JPH10166614A - Ink tank and ink tank package body - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the leakage of ink and formation of air bubbles inside an ink-absorbing body when an ink tank is reduced in pressure and packed, by shutting ink and air passage while the interior of a tank case of the ink tank is held in a pressure-reduced state, and using an aluminum laminate film for a tank package member. SOLUTION: A tank case 2 is a molded product of resin, having a lid member 12 bonded or welded to a wide opening at an upper part of a case 11. An ink feed port 13 is formed at a bottom part of the case 11, and a sealing material 14 is welded and sealed. Before an ink tank is set, the sealing material 14 is detached to turn the interior of the tank case 2 to an atmospheric pressure. An ink-absorbing body 3 is formed of a porous body and inserted into the tank case 2 in a compressed state. An ink and air passages are shut while the pressure in the tank case is reduced, whereby the ink is prevented from leaking or air bubbles are prevented from being formed in the porous body when the ink tank is reduced in pressure and packed. Two aluminum laminate films are used for a package member of the ink tank, which are tightly heat sealed. Perforations for cut are formed beforehand in the films.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink tank and an ink tank package, and more particularly to an ink tank used in an ink jet recording apparatus and an ink tank package in which the ink tank is packaged by a packaging member.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ink jet recording apparatus has little vibration and noise at the time of recording and is easy to colorize. Therefore, it is used not only for a printer for outputting data of a digital processing device such as a computer but also for facsimile and copying. It is supposed to be. In this type of ink jet printing apparatus, an ink tank (also referred to as an ink cartridge) having an ink absorber such as a porous body absorbing ink inside a tank case is used to supply ink to a print head.

The ink used in such an ink jet recording apparatus is mainly an aqueous ink. The aqueous ink is produced by a process of dissolving raw materials and a filtration process. The produced ink is filled in an ink tank as it is. When printing is performed, various gases such as nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide dissolved in the ink become bubbles in the ink flow path and the recording head, causing printing defects such as missing dots.

For this reason, before filling the ink into the ink absorber in the ink tank, a method of stirring the ink while reducing the pressure in a pressure vessel or a process of deaeration by a deaerator using a gas separation membrane is performed. The dissolved gas in the ink is reduced.

However, if the degassed ink is filled in the tank case of the ink tank and left in the air, the air gradually dissolves into the ink. Therefore, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-61592, the ink tank is further sealed under reduced pressure with a packaging member such as a sealed container or a flexible tube, so that the dissolved gas in the ink is suppressed. As described in JP-A-5-270001, packaging is performed under a negative pressure slightly higher than the atmospheric pressure than the pressure at which the ink is charged into the tank case.

[0006]

As described above, ink tanks are generally used in which the ink is absorbed by the capillary force of a porous body and is contained in a container as described above. With a structured ink tank,
Due to its structure, a space exists in the upper part of the container, and the upper part communicates with the outside of the container through the air communication port. On the other hand, a device that fills the ink tank with ink and a device that decompresses and seals the ink tank are separately installed.

Therefore, the ink tank filled with the ink is temporarily exposed to the atmospheric pressure. Therefore, when the ink tank is sealed under reduced pressure by the packaging member as described above, the ink tank is dissolved in the ink by the air in the space above the tank. The gas generates air bubbles and leaks to the outside through the air communication port, and contaminates the outer surface of the tank case and the inside of the packaging member. Also,
When air bubbles are generated inside the porous body in the tank and flow into the head side, a printing failure is caused.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has an ink tank capable of preventing leakage of ink at the time of reduced-pressure packaging and generation of air bubbles inside an ink absorber, and packaging the ink tank with a packaging member. It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink tank package that has been manufactured.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink tank having an ink tank having an ink absorber in which ink is absorbed in a tank case. In this configuration, the ink and air flow paths are sealed.

[0010] The ink tank according to claim 2 is the ink tank according to claim 1.
In this ink tank, the ink and air flow paths formed in the tank case are crushed from the outside of the tank case to seal the flow paths.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink tank package comprising an ink tank packaged in a reduced pressure state by a tank packaging member, wherein the ink tank according to the first or second aspect is permeable to air. It was configured to be packaged with a tank packaging member composed of a small number of members.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the ink tank package of the third aspect, the tank packaging member is made of an aluminum laminated film.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of an ink tank according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the ink tank. This ink tank 1 has an ink absorber 3 in which ink is absorbed in a tank case 2.
The ink filling port 4 as an ink flow path and the exhaust port 5 as an air flow path are sealed with sealing portions 6 and 7, respectively, while keeping the inside in a reduced pressure state.

The tank case 2 is formed by bonding or welding a lid member 12 to an upper opening of a case 11 having a wide opening at an upper portion, and is, for example, a resin molded product. An ink supply port 13 for supplying ink to the recording head of the recording apparatus is formed at the bottom of the case 11, and a sealant 14 is welded to the ink supply port 13 to seal the ink supply port. Before setting in the recording device body, seal material 1
Remove 4 before use. The lid member 12 has an atmosphere communication port 15.
A sealing material 16 is welded and sealed in advance to the atmosphere communication port 15, and before the ink tank 1 is set in the recording apparatus main body, the sealing material 16 is peeled off and the inside of the tank case 2 is set to the atmospheric pressure. To use.

The ink absorber 3 is made of a porous material and is compressed and inserted into the tank case 2. Ink filling port 4
The exhaust port 5 and the exhaust port 5 are both formed in the lid member 12 constituting the tank case 2, and communicate the outside with the inside of the tank case 2 before forming the sealing portions 6 and 7. These sealing portions 6 and 7 are formed by melting a resin in the middle of the ink filling port 4 and the exhaust port 5. In addition, the ink filling port 4 and the exhaust port 5 are connected to the case 11 forming the tank case 2.
May be formed on the side, and one flow path may serve as both the ink filling port and the exhaust port.

In this manner, the ink and air flow paths are sealed while the inside of the tank case of the ink tank having the ink absorber having absorbed the ink in the tank case is kept in a reduced pressure state. The ink tank can be stored in a state where the dissolved amount of gas in the ink is reduced while preventing leakage of the ink and generation of bubbles inside the porous body, and the long-term stability is improved.

Therefore, the manufacturing process of such an ink tank 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. First, before ink filling, the ink tank 1 is in a state where the ink filling port 4 and the exhaust port 5 are open as shown in FIG. 3, so that the ink filling tube 21 of the ink filling apparatus is filled with ink as shown in FIG. The port 4 is connected via an O-ring 22, and similarly, an exhaust pipe (not shown) is connected to the exhaust port 5 via an O-ring.

Thereafter, the air in the tank case 2 is sucked from the exhaust pipe through the exhaust port 5 to reduce the pressure in the tank case 2, and when the inside of the tank case 2 reaches a predetermined degree of vacuum, the exhaust pipe (not shown) is opened. Close the valve. Then, the valve (not shown) of the ink filling tube 21 is opened, and the degassed ink is sucked into the tank case 2 through the ink filling port 4, and when the filling amount reaches the specified amount, the valve of the ink filling tube 21 is opened. Close.

At this time, ink is absorbed in the ink absorber 3 by capillary action of the porous body forming the ink absorber 3 in the tank case 2, and the pressure inside the tank case 2 is reduced. It is in a reduced pressure state in which the pressure is increased by the amount of water vapor pressure from the degree of vacuum before ink filling.

In this state, the resin around the flow path of the ink filling port 4 and the exhaust port 5 is melted by using a sealing portion forming means such as a metal rod 23 heated by a heater or the like. 7 is formed to seal each flow path of the ink filling port 4 and the exhaust port 5. After that, the ink filling pipe 21 and the exhaust pipe are withdrawn to obtain the ink tank 1 filled with the ink under the reduced pressure state as shown in FIG. In addition, as a sealing part forming means, for example, an ultrasonic welding machine or the like can be used.

As described above, the ink filling port and the exhaust port are crushed and sealed with heat or the like by using a resin tank case for hermetically sealing the ink tank, so that the ink tank can be reliably manufactured with high productivity. Can be manufactured.

By the way, as described above, in an ink tank filled with ink while the inside is kept under reduced pressure,
For a certain period of time, the inside is in a decompressed state, so that the ink can be stored while suppressing the dissolved amount of gas in the ink. However, since the resin itself forming the container (tank case) has a slight air permeability, the ink Long-term storage for several years cannot be performed while keeping the dissolved amount of gas inside.

Therefore, by further sealing the ink tank with a less permeable packaging member under reduced pressure and wrapping it, a longer storage stability can be obtained.
Moreover, at this time, since the inside of the ink tank is in a reduced pressure state, there is no problem such as leakage of the ink into the inside of the packaging member as in the case where the air opening port is not closed.

Such an ink tank package according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing an example of the ink tank package, FIG. 6 is a plan view of the package viewed from above, and FIG. 7 is a schematic sectional view of the ink tank package.

The ink tank package 31 includes a plurality of chambers 34y, 34m, 34 of the ink tank package 32.
c and 34k are ink tanks 33y and 33 in which yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C) and black (Bk) inks are sealed under reduced pressure, respectively, according to the present invention.
m, 33c, and 33k are housed, respectively, and sealed in a reduced pressure state (here, a vacuum state) lower than the atmospheric pressure.

Here, before the ink tank is housed, the ink tank packaging member 32 is provided with four ink cartridge housing chambers 34y, 34m,
34c and 34k are formed side by side (and / or vertically). Each of these rooms 34y,
34m, 34c and 34k may be the same size,
Here, the ink tanks 33y, 33m, and 33 of the other color inks are used as the black ink tank 33k.
Since the one having a larger capacity than the ink tank 33c is used, the room 34k for the ink tank 33k is formed larger than the rooms 34y, 34m, and 34c of the other ink tanks 33y, 33m, and 33c according to the size of the ink tank. doing.

The ink tank packaging member 32 is made of a sheet member having no air permeability, for example, two aluminum laminated films, and is used as a portion which becomes the outer peripheral portion 35 of the two films and the boundary portion 36 of each room (in each case). The hatched portions in the figure) are preliminarily adhered to each other by heat sealing to form four bag-shaped rooms 34y, 34m, 34c, and 34k each having an open side, and boundaries between the rooms 34y, 34m, 34c, and 34k. A perforation 37 is preliminarily provided in the section 36 as a separating process.

The aluminum laminated film forming the ink tank packaging member 32 is, as shown in FIG.
The aluminum sheet 41 is used as a base material.
Both sides are coated with polyethylene layers 42 and 43, and a polyethylene film 44 is coated on an inner surface and a nylon 45 is coated on an outer surface to be welded during heat sealing. This aluminum laminated film is sealed by welding the polyethylene films 44 to each other. In order to maintain the degree of vacuum for a long time, an aluminum sheet is important, and the resin material cannot maintain the degree of vacuum. Further, the thickness of the aluminum sheet is preferably at least 9 μm, and if it is less than 9 μm, pinholes may be generated and the sealing property may be significantly reduced.

After the ink tanks 33y, 33m, 33c, 33k are accommodated in the respective rooms 34y, 34m, 34c, 34k of the ink tank packaging member 32, the respective rooms 34y, 34m, 34m, 34
The ink tanks 33y, 33m, 33c, and 3k are simultaneously sealed by heat sealing the portions including the openings 38 (the portions where the grid lines are provided in FIG. 5) by setting the vacuum at c and 34k.
3k is an ink tank package 31 vacuum-packed.

As described above, by packing the ink tank filled with the ink under reduced pressure with a packaging member having low air permeability in a reduced pressure state, the ink tank in the ink tank can be kept for several years with the gas dissolved amount suppressed. For a long period of time. In particular, by packaging the ink tank under reduced pressure using the above-described aluminum laminated film as a packaging member, long-term storage becomes possible because the air permeability of the aluminum laminated film is extremely small.

For example, as shown in FIG. 8, the ink tank package 31 is formed by folding a single sheet member having no air permeability, and the both ends 35, 35 and the boundary portion 36 (indicated by hatching in the figure). Part) is sealed with heat seal and each room 3
4 and 34 are formed, and the ink tank 3 is provided in each of the chambers 34 and 34 by using an ink tank packaging member 32 having a perforation 37 as a separating process at the boundary 26.
3 and 33 can be accommodated and sealed under reduced pressure.

By folding each sheet-like member to form each chamber for accommodating the ink tank, the number of heat-sealed portions can be reduced, thereby improving the productivity and improving the airtightness. It is also effective in maintaining a reduced pressure state.

As the ink tank packaging member, for example, a container made of a material having low air permeability such as a metal can can be used instead of the aluminum laminated film.

[0034]

As described above, according to the ink tank of the first aspect, in the ink tank having the ink absorbing member in which the ink is absorbed in the tank case, the ink and the air are kept while the pressure in the tank case is reduced. The ink tank is stored in a state where the amount of dissolved gas in the ink is suppressed while preventing the leakage of ink at the time of vacuum packaging and the generation of bubbles inside the ink absorber. Becomes possible.

According to the ink tank of the second aspect, in the ink tank of the first aspect, the ink and air flow paths formed in the tank case are crushed from outside the tank case to seal the flow paths. Therefore, the structure and sealing of the ink tank which is reliable and excellent in mass productivity can be performed.

According to the ink tank package of the third aspect,
An ink tank packaging body in which the ink tank is packaged in a tank packaging member in a reduced pressure state, wherein the ink tank according to claim 1 or 2 is packaged with a tank packaging member made of a member having low air permeability. The ink tank sealed under reduced pressure can be stored for a long period of time under reduced pressure while the dissolved amount of gas in the ink is suppressed.

According to the ink tank package of the fourth aspect,
In the ink tank package according to the third aspect, since the tank packaging member is made of an aluminum laminated film, the ink tank can be stored in a more stable state for a longer period.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of an ink tank according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the ink tank.

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view for explaining a manufacturing process of the ink tank.

FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view for explaining a manufacturing process of the ink tank.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing an example of an ink tank package according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of FIG. 1 as viewed from above.

FIG. 7 is a schematic sectional view of an ink tank packaging member.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory view showing another example of the ink tank package according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Ink tank, 2 ... Tank case, 3 ... Ink absorber, 4 ... Ink filling port, 5 ... Exhaust port, 6, 7 ... Sealing part,
11 ... case, 12 ... lid member, 13 ... ink supply port, 1
5 ... Atmosphere communication port, 14, 16 ... Seal member, 31 ... Ink tank package, 32 ... Ink tank package member, 33,
33y, 33m, 33c, 33k ... ink tanks.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Masato Igarashi 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ricoh Company (72) Inventor Akiko Konishi 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Stock Inside Ricoh Company (72) Inventor Hirotaka Mochizuki 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Stock Company Ricoh Company (72) Inventor Masayuki 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Stock Company Ricoh Company ( 72) Inventor Ikuko Yamada Ricoh Co., Ltd. 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An ink tank having an ink absorber in which ink is absorbed in a tank case, wherein the ink and air flow paths are sealed while the pressure in the tank case is reduced. tank. 2. The ink tank according to claim 1, wherein the ink and air passages formed in the tank case are crushed from outside the tank case to seal the passages. . 3. An ink tank package comprising an ink tank packaged under reduced pressure with a tank packaging member, wherein the ink tank according to claim 1 or 2 is a tank packaging member comprising a member having low air permeability. An ink tank package characterized by being packaged. 4. The ink tank package according to claim 3, wherein said tank package member is made of an aluminum laminated film.