JPH02266949A - Ink jet recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable ink to be effectively absorbed by a method wherein a drying means is provided to a sucking material. CONSTITUTION:A porous sucking material 14 is arranged on a surface (the surface opposed to a discharge opening surface of a recording head 12) of a recording head recovery apparatus 13. Besides, an ink sucking pump 15 is built in its inside, and the sucking material 14 is connected to the pump 15 via a sucking tube 16. A drying means is composed of the pump 15 and the sucking tube 16, and the pump 15 is connected to a waste ink tank. In ordinary recovery operation absorption of ink from a recording head 12 is performed with a tube laying from a cap to the ink sucking pump 15. Then, after the wiping off operation with the sucking material 14, the recording head 12 moves from a position opposed to the sucking material 14, and an ink drop or the like contained in the sucking material 14 is attracted with the sucking pump 15 through the sucking tube 16. Further, ink is attracted in the arrow A direction. Efficiency of wiping off operation is improved thereby, and recovery performance of gathering and non-delivery is also improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus, and particularly to a recovery device for a recording head of an inkjet recording apparatus.

[Conventional technology] FIG. 4 shows a conventional ink jet recording apparatus.

That is, the inkjet recording apparatus includes a carriage 2 slidably supported by a pair of guide rods l, a recording head 3 mounted on the carriage 2, and a recording head facing the recording head 3. 3, a platen 5 arranged below the fixing heater 4, and a recording head recovery device 6 arranged at one end of the guide rod l. It is configured with the following.

Further, the recording sheet (recording material) fed by the platen 5 is configured to be recorded by a recording head 3 on the carriage 2. Further, the recording head recovery device 6 is a device for preventing the recording head 3 from clogging or non-ejection, and periodically restores the recording head to the recording head at regular intervals.
The blade 7 wipes the ejection port surface of the ink to remove wetness, or absorbs ink during ejection performed by the print head 3 (to prevent ejection failure) for purposes other than printing.

In addition, in the event that an ejection failure occurs, a built-in pump (not shown) will suck ink and fill the ink flow path with ink, which may cause twisting or ejection failure. The absorber 8 wipes off dirt, ink droplets, paper dust from the recording paper, etc. on the ejection port surface.

That is, the absorber 8 is made to easily absorb ink, etc.
It is made of porous material and during wiping operation,
It is lightly pressed against the ejection port surface of the recording head 3. In addition,
The absorber 8 is used as a recording head recovery device 6 during recording.
It is stuck inside. Thereafter, as the carriage 2 moves slightly from side to side (scanning direction), the absorber 8 wipes off ink droplets, dirt, dust, etc. on the ejection port surface of the recording head 3. This state is shown in FIG.

[Technical Problem to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, as described above, by wiping off ink droplets, dust, etc. on the ejection port surface of the print head 3 with the absorber 8, the above-mentioned deviations and ejection failures can be corrected to normal printing. However, the ink droplets absorbed by the absorber 8 are allowed to dry naturally. Therefore, if the wiping operation is performed continuously, the absorbent body 8
The ejection orifice surface of the recording pad 3 must be wiped in a wet state, resulting in an extremely low ink absorption efficiency.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention was made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an inkjet recording apparatus that can efficiently absorb ink even when wiping is performed continuously.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an inkjet recording apparatus having a porous absorbent body for wiping the ejection port surface of the recording pad, in which the absorbent body is provided with a drying means. The configuration is as follows.

[Function] As described above, in the present invention, since the absorbent body is quickly dried by the drying means, even if the ejection port surface of the recording head is continuously wiped with the absorbent body, the ink absorption of the absorbent body is Efficiency never decreases.

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail using examples shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the main parts of an embodiment of an inkjet recording apparatus according to the present invention. A recording head 12 is mounted on a carriage 11 that is slidably fitted on a guide rod IO.
is mounted, and the recording head 12 is configured to record on a recording sheet (not shown) while reciprocating left and right on a guide rod 10 by being driven by a cow carriage motor (not shown). Further, at this time, the carriage 11 moves to a position opposite the recording head recovery device f13 at a certain timing to eject ink so that the ejection orifice surface of the recording head 12 is not clogged.

A porous award absorber 14 is disposed on the surface of the recording head recovery device 13 (the surface facing the ejection port surface of the recording head 12), and an ink suction pump 15 forming an ink mechanism is provided inside. is built-in, and these absorbers 14
and the pump 15 are connected via a Ull bow tube 16. The pump 15 and suction tube 16 constitute a drying means. Note that the pump 15 is connected to a waste ink tank.

Next, the operation of the device of this embodiment will be explained.

First, in a normal recovery operation, ink from the recording head 12 is absorbed by a tube drawn from a cap (not shown) to an ink suction pump 15.

However, after the wiping operation by the absorber 14, the recording head 12 moves from the position facing the absorber 14, and the ink droplets etc. contained in the absorber 14 are removed through the suction tube 16 into the ink suction tube. It is sucked out by the pump 15. Note that ink is sucked in the direction of arrow A in the figure. This improves the efficiency of the wiping operation and improves the recovery performance from twisting and non-ejection.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of essential parts showing another embodiment of the inkjet recording apparatus according to the present invention. In this embodiment, a porous absorber 14 is disposed on the right side of the recording head recovery device 13, and a fixing heater 1 serving as a drying discharge means is disposed on the right side of the recording head recovery device 13.
A part 17a (hatched portion) of the fixing heater 17 is provided protruding toward the absorber 14 so that the fixing heater 17 is located near the absorber 14. The blade of the recording head recovery device 13 is placed on the left side of the absorber 14, and the positional relationship between the absorber 14 and the blade 18 is opposite to that of the conventional example.

The fixing heater 17 is for quickly drying the ink on the recording sheet, serves as a heat generation source, and is designed to quickly evaporate water in the ink. in this way,
In this embodiment, by evaporating the moisture in the absorber 14 using the fixing heater 17, it is possible to improve the efficiency of the wiping operation without increasing the number of parts compared to the conventional example.

Note that if the above-described first embodiment and the configuration of this embodiment are used together, the wiping effect of the ejection opening surface of the recording head 12 can be further improved. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the absorber 14 may be attached directly onto the fixing printer 17 instead of on the recovery device 13 side of the recording head, and the wiping operation may be performed at this position.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the inkjet recording apparatus according to the present invention, the porous certificate absorber for wiping the ejection orifice surface of the recording head is provided with a drying means. Since the ink droplets that have been removed can be dried much more quickly than in the past, ink can be absorbed efficiently even when the ejection orifice surface of the recording head is continuously wiped. Therefore, excellent effects are achieved in that it is possible to prevent twisting and non-ejection, and to improve recovery efficiency.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of main parts showing one embodiment of an inkjet recording device according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are partial plan views showing other embodiments of the inkjet recording device of the present invention, respectively. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of a conventional inkjet recording apparatus, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the conventional operation. 12--... Recording head, 13--...
Recording head recovery device, 14--1... absorber, 15-- pump, 16...-
. . . Suction tube, 17- . . . Fixing heater.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) An inkjet recording apparatus having a porous absorbent body for wiping the ejection port surface of a recording head, characterized in that the absorbent body is provided with a drying means. (2) The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the drying means comprises an ink suction mechanism built in a recording head recovery device and a suction tube connecting the ink suction mechanism and the absorber. (3) The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the drying means is constituted by a heat generation source provided near the absorber.