JPS6011366A - Recording apparatus using recording liquid - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to prevent the inadvertent forgetting of capping to a recording liquid discharge port, by providing a control circuit for closing the recording liquid discharge port of a recording head by a cap apparatus prior to performing the cutting-OFF of a power source circuit. CONSTITUTION:When a main switch 21 is turned OFF, a one-shot multiplier 25 resets CPU26 but, because a cap sensor switch 24 is set to a 24'-side, AND29 comes to L and an inverter 30 is brought to H to turn a transistor Tr1 ON while a power source circuit 23 is held under an ON-state because a sub-switch 22 is closed. In the next step, a carriage is returned to the home position by the signal from a driver circuit 27 and, when this operation is detected, an ink discharge port is covered with a cap by the order of CPU26. Whereupon, the cap sensor switch 24 is set to a 24''-side and the output of AND 29 is brought to H to turn the power source circuit 23 OFF. By this method, the solidification and clogging of ink at the recording liquid discharge port can be prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Technical Field The present invention relates to a recording apparatus that records signal waveforms, images, etc. using recording liquid.

Conventional technology Ink is constantly supplied to the recording head of an apparatus that records signal waveforms or images using recording liquid, but if the ink discharge opening of the recording head is left uncapped for a long time, When the volatile components of the ink evaporate from the ink discharge opening of the recording head, the remaining ink components may stick to the ink discharge opening and clog it, making it impossible to smoothly discharge the ink thereafter.

Therefore, when the print head is not in use, a method has been adopted in which the ink discharge opening of the print head is automatically closed with a character edge to prevent the volatile matter contained in the ink from evaporating from the ink discharge opening of the print head.

However, according to this method, if the power switch is turned off while the recording device is recording a signal waveform or image, no voltage is applied to the device that automatically caps the ink discharge opening of the recording head. However, since the ink discharge opening of the recording head is left uncovered with a cap, there is a drawback that ink sticks to the ink discharge opening and causes it to become clogged.

Purpose of the Invention The present invention solves the drawbacks of the prior art as described above.The present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art. It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording device using a recording liquid that prevents ink from sticking to an ink discharge opening of a recording head by cutting off the application of a power supply voltage after application of a power supply voltage.

[Constitution of the Invention] A recording head having an opening for discharging recording liquid, a cap device that closes the opening when the recording head is not in use, and a power supply circuit for driving the recording head and the cap device. and a control circuit that cuts off the power supply circuit and then drives the cap device to close the opening.

In the present invention, a recording device using a recording liquid refers to a device that continuously records signal waveforms such as measurement signals, or a recording device that records images, characters, symbols, etc.

The following description will be made regarding an example in which the recording device is an inkjet printer.

Embodiment (Figs. 1 to 4) Fig. 1 is a plan view of an inkjet printer equipped with an automatic capping device which is an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 2 is a plan view of an inkjet printer equipped with an automatic capping device that is an embodiment of the present invention. A block circuit diagram for gapping, FIG. 6 shows a flowchart for automatically capping, and FIG. 4 shows a plan view of another embodiment of the invention.

In FIG. 1, the platen is a single-digit platen, and the drive of the fin feed motor 8 is applied to the platen 1 through a gear transmission mechanism of a pinion 15 and an m-wheel 16, which is rotated and fed to recording paper (not shown). give. , )2 is a recording head, and 21 is an ink discharge opening. ) 5 is a belt, and 4 is a belt transmission mechanism consisting of a pulley, which causes the carriage return motor 7 to move the recording device 2 in the horizontal direction. 6 is a four part 6 that covers the ink discharge opening 2' of the recording head 2;
', a protrusion 3# for biasing and releasing the protrusion 10' of the cap sensor 10, and a rack 18, which drives the rotation of the auto cap motor B:
In addition to the cap O via t:/17 and rack 18,
It is moved in the direction of arrow a or b. When the cap 3 is moved in the direction indicated by the arrow, the recess 6' of the cap 3 caps the ink discharge opening 2' of the recording head 2, and the protrusion 3' of the cap 6 presses the protrusion 10' of the cap sensor 10. and the cap sensor switch 24 shown in FIG.
Contact the fixed contact 24'' (turn ON), and then close the cap 3.
moves in the direction of arrow a, the ink discharge opening 2 of the recording head 2 is exposed, the pressure on the protrusion 6 of the cap 3 is released, and the cap sensor switch 24 is fixed. Bring it into contact with the contact 24' (turn it OFF). 11 is a sensor that detects whether the recording head 2 is located at the home position;
The projection 11' of the sensor 11 is pressed or released by the recording head 2. Reference numeral 16 denotes an ink tank, which supplies infrastructure to the recording head 2 via the flexible hose 14. Reference numeral 012 denotes an ink sensor, which detects whether or not ink is present in the ink tank 13. A recording paper sensor 9 detects whether recording paper is being fed to the platen 1 or not. A fin feed motor 8 applies rotational drive to the platen 1 via a pinion 15 and a gear 16, and feeds recording paper (not shown). Reference numeral 7 denotes a carriage return motor, and its rotational drive is applied to the recording head 2 via a pulley 4 and a belt 5.

Next, the block circuit diagram shown in FIG. 2 will be explained.

In the figure, 21 is a main switch, 22 is a sub-switch connected in parallel with the main switch 21, and 26 is a power supply circuit. The sub-switch 22 is connected to one terminal of the power supply circuit 26 through a child terminal of the power supply circuit 26, an excitation coil 22', and the collector and emitter of the transistor Trl, which is a switching element. 29 is an AND gate connected to the +5■ DC voltage terminal, the main switch 21, which is a two-way switch, and the cap sensor switch 24.As shown in the figure, the main switch 21 is off, When the cap sensor switch 24 is in the on position, that is, the ink discharge opening 2' of the recording head 2
is capped by cap 3, a DC voltage of +5■ is applied to the terminal of AND gate 29,
025 outputs a logic 1, but zero potential is output from the inverter 60, and zero potential is applied to the base of the transistor Tri, turning it off. 025 is a one-shot multi, and is used to reset the CPU 26. be. C.P.
Information from the home position sensor 11 that detects whether the ink tank 16 is located in the U26 section, and ink sensor 12 that detects whether there is ink in the ink tank 16.
information from the recording sensor 9 that detects whether recording paper is being supplied to the platen 1 is added. (
A control signal is applied from the 3PU 26 to the driver circuit 27 and the error indicator 28 via data nodes 61 and 62.

The operation of the block circuit diagram shown in FIG. 2 is explained as follows.
This will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, when the main switch 21 is connected to the fixed contacts 21' and 21', a power supply voltage of 100V AC is applied to the power supply circuit 26 via the lamp L.
is connected to fixed contact 21', 0PT52
6 is applied with a ground potential, and the main switch 21 notifies the APU 26 that the main switch 21 is connected to the power supply. By connecting the main switch 21 to the fixed contact 21', one gate terminal of the AND gate 29 is zero, and the cap sensor switch 24 is connected to the fixed contact 24'', so that the voltage is output from the DC voltage terminal of +5■. The voltage of AND gate 2
9, AND gate 29 outputs a logic 0 and a logic 1 signal from inverter 30 is applied to the base of transistor Tri. Therefore, a current flows from the ten terminals of the power supply circuit 26 to one terminal of the power supply circuit 26 via the excitation coil 22' of the Subswitch 22 and the flapper and base of the transistor Tri, and the excitation coil 22'
′ closes the subswitch 22 and connects it to the power source. Next, the ink sensor 12 detects whether or not there is ink in the ink tank 13, and the detection signal is applied to the CPU 2 (5).
6, a signal is applied to the error indicator 28 via the data signal 62 to cancel the ink display.

Next, when a print switch (not shown) is turned on, the recording paper is fed to the platen 1 by the operation of a recording paper feeder (not shown).

This is detected by the recording paper sensor 9, and this detection signal is set to 0.
Add to PU26. Thereby, the CPU 26 sends a signal to the error indicator 28 via the data bus 62 to cancel the paper error display. Next, a control signal is sent from the CPU 26 to the dry nozzle circuit 27 via the data bus 61, the auto cap motor 6 starts driving, and the pinion 1
7 and the rack 18 to the recording head °2.
The ink discharge opening 2' moves in the direction of arrow a.

As the protrusion 3' of the cap 6 is removed, the protrusion 3' of the cap 6 also moves in the direction of the arrow a, so that the protrusion 10' of the cap sensor 10 is released from being suppressed, and the cap sensor switch 24 is connected to the fixed contact 24'. Therefore, the ground potential of CPU2
6, a control signal is applied from the CPU 26 to the dry nozzle circuit 27 via the data bus 61, which drives the carriage return motor 7, moves the recording head 2 via the pulley 4 and belt 5, and moves the recording head 2 on the platen 1. Printing is performed on recording paper (not shown). When one line of recording is completed, the line feed motor 8 rotates step by step, rotates the platen 1 step by step via the pinion 15 and the spacer wheel 16, and feeds the recording paper by one line. When printing is completed for all the recording sheets, the recording sheets are ejected.

At some point during this time, the main switch 21
When the one-shot multi 25 is turned off, a voltage of +5V from the DC voltage terminal is applied to the one-shot multi 25, and the CPU 26 is reset. As mentioned above, the main switch -21 is off, but since the cap sensor switch 24 is connected to the fixed contact 24', one terminal of the AND gate 29 receives the voltage from the +5V DC voltage terminal. , and the ground potential is applied to the other terminal. Therefore, the AND gate 29 outputs a logic O, the inverter 30 outputs a logic 1, the transistor Tri is active, and the sub-switch 22 remains closed, so the power supply circuit 26 has a power supply voltage of 11
A carriage return motor 71Ci motion signal is applied from the 0-dry nozzle circuit 27, which is still attached, to drive the motor 7 and return the recording head 2 to its home position. Home position sensor 11i1: detects that the recording head 2 has returned to the home position and sends this information to the CPU 26. data from cpu26 3
A signal for driving the auto cap motor 6 is sent to the driver circuit 27 via the driver circuit 1, and the driving force of the auto cap motor 6 is transmitted to the cap via a dual transmission mechanism consisting of a pinion 17 and a rank 18. Give and discharge opening 2
′ is covered with the concave part 6′ of the caragu 3 and capped. At the same time, when the protruding portion 3' of the cap 3 presses the tip 10' of the cap sensor 10, the cap sensor switch 24 is connected to the fixed contact 24' and the cap is turned on. Therefore, when a +5V DC voltage terminal is applied to both input terminals of the AND gate 29 and a logic 1 is output, zero voltage is output from the inverter 30, and zero voltage is applied to the base of the transistor Tri. ,
The excitation coil 22'u is deenergized, the sub-switch 22 is turned off, and the voltage supply to the power supply circuit 23 is cut off.

Note that when the ink sensor 12 generates a detection signal indicating that there is no ink in the ink tank 16, the home position sensor 11 detects whether or not the recording head 2 is at the home position. If it has returned to the home position, the carriage return motor 7 is driven by a drive signal from the driver circuit 27 to return it to the home position. If it has returned to the home position, the cap sensor 910 detects whether or not the ink discharge opening 2' of the recording head 2 is covered with the cap 6. If it is capped, the ink supply pong (not shown) is activated. Activate it to supply ink into the ink tank 1:6. Then, the ink discharge opening 2' of the recording head 2
is not capped, the driver circuit 27
A drive signal is sent from the ink discharge opening 2' of the recording head 2 to the autocag mask 6, and the ink discharge opening 2' of the recording head 2 is capped.

4 shows another embodiment of the present invention. In the one shown in FIG. 3, the power supply circuit 26 is connected via the main switch 21,
Power voltage is supplied from the outlet. If a power outage occurs while the printer is running a printing operation, the ink discharge opening 2' of the recording head 2 will no longer be covered by the cap 3. A circuit arrangement for dealing with such a situation is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 4, 65 is a rectifier circuit that converts AC 100V into DC current, 36 is a charging circuit, and 37 is a battery. The DC current rectified by the rectifier circuit filter 5 is applied to the battery 67 via the charging circuit 36 to charge the battery 67.

This kind of charging circuit is connected to the outlet and the main switch 21.
)'c><t 19・Power outage 0 or t error 91°' By providing a main power supply circuit that can cap the opening 2', that is, at least perform a recording operation, and an auxiliary power supply circuit that performs at least the capping when the main power supply circuit is cut off, the main power supply circuit can be cut off. Also, the capping operation is ensured, and clogging of the ink discharge opening can be prevented.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, as described in detail, a control circuit is provided that closes the recording liquid discharge opening of the recording head with a cap device before the power supply circuit is cut off, so that the recording liquid discharge opening is capped. This eliminates the problem of ink being left unused, and eliminates the problem of ink sticking to the recording liquid discharge opening and clogging it.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a plan view of an inkjet printer equipped with an automatic gap device, which is an embodiment of the present invention, and a flowchart for dynamically capping the ink discharge opening of the recording head. Another block circuit diagram is shown for the following. In the figure, 21 is the main switch, 22 is the sub switch, 2
3 is a power supply circuit, 24 is a cap sensor switch, 29 is an AND gate, 60 is an inverter, 25 is a one-shot multi, 26 is a CPU, 27 is a driver circuit, and 28 is an error indicator. Applicant Shin 11 Electric Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A recording pad having an opening for discharging recording liquid, a cap device that closes the opening when the recording head is not in use, a power supply circuit for driving the recording head and the cap device, and the power supply. 1. A recording apparatus using a recording liquid, characterized in that, before cutting off a circuit, a control circuit drives the cap device to close the opening. (2) A patent claim characterized in that the power supply circuit comprises at least a main power supply device used for operating the recording head, and an auxiliary power supply circuit that drives at least the gap device when the main power supply circuit is disconnected. A recording device using the recording liquid according to item 1.