JPH0985965A - Waste ink containing apparatus for ink-jet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To adsorb waste ink dripping onto an adsorbing body into the adsorbing body throughout the entire part thereof without allowing droplets of waste ink to stay at one portion of the adsorbing body by slanting the surface of the adsorbing body from a position where the waste ink drips toward a downward position. SOLUTION: A waste ink tank 19 is formed into a case shape having a plate-like bottom wall 19A, and an adsorbing material 18 has a bottom face 18A, which is placed on the bottom wall 19A, while an upper face of the adsorbing material 18 is formed into a slant face 18B slanting downward from one end of the adsorbing material toward the other end thereof. The adsorbing material 18 is thick at one end and becomes thinner toward the other end along the slant. Further, the adsorbing material 18 is detachably accommodated in the waste ink tank 19 and can be replaced when an adsorbing capacity is deteriorated. A top end of a discharge tube 17 i.e., a discharge port thereof is so opened as to be opposed to an upper face of the adsorbing material 18 in the vicinity of an upper end of the slant thereof.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention, in an ink jet printer, sucks and discharges unnecessary ink (waste ink) from an ink ejecting nozzle of an ink jet head by a pump or the like to an adsorbent. More specifically, the present invention relates to a waste ink accommodating device for an ink jet printer in which the waste ink dropped on the adsorbent is efficiently adsorbed over the entire adsorbent without staying at a part of the adsorbent. Is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an ink jet printer that prints characters and the like while selectively ejecting ink from a plurality of ink ejection nozzles formed in an ink jet head toward a printing surface of a printing paper, the ink jet head is usually printed. Because printing is performed while moving close to the paper, the fine paper fibers of the printing paper penetrate into each ink discharge nozzle, and the ink jet temperature rises during printing, so the ink inside each ink discharge nozzle In many cases, bubbles are generated from the ink, and further, the solvent content in the ink evaporates and the ink concentration becomes higher than necessary. These cause deterioration of the ink existing in each ink ejection nozzle, and when the deteriorated ink is used for printing, various printing problems occur.

Therefore, in order to remove the deteriorated ink as described above from each ink discharge nozzle as needed, in the conventional ink jet printer, the deteriorated ink existing in each ink discharge nozzle of the ink jet head is removed at a predetermined interval. In addition to sucking and discharging from each nozzle with a pump or the like, the discharged unnecessary ink (waste ink) is stored in the waste ink storage device.

Further, when the ink cartridge is replaced with respect to the ink jet head, when a user drives a pump or the like to draw new ink to each nozzle and sucks ink from the nozzle, or when there is a defective printing. Also, the user can arbitrarily drive a pump or the like to suck ink from the nozzle.

Here, the conventional waste ink accommodating apparatus used in an ink jet printer has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped adsorption body for adsorbing the waste ink ejected from each ink ejection nozzle of the ink jet head, and the adsorption body. It is composed of a box-shaped adsorbent container to be stored.

[0006]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional waste ink storage device, the surface of the adsorbent onto which the waste ink discharged from each ink discharge nozzle of the ink jet head is dripped is a horizontal plane. It is configured. On the other hand, the waste ink is not discharged over the entire surface of the adsorbent, but is dropped and ejected at a predetermined location on the surface of the adsorbent, for example, via a discharge tube or the like.

In such a case, the waste ink discharged to the surface of the adsorbent is adsorbed downward (inside) of the adsorbent from the dropping portion, but the surface of the adsorbent is entirely horizontal. Due to this, there is a problem that it is difficult to be adsorbed in the length direction (horizontal direction) of the adsorbent. As a result, the waste ink tends to stay in the dropping portion of the adsorbent, and as a result, the entire adsorbent cannot be used effectively.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and the surface of the adsorbent is dripped on the adsorbent by inclining downward from the position where the waste ink is dripped. Another object of the present invention is to provide a waste ink storage device for an inkjet printer in which the waste ink is adsorbed on the entire adsorbent without adhering to a part of the adsorbent.

[0009]

To achieve the above object, a waste ink container according to a first aspect of the present invention is an ink jet printer having an adsorbent for adsorbing waste ink discharged from an ink jet head attached to the ink jet printer. In the waste ink storage device, the surface of the adsorbent has a configuration that is inclined downward from the position where the waste ink is dropped.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet printer according to the first aspect, which is provided with a cap that can come into close contact with and separate from the ink jet head, and a pump that is connected to the cap and sucks ink from the ink jet head. A discharge port of the pump is opened so as to face an upper surface near an inclined upper end of the one end of the adsorbent.

Further, an adsorbent in an ink jet printer according to a third aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the first or second aspect, the adsorbent is thick at a position where the waste ink is dropped and becomes thin along an inclination direction.

Further, the adsorbent in the ink jet printer according to claim 4 is the substantially rectangular parallelepiped according to claim 1 or 2, and is arranged so as to be inclined at a position where the waste ink is dropped. It is characterized by being

In the waste ink accommodating device having the above structure,
The waste ink discharged from the inkjet head is adsorbed inside the adsorbent body downward at the dropping position, and at the same time, moving downward from the dropping position along the inclination of the surface of the adsorbent body. Will be adsorbed inside.
Therefore, the waste ink dropped on the adsorbent is adsorbed over the entire adsorbent without staying at a part of the adsorbent.

More specifically, a cap is closely attached to the ink jet head, the ink is sucked from the ink jet head by a pump, and the waste ink is dripped from the discharge port of the pump onto the upper surface near one inclined upper end of one end of the adsorbent. As a result, the ink is adsorbed inside the adsorbent while moving along the slope from one end to the other end of the adsorbent. A large amount of waste ink is adsorbed by effectively utilizing from one end to the other end of the adsorbent.

Further, by making the adsorbent thick at the position where the waste ink is dropped and thin along the inclination direction, a larger amount of the waste ink can be adsorbed at the thick adsorbent. By arranging the adsorbent as a rectangular parallelepiped so as to be inclined, the adsorbent can be easily manufactured.

[0016]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, a waste ink storage device according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings based on an embodiment in which the present invention is embodied. First, a schematic configuration of an inkjet printer to which the waste ink storage device according to the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an inkjet printer.

In FIG. 1, the housing 2 of the printer 1
A platen 3 is provided therein so as to be rotatable in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1, and a guide shaft 4 is provided along the platen 3. A carriage 5 is slidably attached to the guide shaft 4, and a belt 6 is attached to the carriage 5. The belt 6 is wound around the idle pulley 7 and the drive pulley 8. The drive pulley 8 is rotated by a drive motor 9, and the rotation of the drive pulley 8 moves the carriage 5 along the guide shaft 4 via the belt 6 in the direction of arrow B in FIG. The head holder 10 is provided on the carriage 5 so as to face the platen 3.
Is attached, and the ink cartridge 11 is mounted on the head holder 10. An inkjet head 21 is attached to the front surface of the head holder 10.

A plurality of ink flow paths (not shown) are formed in the ink jet head 21, and ink ejection nozzles (not shown) are provided corresponding to each ink flow path. Then, the ink is supplied from the ink cartridge 11 to the inkjet head 21.

The printing paper 12 inserted into the housing 2 in the direction of arrow C in FIG. 1 from the rear of the printer 1 is conveyed in the direction of arrow D along the platen 3 and is ejected from the housing 2 of the printer 1. When the printing paper 12 is conveyed to the platen 3, desired data is printed by ejecting ink by the inkjet head 21 fixed to the head holder 10 as the carriage 5 moves.

The head 2 on the left side of the platen 3 in FIG.
A cap 13 is provided at the non-printing position of No. 1, and a cap rubber 14 is attached to the cap 13 so as to be in close contact with the head 21. Ink channels (not shown) communicating with each other are formed in each cap 13 and cap rubber 14. And the cap 13
Is attached to the head 21 so as to be movable in the direction of arrow E in FIG. 1, and the cap 13 is moved by a moving means (not shown) so that the cap rubber 14 is appropriately brought into contact with and separated from the head 21. Further, a connecting tube 15 is attached to the cap 13, and the connecting tube 15
As shown in FIG. 1, a pump 16 is connected to the. The pump 16 serves to suck ink from the ink ejection nozzles of the inkjet head 20.
A discharge tube 17 is connected to the pump 16, and the tip of the discharge tube 17 is arranged above the waste ink storage device 22 in which the adsorbent 18 is stored.

As a result, the carriage 5 is moved to a position where the head 21 faces the cap 13 and the pump 16
As described in the section of the related art, the deteriorated ink or new ink is sucked from each ink discharge nozzle, and the ink flow paths of the cap rubber 14 and the cap 13, the connecting tube 15, the pump 1 are driven.
6, the waste ink is dropped from the discharge tube 17 onto the surface of the adsorbent 18 of the waste ink container 22 to collect the waste ink.
Is adsorbed on.

A flexible wiper blade 20 is provided between the platen 3 and the cap 13 at the non-printing position. The wiper blade 20 is attached so as to be movable in the arrow F direction in FIG. The wiper blade 20 normally stands by at a retracted position where it does not come into contact with the head 21, and at the time of wiping, it is moved to a forward position where it can be slidably contacted with the head 21 by a motor (not shown).

Next, the detailed structure of the waste ink container 22 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of the waste ink container 22. Waste ink storage device 22
Is composed of an adsorbent material 18 made of a porous material and an adsorbent material container for accommodating the adsorbent material 18, that is, a waste ink tank 19. The waste ink tank 19 is formed in a box shape having a flat bottom wall 19A, and the adsorbent 18 is a bottom wall 19A.
It has a bottom surface 18A placed on top, and its top surface is formed as an inclined surface 18B that is inclined downward from one end to the other end of the adsorbent. That is, the adsorbent 18 is thick at one end and thin toward the other end along the slope. Further, the adsorbent 18 is detachably accommodated in the waste ink tank 19 and can be replaced when the adsorbability is lowered.
The tip of the discharge tube 17, that is, the discharge port, is the adsorbent 18
Is opened facing the upper surface near the upper end of the slope.

In the ink jet printer 1 having the above structure, in order to recover the ink jet head 21, the carriage 5 is moved to a position where the head 21 faces the cap 13 at a predetermined interval or a user's switch operation, and the pump 16 is operated. When driven, the ink I existing in each ink ejection nozzle of the ink jet head 21 becomes the cap rubber 14 and the cap 13.
From the ink flow path, the connection tube 15 and the pump 16 through the discharge tube 17, the ink is dropped at the dropping position P on the surface of the adsorbent 18 stored in the waste ink tank 19. The waste ink I thus dropped is adsorbed inside the adsorbent 18 downward as shown in FIG. 2, and at the same time, the adsorbent 1 is gradually moved while moving along the inclined surface 18B.
It is adsorbed in 8. In this way, the waste ink tank 1
Due to the formation of the inclined surface 18B on the surface of the adsorbent 18 housed inside 9, the waste ink I dripped from the discharge tube 17 has a dropping position P on the surface of the adsorbent 18.
Is adsorbed inside the adsorbent 18 by the adsorbent 1 while moving from the dropping position P along the inclined surface 18B.
8 is absorbed by the waste ink I.
The adsorbent 18 can be adsorbed over the entire adsorbent 18 without being retained in the vicinity of the adsorbent 18. Therefore, such adsorbent 18
By using, the large amount of waste ink I can be efficiently stored.

Next, a waste ink containing device according to another embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a side sectional view of a waste ink storage device according to another embodiment. The waste ink tank 30 is formed in a box shape having a flat bottom wall 30A, and a plurality of protruding walls 31 are integrally formed on the bottom wall 30A. Here, each protruding wall 31
3, the height is gradually reduced from the right side to the left side in FIG. 3, and thus the plane defined to include the upper end 31A of each protruding wall 31 extends from the right side to the left side with respect to the bottom wall 30A. Becomes an inclined surface that inclines downward.

Further, the upper end 31A of each protruding wall 31 has a bottom surface 32A of a substantially rectangular parallelepiped adsorbent 32 having a predetermined thickness.
Is placed. At this time, as described above, each protruding wall 3
Since the plane defined to include the upper end 31A of No. 1 is an inclined surface that inclines downward from the right side to the left side with respect to the bottom wall 30A, the suction placed on the upper end 31A of each protruding wall 31 The upper surface of the material 32 is an inclined surface 32B that is inclined downward from the dropping position P where the waste tank I is dropped.

Therefore, as in the case described above, when the pump 16 is driven in order to recover the ink jet head 21, the ink I existing in each ink ejection nozzle of the ink jet head 21 will have a cap rubber 14 and a cap 13. The ink flow path, the connection tube 15, the pump 16 and the discharge tube 17 are dropped at the dropping position P on the surface of the adsorbent 32 accommodated in the waste ink tank 30. The waste ink I dropped in this manner is adsorbed inside the adsorbent 32 downward as shown in FIG. 3, and at the same time, the waste ink I gradually moves inside the adsorbent 32 while moving along the inclined surface 32B. Will be adsorbed on. Since the inclined surface 32B is formed on the surface of the adsorbent 32 housed in the waste ink tank 30 as described above, the waste ink I dripped from the discharge tube 17 has a dropping position P on the surface of the adsorbent 32. At the same time, the waste ink I is adsorbed inside the adsorbent 32 and is adsorbed to the adsorbent 32 while moving from the dropping position P along the inclined surface 32B, so that the waste ink I is retained near the dropping position P. Adsorbent 3
It can be adsorbed over the whole of 2. Therefore, by using such adsorbent 32, a large amount of waste ink I can be obtained.
Can be efficiently accommodated.

As described above in detail, in the waste ink tanks 19 and 30 according to the embodiment of the present invention, the adsorbents 18 and 32 housed inside the waste ink tanks 19 and 32 are moved downward from the dropping position P where the waste ink I is dropped. Inclined surface 18 inclined toward
Since B and 32B are formed, the cap rubber and the ink flow path of the cap 13, the connecting tube 15, the pump 16 and the discharge are removed when sucking and removing the deteriorated ink existing in each ink discharge nozzle of the inkjet head 21 when the pump 16 is driven. The waste ink I dropped from the tube 17 to the dropping position P on the adsorbents 18 and 32 is adsorbed inside the adsorbents 18 and 32 at the dropping position P, and also at the dropping position P.
Is adsorbed on the adsorbents 18 and 32 while moving along the inclined surfaces 18B and 32B, so that the waste ink I is not retained in the vicinity of the dropping position P, and the entire adsorbents 18 and 32 are retained. Can be adsorbed over. Therefore, by using the adsorbents 18 and 32, a large amount of waste ink I can be efficiently stored.

Particularly, in the former embodiment, the adsorbent 18
Since one end is thick, a large amount of waste ink can be adsorbed, and in the latter embodiment, the adsorbent 32
Has a simple rectangular parallelepiped shape, there is an advantage that it can be easily manufactured. In any of the embodiments, one end of the adsorbent is used as the upper end, and the discharge section of the pump is opened in the vicinity of the one end of the adsorbent. It is what is done.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and it goes without saying that various improvements and modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, a configuration is possible in which the center of the adsorbent is projected in a substantially conical shape, and the discharge port of the pump is opposed above the apex of the conical shape.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention, the surface of the adsorbent is inclined downward from the position where the waste ink is dripped so that the waste ink dripped on the adsorbent is located at a part of the adsorbent. It is possible to provide a waste ink storage device of an ink jet printer which can be adsorbed over the entire adsorbent without accumulating in it and can efficiently store a large amount of waste ink.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an inkjet printer.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of a waste ink tank.

FIG. 3 is a side sectional view of a waste ink tank according to another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 inkjet printer 13 cap 15 connecting tube 16 pump 17 discharge tube 18 adsorbent 18B inclined surface 19 waste ink tank 21 inkjet head 30 waste ink tank 31 protruding wall 31A upper end of protruding wall 32 adsorbent 32B inclined surface I waste ink P dropping position

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A waste ink storage device of an inkjet printer having an adsorbent for adsorbing waste ink discharged from an inkjet head attached to the inkjet printer, wherein the surface of the adsorbent is a position where the waste ink is dropped. Is inclined downwardly from the waste ink storage device of the inkjet printer. 2. The ink jet printer comprises a cap that can be attached to and detached from the ink jet head, and a pump that is connected to the cap and that sucks ink from the ink jet head. The waste ink storage device of the ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the waste ink storage device is opened so as to face an upper surface of the body near one of the inclined upper ends. 3. The waste ink accommodating device for an inkjet printer according to claim 1, wherein the adsorbent is thick at a position where the waste ink is dropped and becomes thin along an inclination direction. 4. The adsorbent is a substantially rectangular parallelepiped, and the adsorbent is raised at a position where the waste ink is dropped,
The waste ink storage device for an inkjet printer according to claim 1, wherein the waste ink storage device is arranged at an angle.