JPH08224893A - Ink tank for printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To effectively and smoothly supply ink stored in a porous material to a recording head, what even the remainder in it is. CONSTITUTION: An ink supply port 3 is provided toward one wall of a tank, and an ink absorbing member 60 is contained in the state that the height H of the region near the port 3 is more compressed than the depth D of the tank. The capillary attraction near the port 3 becomes greater than in other region so that remote ink is smoothly collected to a head.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink tank of a printer that records with ink.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, JP-A-50-9936 and JP-A-55-55
As can be seen in 42874 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,441,950, in a recording apparatus using ink, in order to prevent ink leakage, the ink tank is filled with a porous material, The ink is impregnated and held by the capillary force of the porous material.

[0003]

However, in these ink tanks, since the ink is held by the entire porous material by the capillaries, when the ink amount consumed in printing and the ink amount in the tank decreases, the ink is supplied from the ink supply port. There is a problem that it becomes difficult to discharge the ink existing in the distance to the ink supply port, and the supply of the ink to the recording head is delayed, which causes inconvenience in recording. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ink held on a porous material,
It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink tank of a printer that can reliably and smoothly discharge the ink to a recording head regardless of the remaining amount.

[0004]

In order to solve such a problem, according to the present invention, an ink impregnating member made of a porous material is housed in a tank container, and an ink supply for connecting the tank container and the recording head is provided. In an ink tank of a printer that supplies ink to the recording head through a mouth, the tank container is configured such that the ink supply port is provided so as to be biased to one wall surface forming the tank container, and the ink impregnating member. At least the region near the ink supply port is formed to have a thickness larger than the depth of the tank container, and the ink container is accommodated in the tank container in a compressed state near the ink supply port.

[0005]

Since the ink impregnating member in the region near the ink supply port is compressed, the average pore diameter of the ink impregnating member near the ink supply port becomes small, and the ink is sucked near the ink supply port regardless of the amount of ink. It can be ejected to the recording head.

[0006]

1 and 2 show an embodiment of an ink-type wire dot printer using the ink tank of the present invention. In this embodiment, a color printer plotter for four colors is used. It uses a head for black, red,
It is provided with green and blue ink systems and one recording wire corresponding to each color for each color. Therefore, when one or both of the head and the recording paper are moved so that the wire corresponding to the desired color of the recording head is projected to a predetermined position on the recording paper, a dot is formed on the recording paper and a character or figure is formed. You can draw.

An ink tank 2, which is a feature of the present invention, is removably arranged on the top of the head. The ink tank 2 has a two-body structure including an ink tank 2b for black ink and a tank 2a in which the interior for color ink is divided into three. The ink is impregnated in the ink impregnating member 60 made of a porous material with which the ink tank 2 is filled.

The ink supply port 3 for supplying the ink from the ink immersion member 60 to the head is provided on the surface which is the lower side when mounted on the head and at a position deviated to one side from the center in the longitudinal direction. When the ink guiding member 12 communicating with the head is inserted into the head, the ink guiding member 12 projects into the tank as shown in FIG. The ink guiding member 12 has an ink guiding hole 12b extending in the axial direction.
Is provided, and the ink flows into the recording head 1 through the guide hole 12b. The width and depth of the ink guide hole 12b are set to appropriate values that allow stable supply from the ink impregnation member 60.

The ink guiding member 12 has an annular guiding member 12a at its front portion and has an ink guiding hole 12b and an inner portion 12.
It communicates with c. A wire guide 13 is incorporated in the annular guiding member 12a, and by combining the two, A,
A gap indicated by B is provided. Further, since the gap between the wire 11 and the wire guide hole 13a of the wire guide 13 is small, the ink flows from the ink tank 2 to the ink guide member 1.
The ink is guided to the tip of the wire 11 through the gaps A and B between the second ink guide hole 12b and the wire guide 13.

The wire driving device forms a magnetic circuit with the yoke 18 having the coil core 16 around which the coil 17 is wound, the yoke plate 19 and the plunger 15, and the movement of the plunger 15 is transmitted to the wire 11 via the clapper 14. Is configured. In addition, the wire driving device includes the cover 21.
And the operating length of the clapper 14 is restricted. During standby, the tip end surface of the wire 11 is located deeper than the tip end surface of the wire guide 13, and the wire guide hole 13a
The length is set so as to be covered by the meniscus of the ink formed on the front part of the.

Next, the operation will be described. FIG. 2 shows a state where the coil core 16 is energized by energizing the coil 17.
The plunger 15 facing the is sucked. As a result, the clapper 14 to which the plunger 15 is fixed rotates, and the wire 11 engaged at the tip of the clapper 14 projects. The front end surface of the wire penetrates the ink meniscus and collides with the recording paper (not shown) in a state where the ink is attached to the front end surface and transfers the ink to the recording paper. On the other hand, when the wire is waiting, wire 1
Since the front end surface of the wire 1 is located inside the end surface of the wire guide 13, it is located inside the ink meniscus formed in front of the front end surface of the wire.
The ink is sequentially attached to the front surface of the wire by projecting and retracting.

For details of the ink dot printing operation such as the transfer of ink to the tip of the wire described above, see JP-A-57-678.
Since it is described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The ink remaining on the front surface of the wire guide 13 is drawn into the ink guiding member 12 by the capillary force into the collecting groove 13b formed as a V-shaped cross-section narrow groove provided on the front and side surfaces. Is refluxed.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of an ink tank characterized by the present invention, which is an ink tank body 40.
Has an ink supply port 3 which is biased to one side on one surface, and has a plurality of fine grooves 45a, 45b and 45c formed on the bottom surface as shown in detail in FIG. A rib 46 is formed on the inner surface of the side wall 40c of the ink tank body 40.
a and 46b are formed. (Refer to FIG. 4, and in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, the impregnated member is made of the first porous material 62 having a small average pore size as the lower layer and the second porous material 61 having a large average diameter as the upper layer. On the other hand, the ink impregnating member 60 housed in the ink tank body 40 has different thicknesses in the front portion 60a and the rear portion 60b of the ink tank body 40 which are in contact with the ink supply port 3. The thickness H of the portion 60a on the ink supply port 3 side is set to be larger than the depth D of the tank body 40.

Therefore, when the ink impregnation member 60 is housed in the ink tank body 40, only the front portion 60a is selectively and strongly compressed by the tank lid 50. Further, since the ink supply port 3 is formed so as to be biased to one wall of the ink tank body 40, the expansion of the ink impregnation member 60 in the horizontal direction due to the compression is restricted by the three walls, and this region is surely secured. Compressed.

Therefore, even if the ink impregnating member 60 is made of a porous material having a uniform average pore diameter, the front portion 60
a, that is, the average pore diameter in the vicinity of the ink supply port 3 becomes smaller than the original pore diameter due to compression, and the average pore diameter becomes continuously larger as it is stored in the tank body 40.

Further, the fine grooves 45a, 45 on one surface 40a
b, 45c, and ribs 46a, 46b form a slight space between the inner surface of the tank body and the ink impregnating member 60. As a result, the ink that has overflowed from the ink impregnation member 60 due to the temperature change is removed from the narrow grooves 45a, 45b, 45c,
Also, the ink can be stored in the space formed by the ribs 46a, 46, and the leakage of the ink from the tank due to the temperature change can be prevented.

When the ink tank thus constructed is mounted on the recording head, the ink guiding member 12 receives the ink supply from the ink impregnating member 60 and the strong capillary force of the ink supply port 3 causes the ink guiding member 12 to receive the ink as shown in FIG. It is possible to attract ink in the distance and smoothly supply the ink to the recording head.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, the tank container is configured such that the ink supply port is provided so as to be biased to one wall surface forming the tank container, and the ink impregnating member is at least near the ink supply port. Since the thickness of the region is formed to be larger than the depth of the tank container and is accommodated in the tank container in a state where the vicinity of the ink supply port is compressed, at least the ink impregnation member in the region near the ink supply port is reliably compressed. The average hole diameter can be reduced, and the ink can be attracted to the vicinity of the ink supply port by a capillary force and discharged to the recording head regardless of the amount of ink.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of an ink type wire dot printer head using an ink tank of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of an ink-type wire dot printer head equipped with the ink tank of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view showing an embodiment of the ink tank of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective sectional view showing another embodiment of the ink tank of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Recording Head 2 Tank 3 Ink Supply Port 12 Ink Induction Member 50 Tank Lid 60 Ink Impregnation Member

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An ink tank of a printer, wherein an ink impregnating member made of a porous material is housed in a tank container, and ink is supplied to the recording head via an ink supply port connecting the tank container and the recording head, The tank container is configured by providing the ink supply port on one wall surface constituting the tank container, and the ink impregnating member has a thickness at least in a region near the ink supply port from a depth of the tank container. An ink tank of a printer which is also formed large and is housed in the tank container in a state where the vicinity of the ink supply port is compressed. 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein an ink guiding member that guides the ink to the recording head is provided at the ink supply port so that its tip projects into the internal space of the tank container. Ink tank.