JPH10157157A - Liquid emitting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a liquid emitting apparatus for reducing the effect of vibration generated at the time of the reciprocating movement of a liquid emitting head to the utmost to stabilize the emission of a liquid such as ink and enhancing an image grade in the case of ink emission. SOLUTION: A liquid emitting apparatus contains a reciprocally movable head carriage 1010 capable of being loaded with a liquid emitting head 1100, the sub-carriage 1020 reciprocally moved in connection with the head carriage 1010 and the route 1060 mounted on the sub-carriage to supply a liquid to the liquid emitting head 1100. The relay part between the head carriage 1010 and the sub-carriage 1020 of the liquid supply route 1060 contains the tube 1061 arranged within the plane crossing the reciprocally moving direction of the head carriage 1010 and the sub-carriage 1020 at a right angle.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid discharging apparatus using a liquid discharging head for discharging a liquid such as ink.
In particular, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that forms a predetermined image on a recording medium such as paper, cloth, nonwoven fabric, and OHP paper. The present invention can be effectively applied to a printing apparatus capable of continuously printing on a cloth having a printing width of 1 m or more for a long time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an ink jet recording method has been known as a method for forming an image. This method is provided in an output unit of an information processing system, for example, a printer as an output terminal such as a copying machine, a facsimile, an electronic typewriter, a word processor, a workstation, or a personal computer, a host computer, an optical disk device, a video device, and the like. It is used as a recording method for handy or portable printers.

In this ink jet recording method, characters or figures are recorded by discharging ink as fine droplets from nozzles (hereinafter also referred to as discharge ports), and high-definition image output and high-speed recording are performed. It has excellent advantages as a means.
Also, a recording apparatus to which this recording method is applied (hereinafter also referred to as an ink jet recording apparatus) is a non-impact type recording apparatus and has low noise, and color images can be easily recorded by using multi-color inks. Further, it has features such as easy downsizing of the apparatus body and high density of images, and has been rapidly spreading in recent years.

[0004] The term "recording" as used herein includes the application of ink (recording, image formation, recording, dyeing, etc.) to all ink supports to which ink is applied, such as cloth, thread, paper, and sheet material. Therefore, the ink jet recording method is applicable not only in the field of information processing but also in a wide range of industrial fields such as the apparel industry using an ink support such as cloth, thread, and paper sheet.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a recording mechanism in a recording apparatus using a conventional ink jet system.

In the figure, reference numeral 1100 denotes a recording head which performs recording by discharging ink. The recording head 1100 is mounted on a head carriage 1010 that scans in the width direction S of the recording medium at the time of recording, and is directed downward at a predetermined position based on a data signal from the plurality of ejection ports 1100a in the figure. A minute ink droplet is ejected onto the fabric 1. Ink discharged from the recording head 1100 is supplied from the ink tank unit 1300 via the ink supply tube 1060 and the relay tube 1061.

An air buffer 1070 is connected between the ink supply tube 1060 and the relay tube 1061. The air buffer 1070 is mounted on a sub-carriage 1020 which scans in the same direction as the head carriage 1010. I have. When the head carriage 1010 and the sub-carriage 1020 scan, the ink supply tubes 1060
The caterpillar 1080 for holding the sub-carriage 1
020. With the configuration described above, the ink supply system, particularly, the vibration due to the bending of the ink supply tube 1060 generated by the scanning of the ink jet recording head 1100 is absorbed, and the influence of the vibration is not exerted on the recording head side. This stabilizes the ejection and prevents the occurrence of uneven density and the like.

[0008]

However, when a relay tube having the shortest distance is used as an ink supply system between the head carriage and the sub-carriage, vibrations newly generated due to bending of the caterpillar and the like are transmitted. It may be transmitted to the recording head side by the relay tube as a member.

Further, both carriages are reciprocated by a drive motor via a drive belt (not shown), but independent vibrations may be generated due to the extension of the drive belt and the like. Due to this vibration, stress such as pulling of the relay tube in the opposite direction is generated, and as a result, there is a possibility that a defect such as a crack or a break occurs in the tube.

In order to absorb the vibration of each carriage, a method of drawing the pipe of the relay tube in a U-shape in the horizontal direction parallel to the recording surface (dotted line in the figure) is conceivable.

However, in this piping method, the relay tube also vibrates in the same direction as both carriage vibrations, so that the vibration may be amplified, the ejection becomes unstable, and the cause of density unevenness during recording or the like may occur. Could be

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to reduce the influence of vibration generated when a liquid discharge head such as an ink jet head reciprocates as much as possible. It is an object of the present invention to provide a liquid ejecting apparatus capable of stabilizing the ejection of a liquid such as an ink and improving the image quality in the case of ink ejection.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides an air buffer provided between a head carriage and a sub-carriage and a piping direction of a relay tube of a recording head in a U-shape and each carriage. In the plane orthogonal to the main scanning direction.

That is, the present invention provides a head carriage capable of mounting a liquid discharge head for discharging liquid and reciprocating, a sub-carriage reciprocating in conjunction with the head carriage, and a sub-carriage mounted on the sub-carriage. And a path for supplying liquid to the liquid discharge head, and a relay portion between the head carriage and the sub-carriage in the liquid supply path includes a reciprocating movement of the head carriage and the sub-carriage. It is characterized by including a portion arranged in a plane perpendicular to the moving direction.

Here, the relay portion of the liquid supply path is
The tube may be a U-shaped tube, and the relay tube may have flexibility.

[0016] The sub-carriage may include an air buffer as a part of the liquid supply path, and the air buffers may be provided corresponding to the number of the liquid discharge heads.

The liquid supply path may be provided between the liquid discharge head and a liquid storage container outside the sub-carriage.

The liquid discharge head includes a discharge port for discharging the liquid, a liquid flow path communicating with the discharge port, and a pressure generating means provided in the liquid flow path for generating a pressure for discharging the liquid. The pressure generating means may include an element that generates thermal energy that causes film boiling of the liquid as energy used for discharging the liquid.

The apparatus may further include means for conveying a recording medium disposed at a position facing the liquid discharge head.

[0020] The head carriage may reciprocate in a direction perpendicular to a direction in which the recording medium is conveyed.

[0021] The liquid ejection head may be mounted on the head carriage.

The liquid may be ink.

According to the above construction, even if the vibration of each carriage during reciprocating movement is transmitted to the relay tube between the air buffer and the recording head, the relay tube is piped in a U-shape and perpendicular to the main scanning direction. Therefore, the movement of the ink inside the tube due to the vibration can be suppressed as much as possible, and the ejection of the ink can be stabilized.

Further, since the tubes are piped in a U-shape, the head carriage and the sub-carriage can be easily separated without detaching and attaching the relay tube, thereby improving the maintainability of both carriages or the entire apparatus. can do.

[0025]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a liquid discharging apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Embodiment 1 (1) Description of Overall Configuration of Apparatus FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing an example of a serial type ink jet recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied. Further, the ink jet recording apparatus according to the present embodiment is a so-called ink jet printing apparatus, and a recording medium 1
Is cloth. The fabric is unwound with the rotation of the unwind roller 11, conveyed in a horizontal direction by a conveying unit 100 provided at a position facing the recording unit 1000 via the intermediate rollers 12 and 13, and then extended path forming unit. Roller 15 and intermediate rollers 17, 18
Is wound up by a winding roller 19. The transporting means 100 is provided on a transporting path of the fabric 1 and provided on a transporting roller 1 provided upstream of the recording means 1000.
10, a belt driving roller 120 provided downstream of the recording means 1000, and the two rollers 110, 1
An endless belt-shaped transport belt 130 wound with a constant tension between 20 and a pair of rollers that stretches the transport belt with an appropriate tension within a predetermined range to regulate the recording surface of the fabric 1 flat during recording. And a platen roller 140.

(2) Description of Printer Section Configuration FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing the configuration of an ink jet recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied. Among the components of the present embodiment, components common to the components of the conventional example shown in FIG. 8 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description of those components is omitted.

Inside the printer frame 1050, a pair of parallel guide rails 1030 are arranged in the main scanning direction orthogonal to the cloth transport direction. This guide rail 1030
Above are a head carriage 1010 via a ball bearing 1031a and a sub-carriage 1020 via a ball bearing 1031b, each of which is configured to be able to reciprocate in the main scanning direction in conjunction with each other. The head carriage 1010 and the sub-carriage 10
Reference numeral 20 denotes drive belts 1051a and 1051 by a drive motor 1050 fixed to one side wall of the printer frame 1050.
b. Also, the head carriage 101
A recording head 1100 for forming an image on the cloth 1 is attached to the inner lower surface of the recording medium 1. Inside the sub-carriage 1020, air buffers are provided corresponding to the number of the recording heads. An ink supply tube 1060 from the ink tank unit 1300 is connected to the air buffer, and the air buffer and the recording head 1100 are connected via a relay tube 1061. The sub-carriage 1020 has a caterpillar 10 holding a supply tube 1060 therein.
80 are fastened. Accordingly, ink is supplied to the recording head 1100 from the ink tank unit 1300 via the ink supply tube 1060, the air buffer, and the relay tube 1061 as needed. Recording head 1100
A suction recovery mechanism 1 for maintaining discharge characteristics from each discharge port of the print head 1100 is provided below the home position of the print head 1100.
200 are provided. This suction recovery mechanism 1200
Is a mechanism for performing suction processing on each discharge port of the recording head 1100 to remove clogging and the like, and storing the waste ink subjected to the suction processing in a waste ink tank (not shown). Also, clogging of each discharge port can be removed by performing idle discharge in addition to the above in order to recover the lowered discharge characteristics.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view showing a main part of the first embodiment of the liquid ejection apparatus of the present invention.

On the head carriage 1010, a recording head 1100 as a liquid ejection head having a plurality of ink ejection ports arranged in a predetermined direction (in this example, the transport direction F of the fabric 1) is orthogonal to the main scanning direction S. Has been arranged. In a normal printing operation, the printing head 1100 is driven by a negative pressure caused by ink ejection of the printing head 1100.
Is supplied from the ink tank unit 1300 via the ink supply tube 1060, the air buffer 1070, and the relay tube 1061. Further, the ink supply tube 1060 is bent as the recording head 1100 reciprocates in the main scanning direction S during recording.
Therefore, the ink inside the ink supply tube 1060 moves in the forward or reverse direction with respect to the supply direction I,
Even if the ink supply negative pressure fluctuates earlier, even in such a case, the air buffer 1070 in which a predetermined amount of ink and air are stored absorbs the fluctuation of the negative pressure and always provides stable ink ejection. Is possible.

In addition to the bending of the ink supply tube 1060, since the carriages 1010 and 1020 are reciprocated by the drive motor 1050 via the drive belts 1051a and 1051b, the head carriage 1010 and the sub-carriage 1020 During scanning, independent vibrations in the same direction (S ′, S ″) as the main scanning direction S occur due to elongation of the drive belts 1051 a and 1051 b.

However, the relay tube 1061 is connected to the cloth 1
Of the recording surface and the direction (vertical direction) perpendicular to the vibration direction (S ′, S ″), respectively, has a portion that is piped in the direction Z1, and the relay tube 1061 has a U-shape as a whole. Therefore, the movement of the ink in the relay tube due to the vibration is not limited to one direction, but in a plurality of directions, and when the directions are opposite to each other, the inks cancel each other, so that the vibration is absorbed and reduced. Thus, stable recording can always be performed.

If the U-shaped direction is perpendicular to the recording surface of the cloth 1 as the piping direction of the relay tube 1061, not only the upper part but also the lower part Z1 '(dotted line in the figure)
May be.

In order to confirm the above effects, an experiment was conducted by preparing a simple ink supply path as shown in FIG. In this experimental apparatus, two tubes each having a predetermined length filled with ink inside the ink supply means are piped in a U-shape, and a pressure sensor S is attached to the tip of the tube. In the center of this tube, vibration of a predetermined width is
Vibration in two directions in the vertical direction Y is given at a constant period, and the pressure fluctuation in the tube is measured by the pressure sensor S.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are graphs showing the state of fluctuation of the pressure applied to the ink in the tube arranged in a U-shape in order to observe the influence of the vibration direction. As is apparent from these graphs, the pressure fluctuation width (Py) in the vibration direction y is about １ ／ of the pressure fluctuation width (Px) in the vibration direction x.
Has decreased.

As described above, in the present embodiment, by arranging the piping in a direction perpendicular to the vibration direction, the pressure fluctuation in the tube can be reduced, and the ink can always be stably ejected.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 7 is a schematic perspective view showing a main part of a liquid discharge apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, the U-shaped direction of the pipe extends from the sub-carriage 1020 in a plane (vertical plane) perpendicular to the recording surface in the same direction Z2 or It is characterized in that it is piped in the reverse direction Z'2 (dotted line in the figure).

Even in such a piping direction, the first embodiment is used.
In the first embodiment, the U-shaped direction is the height direction of the carriage. This is effective when the carriage configuration has a margin in the height direction. Is the width direction of the carriage, which is effective when the carriage configuration has room in the width direction.

Not only this embodiment, but also the first embodiment
However, the recording head 1100 has only one line, but this is for convenience of explanation, and the present invention is not limited to this. In another embodiment, a plurality of recording heads corresponding to inks having different colors in the main scanning direction S may be provided to enable color recording. In addition, several stages may be provided in the transport direction F, and high-speed recording may be performed by sharing the recording area of the recording head in each stage.

The present invention can be applied irrespective of the number of recording heads, the type and number of relay tubes, and the number of fluids.

[0042]

As described above, according to the present invention, even if the vibration during the reciprocating movement of each carriage is transmitted to the relay tube between the air buffer and the recording head, the relay tube remains at U.
Because it is shaped like a letter and is arranged in a direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction,
The movement of the ink inside the tube due to the vibration can be suppressed as much as possible, and the ejection of the ink can be stabilized.

Further, since the tubes are arranged in a U-shape, the head carriage and the sub-carriage can be easily separated without detaching the relay tube, thereby improving the maintainability of both carriages or the entire apparatus. can do.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view illustrating a configuration example of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view illustrating a configuration example of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view showing a characteristic portion of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view showing an experimental device for confirming the effect of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a graph showing a state of a change in pressure applied to ink in a tube arranged in a U-shape in order to observe an influence of a vibration direction.

FIG. 6 is a graph showing a state of fluctuation of pressure applied to ink in a tube arranged in a U-shape to observe the influence of another vibration direction.

FIG. 7 is a schematic perspective view illustrating a characteristic portion of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic perspective view showing a characteristic portion of a conventional embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 cloth 1010 head carriage 1020 sub-carriage 1060 ink supply tube 1061 relay tube 1070 air buffer 1080 caterpillar 1100 recording head 1300 ink tank unit

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A head carriage capable of mounting a liquid discharge head for discharging liquid and reciprocating, a sub-carriage reciprocating in conjunction with the head carriage, and the liquid discharge mounted on the sub-carriage and discharging the liquid And a path for supplying liquid to the head, wherein a relay portion between the head carriage and the sub-carriage in the liquid supply path is orthogonal to a reciprocating direction of the head carriage and the sub-carriage. A liquid ejecting apparatus including a portion disposed in a plane where the liquid is ejected. 2. The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the relay portion of the liquid supply path is a U-shaped tube. 3. The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the relay tube has flexibility. 4. The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sub-carriage has an air buffer mounted as a part of the liquid supply path. 5. The liquid discharging apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the air buffers are provided corresponding to the number of the liquid discharging heads. 6. The liquid discharge apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the liquid supply path is provided between the liquid discharge head and a liquid storage container outside the sub-carriage. 7. The liquid discharge head has a discharge port for discharging a liquid, a liquid flow path communicating with the discharge port, and a pressure provided in the liquid flow path for generating a pressure for discharging the liquid. 2. The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a generating unit. 8. The liquid discharging apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the pressure generating means includes an element for generating thermal energy for causing film boiling of the liquid as energy used for discharging the liquid. . 9. The liquid discharging apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a unit configured to convey a recording medium disposed at a position facing the liquid discharging head. 10. The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the head carriage reciprocates in a direction perpendicular to a direction in which the recording medium is conveyed. 11. The liquid discharging apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the liquid discharging head is mounted on the head carriage. 12. The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the liquid is ink.