JPH0858103A - Ink jet device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To remove ink from the surface of a nozzle without coming into slide contact with the surface of the nozzle. CONSTITUTION: When maintenance is required at the time of the adhesion of ink to a nozzle plate 26, a cap 9 is moved to be separated up to a position where the distance L between cap rubber 10 and the surface of the nozzle plate 26 provided to the front of a head 2 becomes 1mm. By driving a pump in this state, the ink on the surface of the nozzle plate 26 is sucked into the cap 9. Therefore, ink can be removed without deteriorating the water repelling film on the nozzle plate 26.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a head for ejecting ink from a nozzle, a cap member capable of covering the nozzle, a head member and a cap member for moving the head member and the cap member relative to each other. The present invention relates to an ink ejecting apparatus having a moving unit that makes contact with and a detachment from a head, and a suction unit that is connected to the cap member and that generates a negative pressure in the cap member.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an ink ejecting device of this type has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-77669, and its schematic structure will be described below with reference to FIG.

A head 135 for ejecting ink from a nozzle (not shown) is mounted on a carriage 134.
The carriage 134 is moved along the platen 131 by a driving source (not shown). Then, ink is ejected from the head 135 along with the movement of the carriage 134 onto the printing paper 132 conveyed onto the platen 131 by a rubber roller (not shown), and image data is printed. Near the home position HP of the carriage 134 (see FIG. 5).
A flexible wiper blade 136 for wiping the nozzle surface of the head 135 is provided on the left side of the middle platen 131, and the wiping surface 136a of the wiper blade 136 is arranged to be perpendicular to the moving direction of the carriage 34. Has been done. Also, the wiper blade 1
Reference numeral 36 is movable between a forward position shown by a broken line in FIG. 5 for sliding contact with the head 135 and a retracted position shown by a solid line in FIG.

After printing the image data, the wiper blade 136 is arranged at the forward position, and the carriage 13
4 to the home position HP, the nozzle surface of the head 135 and the wiping surface 136a of the wiper blade 136.
And the sliding contact with each other, and the nozzle surface is wiped.

[0005]

However, since the nozzle surface of the head 135 is slidably contacted with the wiper blade 136 to remove the ink on the nozzle surface, the wiper blade 136 after wiping the nozzle surface is When the ink removed from the nozzle surface adheres and then the nozzle surface is wiped off, the nozzle surface is wiped off again by using the wiper blade 136 to which the ink adheres. Therefore, when wiping off the nozzle surface, the wiper blade 136
On the contrary, there is a problem that the ink which has been dried and thickened adheres to the nozzle surface to form a thin film of the thickened ink, which makes it impossible to jet well. Further, the nozzle surface is formed with a water-repellent film for preventing ink from adhering to the periphery of the nozzle. However, when dry ink is adhered to the blade, the water-repellent film is formed when the nozzle surface is wiped off. It may deteriorate. When the water-repellent film is deteriorated, the ink is likely to remain around the nozzles, the ink ejection direction becomes unstable, and the printing quality deteriorates.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ink ejecting apparatus capable of removing ink from a nozzle surface without slidingly contacting the nozzle surface. .

[0007]

To achieve this object, in a first aspect of the present invention, a head for ejecting ink from a nozzle, a cap member capable of covering the nozzle, the head and the cap member are provided. Relative to
An ink ejecting apparatus comprising: a moving unit that makes contact with and separates from the cap member and the head; and a suction unit that is connected to the cap member and generates a negative pressure in the cap member. There is provided control means for actuating the cap surface of the cap member and the nozzle surface of the head so as to approach each other, and actuating the suction means to generate a negative pressure in the cap member.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the distance between the cap surface of the cap member and the nozzle surface of the head when the suction means is activated is 2 mm or less.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the moving means moves the cap surface of the cap member forward and backward in parallel with the nozzle surface of the head.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, the moving means moves the cap member.

[0011]

In the ink ejecting apparatus of the present invention having the above structure, the control means actuates the moving means to bring the cap surface of the cap member and the nozzle surface of the head close to each other, and actuates the suction means. By generating a negative pressure in the cap member, the ink on the nozzle surface of the head is sucked into the cap member.

[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. In the housing 21 of the printer 1, the platen 16
Is rotatably provided in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1, and the guide shaft 4 is provided along the platen 16 thereof. A carriage 3 is slidably attached to the guide shaft 4, and a belt 7 is attached to the carriage 3. The belt 7 is wound around the idle pulley 8 and the drive pulley 6. The drive pulley 6 is rotated by the carriage drive motor 5, and the rotation of the drive pulley 6 moves the carriage 3 along the guide shaft 4 via the belt 7 in the direction of arrow B in FIG. The head 2 is mounted on the carriage 3 so as to face the platen 16.

As shown in FIG. 3, the head 2 has a plurality of ink flow paths 25 and a nozzle plate 26 having nozzles 27 corresponding to the ink flow paths 25. Then, the ink 30 is supplied from the ink supply source (not shown) to the head 2 via the supply tube 29 and the connecting member 28, and the ink 30 is filled in the ink flow path 25. The head 2 includes a shear mode type disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-150355, a Kaiser type disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 53-12138, and a thermal jet disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-59914. A mold or the like is used. The water repellent film is formed on the nozzle surface of the head 2.

As shown in FIG. 1, the print paper 17 inserted into the housing 21 from the rear of the printer 1 in the direction of arrow C in FIG. It is discharged from the housing 21. When the printing paper 17 is conveyed to the platen 16,
The head 2 ejects ink droplets as the carriage 3 moves, whereby desired data is printed on the printing paper 17.

A cap 9 is provided at a non-printing position of the head 2 on the left side of the platen 16 in FIG. 1, and a cap rubber 10 for closely contacting the head 2 is attached to the cap 9.
Is attached. And the cap 9 is the head 2
In contrast, it is attached so as to be movable in the direction of arrow E in FIG. A rack 19 is attached to the cap 9, and a pinion 22 attached to the cap drive motor 18 is attached.
The rotation of the cap 9 in the arrow F direction moves the cap 9 in the arrow E direction via the rack 19. A connecting tube 12 is attached to the cap 9. A pump 11 as a suction means is connected to the connection tube 12, and a discharge tube 13 is connected to a waste ink tank 14 containing an adsorbent 15. The cap member is composed of a cap 9 and a cap rubber 10, and the moving means is a cap drive motor 18 and a pinion 2.
2 and a rack 19.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control system. The control unit 40 of the printer 1 (FIG. 1) follows the print command from the host computer 41, and the head drive circuit 42,
A drive command is sent to the carriage drive circuit 43, the cap drive circuit 44, the paper feed circuit 45, and the pump drive circuit 46 to drive the head 2, the carriage drive motor 5, the cap drive motor 18, the paper feed mechanism (not shown), and the pump 11. Drive control.

Next, the operation of the printer 1 by the control unit 40 will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in Figure 1,
The printing paper 17 moves in the direction of arrow C to the housing 2 of the printer 1.
1 is inserted into the platen 16 and conveyed to the platen 16. And
The head 2 attached to the carriage 3 that is moved in the direction of arrow B by the carriage drive motor 5 ejects ink droplets according to the input data when the head 2 is sent to the position of the print sheet 17, and the print sheet 17 is ejected. To form an image.

Therefore, maintenance of the head 2 is performed by performing a maintenance operation as necessary, for example, when the head 2 prints a certain amount or ink adheres to the surface of the nozzle plate 26 by the user. However, during the maintenance, the head 2 is moved to the non-printing position on the left side of the platen 16 in FIG. Next, the cap drive motor 18 is driven to move the cap 9, and the cap rubber 10 is separated to a position where the distance L between the cap rubber 10 and the surface of the nozzle plate 26 on the front surface of the head 2 is 1 mm (FIG. 3A).
State).

After that, a negative pressure is generated in the space between the cap 9 and the head 2 by driving the pump 11, and the ink 31 adhering to the surface of the nozzle plate 26 is sucked into the cap 9 (see FIG. State of b)).

Then, the drive of the pump 11 is stopped, and subsequently the cap drive motor 18 is driven to drive the cap 9
Is moved away from the head (state of FIG. 3C).

The sucked ink is discharged from the discharge tube 1.
3 is discharged to the adsorbent 15 in the waste ink tank 14.

In the printer 1 thus constructed, the distance L between the cap rubber 10 and the surface of the nozzle plate 26 is set to 1
Since the cap 9 is moved to a position of mm and the pump 11 is driven in this state, the ink attached to the nozzle plate 26 is sucked into the cap 9. Therefore, there is no need for the conventional wiper. Therefore, deterioration of the water-repellent film on the nozzle surface is prevented.

As another maintenance, the cap rubber 10 is brought into close contact with the nozzle plate 26, and the pump 1
It is also possible to drive 1 to suck the ink in the head 2. The pump 11 is driven so that the pressure inside the cap 9 during suction of the ink is lower than the pressure outside the cap 9 by 0.2 to 0.3 kg / cm ² . In the state shown in FIG. 3 (b), the pump 11 is similarly driven.

Here, it is checked whether or not the ink on the nozzle surface is sucked when the pump 11 is driven by changing the distance L between the cap rubber 10 and the nozzle plate 26, and the result is shown in FIG. . When the distance L is 2 mm or less, the ink on the nozzle surface is sucked and does not remain on the nozzle surface, and when the distance L is 2.5 mm, 3.0 mm and 3.5 mm, the ink partially remains on the nozzle surface. It was From this result, the distance L between the cap rubber 10 and the nozzle plate 26 is set to 2
It suffices to drive the pump 11 in a state of not more than mm.

The present invention is not limited to the embodiment described in detail above. For example, in the present embodiment, the cap 9 advances and retreats in parallel with the head 2 (direction of arrow E).
The cap 9 may be separated from the head 2 by turning. In this case, the side away from the nozzle plate 26 of the cap rubber 10 is set to a distance L of 2 mm or less to drive the pump 11.

Although the cap 9 is separated from the head 2 by the drive of the cap drive motor 18 in this embodiment, the head 2 may be moved to separate from the cap 9.

[0028]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the ink ejecting apparatus of the present invention, the control means operates the moving means to move the cap surface of the cap member and the nozzle surface of the head. Since they are brought close to each other and the suction means is operated to generate a negative pressure in the cap member, the ink on the nozzle surface of the head is sucked and left in the cap member. For this reason, the conventional means for wiping the nozzle surface is not required. Therefore, deterioration of the water-repellent film on the nozzle surface is prevented, good ink ejection can be performed, and printing quality is good.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control system of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a suction operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the distance between the suction means and the nozzle surface of the head and the state of ink remaining on the nozzle surface in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a conventional ink ejecting apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Printer 2 Head 3 Carriage 5 Carriage Drive Motor 9 Cap 10 Cap Rubber 11 Pump 18 Cap Drive Motor 19 Rack 22 Pinion 27 Nozzle 40 Control Unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A head for ejecting ink from a nozzle,
A cap member that can cover the nozzle, a moving unit that relatively moves the head and the cap member to bring the cap member and the head into contact with each other and separate from each other, and are connected to the cap member. An ink ejecting apparatus having suction means for generating a negative pressure in the cap member, activating the moving means to bring the cap surface of the cap member and the nozzle surface of the head close to each other, An ink ejecting apparatus comprising: a control unit that operates to generate a negative pressure in the cap member. 2. The ink ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the distance between the cap surface of the cap member and the nozzle surface of the head when the suction means is activated is 2 mm or less. 3. The ink ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the moving unit advances and retracts the cap surface of the cap member relatively parallel to the nozzle surface of the head. 4. The ink ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the moving unit moves the cap member.