JPS60192643A - Inkjet recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent contamination in a recorder due to splashing of ink by arranging an ink absorbing member on a carriage. CONSTITUTION:An ink absorbing body 44 comprising porous material, a liquid absorbing powder or the like is provided on the carriage 2 in front of electric contacts 31 and 41 to absorb ink accidentally leaking slightly separated from a rubber member 24 so arranged to bring the electric contact 31 of a flexible cable 30 into contact with the electric contact 41 on the bottom of a recording head 1 by an elastic force thereof. As the electric contacts 31 and 41 contacts each other at the position near the ink absorbing body 44, ink is absorbed by the ink absorbing body 44 even though leaking from a nozzle 19 and flowing to the inner surface of the carriage 2 running through a nozzle plate 18 and a seal material 43. This prevents the ink from diffusing and contaminating the electric contacts.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field] The present invention relates to an Infusiera I recording device that performs print recording by scanning and moving relative to a recording paper surface by mounting a recording head having an ink storage section on a carriage. Particularly regarding means for preventing contamination of electrical contacts etc. by leaked ink, this article will be discussed in detail in 1-6. [Prior Art] In recent years, inkjet recording devices have relatively simple recording head structures. Recently, its use has been increasing because color recording is easy and high-speed recording is possible. On the other hand, disadvantages of inkjet printing apparatuses include clogging of ink ejection nozzles due to evaporation of volatile components in the ink, and contamination of ink within the printing apparatus by ink ejected and leaking from the printhead.

In conventional inkjet recording devices, in order to prevent clogging of a series of ejection nozzles, a cap is provided to cover the ejection nozzles when recording is stopped, or a pump is installed to remove solidified ink near the nozzles by suction. We also have measures in place to recover from clogging. In addition, to prevent ink ejected or leaked from the recording head from scattering elsewhere, a cap is provided to cover the entire surface of the head, and a cap is provided to cover the entire surface of the print head, and a cap is installed to absorb the ink ejected or leaked.
v. The retainer has been defeated by 3 times.

However, such conventional clogging recovery means and ink collection means use devices such as pumps, so installing these devices requires increasing the size of the inkjet recording device and further increasing the manufacturing cost of the device. There were some drawbacks.

〔the purpose〕

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional apparatus, it is an object of the present invention to provide an extremely superior ink jet recording apparatus that prevents contamination within the recording apparatus due to ink scattering.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is an ink jet recording apparatus in which a printing unit for ejecting ink is mounted on a carriage, and is characterized in that an ink absorbing member is disposed on the carriage.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

- FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of an inkjet recording apparatus applicable to the present invention. Here, l is an on-demand 1 type recording head that ejects ink only when recording print dots, 2 is a carriage that carries the recording head 1 and moves in the main scanning direction (column direction), and 3 guides the carriage 2. A pair of guide shafts 4 are a drive motor that drives the carriage 2 via a pair of pulleys 5 and an endless wire 6 wound around the pulleys 5. Also, 7 is a recording paper that is recorded by ink ejection from the recording head 1, 8 is a platen roller that moves the recording paper 7 in the sub-scanning direction (row direction), and 9 is a gear train 10 that rotates the platen roller 8. It is a drive motor.

The recording head l has a hook portion 11, a hook pin 12, and a handle portion 13. On the other hand, the carriage 2 has a hook portion 21 and a groove portion 22. The hook part 11 of the recording head l engages with the hook part 21 of the carriage 2, and the hook part 12 of the recording head 1 engages with the groove part 22 of the carriage. Possibly fixed.

Furthermore, a flexible cable 30 electrically connects the recording head 1 and an electric control circuit (not shown), and transmits a print signal for ink ejection to the recording head 1.

The rotation of the drive motor 4 is transmitted to the carriage 2 through the pulleys 5, 5 and the wire 6, so that the carriage 2 slides along the guide shafts 3, 3 while moving the recording head 1.
feed in the main scanning direction. Also, the other drive motor 9
The rotation is transmitted to the platen roller 8 through the gear train 10, so that the platen roller 8 feeds the recording paper 7 in the sub-scanning direction.

While the carriage 2 is moving to the right due to the rotation of the drive motor 4, the recording head l is connected to the flexible cable 3.
The ink is ejected based on the print signal sent through the
Characters and symbols are printed on the recording paper 7, and images and video patterns such as graphs and drawings are recorded. When the recording head l reaches the right end, the carriage 2 stops running.

Then, as the motor 9 rotates, the recording paper 7 is moved by one line in the sub-scanning direction. Subsequently, the carriage 2 moves to the right, and during this movement, the recording head 1 continues the printing operation to the left end in the same manner as described above. When the recording head reaches the left end, the carriage 2 stops running, and then the motor 9
Due to the rotation, the recording paper 7 moves by one line in the sub-scanning direction.

The above operations are repeated, and predetermined sentences, images, etc. corresponding to the print symbols are printed and recorded on the entire surface of the recording paper 7 in the form of dot prints.

FIG. 2 shows a conventional recording head before the improvement of the recording apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 3 shows the recording head attached to a carriage, and FIG. 4 shows the flexible cable shown in FIG. 3. Next, to facilitate understanding of the present invention,
Figures 2 to 4 show the structure of the conventional recording head before improvement.
This will be explained with reference to the figures.

As shown in FIG. 2, in the recording head 1 before improvement, a base body 15 is provided at the front end of the cover unit 14 of the head, and an insulating substrate 16 is peeled off on the front surface of this base body 15. A nozzle plate 18 is attached to the upper substrate 15 of the
is provided. Electrical contact 17 at the lower end of insulating board J6
When the recording head 1 is mounted on the carriage 2 as shown in FIG.
It makes contact with the electrical contacts 31 of the flexible cable 30 shown in the figure. Further, the plurality of nozzle tips 19 opened in the nozzle plate 18 communicate with the ink in the ink bag 40 housed in the above-mentioned cover unit 14 and are replenished with ink, and the ink is supplied and replenished through the flexible cable 30 and the electrical contact 17. In response to an electric signal applied to an energy generator such as a piezo element or an electric resistance element shown in the figure, ejection energy is applied by the energy generator, and ink droplets are ejected toward the recording paper 7. The energy generator described above generates energy to eject a droplet from an orifice to form a flying droplet.

Incidentally, a continuous type inkjet recording device, which is one of the inkjet recording types, is equipped with a pressurizing pump mechanism for continuously discharging ink and electrodes for charging the ink particles and controlling the flying direction of the ink particles. There is a need for an ink recovery device or the like that controls ink ejection and has a pump mechanism for recovering unnecessary ink. On the other hand, the recording head 1 applied in the present invention
is generally referred to as an on-demand system, and has a mechanism that ejects ink only when printing dots, so compared to the continuous system, the structure of the recording head is similar to that shown in Figures 2 to 4. It gets easier as shown.

However, in the conventional recording head 1 before the improvement, the second
As shown in the figure and FIG. 3, the nozzle plates 1 and 18 are provided above the electrical contacts 17 at the bottom of the insulating substrate 16, and the electrical contacts 31 of the flexible cable 30 are located directly below the nozzles 19 of the nozzle plate 18. Since the contact position of the electrical contact 17 is located at the bottom of the insulating substrate 16, ink may unexpectedly flow out from the nozzle 19 due to an unexpected shock or temperature change, or the recording may occur when printing on the recording paper 7. If the ink splashes off the paper 7 and adheres to the periphery of the head, the electrical contacts 31 and 17 located below the nozzle 19 will become contaminated over a long period of time, leading to poor conductivity and the possibility of being unable to print. There was a problem with how big it was. FIG. 5 shows an example of the structure of the recording head of the improved inkjet recording apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 6 shows the recording head attached to a carriage, and FIG. 7 shows the flexible cable shown in FIG. 6. shows.

As shown in FIG. 5, in this example, the flexible cable 3
An electric contact 41 that contacts the electric contact 31 of 0 is fixed to the rear end of the bottom of the recording head 1, and a flexible cable 42 connects this electric contact 41 to an energy generator (not shown).
Furthermore, a sealing material 43 that completely seals the electrical contacts 41 from the outside air is fixed to the lower end of the insulating substrate 16 below the nozzle plate 18. Therefore, the electrical contact 41
There is no chance that the area will be contaminated by ink leaking from the upper nozzle 19.

Further, in this example, as shown in FIG. 7, the electrical contacts 31 of the flexible cable 30 and the electrical contacts 41 at the bottom of the recording head 1 are separated from the rubber member 24 with which they come into contact due to elastic force, and the electrical contacts An ink absorber 44 made of a porous material, liquid-absorbing powder, or the like is provided on the carrier 2 in front of the ink cartridges 31 and 41 to absorb any ink that should leak.

In this way, in this example, the electrical contacts 31 and 41 are in contact with each other at a position near the ink absorber 44, so that in the unlikely event that ink leaks from the nozzle 19 and travels through the nozzle plate 18 and the sealing material 43, it will not reach the carriage. Even if the ink flows onto the inner surface of the ink, the ink is absorbed by the ink absorber 44, so the ink will not spread and contaminate the electrical contacts.

FIG. 8 shows the structure of the carriage 2 shown in FIG. 6 and the appearance of the ink absorber 44. A handle 44A made of a soft material is attached to the liquid absorber 44 that fits in the groove 45 provided in the carriage 2. Therefore, when a large amount of ink has been absorbed, by removing the recording head 1 and holding it by the above-mentioned handle 44A, the absorber 44 can be easily removed from the groove 45, and a new one can be removed. It is also easy to attach an absorbent body.

Furthermore, since the liquid absorbing member 44 is provided in the groove 45 provided in the carriage 2 at the bottom of the recording head 1, all the leaked ink falling from the lower end of the nozzle plate 18 can be absorbed by the absorbing member 44. This prevents ink from scattering into and out of the recording apparatus.

〔effect〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, in an inkjet recording device in which a printing unit that discharges ink is mounted on a carriage, an ink absorbing member is disposed on the carriage, so that ink leaking from the nozzles is diffused. to prevent contamination of the electrical contacts mentioned above, and
The ink leaking from the nozzles is retained in one place by the liquid absorber provided on the carriage as described above, which has the remarkable effect of preventing the ink from spreading or scattering inside and outside the recording device. or can be obtained.

Further, according to the present invention, since the liquid absorber and the groove are provided on the carriage, there is an advantage that the liquid absorber can be easily replaced. Note that the present invention is also suitable for so-called disposable recording heads that are easy to replace. .

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the structure of an inkjet recording device applicable to the present invention, FIGS. 2 to 4 are perspective views, cross-sectional views, and perspective views showing the structure of main parts of a conventional device. FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a configuration example of the recording head of the apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing the recording head shown in FIG. 5 attached to a carriage, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the flexible cable shown in FIG. 6. , FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing the detailed structure of the carriage shown in FIG. 6. I... Recording head, 2... Carriage, 18... Nozzle plate, 19... Nozzle, 24... Elastic member, 30... Flexible cable, 31... Electrical contact, 41... - Flexible cable, 42... Electrical contact, 43... Seal material, 44... Liquid absorber, 44A... Handle, 45... Groove. Patent applicant Canon Co., Ltd. Agent Patent attorney Yoshi Tani - 3η 7 j No. 8 to Figure 30 22

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim] An inkjet recording device mounted on a printing unit carriage for discharging ink, characterized in that the ink absorbing member is disposed on the carriage.