JP2721001B2 - Pump for inkjet recording head - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a pump used for an ink jet recording head, and more particularly, to a pump used for an ink jet recording head which is detachable from a carriage integrally with an ink tank. It is suitable.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an ink jet recording head of a type having an integrated ink tank has been used as a suitable ink jet recording head for a relatively low-priced recording apparatus because of a simple ink supply system. By the way, as an indispensable recovery system in a general ink jet recording apparatus, a negative pressure recovery mechanism for sucking ink from a head ink discharge port by a negative pressure and a pressure recovery mechanism for pressurizing the discharge system of the recording head from the inside are provided. There are many things.

Further, as a recording head (hereinafter, referred to as an integral recording head) integrated with a conventional ink tank, various manual ink discharge means as shown in FIGS. 4 to 6, for example, have been used. . That is, the recording head 100 shown in FIG. 4 is configured such that ink is guided from a built-in ink tank section 101 to an ink discharge port 103 via a liquid path 102, and a diaphragm chamber is provided above the ink tank section 101. A communication hole 105 communicating with 104 is provided, and the inside of the tank portion 101 is pressurized by pressing the diaphragm 107 so as to close the ventilation hole 106 above the diaphragm chamber 104 with a finger, and ink is discharged from the ejection port 103. Can be discharged.

The recording head 200 shown in FIG.
The case 201 has an ink bag 202 housed inside, and the case 201
The ink bag 202 is deformed by pushing down the elastic piece 203 provided on the upper portion with the pin 204 against the spring force of the spring 205, and the ink is ejected from the ejection port 103.

Further, the recording head 300 shown in FIG. 6 has an air vent valve 301 and a pushable piston member 302 at the upper part of the ink tank section 101, and the piston member 302 is pushed down against the spring force. Accordingly, the ink can be pressed into the liquid passage 102 through the suction hole 304 of the valve body 303, and the ink can be discharged from the ink discharge port 103.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, if the recording apparatus itself has an independent recovery mechanism, a pump, a communication tube, and a waste ink processing system are required, which increases the number of parts, increases the cost, and increases the size of the entire recording apparatus. Invite. In addition, when a motor or the like is used to drive the recovery mechanism, it is time for a recovery.

In particular, in the case of an integrated head, if the ink is ejected while being attached to the inside of the recording apparatus, the amount of ejected ink cannot be confirmed, and a large amount of ink is ejected. They tend to consume. Further, the integral type head shown in FIG. 4 has a drawback that the amount of discharge tends to increase and air is easily sucked. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, an ink bag 202 is provided and pressed. In such a case, the ink storage capacity of the ink bag is limited, and there is no way to supply the ink.

Further, in the case of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, it is difficult to set the size of the valve body 303 and the setting of the suction hole 304. If the size is too large, air is easily mixed.
The supply to 2 gets worse. Although not shown in the drawing, for example, the ink tank portion is in the form shown in FIG.
What accommodated a porous ink absorber such as urethane foam in 101, even if the diaphragm 107 was pressed in the same process,
There is a disadvantage that the amount of discharged ink is different because the air in the absorber is compressed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to focus on the above-described conventional problems, and to solve the problem, has a simple structure and can manually perform an ink discharging operation, and can suck air into an ink discharging system. It is an object of the present invention to provide a pump suitable for use in an ink jet recording head integrated with an ink tank provided with recovery means without fear.

[Means for solving the problem]

An ink jet recording head pump according to the present invention capable of achieving the above object has an ink flow path formed in a casing, one end of which communicates with an ink inlet and the other end of which communicates with an ink outlet. And a pump member slidably fitted to the casing to slide the valve member between the ink inlet and the ink outlet. A piston portion provided integrally with the pump member and having a gap for allowing ink to pass between the ink passage and the ink passage; A small-diameter portion slidably penetrating the portion, a stopper provided at the tip of the small-diameter portion to prevent the valve member from coming off from the small-diameter portion, and formed at least on the outer peripheral surface of the small-diameter portion. A groove for allowing ink to pass between the valve member and the valve member, wherein the sliding operation of the pump member with respect to the casing causes the valve member to abut against an end face of the piston portion to shut off the ink flow path. And a relative position with respect to the small-diameter portion between a position and a position where the small-diameter portion is in contact with the stopper and communicates the ink inlet and the ink outlet via the gap and the groove. Things.

(Operation)

According to the present invention, when the pump member is slid with respect to the casing such that the valve member slides toward the ink outlet,
The valve member comes into contact with the end surface of the piston portion to block the ink flow path, and the ink in the ink flow path on the ink outlet side partitioned by the valve member is pressure-fed to the ink outlet.

When the pump member is slid in reverse with respect to the casing,
The valve member contacts the stopper and slides relatively to the small diameter portion so as to communicate the ink inlet and the ink outlet through the gap and the groove.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail and specifically with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. Here, reference numeral 1 denotes an integrated recording head, 2 denotes a tank container thereof, 3 denotes an ink discharge section 5 having an ink discharge port 4 and a tank cover 6 are integrally formed, and the tank container 2 is ultrasonically welded. And a head chip integrated by bonding with an adhesive or the like. One tank container 2 has an ink chamber 2A as an ink tank.
The ink chamber 2A is provided with an ink discharge portion accommodating groove 2C partitioned by a partition wall 2B, and an ink supply path 7. Further, the ink supply path 7 has a thicker guide portion 7A having a one-step diameter.
And the other end 7B of the ink supply path 7 is closed.

Reference numeral 8 denotes an ink inlet for taking ink from the ink chamber 2A into the ink supply path 7;
An ink outlet port for sending ink to an ink supply port (not shown) on the side, and an ink absorbing member 10 formed of a material such as foamed polyurethane or the like which is accommodated in the ink chamber 2A and absorbs and holds the ink. The ink absorber 10 is formed to have a size slightly larger than the capacity of the ink chamber 2A, and is stored in a compressed state in the ink chamber 2A. Ink chamber 2A
Can be led to the ink supply path 7 through the intake port 8. Reference numeral 6A denotes an atmosphere communication hole provided at the top of the tank cover 6.

In this example, a manual pump member 11 is provided in connection with the ink supply path 7 in order to forcibly send the ink to the ink discharge section 5 through the ink supply path 7 and perform idle discharge. The pump member 11 is fitted into a guide shaft portion 11A that is slidably fitted to the guide portion 7A, a piston portion 11B that maintains a clearance around the ink supply path 7, and an annular groove of the piston portion 11B. A seal ring 12 for maintaining a sealed state between the piston 11B and the ink supply path 7, and a piston 11
It has a small-diameter part 11C provided on the tip side of B.
A V-shaped groove 11D as shown in FIG. 2 is formed in 11C.

Reference numeral 13 denotes a sliding valve member (hereinafter, referred to as a valve member) made of an elastic body such as rubber, which is slidably and loosely fitted to the small-diameter portion 11C.
The outer peripheral portion of the valve member 13 is slidably fitted in the ink supply path 7, and is prevented from dropping from the small diameter portion 11C by a stopper 14 provided at an end thereof. Reference numeral 15 denotes a return spring, which is interposed between the pump member 11 and the closed end 7B of the ink supply path 7, and is kept in the state shown in FIG. 3A when the pump member 11 is not used.

In the recording head 1 configured as described above, in the assembled state before the pump member 11 is mounted, the guide portion 7A
The ink can be injected into the ink chamber 2A from the opening 7C, and the ink can be absorbed and held by the ink absorber 10, and at the same time, the ink can be guided to the liquid chamber 5A of the ink discharge section 5 through the ink supply path 7. Therefore, after filling the ink, the pump member
By mounting the return spring 11 and the return spring 15 in relation to the ink supply path 7, the guide shaft 11A can keep the opening 7C sealed.

Now, in a state during a normal printing operation as shown in FIG. 3A, the ink contained in the ink absorber 10 of the ink chamber 2A flows from the ink inlet 8 to the piston portion of the ink supply path 7.
The ink is supplied from the ink outlet port 9 to the ink discharge section 5 through a gap between the ink discharge port 5 and the V-shaped groove 11D of the small diameter portion 11C, and is guided to an ink discharge port (not shown). Also, at the time of the recovery operation for eliminating the clogging of the ink ejection port, first,
When the recording head 1 is removed from the carriage (not shown) and the operating end of the pump member 11, 11E is pressed by the fingertip 20 or the like, the valve member 13 is moved to the position shown in FIG. And slides along the small-diameter portion 11C, and abuts the stepped portion between the piston portion 11B.

As a result, the ink supply path 7 on the right side of the valve member 13 is closed by the valve member 13, and the ink or ink blocked in the ink supply path 7 by the continuous pressing operation as shown in FIG. The ink is ejected from the outlet 9 to the ink discharge unit 5, and the ink can be discharged from the ink discharge port 4 (see FIG. 1) by this operation. In this case, the stroke of the pressing operation may be such that the ejection amount of the ink from the ejection port 4 is visually confirmed and kept at an appropriate position.

Also, as shown in (D), the operating end of the pump member 11
When the fingertip 20 is separated from 11E, the pump member 11 is returned in the direction of the arrow by the spring force of the spring 15. At this time, while the valve member 13 is held at the position shown in FIG.
, The two sides of the valve member 13 in the ink supply path 7 communicate with each other via the V-shaped groove 11D. Therefore, after this, the pump member 11 is continuously returned by the spring force of the spring 15 until the state shown in FIG.
During that time, the valve member 13 is kept in contact with the stopper 14,
Subsequently, the ink supply path 7 communicates between the ink inlet 8 and the ink outlet 9, and does not generate a negative pressure on the ink outlet 9 side. There is no such thing as being taken in.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the ink jet recording head pump of the present invention, the sliding operation of the pump member with respect to the casing causes the valve member to abut on the end face of the piston portion to block the ink flow path, and to contact the stopper to form a gap and a groove. The ink tank which can be made to perform an effective recovery operation with a minimum number of component inspections, since the ink inlet and the ink outlet are slid relative to each other with respect to the small-diameter portion. An integrated ink jet recording head pump can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing the configuration of an embodiment of an ink jet recording head pump according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a small diameter portion of a pump member according to this embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 4 to FIG. 6 are explanatory views showing three modes of a recovery device in a conventional integrated ink jet recording head. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Recording head, 2 ... Tank container, 2A ... Ink chamber, 2C ... Storage groove, 3 ... Head chip, 4 ... Ink ejection port, 5 ... Ink ejection section, 6 ... Tank cover 7 Ink supply path 7A Guide section 7B Closed end section 7C Opening section 8 Ink inlet 9 Ink outlet 10 Ink absorber 11 Pump member, 11A ... guide shaft, 11B ... piston, 11C ... small diameter portion, 11D ... V-shaped groove, 12 ... seal ring, 13 ... valve member, 14 ... stopper, 15 ... return Spring.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Tetsuo Kimura 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (56) References JP-A-62-261449 (JP, A) JP-A-60 -192641 (JP, A) Fully open 1987-80640 (JP, U) Fully open 1986-83575 (JP, U)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An ink passage formed in the casing and having one end communicating with the ink inlet and the other end communicating with the ink outlet; and a valve member slidably fitted to the ink passage. A pump member slidably fitted to the casing to slide the valve member between the ink inlet and the ink outlet, and a pump member provided integrally with the pump member. A piston portion having a gap for allowing ink to pass between the ink passage and the ink passage; and a small-diameter portion slidably penetrating a center portion of the valve member so as to protrude integrally with a tip of the piston portion. A stopper provided at the end of the small diameter portion to prevent the valve member from coming off from the small diameter portion; and a stopper formed at least on the outer peripheral surface of the small diameter portion to allow ink to pass between the valve member. With the groove and Due to the sliding operation of the pump member with respect to the sinking, the valve member contacts the end surface of the piston portion to shut off the ink flow path, and contacts the stopper through the gap and the groove. A pump for an ink jet recording head, which slides relatively to the small diameter portion at a position where the ink inlet communicates with the ink outlet.