JPH10785A - Ink jet recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To rapidly fix ink by providing a radiation fixing plate having the radiation surface opposed to recording paper in close vicinity to the heater board in the ink passage of the ink jet recording cartridge of an ink jet recording apparatus so as to absorb the preheating of the heater board. SOLUTION: The ink in an ink tank 12 is supplied to a heater board 10 through an ink passage 13 and the heater board 10 is foamed at temp. of about 300-1000 deg.C and the ink is emitted from an ink emitting orifice 11 to apply printing to recording paper 3. In order to fix the ink droplets 14 printed on the recording paper 3 immediately after recording, a radiation fixing plate 9 is opposed to the recording paper 3 and has a shape easy to radiate heat toward the recording paper 3. The heat source of the radiation fixing plate 9 is fundamentally the preheating of the heater board 10 approaching the fixing plate. At this time, in order to easily absorb heat from the heater board 10, as the material quality of the radiation fixing plate 9, for example, material quality high in heat conductivity such as copper is used.

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 and, more particularly, to a heat radiating and fixing plate for an ink jet recording cartridge in an ink jet recording apparatus which utilizes the residual heat of a heater board of an ink jet recording cartridge to improve print fixability. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of ink jet recording apparatus has a problem in the fixability of the ink after the ink is ejected onto the recording paper. There are problems such as the paper rubbing the recording paper before recording and the ink bleeding, and the printing portion being rubbed and stained by hand before fixing the ink.

Therefore, conventionally, an ink fixing heater is arranged on the back surface of the platen of the ink jet recording apparatus to fix the ink immediately after printing, or a method of extending the fixing time by devising a paper discharge structure after printing is adopted. Had been proposed.

[0004]

However, the above conventional example has the following problems: By providing the ink fixing heater on the back surface of the platen of the ink jet recording apparatus, the cost of the ink jet recording apparatus is significantly increased, and a portion where the fixing is easy and a portion where the fixing is not performed are caused due to the variation in the heater temperature on the platen.

Further, when the printing speed increases, it is difficult to fix.

[0006] 2. The method of extending the fixing time by devising the paper ejection structure after printing has the effect of eliminating the need to immediately touch the recording paper after printing, but has a complicated structure, increases the cost, and reduces the paper ejection structure. You need a moving drive system
It is not a proper retention promotion measure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above situation. A first object of the present invention is to eliminate the necessity of providing a new heat source for fixing ink, to suppress an increase in cost, and to further reduce the cost after printing. The purpose is to enable quick ink fixing.

A second object is that even in the case of bidirectional printing, even if the printing speed increases, ink can be quickly fixed, and basically, there is a means for advantageously utilizing the residual heat of the heater board. On offer.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, in the present invention, the object is achieved by providing any one of the following ink jet recording apparatuses.

(1) A heat-dissipating fixing plate, which is disposed adjacent to a heater board in an ink flow path of an ink-jet recording cartridge of an ink-jet recording apparatus and absorbs its residual heat, and has a heat-dissipating surface facing a recording sheet to be printed. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising:

(2) The ink jet recording apparatus according to (1), wherein the heat-dissipating fixing plate is a pair of heat-dissipating fixing plates disposed symmetrically in both printing directions with the heater board interposed therebetween. apparatus.

(3) The heat-dissipating fixing plate has a plurality of heat-dissipating areas for improving heat-dissipating properties on the heat-dissipating surface facing the recording sheet. Inkjet recording device.

[0013]

According to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) Without the need for a heat source,
After printing by absorbing the residual heat from the heater board, the ink droplets on the recording paper can be quickly fixed.

Further, since the heat radiation of the heater board is improved, the effect of stabilizing the ink ejection of the ink cartridge is obtained.

(2) The fixing effect described in the above (1) can be obtained by a pair of heat-radiating fixing plates even in bidirectional printing.

(3) Further, the fixing effect of the above items (1) and (2) can be promoted by increasing the heat radiation area of the heat radiation surface of the heat radiation fixing plate by a plurality of slits and the like.

[0018]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail based on a plurality of examples.

(First Embodiment) (Structure) FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of an ink jet printer according to a first embodiment, which best illustrates the features of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is an exterior cover of an ink jet printer, 2 is an automatic paper feeder (ASF) unit of the ink jet printer, 3 is recording paper, 4 is each conveying roller, 5 is a discharge roller, 6 is an ink jet printer chassis, Reference numeral 7 denotes a carriage unit, 8 denotes an ink jet recording cartridge, and 9 denotes a heat radiation fixing plate according to the present invention, which is disposed close to the ink jet recording cartridge and has a heat radiation surface facing the recording paper surface.

(Operation) In the above configuration, the recording paper 3 formed in the ASF unit 2 receives an output signal from a personal computer (host computer) (not shown), and receives the output signal via a driving system (not shown). 4 is conveyed in the direction of arrow A.

The ink jet recording cartridge 8
Is mounted on the carriage unit 7 and slides in a direction perpendicular to the direction of arrow A via a drive system (not shown) to print ink droplets on the recording paper 3.

The heat radiation fixing plate 9 which is a feature of the present invention is a means for fixing ink droplets printed on the recording paper 3 by the residual heat of a heater board (not shown) while the ink jet recording cartridge 8 slides. Further, the printed recording paper 3 is discharged to the outside of the ink jet printer in the direction of arrow A by the transport roller 4 and the discharge roller 5, and the printing operation is completed.

(Heat Dissipating Fixing Plate) Next, FIGS. 2 and 1 will be used to describe the heat dissipating fixing plate 9 which is a feature of the present invention in detail.
FIG. 3 is a schematic main part enlarged front view when a portion C is viewed from an arrow B direction.

9 is a heat radiation fixing plate according to the present invention, and 10 is
A heater board for foaming ink, 11 is an ink ejection port, 12 is an ink tank, and 13 is an ink tank 1
An ink flow path 14 for supplying ink from 2 to the heater board 10 is an ink droplet printed and recorded on the recording paper 3.

The ink in the ink tank 12 is supplied onto the heater board 10 through the ink flow path 13. At this time, the heater board 10 foams at a temperature of about 300 ° C. to 1000 ° C., discharges ink from the discharge port 11, and prints on the recording paper 3.

Ink droplets 14 printed on recording paper 3
In order to fix the recording paper immediately after recording, the heat radiation fixing plate 9 according to the present invention faces the recording paper 3 as shown in FIG. Here, the heat source of the heat radiation fixing plate 9 is basically the residual heat of the adjacent heater board 10.

At this time, in order to easily absorb the heat from the heater board 10, the material of the heat radiation fixing plate 9 is made of a material having a high thermal conductivity such as copper. Here, the operation of the heat radiation fixing plate 9 will be described using one data example.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a diagram in which the absolute temperature at the point P of the heat radiation fixing plate 9 in FIG. 2 is measured.

FIG. 3 is a graph in which the horizontal axis represents the print duty to be printed on the A4 size recording paper surface, and the vertical axis represents the point P in FIG.
Is the absolute temperature. As is clear from this diagram, as the print duty increases, the absolute temperature at point P increases. In other words, if the print duty increases,
In general, it is difficult to fix the ink on the recording paper 3, but in this case, the absolute temperature of the heat radiating fixing plate 9 according to the present invention increases, indicating that the fixing becomes easy.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 4 is an enlarged view (corresponding to FIG. 2) of a main part of the heat radiation fixing plates 9a and 9b according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

In the second embodiment, a pair of heat radiation fixing plates 9
This is an embodiment in which a and 9b are symmetrically arranged in the bidirectional printing direction with respect to the ink flow path 13.

The residual heat of the heater board 10 is
The recording paper 3 side (arrow E side) immediately before the ink discharge port 11
Can be heated first. Thereby, the recording paper 3
Not only can the bleeding of the upper ink droplets be reduced, but also the fixability during bidirectional printing (in either direction of arrow D or E) can be improved.

(Third Embodiment) FIG. 5 shows a diagram corresponding to FIG. 4 of the third embodiment. In the third embodiment, the shape of each of the pair of heat-dissipating fixing plates 9c and 9d is changed to a shape that facilitates heat dissipation.

Usually, in order to improve the heat radiation, it is a principle to increase the area of the heat radiation part even a little. Therefore,
In the third embodiment, a plurality of slits 15 are provided as shown in FIG. 5 to increase the heat radiation area in order to increase the area of each of the heat radiation fixing plates 9c and 9d.

Thus, the residual heat of the heater board 10 is
The ink droplets 14 reach the recording paper 3 more, and the ink droplets 14 on the recording paper 3 can be fixed more quickly.

Needless to say, the heater board 10 effectively radiates residual heat onto the recording paper 3 by the heat radiating fixing plates 9c and 9d more effectively than the state shown in FIG. Can also be achieved.

[0037]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By arranging the heat radiation fixing plate on the ink jet recording cartridge, there is an effect that the ink droplets discharged onto the recording paper by the residual heat from the heater board can be quickly fixed without requiring a special heat source.

Further, since the heat radiation of the heater board is improved, the effect of stabilizing the ink ejection of the ink cartridge can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of an ink jet printer according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged front view of a main part of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an absolute temperature diagram of a printing duty versus a point P at a heat radiating fixing plate point P in the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged front view of a main part of a heat radiation fixing plate according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged front view of a main part of a heat radiation fixing plate according to a third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Inkjet printer exterior cover 2 Inkjet printer ASF unit 3 Recording paper 4 Conveyance roller 5 Discharge roller 6 Inkjet printer chassis 7 Carriage unit 8 Inkjet recording cartridge 9, 9a, 9b, 9c, 9d Radiation fixing plate 10 Heater board 11 Discharge port 12 Ink tank 13 Ink flow path 14 Ink droplet 15 Slit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A heat-dissipating fixing plate, which is disposed in proximity to a heater board in an ink flow path of an ink-jet recording cartridge of an ink-jet recording device and absorbs its residual heat, and has a heat-dissipating surface facing a recording sheet to be printed. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: 2. The ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heat-dissipating fixing plate is a pair of heat-dissipating fixing plates disposed symmetrically in both printing directions with the heater board interposed therebetween. 3. The ink-jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the heat-dissipating fixing plate has a plurality of heat-dissipating area-enhancing shapes on the heat-dissipating surface facing the recording sheet. .