JPH01275049A - Ink jet recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to remove an attachment on the discharge surface of a recording head without suspension of printing and deterioration of throughput by providing a removing member which causes a part of the external surface of paper to come into contact with the ink droplet discharge surface of the recording head using a paper feed motor as a drive source. CONSTITUTION:If a paper feed command is issued, a carriage 8 moves a shaft 9 clockwise until a discharge surface 6 is opposed to a removing member 1. Next, if paper feed operation begins, a paper feed motor 10 rotates and a platen 13 also rotates. At the same time, rotation is transmitted to a rotating shaft 3 through a gear box 4, and the rotating shaft 3, in turn, rotates. An endless belt 2 rotates by rotation of the rotating shaft 3, and plate-like blades 11, 12 of different sizes installed on the external surface of the endless belt sequentially slide in contact with the discharge surface 6. Thus ink and foreign matter are removed from the discharge surface 6. If the paper feed action ends, the paper feed motor 10 stops, resulting in the halting of the platen 13 and the removing member 1. After this, the carriage 8 moves to a next printing start position. The above-described operation is repeated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an inkjet recording device, and particularly to an inkjet recording device that performs recording by ejecting and flying ink droplets from a nozzle.

[Conventional technology]

An inkjet recording device has an energy generating element such as a piezoelectric element installed in a nozzle or an ink pressure chamber communicating with the nozzle, and uses the pressure generated when the element is driven to fly ink droplets from the tip of the nozzle. . For this reason, ink not used for flight, dust in the air, etc. adhere to the nozzle tip, which in the worst case may impede the ejection of ink droplets and degrade the quality of the recorded image.

In order to prevent this, the conventional removal means (a
) The removal member is brought into contact with and retracted from the head surface in conjunction with the rotation of the pump motor or the advance and retreat of the camp; (b)
(c) A removal member is fixedly installed at a predetermined position, and a removal operation is performed each time the head comes to this position.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, such conventional inkjet recording apparatuses have the disadvantage that when the removal operation is performed in the middle of printing using the configurations (a) and (b) above, printing is interrupted. In the case of configuration c), in order to effectively remove deposits from the ejection surface of the head, it is necessary to bring the head into contact with the removal member at a speed lower than the carriage speed during printing, resulting in a problem of reduced throughput. there were.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet recording apparatus that can remove deposits from the ejection surface of a head without interrupting printing or reducing throughput.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention achieves the above object by providing a removal member that rotates using a paper feed motor as a driving source and is disposed so that a part of its outer surface can come into contact with the ink droplet ejection surface of the recording head. .

The removing member preferably has a configuration in which at least one plate-shaped blade is attached to a rotating shaft.

[Effect]

With the above configuration, the paper feed motor is used as the drive source, and contact with the ejection surface of the head is made when the paper feed operation is started, so that no deposits on the head ejection surface can be removed without interrupting printing. is removed.

Furthermore, by using a plate-shaped blade as the removal member, the front surface of the ejection surface of the head can be wiped off, and any deposits can be removed without leaving any residue.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of an inkjet recording apparatus according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a removal member, and plate-shaped blades 11 and 12 of different sizes are alternately attached radially to the outer surface of an endless heald 2. The plate-shaped blade 11 has a shallow depth and a large thickness, and the plate-shaped blade is made of a material having elasticity such as rubber. The endless heald 2 is attached to a rotating shaft 3, and this rotating shaft 3
is connected to a gig box 4.

A shaft 5 of a platen 13 is horizontally connected to the gear box 4. A recording head 7 is attached to a carriage 8 with its ejection surface 6 facing the platen 13. The carriage 8 is slidably attached to a shaft 9 disposed parallel to the shaft 5, and reciprocates in the shaft length direction. A paper feed motor 10 is connected to the other end of the shaft 5 and serves as a drive source for rotating the platen 13 and the rotating shaft 3.

Next, the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

First, when a paper feed command is issued, the carriage 7 8 moves the shaft 9 to the right in FIG. 1 until the discharge surface 6 faces the removal member 1. Then, when the paper feed operation starts,
The paper feed motor 10 rotates, the platen 13 rotates, and the rotation is transmitted to the rotating shaft 3 via the gear box 4, so that the rotating shaft 3 rotates. The rotation of the rotary shaft 3 rotates the endless belt 2, and its plate-shaped blades 11 and 12 sequentially come into sliding contact with the ejection surface 6, thereby removing ink, foreign matter, etc. from the ejection surface 6.

When the paper feeding operation is finished, the paper feeding motor 10 stops,
This causes the platen 13 and the removal member l to rotate.

Then, the carriage 8 moves to the next printing start position, and the above-described operation is repeated.

Note that the rotation speed of the removal member I can be adjusted as desired by selecting the gear ratio in the gear box 4.

As described above, according to the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, by bringing the removal member into sliding contact during paper feeding, the removal member is effectively attached to the head ejection surface without interrupting printing or reducing throughput. It is possible to remove ink, foreign matter, etc.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, the plate blades 11 and 12 are
was brought into contact with the discharge surface 6 from the horizontal direction, whereas
They are brought into contact with each other from the vertical direction.

For this purpose, temporary blades 11 and 12 are attached radially and alternately to a roller 21 that rotates coaxially with the shaft 5 to constitute a removing member 20, and this removing member 20 is connected to a gear bonox 14 (input shaft and output shaft are on the same axis). It is attached to the output shaft of the The gear box 14 is connected to the shaft 5 and is fixedly installed on the main body chassis of the device.

This embodiment differs only in the direction of removal, and the operation and results are the same as those of the previous embodiment, so redundant explanation will be omitted.

In any of the embodiments, the slope blades 11 and 12 may be made of porous material so that they can absorb the removed material.

As is clear from the above, according to the present invention, the removal member is provided which rotates using the paper feed motor as a driving source and is disposed so that a part of its outer surface can come into contact with the ink droplet ejection surface of the recording head. It is possible to effectively remove deposits from the ejection surface of the head without interrupting printing or reducing throughput. Furthermore, by using a sloped blade as the removal member, the entire discharge surface of the head can be wiped off without leaving any deposits.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of one embodiment of an inkjet recording apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of another embodiment of the inkjet recording apparatus according to the present invention. 1.20--11--Removal member, 2-----
・-- Endless heald, 3--11-- Rotating shaft, 4.14-
---・-Gear box, 5-----・Shaft, 6-
---------Ejection surface, 7-----1--Recording head, 8--1--Carriage, 10------
-Paper feed motor, 11.12----1 plate blade,
21-1--------Roller.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In an inkjet recording device that performs recording using ink droplets while relatively moving a recording head that ejects ink droplets from a nozzle and a recording medium in the main scanning direction, the paper feed motor rotates as a drive source. An inkjet recording apparatus characterized in that a removal member is disposed such that a part of the surface thereof can come into contact with the ink droplet ejection surface of the recording head. (2) The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim (1), wherein the removing member includes at least one plate-shaped blade attached to a rotating shaft.