JP3231163B2 - Liquid cartridge - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid container for storing a liquid, particularly an ink, used in a recording medium apparatus such as an ink jet recording apparatus, a copying machine or a facsimile, and more particularly to a liquid container for preventing the liquid from evaporating. .

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a liquid container.
Since the present invention is particularly effective for an ink container, it will be described below as an ink container. However, the present invention relates to an evaporating liquid container and is not limited to an ink container.

In an ink jet recording apparatus, the ink at the discharge port is always maintained at an appropriate negative pressure in order to stably discharge the ink from the recording head and to prevent the ink from leaking from the discharge port during standby. Is preferred. In a conventional inkjet recording apparatus,
As one means for realizing this negative pressure state, a method has been adopted in which the water level of the ink container is always lower than the recording head. In such an ink jet recording apparatus, since it uses gravity, it is necessary to keep a fixed posture when used. However, in recent years, the miniaturization and portability of the ink jet recording apparatus have been required, and instead of disposing the ink container separately from the carriage for conveying the recording head as in the related art, it is possible to mount the ink container on the carriage of the recording apparatus. It has been demanded. The following ink containers are known as ink containers that generate an appropriate negative pressure on the recording head and do not leak ink from the ejection ports during non-recording.

FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view showing a part of an ink container of a conventional example, which is cut away, and FIG. 7 is a schematic sectional view of the conventional example. In addition. In these figures, a recording head 105 that performs recording by flying ink onto a recording medium, such as paper, is shown.
Are connected. As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the conventional container body 101 has a plate-like porous body 103 made of sponge or the like disposed on a bottom wall 101 a thereof. 5 partition plates 10
It is divided into six chambers by 2a to 102e. A recording head 1 is provided on the outer surface of the front wall 101b of the container body 101.
05 is attached, and an atmosphere communication hole 104 is opened in the rear wall 101c. Since the atmosphere communication hole 104 is formed in a tubular shape and protrudes and opens at a substantially central portion of the chamber where the atmosphere communication hole 104 is opened, the atmosphere communication hole 104 is formed.
No matter what attitude the ink container is in when ink is accumulated in the chamber provided with the ink, the ink will not leak if the ink amount is less than half the volume of the chamber where the air communication hole 104 is opened. .

Next, the operation of the ink container of the present embodiment during recording will be described with reference to FIG. At the time of recording, the posture must be such that at least a part of the porous body 103 is arranged at the bottom of the ink container as shown in FIG. In the initial state, the ink container is filled with ink in all the rooms except the first chamber in which the air communication hole 104 is opened. Fig. 8
As shown in (A), ink is consumed in order from the room farthest from the ejection port 105a. The reason is as follows. As the ink is ejected through the ejection port 105a, the ink in the sixth chamber closest to the ejection port 105a is sucked by an amount corresponding to the ejection amount. The sixth chamber is the discharge port 10
In addition to 5a, since only the fifth chamber is connected to the fifth chamber via the porous body 103, the amount of ink sucked from the sixth chamber to the discharge port 105 is smaller than that of the fifth chamber from the fifth chamber. Is supplied through the gap. Similarly, the ink is supplied sequentially from the chamber near the air communication hole 104, so that the ejection port 10
The ink is continuously supplied to 5a. When there is no ink that can be supplied to the chamber adjacent to the air communication hole 104, the air supplied from the air communication hole 104 is supplied through the porous body 103. In this way, ink is consumed in order from the chamber near the air communication hole 104. At this time, a large number of minute meniscuses are formed in the porous body 103 in the communicating portion between the chamber closest to the ejection port 105a where there is no ink at all and the adjacent chamber on the side of the ejection port 105a. As a result, the ink in the container maintains a predetermined negative pressure.

Next, the operation of maintaining the state of the ink during non-printing will be described. As the ink is a liquid, its volume hardly changes with changes in the surrounding environment, particularly, changes in temperature and ambient atmospheric pressure, but the air expands and contracts greatly.
For example, in the case of FIG.
Since the air from the chamber to the fifth chamber has almost no ink in the porous body 3 in that part and communicates with the outside air through the atmosphere communication hole 104, it can easily escape to the outside even if expanded. No pressure is applied to the head side. However, the fourth
Because the air in the chamber is blocked from the outside air by the ink,
The ink in the fourth chamber is pushed out to the third chamber as the air in the fourth chamber expands. However, since the ink extruded into the third chamber spreads in the porous body 103 in the direction of the first chamber, the air in the third chamber and the second chamber is shut off from the outside air in the process, and as a result, as shown in FIG. As shown in (B), the extruded air hardly enters the third and second chambers, and the
4 moves only to the first chamber where it is open.

As described above, the amount of ink overflowing into the first chamber is:
Since the air is isolated from the outside air only in one room before the temperature rise, the volume of the first room is assumed to be the fluctuation of the assumed temperature and pressure with respect to the volume of each room after the second room. What is necessary is just to secure at a predetermined ratio in view of the range.

On the other hand, when the temperature drops from the state shown in FIG. 8 (B), the air in the second, third, and fourth chambers is shut off from the outside air, so that the air moves to the first chamber as the air contracts. Conversely, the ink is sucked back toward the second, third, and fourth chambers.
And finally, it returns to the initial state as shown in FIG.

The above-described ink state maintaining action during non-printing functions similarly for any other posture. However, the porous body 103 is upside down from the state shown in FIG. 8 and is slightly different only when the ink in the fourth chamber does not touch the porous body 103 at all. Since the air is in communication with the outside air, the ink does not even overflow into the first chamber.

As described above, according to the conventional example, it is possible to return to the original state when exposed to a temperature change or a pressure change in any posture.

[0011]

However, the prior art has the following problems. The material used for the ink container is mainly plastic from the viewpoint of moldability and cost. Since plastic is a porous body, it allows gas molecules to pass therethrough. Therefore, the ink container acts as a semipermeable membrane,
Dry outside air permeates into the ink chamber where the water vapor of the ink is saturated. Then, the air in the ink container increases with time, expels the ink toward the buffer chamber (ink chamber a), cuts off the communication between the ink chambers, or in the worst case, overflows the ink from the air communication hole.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems and problems of the related art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an ink container which hardly invades outside air while using a plastic member for the container. It is assumed that.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention reduces the invasion of outside air, and has a plurality of liquid chambers partitioned by a plurality of partition members, and adjacent liquid chambers communicate with each other. A liquid container which is communicated through the liquid chamber and in which a decrease in the remaining amount of liquid in the liquid chamber accompanying the consumption of liquid occurs sequentially for each liquid chamber, the liquid container having an air communication hole and the liquid chamber
A buffer chamber associated with one of the
The liquid chamber is a liquid cartridge containing a porous body therein and covering at least a top surface of the liquid chamber, further comprising a plurality of partitioning members partitioned by a plurality of partition members. having the ink chamber is communicated via the ink communicating portion of the ink chamber adjacent, in turn caused the ink container an ink remaining amount decreases in the ink chamber due to ink consumption for each ink chamber, together with the air vent , The liquid
A buffer chamber linked to one of the body chambers is provided.
The fur chamber accommodates a porous body inside and contains the liquid
A liquid cartridge covering at least a top surface of the chamber .

[0014]

In the ink cartridge of the present invention, since the ink chamber is covered by the buffer chamber, the wall of the ink chamber does not directly contact the outside air, and the outside air does not directly permeate the tank chamber.

Since the buffer chamber communicates with the ink chamber and the communication hole communicating with the outside air is small, the humidity in the buffer chamber in contact with the ink chamber is maintained at substantially the same state as the ink chamber. Therefore, air hardly enters the ink chamber from the buffer chamber. That is,
By setting the surroundings of the ink chamber to the same atmosphere as the ink chamber, invasion of outside air into the ink chamber was prevented.

[0016]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of an in-use ink container as an example of the present invention cut in parallel to the direction in which the ink chambers are arranged, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. In the following description, an ink container that stores ink will be described as an example of a liquid storage container, but the present invention is not limited to this.
Also, in these figures, a state is shown in which a recording head for performing recording by flying ink onto a recording medium such as paper is connected to this container, but the recording head and the main body are detachable as described later. Anything is fine.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the container body 1 of the present embodiment has the same form and operation as the conventional example. The buffer chamber 3 has an internal volume substantially equal to each of the ink chambers 4a to 4e as in the conventional example, but has a flat shape and covers the top surface and side surfaces of the other ink chambers. Further, a porous body 5 is packed in the inside, and a communication hole 6a with the ink chamber and an air communication hole 7 are provided.
Is provided. With this structure, the outer wall of each ink chamber does not directly contact the outside air, and the outside air does not directly enter.

More specifically, referring to FIG. 3, it is considered that the water vapor of the ink in the air is saturated in the ink chamber where the ink has been used up. At this time, if it is not covered with the buffer chamber 3 as shown in FIG. 3A, the outside air enters through the porous container body 8 and the concentration of water vapor in the ink chamber 9 is reduced. However, the evaporation of water continues as long as the ink is present, and the invasion of outside air continues to maintain the equilibrium. Therefore, the volume of air in the ink chamber increases, and the ink in the ink chamber 9 is expelled.

However, when an intermediate chamber 11 communicating with the outside air through a small hole 10 is provided between the ink chamber and the outside air as shown in FIG. 3B, in order to eliminate a difference in humidity between the ink chamber 9 and the intermediate chamber 11. First, air enters the ink chamber 9 from the intermediate chamber 11. At the same time, water vapor also moves from the ink chamber 9 to the intermediate chamber 11, and when the humidity in both chambers becomes equal, the movement of air and water vapor stops. Since the intermediate chamber 11 communicates with the outside air through the small hole 12, there is little exchange with the outside air and the humidity changes slowly. However, the air in the ink chamber 9 gradually increases because the air enters the ink chamber 9 gradually due to the humidity difference between the ink chamber 9 and the intermediate chamber 11.

Therefore, when covered with the buffer chamber 12 as in the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG.
Is connected to the ink chamber 13, so that the water vapor in the buffer chamber 12 is always close to saturation (an ink chamber that has run out of ink can be regarded as a part of the buffer chamber). Therefore, the difference between the humidity in the ink chamber 13 and the humidity in the ink chamber 13 is small, and the air in the buffer chamber 12 rarely enters the ink chamber 13 through the container body 14. Further, the buffer chamber 12 is only connected to the outside air by the small air communication hole 15, and the moisture inside the buffer chamber 12 does not escape so much, so that the humidity inside the buffer chamber 12 hardly changes and is kept constant. Further, the porous body 16 in the buffer chamber 12 prevents the ink from leaking and improves the moisturizing effect. As described above, in the present invention, by covering the ink chamber with the buffer chamber having a high humidity, the invasion of air into the ink chamber could be greatly suppressed.

FIG. 4 shows the buffer chamber covering only the top surface of the ink chamber.

In the case of an ink chamber in which ink has not been used yet, air mixed during ink injection accumulates in contact with the top surface. Since the accumulated air is saturated with water vapor, outside air enters from the top surface in contact with the accumulated air. Then, the amount of intrusion increases in proportion to the amount of accumulated air (the expansion speed is accelerated). Therefore, the most effective method is to provide a buffer chamber on the top surface so that air does not enter from the top surface in the initial state.

Alternatively, a porous body may be housed in the intermediate chamber described with reference to FIG. 3B, and may further contain moisture so as not to leak from the air communication hole (not shown). According to this method, the difference in humidity between the air in the intermediate chamber and the air in the ink chamber is so small that the air in the ink chamber does not enter. In addition, since communication between the intermediate chamber and the ink chamber is not required, there is an effect that the shape is simple and easy to manufacture (in this case, the air communication hole is provided in the ink chamber farthest from the ejection port as in the related art). .

FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view of a cartridge in which the recording head 16 and the container main body are detachable. The ink supply hole of the container main body is sealed with a rubber stopper 17. Rubber stopper 17
Is cylindrical and has a hole in the center beforehand.
When it is attached to 8, it is fastened by the frame and the hole is closed. And the pipe 19 of the recording head 16 is the rubber stopper 1
7 penetrates the ink.

[0025]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention,
By simply changing the shape of the conventional cartridge, it is possible to prevent air from entering the ink container and prevent ink leakage, without having to increase the size, use special materials, or cover with another container or film. The inconvenience is prevented beforehand.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a cartridge according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the cartridge according to the first embodiment taken along line AA.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an operation of the cartridge according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic sectional view showing a cartridge according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view showing a cartridge of a third embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a conventional cartridge partially cut away.

FIG. 7 is a schematic sectional view of a conventional cartridge.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an operation at the time of recording of a conventional cartridge.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Container main body 2 Recording head 3 Buffer chamber 4a-e Ink chamber 5 Porous body 6a-e Communication hole 7 Atmospheric communication hole 8 Container main body 9 Ink chamber 10 Atmospheric communication hole 11 Intermediate chamber 12 Buffer chamber 13 Ink chamber 14 Container main body 15 Atmospheric communication hole 16 Recording head 17 Rubber stopper 18 Container main body 101 Container main body 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, 102e
Partition plate 103 Porous body 104 Air communication hole 105 Recording head 105a Discharge port

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A liquid chamber having a plurality of liquid chambers partitioned by a plurality of partition members. Adjacent liquid chambers are communicated via a liquid communication portion, and a decrease in the amount of liquid remaining in the liquid chamber due to consumption of liquid is caused by the liquid chamber. A liquid container, which is formed sequentially for each of the liquid chambers, and has an air communication hole,
Buffer chamber, and the buffer chamber
A liquid cartridge accommodating a hole and covering at least a top surface of the liquid chamber . 2. An ink chamber having a plurality of ink chambers partitioned by a plurality of partition members, adjacent ink chambers are communicated via an ink communication portion, and a decrease in the amount of ink remaining in the ink chamber due to ink consumption is reduced. An ink container that is generated sequentially for each ink, has an air communication hole, and is linked to one of the liquid chambers.
Buffer chamber, and the buffer chamber
A liquid cartridge accommodating a hole and covering at least a top surface of the liquid chamber .