JP3109714B2 - Ink cartridge exchange mechanism - 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 cartridge changing mechanism, and more particularly to an ink cartridge changing mechanism incorporated in an ink jet recording apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, ink-jet recording apparatuses have tended to be widely used for printers such as personal computers and printing mechanisms of facsimile apparatuses. Such an ink jet recording apparatus ejects ink stored in an ink cartridge in a jet manner to form a printed or printed image on recording paper, and has no image quality of high definition, no noise, and low running. It has advantages such as cost.

[0003]

In the above-described ink jet recording apparatus, an ink cartridge is usually mounted on a movable carriage.
However, in such a conventional configuration, when the ink has been consumed and the ink cartridge needs to be replaced, the ink cartridge is replaced manually. For this reason, printing is performed when the printer is absent, and when the ink runs out, printing cannot be continued because the apparatus itself cannot take appropriate measures.Thus, for example, communication is not continued at the time of facsimile reception and an error ends. There was a problem of doing. In addition, not only when ink runs out during printing, but also in general when loading an ink cartridge, the ink cartridge must be loaded without error to a specific location of a carriage having a complicated configuration, which is extremely difficult for general users. It was inconvenient.

The present invention has been made to solve such problems and disadvantages of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ink cartridge replacement mechanism capable of automatically loading an ink cartridge.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, an ink cartridge replacement mechanism according to the present invention has a built-in cartridge frame in which an ink cartridge can be mounted, and each time an external force in a predetermined direction acts on the cartridge frame. A carriage configured to repeat mounting and release of the ink cartridge; and a rotatable cartridge holder having at least one holder having a holder groove for locking the ink cartridge. The holder may directly or indirectly apply an external force in the predetermined direction to the cartridge frame in the carriage.

[0006]

In the ink cartridge exchange mechanism according to the present invention, the holder that locks the ink cartridge or can lock the ink cartridge is directly or indirectly moved in a predetermined direction to the cartridge frame in the carriage by the rotation of the cartridge holder. By applying the external force, the ink cartridge is set in the mounted state or the released state, so that the exchange or mounting of the ink cartridge is automatically performed.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. First, the configuration of the present invention will be described. FIG.
1 shows a configuration of an ink jet recording apparatus incorporating the ink cartridge exchange mechanism according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, the inkjet recording apparatus P includes an ink cartridge exchange mechanism 1 according to the present invention, a controller 8 having a memory 8A, a carriage motor 12, and a belt 13 moved by the carriage motor 12.

The ink cartridge replacement mechanism 1 according to the present invention includes a cartridge frame 15 having an out-of-ink detector 11 to which an ink cartridge 20 can be mounted.
A first holder portion 4 having a holder groove 4A for locking the ink cartridge 20 (see FIG. 6), and a second holder portion 5 having a holder groove 5A for locking the refill ink cartridge 25 (see FIG. 6). Each of the cartridge holders 2 has a substantially rectangular cartridge holder 2 whose center is rotatably supported by a holder motor 3 and whose center is rotatable by the holder motor 3.

As will be described in detail later, the carriage 10
Each time an upward external force acts on the cartridge frame 15 in the drawing, the mounting and release of the ink cartridge 20 are repeated. First and second holder portions 4, 5
Is moved by the rotation of the cartridge holder 2.
An upward external force is applied directly to the cartridge frame 15 inside the cartridge 0 or indirectly via an ink cartridge.
The holder groove 4A of the first holder portion 4 has a locking projection 4B,
The empty ink cartridge 20 is taken in from the carriage 10, and the projection (not shown) of the ink cartridge 20 is locked by the locking projection 4B. The holder groove 5A of the second holder portion 5 has a locking protrusion 5B, and locks a protrusion (not shown) of the refill ink cartridge 25.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of the carriage 10 shown in FIG. 3 to 5 are explanatory diagrams of the operation of the carriage 10. FIG. In FIG. 2, the carriage 10 has a U-shape and includes a lock mechanism 16 having a substantially heart-shaped groove inside the upper side in the figure. Inside the carriage 10, a cartridge frame 15, which is provided in a U-shape and is vertically movable in the figure, is constantly urged downward in the figure by a spring 17 attached to the carriage 10. . Guide 16A from the upper side of cartridge frame 15
Project upward, and the tip of the guide 16 </ b> A has a cylindrical shape and is fitted into a substantially heart-shaped groove of the lock mechanism 16. An ink cartridge 20 can be mounted inside the cartridge frame 15 through a lower opening, and a pair of holding claws 15A and 15
A is rotatably supported, and a pair of holding claws 15A, 1
5A is urged by springs 15B and 15B in a direction to always open.

A pair of projections 10A, 10A are provided at the lower end on both sides of the carriage 10, and the holding claws 15A,
When the projections 15A come into contact with the projections 10A and 10A and are pressed, the hold claws 15A and 15A are disengaged from the springs 15B and 15B.
Is configured to close against the urging force.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 2, when the cartridge frame 15 is at the bottom in the figure and the pair of holding claws 15A, 15A are open, the guide 16A is attached to the lower end of the heart-shaped groove of the lock mechanism 16 in the figure by a wall portion. 18A. Here, when the ink cartridge 20 is inserted into the cartridge frame 15 from the lower opening and the ink cartridge 20 pushes the cartridge frame 15 upward in the drawing, the guide 16A moves to the upper left along the wall portion 18B and is further pushed up. Then, it moves to the upper right along the wall 18C, and reaches a position where it comes into contact with the wall 18F and the wall 18C, which are lower right, as shown in FIG.

At this time, the cartridge frame 15 is located above the carriage 10 in the drawing, and
5A and 15A are pressed by the pair of protrusions 10A and 10A to be in a closed state, and therefore, the ink cartridge 20 is mounted in the cartridge frame 15. Here, when the upward push of the ink cartridge 20 stops,
Although the cartridge frame 15 is lowered by the urging of the spring 17, the guide 16A contacts the right-downward wall 18H, moves rightward and downward along the wall 18H, and as shown in FIG. It is stable at the position where it comes into contact with the rising wall 18K.

That is, in this state, the ink cartridge 20 is stably mounted in the cartridge frame 15. In the movement of the guide 16A, the wall 18
Since the position of the ridge 18E of C and the wall 18F is on the right side of the position of the ridge 18D at the upper left end of the wall 18H, even when the cartridge frame 15 is lowered by the urging of the spring 17, the guide 16A is It does not return to the lower left.

Next, from this stable state, when an external force is applied to the ink cartridge 20 or the cartridge frame 15 in the upward direction, the ink cartridge 20 and the cartridge frame 15 separate from the stable state and move upward. As a result, as shown in FIG. 5, the guide 16A comes into contact with the wall 18L rising to the right, proceeds upward to the right along the wall 18L, comes into contact with the wall 18N falling to the right, and stops at the ridge 18M. . Here, when the external force disappears and the upward movement of the ink cartridge 20 stops, the cartridge frame 15 is lowered by the urging of the spring 17, but the guide 16A contacts the left-downward wall 18Q and moves along the wall 18Q. It moves to the lower left, and eventually reaches the ridge 18R and is stabilized.

That is, in this state, the cartridge frame 15 moves downward in the lock mechanism 16 in the drawing, and the pair of holding claws 15A, 15A are moved to the pair of projections 10A, 10A.
2 is released from the pressing of FIG. As a result, the ink cartridge 20 can be removed and replaced. In the movement of the guide 16A, the position of the ridge 18M of the wall 18L and the wall 18N is on the right side of the position of the ridge 18P at the upper right end of the wall 18K. When going down by
The guide 16A does not return in the lower left direction.

As described above, when the external force is applied upward in the drawing, the lock mechanism 16 of the carriage 10 is brought into a stable state in which the ink cartridge 20 is mounted. It will be in the released stable state. Further, when an external force is repeatedly applied, the ink cartridge mounting state and the release state are alternately repeated.

FIGS. 6 to 8 are explanatory views of the operation of the ink cartridge exchange mechanism according to the present invention. FIG. 9 is an operation flowchart of the ink cartridge exchange mechanism according to the present invention. The operation of the ink cartridge exchange mechanism according to the present invention will be described below with reference to these drawings and FIG.
The controller 8 of the ink jet recording apparatus P sets the carriage 10 on which the ink cartridge 20 is mounted at the position of the recording paper 23 by the carriage motor 12 (Step S1), and starts printing (Step S2).
When the out-of-ink detector 11 detects the occurrence of out-of-ink (step S3), the controller 8 interrupts the printing operation (step S4) and moves the carriage 10 toward the cartridge holder 2 as shown in FIG.

When the carriage 10 stops at a predetermined position,
The holder motor 3 rotates the cartridge holder 2 in the counterclockwise direction and sets it at a predetermined position (step S5). In the setting process, the protrusion (not shown) on the bottom surface of the ink cartridge 20 in which the holder groove 4A is empty is captured.
It passes through the locking projection 4B, locks the bottom of the holder groove 4A, and further applies an upward external force to the empty ink cartridge 20 by rotating the cartridge holder 2 counterclockwise. As a result, the cartridge frame 15 in the carriage 10 is in the state shown in FIG. 5, but when the holder motor 3 rotates the cartridge holder 2 clockwise, the cartridge frame 15 in the carriage 10 Open the empty ink cartridge 2
Release 0. When the cartridge holder 2 is further rotated clockwise in this state, the empty ink cartridge 20 is taken into the first holder portion 4 of the cartridge holder 2 (step S6).

Next, as shown in FIG.
Is moved in the direction of the recording paper 23, the cartridge holder 2 is rotated substantially half-turn in the counterclockwise direction to move the first holder portion 4, and at the same time, the second holder portion 5 holding the refill ink cartridge 25 is moved. The carriage 10 is moved to the side of the carriage 10, and then the carriage 10 is returned to a predetermined position. Here, the holder motor 3 rotates the cartridge holder 2 in the counterclockwise direction and sets it at a predetermined position (step S7). During this setting process, the refill ink cartridge 25 enters the cartridge frame 15 and applies an upward external force to the cartridge frame 15 by rotating the cartridge holder 2 counterclockwise. As a result, the cartridge frame 1
5 moves upward, the hold claw 15A is closed as described with reference to FIG. 3, and the refill ink cartridge 25 is taken in as shown in FIG.

When the cartridge holder 2 is rotated clockwise, a projection (not shown) on the bottom surface of the refill ink cartridge 25 comes off the holder groove 5A, and the refill ink cartridge 25 is set on the cartridge frame 15 in the carriage 10. Is performed (step S8). And
The controller 8 moves the carriage 10 in the direction of the recording paper 23 to restart the printing operation (Step S9). If printing is continued, the operation returns to step S3 to repeat the operation.

[0022]

As described above, the ink cartridge replacement mechanism according to the present invention is configured so that the removal of the empty ink cartridge and the loading of the new ink cartridge are automatically performed consistently and automatically. When the ink runs out, the ink cartridge is automatically replaced by the apparatus itself, so that, for example, even if the ink runs out at the time of facsimile reception, the communication can be continued. Further, the ink cartridge replacement mechanism according to the present invention can automatically load not only when ink runs out during printing but also in general when loading an ink cartridge. This eliminates the cumbersome and tedious operation of manually loading the ink cartridges, and is extremely convenient especially for general users.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration explanatory view of an ink jet recording apparatus incorporating an ink cartridge exchange mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a configuration of a carriage shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an operation explanatory view of the carriage shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of the carriage shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is an operation explanatory view of the carriage shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the ink cartridge replacement mechanism according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the ink cartridge replacement mechanism according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the ink cartridge replacement mechanism according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an operation flowchart of the ink cartridge exchange mechanism according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Ink cartridge exchange mechanism 2 Cartridge holder 3 Holder motor 4 1st holder part 4A Holder groove 4B Locking projection 5 2nd holder part 5A Holder groove 5B Locking projection 8 Controller 8A Memory 10 Carriage 11 Ink out detector 12 Carriage motor 13 Belt 15 Cartridge Frame 23 Recording Paper P Inkjet Recording Device

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A carriage having a built-in cartridge frame on which an ink cartridge can be mounted, wherein the carriage is configured to repeatedly mount and release the ink cartridge each time an external force in a predetermined direction acts on the cartridge frame, and locks the ink cartridge. A rotatable cartridge holder having at least one holder portion having a holder groove, wherein the rotation of the cartridge holder causes the holder portion to be directly or indirectly attached to the cartridge frame in the carriage in the predetermined direction. An ink cartridge exchange mechanism, wherein an external force is applied.