JPH09183234A - Carrier-jet recording apparatus and diluting liquid cartridge for carrier-jet - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To supply a paste material simply and correctly with necessary timing by a method in which after a cartridge being set to a cartridge setting means, a carriage is moved to the position of a paste material suction means, and the paste material is packed in a paste container from the cartridge. SOLUTION: A cartridge is constituted by attaching a cartridge in which a paste material used by a paste cap action is stored to a diluting liquid cartridge. First, in ink cartridges 2A-2D, ink of each color is stored by a cartridge in which ink of respectively different colors is stored. Besides, diluting liquid and a paste material which is a head maintenance material are stored respectively in a diluting liquid receiving part 3A and a paste material receiving part 3B in a diluting liquid-paste material cartridge 3 which is constituted integrally.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a carrier jet recording apparatus and a carrier jet cartridge which perform a capping operation by using a paste material for head maintenance, and more particularly, to enable the paste material to be easily supplied. The present invention relates to a carrier jet recording device and a carrier jet diluting liquid cartridge.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printer for ejecting ink droplets from a nozzle in response to a recording signal for characters or images to record characters or images on a recording medium such as paper or film, a so-called on-demand ink jet printer. Printers are known. In recent years, in particular, since printers can be downsized and the cost can be reduced, they are rapidly spreading. In this on-demand type inkjet printer, as a method of ejecting ink droplets, a method using a piezo element, a method using a heating element, etc. are generally known.

In the former method using a piezo element, ink droplets are ejected from a nozzle by applying pressure to ink by deformation of the piezo element. In the latter method using a heating element, ink is heated and boiled by the heating element, and ink droplets are ejected using the pressure of bubbles generated. However,
In the recording apparatus using these ink droplet ejection methods, there is a problem that the ejection operation becomes unstable because the viscosity of the ink increases due to the evaporation of the volatile substance of the ink at the tip of the head.

In addition, if the unused state continues for a long period of time, problems such as color mixing of inks will occur. On the other hand, especially in offices and the like, there is a tendency that a document creating process called desktop publishing, that is, a document creating process using a computer is actively performed.
Recently, there is an increasing demand to output not only characters and figures but also color natural images such as photographs together with characters and figures. As described above, in order to print a high-quality natural image, it is essential to faithfully reproduce halftones, and it is necessary to prevent deterioration of image quality due to ink color mixing or the like.

As a measure for solving such a problem, in the conventional carrier jet recording apparatus, it is possible to prevent the ink or the diluent liquid adhering to the head from being dried, or to prevent the inks from being mixed with each other through the surface of the head. A so-called paste cap method, which is a protection method of applying a paste material to the ejection surface of the head (head orifice surface), is known. By adopting this paste cap method, it is possible to prevent the ejection surface of the head from being dried or mixed in colors. In the paste cap method, since a paste material is used as a capping material (head maintenance material, hereinafter referred to as capping material) that prevents drying and color mixing, the carrier jet recording device has a container for storing the paste material. Is provided, and also
A mechanism for performing a paste cap operation is also added.

[0006]

A conventional carrier jet recording apparatus that performs a paste cap operation is provided with a paste container for containing a paste material used for head maintenance. This paste container needs to be filled with a predetermined amount or more of the paste material at all times, but there is a problem that the paste material runs short if careless. The present invention provides a carrier jet recording apparatus and a carrier jet diluting liquid cartridge in which capping material (paste material) can be simply and accurately replenished at a necessary timing to ensure head maintenance. Is an issue.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a carrier jet recording apparatus comprising a paste container for containing a paste material used as a head maintenance material for preventing drying and color mixing, and a carriage drive mechanism. The carriage drive mechanism is provided with a cartridge mounting means for mounting one cartridge in which the paste material and the diluent are respectively stored, and sucks the paste material between the cartridge in which the paste material is stored and the paste container. The paste material suction means is provided, and after the cartridge is mounted in the cartridge mounting means, the carriage is moved to the position of the paste material suction means to fill the paste material from the cartridge into the paste container.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the carrier jet recording apparatus according to the first aspect, the timing of supplying the paste material to the paste container is performed immediately after the cartridge is mounted in the cartridge mounting means.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the carrier jet recording apparatus according to the first aspect, a thin film portion is provided on a side surface of the cartridge at a position corresponding to the paste material suction means, and the thin film portion has a tip portion of the paste material suction means. The paste material is supplied to the paste container by inserting.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, one carrier jet cartridge is provided with two accommodating portions for accommodating a paste material as a head maintenance material for preventing drying and color mixing and a diluting liquid, respectively. There is.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the carrier jet cartridge according to the fourth aspect, the container for containing the paste material is made of a material having elasticity such that a part of the paste material is pushed out by external pressure. doing.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in a carrier jet recording apparatus having a carriage driving mechanism, the carriage driving mechanism is provided with a cartridge mounting means for mounting one cartridge containing paste material and diluent respectively. The cartridge has two storage containers, a storage container for the paste material made of an elastic material such that a part of the paste material is extruded by external pressure, and a storage container for storing the diluent. And a passage for guiding the paste material from the storage container of the cartridge to the surface of the head orifice portion in the carriage, and container pressing means for pressing the container in which the paste material of the cartridge is stored by the movement of the carriage. , A capping mechanism that applies a paste material to the surface of the head orifice, and mount the carriage Is moved to the position of the vessel pressing means,
After the paste material in the cartridge is supplied to the surface of the head orifice portion, the paste material is applied to the surface of the head orifice portion by the capping mechanism.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of a carrier jet recording apparatus and a carrier jet diluting liquid cartridge of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. As described above, in the carrier jet recording apparatus, the ejection surface (orifice surface) of the head is prevented in order to prevent the ink or diluent adhering to the head from drying or to prevent the inks from mixing with each other through the surface of the head. A so-called paste cap method, which is a protection method in which a paste material is applied to the substrate, is used. In this paste cap method, since the paste material is applied to the surface of the head orifice portion, it is necessary to always store a predetermined amount of the paste material in the container, and the paste material must be replenished before the shortage of the paste material in the container. .

According to the present invention, in the carrier jet recording apparatus, noting that the consumption amount of the diluent and the consumption amount of the paste material are substantially proportional to each other, the paste material cartridge and the diluent liquid cartridge are The cartridge is composed of one cartridge (the inventions of claims 4 and 5). In this way, by containing the paste material and the diluent in one cartridge, the paste material is also replaced at the same time when the diluent cartridge is replaced (the inventions of claims 1 to 3 and 6). Therefore, the inconvenience that the paste material runs short during the operation of the paste cap is solved, head maintenance can be reliably performed, and stable performance can always be maintained.

First Embodiment The first embodiment corresponds to the inventions of claims 1 to 4. In the first embodiment, the interpretation liquid cartridge for carrier jet is provided with an accommodating portion for accommodating the paste material to form one cartridge (invention of claim 4). It is characterized in that the diluent and the paste material can be replenished at the same time at the time of replacement (the inventions of claims 1 to 3).

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of an embodiment of the essential structure of a state in which an ink cartridge and a diluting liquid cartridge are mounted on a carriage. In the figure, 1 is a carriage, 2A to 2D are ink cartridges, 3 is a diluent / paste material cartridge,
3A is a diluent storage unit, 3B is a paste material storage unit, and 4 is a guide shaft.

FIG. 1 shows a state in which a diluent cartridge for carrier jet of the present invention and an ink cartridge containing ink for color printing are mounted on a carriage.
A cartridge containing a paste material used in the paste cap operation is attached to form a single cartridge. First, the ink cartridges 2A to 2D are cartridges containing ink of different colors.
For example, the ink cartridge 2A has yellow ink, the ink cartridge 2B has magenta ink, the ink cartridge 2C has cyan ink, and the ink cartridge 2 has
Ink of each color, such as black ink, is stored in D.

On the other hand, the diluent and the paste material as the head maintenance material are stored in the diluent / paste cartridge 3 integrally formed in the diluent / paste cartridge 3A and the paste material container 3B. I am trying to store each. This diluent / paste material cartridge 3 is a cartridge that plays a main function in the first embodiment, and the diluent for carrier jet cartridge is
This means the diluent / paste cartridge 3. Each of these cartridges 2A to 2D, 3 is configured to be attachable to and detachable from the carriage 1, and each of the cartridges 2A to 2D, 3 is configured to be individually replaceable.

Generally, in a printing operation (also referred to as a printing operation or a printing operation, hereinafter referred to as a printing operation),
Since the amount of ink used varies depending on the content of the print, the ink cartridge 2A that stores the ink of each color
2D have different exchange times. However, since the amount of the diluting liquid used is almost proportional to the number of times of printing regardless of the content of printing, the replacement time is determined by the number of times of printing. Therefore, if a storage unit for the paste maintenance material, which is a head maintenance material, is attached to this cartridge for the diluent, and it is configured as one cartridge, a new cartridge is mounted on the carriage 1 when the cartridge for the diluent is replaced. By doing so, at the same time, the paste material is also replenished while being mounted on the carriage 1.

As described above, in the first embodiment, one diluent / paste material cartridge 3 is provided with the diluent storage section 3A and the paste material storage section 3B (in the conventional diluent cartridge). It is characterized in that it can be attached and detached independently as in the other ink cartridges 2A to 2D by attaching a paste material accommodating portion) (invention of claim 4). Thus, 1
The paste material stored in the paste material storage portion 3B of each diluent / paste cartridge 3 is filled in a conventional paste container after the diluent / paste cartridge 3 is mounted on the carriage 1 (claim 1). 1 to the invention of claim 3).

First, the structure and operation common to the conventional carrier jet recording apparatus will be briefly described. The carriage 1 has a lower surface facing a recording medium such as paper,
An inkjet type head is mounted, and during printing operation, the carriage 1 is reciprocally moved along a guide shaft 4 (main scanning direction: a direction perpendicular to the paper feed direction) on a recording medium so that characters, images, etc. Ink droplets are ejected from the nozzles in accordance with the recording signal. This carriage 1
It has the following configuration.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing an example of ink passages and diluent passages from each cartridge to the head in the carriage shown in FIG. The reference numerals in the figure are the same as those in FIG. 1, 5A to 5D are ink cartridge connecting portions, 6A to 6D are ink passages, 7A to 7D are ink metering nozzles, 8 is a diluent cartridge connecting portion, 9 is a diluent passage 10A. -10D shows a diluent nozzle.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing an example of an arrangement state of ink passages and diluent passages from each cartridge to the head in the carriage shown in FIG. The reference numerals in the figure are the same as those in FIG. 2, 11A to 11D indicate ink orifice coupling portions, and 12A to 12D indicate diluent orifice coupling portions.

A carriage 1 on which the ink jet type head shown in FIG. 1 is mounted and each ink cartridge 2
As shown in FIG. 2, the A to 2D and the diluent / paste material cartridge 3 are respectively connected to the ink cartridge connecting portion 5
A to 5D and a diluent cartridge coupling section 8 combine. The ink cartridge connecting portions 5A to 5D and the diluting liquid cartridge connecting portion 8 are connected to the ink metering nozzles 7A to 7 provided in the head via the ink passages 6A to 6D or the diluting liquid passage 9, respectively.
D or the diluting liquid nozzles 10A to 10D.
In this case, the diluting liquid is supplied to each color ink, and this state is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 3, the moving direction of the carriage is
It is shown in the vertical direction of the drawing. As shown in FIG. 3, the ink orifice coupling portion 11A and the diluent orifice coupling portion 12A form a pair, and similarly, the ink orifice coupling portion 11B and the diluent orifice coupling portion 12 are formed.
B, the ink orifice coupling section 11C and the diluent orifice coupling section 12C, and the ink orifice coupling section 11D and the diluent orifice coupling section 12D are paired respectively.

Further, in FIG. 3, the drawing is simplified in order to clearly show the configuration of the main part, but a pair of ink orifice coupling part and diluent orifice coupling part, for example, ink orifice coupling corresponding to one color. As for the portion 11A and the diluent orifice coupling portion 12A, a large number of coupling portions are arranged, for example, 30 or 60 or more. Therefore, a large number of dots are printed by one movement of the carriage in one direction, and the printing of double the number of dots is executed by making one reciprocation. Next, the paste cap operation will be described. First, as a capping material used as a head maintenance material for preventing drying and color mixing, for example, a paste having a certain degree of viscosity (JIS K2220 <grease> having a refraction of 210 or more in a refraction test method) such as silicon is generally used. Is.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the initial state of applying the paste material. Reference numerals in the drawings are the same as those in FIGS. 1 and 2, 13 is a head orifice portion, 21 is a paste container, 22 is an air hole, 23 is a paste passage, 24 is a paste nozzle, 25 is an elastic plate, and 26 is a paste material. The arrow E indicates the moving direction of the paste nozzle 24, and the arrow F indicates
Indicates the direction in which air pressure is applied, arrow G indicates the moving direction of the paste material, and arrow H indicates the moving direction of the carriage 1.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a state in which the paste material is applied to the head orifice portion. The reference numerals in the figure are the same as those in FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, during the capping operation, the paste nozzle 24 is moved in the direction of the arrow E and comes close to the head orifice portion 13 (located at the position shown in FIG. 4). Then, when air pressure is applied from the air holes 22 into the paste container 21 in the direction indicated by the arrow F, part of the paste material 26 in the paste container 21 becomes
As indicated by an arrow G, it is sent to the paste nozzle 24 through the paste passage 23. The paste passage 23 is formed of a flexible tube or the like, and the paste nozzle 24
It is possible to freely move the guide shaft 4 in the axial direction.

In this case, if the magnitude of the air pressure is set appropriately, an appropriate amount of the paste material 26 is pushed out from the hole at the tip of the paste nozzle 24 to the lower surface side of the head orifice portion 13, as shown in FIG. It becomes like this. In this state, when the carriage 1 is moved in the direction of arrow H, the extruded paste material 26 is applied to the lower surface of the head orifice portion 13 by the elastic plate 25, and the state shown in FIG. 5 is obtained. Instead of moving the carriage 1 in the direction of the arrow H, the paste nozzle portion 24 may be moved in the direction opposite to the arrow H (the left side of the drawing).

By the above operation, the lower surface of the head orifice portion 13 can be uniformly covered with the paste material 26. As described above, by covering the surface of the head orifice portion 13 with the paste material 26, the evaporation of ink from the tip openings (ink orifices) of the ink metering nozzles 7A to 7D and the tip openings (dilution of the dilution liquid nozzles 10A to 10D). The evaporation of the diluent from the liquid orifice is prevented. At the same time, it is possible to prevent air bubbles from being mixed in from the tip openings of the ink metering nozzles 7A to 7D and the tip openings of the diluting liquid nozzles 10A to 10D.

Further, in the head orifice portion 13, the tip openings of the ink metering nozzles 7A to 7D and the tip openings of the diluting liquid nozzles 10A to 10D are connected (mixed) by the ink and the diluting liquid remaining on the surface. Thus, inconvenience such as color mixing that occurs during non-printing can be prevented. The printing operation and the paste cap operation described above are the same as those of the conventional carrier jet recording apparatus.

As described above, the carrier jet recording apparatus of the present invention is characterized in that the paste material used in the paste cap operation is added with the paste material filling function so that the paste material can be automatically filled when the cartridge is replaced. have. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 1, the paste material storage portion 3B is attached to the cartridge having the dilution liquid storage portion 3A to form one dilution liquid / paste material cartridge 3. The method of using the diluting liquid in the diluting liquid storage portion 3A has been described above.
Next, the diluent / paste cartridge 3, that is,
With respect to the carrier jet diluting liquid cartridge of the present invention, an operation at the time of exchanging the cartridge and an operation of supplying the paste material from the paste material storage portion 3B will be described.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are views showing an example of an embodiment of the filling operation when the cartridge is replaced in the carrier jet recording apparatus to which the capping material filling mechanism portion of the present invention is added. Reference numerals in the drawings are the same as those in FIGS. 1 and 4, 3C is a thin film piece, 31 is a device side wall surface, 3
2 is a paste suction part, 33 is the tip part.

In the paste material storage portion 3B of the diluent / paste material cartridge 3 shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the tip portion 3 of the paste suction portion 32 attached to the side wall surface 31 of the apparatus.
A hole is provided at a position corresponding to 3, and the thin film piece 3C is attached to the surface thereof. As shown in FIG. 6, after the cartridge 3 in which the paste material storage portion 3B and the diluent storage portion 3A are integrally configured is mounted on the carriage 1, the carriage 1 is mounted on the carrier jet recording apparatus as shown in FIG. When the thin film piece 3C of the paste material accommodating portion 3B is brought into contact with the tip portion 33 of the paste suction portion 32 and is broken, the tip portion 33 of the paste suction portion 32 is moved to the paste material accommodating portion. It is inserted inside 3B.

Therefore, the paste 26 in the paste material storage portion 3B of the diluent / paste material cartridge 3 passes through the paste suction portion 32 and is filled in the lower paste container 21. By such an operation, the paste container 21
A new capping material (paste material 26) is always replenished when replacing the cartridge. The above-described paste material filling operation, that is, the carrier jet recording apparatus to which the paste material filling function of the present invention is added is realized by each block as shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram showing an example of an embodiment of the essential structure of the carrier jet recording apparatus to which the paste material filling function of the present invention is added.
In the figure, 41 is a CPU, 42 is a paper feed control unit,
43 is a paper feed mechanism unit, 44 is a carriage control unit, 45 is a carriage, 46 is a cartridge mounting unit, 47 is a print control unit, 48 is a head, 49 is a capping control unit, 50 is a capping mechanism unit, and 51 is a capping material filling. The mechanical part is shown.

The carrier jet recording apparatus shown in FIG. 8 has an ink cartridge 2A as shown in FIG.
2D, and a cartridge mounting portion 46 capable of mounting and dismounting one diluent / paste cartridge 3 in which the diluent storage portion 3A and the paste material storage portion 3B are integrally configured.
It has. Further, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the diluent / paste cartridge 3 mounted in the cartridge mounting portion 46 is provided with the thin film piece 3C in the paste material storage portion 3B.

The CPU (or MPU) 41 also has, for example, a ROM for storing programs, a RAM used as a work memory, and the like, which are connected to a host side (not shown) such as a personal computer. It has a function of controlling the entire system of the carrier jet recording apparatus. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the capping mechanism section 50 includes a paste container 21, a paste passage 23, a paste nozzle 24, an elastic plate 25, etc., and the carriage 45 is controlled by the CPU 41.
By moving the paste nozzle 24 and the elastic plate 25 in the direction of the guide shaft.
Has a function of applying a paste material to the surface of the.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the capping material filling mechanism section 51 has a paste suction section 32 disposed on the side wall surface 31 of the apparatus.
The tip portion 33 of is provided at a position corresponding to the thin film piece 3C of the diluent / paste material cartridge 3. Under the control of the CPU 41, the capping material filling mechanism unit 51 also moves the carriage 45, on which the diluent / paste material cartridge 3 is mounted, to the tip 33 side of the paste suction unit 32, whereby the diluent / paste material cartridge 3 is supplied. 3 has a function of filling the paste in the paste material storage 3B into the paste container 21 via the paste suction part 32. Next, a flow chart shows the main operation when filling the paste material.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the main processing flow when the paste material is filled in the carrier jet recording apparatus shown in FIG. In the figure, S1
-S10 shows a step.

The flow of this FIG. 9 includes steps S1 to S3.
Is a process unique to the present invention, and other steps S
4 to S10 are processes related to the printing operation and the capping operation, which are also illustrated. After mounting the diluent / paste material cartridge 3 in the cartridge mounting portion 46 shown in FIG. 8, the power of the carrier jet recording apparatus is turned on in step S1.

In step S2, as shown in FIG. 7, the tip portion 33 of the paste suction portion 32 breaks the thin film piece 3C provided in the paste material storage portion 3B of the diluent / paste material cartridge 3, The carriage 45 is moved to a position where the paste material inside can be sucked. Step S3
Then, the paste material is sucked. In step S4, the carriage 45 is moved to the print standby position. In step S5, it is determined whether or not there is a print output command. If there is a print output command, the process proceeds to step S9, and the paste removing operation is performed. In step S10, the printing operation is started and the flow of FIG. 8 ends.

Further, as a result of the judgment at the previous step S5,
If there is no print output command, the process proceeds to step S6 and time t is counted. After the lapse of time t, a paste capping operation is performed in step S7. In step S8, it is monitored whether there is a print output command. If there is a print output command, the paste removing operation is performed in the next step S9.
In step S10, the printing operation is started and the flow of FIG. 8 ends.

As described above, in the carrier jet recording apparatus according to the present invention, the carriage driving mechanism is provided with the cartridge mounting means for mounting one cartridge in which the paste material and the diluent are respectively stored, and the paste material is stored. A paste material suction means for sucking the paste material is provided between the cartridge and the paste container, and after the cartridge is mounted on the cartridge mounting means, the carriage is moved to the position of the paste material suction means to paste the paste material. Is filled from the cartridge into the paste container (the invention of claim 1). Further, the timing of supplying the paste material to the paste container is set immediately after the cartridge is mounted in the cartridge mounting means (the invention of claim 2).

Further, a thin film portion is provided on the side surface of the cartridge at a position corresponding to the paste material suction means, and the tip portion of the paste material suction means is inserted into the thin film portion to supply the paste material to the paste container. Invention of Item 3). As a carrier jet cartridge to be mounted on such a carrier jet recording apparatus, two storage units for respectively storing a paste material as a head maintenance material for preventing drying and color mixture and a diluting liquid are provided to provide one cartridge. The cartridge of (4) is constructed (the invention of claim 4).

Therefore, when the cartridge is replaced (when the diluting liquid / paste material cartridge 3 is replaced), a new capping material (paste material) is always replenished, and the trouble of replenishing the paste material is eliminated. Problems such as storability of the paste material and deterioration with time are also solved. Further, as in the conventional case, the contamination of the orifice portion caused by the old paste material remaining in the paste container is prevented, and the head can be kept in a good state.

Second Embodiment The second embodiment corresponds to the inventions of claims 5 and 6, but is also related to the invention of claim 4. In the first embodiment, the interpretation liquid and the paste material are stored in one cartridge for carrier jet,
The case where the diluent and the paste material are replenished at the same time when the cartridge is replaced has been described. The second embodiment also has a common point that the diluent and the paste material are replenished at the same time when the cartridge is replaced, but the paste material stored in the paste material storage portion of the carrier jet cartridge is 4 is characterized in that the paste material is extruded directly from the paste material accommodating portion of the carrier jet cartridge and is applied to the orifice portion instead of being filled into the paste container 21 as shown in FIG. There is.

Therefore, in the second embodiment,
The container of the paste material storage part of one carrier jet cartridge (diluting liquid / paste material cartridge) is made of a material having elasticity such that a part of the paste material is pushed out by external pressure ( According to a fifth aspect of the present invention), the carrier jet cartridge is mounted on the carriage, and the paste material is applied to the surface of the orifice portion by pressing the paste material storage portion each time the printing operation is completed. (The invention of claim 6).

FIG. 10 to FIG. 12 are views showing an example of an embodiment of the essential configuration of a carrier jet recording apparatus to which the paste material coating function of the present invention is added.
0 is a state before the paste material applying operation is started, FIG. 11 is a state in which the paste material is extruded, and FIG. 12 is a diagram after the paste material is applied. Reference numerals in the figure are the same as those in FIG. 6, 61 is a carriage, 62 is a paste passage,
Reference numeral 63 is a diluent / paste material cartridge, 63A is a diluent storage portion, 63B is a paste material storage portion, 64 is an elastic plate carrier, arrow J is the moving direction of the carriage 61, and arrow K is the movement of the elastic plate carrier 64. Indicates the direction.

As shown in FIG. 10, a carriage 61 is provided with a diluent / paste material cartridge 63 together with the ink cartridges 2A to 2D. This diluent
The paste material cartridge 63 includes a diluent storage portion 63A and a paste material storage portion 63B, and the container of the paste material storage portion 63B is made of an elastic material. In this state, the carriage 61 is moved toward the side wall surface 31 of the apparatus. Then, as shown by an arrow J in FIG. 11, the carriage 61 is driven so that the side surface of the paste material storage portion 63B formed of an elastic container is
It is moved to a position where it is pressed by the device side wall surface 31.

By this operation, one side surface of the paste material storage portion 63B is pressed by the apparatus side wall surface 31,
The paste material 26 in the paste material storage portion 63B passes through the paste passage 62 and is extruded little by little to the surface of the head orifice portion 13. In this state, in order to apply the extruded paste material 26, the elastic plate carrier 64 is moved as shown by an arrow K in FIG. As the elastic plate carrier 64 moves, as shown in FIG.
Is uniformly applied to the surface of the head orifice portion 13 to cover the surface of the head orifice portion 13.

If such an operation is performed each time printing is completed,
Since the new paste material can always be applied, contamination of the orifice portion with the old paste material is prevented.
The above-described paste material application operation, that is, the carrier jet recording apparatus to which the paste material application function of the present invention is added is realized by each block as shown in FIG.

FIG. 13 is a functional block diagram showing an example of an embodiment of the essential structure of a carrier jet recording apparatus to which the paste material coating function of the present invention is added. Reference numerals in the figure are the same as those in FIG. 8, and 71 is CP.
U and 72 are carriage control units, 73 is a carriage and 74
Is a cartridge mounting unit, 75 is a capping control unit, 7
Reference numeral 6 denotes a capping mechanism section.

The CPU (or MPU) 71 also has, for example, a ROM for storing a program, a RAM used as a work memory, and the like built therein, and is connected to a host side (not shown) of a personal computer or the like. It has a function of controlling the entire system of the carrier jet recording apparatus. The capping mechanism 76 is shown in FIG.
13 is used to move the carriage 61 to the side wall surface 31 of the apparatus by the means for applying the paste material, a mechanism for applying a predetermined pressing force to the side surface of the paste material storage portion 63B of the mounted cartridge, and an elastic member. Plate carrier 64
Is moved and the elastic plate 25 uniformly applies the paste material. The capping control unit 75 controls these coating operations according to a command from the CPU 71.

FIG. 14 is a flow chart showing the main processing flow during the capping operation in the carrier jet recording apparatus shown in FIG. In the figure, S1
1 to S20 indicate steps.

In step S11, the main power supply of the carrier jet recording apparatus is turned on. In step S12, it is determined whether or not there is a print output command. If there is a print output command, the process proceeds to step S19, and the paste removing operation is performed.
In step S20, the printing operation is started and the flow of FIG. 14 is ended. Further, as a result of the judgment in the previous step S12, when there is no print output command, the process proceeds to step S13, and the time is counted until the time t elapses. After the time t has elapsed, the process proceeds to step S14, and the paste capping operation is started.

First, in step S15, the carriage 73
Moves the carriage to a position where the paste cartridge is sandwiched between the carriage and the side wall of the apparatus. Step S16
Then move the carriage further as shown in FIG.
Perform the paste extrusion operation. In step S17, as shown in FIG.
The paste extruded as shown in 1 is uniformly applied to the orifice portion using an elastic plate.

In step S18, it is monitored whether there is a print output command. If there is a print output command, the paste removing operation is performed in the next step S19, and step S20 is performed.
Then, the printing operation is started and the flow of FIG. 14 is ended. As described above, also in the second embodiment, one carrier jet cartridge is provided with the diluent storage section and the paste material storage section. It is made of a material having elasticity such that a part of the paste material is extruded by pressing (the invention of claim 5).

By mounting the carrier jet cartridge on the carriage, a required amount of the paste material is pushed out from the paste material storage portion of the cartridge during the capping operation, so that the paste material is deposited on the surface of the orifice portion. It can be applied (the invention of claim 6). Therefore, as described in the first embodiment, when the carrier jet cartridge is replaced, the diluent and the paste material are replenished at the same time. Moreover, the conventional paste container is not necessary.

[0061]

According to the carrier jet recording apparatus of the first aspect, one carrier jet cartridge having a diluent storage portion and a paste material storage portion is used, and when the cartridge is replaced, the paste material is the paste material. The paste container used for capping operation is automatically filled from the storage part. Therefore, the paste material can be automatically filled only by the replacement work of the cartridge, and the trouble of refilling the paste material is eliminated. Further, since a new paste material (capping material) is always supplied when the cartridge is replaced, the problems of storability of the paste material and deterioration with time can be solved. Further, it is possible to prevent the contamination of the head orifice portion caused by using the old paste material.

In the carrier jet recording apparatus according to the second aspect, the timing of supplying the paste material to the paste container is performed immediately after the cartridge is mounted. The same effect as the recording device can be obtained.

According to another aspect of the carrier jet recording apparatus of the present invention, a thin film portion is provided on the side surface of the cartridge at a position corresponding to the paste material suction means, and the tip portion of the paste material suction means is inserted into the thin film portion. Is supplied to the paste container. Therefore, in addition to the effect of the carrier jet recording apparatus of claim 1, automatic filling of the paste material can be performed more easily.

In the carrier jet cartridge according to claim 4, one cartridge is provided with two accommodating portions for accommodating a paste material as a head maintenance material for preventing drying and color mixing, and a diluent. There is. Therefore, by using the carrier jet recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, the operation described in the carrier jet recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3 and the automatic filling operation of the paste material can be performed.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a carrier jet cartridge according to the fourth aspect, wherein the container containing the paste material of the fourth aspect of the carrier jet is made of a material having elasticity such that a part of the paste material is pushed out by external pressure. It consists of. Therefore, in the capping operation, from the carrier jet cartridge,
Since the paste material can be directly supplied, the paste container for capping is not required.

According to the sixth aspect of the carrier jet recording apparatus, during the capping operation, the paste material is extruded from the carrier jet cartridge of the fifth aspect and applied onto the surface of the head orifice portion.
Therefore, the effect obtained by using the carrier jet cartridge according to the fifth aspect can be obtained, and the same effect as the carrier jet recording apparatus according to the first aspect can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of an embodiment of a main part configuration in a state where an ink cartridge and a diluent cartridge are mounted on a carriage.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an ink passage and a diluting liquid passage from each cartridge to a head in the carriage shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an arrangement state of ink passages and diluent passages from each cartridge to the head in the carriage shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an initial state of applying a paste material.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a state in which a paste material is applied to a head orifice portion.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of an embodiment of a filling operation at the time of cartridge replacement in the carrier jet recording apparatus to which the capping material filling mechanism section of the present invention is added.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an embodiment of a filling operation at the time of cartridge replacement in the carrier jet recording apparatus to which the capping material filling mechanism section of the present invention is added.

FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram showing an example of an embodiment of a main configuration of a carrier jet recording apparatus to which a paste material filling function of the present invention is added.

9 is a flowchart showing the main processing flow when filling the paste material in the carrier jet recording apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a state before the start of the paste material coating operation in an example of an embodiment of the main configuration of a carrier jet recording apparatus to which a paste material coating function of the present invention is added.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a state in which a paste material is extruded in an example of an embodiment of a main part configuration of a carrier jet recording apparatus to which a paste material application function of the present invention is added.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a state after the paste material is applied in the example of the embodiment of the essential configuration of the carrier jet recording apparatus to which the paste material application function of the present invention is added.

FIG. 13 is a functional block diagram showing an example of an embodiment of a main configuration of a carrier jet recording apparatus to which a paste material coating function of the present invention is added.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing a main processing flow during a capping operation in the carrier jet recording apparatus shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Carriage 2A to 2D Ink Cartridge 3 Diluent / Paste Material Cartridge 3A Diluent Storage Section 3B Paste Material Storage Section 3C Thin Film Piece 21 Paste Container 22 Air Hole 23 Paste Passage 24 Paste Nozzle 25 Elastic Plate 31 Device Side Wall 32 Paste Suction Section 33 Tip part 61 Carriage 62 Paste passage 63 Diluting liquid / paste cartridge 63A Diluting liquid storage part 63B Paste material storage part 64 Elastic plate carrier

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A carrier jet recording apparatus comprising a paste container for containing a paste material used as a head maintenance material for preventing drying and color mixing, and a carriage drive mechanism, wherein the carriage drive mechanism is diluted with the paste material. A cartridge mounting means for mounting one cartridge in which the liquid is stored, and a paste material suction means for sucking the paste material between the cartridge storing the paste material and the paste container; A carrier jet recording apparatus, characterized in that after a cartridge is mounted on the cartridge mounting means, a carriage is moved to a position of the paste material suction means to fill the paste material from the cartridge into a paste container. 2. The carrier jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the paste material is supplied to the paste container immediately after the cartridge is mounted on the cartridge mounting means. 3. A paste material is provided in the paste container by providing a thin film portion on a side surface of the cartridge at a position corresponding to the paste material suction means, and inserting a tip portion of the paste material suction means into the thin film portion. The carrier jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the carrier jet recording apparatus is supplied. 4. A paste material as a head maintenance material for preventing drying and color mixing, and a diluting liquid are housed respectively.
A diluting liquid cartridge for a carrier jet, which has individual storage portions. 5. The carrier according to claim 4, wherein the container containing the paste material is made of a material having elasticity such that a part of the paste material is extruded by an external pressure. Diluent cartridge for jet. 6. A carrier jet recording apparatus including a carriage driving mechanism, wherein the carriage driving mechanism includes a cartridge mounting unit that mounts one cartridge in which a paste material and a diluting liquid are stored, respectively. , Two storage parts including a storage container for the paste material made of an elastic material such that a part of the paste material is extruded by external pressure and a storage container for storing the diluent. The carriage includes a passage for guiding the paste material from the storage container of the cartridge to the surface of the head orifice portion, container pressing means for pressing the container in which the paste material of the cartridge is stored by the movement of the carriage, A capping mechanism for applying the paste material to the surface of the head orifice portion, The carriage is moved to the position of the container pressing means, the paste material in the cartridge is supplied to the surface of the head orifice portion, and then the paste material is applied to the surface of the head orifice portion by a capping mechanism. Carrier jet recorder.