JPH09290510A - Ink jet recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To avoid an atmospheric communication hole and suction hole from fouling, prevent couterflow from a nozzle, and implement the maintenance of the device readily by forming an ink jet recording device disposed with a maintaining cap having an atmospheric communication hole and suction hole with a hole diameter specified. SOLUTION: At the bottom of a maintaining cap 21 inner part formed by an elastic body such as rubber, an atmospheric communication hole 23 and suction hole 25 are provided each having a hole diameter of 2-4mm. After dropping ink in the maintain cap 21 and allowing it to stand, since ink flows down from the atmospheric communication hole 23 and suction hole 25 through its dead weight, the atmospheric communication hole 23 and suction hole 25 are prevented from fouling. In the ink jet recording device mounted with the maintaining cap 21, a recovery operation of the head 2 is effected by a suction device 16 having a maintaining cap 21 and wiping means 18 having a blade 17, qualified printing can be done after maintenance.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a maintenance station of an ink jet printer that ejects ink droplets to form an ink image on a recording medium such as recording paper, and more particularly to a maintenance cap of the maintenance station.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ink jet printer is a printer which can obtain good print quality by ejecting ink from a plurality of nozzles of an ink jet head while keeping direction, droplet diameter and ejection speed constant. Further, since ink jet printers can easily increase the number of nozzles and the types of ink, colorization has progressed and is now the mainstream printer. However, on the other hand, there is a drawback that good printing cannot be performed if good ejection cannot be achieved even with one nozzle. To overcome this drawback, ink jet printers are equipped with maintenance stations to ensure good ejection.

The role of the maintenance station is to enable good printing by recovering the ejection state to a good state when the ink cannot be ejected satisfactorily from the ink jet head due to various factors such as printing and long-term storage. It has a function.

As means for returning to a good ejection state, generally, wiping means for removing ink adhering to the nozzle surface by bringing the wiper into contact with the nozzle surface of the ink jet head and moving the wiper and the nozzle surface relatively. , A suction cap connected to the suction pump and an atmosphere communication port equipped with a valve for communicating with the atmosphere are pressed against the nozzle surface to forcibly suck the dust, and dust clogging inside the nozzle is removed from the nozzle. The suction means that recovers by discharging to is combined.

The maintenance cap of the maintenance station used in the conventional ink jet printer has a flat bottom. When such a maintenance cap is used, the ink remains in the cap after the ink is sucked, the ink dries and clogs the suction port and the air communication port, or the residual ink adheres to the nozzle surface again when capped. However, there is a problem in that the ink flows backward from the nozzle surface and good printing cannot be performed.

To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No.
No. 08 proposes a method of blocking clogging of the air communication port by providing an air communication port in the cap portion. However, with this method, when the maintenance cap is brought into contact with the nozzle surface, the air communication function is exhibited. There is a disadvantage that it cannot be opened and closed arbitrarily. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 7-214795 proposes a method of suppressing the backflow of ink by opening the atmosphere communication valve while sucking ink and continuing suction in this state. However, in this method, the ink in the cap is sufficient. There is a problem that it cannot be removed.

[0007] Printers are also commercially available that use ink having re-solubility such as a dye to dissolve the residual ink in the cap and maintain the function. However, such a method is used only for ink having no water resistance. There is a disadvantage that it cannot be used for an ink jet printer. In particular, when an ink in which a pigment is dispersed is used, once the pigment ink is dried and solidified, it has no redispersibility, so that it has a drawback that the atmosphere communication port and the suction port are clogged and the maintenance mechanism does not operate.

In JP-A-7-132606, a porous member is put in a maintenance cap to prevent ink from evaporating to prevent clogging of a suction port or the like. There is a drawback that the desired effect cannot be obtained if the ink is left for a long time when it runs out.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a maintenance station cap for performing good maintenance in view of such problems.

[0010]

In order to solve the above problems, a maintenance cap characterized in that the hole diameter of the atmosphere communication port and the suction port is set to 2 mm to 4 mm so that the ink spontaneously falls in the maintenance cap due to its own weight. It can be solved by using it. Further, the effect can be further enhanced by making the atmosphere communication port and the suction port ink repellent.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be described in more detail based on the following examples, but the present invention is not limited to the following structures. FIG. 1 shows a configuration diagram of the maintenance cap of the present invention. The maintenance cap 21 is formed of an elastic body such as rubber, and the atmosphere communication port 23 is provided on the bottom inside the maintenance cap 21.
And a suction port 25 are provided. A lip 35 is provided on the upper part of the maintenance cap 21 to seal the contact with the inkjet head. Maintenance cap 2
2 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. The suction port 25 and the atmosphere communication port 23 are provided at the bottom of the maintenance cap 21. The inner diameters of the suction port 25 and the atmosphere communication port 23 are 1 mm, 2 mm,
A maintenance cap 21 of 3 mm, 4 mm, and 5 mm was produced.

(Embodiment 1) Atmosphere communication port 23 and suction port 25
After the ink was poured into the maintenance cap 21 having an inner diameter of 2 mm and left at 35 ° C. for 24 hours, the presence or absence of clogging of the atmosphere communication port 23 and the suction port 25 was checked, and the ink was sucked into the atmosphere communication port 23 by its own weight. It did not become clogged because it was flowing from the mouth 25. (Examples 2 to 3) Same as Example 1 except that the maintenance cap 21 having an inner diameter of the atmosphere communication port 23 and the suction port 25 of 3 mm and the maintenance cap 21 having an inner diameter of the atmosphere communication port 23 and the suction port 25 of 4 mm were used. In both cases, the ink did not clog because the ink flowed down from the atmosphere communication port 23 and the suction port 25 under its own weight. (Comparative Example 1) The inner diameter of the atmosphere communication port 23 and the suction port 25 is 1 m.
The same evaluation as in Example 1 was carried out except that the maintenance cap 21 of m was used.
It stayed within 5 and clogging occurred.

(Examples 4 to 6) The maintenance caps of Examples 1 to 3 were mounted on the ink jet recording apparatus shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 1 denotes a carriage on which a head holder 3 for holding the inkjet head 2, an ink tank 4, a non-distributive relay member 5 for connecting the inkjet head 2 and the ink tank 4, and a circuit board 7 are mounted. A carriage motor (not shown) drives the carriage 1 via the timing belt 8 and reciprocates left and right along the guide rail 9 in the figure. The FPC 10 connects a drive circuit (not shown) to the circuit board 7. On the other hand, a paper feed motor (not shown) drives the paper feed roller 11 and the paper discharge roller 12, pulls out the recording paper 13 onto the platen 14, and moves the recording paper 13 in the direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the carriage. As described above, while moving the carriage 1 and the recording paper 13, the position of each head 2 on the recording paper 13 is two-dimensionally changed, and the ink is ejected from the head 2 according to a recording signal by a known means such as piezoelectric driving. To eject recording paper 1
A recording pattern of images, characters, etc. can be recorded in the area 3. When the above recording operation is not performed, the carriage is moved to the left region apart from the platen 14, and the suction device 16 having the maintenance cap 21 and the blade 17
By the wiping means 18 having the above, the recovery operation of each head is performed by a known method. When this ink jet recording apparatus was used for actual printing and maintenance and printing was performed, good printing could be performed. (Comparative Example 2) A printing test was carried out in the same manner as in Example 7 except that the maintenance cap of Comparative Example 1 was used. As a result, the atmosphere communication port of the maintenance cap was clogged and printing was impossible. (Comparative Example 3) The inner diameter of the atmosphere communication port 23 and the suction port 25 is 5 m.
When the maintenance cap 21 of m was produced and mounted on the ink jet recording apparatus described in Example 4, it was found that the maintenance cap became large and could not be used in actual use.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the ink inside the cap can be removed, the atmosphere communication port and the suction port are not clogged, and the ink flowing back from the nozzle is also eliminated, so that good maintenance can be performed. It became so. Further, not only the dye-based ink that can be re-dissolved but also the pigment-based ink having complete water resistance can be used as the ink, so that the performance of the printer itself is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view showing a maintenance cap of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the maintenance cap of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an inkjet recording apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Carriage 2 Head 3 Head Holder 4 Ink Tank 5 Non-Distribution Relay Member 7 Circuit Board 8 Timing Belt 9 Guide Rail 10 FPC 11 Paper Feed Roller 12 Paper Ejection Roller 13 Recording Paper 14 Platen 16 Suction Device 17 Blade 18 Wiping Means 21 Maintenance Cap 23 Air communication port 25 Suction port

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An inkjet recording device, characterized in that a maintenance cap having a hole diameter of 2 mm to 4 mm for the atmosphere communication port and the suction port is used. 2. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the inside of the maintenance cap is ink repellent.