JPH08267788A - Ink jet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To dispose accurately a printing head and a cap by disposing the cap covering a nozzle line of the printing head facing the printing head and forming marks of overlapping together when the nozzle line is covered by the cap on the positions to be visualized from outside. CONSTITUTION: A head side mark M1 is formed on the position facing a maintenance device 2 on the position to be visualized from the outside of the upper face of a printing head 1. A cap 12 and a wiper 13 are mounted on a base 11 of the maintenance device 2 facing the printing head 1 on the home position. The cap 12 is provided with a container section and a shaft section extending from the rear face of the container section backward, and a mark protruded from a cap side mark M2 is formed on the upper face of the container section. A motor 7 for moving reciprocatingly a belt is driven just slightly at the time of shipping a printer, and when both marks M1 and M2 are overlapped, a confirmation button is pressed to store the current position of the printing head 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer cap using an ink jet type print head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an ink jet type print head, the ink accumulated at the tip of the nozzle is dried and clogged, or the ink is drawn into the nozzle by a negative pressure due to some cause, and it cannot respond to a print command immediately. May fly. A cap is arranged to prevent this.

The cap needs to have a function of covering the nozzle row in the print head to prevent the nozzle tip from drying, and a function of temporarily setting a negative pressure inside the cap to start ink to the nozzle tip at the start of printing operation. Therefore, it is necessary to cover the nozzle row and bring it into close contact with the print head. For this purpose, it is necessary to accurately arrange the nozzle row of the print head at the home position and the cap for the nozzle row.

However, between the print head and the cap, a head, a carriage shaft, a side frame, a maintenance base, a cap holder, a cap, and many other parts are arranged, and when these are assembled, tolerances are accumulated and accuracy is increased. Therefore, it is required to have high dimensional accuracy and placement accuracy for each part, which leads to cost increase.

As a means for absorbing the accumulated tolerance, there is a method of enlarging the cap shape. However, if the cap becomes large, the adhesion to the head may deteriorate, and again high dimensional accuracy is required, resulting in an increase in cost.
Further, there is a cap that is loosely arranged so as to be able to correspond to the position of the nozzle row, but the structure is complicated and it is disadvantageous in terms of cost.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printer in which the alignment of the nozzle row and the cap in the ink jet type print head is easy.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] Face the print head,
A cap is arranged to cover the nozzle row of the print head. Marks are formed on the outer surface of the print head and the outer surface of the cap so as to be visible from the outside when the cap covers the nozzle array. There is provided means for manually finely moving the head reciprocating motor from the printer control panel through the printer control device. The inner surface of the concave portion of the cap that covers the nozzle row may be made of fluorosilicone rubber.

[0008]

The mark provided on the print head and the cap serves as a mark indicating that the cap is at the correct position with respect to the print head. Means for finely moving the motor for reciprocating the head from the control panel of the printer through the control device of the printer enables the print head to be manually placed at an accurate position with respect to the cap.

[0009]

FIG. 1 shows an ink jet type head 1 at a home position and a maintenance device 2 facing the same. Reference numeral 3 is a side frame which is a part of a frame which is a base of the printer.
Carriage shaft 4 and guide plate 5 on the side frame 3
Has been fixed. Reference numeral 6 is a timing belt, which is driven by a head reciprocating motor 7 fixed to the bottom of the side frame 3. The print head 1 is inserted into the carriage shaft 4 at the front part (platen side), and the rear part is slidably mounted on the upper surface of the guide plate 5, and is connected to the timing belt 6 at the lower part.

The print head 1 is an ink jet type having a well-known structure and has a nozzle row 8 for ejecting ink in dot units on the front surface. Further, the head reciprocating motor 7 is under the control of a control device 9 containing a system program, and various parameters such as print density and line feed can be input from the control panel 10 to the control device 9. , So-called hidden commands can be input for workers who perform repairs and inspections. The fine feed of the print head is set as one of the hidden commands. The print head 1 is provided with a head side mark M1 at a position facing the maintenance device 2 at a position visible from the outside of the upper surface.

In the maintenance device 2, a cap 12 and a wiper 13 are attached to a maintenance base 11,
These are arranged to appear and disappear toward the print head in synchronization with the movement of the print head 1. The maintenance device 2 is provided with a pump mechanism and a valve mechanism for making the inside of the cap negative pressure or communicating with the atmospheric pressure at a timing.

The cap 12 and the wiper 13 are assembled to the cap holder 14 (FIG. 2). Cap 12
Is the container portion 15 and the first shaft portion 1 extending rearward from the rear surface thereof.
6, a mark protrusion 17 is vertically provided on the upper surface of the container portion 15, and a first cam follower 18 is vertically provided on the upper surface side of the shaft portion 16. The mark protrusion 17 is the cap side mark M2
Is. The wiper 13 includes a mounting portion 20 of the lip 19 and a second shaft portion 21 extending rearward from a rear surface thereof, and a second cam follower 22 is vertically provided on an upper surface of the second shaft portion 21.

The cap holder 14 has shaft holes 23, 24 into which the first and second shaft parts 16, 21 are slidably inserted, and the upper faces of the shaft holes 23, 24 respectively. The first and second cam followers 18 and 22 are formed with cut grooves 25 and 26 which are guided to project. The cap holder 14 further includes axially supporting portions 27 and 28 arranged in the left-right direction, and a cam body 30 driven by a motor 29 is axially supported by the axially supporting portions 27 and 28. On the cam body 30, a semicircular first cam 31 and a second cam 32 on the same axis have a phase of 180 °.
It is formed by shifting.

The first and second shaft portions 16 and 21 of the cap 12 and the wiper 13 are mounted in the shaft holes 23 and 24 of the cap holder 14 via springs 33, respectively, and the cam body 30 is then supported by the shaft support portions 27 and 28. Is pivotally supported. First,
The second cam followers 18 and 22 are arranged on the front side of the cam body 30 and are urged toward the cam side by being pushed by the spring 33. The cap holder 14 itself is fixed to the side frame 3.

The container portion 16 of the cap 12 is a recess having an opening on the side facing the print head 1 (FIG. 3), and a fluorosilicone rubber cover 34 is provided on this portion.
Is mounted and the inner surface of the recess is covered. Cover 34
Is shaped to match the shape of the recess of the container portion 16, and is replaceable in this embodiment.

Fluorosilicone rubber is more durable than butyl rubber and is excellent in solvent resistance, so it is less likely to be swollen by ink. Further, since the hydrophobicity is good, the ink is unlikely to remain in the cap, and the sliding property is good, so that the adhered ink is easily wiped off. Wiper 1
The lip 19 of No. 3 is also made of fluorosilicone rubber.

The print head 1 reciprocates the guide shaft 4 by a head reciprocating motor 7 to perform a printing operation.
It returns to the home position by the print end command (Fig. 1). Then, the maintenance device 2 is driven based on the signal from the sensor or the position detection signal related to the head.
The cam body 30 is rotated by the cap motor 29, the cap 12 is pressed against the print head 1, and the nozzle row 8 is protected. The back and forth movement of the cap 12 and the back and forth movement of the wiper 13 are alternately performed, and when the cap 12 is projected, the wiper 13 is retracted. Wiper 13
Touches the tip of the nozzle row 8 and scrapes off dust and excess ink adhering to the nozzle.

In order for the cap 12 to project toward the print head 1 and cover the nozzle row 8 accurately, the positions of the print head 1 and the maintenance device 2 must be exactly aligned. Therefore, when the printer is shipped, the head-side mark M is different from the cap-side mark M2 of the maintenance device 2.
The home position of the print head 1 is adjusted using the hidden command for finely moving the head reciprocating motor 7 from the control panel 10 so that 1 matches. This method itself is similar to the teaching in the robot, and a well-known program can be adopted.

Then, when the enter button on the control panel 10 is pressed when the two marks M1 and M2 coincide with each other, the current position of the print head 1 is stored in the control device 9 as the home position position. After that, this memory is not changed even if the home position is adjusted again, even if it is reset to the initial setting.

Therefore, after the printer is assembled, the position of the print head 1 is adjusted while looking directly so that the two marks M1 and M2 are aligned at the time of adjustment, and the nozzles of the print head 1 can be adjusted by simply pressing the enter button. The position of the row 8 and the cap 12 can be accurately determined. The two marks M1 and M2 may be notches, paints, or moldings.

[0021]

According to the structure of the first aspect of the present invention, by operating the control panel to align the head side mark M1 with the cap side mark M2 and pressing the confirm button, the nozzle row of the print head can be formed. The cap can be accurately arranged, the work is easy, and the dimensional accuracy at the time of processing and assembling a plurality of parts located between the nozzle row and the cap does not need to be so severe. As a result, the cost can be reduced.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the service life of the cap is extended. Further, maintenance of the cap such as cleaning of ink becomes easy. It should be noted that if the cover is made replaceable as in the embodiment, it becomes easier to maintain the performance of the cap.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a part of an inkjet printer.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view showing a cap and a wiper portion.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a cap.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Print Head 2 Maintenance Device 3 Side Frame 4 Carriage Shaft 5 Guide Plate 6 Timing Belt 7 Belt Reciprocating Motor 8 Nozzle Row 9 Controller 10 Control Panel 11 Maintenance Base 12 Cap 13 Wiper 14 Cap Holder 15 Container 16 First Shaft 17 Mark protrusion 18 First cam follower 19 Lip 20 Attachment 21 Second shaft 22 Second cam follower 23 Shaft hole 24 Shaft hole 25 Cutting groove 26 Cutting groove 27 Shaft support 28 Shaft support 29 Maintenance motor 30 Cam Body 31 First cam 32 Second cam 33 Spring 34 Cover

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A cap that covers a nozzle row of the print head is arranged so as to face the ink jet type print head at the home position, and the cap is provided at a position visible from the outside on the outer surface of the print head and the outer surface of the cap. An ink jet printer characterized in that marks are formed so as to coincide when the rows are covered, and means for manually finely moving a head reciprocating motor from a printer control panel through a printer control device is provided. 2. The ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein an inner surface of the concave portion of the cap, which covers the nozzle row, is made of fluorosilicone rubber.