JPH0717068B2 - Liquid jet recording device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial application] The present invention has an inkjet recording head and an ink tank for containing ink to be supplied to the recording head, and it is possible to connect both of them. The present invention relates to a liquid jet recording apparatus having a flexible ink supply path.

[Prior Art] As a liquid jet recording apparatus used as a high performance recording apparatus such as a printer or a facsimile as an output device of a computer device, for example, as shown in FIG. 3 to FIG. The two guide shafts 2 are arranged, and the carriage 3 uses the guide shafts 2 as a traveling path.
There is a structure that allows traveling. On the carriage 3, a recording head portion 4 arranged toward the platen 1 and a sub-ink tank 5 located behind the recording head portion 4 are mounted and fixed. An ink supply path 6 for sending ink from a main ink tank (not shown) is connected to the sub ink tank 5, and the sub ink tank 5 and the recording head unit 4 are connected by an ink supply pipe 7. In this case, since the carriage 3 reciprocates on the guide shaft 2, the relative position between the main ink tank at the fixed position and the sub ink tank 5 on the carriage 3 always changes. Therefore, the ink supply path 6 is set to have a sufficient length in consideration of the movement of the carriage 3.
It is housed with a large bending radius.

However, in the conventional device, the bending radius of the ink supply path 6 is
Even when it was naturally bent, it became very large and the storage space was a problem. This means that a device with a large recording area, that is, a large amount of carriage movement,
This was a particular problem when a long ink supply path 6 was required. Further, in a high-speed printer, the diameter of the ink supply path 6 has to be made larger due to an increase in the ink supply amount, and the bending radius tends to become larger. Therefore, attempts have been made to reduce the bending radius by making the material of the ink supply path 6 soft, but simply softening the ink may cause the ink supply path 6 to bend and hinder the ink supply. . In addition, the length of the ink supply passage is not limited to the problem of the accommodation space, and the ink supply passage 6 swings in any direction such as up and down or left and right with the carriage scanning at the time of recording. This may cause an unstable behavior of the supply path 6, and thus the ink supply path 6 may come into contact with a peripheral member to hinder carriage scanning.

However, there is a great demand for higher performance of the device such as high speed, and for this reason, conventionally, the bending radius of the ink supply path 6 is inevitably large, and further, the ink supply path 6 swings. In addition to the behavior anxiety, the ink supply passage 6 easily contacts the upper surface of the casing of the liquid jet recording apparatus and the peripheral members of the ink supply passage 6, and as the carriage 3 moves, The frictional contact with the supply passage 6 was repeatedly performed, which sometimes caused wear and damage. Such an ink supply path 6
It is necessary to avoid damage to the other parts, because damage to other parts may occur due to leaked ink. Furthermore, in an apparatus having a large recording area, the behavior of the ink supply path 6 becomes more unstable as the length of the ink supply path 6 increases, and contact with the peripheral portion of the ink supply path is more likely to occur. As a result, problems such as breakage of the ink supply path and carriage scanning failure are likely to occur. It is possible to increase the height of the upper surface of the casing so that the ink supply passage 6 does not come into contact with the upper surface of the casing to allow a space. However, there is an inconvenience that the size of the apparatus eventually increases.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The present invention focuses on the above-mentioned conventional problems, and prevents curving of a flexible ink supply path that communicates with an ink tank and supplies ink to an inkjet recording head. An object of the present invention is to provide a novel liquid jet recording apparatus configured to prevent the above-mentioned various problems caused by unstable behavior of the ink supply path such as abrasion damage of the ink supply path with a relatively simple structure. To do.

[Means for Solving Problems] The above object of the present invention is achieved by the following present invention.

Liquid having an ink jet recording head, an ink tank for containing ink to be supplied to the ink jet recording head, and a flexible ink supply path for connecting the ink tank and the ink jet recording head to enable ink supply In a jet recording apparatus, a pulley that regulates the connection direction and the bending radius of the ink supply path and holds the ink supply path, and a tension generation that applies tension to the pulley in a direction along the connection direction of the ink supply path And a bending radius of the ink supply path is regulated by a radius of the pulley, and a pulling direction of the tension generating means is along a moving direction of the carriage. Jet recording device.

EXAMPLES Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings, but it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the following examples.

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show a preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the drawing, this liquid jet recording apparatus is equipped with a platen.
Two guide shafts 12 are arranged in parallel with 10, and a carriage 13 is movably mounted on the guide shafts 12. This carriage
A sub ink tank 14 is attached to the sub ink tank 13 so that ink from a main ink tank (not shown) is sent to the sub ink tank 14 through an ink supply path (tube) 15.

Here, the recording head 16 that faces the platen 10 and performs printing
Is removable from the carriage 13 and the sub ink tank 14, as shown in FIG. Therefore, two guide posts 18 for holding the front side surface of the recording head 16 are provided upright on the front edge of the carriage 13,
A fitting groove (not shown) for shallowly fitting the bottom of the recording head 16 is formed on the upper surface of the recording head 16.
It is designed to hold 16 positions.

Ink is supplied from the main ink tank to the recording head 16 via an ink supply path (tube) 15 connected to the sub ink tank 14 when mounted on the carriage 13. Then, tension is applied to the ink supply passage 15 connected to the sub ink tank 14 so as to regulate the ink supply passage 15 in the connection direction.

More specifically, the ink supply path 15 connected to the sub ink tank 14 is connected to the main ink tank by being passed over a pulley 17 in the middle. Thus the sub ink tank 14
The ink supply passage 15 fixed between the two points of the main ink tank is extended at one end thereof to a pulley 17 rotatably fixed to a spring 19 as tension generating means fixed to the casing 20. Then, since the spring 19 pulls the pulley 17, tension is always applied to the ink supply path 15, and the direction of the ink supply path 15 is held and regulated in the pulling direction. Moreover, the spring 19 is the carriage
The pulley 17 expands and contracts following the movement of the ink 13 and the pulley 17 moves while smoothly rotating on the ink supply path 15 in accordance with the expansion and contraction. Therefore, the connection direction of the ink supply path 15 is always regulated even when the carriage 13 is running. To be done. That is, the ink supply path 15
Regardless of whether the carriage is traveling or not, the direction regulation is not limited.

In the figure, reference numeral 21 is a supply pipe that serves as an ink flow path between the sub ink tank 14 and the recording head 16, and 22 is a flexible circuit for driving the nozzles of the recording head 16 according to a print pattern signal.

[Operation] According to the liquid jet recording apparatus having such a configuration, the ink supply path 15 is always stretched in a constant direction by the above tension, and a large bending radius is not generated as shown in FIG. The upward bending is also suppressed, and the direction of connection to the sub ink tank 14 is regulated while the connection center line is held straight. Further, the ink supply path can follow the carriage without rocking when the carriage moves, and stable operation can be performed.

As a result, the ink supply path is not curved not only in the up-down direction but also in the carriage scanning direction. Therefore, contact with the upper surface of the casing or the peripheral portion of the ink supply path, or wear of the ink supply path due to the contact, Furthermore, problems such as poor scanning of the carriage do not occur.

In the above embodiment, the bending radius of the ink supply path 15 is determined by the radius of the pulley. However, the bending radius is selected by selecting an appropriate size according to the material and size of the ink supply path to be used. Good. Further, the tension generating means is not limited to the spring but may be an elastic body such as rubber. Of course, even if the length of the ink supply path is long or short, it is possible to obtain the same effect as the above by arbitrarily selecting the curvature of the spring or the pulley. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the regulating means is constituted by the pulley and the spring as the tension generating means, but it goes without saying that the regulating means in the present invention is not limited to this example.

The present invention is particularly effective for the relative movement type in which the recording head is mounted on the carriage, but is also applicable to the structure without the carriage. Further, the present invention can be similarly applied to a structure in which the ink supply path is directly connected to the recording head 16 without the sub ink tank 14. Further, it is of course applicable to a structure in which the recording head is not detachable and is fixed to the carriage.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the direction can be regulated by applying tension to the flexible ink supply passage, and there is no friction between the device casing and the ink supply passage. A new liquid jet recording apparatus capable of stable behavior of the ink supply path position can be obtained without causing the ink supply path to oscillate during carriage scanning.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an essential part of an example of a liquid jet recording apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a rear view of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an essential part of an example of a conventional liquid jet recording apparatus. FIG. 4 is a rear view of FIG. 1, 10; Platen, 2, 12; Guide shaft 3, 13; Carriage, 5, 14; Sub ink tank 6, 15; Ink supply path, 4, 16; Recording head 17; Pulley, 19; Spring

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Toshiaki Hirosawa 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (56) Reference JP-A-57-74168 (JP, A) -96052 (JP, U) Actually opened 57-169559 (JP, U)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ink jet recording head, an ink tank for containing ink to be supplied to the ink jet recording head, and a flexible ink supply path for connecting the ink tank and the ink jet recording head to enable ink supply. In a liquid ejecting recording apparatus including: a pulley that holds the ink supply path by regulating the connection direction and the bending radius of the ink supply path; and a direction along the connection direction of the ink supply path to the pulley. Tensioning means for applying tension, the bending radius of the ink supply path is regulated by the radius of the pulley, and the tensioning direction of the tensioning means is along the moving direction of the carriage. A liquid jet recording apparatus characterized by: