position, the stacker having an opening through which the recording medium is conveyed to the recording position, and a stacker for storing the recording medium at the recording position. A heat conducting member that has a platen that regulates a recording surface, is formed integrally with the stacker, supports the heating means, and conducts heat of the heating means to the stacker; An ink jet recording apparatus for heating the recording medium contained in a stacker and the recording medium after recording. 2. An ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said stacker has a communication port for communicating between inside and outside.