JPH08244240A - Ink jet apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To clean a head nozzle face without contaminating the printer interior. CONSTITUTION: To clean a head 1, a wiping member 44 is moved to a forward position where it can contact the head 1, and then the head 1 is moved in the direction of arrow B1. The head 1 thereby engages with a wiping part 44a, and bends a position restricting part 44b, so that the position of contact between the position restricting part 44b and position restricting protrusions 41e shifts from the position assumed when the wiping part 44a was in the forward position. A nozzle face 1a is cleaned in this positional state. After the cleaning, the wiping part 44a gradually resumes the original position by the force of friction between the position restricting part 44b and the position restricting protrusions 41e which is caused when the position restricting part 44b recovers. Thus, the residual ink or contaminants wiped by the wiping part 44a during the cleaning will not splash. That is, the nozzle face 1a of the head 1 can be cleaned without contaminating the interior of the printer.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet device, and more particularly to an ink jet device having a wiping member for cleaning a nozzle surface of a head for ejecting ink droplets.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an inkjet recording apparatus, when the nozzle surface of a head on which a nozzle for ejecting ink is formed becomes wet or dirty, variations occur in the ejection direction of the ink or the particle shape of the ejected ink droplets. The original print quality was sometimes impaired. In order to solve such a problem, a wiping mechanism for cleaning the nozzle surface of the head has been proposed.

Some of the conventional wiping mechanisms use a wiper blade to scrape or wipe ink and dust on the nozzle surface. A flat plate made of a flexible material is usually used as the wiper blade. A schematic configuration of a conventional inkjet device will be described below with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5A and 5B.

A head 135 for ejecting ink from a nozzle (not shown) is a cartridge 138 containing ink.
Integrated with the head 135 and the cartridge 1
38 is mounted on the carriage 134. The carriage 134 has a platen 13 driven by a drive source (not shown).
Moved along 1. Then, the print sheet 1 conveyed onto the platen 131 by a rubber roller (not shown)
On the head 32, the head 1 is moved as the carriage 134 moves.
Ink is ejected from 35 to print the image data.

Near the home position HP of the carriage 134 (on the left side of the platen 131 in FIG. 4), the flexible wiper blade 1 for wiping the nozzle surface of the head 135.
36 is fixed to a wiper arm 137 made of hard resin. The wiper arm 137 is rotatably supported by a shaft 145 attached to the frame 110,
By a driving means (not shown), it is rotated in the direction of arrow A from the standby position shown by the broken line in FIG. As the wiper arm 137 rotates, the nozzle surface 135a of the head 135 positioned so as to overlap the trajectory 105 of the tip of the wiper blade 136 is moved to the wiper blade 13
6 is in sliding contact with the foreign matter 10 adhering to the nozzle surface 135a.
8 and the excess ink 109 are removed. In addition, the substrate 102 is arranged at a position overlapping the locus 105 of the tip of the wiper blade 136 after wiping.
02 is supported by the ink absorber 103 made of a porous member.

[0006]

However, in the above-described ink jet device, when the wiper blade 136 comes into sliding contact with the nozzle surface 135a of the head 135, only the wiper blade 136 bends as shown in FIG. 5 (b). After the wiping is completed, the foreign matter 108 and the excess ink 109
Since the wiper blade 136 holding the nozzle vigorously releases the flexure, the foreign matter 108 and the surplus ink 109 may be scattered from the wiper blade 136 and stain the inside of the inkjet device.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet device which does not stain the inside of the device during wiping.

[0008]

In order to achieve this object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet apparatus having a head for ejecting ink droplets from a nozzle and a wiping member for cleaning a nozzle surface of the head. A supporting member that rotatably supports the wiping member; a position restricting member that is provided on the wiping member, extends in a direction intersecting the axis of the rotation center of the wiping member, and is formed of a flexible material; A wiping member is rotated by sliding contact between the nozzle surface and the wiping member, the position regulating member is bent, and the engagement is caused by the bending. It is characterized in that the contact position with the member changes.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a cleaning member for cleaning the wiping member is further provided.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the wiping member and the position regulating member are integrally formed.

[0011]

In the ink jet device of the present invention having the above structure, the supporting member rotatably supports the wiping member, and the engaging member comes into contact with the position restricting member formed of a flexible material. . Then, when the nozzle surface is cleaned, the nozzle surface and the wiping member are engaged with each other, and the wiping member rotatably supported by the support member is rotated. At this time, the position regulating member bends, and the contact position between the position regulating member and the engaging member changes. In this state, the wiping member contacts the nozzle surface with a continuous line or surface to clean the nozzle surface. And after cleaning
The wiping member is separated from the nozzle surface, and due to the restoring force of the bending of the position restricting member, the original state is restored, but due to the frictional force between the position restricting member and the engaging member,
The restoring force on the wiping member is weakened, and the wiping member is gently restored to its original position.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, the configuration of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. A platen 10 is provided in a housing 12 of the printer so as to be rotatable in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1, and a guide shaft 20 is provided along the platen 10. A carriage 16 is slidably attached to the guide shaft 20, and a belt 26 is attached to the carriage 16. The belt 26 is looped around the idle pulley 24 and the drive pulley 22. The drive pulley 22 is rotated by a drive motor 28, and the rotation of the drive pulley 22 moves the carriage 16 along the guide shaft 20 via the belt 26 in the arrow B direction in FIG.

A head holder 2 is mounted on the carriage 16 so as to face the platen 10, and an ink cartridge 14 containing ink for printing is placed on the head holder 2 and the head holder 2 is mounted thereon. The ink is supplied to the head 1 (FIG. 2) that ejects the ink adhered to the head. The ink cartridge 14 can be attached to and detached from the head holder 2. The head 1 is provided with a plurality of nozzles (not shown), and these nozzles are arranged in the vertical direction. The ink ejected from the nozzles arranged in this way flies in the horizontal direction.

The printing paper 32 is shown in FIG.
It is inserted into the housing 12 in the direction of the middle arrow C, conveyed in the direction of the arrow D along the platen 10, and discharged from the housing 12 of the printer. When the printing paper 32 is conveyed to the platen 10, required data is printed by ejecting ink by the head 1 fixed to the head holder 2 as the carriage 16 moves.

A cap 34 is provided at the non-printing position of the head 1 on the left side of the platen 10 in FIG. 1, and a cap rubber 36 is attached to the cap 34 so as to be in close contact with the head 1. The cap 34 is attached to the head 1 so as to be movable in the direction of the arrow E in FIG. 1, and the cap rubber 36 is brought into close contact with the head 1 as appropriate. A connecting tube 40 is attached to the cap 34 and is connected to the pump 38. A discharge tube 48 is connected to the pump 38, and the discharge tube 48 is connected to a waste ink tank 52 containing an adsorbent 50.

A wiping member 44 is provided between the platen 10 and the cap 34 at the non-printing position. The wiping member 44 is attached so as to be movable in the direction of arrow F in FIG. The wiping member 44 normally stands by at a retracted position where it does not come into contact with the head 1, and at the time of wiping, it is moved to a forward position where it can be slidably contacted with the head 1 by a moving means (not shown).

As shown in FIG. 2 when the interior of the printer is viewed obliquely, the wiping member 44 is provided on the nozzle surface 1 of the head 1.
a wiping portion 44a for cleaning a, a shaft portion 44c having a through hole, and a position regulating portion 44b extending in a direction orthogonal to the wiping portion 44a.
The position a, the position restricting portion 44b, and the shaft portion 44c are integrally formed of a flexible material such as butyl rubber, silicon rubber, or fluororubber. By integrally forming the wiping portion 44a, the shaft portion 44c, and the position restricting portion 44b in this manner, the wiping member 44 can be easily manufactured.

The wiping support member 41 for supporting the wiping member 44 includes a column portion 41a and a column portion 41.
The surface 41c (the upper surface in FIG. 2) of the base 41b on which the cylindrical portion 41a is provided has a size larger than the diameter of the cylindrical portion 41a. Also, the base 41
A plate portion 41d that extends in the horizontal direction is provided on the side of b, and on the plate portion 41d, two position regulating protrusions 41e that extend in parallel with the columnar portion 41a are provided at a predetermined interval. .

A hollow cylindrical collar 45 made of resin is press-fitted into the shaft portion 44c of the wiping member 44, and the hollow cylindrical collar 45 is a cylindrical portion 41a of the wiping support member 41.
It is rotatably inserted with respect to. One end of the shaft portion 44c and the hollow columnar collar 45 is in contact with the surface 41c of the wiping support member 41, and the other end of the shaft portion 44c and the hollow columnar collar 45 is regulated by a washer (not shown). There is. Further, the position restricting portion 44b of the wiping member 44 is sandwiched in contact with the two position restricting protrusions 41e so that the wiping portion 44a of the wiping member 44 extends in the direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the head 1. Positioned.

The wiping portion 44a is designed to have strength and shape so that it does not bend when it comes into sliding contact with the head 1, and the position regulating portion 44b has the wiping portion 44a slidably contacting with the head 1. It is designed so that it flexes.
The wiping member 44 is connected to the nozzle surface 1 of the head 1.
It is provided so that all of a can be cleaned. The frictional force between the hollow columnar collar 45 and the columnar portion 41a is designed to be smaller than the frictional force between the position regulating portion 44b and the position regulating protrusion 41e.

Further, the suction member 23 that absorbs ink is
The wiping member 44 is arranged so as to correspond to the wiping portion 44a in the retracted position. When the wiping member 44 is in the retracted position, the cleaning surface 23a of the suction member 23 is the nozzle surface 1a of the wiping portion 44a.
Is in contact with the surface on the side that is in sliding contact with.

Next, the operation of the printer 1 will be described with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 1, the print sheet 32 has an arrow C.
Directionally inserted into the housing 12 of the printer and conveyed to the platen 10. Then, the head 1 mounted on the carriage 16 which is moved in the direction of arrow B by the drive motor 28 ejects ink according to the data input when it is sent to the position of the printing paper 32, and the printing paper 32 is printed.
Form an image on top. After that, when the head 1 prints a certain amount or the user operates the head 1 as needed, the head 1 is maintained. During the maintenance, the head 1 is left on the left side of the platen 10 in FIG. Is moved to the non-printing position of. Next, the cap 34 approaches the head 1 and the cap rubber 36 comes into close contact with the head 1 to cover the vicinity of the nozzle of the head 1. Then, the pump 38 sucks the ink and the air bubbles in the head 1, and further the foreign matter attached near the nozzles, and discharges them to the adsorbent 50 in the waste ink tank 52.

The wiping member 44 is slidably brought into contact with the head 1 by the moving means when the nozzle surface 1a of the head 1 is contaminated with ink or the like, or whenever the head 1 prints a certain amount. Moved to the forward position. Then, as shown in FIG. 3 when the inside of the printer is viewed from above, the head 1
Is moved to the print position (in the direction of arrow B1 in the figure), the wiping portion 44a and the head 1 engage with each other, and when the head 1 further moves in the direction of arrow B1, the wiping portion 44a of the wiping member 44 bends. First, the hollow columnar collar 45 press-fitted into the shaft portion 44c rotates with respect to the columnar portion 41a, whereby the position regulating portion 44b bends. Position regulating member 4
When the 4b bends, the position regulating member 44b and the position regulating protrusion 41
The contact position with e moves from the position where the wiping portion 44a is in the forward movement position. In this state, the nozzle surface 1a of the head 1 and the wiping portion 44a of the wiping member 44 make sliding contact with each other, and the nozzle surface 1a is cleaned.

When the head 1 further moves in the direction of the arrow B1 and the sliding contact between the nozzle surface 1a and the wiping portion 44a is released and the cleaning is completed, the position regulating portion 4 which has been bent is bent.
Due to the restoring force of 4b, the position regulating portion 44b returns to its original position and the wiping portion 44a returns to its original position. However, when the position regulating portion 44b returns, the position regulating member 44b and the position regulating projection portion. The wiping portion 44a is gently restored to the original position by the frictional force between the wiping portion 41a and 41e.

After that, the wiping member 44 retracts and the excess ink and foreign matter wiped by the wiping portion 44a come into contact with the cleaning surface 23a of the suction member 23, and the wiping portion 44a is cleaned. As a result, the ink wiped by the wiping unit 44a is not transferred to the wiping unit 4a.
It is possible to avoid drying and sticking on the surface 4a and to perform good wiping at the time of the next cleaning.

As described above, in the printer constructed as described above, when the cleaning of the nozzle surface 1a is completed, the restoring force acting on the wiping portion 44a of the position regulating portion 44b which has been bent is moved to the position regulating member 44b. Control projection 41e
It is weakened by the frictional force with the wiping part 44.
a is gently restored to its original position. Therefore, the excess ink and foreign matter wiped off the wiping portion 44a during the cleaning will not be scattered. That is, the nozzle surface 1a of the head 1 can be cleaned without polluting the inside of the printer.

If the length between the columnar portion 41a of the wiping support member 41 and the position regulating protrusion 41e is increased, the restoring force of the position regulating portion 44b becomes smaller. Therefore, the wiping unit 41a returns more slowly after cleaning, and the excess ink and foreign matter are prevented from scattering.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, in the present embodiment, the ink jet apparatus of the present invention is used in the printer in which the ink ejected from the head 1 flies in the horizontal direction for printing.
It may not be in the horizontal direction, and may be used, for example, in an apparatus that prints by ejecting ink in the vertical direction.

Further, although the suction member 23 is fixed in this embodiment, the suction member may be provided so as to be movable so that the suction member can be moved to come into contact with the wiping portion 44a.

Further, in this embodiment, the nozzles of the head 1 are arranged perpendicularly to the moving direction B of the carriage 16, but the nozzles of the head 1 are arranged so as to be inclined with respect to the moving direction B. May be.

Further, in this embodiment, the nozzle surface 1a is cleaned when the head 1 is moved from the non-printing position side to the printing position side, but when the head 1 is moved from the printing position side to the non-printing position side. The nozzle surface 1a may be cleaned.

Further, in this embodiment, the wiping portion 44a is used.
Although the shaft portion 44c and the position regulating portion 44b are integrally formed, they may be separately formed and attached.

Further, in this embodiment, the position restricting portion 44b is designed to be bent and the wiping portion 44a is not bent during cleaning. However, the position restricting portion is designed to be flexible and the wiping portion is also designed to be flexible. Good. In this case, it is more effective if the bending amount of the position restricting portion is set to be larger than the bending amount of the wiping portion.

Further, in the present embodiment, the position restricting portion 44b extends in the moving direction B of the head 1. However, if the position restricting portion 44b is a direction intersecting the axial direction of the columnar portion 41a of the wiping support member 41, the position restricting portion 44b. May extend in other directions.

Further, in this embodiment, the position restricting portion 44b has a flat plate shape and extends from the shaft portion 44c.
It may extend from c.

[0038]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the ink jet device of the present invention, the position regulating member which is rotatably supported by the supporting member and is formed of a flexible material on the wiping member. Since the position restricting member and the engaging member are in contact with each other, when the nozzle surface and the wiping member engage with each other during cleaning of the nozzle surface, the wiping member is rotated to move the position restricting member. Is bent, the contact position between the position restricting member and the engaging member is changed, and the wiper member contacts the nozzle surface with a continuous line or surface, and in this state, the nozzle surface is cleaned. Then, after the cleaning is completed, the wiping member is separated from the nozzle surface, and the restoring force of the bending of the position regulating member restores the original state. Due to the frictional force, the restoring force on the wiping member is weakened, and the wiping member is gently restored to its original position. For this reason, the excess ink, foreign matter, etc. wiped from the nozzle surface to the wiping member is held on the wiping member without scattering in the device.
Therefore, the nozzle surface can be cleaned without polluting the inside of the device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an inkjet printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the vicinity of the wiper member of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a top view showing the vicinity of the wiper member of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing the vicinity of a conventional wiper portion.

FIG. 5A is a main perspective view showing a conventional wiper member. (B) It is a side view which shows the conventional wiper member.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Head 1a Nozzle surface 23 Adsorption member 41 Wiping support member 41a Column part 41b Base part 41c Surface 41d Plate part 41e Position regulation projection part 44 Wiping member 44a Wiping part 44b Position regulation 44c Shaft part 45 Hollow columnar collar

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An inkjet apparatus having a head for ejecting ink droplets from a nozzle and a wiping member for cleaning the nozzle surface of the head, and a supporting member for rotatably supporting the wiping member, and the wiping member. A wiping member extending in a direction intersecting the axis of rotation of the wiping member, the position restricting member made of a flexible material; and an engaging member contacting the position restricting member, the nozzle surface and the wiping member. An inkjet device, wherein a wiping member is rotated by sliding contact with a member, the position regulating member is bent, and the contact position with the engaging member is changed by the bending. 2. The inkjet apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a cleaning member that cleans the wiping member. 3. The inkjet device according to claim 1, wherein the wiping member and the position regulating member are integrally formed.