JPH1016315A - Image-forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image-forming apparatus which can easily confirm the remaining amount of an image-recording material, e.g. ink or the like without performing a complicated operation such as a printing operation, etc. SOLUTION: In order to confirm the remaining amount of ink in an ink tank 20, a transparent window 27 partly constituted of a transparent member is formed at the ink tank 20. Wen the ink tank 20 is fitted to a body part 2 and a lid body 24 is attached, the remaining amount of ink in the ink tank 20 can be easily confirmed through the transparent window 27 of the ink tank 20 from an observation window 23 formed in the lid body 24 for the confirmation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for forming an image such as a character or a figure on a recording medium by manually or automatically scanning an apparatus main body on recording paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as this type of image forming apparatus,
For example, one disclosed in JP-A-48-17630 is known. This apparatus is configured such that a user grips the apparatus with his / her hand and moves and scans on a recording medium such as paper, thereby recording an image.

In other words, a displacement detecting device for detecting a change in the relative position between the print head and the recording medium is provided, and the displacement detecting device detects a change in the relative position of the print head on the recording medium. Printing is performed in synchronization with the detection result. Here, the displacement detection device is configured to detect a change in the relative position with respect to the recording medium by detecting a rotation angle of a roller that rotates in contact with the recording medium.

As described above, in the conventional image forming apparatus, the displacement detecting device detects a change in the relative position between the print head and the recording medium, and controls the print head in synchronization with the detection result, thereby reducing the moving speed. Good printing can be performed even when the printing is not constant.

[0005] By using such an image forming apparatus, it is possible to form an image at a free position on a recording medium, so that a notebook or book which cannot be printed by a conventional stationary printer is used. Or, printing can be easily performed on paper having a large size.

In recent years, an ink jet recording means has been used as an image forming means of such an apparatus.
In the case of an image forming apparatus using an ink jet recording method, the ink tank containing the ink as the image forming material is configured to be replaceable, and when the image formation becomes impossible, the user runs out of ink. Recognizing this, the ink tank is replaced and used.

[0007]

However, in the above-described image forming apparatus, the remaining amount of ink cannot be confirmed only by fading of the print during the printing operation. If this is the case, there is a problem that good printing results cannot be obtained.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem, and it is an object of the present invention to easily confirm the remaining amount of an image recording material such as ink without performing a troublesome operation such as a printing operation. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus capable of performing the following.

[0009]

In order to achieve this object, an image forming apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention moves and scans a recording medium to convert images such as characters and figures into images. It is intended to be provided with an image recording means that is formed on the recording medium by a recording material, and in particular, is configured so that at least the image recording material contained in the apparatus main body can be visually observed from outside the apparatus. is there.

According to this image forming apparatus, an image such as a character or a figure can be formed on the recording medium by the image recording material by moving and scanning the image recording means on the recording medium. it can. The user can easily and surely check the remaining amount of the image recording material only by visually observing the image forming apparatus, not only during the operation of this image formation but also during the non-operation. Can be.

Further, the image forming apparatus according to claim 2 is
The image forming apparatus further includes a container that stores the image recording material and that is at least partially transparent. Therefore, the user can easily and surely confirm the remaining amount of the image recording material through the transparent portion of the housing simply by looking at the image forming apparatus.

Further, in the image forming apparatus according to a third aspect, the apparatus main body is provided with an observation window that enables the image recording material to be visually observed. Therefore, the remaining amount of the image recording material can be easily and reliably confirmed through the observation window of the apparatus main body.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an external view of an image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, a body portion 2 as an apparatus main body of the image forming apparatus 1 is formed in a prismatic shape that is easy for a user to grasp by hand. A roller 3 is rotatably supported at the lower end of the body 2. An interface 4 for infrared communication for transmitting and receiving print data to and from an external device such as a personal computer is provided at the upper end of the body 2 opposite to the side where the rollers 3 are arranged. . Further, in the body part 2,
Switches 5a and 5b for turning on / off the power and selecting various printing modes, a switch 6 for instructing the start of printing, and a display device 19 for displaying a printing mode and an error are arranged. ing. A lid 24 for exchanging an ink tank 20, which will be described later, is detachably attached near the roller 3 on the side surface of the body portion 2. The lid 24 is used to check the remaining amount of ink. A rectangular observation window 23 is provided.

In the vicinity of the roller 3 of the body part 2,
An ink jet recording head 7 as an image recording unit is provided. Further, a protrusion 8 is provided near the roller 3.
Is provided. The protruding portion 8 is made of a material such as resin having good slidability.

That is, the image forming apparatus 1 of the present embodiment
Means that the roller 3 and the projection 8 are formed of a recording medium (paper or the like) 9
The user grips the body unit 2 by hand and moves and scans the recording medium 9 so that the interface unit 4 is always in contact with the interface unit 4 from an external data storage device (not shown).
Is configured to print the print data input through the printer.

The rollers 3 and the projections 8 of the image forming apparatus 1 of the present embodiment keep the posture of the body 2 during the printing scan, and keep the nozzles of the ink jet recording head 7 constant from the printing surface of the recording medium 9. Play a role in keeping the position at a distance. Further, the roller 3 plays a role of detecting a change in the relative position between the inkjet recording head 7 and the recording medium 9 by being rotated by this scanning.

Next, the internal configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 of the present embodiment described with reference to FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. In addition,
FIG. 2 shows an image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment in which an ink tank 2 is provided.
0 shows the internal configuration with 0 attached.

The above-mentioned roller 3 has shafts 11 on both end surfaces thereof.
Are provided, and both ends of the chassis 10 are supported by bearings (not shown). The bearing is fixed to the chassis 10, and the roller 3 is configured to be rotatable. A gear 12 is formed at one end of the shaft 11, and is configured to rotate in conjunction with the rotation of the roller 3. The rotation of the gear 12 is configured to be transmitted to the idle gear 13 and the idle gear 14 arranged on the side surface of the chassis 10. The idle gear 14 is connected to a small-diameter gear portion of the two-stage gear 15, and the large-diameter gear portion of the two-stage gear 15 is connected to the idle gear 16.

The two-stage gear 15 increases the speed of rotation of the idle gears 13 and 14 due to the rotation of the roller 3 at a predetermined ratio and transmits the speed to the idle gear 16.
The idle gear 16 includes an encoder disk 17 having encoder slits 17a formed at a predetermined pitch interval.
And a gear unit integrally formed. With the above configuration, the encoder disk 17 is rotated by the rotation of the roller 3. Also,
The photo interrupter 1 is provided on the encoder disk 17.
8 are arranged, and the photo interrupter 18 is
A timing pulse is generated at a predetermined timing in synchronization with the rotation of the roller 3, and the timing pulse is detected by a control unit (CPU) provided on a substrate described later.

The ink jet recording head 7 is a multi-nozzle type head in which a plurality of nozzles are formed in rows in a direction perpendicular to the printing direction. The inkjet recording head 7 is input from an external device and driven by a print pattern in synchronization with a timing signal generated in accordance with the rotation of the encoder disk 17 which rotates in association with the rotation of the roller 3, thereby performing inkjet recording. Ink is ejected from the head 7 at a predetermined timing, and an image such as a character or a graphic is printed on the recording medium 9 described above. Since the above-mentioned timing signal is generated in accordance with the rotation speed of the roller 3, good printing is possible even when the scanning speed of the image forming apparatus 1 is not uniform.

Above the ink jet recording head 7,
An ink tank 20, which is a storage body of the present invention, is provided. Above the ink tank 20, switches 5a, 5b, 6 and a display device 19 are arranged, and a control board 21 on which a driver circuit and the like for controlling these are arranged. On the side of the control board 21, a board 22 on which a power supply circuit, a circuit of the interface section 4, a drive circuit of the ink jet recording head 7, and the like are arranged.

Next, the ink tank 20 will be described. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the ink tank 20 is configured such that the lid 24 is removed from the body 2 and can be mounted or removed inside the body 2.

The structure of the ink tank 20 will be described with reference to FIG. Body parts 2 are provided on both sides of the ink tank 20.
There is provided a groove portion 29 which serves as a guide when the device is mounted on the device. Below the above-described ink tank 20, a connecting portion 28 arranged to supply ink to the ink jet recording head 7 is formed. The connection part 28 is formed at a location corresponding to the ink supply connection part of the ink jet recording head 7, and connects the ink jet 20 to the body part 2.
The ink stored in the ink tank 20 in the state shown in FIG. 3 is supplied to the ink jet recording head 7. In addition, the ink tank 20 is provided with a transparent window 27 partially formed of a transparent member so that the remaining amount of ink in the tank can be checked.
Therefore, the amount of ink remaining in the ink tank 20 can be easily confirmed visually from outside the tank.

The ink tank 20 having the above configuration is
As shown in FIG. 4, the device is used by removing the lid 24 provided on the device and attaching it to the body 2. In mounting the ink tank 20, the above-described guide portion 29 of the ink tank 20 is restricted by the protruding guides 33 provided on both sides inside the chassis 10 of the body portion 2, and is installed at a predetermined position of the body portion 2. You. When the ink tank 20 is mounted on the body portion 2 and the lid 24 is attached, the observation window 2 provided on the lid 24 for confirming the remaining amount of ink is provided.
3, the transparent window 2 provided in the ink tank 20 described above.
7, the remaining amount of ink in the ink tank 20 can be easily confirmed.

[0026]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the image forming apparatus of the first aspect of the present invention, an image such as a character or a figure is formed by moving and scanning on a recording medium. For those provided with an image recording means formed on the recording medium by a recording material, in particular, since at least the image recording material housed in the apparatus body is configured to be visually observed from outside the apparatus, The user can easily and surely check the remaining amount of the image recording material only by visually observing the image forming apparatus, not only during the operation of this image formation but also during the non-operation. In addition, there is no possibility that the ink runs out during printing and the printing is not spoiled.

Further, according to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, since the image recording material is stored, and at least a part thereof is provided with a transparent housing, the user can use the image forming apparatus. It is possible to easily and surely confirm the remaining amount of the image recording material through the transparent portion of the housing simply by visually observing.

Further, according to the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the apparatus main body is provided with an observation window that allows the image recording material to be visually observed, so that the observation window of the apparatus main body is provided. Through this, the remaining amount of the image recording material can be easily and reliably confirmed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an appearance of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating an internal configuration of the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a state where an ink tank is mounted on the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating a state where an ink tank is mounted on the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view illustrating a configuration of an ink tank.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 2 Body part 3 Roller 7 Ink jet recording head 20 Ink tank 23 Observation window 24 Lid 27 Transparent window

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus comprising image recording means for forming an image such as a character or a figure on an image recording material by moving and scanning the image on a recording medium. An image forming apparatus, wherein at least the contained image recording material can be visually observed from outside the apparatus. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a housing that stores the image recording material and that is at least partially transparent. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an observation window is provided in the apparatus main body so that the image recording material can be visually observed.