JPH0232857A - Ink jet recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To permit an ink liquid to flow with a simple construction by providing such a groove that an ink mist liquid flows into the groove, in a head surface toward which a large quantity of an ink mist is scattered back. CONSTITUTION:An ink-ejecting surface part of an ink jet head 21 is provided with cut grooves 101. The grooves 101 are provided substantially perpendicularly or slantly, relative to the ink jet head set in position. An ink ejected for recording is absorbed into a recording paper, and a surplus portion of the ink converted into a mist is adhered to the surface of the head, and grows gradually to be droplets. Cleaning water left in an adhered condition upon cleaning is also adhered to the head surface as spherical droplets. These liquid droplets do not grow into larger drops, due to the presence of the grooves 101 in the head surface, and are collected into and flow in the grooves 101. As a result, unrequired ink droplets or cleaning water is not present on the head surface, so that a misoperation or trouble such as contamination of the recorded recording paper will not occur, and favorable recording can be performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus used in color printers, computer terminals, and the like.

Conventional technology In this conventional inkjet recording device.

As a method for suctioning and removing ink mist generated when minute ink droplets are ejected from an inkjet head, a configuration described in Jitsuma No. 57-41744 is known. Further, as a method for removing droplets on the head surface, there is a method in which a droplet guiding terminal is provided.

A conventional ink misting device will be described below with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

In FIG. 3, a recording paper 2 is attached to a cylindrical recording drum 1, which rotates in a constant direction at a constant speed during recording. An inkjet head 3 is disposed at a position facing the drum 1, and during recording, it moves at a constant speed in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the recording paper surface. An ink supply section 6 is connected to the inkjet head 3, and ink droplets 5 are ejected from the nozzles of the inkjet head 3 in response to a signal from a control section signal generation circuit 4 to form an image on the recording paper 2.

When the ink droplets 5 are ejected from the inkjet head 3, countless fine ink mist is generated. This ink mist is floated by the air flow generated by the rotation of the drum 1 and adheres to the surface of the recording paper and the head nozzle surface, resulting in a decrease in the quality of the recorded image.

This may contaminate nearby parts and cause malfunctions.

In order to remove this ink mist, the inkjet head 3 is housed in a box-shaped lid cover 8 with an open front. The open end 8a of this head cover 8 is
Although it may be arranged on the same plane as the tip of the inkjet head 3, it is preferable to arrange it close to the outer peripheral surface of the drum 1 so as to cover the inkjet head 3.

The head cover 8 is provided with an exhaust port 8b, and is connected to an ink mist suction section 10 via a suction pipe 9. Then, the air 11 containing the ink mist is removed by suction from the gap between the drum 1 and the head cover 8a.

The ink mist suction section 10 is for discharging the air containing ink mist inside the head cover 8, and is equipped with a blower, a pump, and the like.

However, the concentration is high if only the configuration is 1 or more.

When the drawing size becomes larger, the amount of ink mist generated increases, and the amount of ink mist that adheres to the head nozzle surface also increases, turning into droplets and staining the recording paper on which the drawings are made. The following methods have been proposed to solve this problem.

That is, the idea is to provide a small plate that guides droplets at the bottom of the inkjet head, where droplets of ink mist tend to accumulate. This configuration effect will be explained using the drawings. FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of an inkjet recording apparatus equipped with an ink mist suction unit and a head cleaning device. In FIG. 4, 1 is a recording drum, 20 is an inkjet unit, 30 is an ink mist suction unit, 2
4 is a head cleaning device, 40 is a water supply tank, 41 is a water supply pipe, 42 is a drainage receiver, 43 is a drainage pipe, 44 is a drainage tank, 33 is an air suction tube, 34 is an air suction means, 2
5 is a clogging prevention device.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the inkjet 20 and ink mist suction unit 30.

FIG. 6 is a front view of the inkjet unit 20 and the ink mist suction unit 30, showing the surface facing the drum 1. In FIG. 6, 20 is an inkjet unit, 21 is an inkjet head, and 23 is an ink droplet guide plate.

The operation of the above configuration is as follows. In Figure 4, when the printer is not operating, the inkjet unit 2
0 is at the home position, the inkjet head is covered by the clogging prevention device 25, and is humidified to prevent clogging due to dry ink.

When the printer is powered on, the clogging prevention device 25 is activated and the lid is removed from the inkjet unit 20. Then, an air supply device (not shown) is activated, and pressurized air is supplied to the inkjet unit 20 and maintained at a predetermined pressure. Next, recording paper is mounted on the recording drum 1, and when a recording start signal is applied, the recording drum 1 rotates in a constant direction at a constant speed.

The inkjet unit 20 moves to the recording start point and
Recording is started by an image signal. At this time, the air suction means 34 operates in synchronization with the 1 image signal, and as shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. air is sucked in. Air suction means 34
continues to operate until recording is completed, and the ink mist generated when minute ink droplets are ejected is sucked into the mist suction port 31 and captured by the filter 32 housed inside. Furthermore, the ink mist adhering to the nozzle surface of the inkjet head 21 is quickly flowed down along the head mounting plate 22 by the ink drop guiding plate 23 that is in contact with the head mounting plate 22 from the lower part of the nozzle surface of the inkjet head 21. Therefore, under any recording conditions, convex ink pools will not form at the bottom of the nozzle surface of the inkjet head 21, and troubles such as contact between ink and recording paper and ink falling can be prevented.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4, after recording is completed, the inkjet unit 20 and the ink mist suction unit 30 move to a position in front of the head cleaning device 24 provided at a position away from the side edge of the recording drum 1.

At the same time as the inkjet unit 20 stops, the cleaning housing is pressed against the inkjet unit 20, and the cleaning water in the water supply tank 40 is sent through the water supply pipe 41, and the cleaning water is sent from the cleaning nozzle to the inkjet head 21.
．． The head mounting plate 22 is sprayed and cleaned. At this time, if the cleaning water adheres to the nozzle surface of the inkjet head 21 in the form of water droplets h'-, the ink droplet guide plate 23
It is forced to flow down quickly.

The blown washing water is discharged into a drainage receiver 42 and stored in a drainage tank 44 inside the printer.

After cleaning is completed, the inkjet unit is activated by the return signal)
At the same time as 20 moves, the cleaning housing retreats,
The inkjet unit 20 and the ink mist suction unit 30 return to their home positions.

In this way, by installing the guide plate for ink removal that contacts the lower part of the nozzle surface of the inkjet head and the head mounting plate, the ink can be quickly flowed down before it becomes ink mist that adheres to the head nozzle surface, and the ink can be removed. This prevents problems such as contact with recording paper and ink falling.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in such a method, the ink drop guiding plate 23 must be attached to the head mounting plate, and there may be restrictions on the fixing method depending on the material of the head mounting plate.

There was a problem that damage easily occurred due to contact, etc.

Therefore, in the present invention, the ink liquid is caused to flow down with a simple structure without providing a protrusion such as a guide plate.

Means for Solving the Problems The technical means of the present invention for solving the above problems is to prevent the ink liquid from concentrating in one part and forming a spherical shape, by spraying the ink mist on the head surface where the ink mist bounces off in large quantities. A groove is provided so that the liquid can flow into it.

For production The effect of this technical means is as follows.

In other words, the ink ejected for drawing is absorbed by the recording paper, and the excess ink that becomes mist adheres to the head surface.
Gradually grows and becomes droplets. Further, residual adhering cleaning water during cleaning becomes spherical and adheres to the head surface. However, because of the grooves on the head surface, these droplets do not become large droplets, but instead collect and flow within the grooves. As a result, there are no unnecessary ink droplets or cleaning water on the head surface, and there are no mistakes or troubles such as staining the recording paper on which images are drawn, and good images can be drawn.

Implementation Order 1j An embodiment of the present invention will be described below based on the accompanying drawings.

In FIG. 1, 21 is an inkjet head, 50 is an air tube, 51 is an ink tube, and 101 is a groove provided vertically below the installed inkjet head.

Here, the inkjet head 1 shown in FIG. 1 is usually used by being incorporated into a device as shown in FIG. 5.

Therefore, the operation of the structure of this embodiment is also shown in FIG. 5, which shows an example of the case in which it is incorporated. Furthermore, since the structure of the inkjet recording apparatus is as shown in FIG. 4 and basically operates in the same way, the explanation will be Some overlap with the conventional example. First, the clogging prevention device 25 for preventing clogging is activated, the lid is removed, the air supply device is activated, preparation for printing is completed, and printing is started in response to a print start signal. At this time, the air suction means is activated in synchronization with the generation of the image signal, and air is suctioned from the ink mist suction unit 30 via the air suction tube 33 as shown in FIG. In this way, the ink mist generated when minute ink droplets are ejected is sucked and captured along with the air. Further, the ink mist adhering to the nozzle surface of the inkjet head 21 flows into the groove 101 provided on the inkjet head 21 and flows down before it becomes droplets. This eliminates the formation of convex ink pools at the bottom of the nozzle surface of the inkjet head 21 under any recording conditions, and eliminates troubles such as contact between ink and recording paper, ink falling, and damage to parts around the head. This means that it can be done. When the drawing is completed, the inkjet unit 20 and the ink mist suction unit 30 move to a position in front of the head cleaning device 24, which is installed vertically away from the side edge of the drum 1. Then, from the cleaning nozzle, the inkjet head 21. Cleaning water is sprayed onto the head mounting plate 22. At this time, the cleaning water may adhere to the nozzle surface of the inkjet head 21 in the form of water droplets, but the droplets that are large enough to easily come into contact with the recording paper are sucked into the grooves 101 and quickly flowed down. The sprayed cleaning water is discharged into a drainage receiver 42 and stored in a drainage tank 44 inside the printer. After this, the cleaning housing retreats and the inkjet unit 20 and ink mist suction unit 30 return to their home positions.

In this way, grooves 10 are formed on the nozzle surface of the inkjet head.
1, the ink mist and cleaning water droplets adhering to the head nozzle surface can be quickly flowed down, thereby preventing troubles such as contact between the ink and the recording paper and falling of the ink.

In the above embodiment, the grooves are arranged vertically as shown in FIG. 1, but the same effect can be obtained even if the grooves 101a are obliquely arranged as shown in FIG.

Effects of the Invention The present invention can remove ink mist and cleaning water droplets adhering to the inkjet nozzle surface as described above, and also has the following effects. In other words, since no other parts are required, there are no parts costs or man-hours, so the costs commensurate with these costs are low.

Can be provided at a low price.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sketch of the main parts of an inkjet recording apparatus showing a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sketch of the same showing a second embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram of a conventional inkjet recording apparatus. 4 is a block diagram of the same inkjet recording apparatus, FIG. 5 is a side view of the inkjet unit φ ink mist suction unit of the same main part, and FIG. 6 is a front view of the inkjet unit showing facing the drum. be. 21... Inkjet head, 101.101a.
··groove. Name of agent: Patent attorney Shigetaka Awano and one other person 1 Figure 2 Figure 2

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) An inkjet recording device equipped with an inkjet head having grooves on the inkjet surface. (2) The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the kerf is provided substantially perpendicularly to the installed inkjet head. (3) The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the kerf is provided obliquely with respect to the installed inkjet head.