JPS58199159A - Ink supply apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate the exchange of an ink tank, by a method wherein a transit ink tank is arranged to a carriage and an ink tank unit is attached to the transit ink tank in a freely detachable manner to reduce the volume of the ink tank to a min. degree. CONSTITUTION:When a carriage 3 is stationary, a steel ball 13 clogs a transit pipe 12 to prevent the water head pressure of the ink 25 in a laminate tank 24 provided to a position higher than a nozzle 6 from being applied to said nozzle 6 and, therefore, an ink is not dripped from the leading end of the nozzle 6. On the other hand, when printing is started and the carriage 3 is moved, the steel ball 13 shakes off the attraction force of a magnet 14 by the start and the stoppage of said carriage 13 to be tumbled in the transit tank 11. By this mechanism, the transit tank 11 is communicated with the pipe 12 and the ink is flowed through a pipe 10 to emit ink droplets from the nozzle 6. In addition, when the nozzle 6 is clogged or a liquid chamber 7 is filled with the ink, a push pin 17 is pushed to repel the steel ball 13 and a diaphragm 20 is pushed while an orifice 22 is closed by a finger and pressure is applied to the nozzle 6 by adding pressure to the laminate tank 24.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an ink supply device for an inkjet recording device;
In particular, the present invention relates to an ink supply device in which a distributing liquid container whose capacity has been reduced to the necessary minimum can be attached to and detached from a carriage.

Conventionally, in an inkjet recording device, the ink tank is set so that the ink level is lower than the height of the nozzle of the recording head (for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 56-56
(See No. 874). This is because when the ink liquid level is at a position higher than the nozzle, the ink flows down from the nozzle tip due to the head pressure between the nozzle tip and the ink liquid level. In addition, when the ink tank is set at a lower position than the nozzle to prevent ink from flowing down, as the liquid level decreases due to ink consumption, the water head pressure increases depending on the amount of ink remaining in the ink tank. changes greatly, making ink ejection from the nozzle unstable.

To avoid this, it is possible to make the ink tank flat to reduce changes in water head pressure due to changes in the amount of remaining ink. This is not suitable due to the limited carriage space.

In addition, when mounting an ink tank on a carriage, it is necessary to reduce the capacity of the ink tank to reduce the inertia of the carriage. It is also desired to have a structure that is easy to attach and detach.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to make an ink tank easily attachable to and detachable from a carriage.
Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to provide an ink supply device that can eliminate vibrations and ink spillage caused by horizontal placement.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2 show an example of the configuration of the ink supply apparatus of the present invention, where 1 and 2 are shafts that slide a carriage 3 and guide a recording head 4 mounted on the carriage 3. A slide bush 5 is attached to the carriage 3 so that the carriage 3 can smoothly slide on the shaft l.

The recording head 4 has a plurality of nozzles 6 for ejecting ink and a liquid chamber 7 for storing ink to be supplied to the nozzles 6. A flexible cable 8 is attached to the recording head 4 by a flexible cable crimping section 9, and ink in the liquid chamber 7 is transferred to the nozzle 6 in response to a signal sent from a recording control section (not shown) via the flexible cable 8. The ink is ejected as ink droplets and adheres to a recording paper (not shown) to record a desired print or image.

The liquid chamber 7 is communicated with the relay pipe 12 of the medium V ink tank 11 via the ink pipe IO. The bottom of the relay ink tank 11 is in the shape of a mortar, and the opening at the tip of the mortar is connected to the relay vibrator 1 through a valve member as described below.
Connect to 2. The opening at the end of the mortar receives a steel ball 13 whose surface has been treated to prevent it from being corroded by ink, and normally the opening is closed to isolate the relay ink tank 11 and the relay vibrator 12. Around the relay vibe 12, there is a cylindrical magnet 14 that surrounds this pipe almost concentrically.
is arranged, and the steel ball 13 is sucked into the tip opening of the cone-shaped bottom of the relay tank 11, so that the steel ball 13 will not roll under a certain degree of impact or acceleration. The upper part of the relay ink tank 11 is sealed with a lid 15, and a needle 16 is passed through the lid 15 and fixed thereto. This needle 16 is, for example, a stainless steel injection needle, and has an ink passage provided therein to allow ink to flow therein. needle 16
A member (not shown) made of a polymeric material such as polyethylene or polypropylene is inserted into the inside of the ink tank to prevent dust from entering the unit except when installing ink tank units 1 to 1 to be described later as shown in Figure 2. This prevents it from entering the needle 15.

Further, a hole is made in the side wall of the relay ink tank 11, and a push bottle 17 is movably attached in a liquid-tight state. The inner tip of the push bottle 17 protrudes into the relay ink tank 11, and a spring 18 is attached to the outer tip of the push bottle 17, so that the push bottle 17 is normally biased outward from the tank 11. As shown in the figure, the inner tip of the bottle 17 is connected to the steel ball 1.
Make sure not to touch 3. When the push bottle 17 is pushed toward the relay ink tank 11, the inner tip of the pin pushes the steel ball 13 and moves it from the illustrated slotted tip opening, thereby pushing the relay ink tank 11 and the relay pipe 1 together.
The ink tank unit mounted on the Φ carriage 3, which communicates with the ink tank unit 2, is constructed as shown in FIG. That is, the upper surface of the node case 19 and the diaphragm 20 mounted thereon have holes 21 and 22, respectively.
, and provide a blind plug 23 on the bottom surface of the hard case 19 corresponding to &116 mentioned above, and then close the hard case 1.
The laminated ink tank 24 and the blind stopper 23 arranged inside the tank 9 are integrated. The ink 25 is stored in a completely sealed core in the laminated ink tank 24, and is exposed to atmospheric pressure through the holes 21 and 22 described above. When the ink tank unit having such a configuration is mounted on the carriage 3 as shown in FIG. 2, the needle 16 breaks through the blind plug 23,
The laminated ink tank 24 and the relay ink tank 11 communicate with each other. In this example, the force 51 that forces the ink tank unit into a flat shape may actually be a deep cylindrical shape, and there is no restriction on the shape of the ink tank unit.
An appropriate shape can be determined according to the actual device design.

In the ink supply device configured in this way, when the carriage 3 is stationary, the steel balls 13 are connected to the relay pipe 12.
Since the nozzle 6 is closed, the head pressure of the ink 25 in the laminate tank 24 located at a higher position than the nozzle 6 is not applied to the nozzle 6, so that ink does not spill from the tip of the nozzle 6.

On the other hand, when printing is started and the carriage 3 moves, the steel ball 13 is moved by the magnet 1 due to the acceleration of the start and stop of the carriage 3.
After photographing the gravitational force of 4, I moved inside the relay tank 11. Therefore, the relay tank 11 and the relay pipe 12 communicate with each other, ink flows through the pipe 10, and ink droplets are ejected from the nozzle 6. Also, when the carriage 3 stops, the steel balls 13
The relay pipe 12 stops again at the center of the beveled bottom.
The ink supply will stop immediately.

In addition, if the nozzle 6 becomes clogged, the meniscus retreats, or the liquid chamber 23 is initially filled with ink, push the push bottle 17 to push the steel ball 13 away.
By pressing the diaphragm 20 while blocking the hole 22 with your finger and applying pressure to the laminate tank 24, the nozzle 6
It is possible to apply pressure to

As explained above, according to the present invention, S! 4! ] or when placed horizontally, ink tanks of any desired shape can be installed at any height, and when the carriage moves, atmospheric pressure plus water head pressure is applied to the ink in the head nozzles, causing the carriage to stop. Ink supply can sometimes be stopped, and in addition, the ink tank can be easily attached to and removed from the carriage. By using a removable ink tank like this, the ink tank capacity can be minimized and replacing the ink tank frequently will not be cumbersome, making it ideal for compact recorders for home use, etc. It is extremely effective when used in equipment, and eliminates the need to unnecessarily increase the tank capacity and eliminates the waste of replacing ink tanks due to ink deterioration due to long periods of non-use.Moreover, the smaller the ink tank, the more the carriage can be moved. The inertia force during stopping operation is also reduced, which greatly benefits the carriage drive.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a partial cross-sectional view showing an example of the configuration of a carriage section of an inkjet recording apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a state in which an ink tank unit is coupled to the carriage section shown in FIG. 1.2°°shaft 3... Carriage 4...
・Recording head 5...Slide bush 6...
・Nozzle 7...Liquid chamber 8...Flexible cable 9...Flexible cable crimping part

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] l) An ink cartridge equipped with a carriage equipped with a recording head that performs recording on recording paper and an ink container that supplies ink to the recording head. , and the ink tank is provided with a valve member (J) that is closed when the carriage stops and is opened when the carriage moves, and ink is supplied to the recording head through the valve member, An ink supply device in which an ink tank unit is detachably attached to the relay ink tank at a position higher than the L head. 2) The ink according to claim 1 of the 41st claim. In the supply device, the valve member has a ball disposed in a removable manner on the cone-shaped bottom of the relay ink tank formed in a cone shape, and a magnet capable of attracting the nuclear sphere, protrudes a needle having an ink passage;
The ink tank unit is provided with a blind plug corresponding to the needle, and when the ink tank unit is mounted on the carriage, the needle pierces the blind plug, and the ink in the ink tank unit flows into the relay ink. An ink supply device characterized in that the ink flows into a tank. 3) In the ink supply device according to claim 2, a push bottle that comes into contact with the relay ink tank in order to retract the bulb is movably and liquid-tightly attached to the relay ink tank, and the ink tank unit An ink supply device characterized in that a diaphragm with holes is provided to apply pressure to the ink within the ink tank unit.