JPH0631931A - Ink tank - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a head cartridge having a large capacity and little leaving ink, and to prevent mixing of air bubbles to a feed port through which ink is supplied to a recording head and leaking of ink from an air passage connecting the interior of an ink tank with the air. CONSTITUTION:An air port and an ink feed port are formed respectively in a cylinder 2 installed in a main body 1 of the ink tank and a cylindrical column 3 rotatable inside the cylinder 2. An air port hole 7 and a feed port hole 9 of the cylindrical column 3 are registered with an air port 6 and an ink feed port 8 of the cylinder 2 by rotating the cylindrical column 3 manually. Accordingly, the air can be sent in the head cartridge and the ink can be supplied. If the cylindrical column 3 is reversed to shift the air port hole 7 and feed port hole 9 from the air port 6 and ink feed port 8 of the cylinder 2, the air port and ink feed port are shut, thereby preventing leaking of ink or mixing of air bubbles.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink tank for an ink jet printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a head cartridge having a built-in ink tank and detachable from an ink jet recording apparatus, the head cartridge may be placed in various directions in a state where the head cartridge is detached from the ink jet recording apparatus, that is, a state of the head cartridge alone. . If the head cartridge is mounted in the printer body in a normal orientation, the head cartridge alone may be placed in a horizontal orientation or an inverted orientation. For example, vibration may be added during transportation.

There are two problems that occur when the head cartridge itself is not placed in the normal orientation. The first is air bubble mixing in the supply port that supplies ink to the recording head, and the second is ink leakage from the air passage that connects the inside of the ink tank and the atmosphere.

As a means for solving this problem, Japanese Patent Publication Sho 6
In No. 1-111794, a porous body is put in the ink tank, and the ink is impregnated with the liquid holding capacity of the porous body to prevent the ink from leaking from the air passage,
In addition, we have devised a method to prevent air bubbles from entering the ink supply port to the head by using the porous body as a filter.

Further, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-58314, a solenoid lever incorporated in the printer is operated to supply ink from the ink tank to the recording head at the time of non-printing, and the inside of the ink tank is exposed to the atmosphere. The means for simultaneously closing the air passages to be communicated and simultaneously opening them for printing is used.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the problems of mixing air bubbles into a supply port for supplying ink to a recording head, and leaking ink from an air passage communicating the inside of an ink tank with the atmosphere. Although various measures such as those mentioned above have been taken, each has its drawbacks.

When a porous body is used as in the method described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-11794, the volumetric ink taken by the porous body cannot be put in. Therefore, when a certain amount of ink is put in, The ink tank must be enlarged accordingly. Moreover, since the ink holding force of the porous body cannot completely use all the ink in the tank, the ink tank must be further enlarged when considering using a certain amount of ink. Therefore, when providing a large capacity ink tank, it is necessary to consider a structure in which the ink is stored as it is without being filled with a porous body or the like in the ink tank.

When the printer body is provided with a solenoid lever as in the system described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-58314, the actuator is mounted on the carriage, and the actuator is mounted on the carriage. This will result in lower printing speed and higher costs.

An object of the present invention is to provide a head cartridge having a large capacity and a small amount of residual ink without using an actuator, and at the same time, to supply ink to a recording head in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of various methods. Another object of the present invention is to solve the problem of air bubble mixing in the mouth and the problem of ink leakage from the air passage that communicates the inside of the ink tank with the atmosphere.

[0010]

According to the present invention for achieving the above object, an ink tank for storing ink, a supply path for supplying ink from the ink tank to a recording head through a supply port of the ink tank, and an ink tank. It has an air passage that communicates with the atmosphere through the air port of the ink tank, and simultaneously closes the supply passage and the air passage when not printing,
In the head cartridge having means for simultaneously opening the supply passage and the air passage during printing, a valve for opening and closing the supply port and the air port of the ink tank is provided in the ink tank,
An operating means for opening and closing the valve is provided outside the ink tank.

In particular, the valve of the present invention comprises a cylinder and a cylinder which is fitted into the cylinder so as to be rotatable with respect to the cylinder. The operating means for opening and closing the valve of the present invention is a lever that rotates the column of the valve. Further, the valve of the present invention has an air port and a supply port on the side surface of the cylinder, has an opening at both ends of the cylinder and an air port hole and a supply port hole on the side surface, and has one end The opening communicates with the hole for the air port and the opening at the other end communicates with the hole for the supply port. The cylinder is rotated by the lever that rotates the cylinder, and the air hole is provided in the cylinder during printing. And the air hole provided in the cylinder at the same time, and at the same time the supply hole provided in the cylinder and the hole for the supply hole provided in the cylinder are aligned. Set them so that they do not match.

[0012]

By manually moving the lever attached to the head cartridge, the supply port for supplying ink to the head and the air passage for communicating the inside of the ink tank with the atmosphere are simultaneously opened, and the head cartridge is removed from the carriage. At this time, by closing the supply port and the air passage at the same time by returning the lever to the original position, air bubbles are mixed into the supply port that supplies ink to the recording head and ink from the air passage that communicates the inside of the ink tank with the atmosphere. Prevents leakage.

[0013]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. 1 is a sectional view showing a head cartridge of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line AA shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line BB shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. It is an exploded perspective view. Here, 1 indicates an ink tank main body, and a cylinder 2 is provided inside the ink tank main body 1 at its lower end.
It is fixed to the bottom surface of the with the upper end pressed against the lid 5. The fixing method is heat welding or adhesion, and gas and liquid are sealed at the joint. Further, an air port 6 is formed on the side surface on the upper end side (the one joined to the lid 5) of the cylinder 2, and the lower end side (the one joined to the bottom surface of the ink tank body 1).
The ink supply port 8 is provided as a through hole.

Inside the cylinder 2, a cylinder 3 is fitted tightly so that ink does not soak into the cylinder 2, and the cylinder 3 is fitted so as to be rotatable with respect to the cylinder 2. Cylinder 2 and Cylinder 3
For the liquid seal, the cylinder 3 may be made of hard rubber, plastic, or the like, and may be fitted into the cylinder 2 with no space therebetween to seal, or a part of the cylinder 3 may be provided with a sealing material. Two holes are also provided on the side surface of the cylinder 3, and one is the same as the air opening 6 in the direction perpendicular to the axis passing through the axis of the cylinder 3 at the same height as the air opening 6 of the cylinder 2. A through hole (air port hole 7) having a slightly smaller diameter is opened, and the other is at the same height as the ink supply port 8 of the cylinder 2 and the cylinder 3
A through hole (supply port hole 9) having the same diameter as the ink supply port 8 or a slightly smaller diameter than the ink supply port 8 is formed in the direction perpendicular to the axis. Furthermore, vertical holes are formed in both ends of the cylinder 3 in the axial direction. The vertical hole at one end is an atmospheric communication vertical hole 10, which communicates with the air hole 7 from the upper end of the cylinder 3. The other end is a liquid supply vertical hole 11, which communicates with the supply port hole 9 from the lower end of the column 3. The liquid supply vertical hole is provided at the lower end of the cylinder 3 on the bottom surface of the ink tank body 1 and is joined to the liquid supply pipe 12 which is a joint portion with the recording head 13.

The cylinder 3 has an upper end that penetrates the lid 5 of the ink tank and is exposed to the outside of the ink tank. A lever 4 is attached to the cylinder 3. The cylinder 3 is rotated in the cylinder 2 by manually turning the lever 4. . The column 3 is restrained from moving up and down by the lid 5.

The cylindrical air port 6 and the cylindrical air port hole 7 are
The cylinder 3 is connected only when the cylinder 2 is in the positional relationship shown in FIG. 2A so that the inside of the ink tank communicates with the atmosphere. Similarly, the ink supply port 8 of the cylinder 2 and the cylinder supply Also in the mouth hole 9, the liquid supply pipe 12 communicates with the inside of the ink tank only in the state of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a carriage portion of a recording apparatus equipped with the head cartridge according to the embodiment shown in FIG. When mounting the head cartridge on the carriage 17 of the recording apparatus, the head cartridge is placed on the carriage 17 and then the lever 4 is manually rotated. At this time, the lever knob 14 is rotated so as to match the open point 16 printed on the lid 5 of the ink tank. By doing so, when the head cartridge is mounted on the carriage, the positional relationship between the cylinder 2 and the cylinder 3 is as shown in FIGS. 2 (a) and 3 (c). That is, when the head cartridge is attached to the carriage 17, the air port 6 of the cylinder 2 and the air port hole 7 of the column 3 are connected as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3C, the ink supply port 8 and the supply port hole 9 are also connected so that the ink tank and the liquid supply pipe 1 are connected.
Two communicate.

When the head cartridge is removed from the carriage 17 of the recording apparatus, the lever knob 14 is closed point 1 printed on the lid 5 of the ink tank.
The head cartridge is removed from the carriage 17 after rotating so as to align with 5. By doing so, the positional relationship between the cylinder 2 and the cylinder 3 when the head cartridge is removed from the carriage becomes as shown in FIGS. 2B and 3D.
That is, when the head cartridge is removed from the carriage, the air port 6 of the cylinder 2 and the air port hole 7 of the cylinder 3 are removed.
The air port of the ink tank is blocked by the misalignment,
The leakage of ink from there is prevented, and at the same time, the ink supply port 8 and the supply port hole 9 are also displaced, thereby closing the ink supply port of the ink tank, and from there, bubbles enter the liquid supply pipe 12 connected to the head. Prevent going.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the hole is closed by the head alone, air bubbles are mixed into the supply port for supplying the ink to the recording head and the air passage for communicating the inside of the ink tank with the atmosphere. It is possible to eliminate the leakage of ink. Further, since the ink can be stored as it is in the ink tank except for the space taken by the cylinder, a large amount of ink can be stored in the cartridge in the same volume as compared with the head cartridge using the porous body, and the porous body can also be stored. Since there is no ink that will be sucked into, the amount of residual ink can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a head cartridge showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of main parts of the head cartridge of FIG.

3 is a cross-sectional view of a main part of the head cartridge of FIG.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of the head cartridge of FIG.

5 is a perspective view of a carriage unit of a recording apparatus equipped with the head cartridge according to the embodiment shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Ink Tank Main Body 2 Cylinder 3 Cylinder 4 Lever 5 Lid 6 Air Port 7 Air Port Hole 8 Ink Supply Port 9 Supply Port Hole 10 Atmospheric Communication Vertical Hole 11 Liquid Supply Vertical Hole 12 Liquid Supply Pipe 13 Recording Head 14 Knob 15 Close Point 16 Open point 17 carriage

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An ink tank for storing ink, a supply path for supplying ink from the ink tank to a recording head through a supply port of the ink tank, and an air passage for communicating the inside of the ink tank with the atmosphere through an air port of the ink tank. And has a supply passage and an air passage at the same time when not printing,
In the head cartridge having means for simultaneously opening the supply passage and the air passage during printing, a valve for opening and closing the supply port and the air port of the ink tank is provided in the ink tank,
An ink tank characterized in that an operating means for opening and closing the valve is provided outside the ink tank. 2. The valve comprises a cylinder and a cylinder rotatably fitted to the cylinder, and the operating means for opening and closing the valve is a lever for rotating the cylinder, and a side surface of the cylinder. Has an air port and a supply port, an opening at both ends of the cylinder and a hole for the air port and a hole for the supply port on the side surface, and the opening at one end communicates with the hole for the air port. , The opening at the other end communicates with the hole for the supply port, and the cylinder for rotating the cylinder is rotated by the lever for rotating the cylinder so that at the time of printing, the air port provided in the cylinder and the hole for the air port provided in the column are formed. At the same time, the supply port provided on the cylinder and the supply port hole provided on the cylinder are aligned at the same time, and when not printing, the cylinder is further rotated so that the holes do not match. The ink tank according to claim 1.