JPH01206061A - Ink jet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable characters and images to be formed with a color change from a high-density color to an intermediate-density color and to enable a solid printing to be easily conducted in a short time, by providing an open/close control valve controlling an air supply to an air nozzle, which flies an ink droplet permeating into a wicking member by jetting an air toward the ink- permeable wicking member. CONSTITUTION:An air is force-fed from a compressed air source to a connecting tube 37. In this condition, when a wicking member 35 traveling together with a head body 31 reaches a printing position, an open/close control valve 38 is opened only for a predetermined period of time according to a printing instruction, and the air is jetted out from a jet port 36a of an air nozzle 36 toward the wicking member 35 and a paper P wound around a platen 32. By the air jetted out of the air nozzle 36, an ink 34 which has been drawn up to the upper end part of the wicking member 35 from the inside of an ink case 33 is flown from the core member 35 toward the paper P to be fixed on the paper P. By conducting this open/close action for every printing position according to a printing instruction, characters and images are formed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to printers that eject ink toward paper to print, etc.

(Prior Art) A conventional inkjet printer is configured to perform printing by directly jetting ink stored in an ink chamber toward a sheet of paper from an ink nozzle.

FIG. 2 shows the head section of a conventional Gould type inkjet printer.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 is the head main body. The head body 1 is mounted on a not-illustrated carriage, and is reciprocated together with the carriage in the longitudinal direction of the platen 2 (perpendicular to the plane of the drawing). A sub-tank 4 for temporarily storing ink 3 is provided on the head main body 1. sub tank 4
Ink 3 is constantly supplied into the ink tank through an ink supply tube 5 from an ink tank (not shown). One or more ink nozzles 6 made of glass tubes are led out from the sub-tank 4 with their ejection ports 6a facing the platen 2. The tip of the ink nozzle 6 is supported by a glass tube holder provided upright on the head main body 1. The base end of the ink nozzle 6 is covered with a filter 6b. The ink nozzle 6 is thin with a diameter of about 1 second, and a piezo element 8 is attached to the outer periphery of the ink nozzle 6, which acts as an ink compression element that compresses the ink inside and ejects it from the ejection port 6a. . A drive circuit 9 is connected to this piezo element 8 .

The inkjet printer formed in this way is
When the head body 1 is moved together with the carriage and the ejection port 6a of the ink nozzle 6 comes to the printing position, the drive circuit 9 excites the piezo element 8 and vibrates it. The ink is compressed to reduce the pressure, and particles of the ink 3 are ejected from the ejection port 6a in the direction of the platen 2 and fly onto a sheet (not shown) to print characters or the like.

FIG. 3 shows a head used in another conventional inkjet printer in an exploded state.

In this head, a frame-shaped spacer 4112 and a closing plate 13 are laminated in order on the surface of a substantially rectangular glue root 11, and a space 14 is formed between the opening plate 13 and the surface of the substrate 11. Each component is housed within 14. In the center of the space 14, a plurality of partition walls 15, 15, formed in a block shape with the same thickness as the t-ni spacer 12, are arranged in constant rows at appropriate intervals. , these partition walls 15°15... A plurality of partition walls (four in this example)
Ink chambers 16, 16, . . . are formed. These ink chambers 16, 16... are the surrounding common ink chambers 17.
is communicated with. The common ink chamber 17 is supplied with ink from an ink reservoir (not shown) through an ink supply 118 having a roughly circular cross section, which is bored in the substrate. .

Ink discharge pressure generating elements 19 are disposed on the substrate 11 in each ink chamber 16, respectively. These ink ejection pressure generating elements 19, 19... are connected to the substrate 1.
The electrode 20 is connected to an electrode 20 formed on the substrate 1 by printed wiring or the like, and the electrode 20 is extended to the outside. Then, the ink discharge 1-1 in each ink chamber 16 is
A row of nozzle holes 21 are formed in each of the closing plates 13 facing the direction 9.

In the inkjet printer configured in this way, the ink in the ink storage section is supplied to the common ink chamber 17 and the ink chambers 16, 16, 16, 16, . . .
・They are sent to each other.

Then, when the ink ejection pressure generating element 19 selected according to the printing command is energized via the electrode 20, the ink chamber 1
The ink in the ink 6 receives pressure from the ink ejection pressure generating element 19, is ejected from the nozzle hole 21, and flies onto a sheet (not shown) to print characters or the like.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in each of the above embodiments, since the ink is ejected directly toward the paper from a very small nozzle opening, it is only possible to print or form an image with a single density; It was not possible to print or form images. Also, it was not suitable for printing with solid color. This is because the area of the ink ejected from one nozzle orifice and flying onto the paper at the center of the print is small, so it takes a long time to paint all over the paper. Similarly, it takes a long time to form an image on a large screen, making it unsuitable. Furthermore, there are also disadvantages in that the structure is complicated and is always expensive.

The present invention was made in consideration of these fish, and allows printing and image formation to be performed freely in a wide range of colors from pale to medium density, and solid filling can be done in a short time and with ease. 1i, it is easy to form large double-sided images, and it has a simple structure and is inexpensive.
The purpose of this website is to provide printers for

[Means to solve the problem]

The Infusiera 1 printer of the present invention includes a core member into which ink can freely permeate, an air nozzle that sprays air toward the core member to scatter the ink that has permeated into the core member, and an air nozzle that sprays air toward the core member to scatter the ink that has permeated into the core member. It is characterized by being formed with an opening/closing control valve that controls air supply.

(Function) When the Infusiera 1-printer of the present invention is used, the ink penetrates into the core member and flows toward the core member.
- Printing or image formation is performed by scattering ink by air ejected from the nozzle and landing on the paper. By adjusting the air ejection pressure from the air nozzle using an on-off control valve to adjust ink scattering, the print density and image quality can be freely changed from dark colors to intermediate tones. Further, by widely scattering ink in a spray manner, a large screen image can be formed easily and in a short time.

(Example) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 schematically shows an embodiment of the invention.

In this embodiment, the main part is provided in a head body 31 mounted on a not-shown blade, and the head body 31 reciprocates in the longitudinal direction of the platen 32 together with the head body 31. To explain further, an ink case 33 in which ink 34 is stored is provided upright on the platen 32 side of the head main body 31, and a core portion 4435 into which ink 34 can freely permeate is provided at the upper end of the ink case 33. installed.

This core member 35 includes ink 3 from the ink case 33.
Any material that can be used as long as the material can be used as long as it can be sucked into a capillary tube or the like, and felt is used in this embodiment. On the opposite side of the core 4435 from the platen 32, a nozzle 36 for injecting air toward the core member 35 is provided with its injection port 36a facing the core member 35. The air nozzle 36 is connected to a compressed air source such as a compressor (not shown) via a connecting pipe 37, and there is a device in the middle of the air flow path consisting of the air nozzle 36 and the connecting pipe 37 that controls the air supply state to the air nozzle 36. An opening/closing control valve 38 is provided. As the opening/closing control valve 38, it is preferable to use a valve with excellent responsiveness, such as a solenoid valve or a valve that opens and closes in response to energization of a piezo element.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

Air is being fed under pressure from the compressed air source to the connecting pipe 37, and when the core member 35 that has moved together with the head body 31 reaches the printing position, the opening/closing control valve 38 is set to a predetermined position in response to a printing command. Air nozzle 3 is opened for a certain amount of time and air is
The liquid is ejected from the nozzle 36 a of No. 6 toward the paper P wound around the core member 35 and the platen 32 . The air jetted from this air nozzle 36 causes the ink case 3 to
Ink 34 sucked up from inside 3 to the upper end of the core member 35 is scattered toward the paper P from the core member 35 and lands on the paper P.

The opening/closing operation of the opening/closing control valve 38 is performed in response to a printing command at the printing position fO through which the core member 35 passes as the head main body 31 moves, whereby predetermined printing or image formation is performed on the paper P. .

According to this embodiment, opening/closing 2. II 111 The injection port 36 of the air nozzle 36 is adjusted by adjusting the valve length between the valve 38.
Adjust the air pressure ejected from a, and increase the air pressure to increase the amount of ink 34 that flies onto the paper P, or reduce the amount of ink 34 that flies onto the paper P by lowering the air pressure. You can freely adjust the print density from dark to light intermediate tones.

In addition, since the area of the ink 34 that scatters from the core member 35 and lands on the paper P is relatively large, solid filling such as filling can be done extremely easily. Formation can also be easily carried out within a short period of time.

Note that in order to adjust the area of the ink 340 that flies onto the paper P, the core member 35 may be moved closer or closer to the platen 32, or the space between the core member 35 and the platen 32 may be adjusted to allow the ink 34 scattered to pass through. A mask portion U having a hole (both not shown) may be provided so as to be closer to or closer to the core member 35.

Alternatively, the platen 32 may be made movable without making the core member 35 and the V-nozzle 36 movable.

Further, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and can be modified as necessary.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Since the inkjet printer of the present invention is configured and operates in this way, it is possible to freely select colors from dark colors to medium-density colors for printing and image formation, and solid filling can be done in a short period of time. It is easy to perform, it is also easy to form images on a large screen, and the structure is simple and cost-effective! ~ also has the effect of being cheaper.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a principle diagram of an embodiment of an inkjet printer according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are a top view and an exploded perspective view of a conventional example, respectively. 31...Head body, 32...Platen, 33...
- Ink case, 34... Ink, 35... Core member, 36... Air nozzle, 37... Connecting pipe, 38...
...Open/close ill-till valve. Applicant's agent Shunsuke Nakao Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] It has a core member into which ink can freely permeate, an air nozzle that sprays air toward the core member to scatter the ink that has permeated the core member, and an opening/closing control valve that controls air supply to the air nozzle. inkjet printer.