JPH09156117A - Cleaner for ink head in ink jet recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To remove solidified ink even though the ink of a head face is solidified. SOLUTION: A spongy absorbing member 2 is impregnated with ink. The absorbing member 2 comes in contact with an ink head face (an ink discharging hole surface) 9a of an ink jet head mounted on a carriage 8 for a specific time. The carriage 8 is moved under this state to wipe off the ink on the ink head face 9a and in the ink discharge hole.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning device for an ink head in an inkjet recording device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional ink jet recording apparatus, a carriage equipped with an ink head is reciprocated horizontally in a state of facing a recording medium at a constant interval, and an ink head is constituted by a recording timing signal as a trigger. The recording element is driven to eject ink, and characters and figures are formed on the recording medium. Then, when the carriage is reciprocally reversed, the recording medium is transported by the transport roller in a direction perpendicular to the carriage movement direction, and by repeating the operation, characters and graphics are recorded over many lines.

By the way, the ink jet recording apparatus has a problem that ink is easily ejected to and around the ink ejection holes of the ink head due to the characteristics of a system of ejecting and recording ink, and the ink is dried and ejected. There is a problem of sticking in the holes. When such a problem occurs, the ink cannot be ejected to the normal amount or the normal position, and the normal printing becomes impossible.

Therefore, conventionally, as a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, a means for wiping the ink on the head face surface (ink ejection surface) with a flexible blade every time a predetermined time has passed, and a cap for the ink ejection surface are provided. There have been means for covering and preventing drying, means for sucking the thickened ink in the ink discharge holes by a pump connected to the cap while being covered.

[0005]

However, in the actual situation where the user desires to shorten the image forming time,
It is difficult to request the cleaning work of the ink head in a short cycle that runs counter to this request.On the other hand, if the cleaning work of the ink head is not carried out in a short cycle, the inside of the ejection holes of the nozzles or the face surface where the ink ejection frequency is low The ink will dry out. After such a state, even if the ink on the head face surface is wiped off by the flexible blade (ink cleaning member) of the conventional example, the ink cannot be completely removed. Ink ejection failure occurs due to the remaining and solidified ink. Further, even when sucking with a pump connected to the cap, it is very difficult to remove the ink solidified on the face surface.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to perform the cleaning work of the ink head in a short cycle, so that even if the ink on the head face surface is solidified, the solidified ink can be removed in the ink jet recording apparatus. A cleaning device for a head is provided.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 is directed to an ink absorbing member which is in contact with an ink ejection hole surface of an ink head and absorbs ink, and the ink absorbing member is provided with ink. An ink supply unit for supplying the ink, and a contact state maintaining unit for maintaining the ink ejection hole surface of the ink head in the contact state for a certain period of time on the ink absorbing member in the state where the ink is supplied from the ink supplying unit. Characterize.

According to the first aspect of the invention, the ink supply means supplies the ink to the ink absorbing member. The ink absorbing member is brought into contact with the surface of the ink ejection hole of the ink head. The contact state maintaining means maintains the ink absorbing member and the ink ejection hole surface in the ink supplied state in contact with each other for a certain period of time. By doing so, the ink adhered to the ink ejection hole surface and the ink ejection hole is melted, and the ink is absorbed by the ink absorbing member. Therefore, the ink head does not cause non-ejection of ink, and the printing quality is improved.

Further, the invention according to claim 2 is provided with an ink removing means for removing the ink impregnated in the ink absorbing member, and the ink removing means sucks the ink absorbed by the ink absorbing member. Means, or another absorbing member having a higher capillary force than the ink absorbing member.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the ink suction means as the ink removing means or the absorbing member having a high capillary force removes the ink impregnated in the ink absorbing member.
Therefore, since the ink absorbing member in a state where the ink is removed contacts the ink ejection hole surface, the ink attached to the ink ejection hole surface is favorably absorbed.

Further, the invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the ink absorbing member is a sponge-like member having a hole diameter smaller than a hole diameter of an ink ejection hole of the ink head.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the hole diameter of the ink absorbing member made of a sponge-like member is smaller than the hole diameter of the ink discharge hole of the ink head. Therefore, the ink accumulated in the ink ejection holes is sucked into the ink absorbing member by the capillary phenomenon, and the inside of the ink ejection holes is cleaned.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the ink supply means includes an ink suction means for sucking ink from the ink discharge hole of the ink head to supply the ink to the ink absorbing member, or an ink discharge hole. It is a means for ejecting ink to supply the ink to the ink absorbing member.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the ink suction means as the ink supply means sucks the ink from the ink ejection hole via the ink absorbing member and supplies the ink to the ink absorbing member. Alternatively, the ink is ejected from the ink ejection holes to supply the ink to the ink absorbing member.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below based on an embodiment shown in the drawings.

(1) First Embodiment Example FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an ink jet recording apparatus provided with a cleaning device of the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a main part of the cleaning device.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, two guide shafts 7 which are parallel to each other are arranged parallel to the platen 10, and a carriage 8 is reciprocally mounted along the guide shafts 7 so that the carriage 8 can reciprocate. Inkjet head 9 is mounted on 8.

A recording medium 11 is placed on a platen 10, and both front and back sides of the recording medium 11 are a conveying roller 12 and a pinch roller 1.
It is sandwiched by 3.

The cleaning device 1 is provided in the "non-recording area" on the front side in the moving direction of the carriage 8. In the cleaning device 1, the absorbent member 2 made of sponge is surrounded by a rubber holding member 3, and the exposed surface of the absorbent member 2 is a head face surface (ink ejection hole surface) 9 from the holding member 3.
It is brought close to a (see FIG. 2). Below the absorbing member 2 and the holding member 3, a suction pump 4 as a sucking means for sucking the ink impregnated in the absorbing member 2 and a vertical movement device 20 (FIG. 3A, The receiving plate 4a that receives the operation of the cam that configures (b)) and the drainage ink passage 5 that drains the sucked ink are provided, and the drainage ink tank 6 that stores the drainage ink is below the cleaning device 1. It is provided on the side. The cleaning device 1 includes the vertical movement device 2
It can move up and down in response to 0 rotation.

As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the vertical drive unit 20 includes a drive motor 21 and a cam 22 fixed to the output shaft of the motor 21. The cam 22 has a large diameter portion 22a that pushes the cleaning device 1 upward and a small diameter portion 22b that guides the cleaning device 1 downward.

Next, the operation of this embodiment having the above-mentioned configuration will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG.

The carriage 8 reciprocates "in the recording area" on the platen 10, and ink is ejected from the head face surface 9a of the ink jet head 9 toward the recording medium 11. Further, the transport roller 12 and the pinch roller 13 are rotated when the reciprocating reversal of the carriage 8 is stopped, and the recording medium 11 set on the platen 10 is transported by the recording width for one scanning of the carriage.

When a predetermined time has elapsed after the ink was ejected from the head face surface 9a, the ink jet head 9 is moved to the cleaning device 1 located "in the non-recording area" (step S1). Next, the cleaning device 1 is raised by the vertical movement device 20 (see FIG. 3) (step S2),
The absorbing member 2 is brought into contact with the entire head face surface 9a, and the holding member 3 is brought into close contact with it (step S3, see FIG. 5).

Then, the suction pump 4 in the state shown in FIG.
As a result, the ink in the ejection holes of the inkjet head 9 is sucked (step S4), the ink adhered in the ejection holes is melted by the flowing ink caused by the suction, and the absorbing member 2 is impregnated with the ink. In this state, it stays stationary for a certain period of time by "contact state maintaining means" not shown,
The liquid ink on the suction member is brought into contact with the dried and solidified ink (step S5). The solidified ink is liquefied by the contact of the liquid ink. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 6, the cleaning device 1 is vertically lowered to a region where the holding member 3 does not contact the head face surface 9a and the absorbing member 2 contacts the head face surface 9a (step S6). ).

Since the ink jet head 9 is further moved to the "non-recording area" side in the state shown in FIG. 6, the head face surface 9a has the absorbing member 2 containing ink.
Wiped by (step S7), head face surface 9a
The melted ink is removed by contacting the liquid ink. Next, the absorbing member 2 containing the ink is sucked by the suction pump 4 to remove the ink (step S
8). Then, the inkjet head 9 is returned to the cleaning device 1 side (step S9).

Then, the ink jet head 9 is moved to the "recording area" side again, and the absorbing member 2 from which the ink has been removed as described above wipes the head face surface 9a again. Ink remaining near) is completely removed (step S1).
0). The ink sucked by the absorbing member 2 is discharged into the ink discharge passage 5
It is put into the waste ink tank 6 via.

In this way, the ink in the head face surface 9a and the ejection holes is removed, so that it is possible to perform printing with an ink jet head that does not cause ink ejection failure.

(2) Second Embodiment Example FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of a main part of the present embodiment example.

There are two differences between this embodiment and the first embodiment. That is, the first difference is that in the first embodiment, the suction pump 4 is used as the ink suction means, whereas in the present embodiment, the absorbing member 2A is used.
Is composed of a sponge-like member having a hole diameter smaller than the ink ejection hole diameter of the ink jet head 9, and is surrounded by a holding member 14, which holds the air passage 1
5 is provided, and the ink is absorbed by the capillary force of the absorbing member 2A (absorption force by the capillary phenomenon). The second difference is that the side surface of the carriage 8 is provided with an absorbing member 16 having a hole diameter smaller than that of the absorbing member 2A.

Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be described based on the flowchart shown in FIG. Note that step S
The steps 11 to S17 are basically the same as the steps S1 to S7 shown in FIG. 4, but some operations are different due to the difference in the material of the absorbing member.

At the time of predetermined cleaning of the head face surface 9a, the ink jet head 9 is moved to the cleaning device 1A (step S11). Next, the cleaning device 1A is lifted by a vertical movement device (not shown) (step S12),
As shown in FIG. 9, the absorbing member 2A is brought into contact with the entire head face surface 9a, and the holding member 14 abuts (step S13). At this time, since the absorbing member 2A has a small hole diameter, it absorbs the ink in the ink ejection holes by the capillary force (absorbing force by the capillary phenomenon) (step S14). After leaving for a certain time in this ink absorbable state (step S15),
In the cleaning device 1A, the holding member 14 has the head face surface 9a.
And the absorbing member 2A does not hit the head face surface 9
It descends to the area corresponding to a (step S16, FIG. 10).
reference).

Then, the ink jet head 9 is moved to the "recording area" side (step S17), and the head face surface 9a is wiped by the absorbing member 2A which has absorbed the ink. Then, the cleaning device 1A is raised (step S1
8) As shown in FIG. 11, the absorbing member 2A that has absorbed the ink is brought into contact with the absorbing member 16 attached to the carriage 8 and having a smaller hole diameter, and the absorbing member 16 remains in the absorbing member 2A due to capillary force or the like. The remaining ink is absorbed and removed (step S19).

Next, the cleaning device 1A is lowered to the state of FIG. 7 (step S20), and the ink jet head 9 returns to the cleaning device 1A (step S21). Then, the inkjet head 9 is again moved to the "recording area" side, the head face surface 9a is wiped again by the absorbing member 2A from which the ink has been removed, and the remaining ink is removed (step S22). This wiping is done on the head face 9a
"Finishing wipe". The absorbing member 16 described above is replaceable.

(3) Third Embodiment Example FIG. 12 is an enlarged view of a main part of the present embodiment example.

The present embodiment and the first embodiment have the same hardware configuration (see FIGS. 2 and 11), and the difference is in the method of causing the absorbing member 2 to absorb the ink.

Next, the operation of the third embodiment will be described based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

When the predetermined cleaning of the head face surface 9a comes, the ink jet head 9 is moved to the cleaning device 1 (step S31). Then, the cleaning device 1 is vertically lifted by a vertical movement device (not shown) (step S3).
2) As shown in FIG. 14, while maintaining a constant interval with respect to the head face surface 9a (step S33), a normal print discharge amount or a larger discharge amount of ink is discharged from the head face surface 9a (step S33). S34). As a result, the absorbing member 2 is impregnated with ink. Thereafter, the cleaning device 1 is further lifted in the vertical direction (step S35), and as shown in FIG. 15, the entire head face surface 9a is contacted with the absorbing member 2 impregnated with ink (step S36).
The holding member 3 adheres closely.

After resting for a certain period of time in this contact state (step S37), as shown in FIG. 16, in the cleaning device 1, the holding member 3 does not contact the head face surface 9a,
In addition, the absorbing member 2 is vertically lowered to a region where it contacts the head face 9a (step S38). Next, the inkjet head 9 is further moved to the "non-recording area" side (step S39), and the head face surface 9a is wiped by the absorbing member 2 containing ink.

Then, the absorbing member 2 containing the ink is sucked by the suction pump 4 (step S40), and after the ink is removed, the ink jet head 9 returns to the cleaning device 1 (step S41). Then, the inkjet head 9 is again moved to the "recording area" side, and the head face surface 9a is wiped by the absorbing member 2 from which the ink has been removed (step S42). The sucked ink is stored in the waste ink tank 6 through the waste ink passage 5.

[0040]

As described above, according to the invention described in each of the claims, the ink is supplied from the ink supply means to the ink absorbing member which is in contact with the ink ejection hole surface of the ink head and absorbs the ink. To the ink absorbing member in the state of being supplied with the ink ejection hole surface of the ink head,
Since the contact state maintaining means maintains the ink absorbing member and the ink ejection hole surface in contact with each other for a certain period of time, the ink in the ink ejection hole of the ink head and the dried and solidified ink of the ink ejection hole surface are melted. The ink is absorbed by the rear ink absorbing member. Therefore, even if the cleaning work of the ink ejection surface is not performed in a short cycle, the ink is not ejected, the head face surface is always kept clean, and the print quality of the recording medium is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an inkjet recording apparatus including a cleaning device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a main part of the cleaning device according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a view showing a vertical movement device of the cleaning device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation sequence of the first embodiment example.

FIG. 5 is a contact state diagram of the cleaning device and the head surface in the first embodiment example.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for wiping the head surface by the cleaning device according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of a main part of the cleaning device according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operational sequence of the second embodiment example.

FIG. 9 is a contact state diagram of the cleaning device and the head surface in the second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a view of the cleaning device according to the second embodiment wiping off the head surface.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for removing ink by the cleaning device according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 12 is an enlarged view of a main part of the cleaning device according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing an operational sequence of the third embodiment example.

FIG. 14 is a diagram of ejecting ink to the cleaning device according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a contact state diagram of the cleaning device and the head surface in the third embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a view showing that the cleaning device in the third embodiment wipes the head surface.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 1A Cleaning device 2, 2A Absorbing member (ink absorbing member) 3, 14 Holding member 4 Suction pump (ink supply means, ink removing means) 5 Waste ink passage 6 Waste ink tank 8 Carriage (ink head moving means) 9 Inkjet Head 10 Platen 11 Recording medium 15 Air passage 16 Absorbing member with small hole diameter 20 Vertical movement device

Front page continued (72) Inventor Kunitoshi Hayashi 6-3-3 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka City, Tokyo Copier Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Shigehiko Ito 6-3-3 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka City, Tokyo Copier Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yasushi Sawada 6-3-3 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo Copier Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yutaka Kawamata 6-3-3 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo (72) Invention Tomohiro Ishizu 6-3-3 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo Copia Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yosuke Tachimi 6-3-3 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo Copia Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Takeo Sasaki Tokyo 6-3, Shimorenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo Copier Co., Ltd. (72) Fumitaka Aoki 6-3-3, Shimorenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo Copia Co., Ltd.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An ink absorbing member that is in contact with an ink ejection hole surface of an ink head and absorbs ink, an ink supplying unit that supplies ink to the ink absorbing member, and a state in which ink is supplied from the ink supplying unit. An ink head cleaning device in an inkjet recording apparatus, wherein the ink absorbing member is provided with contact state maintaining means for maintaining an ink ejection hole surface of the ink head in a contact state for a certain period of time. 2. An ink removing means for removing the ink impregnated in the ink absorbing member, wherein the ink removing means is an ink sucking means for sucking the ink absorbed in the ink absorbing member or the ink absorbing member. The ink head cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the absorbing device is another absorbing member having a high capillary force. 3. The ink jet recording according to claim 1, wherein the ink absorbing member is a sponge-like member having a hole diameter smaller than a hole diameter of an ink ejection hole of the ink head. Ink head cleaning device in the device. 4. The ink supply means sucks ink from an ink discharge hole of the ink head to supply ink to the ink absorbing member, or discharges ink from the ink discharge hole to form an ink absorbing member. An ink head cleaning device for an ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, which is a means for supplying ink to the ink.