JPH1034965A - Ink cartridge and detector for residual quantity of ink - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ink cartridge and an accurate detector for residual quantity of ink. SOLUTION: A first electrode member 33 comprising a resistor is extended in the decreasing direction of ink from the rear wall face 31b of a cartridge case 31 and a second electrode member 34 is disposed on the downstream side of the first electrode member 33 in the decreasing direction of ink. The first electrode member 33 is coupled with a first contact 36 while the second electrode member 34 is coupled with a second contact 37 and the electric resistance between the first and second electrode members 33, 34 is detected through both contacts 36, 37.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method for storing ink,
The present invention relates to an ink cartridge for appropriately supplying the ink to a print head and an ink remaining amount detecting device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, an ink jet printer that records ink on a recording paper by flying ink droplets is configured such that an ink jet type print head and an ink cartridge containing ink to be supplied to the print head are exchanged inside a main body case. The recording apparatus includes a recording device that can be mounted, a conveyance device that conveys recording paper, and a carriage device that reciprocates the recording device according to the size of a recording medium conveyed by the conveyance device.

[0003] In such an ink jet printer, the remaining amount of ink in the ink cartridge is detected. As a method for detecting the remaining amount of ink, two electrodes are arranged in a cartridge case of the ink cartridge. There are known an electrical type in which the presence or absence of ink is detected from the electrical resistance between two electrodes, and an optical type in which light is applied to an ink liquid surface and the presence or absence of ink is detected by reflected light.

[0004]

However, such a conventional apparatus for detecting the remaining amount of ink can only detect the state of running out of ink, and determines the exact remaining amount of ink, that is, how much ink remains. Could not be detected.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to provide an ink cartridge and an ink remaining amount detecting device capable of accurately detecting the remaining amount of ink.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is based on the premise that an ink cartridge stores ink and supplies the ink to a print head as appropriate. The ink cartridge is made of a resistor and is extended in the ink decreasing direction. A first electrode member provided therein, and a second electrode member disposed downstream of the first electrode member in the ink decreasing direction, between the first and second electrode members. And the change in the remaining amount of ink can be detected based on the detected electric resistance.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the first electrode member extended in the ink decreasing direction and the second electrode member disposed downstream of the first electrode member in the ink decreasing direction.
And the change in the remaining amount of ink is detected based on the detected electric resistance.

According to the present invention, when the ink storage member impregnated with ink is accommodated in the ink cartridge, a change in the remaining amount of ink impregnated in the ink storage member is detected. Become.

In the present invention, the first electrode member is provided on one surface of an inner wall surface of a cartridge case constituting the ink cartridge, and the second electrode member is provided on the printing surface of the cartridge case. The first electrode member may be disposed near an ink supply hole communicating with the head, and the first electrode member may be formed on one surface of an inner wall surface of a cartridge case constituting the ink cartridge, and may serve as a lid of the cartridge case. Or you can.

Further, in the present invention, the first electrode member may be provided with a plurality of insulating film layers intermittently covering a portion in contact with the ink in the ink decreasing direction. . With this configuration, the portion of the first electrode member that comes into contact with the ink is intermittently covered in the ink decreasing direction by the plurality of insulating film layers, and the remaining amount of the ink is detected stepwise. become.

In the present invention, the first electrode member as described above is formed of a resistor having a resistance value which is equal to or higher than the resistance value of the ink contained in the ink cartridge. .

Further, the present invention is an ink remaining amount detecting device for detecting the remaining amount of ink stored in an ink cartridge as described above, wherein the first and second contact points connected to the first electrode member are provided. Detecting, via a second contact connected to the second electrode member, and the first and second contacts, an electric resistance between the first and second electrode members, An ink remaining amount determining unit for determining a change in the remaining amount of ink based on the electric resistance. Therefore, the electric resistance between the first and second electrode members is detected via the first contact point connected to the first electrode member and the second contact point connected to the second electrode member. Then, a change in the remaining amount of ink is determined based on the detected electric resistance.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the appearance of an ink jet printer.
, The inkjet printer 1 has a carriage 4 on which an inkjet print head 2 is mounted,
A plurality of ink cartridges 5,... For supplying ink to the print head are removably mounted on the carriage 4, and can reciprocate in the B direction. A cylindrical platen roll 6 is rotatably supported on the frame 1a by a rotating shaft (not shown) extending in the left-right direction, and the platen roller 6 feeds the printing paper P supplied from a paper cassette or a manual paper feeding unit. The sheet is conveyed in the direction A while facing the print head 2, and constitutes a part of a so-called paper feeder.

The printing paper P is supplied from a paper supply port (not shown) behind the frame 2 in the direction of arrow C.
The platen roller 6 is configured to be discharged from a paper discharge port (not shown) in the direction of arrow D by rotation of the platen roller 6.

A carriage shaft 7a and a guide shaft 7b are provided in parallel with the axis of the platen roller 6, and the carriage 4 is slidably fitted on the carriage shaft 7a and the guide shaft 7b. Thus, the print head 2 mounted on the carriage 4 can reciprocate along the axis of the platen roller 6 by sliding. The carriage 4 is moved by a carriage driving mechanism having pulleys 8 and 9, a belt 10 and a carriage motor 11 in a printing area where printing is performed on the printing paper P and a recovery area by a purge device (recovery device). .

On the right side of the platen roller 6,
A wiping member 12 for wiping the nozzle surface of the print head 2 and a purging device 13 for sucking residual ink in the print head 2 are provided to recover non-ejection or ejection failure of the print head 2.

The purging device 13 has a suction cap 14 for covering the print head 2, and the suction cap 14 is protruded into the movement path of the print head 2 and retreated from the movement path of the print head 2. It is configured to be movable in the direction of arrow E between the standby position and the suction cap 14 covers the nozzle surface of the print head 2 at the projecting position.

The print head 2 is connected to the suction cap 14.
A negative pressure is generated by the suction pump 15, the residual ink in the print head 2 is suctioned and removed from the nozzle through the suction cap 14, and the waste liquid is discharged through the suction pipe 16, the suction pump 15 and the discharge pipe 17. The liquid is collected in the tank 18 to recover a good discharge state.

As shown in FIG. 2, the ink cartridges 5,... Are mounted on a head unit 21 having a print head 2. In the head unit 21, an ink supply pipe 24 having an ink flow path is inserted into a vertical wall portion 23 on one side of the substrate portion 22.
The print head 2 includes an actuator that causes the ink supplied from the ink supply pipe 24 to fly from the nozzle holes on the front surface.

A partition wall section 26,... For partitioning the ink cartridges 5,... Also, on the bottom surface, detection contacts 27A,..., 27B for detecting the remaining amount of ink in the ink cartridge 5 are linked to a control system (not shown) corresponding to each of the ink cartridges 5,. ,... Are provided.

On the other hand, the ink cartridge 5
As shown in FIG. 4A and FIG. 4A, an ink storage member 32 impregnated with ink is accommodated in a cartridge case 31 constituting the ink cartridge 5, and an air communication hole 31a is provided. A first electrode member 33, which is made of a resistor and extends in the ink decreasing direction, is provided on a rear wall surface 31 b which is one surface of the inner wall surface of the cartridge case 31 so as to communicate with the print head 2 of the cartridge case 31. The second electrode members 34 are disposed on the bottom wall near the supply hole 31c. Therefore, the second
The electrode member 34 is disposed downstream of the first electrode member 33 in the ink decreasing direction (see FIGS. 3B and 3C). The first electrode member 33 is connected to a first contact 36 via a signal lead-out line 35, and the second electrode member 34 is connected to a second contact 37, respectively. The first and second contacts 36 and 37 are provided on the lower surface of the cartridge case 31, respectively, and have a positional relationship corresponding to the detection contacts 27A and 27B on the head unit 21 side.

In FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C, S
Is the ink level. Further, the first electrode member 33
Is formed of a resistor having a resistance value R that is substantially equal to or greater than the resistance value R1 of the contained ink and is extended in the ink decreasing direction.

As shown in FIG. 5, the two contacts 36 and 37 are connected to a control circuit 42 via a resistance detection circuit 41 (a one-chip microcomputer for performing overall control of the entire operation of the ink jet printer, and an A / D port thereof). ), And the resistance detection circuit 41 and the control circuit 42
An electric resistance between the first and second electrode members 33 and 34 is detected, and a change in the remaining amount of ink can be detected based on the detected electric resistance. As shown in FIG. 6, the resistance detection circuit 41 connects the first contact 36 to the ground, and the second contact 37
A constant voltage Vcc through a resistor 38 (resistance value r)
Is applied. In this case, the control circuit 42
(A / D port) has an output voltage Vcc × Rd / (r +
Rd) is applied.

Specifically, the resistance value of the ink is R1,
Assuming that the width, length and resistance per unit area of the electrode member 33 are W, L and R, respectively, as shown in FIG. 7, the initial value of the resistance is the resistance R1 of the ink. Since the resistance value increases in a substantially linear manner due to the decrease, the resistance value and the ink amount are in a proportional relationship, and the remaining amount of the ink can be detected by detecting the electric resistance.

The control system will be described in detail with reference to FIG.
First motor driver 45 for driving paper feed motor 44
And a second motor driver 47 for driving the carriage motor 11. The drivers 45 and 47 are controlled by the control circuit 42. Further, the control circuit 42 receives print data (code data) from a host computer (not shown) such as a personal computer via an interface 49, develops the print data into image data,
3 and the like. The control circuit 42 is also connected to a switch panel 52 for setting and displaying print parameters and the like, in addition to the ROM 50 and the RAM 51. Further, for various controls, signals from the paper empty sensor 53 and the home position sensor 54 are input.

Therefore, with the above configuration, FIG.
As shown in (a) to (c), when the ink impregnated in the ink occluding member 32 is sequentially consumed in the print head 2 and the ink liquid level S decreases from the upper side to the lower side, Along with this, the electric resistance between the first electrode member 33 and the second electrode member 34 detected by the resistance detection circuit 41 sequentially increases as shown in FIG. A change in the remaining amount of ink can be detected based on the electric resistance.

In the above embodiment, the first and second
The change in the electrical resistance is detected linearly by the electrode members 33 and 34 of FIG. 4, but as shown in FIG. 4B, the portion of the first electrode member 33 that comes into contact with the ink is
By intermittently covering the ink in the decreasing direction with the plurality of insulating film layers 61,..., The change in the resistance value with the decreasing ink amount is stepwise as shown in FIG. You can also.

Also, in the above embodiment, FIG.
As shown in FIGS. 9A to 9C, the ink is of a reduced type from the upper side to the lower side. However, as shown in FIGS. 9A to 9C, the ink occluding member 32A is partially compressed. In the type in which ink is reduced from the rear side to the front side of the cartridge case 31, an ink supply hole 31 c is provided, and the front wall surface 31 d which is one surface of the inner wall surface of the cartridge case 31 is formed of a resistive body and the ink is reduced. The first electrode member 33 </ b> A extended in the direction is formed by disposing the second electrode member 34 on the bottom wall surface near the ink supply hole 31 c communicating with the print head of the cartridge case 31, respectively. Can detect the remaining amount of ink.

Further, in the above embodiment, the first
Although the electrode members 33 and 33A are provided on the inner wall surface of the cartridge case 31, the first electrode member is provided on the inner wall surface of the cartridge case of the ink cartridge in order to make the manufacturing easier. In addition to forming one surface, a lid body that can be attached to and detached from the other part of the cartridge case may be provided.

[0031]

According to the present invention, as described above, the first electrode member made of the resistor and extending in the ink decreasing direction, and the downstream of the first electrode member in the ink decreasing direction. And a second electrode member disposed therein,
Since the electric resistance between the first and second electrode members is detected and the change in the remaining amount of ink can be detected based on the detected electric resistance, the electric resistance between the first and second electrode members can be detected. The change in the remaining amount of ink can be detected based on the electric resistance of the ink.

In the present invention, the first electrode member is provided on one surface of the inner wall surface of the cartridge case constituting the ink cartridge, and the second electrode member is communicated with the print head of the cartridge case. By disposing the first electrode member near the inner wall surface of the cartridge case constituting the ink cartridge and forming the first electrode member as a lid of the cartridge case, The change in the remaining amount can be detected linearly, and the first electrode member is intermittently covered with the plurality of insulating film layers in the ink decreasing direction in a portion in contact with the ink. Then, the remaining amount of ink can be detected step by step.

[0033] Also, an electric connection between the first and second electrode members is provided via a first contact connected to the first electrode member and a second contact connected to the second electrode member. Since the resistance is detected, it is possible to easily determine a change in the remaining amount of the ink based on the detected electric resistance.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a schematic configuration of an ink jet printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a head unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of the ink cartridge according to the present invention, and FIGS.

4A and 4B are diagrams showing the shape of a first electrode member, wherein FIG. 4A shows a continuous shape and FIG. 4B shows an intermittent shape.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a control system of the ink jet printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a detection circuit.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between an ink amount and a resistance value.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between an ink amount and a resistance value.

FIG. 9 is a view similar to FIG. 3 for another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Ink jet printer 2 Print head 5 Ink cartridge 31 Cartridge case 31b Rear wall surface 31c Ink supply hole 31d Front wall surface 33 First electrode member 33A First electrode member 34 Second electrode member 36 First contact 36A First contact 37 second contact point 41 resistance detection circuit 42 control circuit 61 insulating film layer

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An ink cartridge for storing ink and appropriately supplying the ink to a print head, comprising: a first electrode member made of a resistor and extending in a decreasing direction of the ink; A second electrode member disposed downstream of the member in the ink decreasing direction; and an electrical resistance between the first and second electrode members is detected. An ink cartridge characterized in that a change in the remaining amount of ink can be detected on the basis of the following. 2. The ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein an ink storage member impregnated with ink is accommodated inside. 3. The cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the first electrode member is provided on one surface of an inner wall surface of a cartridge case constituting the ink cartridge, and the second electrode member is provided with an ink communicating with the print head of the cartridge case. 3. The ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the ink cartridge is disposed near the supply hole. 4. The ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the first electrode member forms one surface of an inner wall surface of a cartridge case constituting the ink cartridge and is a lid of the cartridge case. 5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said first electrode member is intermittently covered with a plurality of insulating film layers in a direction in which the ink is reduced, in a portion in contact with the ink.
The ink cartridge according to any one of the above. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first electrode member is formed of a resistor having a resistance value equal to or higher than the resistance value of the contained ink. The ink cartridge according to one of the above. 7. An ink remaining amount detecting device for detecting a remaining amount of ink stored in an ink cartridge according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the device is connected to the first electrode member. A first contact, a second contact connected to the second electrode member, and an electrical resistance between the first and second electrode members via the first and second contacts. And an ink remaining amount determining unit that determines a change in the remaining amount of ink based on the detected electric resistance.