JP4871222B2 - ink cartridge - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an ink cartridge mounting system and an ink jet recording apparatus having an ink cartridge and a holder to which the ink cartridge is mounted .

  Conventionally, in an ink jet printer that forms characters and images by ejecting ink droplets from a recording head provided with a plurality of ejection nozzles and landing on a recording paper, the recording head is provided in the head holder. A connecting cylinder portion that forms an ink supply path communicating with the recording head is formed, and an ink cartridge that accommodates recording ink supplied to the recording head and is provided with an ink supply hole is detachably mounted. Yes.

  That is, the bottom wall of the head holder provided in a substantially horizontal state is provided with a recording head and a connecting cylinder communicating with the recording head, and an ink supply hole into which the connecting cylinder can be inserted is provided in the bottom wall. The ink cartridge is mounted in the head holder from above.

  For example, as seen in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-11500, the ink cartridge is configured in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, and the head holder that accommodates the ink cartridge has a box shape that covers the entire side surface and bottom surface of the ink cartridge. The ink cartridge can be accommodated in the head holder.

  At present, ink jet printers have been diversified from low-end to high-end printers for individuals, or printers capable of high-speed printing for offices, and have an ink capacity suitable for each printer.

  For example, in general, personal inkjet printers, which are mainly used for printing photographs and pictures, require a large-capacity color ink cartridge due to the high frequency of color printing of photographs and illustrations. In an inkjet printer for office, which is mainly used for printing documents, there is a tendency that a large-capacity black ink cartridge is required because monochrome printing is frequently performed.

  In such a situation, the number of types of ink cartridges is required in accordance with the application of the printer, so the types of ink cartridges increase with the increase in the types of printers.

  In the conventional ink cartridge and the ink cartridge mounting mechanism, the box-shaped ink cartridge is surrounded by the wall of the head holder, so when it is necessary to change the size of the ink cartridge, the head holder At the same time, the design must be changed.

  In other words, each ink cartridge requires its own head holder, which increases the development period and makes it difficult to share head holder parts. Leads to.

  From the user's point of view, it is inconvenient in that it is not possible to select a cartridge with an optimal ink capacity according to the use of the user-owned inkjet printer.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a cartridge mounting system and an ink jet recording apparatus that can easily cope with increase / decrease in the amount of stored ink without causing problems in the mounting mechanism. .

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention , an ink cartridge having an ink supply hole that can be inserted into the connecting cylinder portion is inserted into and removed from a holder in the vertical direction from above the holder. And mounting the ink cartridge in parallel with the side wall that regulates the position of the ink cartridge in the width direction and in the direction in which the holder is inserted at a certain distance from the connecting cylinder portion. The ink cartridge is configured to accommodate the ink cartridge with a protrusion that extends and restricts the position of the ink cartridge in the front-rear direction, and the ink cartridge is located at a distance from the ink supply hole at a certain distance. Extending in parallel with the insertion / extraction direction from the bottom and bisecting the ink cartridge in the horizontal direction; and A concave portion that engages with the convex portion, and a region on one ink supply hole side from the concave portion has a negative pressure generating mechanism that applies a negative pressure to prevent ink from flowing from the nozzle to the recording head. And the other region is a portion for containing ink and is configured to protrude outward from the holder in the horizontal direction .

In order to achieve the above object, an ink cartridge according to the present invention is an ink cartridge that can be attached to and detached from a holder provided with a connecting cylinder portion in which an ink supply path is formed, and the ink supply portion and the ink storage portion are arranged in the horizontal direction. A case in which a recess is formed in the insertion / removal direction from the bottom so as to divide into two, and the ink supply unit contains negative pressure applying means for applying a negative pressure to the recording head. An ink supply hole into which the connecting tube portion can be inserted is formed at the bottom of the supply portion. The ink storage portion does not store the applying means, and the concave member engages with the holder member. to, characterized in that.

As another feature, an ink cartridge identification protrusion is formed between the concave portion and the connecting cylinder portion. Furthermore, an insertion / extraction support member may be formed on the upper side of the ink supply unit.

  Thereby, many types of ink cartridges can be reliably identified.

  FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of an ink cartridge according to the present invention. A case formed in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape is parallel to the insertion / extraction direction from the bottom so as to divide the horizontal direction into two (in the vertical direction in the figure). ) Recess 5 is formed.

  One of the divided areas A is configured as an ink supply unit 1a, and means for applying an appropriate negative pressure to the recording head, that is, a negative pressure that does not allow ink to flow from the nozzles. Then, a differential pressure valve mechanism is accommodated.

  Reference numeral 6 denotes a storage chamber of the differential pressure valve mechanism.

  An ink supply hole 7 is formed at the bottom, and an insertion / removal support member is formed at the top. In this embodiment, a convex portion 20 is formed.

On the other hand, the region B is configured as the ink containing portion 1 b and communicates with the region A through the valley portion 21 between the recess 5 and the upper surface 4 and between the recess 5 and the side surface opposite to the side surface 2. .
Then, by changing the length L of the ink containing portion or changing the volume, the ink capacity as the ink cartridge can be changed without causing any change in insertion / removal property and ink supply characteristics to the recording head. it can.

  Further, since ink is supplied to the recording head via the differential pressure valve mechanism, the ink supply characteristics can be maintained regardless of the capacity of the ink containing portion.

  Further, a recess 10 is formed on the lower surface where the ink supply hole 7 is formed, and is formed directly below the differential pressure valve mechanism 6 so as to open to the lower surface. In this embodiment, a region for forming the protrusion 11 for identifying the ink cartridge is secured. Is done.

  FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the negative pressure applying means, in which an annular thick part 40a is formed on the outer periphery, and a thick part 40c having a through hole 40b in the center is further provided. A membrane valve 40 having a substantially S-shaped bent portion 40 d in the vicinity thereof is fixed to a cylindrical holder 41 and fitted in the storage chamber 6.

  A coil spring 42 is inserted between the thick portion 40c at the center and the case body. The coil spring 42 moves away from the valve seat 7 when a certain negative pressure is applied to the ink supply hole depending on the amount of ink consumed by the recording head, and when the supply of ink to the recording head is completed, The elastic pressure is adjusted so that 40 can be brought into elastic contact with the valve seat 7.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, the holder 9 to which the above-described ink cartridge is mounted (FIG. 2 shows a cartridge mounting structure in which the ink cartridge is mounted on the holder). Engage with the recess 5 at a fixed distance, that is, a distance L ′ between the ink supply hole 7 and the recess 5 of the cartridge, and the parallel side walls 30 and 31 to be regulated and the connecting cylinder 34 communicating with the recording head. And a wall 32 formed with slits 32a having a gap d in the region where the recess 5 is formed in this embodiment.

  Moreover, you may provide the wall 33 which regulates the surface ahead of a cartridge parallel to the wall 32 as needed.

In this embodiment, the position of the cartridge in the width direction is determined according to the side walls 30 and 31 of the holder, and when the concave portion 5 is inserted into the wall 32 and the front and rear positions are determined and pushed in, the ink containing portion 1b is shown in FIG. Thus, the ink supply hole is inserted into the connecting cylinder portion 34 regardless of the size of the ink storage portion.
When replacing the cartridge, when the upper convex portion 20 is pulled upward, the cartridge rises vertically while its rotation is restricted by the wall 32, and the ink supply hole is detached from the connecting cylinder portion 34.

  Since a wide area of the ink supply unit 1a can be used as the formation area of the protrusion 11 for identifying the ink cartridge, it is possible to reliably identify many types of ink cartridges.

  In the above-described embodiment, a differential pressure valve mechanism is used for applying a negative pressure, but the same effect is produced even when a porous material is loaded.

  Moreover, even if it is formed as a long hole having an opening on one side surface of the recess, but only the bottom is open, the same effect is produced.

  According to the present invention as described above, the ink capacity of the ink cartridge can be changed without causing any change in the insertion / extraction property and the ink supply property to the recording head.

  When the cartridge is exchanged, the cartridge moves vertically while being restricted by the wall of the holder, and the ink supply hole can be detached from the connecting cylinder without damaging the connecting cylinder.

1 is a perspective view of an ink cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention. (A) and (b) are the perspective views which show the state mounted | worn with the holder suitable for an ink cartridge same as the above, respectively, and the front view which shows an insertion process. It is a top view which shows the state which mounted | wore the holder with the ink cartridge same as the above. (A) (b) is a figure which shows the Example at the time of changing an ink accommodation amount, respectively, maintaining the compatibility of an ink cartridge same as the above. (A) (b) is sectional drawing which shows one Example of the negative pressure generation mechanism of an ink cartridge same as the above in a valve closing state and a valve opening state, respectively.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Ink cartridge, 1a ... Ink supply part, 1b ... Ink storage part, 2 ... Side surface, 3 ... Bottom face, 4 ... Upper surface, 5 ... Recessed part, 6 ... Differential pressure valve mechanism storage chamber, 7 ... Ink supply hole, 9 ... Holder DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Cartridge bottom recessed part, 11 ... Cartridge identification protrusion, 20 ... Insertion / extraction support convex part, 21 ... Valley part, 30 ... Holder side wall, 31 ... Holder side wall, 32 ... Holder front wall, 32a ... Slit, 33 ... After holder Wall 34, connecting cylinder part, 40 ... membrane valve, 40 a ... thick part on the outer periphery, 40 b ... through hole, 40 c ... thick part in the central part, 41 ... cylindrical holder, 42 ... coil spring.

Claims (3)

An ink cartridge that is attachable to and detachable from a holder provided with a connecting cylinder portion in which an ink supply path is formed,
A case in which a recess is formed in the insertion / extraction direction from the bottom so as to divide the horizontal direction into an ink supply part and an ink storage part;
The ink supply unit contains negative pressure applying means for applying a negative pressure to the recording head,
An ink supply hole into which the connecting tube part can be inserted is formed at the bottom of the ink supply part,
The ink containing portion does not contain the applying means,
A member of the holder is engaged with the recess;
ink cartridge. The ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein a protrusion for identifying an ink cartridge is formed between the concave portion and the connecting cylinder portion. The ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein an insertion / extraction support member is formed on an upper portion on the ink supply unit side.

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