JPH0548194B2 - - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to set a recording head to a normal operative operation, by holding the recording head so as to contact the base surfaces of plural head base plates with reference surfaces mutually crossed at right angles. CONSTITUTION:In mounting plural recording heads to a carriage, a head holder 21 prescribing the positions of recording heads is provided and at least three reference surfaces are provided to the head holder 21 every regions capable of obtaining the normal operative positions of each recording heads while three base surfaces of each head base plates 24A-24D are brought into contact with at least three these reference surfaces and the recording heads are held to this state to facilitate the attachment and the detachment of the recording heads. When the recording heads are exchanged, only by bringing the head base plates 24A-24D into contact with the reference surfaces of the head holder 21, each recording head can be arranged to a normal operative position in high preciseness without necessitating adjusting work for aligning a position.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus using, for example, a plurality of color inks, and more particularly to an inkjet recording apparatus equipped with a recording head holder for removably mounting a recording head.

FIG. 1 shows an example of such a conventional dot printer, where 1 is a recording head having recording elements such as a large number of nozzles that eject ink, and in this example, a 1A recording head is used as a recording head for four colors. ,1
B, 1C and 1D are laterally arranged and fixed on the carriage 2. The carriage 2 is mounted on a timing belt 3 and is moved along a guide shaft 5 by a pulse motor 4 for head feeding that drives the belt 3. At this time, an inkjet is ejected from the recording head 1 onto the recording paper 6. Make a record. 7 is a paper supply roll, 8 is a paper feed roller, 9
is a pulse motor that drives the paper feed roller 8,
The paper 6 on which recording has been completed is held between a paper feed roller 8 and a presser roller 10 by a motor 9, and is fed. 11 is an ink tank, and 12 is an ink supply pipe. Furthermore, although not shown, each of the recording heads 1A to 1D is fixed to a respective head substrate, and there are connections for attaching these head substrates to the carriage 2. Therefore, recording head 1
In order to perform the A to 1D alignment, it is necessary to adjust the position of the head board, and such an adjustment mechanism is provided on the carriage 2.

However, when adjusting the recording head using such a conventional adjustment mechanism, it is necessary to not only adjust the distance of the recording head 1 with respect to the paper surface of the paper 6, but also to adjust the distance between the horizontal directions and the vertical direction of the heads 1A to 1D for each color. The relative positions of the color dots must be placed correctly, otherwise vertical or horizontal misalignment will occur between the color dots, degrading the quality of the printed record. Conventionally, the position of each recording head 1 was briefly set using an adjustment mechanism, and then the carriage 2 was run for a test run to print, and the position of each recording head 1 was finely adjusted based on the results. .
Such trial-and-error adjustments are not only time-consuming, but also require extremely high precision, making the adjustment mechanism complex.In particular, it is necessary to reduce the weight of the carriage 2 and head 1, which require nimble and accurate movement. go against the grain. Furthermore, replacing only one recording head 1 requires similar adjustment, which is not easy.

The purpose of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems,
An object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet recording device in which a plurality of recording heads can be easily attached to and removed from respective operating positions and the mutual positions of the recording heads can be determined accurately.

The present invention will be explained in detail below based on the drawings.

The embodiment described below is a recording head holder in which a plurality of head substrates each having a plurality of recording elements are held in the carriage of the apparatus, and three of the plurality of head substrates are perpendicular to each other. The base surface is configured to be held in contact with at least three mutually orthogonal reference surfaces provided on the head holder, so that each of the recording elements is defined in a normal operating position, and the recording elements are arranged side by side. This is an inkjet printer equipped with a recording head holder that accurately maintains the relative positions of a plurality of vertical heads arranged in the printer.

FIG. 2 shows one embodiment of the invention, where 21
21A and 21B are the upper and lower positioning plates of the holder 21, and 21C and 21D are the side plates thereof. 22A, 22B, 22C and 22D are head mounting grooves provided in the upper positioning plate 21A;
3A, 23, 23C and 23D are head mounting grooves provided on the lower positioning plate 21B, and grooves 22A, 23A, 22B, 23B, 22C above these
Head 1A ~ between and 23C and 22D and 23D
Head boards 24A to 24 with 1D attached respectively
Insert D and fit. In this figure, each right side surface 2 of each head substrate 24A to 24D is
5A to 25D and the lower surfaces 26A to 26D are head base surfaces, and by fixing these side surfaces 25A to 25D and 26A to 26D at predetermined positions, the relative positions of the heads 1A to 1D can be maintained correctly. Further, 27A to 27D are the base surfaces of the substrates facing the paper 6 along with the heads 1A to 1D, and when the head substrates 24A to 24D are attached to the holder 21, these base surfaces 27A to 27D are By abutting against a reference surface (not shown) of the holder 21 and keeping these base surfaces 27A to 27D on the same plane, it is possible to maintain a constant distance from the paper 6.

That is, in this example, these substrates 24A to 24
Positioning can be performed only by bringing base surfaces 25A to 25D and 26A to 26D of D into contact with predetermined positions. For this purpose, the lower grooves 23A to 23D
Then, the bottom surfaces 28A to 28D are set to be on the same constant plane as the reference planes, and the recording heads 1A to 1A are set by the reference planes 28A to 28D.
The height of 1D is regulated. Furthermore, the substrate 2
Side surfaces 29A to 29D of the upper grooves 22A to 22D and side surfaces 30A to 30D of the lower grooves 23A to 23D on the side that the base surfaces 25A to 25D of 4A to 24D contact
are finished with high precision and used as a reference surface, and each board 24A, 24B, 24C and 24D has the upper and lower groove sides 29A and 30A, 29B and 30B, 2
9C and 30C and 29D and 30D are brought into contact with each other so that correct lateral relative positions are obtained. Reference numeral 40 denotes a spring, and the spring force of this spring 40 causes the substrates 24A to 24D to be moved from above to the groove 23 below via a steel ball 41 attached to the tip of the spring.
A to 23D, and the substrate 2
Since a tapered surface 42 is formed on the upper surface of 4A to 24D, the spring force of the spring 40 described above moves the substrates 24A to 24D to the reference surface 26 of the lower positioning plate.
A to 26D, and the substrates 24A to 24D
The top of the groove can be brought into contact with the side surfaces 29A to 29D of the upper groove. 50 is a spring provided near the upper surface of the lower positioning plate 21B, and a sliding body 51 is attached to the tip of the spring, and the spring 5 is connected through this sliding body 51.
A spring force of 0 causes the lower ends of the substrates 24A to 24D to abut against the side surfaces 30A to 30D of the lower grooves 23A to 23D.

Figure 3 shows the head holder 21 constructed in this way.
2 shows the state in which each of the recording heads 1A to 1D is installed, and when replacing the recording heads 1A to 1D, all that is required is to remove the supply pipes 12, etc. connected to the head boards 24A to 24D. All that is required is to pull out or insert the head substrate from the head holder 21, and the recording heads 1A to 1D can be automatically positioned.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the present invention, in which the recording heads 1A to 1D can be positioned only by a lower positioning plate 61B of the holder 61. That is, the lower positioning plate 61
B includes a vertical surface 62 as a reference surface against which the base surface 25A of the right-most head board 24A contacts at the correct position, and a reference surface 62 as a reference surface that regulates the base surfaces 26A to 26D at the bottom of the head boards 24A to 24D. A horizontal surface 63 is formed. 64A, 64B and 6
4C is a rectangular spacer whose cross section is rectangular or square;
The three surfaces of the spacers 64A to 64C that are in contact with the side surfaces of the spacers 4D are finished at least with high accuracy, and when the recording heads are installed as shown in the figure, each of the recording heads 1A to 64C is finished with high accuracy.
1D are kept in the correct relative position to each other. Reference numeral 65 denotes a holding plate, and by bringing this holding plate 65 into contact with the left lower surface of the board 24D via a spring 66, the spring force of the spring 66 holds each board 24A.
~Hold 24D in normal position. The substrates 24A to 24D used in this example have their thicknesses and bottom surfaces 26A to 26D finished with high precision.

By making the heights of the vertical surface 62, the pressing surface of the holding plate 65, and the contact surfaces on both sides of each of the spacers 64A to 64C sufficiently high, it is possible to easily arrange the head boards 24A to 24D in sequence. , by simply bringing them into proper contact with the lower positioning plate 61B, sufficient vertical positioning can be obtained due to the frictional force.
A spring (not shown) may be auxiliary provided between the top plate (not shown) and the top surface of each board 24A-24D to press these boards 24A-24D toward the lower positioning plate 61B. Of course. However, normally the friction force on the contact surface obtained by the spring force of the spring 66 is used to
The vertical and horizontal relative normal positions of 4A to 24D can be maintained.

In the head holder 61 configured in this way, the reference planes that require precision are the vertical plane 63 and the horizontal plane 63.
Since it is only a chisel, it is easier to process.
Furthermore, since the spacers 64A to 64C can be machined to the same dimensions, precision control is easy.

As explained above, according to this embodiment,
In a recording device, when a plurality of recording heads are installed in a carriage, a head holder is provided to regulate the position of each recording head, and this head holder is provided with at least three standards for each part to obtain the normal operating position of each recording head. Since the three base surfaces of each head substrate are brought into contact with at least three reference surfaces and each recording head is held in that state, it is easy to attach and detach the recording head. When replacing the recording head, the head substrate is simply brought into contact with the reference surface of the head holder, eliminating the need for alignment adjustment work and allowing each recording head to be placed in its normal operating position with high precision.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an inkjet recording apparatus in which the recording head can be easily attached to and removed from a predetermined operating position.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the configuration of a conventional recording device, FIG. 2 is a partial sectional view showing an example of the configuration of a head holder at the recording position of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an example of a recording device equipped with the head holder. FIG. 4 is a partial sectional view showing another embodiment of the present invention. 1, 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D...recording head,...
Carriage, 3... Belt, 4... Motor, 5... Guide shaft, 6... Recording paper, 7... Paper supply roll, 8... Paper feed roller, 9... Motor, 10... Presser roller, 11
... Ink tank, 12 ... Supply pipe, 21 ... Head holder, 21A, 21B ... Positioning plate, 21C, 2
1D...Side plate, 22A-22D...Groove, 23A-23
D...Groove, 24A~24D...Head board, 25A~
25D, 26A to 26D, 27A to 27D...Base surface, 28A to 28D...Bottom surface, 29A to 29D, 3
0A~30D...side, 40,50...spring, 41...
Steel ball, 51...Sliding body, 61...Head holder, 61
B...positioning plate, 62...vertical surface, 63...horizontal surface,
64A to 64D... Spacer, 65... Holding plate, 66
...Spring.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In an inkjet recording apparatus that records on a recording medium using a plurality of recording means each having a recording element and ejecting different inks, when the plurality of recording means are installed, a fixed reference surface for positioning each of the recording means, the fixed reference surface having a plurality of fixed reference surfaces in which the positions of the fixed reference surfaces provided corresponding to each of the plurality of recording means are correlated with each other; ,
a head holder for individually attaching and detaching each of the recording means; and a fixed reference plane provided on the head holder corresponding to each of the plurality of recording means and corresponding to each of the plurality of recording means. An inkjet recording device comprising: an elastic means for pressing the recording means; and an elastic means for pressing the recording means. 2. According to claim 1, each of the plurality of recording means has a head substrate equipped with a recording head for ejecting ink, and the head substrate is pressed against the fixed reference surface. inkjet recording device. 3. The elastic means presses each of the plurality of recording means in two directions, and the fixed reference surface is a plurality of surfaces respectively provided on different surfaces of the head holder. The plurality of surfaces of the recording means that correspond to the plurality of surfaces are pressed by the elastic means in the two directions. The inkjet recording device according to scope 1. 4. Each of the plurality of fixed reference surfaces has at least three different surfaces, and each of the recording means is pressed against the at least three different surfaces by a spring included in the elastic means. An inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1 or 2.