JP5762795B2 - Inkjet recording device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus that performs a recording operation by ejecting ink from a head unit in which a recording medium is transported and a plurality of ink ejection heads are arranged in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction.

  The ink jet recording method is a method for performing printing or image recording by ejecting minute ink to a recording medium from an ink ejection port of an ink jet recording head, and can perform a recording operation in a state separated from the recording medium. It can be recorded on recording media and articles of various materials and is used in a wide range of applications.

  An ink jet recording apparatus includes a serial type that moves a recording head in a main scanning direction, performs a recording operation on a recording medium along a scanning line, conveys the recording medium in a sub scanning direction, and sequentially records, and a plurality of recording heads. A line type that is arranged in a line in a direction perpendicular to the conveyance direction of the recording medium and performs recording while conveying the recording medium has been developed according to the application.

  In such an ink jet recording apparatus, liquid ink is used, so it is easy for clogging of the ink ejection port and air clogging due to cavitation, and if ink ejection failure due to clogging or air clogging occurs, it is a major factor in image quality deterioration. Become. Therefore, it is necessary to perform maintenance on the recording head so that ink clogging and air clogging do not occur.

  As a method of maintenance of the recording head, for example, in Patent Document 1, a maintenance station is installed between the recording heads for a plurality of recording heads, and the maintenance station is moved to face the recording head for maintenance processing. Points are listed.

  Further, the applicant of the present application also discloses a recording head unit that performs a recording operation, a transport unit that transports a recording medium in the transport direction Y, and a discharge that processes the ejected ink during the discharge recovery operation of the recording head unit, as in Patent Document 2. An ink jet recording apparatus including a head moving unit that moves an ink processing unit and a recording head unit in a direction X orthogonal to the transport direction is proposed.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-169989 JP 2009-208408 A

  In the inkjet recording apparatus described above, high-definition image recording needs to be performed accurately in order to perform high-definition image recording. However, as described in Patent Document 1, a plurality of recording heads are arranged apart from each other, If each recording head is moved, a positional error of each recording head is likely to occur, and it is difficult to accurately perform high-density recording. Further, if the maintenance of the recording head is performed above the transport mechanism, there is a drawback that trouble such as ink dripping easily occurs.

  Further, as described in Patent Document 2, a driven pulley is attached to one end of the screw rod member, and the driven pulley is connected to a drive motor via a timing belt (see Patent Document 2). Paragraph [0027] and FIG. 1) and the carriage is moved by one drive motor, both sides of the carriage can move only by the same movement amount. Therefore, if the carriage is tilted due to various factors such as lost motion, differences in parts accuracy, wear, or timing belt elongation, the bolts that fasten the carriage and screw rod members must be removed and adjusted each time. It requires a lot of time and effort.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus that can be quickly and accurately corrected even with a slight inclination of the carriage and can maintain high print accuracy even after long-term use. To do.

That is, the inkjet recording apparatus of the present invention includes a transport unit that transports a recording medium in a predetermined transport direction, and a plurality of head units in which a plurality of ink discharge heads are arrayed in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction for each color in the transport direction. A recording head section configured as described above, a head maintenance section that is installed outside the recording area of the recording head section and performs maintenance of the recording head section, and a recording position facing the transport section or facing the head maintenance section In an inkjet recording apparatus, comprising: a head moving unit that moves the recording head unit to a maintenance position that performs a recording operation by ejecting ink from the head unit without moving the recording head unit with respect to a conveyed recording medium the head moving unit, along a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction on both sides of the recording head portion They are arranged in pairs, in which each is characterized by being provided to be controlled individually.

The head moving unit preferably includes a pair of guide rails, a pair of screw rod members, a pair of support members that support a carriage to which the head unit is attached, and a pair of drive motors. .

  According to the present invention, even a slight inclination of the carriage can be corrected quickly and accurately, and high print accuracy can be maintained even after many years of use.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram relating to an ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic block configuration diagram relating to control of an inkjet recording apparatus. It is explanatory drawing regarding the inclination correction of a carriage.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. The embodiments described below are preferable specific examples for carrying out the present invention, and thus various technical limitations are made. However, the present invention particularly limits the present invention in the following description. Unless explicitly stated, the present invention is not limited to these forms.

  FIG. 1 is a top view illustrating a schematic configuration of the ink jet recording apparatus. The ink jet recording apparatus 1 includes a recording head unit 2 that performs a recording operation, a transport unit 3 that transports the recording medium S in a predetermined transport direction (Y direction in FIG. 1), a head maintenance unit 4 that performs maintenance of the recording head unit 2, In addition, a head moving unit 5 that moves the recording head unit 2 in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction (X direction in FIG. 1) is provided. In this example, an ultraviolet irradiation unit 6 is provided on the downstream side of the conveyance unit 3 in the conveyance direction in order to perform a recording operation using ultraviolet curable ink.

  In the recording head unit 2, head units 20 to 24 configured by arranging a plurality of ink discharge heads 200 to 240 in the X direction are attached to and supported by a rectangular carriage 25. Each head unit is configured such that ink of a different color is ejected from the ink ejection head. After the recording operation is performed on the recording medium by the head unit 20 of the first color, the recording medium S is conveyed. A recording operation of different colors is performed on the recording medium by the head unit 21 of the next color, and full-color recording of five colors is performed by sequentially recording with the head units 22, 23 and 24.

  Each head unit is set to an overall length that is almost the same as the width of the transport unit 3 in the X direction. Therefore, each head unit can perform a recording operation over the entire width of the recording medium S, and the recording head unit 2 Performs a recording operation without moving.

  As the ink discharge head, a known on-demand type ink discharge method head may be used, but an ink discharge method other than the on-demand type may be used. Further, any method other than the above-described recording methods may be used as long as the recording method performs a recording operation while conveying the recording medium.

  Each ink discharge head is provided with a plurality of nozzle holes for discharging ink, and these nozzle holes may be arranged in a line in a straight line in the X direction, or a plurality of nozzle holes, for example, 32 and 64, respectively. The 128 nozzle holes may be arranged in a linear shape, a staggered shape, a staircase shape, or the like, or a combination thereof.

  In the transport unit 3, the transport belt 30 is stretched substantially horizontally between the drive roll 31 and the driven roll 32, and the transport belt 30 is transported in the Y direction by rotating the drive roll 31 by the drive motor M1. It is supposed to do. The conveyance surface of the conveyance belt 30 is disposed opposite to the upper recording head unit 2, and ink is ejected from the ink ejection head of the recording head unit 2 onto the upper surface of the recording medium S conveyed by the conveyance belt 30. Done. The width of the conveyance belt 30 is formed wider than the recording medium S, and the recording medium S is conveyed by being attracted to the conveyance surface by a suction unit (not shown). The conveyance belt 30 may be provided with a large number of suction holes on the conveyance surface to improve the suction efficiency.

  The head maintenance unit 4 is installed on the side of the conveyance belt 30 so as to be adjacent to the recording area of the recording head unit 2. FIG. 1 shows an example in which the head maintenance unit 4 is a discharge ink processing unit that processes the discharge ink during the discharge recovery operation. Corresponding to the head units 20 to 24, ejected ink receiving portions 40 to 44 are provided. The ejection ink receiving portions 40 to 44 are formed so as to cover the entire ejection surface of the corresponding head unit, and receive the ink ejected while being opposed to each head unit during the ejection recovery operation of the ink ejection head. It is like that. Then, the ink discharged to each discharge ink receiving portion is sucked, collected for each color, and regenerated.

  Cleaning processing sections 45 to 49 are provided between the transport belt 30 and the respective discharge ink receiving sections corresponding to the respective head units. The cleaning processing units 45 to 49 clean the residual ink adhering to the ink ejection head that has been subjected to the ejection recovery process. The blade, the concave portion of the ink ejection head, the head, and the head support member are slidably brought into contact with the ejection surface. A suction nozzle is provided for collecting ink remaining between the two. A suction pump is connected to the suction nozzle so that residual ink is sucked and ink adhering to the blade is also sucked and collected by the suction pump.

  Each cleaning processing unit is provided so as to be movable up and down, and is normally set to a retracted position that is lowered and is set to an operating position that is raised when cleaning is necessary, and is in contact with the ejection surface of the ink ejection head. It is designed to perform cleaning. In addition, although the discharge ink processing unit has been described as an example of the head maintenance unit 4 in FIG. 1, the head unit replacement unit that replaces the head units 20 to 24 and the nozzle holes of the head units 20 to 24 are also provided. Nozzle check section for checking whether ink is normally discharged from the head, or head capping section for capping the head to prevent drying of the ink in the nozzles of the head units 20 to 24, such as when ink jet recording is not performed for a long time. , Etc.

The head moving unit 5 includes a pair of guide rails 50 and a pair of screw rod members 51 arranged along the X direction on both sides of the recording head unit 2 . A support member 52 that supports the carriage 25 is slidably attached to each guide rail 50. The support member 52 has a screw hole and is screwed into the screw rod member 51. When the screw rod member 51 rotates, the support member 52 moves along the X direction and is positioned at a predetermined position. Is done.

  The pair of screw rod members 51 are respectively connected to the drive motors M2 and M3 at one end. Therefore, when the drive motor M2 is driven to rotate, one screw rod member 51 rotates and one support member 52 moves in the X direction. When the drive motor M3 is driven to rotate, the other screw rod member 51 rotates. The other support member 52 moves in the X direction. That is, the left and right support members 52 can be moved independently of each other. Then, the recording head unit 2 is moved by the movement of the support member 52 and positioned at a recording position facing the conveying belt 30 or a maintenance position facing the head maintenance unit 4.

  The ultraviolet irradiation unit 6 includes an ultraviolet lamp, and irradiates the ink recorded on the recording medium S with ultraviolet rays to be cured.

  The recording medium S can be widely used for recording media of various materials such as paper, film, leather, fabric, plastic, metal, glass, ceramic, cement, earthenware, and porcelain.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram relating to the control of the ink jet recording apparatus. The control unit 10 controls the entire apparatus. The control unit 10 includes a recording control unit 10 a that controls the recording operation of the recording head unit 2 based on the recording data transmitted from the recording data management device 11, a conveyance control unit 10 b that performs conveyance control of the conveyance unit 3, and a pair. The head moving unit 5 is individually controlled to move the entire recording head unit 2, and the irradiation control unit 10 d is configured to control the irradiation of the ultraviolet irradiation device 6. In addition, the head maintenance control unit 10e that performs maintenance of the ink discharge head is provided. The head maintenance control unit 10e controls the head moving unit 5 to move the recording head unit 2 to the maintenance position, and also records the recording head unit 2. Perform maintenance operations.

  Here, a correction method in the case where inclination occurs on both the left and right sides of the carriage 25 will be described with reference to FIG. If the left and right sides of the carriage 25 are tilted at the recording position, the printing medium S cannot be printed at an accurate position, and high printing accuracy cannot be maintained. It is necessary to correct. The nozzles 1 and 2 shown in FIG. 3 are essentially the same in the X-direction coordinates if no inclination occurs on the left and right sides of the carriage 25. That is, the ink dots ejected from the nozzle 1 and the ink dots ejected from the nozzle 2 positioned downstream of the nozzle 1 (the Y direction in the conveyance direction of the recording medium S) land on the same position on the recording medium S ( The lower figure in Fig. 3 is corrected). However, if tilt occurs on both the left and right sides of the carriage 25, the landing positions of the ink dots ejected from the nozzle 1 and the ink dots ejected from the nozzle 2 are shifted (before correction in the upper diagram of FIG. 3).

When the landing position deviation amount is a1, the distance between the nozzle 1 and the nozzle 2 is b1, and the distance between the left and right screw rod members 51 is b2, the correction value a to be obtained is as follows.
Correction value a = a1 × b2 / b1
That is, in the case of FIG. 3, the inclination of the carriage 25 can be corrected by moving the support member 52 on the right side (downstream in the conveyance direction of the recording medium S) in the X (−) direction by the correction value a. It can be adjusted to the normal position.

  In the above description, the head moving unit 5 has been described as an example provided with a pair of guide rails 50, screw rod members 51, support members 52, and drive motors M2 and M3. In addition, the screw rod member 51 may be of a rack and pinion mechanism, and the screw rod member 51 and the drive motors M2 and M3 may be of a linear motor mechanism.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Inkjet recording device 2 Recording head part 25 Carriage 3 Conveying part 4 Head maintenance part 5 Head moving part 51 Screw rod member 52 Support member M2, M3 Drive motor 6 Ultraviolet irradiation part

Claims (2)

A transport unit configured to transport a recording medium in a predetermined transport direction, and a print head unit configured by arranging a plurality of head units arranged for each color in the transport direction in a direction orthogonal to the transport direction; A head maintenance unit that is installed outside the recording area of the recording head unit and performs maintenance of the recording head unit, and moves the recording head unit to a recording position facing the transport unit or a maintenance position facing the head maintenance unit And an ink jet recording apparatus that performs a recording operation by ejecting ink from a head unit without moving the recording head relative to a recording medium to be conveyed. They are arranged in pairs along a direction perpendicular to the transport direction on both sides of the parts, each individually controlled An ink jet recording apparatus, characterized in that provided in the capacity. The head moving unit includes a pair of guide rails, a pair of screw rod members, a pair of support members that support a carriage to which the head unit is attached, and a pair of drive motors. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1.