JP3787469B2 - Inkjet recording apparatus and inkjet recording method - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus used as an output device of information terminal equipment such as a personal computer, a word processor, and a facsimile.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art A conventional inkjet recording apparatus that performs recording by ejecting ink and adhering to a recording medium is equipped with a head that ejects ink as a main component for determining the position of ink adhering to the recording medium. A carriage, a head moving means for moving the head together with the carriage in one direction on the recording medium, and performing main scanning for scanning a recording position in the direction; a conveying roller for conveying the recording medium; A recording medium is supported on the downstream side of the roller, and has a platen for accurately maintaining the positional relationship between the printing surface of the recording medium and the recording head when recording is performed. The recording operation is performed by causing the recording head to move on the recording medium transported on the platen by the transport roller by the head moving means, eject the ink while performing main scanning, and attach it to the recording medium.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In a conventional inkjet recording apparatus, various sizes of paper may be used as the recording medium, and the width of the paper is used for the purpose of confirming that the size of the recorded image matches the size of the paper. In some cases, a paper width sensor is provided to detect this, but in order to simplify the recording apparatus and keep manufacturing costs low, such a paper width sensor is often not installed.
[0004]
Therefore, if an image having a width larger than the width of the sheet is erroneously printed, ink adheres to the platen. In such a case, if the ink is left for a long time without cleaning, the ink adheres to the platen, and there is a risk that the paper will be caught by the adhered ink, resulting in a conveyance failure. It is necessary to clean the ink adhering to the ink.
[0005]
Also, in the conventional ink jet recording apparatus, in order to properly eject ink droplets from the recording head and perform printing on the paper more accurately, the ink is ejected from the recording head immediately before the printing is started, and in the vicinity of the ink ejection port. In general, a preliminary ejection operation is performed in which new ink is introduced and the state of the ink in this portion is made appropriate. This pre-ejection is performed so that the ink ejected by the pre-ejection does not adhere to the recording medium or the platen up to a position outside the maximum paper width that can be transported by the apparatus, that is, a position outside the maximum printing range. This is performed after the recording head is moved in the main scanning direction.
[0006]
In this preliminary ejection operation, even when recording on a sheet having a small width, it is necessary to move the recording head to a position outside the maximum printing range, and accordingly, the time for recording on one sheet becomes longer. turn into.
[0007]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording head that can easily remove the adhered ink even if the ink is accidentally deposited on the platen. Another object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording head capable of efficiently performing preliminary ejection.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, an ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention includes a head for recording by ejecting ink and adhering to the recording medium, and a recording medium at a position facing the head at a recording position. In an inkjet recording apparatus having a supporting platen,
The platen includes a platen rib that is a protrusion for guiding a recording medium, and a hole that is formed on a side of the platen rib along the side surface of the platen rib.
[0009]
According to this configuration, when ink adheres to the platen, such as when an image having a width larger than the width of the paper is accidentally printed, if a certain amount of ink accumulates on the platen, The ink adhering to the platen rib is guided to the root part of the platen rib by gravity, and the ink adhering to the part where the platen rib is not provided is collected by the surface tension. The ink is attracted to the adhered ink and guided to this portion. In this way, the ink gathers at the base portion of the platen rib, is guided along the side surface of the platen rib to the hole formed along the side surface of the platen rib, and is smoothly discharged from the hole.
[0010]
Furthermore, it has head moving means for moving the head to a position opposite to a desired recording position of the recording medium on the platen, and each corresponds to a plurality of sizes of recording media mainly used in the ink jet recording apparatus. If the platen is provided with a hole in the position near the outside of the end of the recording medium of each size with respect to the moving direction of the head, the size of the recording medium to be recorded immediately before ink ejection for recording is performed. The head can be moved to a position corresponding to the hole corresponding to, and preliminary ejection can be performed, and the ejected ink can be ejected from this hole, and the moving distance of the head at the time of preliminary ejection can be shortened compared to the conventional case. .
[0011]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Example 1
FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of an ink jet recording apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the recording head 10 that performs recording by ejecting ink has a nozzle row in which a plurality of nozzles that eject ink are arranged at a predetermined interval, yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan ( C) It has nozzles 11 provided in four rows for discharging black (B) ink, and an ink tank 12 for storing ink of each color, and is mounted on a carriage (not shown) and is not shown together with the carriage. The head scanning unit performs main scanning in the horizontal direction of the recording medium 70 (the direction of arrow B in FIG. 1 and the opposite direction thereof).
[0012]
The recording medium 70 is sandwiched between a conveyance roller 20 and a plurality of pinch rollers 30 provided in the main scanning direction (in the direction of arrow B in FIG. 1), which are brought into friction by the pinch roller spring 31 and pressed against the conveyance roller 20. Then, by the rotational driving of the transport roller 20, it is transported in the direction intersecting the main scanning direction (direction of arrow A in FIG. 1), and sub-scanning for determining the recording position in the transport direction is performed. A discharge roller 40 for discharging the recording medium 70 after recording is provided on the downstream side in the transport direction, and the recording medium 70 is pressed against the discharge roller 40 at a position opposite to the discharge roller 40. A plurality of spurs 50 are arranged in the main scanning direction. The spur 50 has a sharp tip so that unfixed ink on the recording medium 70 does not adhere. A platen 60 is provided between the transport roller 20 and the paper discharge roller 40 to maintain the positional relationship between the recording medium 70 and the head 10 at a position where the head 10 performs recording.
[0013]
Next, the operation of this recording apparatus will be described.
[0014]
First, the transport roller 20 transports the recording medium 70 by a predetermined amount and performs sub-scanning to determine the recording position in this direction. Next, while the head 10 moves in the main scanning direction and performs main scanning to determine the recording position in this direction, ink is ejected and adhered to the recording medium 70 to perform recording. In this embodiment, the head 10 performs recording by ejecting ink while performing main scanning in the direction of arrow B in FIG. 1, and after the recording of a predetermined recording width is completed, the head 10 does not eject ink. When the head 10 moves in the direction opposite to the arrow B direction and returns to the initial position and there is a sub-scanning operation command, the transport roller 20 performs sub-scanning simultaneously with the return operation of the head 10. These operations are repeated a predetermined number of times to record one image.
[0015]
Next, the configuration of the platen 60, which is a feature of the present invention, will be described with reference to the perspective view of the platen 60 shown in FIG.
[0016]
As shown in the figure, a platen rib 61 for holding the recording medium 70 at an appropriate recording position is provided on the contact surface (upper surface in the drawing) of the platen 60 with the recording medium 70. The medium 70 is conveyed in contact with the platen rib 61 and guided to the recording position. On both sides of the root portion 63 of the platen rib 61, holes 62 are formed along the side surface of the platen rib 61.
[0017]
In the ink jet recording apparatus having the platen 60 having such a configuration, when ink has adhered to the platen 60, such as when an image having a width larger than the width of the sheet is accidentally printed, the ink is placed on the platen 60. When ink of a certain volume or more accumulates, the ink adhering on the platen rib 61 is guided to the lower root portion 63 by gravity, and the ink adhering between the plurality of platen ribs 61 tries to gather due to surface tension. The ink is attracted to the ink in the vicinity of the root portion 63 which has a large area and is difficult to move, and is guided to the root portion 63. In this way, the ink gathers at the root portion 63 of the platen rib 61 and is smoothly discharged from the hole 62 along the side surface of the platen rib 61.
[0018]
In the ink jet recording apparatus of the present embodiment, even if the ink is attached to the platen 60 as described above, the attached ink can be discharged from the hole 62, so that the user does not have to clean the platen 60. Ink can be prevented from adhering to the platen 60.
[0019]
(Example 2)
Next, the ink jet recording method of Example 2 will be described with reference to the plan view of the platen 60 portion of the ink jet recording apparatus shown in FIG. In this embodiment, the configuration of the recording apparatus and the platen shape are the same as those in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted. Hereinafter, a preliminary ejection method, which is a feature of the ink jet recording method according to this embodiment, will be described.
[0020]
Conventionally, the preliminary ejection is performed after the head 10 is moved in the main scanning direction until it reaches a position outside the side edge of the maximum width of paper that can be used as the recording medium 70. In the embodiment, when printing on a sheet having a width narrower than the maximum sheet width, the head 10 is moved to a position facing the platen 60 outside the side edge of the sheet, and preliminary ejection is performed.
[0021]
That is, when printing on A4 size paper 71 as shown in FIG. 3, a position outside the side edge of the paper 71, that is, a side closer to the edge of the paper 71 of the platen rib 61a (right side in FIG. 3). When the head 10 is moved to a position opposite to the position of the hole 62a to perform preliminary discharge, the discharged ink is discharged from the hole 62a, and printing is performed on a B5 size paper 72, the side edge of the paper 72 The head 10 is moved to a position on the outer side, that is, a position facing the position of the hole 62b on the side close to the end of the sheet 71 of the platen rib 61b (right side in FIG. 3), and preliminary ejection is performed. Is discharged. At this time, information on the size of the paper on which printing is performed may be input to the ink jet recording apparatus based on information from a personal computer, and the preliminary ejection position may be determined in accordance with this information.
[0022]
In this way, according to the size of the paper to be used, the hole 62 is provided so as to come to a position near the outside of the paper edge in the main scanning direction on the platen 60 when the paper of each size is conveyed. By performing preliminary ejection at the position 62, the distance to which the head 10 is moved during preliminary ejection can be shortened compared to the conventional example, and the time for recording on one sheet can be shortened. Can do.
[0023]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, by providing a hole along the side of the platen rib along the side of the platen rib, even if the ink is accidentally attached onto the platen, the attached ink is guided naturally and smoothly into the hole. Can be discharged. Thereby, it is possible to prevent the ink from adhering to the platen, and the user does not need to clean the platen.
[0024]
Depending on the size of the paper to be used, when each type of paper is transported, a hole is provided in a portion near the outside of the paper edge in the main scanning direction, and ink ejected by preliminary ejection is provided. By discharging from this hole, the moving distance of the head during preliminary ejection can be shortened, and the printing time can be shortened.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an ink jet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a detailed view of a platen of the ink jet recording apparatus of FIG.
3 is a plan view of a platen portion of the ink jet recording apparatus of FIG. 1. FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Head 11 Nozzle part 12 Ink tank part 20 Conveyance roller 30 Pinch roller 31 Pinch roller spring 40 Paper discharge roller 50 Spur 60 Platen 61, 61a, 61b Platen rib 62, 62a, 62b Hole 63 Base part 70 Recording medium 71 Paper (A4) )
72 sheets (B5)

Claims (2)

In an ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a head that performs recording by discharging ink and adhering to a recording medium; and a platen that supports the recording medium at a position facing the head at a recording position.
A head moving means for moving the head to a position facing a desired recording position of the recording medium on the platen;
Said platen, possess the a platen rib is projecting portion for guiding the recording medium, and a hole drilled along the side of the platen rib on the side of the platen rib,
Corresponding to the recording media of a plurality of sizes to be used, the holes are respectively provided at positions near the outside of the end of the recording media of each size in the platen with respect to the moving direction of the head. and ink jet recording apparatus characterized by being. An inkjet recording method using the inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1 ,
Before ejecting ink for recording, moving the head to a position facing the hole provided near the outside of the end of the recording medium to be recorded with respect to the moving direction of the head; And an ink jet recording method having a preliminary ejection step of ejecting ink that does not contribute to recording.

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