JP5560619B2 - Printing device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus.

Conventionally, inkjet printers are known as printing apparatuses. This printer
It has a carriage holding a head for ejecting ink, and drives the head while the carriage is moving to eject ink from the nozzles to print an image on a medium such as paper.

Some printers include a drive control unit that drives a head mounted on a carriage. In that case, the printer body and the carriage are connected by a flexible flat cable (hereinafter also referred to as FFC) having high flexibility in order to transmit a print signal and the like from the printer body to the drive control unit. In addition, power is supplied from the power supply unit on the printer body side to the drive control unit using another electric wire in the FFC.

However, when the carriage moves, the FFC is likely to be a physical obstacle to the mechanism,
Since there is a problem that noise is easily applied to control signals such as print signals through FC, FFC
There is a request for omission.

In this regard, Patent Document 1 discloses that a control signal such as a print signal is optically transmitted from the printer body to the carriage. Patent Document 2 discloses that a fuel cell is mounted on a carriage and power is supplied to a drive control unit of the carriage. And
It is considered that FFC can be eliminated by combining these.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-214869 JP 2005-219288 A

However, in the latter power supply method of Patent Document 2, an increase in cost is inevitable as the fuel cell is mounted. Also, fuel cells need a drainage mechanism to generate water after power generation,
This also helps increase costs.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional problems, and provides a printing apparatus that can supply power to a drive control unit of a carriage without using an FFC and can avoid an increase in cost. For the purpose.

The main invention for achieving the above object is:
A printing apparatus that has a carriage having a head that ejects ink, and that prints an image on the medium by ejecting ink toward the medium by driving the head during movement of the carriage;
A drive control unit provided on the carriage for driving the head with electric power;
A guide member for guiding the movement of the carriage,
The guide member is provided with a conductive portion, and the power is supplied to the drive control portion through the conductive portion.

  Other features of the present invention will become apparent from the description of the present specification and the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram of a system configuration of a printer 1. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an internal configuration of the printer 1. FIG. It is the longitudinal cross-sectional view. FIG. 4 is an arrangement diagram of nozzles of a head 41. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a head drive circuit 61 according to the head unit 40. FIG. FIG. It is explanatory drawing of the original signal ODRV, the print signal PRT (i), and the drive signal DRV (i). 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of a guide rail 36. FIG. 9A to 9C are explanatory views of first to third modifications of the guide rail 36, and all are shown in a longitudinal sectional view.

  At least the following matters will become apparent from the description of the present specification and the accompanying drawings.

A printing apparatus that has a carriage having a head that ejects ink, and that prints an image on the medium by ejecting ink toward the medium by driving the head during movement of the carriage;
A drive control unit provided on the carriage for driving the head with electric power;
A guide member for guiding the movement of the carriage,
The guide member is provided with a conductive portion, and the power is supplied to the drive control portion through the conductive portion.
According to such a printing apparatus, power is supplied to the drive control unit of the carriage via the guide member. Therefore, power can be supplied to the drive control unit without using an FFC, a fuel cell, or the like, and as a result, an increase in cost can be avoided.

Such a printing apparatus,
The guide member includes a first conductive part that supplies electric power, a second conductive part that is electrically grounded,
Have
The drive control unit has a pair of input terminals related to power supply,
One input terminal of the pair of input terminals is slidably contacted with the first conductive part, and the other input terminal is slidably contacted with the second conductive part. It is desirable that the power is supplied.
According to such a printing apparatus, the pair of input terminals of the drive control unit are in sliding contact with the first conductive unit and the second conductive unit, respectively. Therefore, even when the carriage moves relative to the guide member, power can be supplied to the drive control unit without any problem.

Such a printing apparatus,
The guide member includes a shaft member in which the first conductive portion and the second conductive portion are integrated via an insulating portion therebetween.
The shaft member is preferably arranged so as to extend in the moving direction of the carriage.
According to such a printing apparatus, since the guide member is configured as one member, the installation space can be reduced and the printing apparatus can be made compact.

Such a printing apparatus,
The guide member has a pair of shaft members that extend in the moving direction of the carriage and are spaced apart from each other,
It is desirable that one of the pair of shaft members has the first conductive portion and the other has the second conductive portion.
According to such a printing apparatus, the movement of the carriage is guided by the pair of shaft portions, so that the movement operation can be stabilized.

=== Overall Configuration of Printing Apparatus 1 ===
Hereinafter, as the printing apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, a serial ink jet printer (
Hereinafter, the printer 1 will be described as an example.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the system configuration of the printer 1. 2A is a perspective view of the internal configuration of the printer 1, and FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view thereof.
The printer 1 includes a housing 3, a power supply unit 5, a controller 10, a transport unit 20, a carriage unit 30, and a head unit 40. The printer 1 is used by connecting to a computer 110 that is an external device, for example. That is, when print data is received from the computer 110, the printer 1 controls the units 20, 30, and 40 by the controller 10 and forms an image on the paper S as a medium. At that time, the situation in the printer 1 is monitored by the detector group 50, and the controller 10 controls each unit 20, 30, 40 based on the detection result.

The housing 3 has a box body that accommodates the units 20, 30, and 40 as a main body, and has a mechanical frame 3 a made of a conductive material such as metal, for example, inside thereof.

The power supply unit 5 is fixed to the housing 3. And household A via electric cord etc.
Each unit 2 is connected to a C outlet and functions as a DC power source such as 42V.
Power is supplied to 0, 30, 40. That is, the power supply unit 5 has a 42V positive terminal as an output terminal for power supply, and a ground terminal electrically grounded via the mechanical frame.

The controller 10 is also fixed to the housing 3. And it has the interface part 11, CPU12, the memory 13, and the unit control circuit 14. FIG. The interface unit 11 transmits and receives data between the computer 110 and the printer 1. CP
U <b> 12 is an arithmetic processing unit that controls the entire printer 1, and controls each unit 20, 30, 40 via the unit control circuit 14. The memory 13 secures an area for storing a program of the CPU 12, a work area, and the like.

The transport unit 20 feeds the paper S to a printable position, and transports the paper S by a predetermined transport amount in the transport direction at the time of printing, and includes a paper feed roller 21 and a transport motor 22.
A transport roller 23, a platen 24, and a paper discharge roller 25. The paper feed roller 21 sends the paper S to be printed to the position of the transport roller 23. When the paper detection sensor 51, which is one of the detector groups 50, detects the leading edge of the paper S sent toward the transport roller 23, the controller 10 rotates the transport roller 23 to move the paper S to the print start position. Position to. When the paper S is positioned at the printing start position, at least some of the nozzles on the lower surface 41a of the head 41 are opposed to the paper S. The platen 24 is provided at a position that can face the lower surface 41a of the head 41, and supports the sheet S during printing from below.

The carriage unit 30 reciprocates the head 41 in an intersecting direction (hereinafter referred to as a carriage moving direction) that intersects the transport direction, and a carriage 32 on which the head 41 is mounted.
A guide rail 36 as a guide member supported by the housing 3 and the carriage motor 3
3, pulleys 34 a and 34 b, and a timing belt 35. Guide rail 3
For example, 6 is a shaft body that is long in the carriage movement direction, and penetrates and engages the carriage 32 to guide the carriage 32 so as to reciprocate along the carriage movement direction. The timing belt 35 is connected to the carriage motor 33 by pulleys 34 a and 34 b, and a part of the timing belt 35 is connected to the carriage 32, and the carriage 32 is reciprocated in the carriage movement direction by the drive rotation of the carriage motor 33. Move. As a result, the head 41 is reciprocated in the carriage movement direction with respect to the paper S.

The guide rail 36 is a head drive circuit 6 (described later) mounted on the carriage 32.
This also functions as a power supply system for supplying power to 1, which will be described later.

The head unit 40 is mounted on the carriage 32. The head 41 for ejecting ink droplets onto the paper S and the head 4 for ejecting ink droplets from the nozzles of the head 41 are used.
And a head drive circuit 61 for driving 1 (see FIG. 5). The lower surface 41a of the head 41
A plurality of nozzles are provided, and each nozzle is provided with an ink chamber containing ink, and a piezo element as a drive element for ejecting ink droplets by changing the capacity of the ink chamber. Then, the head driving circuit 61 drives the piezo element based on a print signal PRT and the like described later, thereby ejecting ink droplets.

Control signals for driving the head 41, such as the print signal PRT and the original signal generation parameters described later, are transmitted from the controller 10 to the head drive circuit 61 of the carriage 32 by an appropriate wireless communication device. Wirelessly transmitted. That is, the controller 10 is provided with a transmitter, and the carriage 32 is provided with a receiver. Then, when the receiver of the carriage 32 receives the radio wave transmitted from the transmitter of the controller 10, the head drive circuit 61 acquires the control signal.

The detector group 50 includes a linear encoder 52, a rotary encoder 53, and the like. The linear encoder 52 detects the position of the carriage 32. The rotary encoder 53 detects the rotation amount of the transport roller 23.

In the printer 1 having such a configuration, the head 41 that moves along the carriage movement direction.
Ink droplets are ejected intermittently to form dots on the paper S, and a transport operation for transporting the paper S in the transport direction is repeated alternately. By doing so, a dot row is formed at a position different from the dot row (raster line) formed by the previous dot forming operation in the transport direction, and thus an image is completed on the paper S.

The printer 1 can also perform bidirectional printing, that is, it can also form an image by ejecting ink droplets toward the paper S in the forward and backward paths in the carriage movement direction. In this case, for example, the sheet S is transported between the forward and backward dot forming operations.

=== About the Head 41 and the Head Drive Circuit 61 ===
FIG. 4 is an arrangement diagram of the nozzles of the head 41. On the lower surface 41a of the head 41, a plurality (for example, 1) of each of black (K), cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) colors are provided.
A nozzle row 411 composed of 80 nozzles # 1 to #n is provided. Each nozzle row 41
Each nozzle # 1 to #n has a predetermined nozzle pitch P (for example, 1) along the transport direction of the paper S.
80 dpi) and linearly aligned. Further, the nozzle rows 411 are arranged in parallel to each other with an interval in the carriage movement direction.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the head drive circuit 61 according to the head unit 40. A circuit board 61a of the head drive circuit 61 (corresponding to a drive control unit) is disposed in the carriage 32, and includes an original drive signal generating unit 63 and a drive signal shaping unit 65 as shown in FIG. Yes. Both are configured by an electric circuit.

The head drive circuit 61 is provided for each nozzle row 411, that is, black (K), cyan (C),
Magenta (M) and yellow (Y) are provided for each color nozzle row 411, respectively.
In addition, the piezo elements are individually driven for each nozzle. In the figure, the numbers in parentheses at the end of each signal name indicate the number of the nozzle to which the signal is supplied.

When a voltage having a predetermined time width is applied between the electrodes provided at both ends of the piezoelectric element, the piezoelectric element expands according to the voltage application time and deforms the side wall of the ink flow path. As a result, the volume of the ink flow path contracts in accordance with the expansion and contraction of the piezo element, and the ink amount corresponding to the contraction is ejected from the nozzles # 1 to # 180 of the respective colors as ink droplets.

As shown in FIG. 6, the original drive signal generation unit 63 is supplied with an original signal generation parameter that defines the waveform shape of the original signal ODRV, and based on the original signal generation parameter, the original drive signal generation unit 63 generates an original signal ODRV that is used in common by the nozzles # 1 to #n. Here, the original signal ODRV has two pulses of a first pulse W1 and a second pulse W2, as shown in FIG. 7, within a period of one pixel (within a time during which the carriage 32 crosses the interval of one pixel). It is a signal containing.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 6, the drive signal shaping unit 65 receives the original signal ODRV from the original drive signal generation unit 63 and the print signal PRT based on the print data. The print signal PRT is a signal corresponding to pixel data assigned to one pixel. That is, the print signal PRT is a signal corresponding to the pixel data included in the print data. Then, the drive signal shaping unit 65 blocks or passes the original signal ODRV for each nozzle (i) based on the print signal PRT (i) corresponding to each nozzle (i). For example, as shown in FIG. 7, when the print signal PRT (i) is a 2-bit signal “00”, the original signal O
When both the DRV pulses W1 and W2 are cut off and the print signal PRT (i) is “01”,
When only the pulse W1 is cut off and the pulse W2 is passed and the print signal PRT (i) is “10”, only the pulse W2 is cut off and the pulse W1 is passed and the print signal PRT (i) is the same. In the case of “11”, both pulses W1 and W2 are passed. Then, the passed pulse is output as a drive signal DRV (i) toward the piezoelectric element of each nozzle (i). Each nozzle (
The piezoelectric element i) is driven based on the drive signal DRV (i) from the drive signal shaping unit 65 to discharge ink droplets.

=== Power Supply to the Head Drive Circuit 61 ===
The head drive circuit 61 described above is basically composed of an electric circuit and operates with electric power. The circuit board 61 a of the head driving circuit 61 is provided on the carriage 32. For this reason, the circuit board 6 is normally connected by connecting the power supply unit 5 on the housing 3 side and the circuit board 61a on the carriage 32 side with a flexible flat cable (FFC).
Power is supplied to 1a.

However, as described above, there is a demand for FFC-less. In this embodiment, as described above, the control signal is transmitted to the head drive circuit 61 by wireless transmission, that is, the FFC is not used for the transmission of the control signal. Therefore, if the power supply to the head drive circuit 61 can be performed by a method other than FFC, FFC-less can be achieved.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the above-described guide rail 36 is also used as a power supply system to the head drive circuit 61. Details will be described below.

As shown in FIG. 3, the guide rail 36 is supported at both ends by the mechanical frame 3 a of the housing 3. On the other hand, a pair of sleeve members 39, 39 as bearings are provided at both ends of the carriage 32.
The guide rail 36 is inserted into the inner peripheral side of the sleeve member 39 and is slidably fitted. Accordingly, the carriage 32 is configured to be reciprocally movable in the carriage movement direction while being supported by the guide rail 36.

FIG. 8 is a longitudinal sectional view of the guide rail 36. The guide rail 36 has an insulator 37 formed of a shaft body having a substantially circular longitudinal section as a main body. The insulator 37 (corresponding to the insulating portion) is cut out at two locations in the circumferential direction along the axial direction of the guide rail 36. The cutout portions 37a and 37a are each made of metal. Conductive portions 38a, 38b made of a conductive material such as
Is arranged extending in the axial direction. In addition, one of the conductive portions 38a and 38b (hereinafter also referred to as the first conductive portion 38a) is electrically connected to the positive electrode of the power supply unit 5 by an appropriate electric wire or the like. One conductive portion 38b (hereinafter referred to as second
The conductive portion 38b) is electrically connected to the mechanical frame 3a of the housing 3 and grounded.

On the other hand, from the circuit board 61a of the head drive circuit 61 of the carriage 32, each conductive portion 38a.
, 38b, a pair of input terminals 62P, 62G related to the feeding of the head drive circuit 61.
Is extended. The power supply terminal 62P, which is one input terminal, is electrically connected to the conductive brush member that is slidably in contact with the first conductive portion 38a, and the ground terminal 62G, which is the other input terminal, The head driving circuit 61 is electrically connected to the conductive brush member that is slidably in contact with the second conductive portion 38b.
It comes to be fed from.

Incidentally, if necessary, a DC-DC converter 67 is provided as in the example of FIG. 5, whereby the voltage of the power supply unit 5 is changed to an appropriate voltage required by the head drive circuit 61 (3.3 V in the illustrated example). ) May be used for power supply.

9A to 9C are explanatory diagrams of the first to third modifications of the guide rail 36,
Both are shown in a longitudinal sectional view.

The shape of the guide rail 36a of the first modification shown in FIG. 9A is a shaft body 36a having a substantially circular longitudinal section as a whole. The shaft body 36a is substantially divided into two in the circumferential direction. The substantially semi-cylindrical portion 136a on one side is the first conductive portion 136a, and the other substantially semi-cylindrical portion 13 is provided.
Reference numeral 6b denotes a second conductive portion 136b. The first conductive portion 136a and the second conductive portion 1
36b is respectively fixed to and integrated with an insulator 136c (corresponding to an insulating portion) interposed therebetween.

The shape of the guide rail 36b of the 2nd modification shown to FIG. 9B is the axial body 36b in which the longitudinal cross-sectional shape made the substantially semi-cylindrical shape as a whole. The shaft body 36b covers the second conductive portion 137b from above with an insulator 137c, and further covers the insulator 137c (corresponding to the insulating portion) from above.
7a is covered. Therefore, the power supply terminal 62P of the head drive circuit 61 is slidably contacted with the first conductive portion 137a from above, and the ground terminal 62G is connected to the second conductive portion 13 from below.
7b.

The guide rail 36c of the third modification shown in FIG. 9C has a pair of shaft members 138a and 138b that are spaced apart from each other. The pair of shaft members 138a and 138b
One of them functions as the first conductive portion 138a, and the other functions as the second conductive portion 138b. In the case of this configuration, a pair of sleeve members 39 of the carriage 32 are also provided corresponding to the shaft members 138a and 138b.

=== Other Embodiments ===
The above-described embodiments are for facilitating the understanding of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention. The present invention can be changed and improved without departing from the gist thereof, and it is needless to say that the present invention includes equivalents thereof. In particular, the embodiments described below are also included in the present invention.

In the above-described embodiment, as a method of wirelessly transmitting a control signal such as the print signal PRT from the controller 10 to the head drive circuit 61 of the carriage 32, a method using radio waves is used.
The present invention is not limited to this as long as wireless transmission is possible. For example, the control signal may be transmitted optically. That is, the laser irradiation unit may be provided on the controller 10 side, the photoelectric conversion unit may be provided on the carriage 32 side, and the control signal may be transmitted as laser light from the laser irradiation unit to the photoelectric conversion unit. In this case, the laser beam from the laser irradiation unit is irradiated in parallel with the carriage movement direction. Accordingly, the laser irradiation unit can irradiate the photoelectric conversion unit with laser light over the entire range of the reciprocation path of the carriage 32.

In the above-described embodiment, the power supply terminal 6 of the head drive circuit 61 for the first conductive portion 38a.
The sliding contact of 2P is configured with a conductive brush member, and similarly, the sliding contact of the ground terminal 62G of the head drive circuit 61 with respect to the second conductive portion 38b is also configured with a conductive brush member. is not. That is, other configurations may be applied as long as they can be slidably contacted with and electrically connected to the first conductive portion 38a or the second conductive portion 38b.

In the above-described embodiment, the piezoelectric effect method using a piezo element is exemplified as the ink discharge method. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the ink is heated from the nozzles by bubbles generated in the ink. A thermal jet method may be used.

1 Printer (printing device),
3 Housing, 3a Mechanical frame,
5 Power supply unit,
10 controller, 11 interface section,
13 memory, 14 unit control circuit,
20 transport units, 21 paper feed rollers, 22 transport motors, 23 transport rollers,
24 platen, 25 paper discharge roller,
30 carriage unit, 32 carriage,
33 Carriage motor, 33b Drive rotating shaft,
34a pulley, 34b pulley, 35 timing belt,
36 guide rail (guide member), 36a guide rail (guide member),
36b guide rail (guide member), 36c guide rail (guide member),
37 Insulator (insulating part), 37a Notch part,
38a first conductive portion, 38b second conductive portion, 39 sleeve member,
40 head unit, 41 head, 41a bottom surface,
50 detector groups, 51 paper detection sensors,
52 linear encoder, 53 rotary encoder,
61 head drive circuit (drive control unit), 61a circuit board,
62G ground terminal (input terminal), 62P power supply terminal (input terminal),
63 original drive signal generation unit, 65 drive signal shaping unit, 67 DC-DC converter,
110 computers,
136a first conductive part, 136b second conductive part, 136c insulator (insulating part),
137a First conductive portion, 137b Second conductive portion, 137c Insulator (insulating portion),
138a first conductive part, 138b second conductive part,
411 nozzle rows,
S paper

Claims (2)

A printing apparatus that has a carriage having a head that ejects ink, and that prints an image on the medium by ejecting ink toward the medium by driving the head during movement of the carriage;
A drive control unit that is provided on the carriage, includes a pair of input terminals, and drives the head with electric power;
An insulating part; a first conductive part that supplies the power; and a second conductive part that is electrically grounded, and a guide member that guides the movement of the carriage,
One of the pair of input terminals is slidably contacted with the first conductive portion and the other is slidably contacted with the second conductive portion, whereby the power is supplied to the drive control portion,
The insulating portion is a substantially cylindrical shaft body having two cutout portions each extending in the axial direction, and the first conductive portion is extended and arranged at one of the two cutout portions. The printing apparatus is characterized in that the second conductive portion is extended on the other side. A printing apparatus that has a carriage having a head that ejects ink, and that prints an image on the medium by ejecting ink toward the medium by driving the head during movement of the carriage;
A drive control unit that is provided on the carriage, includes a pair of input terminals, and drives the head with electric power;
An insulating part; a first conductive part that supplies the power; and a second conductive part that is electrically grounded, and a guide member that guides the movement of the carriage,
One of the pair of input terminals is slidably contacted with the first conductive portion and the other is slidably contacted with the second conductive portion, whereby the power is supplied to the drive control portion,
The first conductive portion is a substantially cylindrical shaft body having a cutout portion extending in an axial direction of the first conductive portion , and the insulating portion extends so as to be covered by the cutout portion. As described above, the printing apparatus is characterized in that the second conductive portion extends .

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