JPH11221927A - Wiping mechanism of ink jet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent ink within a nozzle from being color-mixed after wiping, and prevent ink droplets from staying in the end part of a head by allowing the print head part to move in the vertical direction during the period of wiping the ink spouting surface of an ink jet part. SOLUTION: After purge (operation to discharge air bubbles stayed within the nozzle), or when an ink film is adhered to the nozzle, the upper end of a print head part 3 is moved to a position in which it is in contact with the part of a wiping sheet 4, and then the print head 3 is moved in the direction of arrow A (in the upper and lower directions). In the next place, a winder part 5 is rotated; simultaneously, the print head part 3 is moved slowly from the lower part to the upper part by the driving force of a driving pulley 6. Although the forwarding speed at this time is different depending upon the dirty degree of the wiping material and nozzle, it is good at 1-5 mm/s usually. Furthermore, the blade part of the wiping is made of absorptive cloth-like matter that is wound up along with the movement of the print head.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wiping mechanism for removing dirt and ink adhering to a nozzle surface of an ink jet printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Ink jet printers that draw characters and pictures on print media by ejecting liquid ink from nozzles are small, inexpensive, and extremely low in noise compared to other printers.
In recent years, it has become very popular as an office printer.

However, problems during printing include defective ink ejection due to air bubbles in the nozzles and defective ink landing position due to adhesion of an ink film on the nozzle surface.

As means for removing the ink film on the nozzle surface,
In general, a method of wiping a rubber member against the nozzle surface and wiping it is used. However, in the case of wiping using the reciprocating movement of the serial head (printing direction), since the wiping is performed in the horizontal direction, there is a problem that ink removing ability is inferior. there were.

[0005]

As described above, in the wiping of the conventional ink jet printer, a blade made of a rubber member for wiping is provided at a predetermined position.
Since the nozzle surface was wiped off by pressing the print head against the blade to move the print head in the lateral direction, there was a problem that ink mixture occurred in the nozzles after wiping, and ink droplets remained at the end of the head. .

An object of the present invention is to eliminate a wipe defect of a print head.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided an ink jet unit having an injecting mechanism, a print head unit including an ink tank for supplying ink to the ink jet unit, and A wiping sheet that is in contact with an ink jetting surface of the ink jet unit, a winding unit that winds the wiping sheet, and a driving unit that moves the print head unit in a vertical direction; The print head is moved in the vertical direction when wiping the ejection surface.

In particular, it is preferable that the wiping sheet be operated so as to be wound with the vertical movement of the ink jet unit during wiping.

As described above, the wiping direction of the ink jet unit is set to the vertical direction, and the blade portion of the wiping is made to have an absorbent cloth shape, and is wound up with the movement of the head, so that the wiping effect is further enhanced.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the present invention. A brief description is given below.

In FIG. 1, a print head 3 includes an ink jet unit 1 having an ink jetting mechanism and an ink tank 2 provided for supplying ink to the ink jet unit 1.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a driving pulley connected to a motor (not shown), and reference numeral 8 denotes a driven pulley. These pulleys are connected to a belt 7. The print head 3 is attached to the belt 7 and moves vertically (up and down in the drawing) by the rotational force of the driving pulley 6.

A nozzle unit (not shown) composed of a plurality of nozzles is provided on the surface of the ink jet unit 1, and ink is ejected from the nozzles using a driving unit (not shown).

On the other hand, 4 is the surface of the nozzle (ink ejection surface)
A wiping sheet for abutting against and wiping ink
Reference numeral 5 denotes a take-up unit for taking up the wiping sheet 4 by a driving force of a motor (not shown) or the like, and 9 denotes a pulley for bringing the wiping sheet 4 into contact with the nozzle surface of the ink jet unit 1.

Next, the wiping operation will be described.

After the purge (the operation of discharging bubbles accumulated in the nozzles) or when an ink film adheres to the nozzles, the upper end of the print head unit 3 is moved to a position where it contacts a part of the wiping sheet 4. At this time, the print head 3 is moved in the direction of arrow A (vertical direction).

Next, the motor is driven to rotate the winding unit 5 and the print head unit 3 is slowly moved upward from below by the driving force of the driving pulley 6. The feed speed at this time varies depending on the wiping material and the degree of contamination of the nozzle, but is usually preferably 1 to 5 mm / s. When the wiping sheet 4 is wound, it is preferable to generate a relative speed between the nozzle surface of the print head unit 3 and the abutting wiping sheet 4 at all. In this example,
The wiping feed amount is 10 to 100 mm / s.

[0019]

According to the present invention, the wiping direction is set to the up and down direction, and the wiping blade portion is made into an absorbent cloth so that it is wound up with the movement of the print head. Can be enhanced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view illustrating an example of a purge configuration of a print head according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 is an ink jet unit, 2 is an ink tank, 3 is a print head unit, 4 is a wiping sheet, 5 is a winding unit,
Reference numeral 6 denotes a driving pulley, 7 denotes a belt, 8 denotes a driven pulley, and 9 denotes a contact pulley.

Claims (2)

[Claims] An ink jet unit having an ink jetting mechanism, a print head unit including an ink tank for supplying ink to the ink jet unit, a wiping sheet contacting an ink jet surface of the ink jet unit,
Winding means for winding the wiping sheet,
A wiping mechanism for an ink jet printer, comprising: driving means for vertically moving the print head unit, and moving the print head unit vertically when wiping an ink jetting surface of the ink jet unit. 2. The wiping mechanism of an ink-jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the wiping sheet operates so as to be wound up with the vertical movement of the ink-jet unit during wiping. Wiping mechanism of inkjet printer.