JPH01281948A - Ink jet recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent faulty ink discharge due to ink fluidity by providing a fluidity inhibitive member which makes possible the control of flowing ink at least at one end of an ink supply tube. CONSTITUTION:An ink liquidity inhibitive member 21 is filled in uniform density, in a section from a tube post 9 with crossing lines provided in a lattice form to a point near a carriage 6 of an ink supply tube 12. During ordinary recording or a recovery action, the amount of ink supplied to a recording head 5 from an auxiliary ink tank is small, so that a sharp pressure variation does not occur in the auxiliary ink tank 8. Therefore, it is possible to make up the ink 18 slowly in the auxiliary ink tank 8, if the ink liquidity inhibitive member 21 were loaded in the ink supply tube 12. Furthermore, the sudden movement of the ink due to its inertial force following the shift of the carriage 6 is controlled by friction resistance between the ink and the member 21. Consequently, the backflow of the ink 18 from the tube 12 to the auxiliary ink tank 8 is prevented and thereby a normal ink discharge can be ensured.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an inkjet recording device.
The present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus in which recording ink is supplied from a fixed ink tank to a tank mounted on a ridge via an ink supply tube.

[Prior Art] FIG. 6 shows an example of a conventional inkjet recording apparatus of this type. Here, the recording sheet 1-14 of the month to be recorded, which is fed from the vapor pan 2 and held on the platen 3, is a sheet 1 to a holding plate that holds the recording sheet 1 at the recording position.

A recording head 5 is mounted on a carriage 6 and performs recording by ejecting ink while moving along a carriage guide shaft 7.
A sub-ink tank shown as 8 in the figure is installed.

Furthermore, in FIG. 6, reference numeral 9 denotes a supply tube post attached to the head plate IO of the apparatus, 11 a fixed ink tank, and 12 a sub-ink tank 8 mounted on the carriage 6 from the ink tank 11 via the supply tube post 9. 13 is a cover that covers and protects the tube 12 and holds the tube 12 flexibly with a certain amount of tension; 14 is a flexible cable for supplying recording signals to the recording head 5;

Further, an endless timing belt 16 driven by a carriage motor 15 is attached to the carriage 6, and the carriage 6 is moved from the illustrated home position to the right, during which recording is performed. A recovery device 17 is provided at a position opposite the recording head 5 at the home position.
A similar operation is performed in which ink is sucked from an ink ejection unit (not shown) to recover from ejection failure due to clogging of the ejection port or the like.

(Problem to be solved by the invention) However, in this J: Ut2 conventional inkjet recording apparatus, the recording head 5 is guided along with the carriage 6! When moving back and forth after recovering from l1ll17, hippo 1
Ink supply tube 1 of the part protected by 3
2, that is, as the tube movable part shown as 12M in FIG. 4 moves from the left position shown in FIG. 6 to the right position in the figure as the carriage 6 moves, the tube post 9 is centered. and follow it.

During this pursuit, due to the acceleration movement of the carriage 6 and the inertial force of the ink 18 in the tube 12,
The ink 18 flows within the tube 12 along the direction of movement. The flow rate of the ink 18 at this time increases as the acceleration of the carriage 6 increases.
Since the inertial force of 8, ie, the amount of ink increases, the flow rate tends to increase as the speed of the recording device increases and the printing width increases.

This ink supply tube 12 is connected to a sub-ink tank 8 mounted on a carriage 6, as shown in FIG.
As the ink 18 flows as described above, the water level and pressure within the sub-ink tank 8 directly change. At this time, some amount of air is absorbed by the presence of the air chamber 88 in the sub-tank 8, and the influence on the recording function of the recording head 5 is suppressed;
In expanding the printing width, an increase in the speed and acceleration of the carriage 6 is unavoidable, and the flow of the ink 18 has an undesirable effect on the ink ejection from the recording head 1.

However, such an effect may cause the carriage 6 to move away from the position A corresponding to the supply tube post 9 in FIG. 7, for example.
When the tube 12 has little bending, the frictional resistance between the tube 12 and the ink 18 becomes the smallest, and the inertia of the ink 18 increases. Increases as the force increases.

That is, the ink 18 in the tube 12 is transferred to the carriage 6.
The carriage 6 moves behind the accelerated movement of , and after a while after moving at a constant speed, it repeats the behavior of catching up with the moving speed of the carriage 6. Therefore, the apparent ζ is ink 1
8 forms a flow that is returned in the direction of the supply tube post 9, thereby lowering the water level in the sub-ink tank 8, thereby reducing the pressure in the air chamber 88, which is equal to atmospheric pressure. When the difference from the air chamber pressure exceeds a certain value, the size of the ejected ink droplets changes, and in this case, the diameter of the ink dots becomes smaller. Furthermore, if this difference is even larger, there is a risk that ink ejection and droplet formation may become impossible.

The purpose of the present invention is to focus on the conventional problems as mentioned above,
In order to solve this problem, inkjet printing prevents the ink inside the ink tube from flowing as the carriage moves, thereby preventing it from affecting the ejection pressure of the ink supplied to the print head. The goal is to provide equipment.

(Means for Solving the Problem) In order to achieve this object, the present invention has a sub-ink tank mounted on the carriage together with the recording spatula 1-, and the sub-ink is supplied from the fixed ink tank via an ink supply tube. In an inkjet recording apparatus in which recording ink is supplied to an ink tank and recording is performed by ejecting ink from a recording spatula I while moving a carriage, an ink supply element is used. This is characterized in that a flow suppressing part blade capable of suppressing the flow of ink is provided in the part.

(Function) According to the invention, it is possible to prevent the ink in the tube from instantaneously flowing from the sub-ink tank side to the tube side by the flow control member provided in at least a part of the ink tube. Therefore, it is possible to suppress the pressure fluctuation of the ink guided to the print head and to cause the print head to eject the ink normally.

(Example) On side T, an example of the present invention will be described in detail and specifically based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the invention. This example is an example in which an ink flow suppressing member is mounted on the movable part of the ink tube from the back of the ink tube (p(, 1 tube boss 1 to the carriage side). Therefore, it is preferable to use a material that does not undergo chemical changes and is hydrophilic, preferably polyethylene fibers.

Zunawaji, in FIG. 1, the tube boss [・9
The above-mentioned ink flow suppressing members 21 are loaded in the area from the ink flow suppressing member 21 to the vicinity of the carriage 6 at a negative density. During the ink replenishment and recovery operations that occur when printing a pass, the amount of ink 18 supplied from the sub ink tank 8 to the recording head 5 is small, and a sudden pressure change may occur in the sub ink tank 8. Therefore, even if the ink flow suppressing member 21 or the ink supply tube 12 is loaded, the ink 18 is slowly removed by supplementing the sub tank 8.

Further, the sudden flow of ink 18 due to inertia caused by the movement of carriage 60 is suppressed by the frictional resistance between the ink flow printing unit Δ21, and therefore, the ink 18 flows backward from tube 12 to sub tank 8. Is it possible to prevent this?

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the invention. Here, reference numeral 31 denotes an ink flow suppressor, and in this example, a cylindrical porous ceramic filter as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B is used for the ink flow suppressor blade 31. Porous ceramics have countless fine communicating pores inside them, are resistant to ink, and can be easily penetrated by ink, so they are suitable for use in cases such as this example. Note that the operation of replenishing ink to the sub-ink tank 8 and the ink flow suppressing operation for preventing backflow in this example are the same as those of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and the explanation thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 4 shows yet another embodiment of the invention. Here, 41
is an ink flow control plate, and in this example, a metal filter plate having 12 fine meshes as shown in FIG. 5 is used as the ink flow 1ffl control plate 41. This kind of metal mesh filter plate has excellent ink resistance and hydrophilicity compared to other materials, and is easy to process. . Note that the pores 418 distributed in a network shown in FIG. 5 can be formed by, for example, laser machining. Therefore, the pore size can be finely adjusted, and it is possible to make a diameter suitable for suppressing the flow. It is possible to manufacture a filter with pores.

In the embodiments shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the member for suppressing ink flow is installed in the ink supply tube near the carriage, but the installation position is not limited to this. In some cases, the ink supply tube may be provided at multiple positions.
stomach.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, a member for suppressing the flow of ink is provided in at least a part of the ink supply chain provided between the fixed ink tank and the sub-ink tank mounted on the carriage. It is possible to suppress the ink from flowing due to the inertia force generated in the ink inside the ink supply tube due to the acceleration when the ink moves, and moreover, it does not cause any trouble to the normal ink supply operation. , it is possible to prevent ink ejection failure caused by ink flow.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the configuration of an ink supply system as an embodiment of the inkjet recording apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a side view schematically showing the configuration of an ink supply system in another embodiment of the present invention. 3A is a perspective view of the ink flow suppressing member provided in the ink supply system shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 3B is a sectional view of the ink flow suppressing member shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a side view schematically showing the configuration of the ink supply system, FIG. 5 is a plan view of an ink flow suppressing member installed in the ink supply system shown in FIG. 4, and FIG. Infusiella 1~
A perspective view showing the configuration of the recording device, FIG. 7, is shown in FIG. 6.
FIG. 2 is a side view schematically showing the configuration of an ink supply system in a J-inkjet recording apparatus. 5... Recording spatula I~, 6... Carriage, 8... Sub ink tank, 8A... Air chamber, 9... Supply tube post, 11... Ink tank, 12... Ink supplyヂ:l--bu, 18... Ink, 21Jl... Ink flow control member, 41... Ink flow suppression plate, 418... Kumiko Rini\('J 㜀〈ship← 'I Miichi Sou

Claims (1)

[Claims] A sub-ink tank is mounted on a carriage together with a recording head, and the sub-ink tank is supplied with recording ink from a fixed ink tank via an ink supply tube, and the carriage is moved. An inkjet recording apparatus in which recording is performed by ejecting ink from the recording head, wherein at least a portion of the ink supply tube is provided with a flow suppressing member capable of suppressing the flow of the ink. .