JPH05338193A - Ink supply device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the stable supply of ink and stable ink jetting effect by allowing two ink tanks to communicate with each other by a simple structure without mutually restricting both of them. CONSTITUTION:A first fixed ink tank 5 and the second ink tank 6 mounted on a vibration member along with a head 2 are connected by the capillary phenomenon of the fine caliber pipe 7 fixed to the first ink tank 5 at one end thereof and fitted in the second ink tank 6 at the other end thereof in a vibration direction so as to leave a gap 18 and ink 39r is quantitatively supplied into the second ink tank 6 mounted on a vibration means without restricting the vibration of the vibration means to always keep the amount of the ink constant. Only a necessary amount of ink is supplied to the ink tank 6 on the vibration side corresponding to the use amount of the ink to be held by a liquid holding material 17 and the ink holding material 17 limits the free movement of the liquid ink to prevent the flying-out or overflow of the ink at the time of vibration.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for supplying a liquid ink to a device for printing or image recording by ejecting a heat-melting ink (oil-based ink generally called solid ink) or a water-based ink. Regarding More specifically, the present invention relates to an ink supply device that quantitatively supplies liquid ink between a fixed object and a vibrating object.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional ink jet head using a heat-meltable ink generally uses a piezo element to eject a melted ink from a nozzle. However, if a piezo element is arranged for each nozzle, the size of the head cannot be reduced.

To solve this problem, a multi-nozzle type ink jet head has been proposed in which one large shared ink tank and one drive element / excitation element eject ink from a large number of nozzles (JP-B-62). -Four
Disclosed in No. 1112). In this multi-nozzle inkjet method, as shown in FIG. 11, a plurality of nozzles 102 are opened in a common ink tank 101, and at each nozzle 102, a Peltier element 103, ...
03, and selectively Peltier elements 103, ..., 103
The nozzle 102 is heated or cooled to select a nozzle for ejecting ink, and a desired character or image is recorded. That is, this inkjet head is
The melted ink is stored in a common ink tank, while the ink is solidified at each nozzle portion, and the solidified ink in the nozzle portion is heated and melted only when ejected. The ink 104 is always heated and melted in the shared ink tank 101, but is solidified by the forced cooling in each nozzle 102 portion, and the nozzle 102 is blocked. Then, the wall of the ink tank 101 is bent by the excitation element 105 composed of a piezoelectric element or an ultrasonic transducer to eject the ink in the selected nozzle 102 via the molten ink 104 in the ink tank 101. ..

However, this multi-nozzle ink jet head is also an application of a technique for ejecting ink from a nozzle by utilizing a minute displacement by a piezo element or the like, and there is a problem that a uniform ejection pressure cannot be obtained depending on the nozzle position. Contains.

Therefore, the present inventors mount the entire multi-nozzle head on a vibrating means, vibrate the common ink tank and a plurality of ink ejection nozzles respectively communicating with the same, and heat the selected nozzle portion. We considered an inkjet head that melts the ink inside the nozzle by the heat of the body and then ejects it by the inertial force of the ink.

On the other hand, in an ink jet head using a heat-meltable ink, a large-capacity ink tank is conventionally provided,
From the beginning, a structure is generally used in which the entire amount of solid ink is melted and stored. Further, in the case of water-based ink, individual nozzles each provided with a piezo element and a common ink tank are connected by a pipe, and are supplied by utilizing a pump or a capillary phenomenon.

[0007]

However, according to the conventional ink storage structure, since a large capacity ink tank is required, it is difficult to apply it to a structure in which the entire head including the ink tank is vibrated. Therefore, it was considered that the ink tank should have a minimum capacity and that ink should be replenished as needed. However, in the conventional inkjet head structure, since the ink tank and the nozzle are connected by a pipe and ink is supplied by a capillary phenomenon, there is no place where ink overflows. In the case of a head structure, if the ink tank installed on the vibrating side and the ink tank installed on the fixed side are connected with a pipe-like one, the vibration will be attenuated or become non-uniform, thus affecting the print quality. Will be given.
Therefore, a device that supplies liquid ink quantitatively without restricting the movement of the ink tank on the vibration side, that is, the ink tank on the vibration side and the ink tank on the fixed side are fluidly connected without mechanically restraining each other. An ink supply structure that can be used is desired.

The present invention responds to such a demand, and provides an ink supply device having a simple structure and fluidly communicating two ink tanks without restraining each other to obtain a stable ink supply and an ink ejection effect. The purpose is to do.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a plurality of ink ejection nozzles each having an ink ejection port communicating with a common ink tank, and a vibrating means for vibrating the ink tank and the entire nozzle. And an ink jet head in which a heating element is provided in each nozzle, and the ink inside the nozzle is melted by the heat generated by the heating element and is ejected by the inertial force of the ink, which is mounted on the fixed first ink tank and the vibrating means. A second ink tank for directly supplying ink to the nozzle, wherein the other end of a small diameter pipe having one end fixed to the first ink tank is opened in the second ink tank. The first ink tank and the second ink tank are fluidly connected to each other by fitting in the vibration direction and by the capillary phenomenon of the small diameter pipe. That.

In the ink supply device of the present invention,
A liquid retaining material is arranged inside the first ink tank, the second ink tank, and the pipe, respectively.

In the ink supply device of the present invention,
A feature is that a hole or a slit is provided near the top of the pipe.

[0012]

Therefore, the liquid ink in the fixed first ink tank is supplied to the vibrating second ink tank by the capillary phenomenon of the pipe. At this time, the pipe is fixed to the fixed-side ink tank, but is not fixed to the vibrating-side ink tank, so that the vibrating-side movement is not restricted and good-quality vibration can be obtained. Then, as the amount of ink in the second ink tank on the vibration side decreases, the first
The liquid ink is replenished from the inside of the ink tank by the capillary phenomenon.

When the first and second ink tanks and the pipe are respectively filled with the liquid retaining material, the liquid ink in the first ink tank is in the pipe connected to the liquid retaining material in the same tank. The liquid is reliably supplied to the second ink tank by the capillary phenomenon.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The structure of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an ink jet head to which an embodiment of the ink supply device of the present invention is applied. The inkjet head of this embodiment is a so-called multi-nozzle head that ejects a plurality of types of ink, but the description will mainly focus on one inkjet head. This inkjet head 1 contains a head 2 provided with a plurality of nozzles capable of storing ink and controlling ejection, a vibrating means 3 for supporting the head 2 portion and vibrating the whole by resonance, and a solid ink 39s. Ink introducing means 4 that melts in response
And a first ink tank 5 that stores a fixed amount of the melted ink 39r, and an ink supply pipe 7 that connects the first ink tank 5 and the second ink tank 6 on the head side. Has been done.

The head 2 is, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 6,
A plurality of ink ejection nozzles, for example, 48 nozzles 8, 8, ..., 8 in the present embodiment are set as one set in the bottom of the second ink tank 6, and four sets are arranged in a zigzag pattern with each 6 rows in a line.
They are arranged in columns. In the inkjet head 1 of the present embodiment, which is intended to eject four types of ink, four nozzle groups are arranged, but it goes without saying that one nozzle group is used as the minimum unit. A second ink tank 6 that stores the melted ink 39r is arranged above the nozzle 8.

The nozzle 8 is composed of a tapered hole which becomes narrower on the discharge port 8a side, and its peripheral wall surface is covered with a heating element 9. The heating element 9 is made of, for example, a thin film of tungsten or the like formed by a known thin film forming technique,
A layer of a heat insulating material 11 is provided inside the nozzle substrate 10 made of ceramic or the like. An individual electrode 12 is formed on each heating element 9, and is provided so that only the heating element 9 of any nozzle 8 is energized and heated. Electrode 12
Is formed in a disk shape surrounding the hole of the nozzle 8. Further, a heat radiating plate 14 also serving as an electrode GND (common electrode) is arranged on the ejection port 8a side of the nozzle 8. The heat radiating plate 14 radiates the heat generated in the heating element 9 to cool it rapidly. As the heat dissipation plate 14, it is preferable to use, for example, a material excellent in both electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity such as copper. Normally, the heat dissipation plate 14 covers the entire surface (the entire surface of the head) of the nozzle substrate 10 forming a large number of nozzles 8, ..., 8 and opens only around the nozzle ejection port 8a. Generally, the ejection force of ink depends on the acceleration of vibration of the head and the opening area of the nozzle. On the other hand, the ejection repulsion force is determined by the surface tension of the ink and the shape of the nozzle 8. Then, stable ejection is obtained when the ink ejection force exceeds the ejection repulsion force. However, since the nozzle 8 used in the inkjet head is a very small hole having a diameter of about 50 μm, stable ink ejection is difficult only by vibration of the nozzle portion. However, in this embodiment, by disposing the second ink tank 6 on the nozzle 8, a sufficient ejection force is obtained by the inertia of the ink in the nozzle 8 and the inertia of the ink in the second ink tank 6. It is provided in. Moreover, the nozzle shape is as shown in FIG.
The discharge pressure is increased because the opening area is formed so as to increase toward the upper portion of the nozzle 8 so that the diameter is gradually reduced toward the position.

The second ink tank 6 constitutes the head 2 together with the nozzle 8 and is vibrated together with the nozzle 8 by the vibrating means 3. Further, a heating member (not shown) is installed on the lid member 16 that closes the second ink tank 6,
The ink 39r in the second ink tank 6 is kept at a constant temperature so as not to harden. A liquid retaining material 17 that holds the ink 39r is housed in the second ink tank 6. The liquid retaining material 17 suppresses the free movement of the ink in the molten state to prevent the ink from jumping out due to vibrations, and also functions as a filter for removing foreign matters that may cause nozzle clogging. As a result, even if the head 2 vibrates due to resonance, only the required amount of ink is ejected from the nozzles 8.
Is supplied and discharged. The liquid retaining material 17 is not particularly limited, but it is preferable to use felt or moltoprene.

The vibrating means 3 for vibrating the head 2 is not particularly limited, but in the present embodiment, a vibrating means such as a tuning fork utilizing the resonance action is adopted. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, a first vibrating body 20 having a vibration generating coil / electromagnet 29 at its tip and a second vibrating body 21 facing the first vibrating body 20 are connected to a fixing member 22 at their base end portions. The first vibrating body 20 and the second vibrating body 21 are attracted to each other by the operation of the electromagnet 29 while being fixed, and when they are released, the first vibrating body 20 and the second vibrating body 21 resonate with each other by being separated by their elastic force. The head 2 is mounted on the tip of the second vibrating body 21 and is designed so that the masses of the first vibrating body 20 and the second vibrating body 21 are substantially equal.
The first vibrating body 20 and the second vibrating body 21 are provided with a center-of-gravity adjusting means 30 for adjusting the positions of their centers of gravity. In the case of the present embodiment, the center of gravity adjusting means 30 is the first
And the bracket 3 fixed to the second vibrating body 20, 21.
1 and a screw 32 screwed to the bracket 31. Therefore, the position of the center of gravity can be easily adjusted by adjusting the screwing amount of the screw 32. In the case of the present embodiment, the center-of-gravity adjusting means 30 is provided at both ends of the vibrating body 20, 21 on which the head 2 having four sets of nozzle groups is mounted, as shown in FIGS. Further, the electromagnet 29 that induces the resonance action is arranged at a uniform position slightly outside the centers of the vibrating bodies 20 and 21. This state is shown in FIGS.

The ink supply pipe 7 composed of a small-diameter pipe for supplying ink from the first ink tank 5 side on the base end side to the second ink tank 6 on the head 2 side is made of, for example, copper or the like having thermal conductivity. An inverted U-shaped pipe made of a good material is used. Then, the ink melting temperature in the first ink tank 5 is maintained at a temperature higher than the ink melting temperature in the second ink tank 6, and ink is supplied by this temperature difference and heat conduction from the first ink tank 5. Tube 7
Is provided so as not to solidify while the ink cools and the ink moves to the second ink tank 6. The ink supply pipe 7 is a lid member 16 of the second ink tank 6 on the head 2 side.
It is inserted in the ink injection port 18 opened in the. A gap is formed between the ink supply pipe 7 and the ink injection port 18 so that the ink supply pipe 7 does not hinder the vibration of the head 2. Furthermore, the ink supply pipe 7 is filled with a material 19 (hereinafter referred to as a liquid retaining material or simply felt) 19 which causes or assists the capillary phenomenon such as felt or maltoprene, and the inside of the first ink tank 5 is filled. The molten ink 39r is provided so as to be reliably supplied into the second ink tank 6 on the head side by utilizing the capillary phenomenon. The liquid retaining material 19 that causes or assists the capillary phenomenon is connected to at least the liquid retaining material 24 in the first ink tank 5, but is not necessarily connected to the liquid retaining material 17 in the second ink tank 6. Both good. Rather, from the viewpoint of vibration transmission, it is preferable that the liquid retaining material 19 and the liquid retaining material 17 in the second ink tank 6 are not connected, but when a material having a high elasticity is used. Even if connected, it does not particularly affect the vibration system. In addition, a hole or slit 50 is formed near the top of the ink supply pipe 7 for removing air accumulated in this portion. As a result, the siphon is substantially formed by the liquid ink that fills the ink supply pipe 7 without air pockets, and the liquid level heights of the first ink tank 5 and the second ink tank 6 can be more reliably matched. Becomes
The hole or slit 50 has a size such that it is substantially closed by the surface tension of the liquid ink and does not leak.

The first ink tank 5 is supported by a support plate 15 and is fixed to a fixing member 22 for connecting and fixing the first and second vibrating bodies 20 and 21. The first ink tank 5 is left stationary regardless of the resonance action of the vibrating means 3,
The ink 39r in a molten state is stably supplied to the vibrating head 2. As shown in FIG. 1B and FIG. 3, the first ink tank 5 is partially partitioned by a partition wall 23 into two large and small chambers 5a and 5b, and one large chamber 5a holds liquid. A felt 24 as a material is stored. In addition, the thermistor 25 is installed in the small room 5b.
Is installed to detect the remaining amount of ink by utilizing the fact that the resistance value of the thermistor 25 changes when the amount of ink stored decreases and the thermistor 25 is exposed outside the ink. The felt 24 is not housed in the room 5b in which the thermistor 25 is arranged, and only ink is stored. Therefore, when the ink is supplied to the second ink tank 6 on the head 2 side and the ink in the first ink tank 5 decreases, the ink in the chamber 5b of the thermistor 25 is preferentially absorbed by the felt 24. , The amount of ink contained in the felt 24 can be shown before the amount of ink is significantly reduced.

Ink introducing means 4 is connected to the first ink tank 5. As shown in FIG. 1, the ink introducing means 4 is an ink cylinder 26 for containing a rod-shaped solid ink 39s.
A supply hole 27 for communicating the bottom of the ink cylinder 26 with the first ink tank 5, and a built-in heater 28 for heating the bottom of the ink cylinder 26 to melt the solid ink 39s in the ink cylinder 26 from the bottom. It consists of Heater 2
The drive of 8 is controlled by the thermistor 25 installed in the first ink tank 5. That is, when the remaining amount of ink in the first ink tank 5 is reduced and the thermistor 25 is exposed from the ink 39r, the fact is detected.
It can be detected by the change of the resistance value of. Therefore, the heater 28 is controlled by detecting a change in the resistance value of the thermistor 25, and when the ink remaining amount in the first ink tank 5 becomes less than the set value, the heater 28 is automatically energized to set the solid state. It is provided so that the ink 39s is melted and the melted ink 39r is replenished.

The heating element 9 of each nozzle 8 is driven by a nozzle driving IC 13. The nozzle driving IC 13 is mounted on the ceramic substrate 10 of the head 2 of the second vibrating body 21 and is connected by the nozzle electrode 12, the copper wiring 12a and the wire bonding 13a. Although the input terminals of the drive IC are common in this embodiment, they may be individually drawn out. The heat generation temperature of the heating element 9 is measured by detecting the resistance value of the heating element 9. Therefore, the energization of the heating element 9 can be controlled based on this measured temperature. Here, the nozzle 8 and the driving IC 13 are copper wiring 1
2a and wire bonding 13a. The drive IC 13 is sealed with a sealing material such as silicone or epoxy resin in order to improve reliability.
The drive IC 13 has two functions, an ink ejection function and a nozzle temperature control function (preheating function) when not operating.
Here, the nozzle temperature control function refers to a function of keeping the heating element 9 of each nozzle 8 at a certain constant temperature.
If the heating element 9 is preheated to a certain constant temperature in this way,
Since the solidified ink can be melted and ejected by slight heating, responsiveness can be improved, and stable ink ejection can be performed regardless of changes in environmental temperature.

Regarding the nozzle temperature control function, FIG.
A description will be given based on an example shown in FIG. The nozzle temperature control includes a nozzle control unit 33, a nozzle driver 34, an output control unit 35, a temperature detection unit 36, a comparison unit 37, and a reference data unit 38 that outputs a reference value. These are formed by, for example, an IC chip. The data signal output from the control unit such as the printer main body or the computer is input to the nozzle control unit 33, drives the nozzle driver 34, and controls the output control unit 35 to operate the heating elements 9 of the corresponding nozzles 8. .. This output control detects the change in resistance of the heating element 9 itself and detects the heating element 9
The heat generation temperature of the
The nozzle control unit 33 is operated based on the comparison result after comparing with the reference temperature value determined in step 8, that is, the temperature at which the solid ink melts to determine whether or not to continue energization.

With the above construction, the ink jet head of the present invention operates as follows.

First, vibration is applied to the head 2. This causes the first vibrating body 20 and the second vibrating body 21 to vibrate by passing a current of a desired frequency through the vibration generating coil / electromagnet 29 of the first vibrating body 20. For example, when a sine wave of about 2000 Hz is applied to the coil 29, the first vibrating body 20 and the second vibrating body 21 resonate like a tuning fork with the connecting member 22 as the vibration neutral point. At this time, the nozzle 8 of the head 2 attached to the tip of the second vibrating body 21 also vibrates integrally with the second vibrating body 21. Moreover, the nozzle 8 vibrates by the resonance of the second vibrating body 21 so as to move in parallel. In this state, the ink 39r already supplied into the first ink tank 5 via the ink introducing means 4 is held in the ink supply pipe 7 while being held by the felt 24 of the liquid retaining material in the first ink tank 5. Liquid retaining material consisting of felt, etc. 19
Is supplied to the second ink tank 6 on the head 2 side by means of the capillary phenomenon. The ink 39r stored in the second ink tank 6 vibrates while being held by the felt 17 as a liquid retaining material, with the same acceleration applied to the entire ink.

Then, the nozzle 8 from which ink is to be ejected is selectively operated by the drive IC 13. The nozzle 8 is normally closed by solidification of the liquid ink 39r supplied from the second ink tank 6, but is heated and melted by energizing the heating element 9 and ejected by inertial force. The heating element 9 has a temperature for melting the ink, for example, 120 ° C. to 15 ° C.
Heat is generated in the range of 0 ° C. As a result, the solid ink blocking the nozzle 8 is melted and ejected by the above-mentioned vibration. Assuming that the head is vibrating as shown in FIG. 10, if the ink is melted when the vibration acceleration is downward, the ink is ejected from the nozzle 8 when the vibration acceleration direction changes upward. Then, when the applied voltage is turned off by the drive IC 13, the heating element 9 that forms the nozzle 8 is formed.
Is dissipated by the heat radiating plate 14, and the vicinity of the nozzle discharge port 8a is rapidly cooled and the ink is solidified. That is, the heating element 9
The state before heating. The timing of turning off depends on the time required for cooling. For example, if the solidification timing is completed when the acceleration of vibration is in the upward direction, ink can be ejected and solidified in one cycle of vibration. For this reason, theoretically, it is possible to print at a frequency of 1 second. Then, the nozzle 8 is selectively heated based on the image data or the character data input to the drive IC 13, so that the melted ink is ejected only from the selected nozzle 8. The ink in the nozzles 8 that has not been selected is cooled and solidified by natural heat dissipation.
Further, when the remaining amount of the molten ink in the first ink tank 5 becomes small, the molten ink 39r around the thermistor is absorbed by the liquid retaining material 24 in the adjacent chamber 5b, so that the liquid of the molten ink 39r around the thermistor is absorbed. Only the surface is lowered and the thermistor is exposed in the air. As a result, the thermistor is cooled from the temperature of the molten ink to the temperature of the air, so that the resistance value changes. When this is detected, the change in the liquid level, that is, the decrease in the amount of ink is detected, and the heater 28 is driven. And
First, by melting the solid 39s contained in the ink cylinder 26
Liquid ink is automatically replenished in the ink tank 5 of FIG. Thereby, the liquid retaining material 2 in the first ink tank 5
The molten ink contained in No. 4 can always be kept at a constant amount. Further, the second ink tank 6 uses the amount of the melted ink 3 used for ink ejection from the first ink tank 5 by utilizing the capillary phenomenon and / or the siphon phenomenon.
9r is automatically replenished, so the second ink tank 6
The melted ink inside is also held at a fixed amount.

The temperature of each nozzle can be controlled by the drive IC 13 even when it is not operating. Then, by measuring the resistance of the heating element 9 forming the nozzle 8,
The temperature is detected by the heating element 9 and heated to the optimum temperature, that is, the temperature immediately before the solidified ink is melted, and when this is reached, the operation of stopping the heating is repeated to prevent ink ejection failure due to insufficient melting. That is, the print quality is stabilized. Further, since the above-mentioned optimum temperature is slightly different depending on the type of ink or the type of color, it is preferable to change the set preheating temperature according to the color or type of ink.

Incidentally, as the frequency of the head 2 becomes higher, the printing speed becomes faster, but the printing noise (print stain) becomes larger, and as the frequency becomes smaller, the printing speed becomes slower but the printing noise tends to become smaller. According to experiments by the present inventors, the optimum frequency is considered to be around 2000 Hz. Moreover, it is preferable to use the resonance frequency as the frequency to be used.

The above embodiment is one example of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, but the present invention is not limited to this and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, although a solid ink has been mainly described in the present embodiment, the present invention is not particularly limited to this and can be applied to a water-based ink.

The ink jet head configured as described above can be used in the state where one kind of ink is stored in the second ink tank 6 as one common tank, or a plurality of inks, for example, four inks. May be discharged. Such a printer is shown in FIG. This printer comprises a platen 41 driven by a paper feed motor 40, a lateral feed motor 42 for axially moving the print head 1 along the platen 41, a belt 43, and a guide rod 44. Further, the print head 1 and the control means (not shown) are connected by a cable 45. The print head 1 has a transverse feed motor 42.
The lateral movement can be controlled by the guide 44 or the like. On the other hand, the paper 46 can be controlled to move vertically by the paper feed motor 40. In the print head 1, four ink cylinders 26, 2
The four color inks accommodated in 6, 26, and 26 are repeatedly melted and solidified (controlled by the IC installed in the head), and full-color output is performed.

[0032]

As is apparent from the above description, the ink supply device of the present invention includes a fixed first ink tank,
A small diameter pipe in which a second ink tank mounted together with a nozzle on a vibrating body is fixed to the first ink tank at one end, a gap is opened in the second ink tank, and the other end side is fitted in the vibrating direction. Since they are fluidly connected by the capillarity phenomenon, the liquid ink is quantitatively replenished in the second ink tank mounted therein without restraining the vibration of the vibrating means, and the amount of the ink is constantly maintained. Can be kept constant. Moreover, since only the required amount of ink is replenished in the vibrating ink tank according to the amount of ink used and this is held by the liquid retaining material, the liquid retaining material limits the free movement of the liquid ink. , Ink does not splash or overflow when vibrating.

Further, since the molten ink is held by the liquid retaining material so as to be uniformly distributed in the ink tank,
The amount of ejected ink does not vary from nozzle position to nozzle position due to the deviation of the molten ink.

Further, in the present invention, when the liquid retaining material is contained in the ink tank, the liquid retaining material functions as a filter to prevent the nozzle clogging due to the inclusion of dust in the tank.

Further, in the ink supply device of the present invention,
If a hole or slit is provided near the top of the pipe,
The air collected from this hole or slit escapes,
When the inside of the pipe is filled with the liquid ink due to the capillary phenomenon, a siphon phenomenon is substantially caused, the movement of the liquid ink from the first ink tank to the second ink tank is assisted, and the ink supply can be made more reliable.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram of an inkjet head in which an ink amount control device of the present invention is implemented, in which (A) is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.
3B is a sectional view taken along line BB of FIG. 3, and FIG. 3C is an enlarged view of a pipe portion.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the inkjet head of FIG.

3 is a plan view of the inkjet head of FIG. 1. FIG.

4 is a front view of the inkjet head of FIG. 1. FIG.

5 is a cross-sectional view taken along line VV of the inkjet head of FIG.

6 is a layout view of the nozzle of FIG. 1, (A) is a plan view,
(B) is a front view and (C) is an enlarged plan view of one nozzle group.

7 is an enlarged view of a nozzle portion of the inkjet head of FIG. 1, (A) is a plan view, (B) is a vertical sectional view, and (C) is a bottom view.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a nozzle temperature control unit.

FIG. 9 is a mechanism diagram of a printer using the head.

FIG. 10 is a vibration cycle diagram of the head.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing a conventional multi-nozzle.

[Explanation of symbols]

 5 First Ink Tank 6 Second Ink Tank 24 Liquid Retaining Material 17 Liquid Retaining Material 19 Liquid Retaining Material 39s Solid Ink 39r Liquid Ink

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of ink ejection nozzles each having an ink ejection port that communicates with a common ink tank, a vibrating unit that vibrates the ink tank and the entire nozzle, and a heating element provided in each nozzle. In the inkjet head that melts the ink inside the nozzle and discharges it by the inertial force of the ink, a fixed first ink tank and a second ink tank that is mounted on the vibrating means and directly supplies the ink to the nozzle are provided. The second end of the small diameter pipe having one end fixed to the first ink tank is fitted in the second ink tank in the vibrating direction by the capillary phenomenon of the small diameter pipe. An ink supply device characterized in that the first ink tank and the second ink tank are fluidly connected to each other. 2. The ink supply device according to claim 1, wherein a liquid retaining material is arranged inside each of the first ink tank, the second ink tank and the pipe. 3. The ink supply device according to claim 1, wherein a hole or a slit is provided near the top of the pipe.