JPH0825281B2 - Inkjet device operating method - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method of operating an inkjet device.

[Prior art]

An ink jet recording apparatus supplies ink into a recording head (ink jet head) and drives a plurality of ink ejection openings formed on the front surface of the recording head based on image data, thereby ejecting ink flying toward a recording medium. It forms and records drops.

Further, a serial type recording device, in which a recording head is mounted on a carriage that moves along a recording medium and recording is performed by synchronizing the drive of an ink ejection port and the drive of a carriage (main scanning), is widely used. The invention is directed to this serial recording apparatus.

In this type of inkjet recording apparatus, the ink ejection port may be clogged due to ink thickening due to evaporation of the ink solvent, dust adhesion, or air bubble inclusion. As a mechanism for preventing this, the ink ejection port is covered with a cap. An ink recovery mechanism that sucks ink through the capping mechanism and the cap is used.

The capping and ink recovery mechanism is generally provided at the home position of the carriage outside the memory width.

By the way, when the inkjet recording apparatus is transported, it is required to hold the carriage at a fixed position and to prevent ink from leaking. For that purpose, the carriage lock mechanism and the capping mechanism are used.

Further, in order to prevent bubbles from being generated due to the receding of the meniscus of the ink ejection port during the capping operation (at the time of the auto cap), ventilation means for communicating the inside of the cap with the atmosphere is provided.

However, the conventional carriage lock mechanism employs a mechanism that locks the carriage with the operation lever after confirming that the carriage is at the home position, or with the operation lever moved when the power is turned off. Therefore, there is a possibility of forgetting to seal the ventilating means or forgetting the capping and only carrying out the carriage lock, and then transporting as it is, which causes a problem of ink leakage.

〔Purpose〕

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for operating an ink jet device which can solve the problems of the prior art and can automatically and surely perform the operation of the carriage lock and the ink discharge port sealing during transportation.

〔Overview〕

According to the present invention, a carriage for mounting an inkjet head moves the inkjet head to a position where an ink ejection port of the inkjet head and a cap for covering the ink ejection port face each other, and locks the carriage. At the same time, a step of removing a stopper for holding the movable rate for stopping the communication between the inside of the cap and the atmosphere so as not to move by the moving carriage, a step of covering the ink ejection port with the cap, The above object is achieved by a method of operating an inkjet apparatus, which comprises a step of moving the movable member to lock the carriage and block communication between the inside of the cap and the atmosphere.

〔Example〕

 The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

In each of the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same parts, FIG. 1 is a plan view of the recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention when the ink ejection openings are opened, and FIG. 2 is a line II--II in FIG. FIG. 3 is a partially broken side view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a partially broken side view of the apparatus shown in FIG. 3 taken along the line IV-IV. Show.

In FIGS. 1 and 3, guide shafts 3, 3 are installed in front of a recording medium 2 such as a sheet or a plastic sheet backed up by a platen 1, and a carriage that reciprocates in the direction of arrow A along the guide shaft. Four
The recording head 5 is mounted on the top.

On the front surface of the recording head 5, a plurality (for example, 24 columns in a row)
Individual ink ejection openings are formed, and flying ink droplets are formed by driving each ink ejection opening based on the image data, and these are attached to the recording medium 2 to form a dot pattern for recording. Done.

1 to 4, the home position HP of the carriage 4 is set at a position outside the range of the platen 1 (left side in the illustrated example), and the ink ejection port of the recording head 5 is capped at the home position HP. A recovery device 6 is provided for covering and aspirating ink as needed.

This recovery device 6 includes a cap 7 driven forward and backward with respect to the recording head 5 in the direction of arrow B, and a negative pressure suction means (suction pump) connected to the cap via a suction tube 9.
8 and.

The cap 7 covers the ink ejection port of the recording head 5 at the forward position (FIG. 3), and is retracted during the printing operation.

A sub-tank 10 for supplying ink to the recording head 5 is mounted on the carriage 4, and the sub-tank is supplied with ink from a main tank such as an ink cartridge (not shown) mounted on the main body side.

The cap 7 is provided with ventilation means including a ventilation tube 11 and a ventilation valve 12.

However, on the main body side, a lever-shaped movable member 14 that is swingable around a support shaft 13 is pivotally supported.

The movable member 14 is operated by the traveling operation of the carriage 4, and when the carriage is at the home position, its claw portion 15 has a concave portion of the carriage as shown in FIG.
When the carriage is engaged with and locked by the carriage, and the carriage is at a position other than the home position HP, the pawl portion 15 is arranged to automatically return to the posture in which it disengages from the concave portion 16 as shown in FIG. .

Further, only when the carriage 4 is at the home position HP, at the same time as the carriage lock, the ventilation valve 12 is closed to block the communication (ventilation) between the cap 7 and the atmosphere.

That is, the movable member 14 is biased clockwise by the spring 17 in FIGS. 2 and 4, and is held in the unlocked state shown in FIG. 2 by the stopper 18 which is slidable in parallel with the carriage 4. When the carriage 4 moves to or near the home position HP, the projection 19 formed on the carriage hits the stopper 18 and disengages it from the movable member 14 to make the carriage lockable.

A plunger member 20 for opening and closing the ventilation valve 12 is attached to the movable member 14, and operates to close the ventilation valve 12 at the same time when the carriage lock of FIG. 4 is performed.

At the other end of the movable member 14, there is a lock lever for holding the movable member 14 in the carriage lock state of FIG.
21 are located.

That is, the lock lever 21 is swingably supported around the support shaft 22, and is locked by the bistable spring 24 attached to the fixing pin 23 to either the latch position shown in FIG. 2 or the release position shown in FIG. But it can be held stably.

 The operation is as follows.

When the carriage 4 is located away from the home position, such as during a printing operation, the movable member 14 is restricted by the stopper 18 to the unlock position shown in FIG.
Thus, it is securely held in this unlocked position.

In this state, the ventilation means 11 and 12 of the cap 7 are open to the atmosphere. Further, even if the lock lever 21 is accidentally detached, the movable member 14 is held in the carriage locked state by the stopper 18.

When printing is interrupted and the carriage 4 comes to the home position, the projection 19 of the carriage 4 causes the stopper 18 to move.
However, since the lock lever 21 is still in the locking position shown in FIG. 2, the carriage 4 is still in the unlocked state, and the ventilation valve 12 is still open.

With the ventilation valve 12 open, the cap 7 is moved forward to cap the recording head 5. As a result, it is possible to mitigate the pressure rise in the cap 7 when the cap 7 is pressed against the recording head 5, prevent the meniscus of the ejection port from retreating, and prevent the generation of bubbles in the ejection port.

When the ink recovery operation is performed by the suction pump 8 after capping, the lock lever 21 is further rotated to the release position in FIG. 4 by a manual operation or the like.

As a result, the movable member 14 is automatically moved to the carriage lock position, that is, the carriage 4 by the biasing force of the spring 17.
Vent valve 12
Is set to the closed position.

When the inkjet recording apparatus is transported, the movable member 14 is hooked on the recess 16 of the carriage 4 which is already in the capping state at the home position HP by releasing the lock lever 21 as in the case of the ink recovery described above. Stop and lock the carriage and vent valve
Close 12 to bring it to the state shown in FIG.

According to the embodiment described above, the movable member 14 can be operated by removing the stopper 18 that is operated by the traveling operation of the carriage 4 (by removing it), and the movable member can simultaneously perform both the carriage lock and the ventilation means closing. I configured it to
The following effects can be obtained.

(I) Since the drive source (solenoid or motor) for exclusive use for locking the carriage 4 and closing the ventilation means 11 and 12 is not necessary, the movement of the carriage 4 can be used for actuation, and therefore the structure is simple. It was possible to achieve downsizing, downsizing, and cost reduction.

(Ii) Carriage lock and ventilation means closure as one movable member
Since it is carried out at the same time in 14, it is possible to reliably prevent the problem that the ink leaks from the ventilation means at the time of transportation or the capping of the carriage 4 comes off and the ink leaks.

〔effect〕

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the inkjet head is moved to a position where the ink ejection port of the inkjet head and the cap for covering the ink ejection port face each other by the carriage for mounting the inkjet head. A step of moving, a step of locking the carriage and a stopper for holding a movable member for blocking communication between the inside of the cap and the atmosphere so as not to move by the moving carriage,
Covering the ink discharge port with the cap,
A step of locking the carriage by moving the movable member and interrupting the communication between the inside of the cap and the atmosphere is adopted, so that the carriage is used during transportation. Provided is a method for operating an inkjet device, which can reliably perform a lock operation and an ink discharge port sealing operation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a main part of an inkjet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention when a carriage is locked, and FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway side view taken along the line II-II in FIG. FIG. 3 is a plan view of a main part of the recording apparatus of FIG. 1 when a carriage is locked, and FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway side view taken along line IV-IV in FIG. 4 ... Carriage, 5 ... Recording head, 7 ... Cap,
11 …… Ventilation tube, 12 …… Ventilation valve, 14 …… Movable member, 18 …… Stopper, 21 …… Lock lever, HP …… Home position.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hideki Yamaguchi 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Shigeru Rokubo 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Incorporated (72) Inventor Koichi Ikeda 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A step of moving the inkjet head to a position where an ink ejection port of the inkjet head and a cap for covering the ink ejection port face each other by a carriage for mounting the inkjet head, and the carriage is locked. A stopper for holding the movable member for blocking the communication between the inside of the cap and the atmosphere so as not to move, the step of removing the stopper by the moving carriage, and the step of covering the ink ejection port with the cap, A method of operating the inkjet device, comprising: locking the carriage by moving the movable member and blocking communication between the inside of the cap and the atmosphere.