JPH02187358A - Ink jet recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To inexpensively and effectively perform the opening/closing operation of a cap with a simple structure in cooperation with the movement of a carriage by disengaging the engagement of the carriage with a feed threaded part in cooperation with the arrival of the carriage at a cap position. CONSTITUTION:A feed threaded part 2a and a groove 2b are formed at a predetermined lead pitch on a leadscrew 2. The pressing part 7c of a carriage 7 presses a clutch gear 4 against the energizing force of a coil spring 5 to engage the clutch gear 4 with a cap gear 23c. The rotation of an idle gear 22 is transmitted to a cap gear 23 through a transfer gear 3 and the clutch gear 4 to rotate a cam 23a concentric with the gear, thereby fluctuating a cap lever 24. When the carriage 7 is moved to a state that the clutch gear 4 is completely engaged with the cam 23a, a driving pin 8 is dropped into the groove 2b of the screw 2, thereby stopping moving of the carriage 7. The cam 23a once presses the cap lever 24 immediately after it is lowered from a horizontal position and then rotates clockwise along the surface of the cam 23a. A cap 27 approaches a head 12a upon rotation of the lever 24, and both are brought into contact under pressure.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an inkjet recording device, and more particularly to an inkjet recording device equipped with a mechanism for preventing dry clogging of the ejection ports of a head.

[Conventional technology]

Recording devices such as printers and facsimile machines can be classified into thermal types, wire dot types, ink shared types, etc. depending on the recording method.

Among these, the inkjet method (inkjet recording device) supplies ink to a recording head that has at least one fine liquid path, and drives an energy generator provided in the liquid path based on print data to ink the liquid. Applying pressure to the ink in the path and ejecting the ink from the ejection port in a flying manner? &, The ink droplet is configured to form droplets and adhere the ink droplets to a sheet such as paper or a thin plastic plate to form a dot pattern.

Incidentally, in this type of inkjet recording apparatus, the ejection ports may become clogged due to thickening of the ink due to evaporation of the ink solvent, adhesion of dust, inclusion of air bubbles, etc. In order to prevent this and ensure stable discharge, a discharge recovery means is provided. This ejection recovery means generally involves camping the ejection opening of the head with a rubber camp, etc., and creating a negative pressure in the space formed inside the cap using a suction means to suck it, or ejecting it by applying pressure from the ink supply side. A configuration is used in which a recovery operation is performed by discharging ink from an outlet.

However, this configuration requires a dedicated motor to open and close the cap, which increases the cost of the device, requires installation space, and has the drawback of increasing the size of the device.

To solve this problem, we installed a capping mechanism that moves the cap forward and backward in synchronization with the scanning direction of the carriage, and uses a cam, which is a component of this mechanism, to perform capping in conjunction with the movement of the carriage to its home position. A configuration that performs this has been proposed.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in such a conventional inkjet recording apparatus, it is necessary to move the carriage further than the end of the recording medium for capping, which increases the width in the printing direction. In addition, the cap can be placed horizontally and vertically.
The structure must be moved in the same direction, making the configuration complex and difficult to achieve accuracy.

〔the purpose〕

The purpose of the present invention is to improve the problems of the conventional technology and to provide a simple structure that allows the camp to be opened and closed in conjunction with the movement of the carriage at low cost and reliably without the need for a dedicated drive source. An object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet recording device that has the following features.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention provides a lead screw that moves a carriage by a spiral groove-shaped feed screw portion formed on an outer peripheral surface, a drive means that rotates the lead screw, and a mechanism for securing the carriage and the feed screw portion to the carriage. The above object is achieved by providing a stop means that stops the carriage by releasing the stop means in conjunction with reaching the cap position.

Further, in order to drive the capping mechanism by the carriage drive means, it is desirable to provide the capping mechanism with a clutch mechanism that transmits the driving force of the drive means in conjunction with the operation of the stop means.

[Effect]

By configuring as in claim 1, the carriage moves to the camp position as the lead screw rotates, and when the carriage reaches the cap position, the engaging member of the carriage 7 is disengaged from the feed screw portion of the lead screw.
The carriage will stop even if the lead screw is rotating. Therefore, the rotational force of the lead screw can be used to drive the capping mechanism.

Furthermore, with the structure of claim 2, after the carriage stops, the rotation of the lead screw is transmitted to the capping mechanism, and the cap advances toward the head to cover the ink droplet ejection surface.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7.

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

''yj In the S1 diagram, I is a base on which each member shown below is mounted, including side plates 1a, 1b and intermediate side plate 1c.
has been erected. A lead screw 2 is rotatably supported between the side plates 1a and lb, and has a feed screw portion 2a and a groove 2b formed with a predetermined lead pitch.

3 is a transmission gear provided at one end of the lead screw 2;
Reference numeral 4 designates a clutch gear that is fitted onto the lead screw 2 in close proximity to the transmission gear 3 so as to be slidably engaged with the transmission gear 3 in the axial direction and to transmit driving force in the rotational direction.

A coil spring 5 is installed between the transmission gear 3 and the clutch gear 4 and always urges the clutch gear 4 toward the recording area. In order to restrict the position of the clutch gear 4 biased by the coil spring 5, a C ring 6 is engaged with a groove 3b formed at the end of the transmission gear 3, as shown in FIG.

7 is a carriage, the details of which are shown in FIG. 7a and 7b are bearing parts that fit into the lead screw 2;
7C is a pressing part provided on the bearing part 7a, 7d is a shielding plate provided at the bottom of the carriage 7, 7e is a projection-shaped guide part provided on both sides of the front part, and 7r is made of an elastic plastic material such as polyacetal. using carriage 7
The head lock lever 17g integrally formed with the head lock lever 7f is a hook portion formed at the front of the head lock lever 7f, 7h is a carriage lock portion attached to both sides of the carriage 7, and 8 is a hook portion formed at a predetermined position of the carriage 7. Moreover, it is a drive pin that is attached diagonally along the lead angle of the lead screw 2 as shown in FIG.

9 is provided at the bottom of the carriage 7 as shown in Figure 3.
It is a U-shaped carriage spring. Reference numeral 9a denotes a pressure contact portion formed at one end of the carriage spring 9, and a rotatable guide roller IO is provided at the tip end of the carriage spring 9.
The rail portion 101 of the heath 1 is pressed by. 9
As shown in FIG. 6, b is a butt holding part 9 equipped with a pad 11 at the tip to be pressed against the lead screw 2.
C is a flip-up part to facilitate removal of the head.

Reference numeral 12 designates a head portion 12a provided with an electric heat exchanger that generates thermal energy used for ejecting ink, and an ink tank 12b that accommodates ink to be supplied to the head portion 12a, which are integrally attached to and detached from the carriage. It is a disposable head that can be mounted as shown in FIG. 12C is a mounting pin that is inserted into the mounting section of the carriage 7, and 12d is a hook portion formed at the rear end of the head 12 to which the hook portion 7g is engaged when the head 12 is mounted. Reference numeral 13 designates a flexible contact that is provided on the upper surface of the carriage 7 and is capable of contacting the electrodes of the mounted head 12, and 14 is a paper feed roller that is disposed parallel to the lead screw 2 and transports the recording paper while winding it.

15 is a paper feed motor that rotationally drives the paper feed roller 15;
Reference numeral 16 indicates a printing paper as a recording medium, and 17 indicates a paper pan serving as a guide for the printing paper 16 to be fed to the paper feed roller 14.

18 is a paper presser slope that prevents the printing paper 16 from bending toward the head 12 at the printing position; 19 is a carriage 7;
The motor 19a serves as a driving source for the motor 19 and the side plate 1a.
The stay 19b for fixing to the rotating shaft of the motor 19,
20 is a pinion mounted on the shaft end of the rotating shaft 19b;
2 meshes with the pinion 20 and the transmission gear 3, and the pinion 2
It is an idle gear that transmits the rotation of o to the transmission gear 3,
The gear shaft 21 is pivotally supported by the side plate 1a.

23 is coaxially supported by the idle gear 22 and the camp 2
This is a cap gear that rotates 7. camping gear 23
is provided with a cam 23a for swinging the cap lever 24 by integral processing.

A cap lever 24 is rotatably attached to the lever shaft 25, and includes a contact portion 24a that contacts the cam 23a and a spring portion 24b that applies rotational force to the cap lever 24. 26 is a cap holder attached to the front surface of the gear/7 breaker 24, and 27 is a camp attached to the front surface of the cap bolter 26, which has a rib 27a for good adhesion. 28 is a plate attached to the side plate 1c, 29 is an ink absorber that has been subjected to a porous hydrophilic treatment and is attached to the side plate 1c, and 30 is a home position detection device provided on the bottom of the hex near the transmission gear 3. It is an ink bar.

Next, the operation of the embodiment with the above configuration will be explained in FIG.
This will be explained with reference to a) to FIG. 7(h).

First, when the motor 19 rotates, driving force is transmitted via the pinion 20 and the idle gear 22, causing the transmission gear 3 to rotate. When the transmission gear 3 rotates, the lead screw 2 rotates, and the carriage 7 rotates in six directions.
moves in direction a.

Conversely, when the lead screw 2 rotates in the direction B, the carriage 7 moves in the direction b. The lead screw 2 alternately rotates in directions a and b in accordance with recording information, reciprocates the carriage 7, and in the process ejects ink droplets from the ejection opening of the head 12.

Next, the recovery operation when waiting for print data and when the power is turned off will be explained.

First, the carriage 7 is moved in the b direction and brought into contact with the clutch gear 4. The pressing portion 7c of the carriage 7 presses the clutch gear 4 against the urging force of the coil spring 5, as shown in FIG.
The clutch gear 4 is moved from the state shown in a) to the state shown in FIG. 7(b), and the clutch gear 4 is brought into mesh with the camp gear 23C. At this time, since the cam 23a remains stationary, as shown in FIG.
As shown, the head portion 12a is separated from the cap holder 26. When the state shown in FIG. 7(b) is reached, the rotation of the idle gear 22 is transmitted to the cap gear 23 via the transmission gear 3 and the clutch gear 4, and a cam 23 coaxial with this gear is transmitted to the cap gear 23.
a rotates to swing the cap lever 24 as shown in FIG. 7(f).

As shown in FIG. 7(c), when the carriage 7 moves to a state where the clutch gear 4 is completely engaged with the cam 23a, the drive pin 8 falls into the groove 2b of the lead screw 2, and the movement of the carriage 7 is stopped. However, the cam 23a continues to rotate, and after once pressing the cap lever 24 immediately after descending from the horizontal position, the cap lever 24 moves clockwise along the surface of the cam 23a as the rotation of the cam 23a progresses. Rotate. As the cap lever 24 rotates, the camp 27 approaches the head portion 12a, and finally the two come into pressure contact as shown in FIG. 7(h). At this time, the positional relationship of each gear is the same as the state shown in FIG. 7(C).
d). The pressing force of the camp 27 can be arbitrarily set by selecting the elastic force of the spring portion 24b of the cap lever 24.

Next, when the cap 27 is opened and printing is performed, the above-described camping operation may be reversed. First, when the motor 19 is rotated to rotate the lead screw 2 in the A direction, the cap gear 23 rotates because the drive pin 8 and the feed screw portion 2a of the lead screw 2 are not engaged. In conjunction with this rotation, the cam portion 23a rotates,
By rotating the cap lever 24, the cap 27 and the head portion 12a of the head 12 are separated, and the cap 27 is opened. From this state, when the lead screw 2 rotates further, the carriage 7 is always urged in the direction by the coil spring 5, so the drive pin 8 moves? It is pressed against the end face of M2b. Therefore, the drive pin 8 is fitted in the position where it engages with the feed screw portion 2a, and the carriage 7 moves in the direction a in FIG. As the carriage 7 moves, the clutch gear 4 also moves, the clutch gear 4 and the camp gear 23 are disengaged, and the rotation of the cap gear 23 is stopped.

FIG. 8 is a schematic perspective view showing another embodiment of the present invention. The difference between this embodiment and FIG. 1 is that the clutch gear 4
The coil spring 5 is removed from the lead screw 2, and a coil spring 31 is provided at the other end of the lead screw 2 to urge the lead screw 2 toward the transmission gear 3. Furthermore, a coil spring 31 is provided at the other end of the lead screw 2 to bias the lead screw 2 in the direction of the transmission gear 3. The point is that a stopper ld is provided. Furthermore, the tooth width of the transmission gear 3 is increased.

According to the configuration shown in FIG. 8, when the carriage 7 moves to the cap position, the carriage 7 moves as shown in FIG. 9(a).
comes into contact with the stopper 1d and stops at this position. When the lead screw 2 further rotates in the direction B, the carriage 7
is fixed, the entire lead screw 2 functions as a screw, and the lead screw 2 is fixed to the coil spring 3.
11 N and move in the direction a in Fig. 9(a). As the lead screw 2 moves, the transmission gear 3 also moves in the direction a, and as shown in FIG. 9(b), the transmission gear 3 shifts to the idle gear 2.
2 and the cap gear 23.

When the lead screw 2 further rotates and moves in the axial direction from this state, the axial movement of the lead screw 2 stops at the position where the drive pin 8 enters the groove 2b. The lead screw 2 rotates in this state, and the idle gear 22 and cap gear 23 rotate accordingly, thereby rotating the cap lever 24 and covering the cap 27 with the head portion 12a. In addition, Camp 2
7 can be released by reversing the above operation and retracting the cap 27.

According to the embodiment shown in FIG. 8, the lead screw 2 moves in the axial direction and functions as a clutch by keeping the gears engaged, thereby reducing the number of parts and further simplifying the configuration. can.

Moreover, such a configuration makes it relatively easy to achieve particularly good camping accuracy in an inkjet recording apparatus in which a recording head is removably mounted on a carriage.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it produces the effects described below.

In the inkjet recording apparatus according to the first aspect, the thread tfA! formed on the outer peripheral surface. a lead screw for moving the carriage by means of a groove-shaped feed screw portion; a driving means for rotating the lead screw; and a drive means for interlocking engagement between the carriage ji and the feed screw portion when the carriage reaches a cap position. Since a stop means for stopping the carriage by releasing the cap is provided, there is no need to provide a dedicated drive source for capping, and the carriage can be moved simply by reducing the amount of movement. The cap and the carriage can be driven with a simple configuration. Furthermore, by using the lead screw, the recording head does not shift its position during capping, making it easier to achieve positional accuracy in capping. Therefore, it is possible to provide a small and inexpensive inkjet recording device.

In the inkjet recording apparatus according to the second aspect, a clutch mechanism is provided for transmitting the driving force of the carriage drive means in conjunction with the operation of the stop means, to the gear/knobbing mechanism that opens and closes the camp that covers the ejection surface of the head. Therefore, following the stopping operation of the carriage, the camping operation can be realized automatically and with a simple configuration.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an embodiment of an inkjet recording apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing details of the transmission gear section of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing details of the carriage. 4 is a schematic side view showing the engagement between the drive pin and the feed screw part, FIG. 5 is a schematic side view showing the state in which the head is attached to the carriage, and FIG. 6 is a schematic side view showing the state in which the butt is attached. 7(a) to (h) are a schematic front view of a gear section and a schematic side view of a part of the cap lever, and FIG. A schematic perspective view of another embodiment of the inkjet recording apparatus according to the present invention, No. 9
Figures (a) and (b) are schematic front views of a gear section for explaining the operation of the embodiment shown in Figure 8. ■−・・−・−Pace, 2−・・・・～・−Lead screw 3・−・・−−−−−−1 Transmission gear, 4・
・-----・-Clutch gear, 5-・Coil spring, 7
・・・・・・・・・・・・- Carriage, 8 drive pins, 9.
...-1----- Carriage spring, 12--
...Head, 19--Drive means motor, 22--Idle gear, 23
Camping gear, 24 camp lever, 27-・-1--
- Camp, 29 Ink Absorber, 31 Coil Hane.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In an inkjet recording device that performs recording and includes an inkjet head that ejects ink according to recording information and a carriage that moves the inkjet head in a predetermined direction according to the recording information, a spiral formed on the outer peripheral surface a lead screw for moving the carriage by means of a groove-shaped feed screw; a driving means for rotating the lead screw; and a drive means for interlocking engagement between the carriage and the feed screw when the carriage reaches a cap position. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a stop means that stops a carriage by releasing the stop means. (2) A clutch mechanism that transmits the driving force of the drive means in conjunction with the operation of the stop means is provided to the capping mechanism that opens and closes the cap covering the ejection surface of the inkjet head. 1. The inkjet recording device according to 1.