JPH10315491A - Ink jet recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a means capable of circulating ink smoothly in a short time even when a recording head is markedly long and a passage resistance is great in terms of an ink jet recorder. SOLUTION: There is disclosed an ink jet recorder that comprises an ink jet recording head 2, an ink tank 6 storing recording ink for the recording head 2, an auxiliary ink tank 1 temporally storing the ink, an air buffer chamber 7 that connects the recording head 2, auxiliary ink tank 1 and ink tank 6, a tube pump 4 disposed between the auxiliary ink tank 1 and air buffer chamber 7 and an air ventilating valve 3 that alternately executes air-ventilating and sealing of the inner section. The air ventilating valve 3 in the auxiliary ink tank 1 is operated at predetermined time intervals while the ink is circulated between the auxiliary ink tank 1 and recording head 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus for performing recording using an ink jet recording head, and more particularly to a long head having a total number of nozzles exceeding 1,000.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 3 is a view showing an ink flow path of an ink circulation system of an example of a conventional ink jet recording apparatus of this type.

[0003] From the auxiliary ink storage chamber 101 to the ink jet recording head 102, further, the auxiliary ink storage chamber 101
When the ink is circulated (at the time of “ink circulation”), first, the on-off valve 113 is opened, and the tube pump 10 is opened while the air communication valve 103 of the auxiliary ink storage chamber 101 is opened to the atmosphere.
4 in the clockwise direction indicated by the arrow CW.
01 is circulated through the tube 108, the inkjet recording head 102, the tube 109, and the auxiliary ink storage chamber 101. At this time, the tube 110
Has a one-way valve 114 so that the ink is stored in the ink storage chamber 1
It flows in the direction of the tube 108 and circulates without flowing to 06. In the figure, 107 is an air circulation chamber, 111 is a tube, 112 is a one-way valve, and 113 is an on-off valve.

[0004]

However, in the above-described conventional technology, the ink is circulated only by the force of the tube pump 104 to send out the ink, so that the ink jet recording head 102 is extremely long. In the case where the ink jet recording head 102 has a large flow path resistance, a large amount of ink is discharged from the nozzles of the ink jet recording head 102. There was a problem saying that time had to be circulated.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and has as its object to provide means capable of solving the above problems.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, in the present invention, the above object is achieved by providing an ink jet recording apparatus having the following configuration.

An ink jet recording head for performing recording by an ink jet system, an ink storage chamber for storing recording ink of the ink jet recording head, an auxiliary ink storage chamber for temporarily storing ink from the ink storage chamber, An air buffer chamber for connecting the recording head, the auxiliary ink storage chamber and the ink storage chamber,
An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a pump positioned between the auxiliary ink storage chamber and the air buffer chamber; and a valve for alternately performing atmospheric communication and internal sealing in the auxiliary ink storage chamber, An ink jet recording apparatus, wherein the valve in the auxiliary ink storage chamber is operated every predetermined time while ink is circulated between the auxiliary ink storage chamber and the ink jet recording head.

[0008]

According to the structure of the present invention as described above, the tube pump circulates the ink by sending out the ink and assisting the pulling of the ink. Even if it has a road resistance, it can be circulated smoothly and does not need to be circulated for an extremely long time to circulate.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings based on an embodiment.

[0010]

FIG. 1 shows an ink flow diagram of an ink circulation system (corresponding to FIG. 3 of the prior art) of one embodiment of an ink jet recording apparatus which best illustrates the present invention.

First, when the ink is pulled from the ink storage chamber 6 and the auxiliary ink storage chamber 1 is filled with ink (at the time of "ink supply"), the air communication valve 3 of the auxiliary ink storage chamber 1 is closed, and the on-off valve is further opened. 13 is also closed, and the tube pump 4 is rotated in the counterclockwise direction CCW for a predetermined time. Then, the ink in the ink storage chamber 6 accumulates in the auxiliary ink storage chamber 1 via the tube 10, and returns to the ink storage chamber 6 via the tube 11 when the amount exceeds a certain amount.

At this time, since the one-way valve 12 is provided, the ink is not pulled from the ink jet recording head 2,
Further, since the atmosphere communication valve 3 and the on-off valve 13 are closed, the ink of a predetermined amount or more returns to the ink storage chamber 6.
Next, when the ink is circulated from the auxiliary ink storage chamber 1 through the inkjet recording head 2 and further to the auxiliary ink storage chamber 1 (“ink circulation”), the air communication valve 3 of the auxiliary ink storage chamber 1 is closed, Then open the on-off valve 13,
The tube pump 4 is rotated in the clockwise direction indicated by the arrow CW for a predetermined time. Then, the ink in the auxiliary ink storage chamber 1 flows to the ink jet recording head 2 via the tube 8, and returns to the auxiliary ink storage chamber 1 via the tube 9. At this time, since the one-way valve 14 is provided, the ink storage chamber 6
No ink is sent to the

Further, there is a one-way valve 15, and the atmosphere communication valve 3
Is closed and the valve 13 is opened, so that the internal pressure of the auxiliary ink storage chamber 1 is reduced by the amount of ink discharged from the nozzle of the ink jet recording head 2, whereby
The ink can be pulled from the tube 9. However, if the internal pressure of the auxiliary ink storage chamber 1 is reduced by a predetermined value or more, air is sucked from the nozzles of the ink jet recording head 2. The internal pressure of the ink storage chamber 1 is set to the atmospheric pressure. By controlling the atmosphere communication valve 3 with time in this manner, the ink is circulated by the ink sending force and the ink pulling force.

FIG. 2 is a detailed explanatory view of the atmosphere communication valve 3. The atmosphere communication valve 3 includes a solenoid 20 and a coil spring 21, and the operation of the solenoid 20 is controlled by a controller 22. When the atmosphere communication valve 3 is in the air communication closed state, it is pulled by the force of the spring 21, and in the closed state, it is pulled by the suction force of the solenoid 20.

Finally, when the ink is pressurized from the auxiliary ink storage chamber 1 to the ink jet recording head 2 (at the time of "ink pressurization"), the air communication valve 3 is opened, the on-off valve 13 is closed, and the tube pump 4 is turned on by an arrow clock. Rotate in the direction CW. Then, the ink in the auxiliary ink storage chamber 1 is pressurized by the ink jet recording head 2 via the tube 8 and discharged from the nozzle.

[0016]

As described above, according to the present invention,
At the time of ink circulation, the flow path is made to be a closed system, and the ink is supplementarily pulled by utilizing the pressure difference corresponding to the ink loss. Also, ink circulation is performed smoothly.

Further, since the operation of the valve is merely controlled without changing the configuration of the apparatus, the cost is not substantially increased.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of an ink circulation system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a detailed explanatory view of an atmosphere communication valve according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is an ink flow path diagram of an example of a conventional ink circulation system.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1, 101 Auxiliary ink storage chamber 2, 102 Ink jet recording head 3, 103 Air communication valve 4, 104 Tube pump 6, 106 Ink storage chamber 7, 107 Air buffer chamber 8, 9, 10, 11, 108, 109, 110, 111
Tube 12, 14, 15, 112, 114 One-way valve 13, 113 On-off valve 20 Solenoid 21 Coil spring 22 Controller

Claims (1)

[Claims] An ink jet recording head for performing recording by an ink jet system, an ink storage chamber for storing recording ink of the ink jet recording head, an auxiliary ink storage chamber for temporarily storing ink from the ink storage chamber, An air buffer chamber connecting the ink jet recording head, the auxiliary ink storage chamber, and the ink storage chamber, a pump positioned between the auxiliary ink storage chamber and the air buffer chamber, and air communication with the auxiliary ink storage chamber. A valve for alternately performing internal sealing, and a valve for alternately closing the valve in the auxiliary ink storage chamber for a predetermined time while circulating ink between the auxiliary ink storage chamber and the inkjet recording head. An ink jet recording apparatus which is operated every time.