JPS60240457A - Ink reservoir - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an ink reservoir stably and certainly performing the supply of the ink from a recording head, by fixing an ink receiving bag to a housing through a flat plate having rigidity. CONSTITUTION:An ink receiving bag 12 is made of a flexible film for including recording ink in an air-tight state and maintain static water pressure to store and replenish the ink. A flat plate 16 having rigidity is mounted between the outer wall surface of the ink receiving bag 12 and the inner wall surface of a housing 11 in an inlaid state. The flexible film 12A forming the under surface of the ink receiving bag 12 has the flange part of a connection member 13 connected to the inner wall surface thereof and has the flat plate 16 integrally connected to the outer wall surface thereof by a double-sided tape. After the ink receiving bag 12, the connection member 13 and the flat plate 16 in an integrated state are inserted into the opening provided to the bottom surface of the housing 11, a septum 14 is inlaid with the interior of the connectin member 13 and screwed-in with a cap 15 to close the septum 14 and to fix the same to the housing 11. By this method, the ink receiving bag 12 is not moved in the housing 11 by external force.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention is applicable to, for example, an inkjet recording device or the like, which forms an image by jetting or ejecting recording ink from a nozzle and depositing it on a recording medium. The present invention relates to an ink reservoir for replenishing ink to a recording device such as a pen recorder.

[Prior art]

There are pen recorders that form images by depositing ink onto a recording medium, such as pen recorders that supply ink from an ink bottle to a pen tip and record data, and pen recorders that eject ink from nozzles to create ink dot images on a recording medium. There is an inkjet recording device for forming.

An inkjet recording device records characters, figures, etc. on a recording paper as dots by ejecting small droplets of ink from a narrow nozzle. In this case, in order to draw high-quality characters, figures, etc., fine ink droplets of equal diameter must be ejected regularly and intermittently.

In this way, the ejection flight of ink droplets is carried out smoothly,
In order to draw characters, figures, etc. stably on recording paper,
The properties of the ink itself must be sufficiently uniform and stable, but at the same time, it is necessary to sufficiently prevent air bubbles from being mixed into the ink.

A sealed ink reservoir is used as an ink supply device in an inkjet recording apparatus in order to keep the ink in a stable state without exposing it to outside air. This ink reservoir is filled with ink in a highly airtight bag so that no air can enter the container. In general, an ink reservoir is an ink cartridge that is removably attached to a receiving portion of a recording device, and can be replenished with new ink by replacing the ink cartridge.

Among the above-mentioned ink cartridges, in a conventional sealed type ink cartridge that supplies ink using hydrostatic pressure, the entire ink cartridge containing the ink is composed of a flexible membrane. In an ink storage bag using such a flexible membrane, the entire flexible membrane deforms irregularly, making it impossible to use up the entire amount of ink in the ink storage bag, resulting in unused ink remaining in the bag. This has the drawback of being wasted, which is a practical problem.

FIG. 1 shows an example of such a conventionally used ink cartridge. Ink cartridge' Tsuji is housing 1
, a flexible ink storage bag 2 that stores ink 3 inside the case 1, and a flexible ink storage bag 2 that is coupled to the ink storage bag 2 and transfers ink to an external recording head (not shown) of an inkjet recording device. It consists of an ink deriving section 4 for deriving ink. By inserting the ink outlet tube 5 connected to the ink supply tube 6 connected to the recording head into the ink outlet section 4, the ink 3 in the ink storage bag 2 is transferred to the ink outlet tube 5.
, is supplied into the recording head through the ink supply tube 6.

Fourth, the ink storage bag 2 has a sealed structure that prevents air from entering inside. Therefore, as ink money is used, the ink storage bag gradually shrinks, forming residual ink areas A in several places as shown in Figure 1 (I3), and these residual inks cannot be used. It became difficult and uneconomical.

Further, in the conventional ink cartridge, the ink storage bag 2 is not fixed to the housing 1 except in the vicinity of the ink outlet portion 4. If vibration or shock is applied to such an ink cartridge during transportation or during an ink cartridge replacement operation, the ink storage bag 2 will easily move from its predetermined position inside the housing ``1''. A relative force is forced on the fixed ink outlet part 4 and the moving ink storage bag, causing the inconvenience that the joint between the ink storage bag 2 and the ink outlet part 4 breaks, causing ink to leak.

In particular, when a large external force is applied to the housing 1, such as by dropping or overturning the ink cartridge, when the ink storage bag 2 is hardly fixed to the housing 1 like this,
The ink storage bag 2 strongly hits the inner wall of the housing 1, and in addition, excessive force is applied to the ink outlet portion 4, causing an accident in which the ink storage bag 2 ruptures.

Moreover, when the ink storage bag 2 is moved inside the housing 1 as described above when the ink in the ink storage bag 2 has been consumed to some extent, the 1 ink storage bag 2 is moved as shown in FIG. 1(B). This has the disadvantage that the ink cannot be drawn out to the end, and the ink remains and is wasted.

As a tea to solve such problems, JP-A-57-2
An ink cartridge shown in Japanese Patent No. 4284 is known. In this method, a flat ink storage bag for storing ink is directly adhered to the inner wall of a sealed housing. However, with this method, the workability of adhesive fixing is poor,
There are problems such as difficulty in positioning and fixing accurately and poor productivity.

[Purpose of the invention]

It is an object of the present invention to eliminate such conventional drawbacks, to ensure a stable and reliable supply of ink to the recording head, and to reduce the amount of ink that cannot be used for a single time, so that it can be used without waste. An object of the present invention is to provide an ink reservoir that can be easily manufactured, requires fewer replacements, and is easy to manufacture.

[Structure of the invention]

The ink reservoir of the present invention that achieves the above object is characterized in that the ink storage loan is constructed of a flexible membrane with a sealed structure in which ink is stored, and is fixed to a housing via a rigid flat plate. It is.

〔Example〕

FIG. 2(B) is a cross-sectional view of an ink reservoir according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2(B) is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA'.

The housing 11 is a cartridge-shaped container made of resin such as ABS, polystyrene, polypropylene, and polyvinyl chloride. Here, 11A is a vent hole that constantly communicates the inside of the casing 11 with the atmosphere and supplies pressurized electricity into the casing 11 as needed.

An opening is provided at the bottom of the housing II to form an ink outlet section, and the ink in the ink storage bag 12 is led out to the recording head side.

The ink storage bag 12 is made of a flexible film that airtightly encloses recording ink, and stores and replenishes the ink while maintaining hydrostatic pressure. This ink storage bag 12 is made of polyvinylidene chloride, polyethylene, nylon, polypropylene,
It is made from a single thin film such as cellophane or a composite laminate made from a combination of these. For example, a polymer film with a three-layer laminate structure in which a polyvinylidene chloride film is coated on both sides with polyethylene or the like, or a two-layer structure film in which a nylon film is laminated onto a polyvinylidene chloride film is used. As the ink storage bag 12, a thin film made of a material with low gas permeability, barrier properties, stability that does not cause chemical changes with the ink, and good flexibility is selected. These thin films are folded and overlapped, and two or four sides, which are the opening sides of the periphery, are bonded by heat sealing or the like to form a flat shape to form a flexible bag-like ink storage bag 12. Form.

A coupling member 13 made of a resin such as polyethylene or a metal such as stainless steel is fitted into the opening of the ink container 12 and adhesively fixed to a part of the bottom of the ink storage bag J2 by heat bonding or the like.

A septum 14 made of an elastic material such as butyl rubber, butadiene rubber, imprene rubber, silicone rubber, acrylic rubber, etc. is fitted into the inside of the coupling member 13, and the septum 14 is made of an elastic material such as butyl rubber, butadiene rubber, imprene rubber, silicone rubber, acrylic rubber, etc.
5, the lid is screwed in and closed.

Further, a rigid flat plate 16 is fitted between the outer wall surface of the ink storage bag J2 and the inner wall surface of the housing 11.

The flat plate 16 is a thin plate material such as plastic or a thin plate material whose both sides are bent II for reinforcement, and an opening into which the coupling member 13 is inserted is provided in a part thereof. The flat plate 16 is made of, for example, polyvinyl chloride with a thickness of about 1 inch.

Thus, the flexible film 12A on the lower surface (bottom side) of the ink storage bag 12 has the flanged portion of the coupling member 13 bonded to its inner wall surface, and the flat plate 16 bonded to its outer wall surface with double-sided tape or the like to form an integral body. ing. The integrated ink storage bag 12
, after inserting the coupling member 13-flat plate 16 into the opening at the bottom of the housing 11, inserting the septum 14 into the coupling member 13;
By screwing in the cap 15, the septum 14
is closed and fixed to the housing 11.

In addition, the area near the ink outlet of the flat plate 16 is fixed to the bottom surface of the housing 11 by the coupling member 13 and the cap 15, and the other flat surface is pressed against the bottom surface of the housing 11 due to the pressure force and the weight of the ink storage bag 12 and ink. ing. Since the ink storage bag 12 is thus joined and fixed to the connecting member 13 and the flat plate 16, it will not move inside the housing 11 due to external force.

Here, the coupling member 13 serves as a support for fixing the ink storage bag 12 to the housing 11.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing another embodiment of the ink reservoir according to the present invention. The flat plate 17 is formed of an elastic plate that is curved in advance. The flat plate 17 is joined to the ink storage bag 12 and the coupling member 13 in a downward facing position as shown in the figure, and after storing these in a predetermined position in the housing 11, the cap 15 is attached.
By tightening the flat plate 17, the flat plate 17 is compressed into a flat shape while pressing against the lower surface of the housing 11. Therefore, even if the ink cartridge is overturned, the ink storage bag 12 is fixed directly to the housing 11 via the flat plate 16, and is more firmly fixed by the anti-seismic repulsive force, making it even more difficult to move.

In addition, in FIGS. 2 and 3, none of the flat plates 16 and 17 are connected to the housing 11, so they are connected to the housing 1.
1, the ink storage bag 12 is detachable from the housing 11.

If the size of the flat plates 16 and 17 is not larger than a certain level, the ink storage bag 12 will not be sufficiently fixed.

The size needs to be at least 30% or more of the bottom surface of the ink storage bag 12. Furthermore, when the ink inside the ink storage bag 2 drips as the ink is consumed, a step is created at the bottom of the ink storage bag 12 between the surface in contact with the flat plate and the surface in contact with the flat plate.
Since ink may remain on the surface, it is desirable that the thickness of the flat plate be 2 mm or less, and that the area of the flat plate be large. However, when the flat plate is entirely adhered to the bottom surface of the ink storage bag 12, problems arise even if the flat plate is large. This problem occurs when the ink storage bag 12 is flat, and the ink storage bag 12 cannot be freely deformed due to the bonded flat plate, and when it is full of ink, the ink storage bag 12 is flat and flat, so the maximum ink capacity is small. This is because (See Figure 4 (5)) To avoid this,
It is preferable that the bottom surface of the ink storage bag 12 is not attached to the entire surface of the flat plate and is partially attached to the ink storage bag 12, or that the area of the flat plate is 80% or less of the bottom surface of the ink storage bag 12. (See 1(B) in No. 41') The above flat plate IF;, 17
Since the number h2 is provided on the outside of the ink storage bag 12, there is no need to consider ink resistance for the material of the flat plate, so there is a wide degree of freedom in material selection.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of an ink reservoir having a coupling member 18 which is an integral structure of the coupling member 13 and the flat plate 16. That is, the flexible membrane 1 on the lower surface of the ink storage bag 12 is attached to the upper surface side of the coupling member 18 having a large flange having the same shape as the flat plate.
Join the outer surface of 2A.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the flat plate. flat plate 1
Both edges of the ink storage bag 9 are curved along the lower side of the cross-sectional shape of the short side of the ink storage bag 12. This is ink storage bag 1
By increasing the joint area of 2, the deformation of the ink storage bag 12 due to ink consumption can be made smoother, and the remaining amount of ink can be minimized. Furthermore, the strength of the flat plate 19 is increased, and even a thin plate has the advantage of being less likely to deform.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing still another embodiment of the ink reservoir according to the present invention, and the seventh (8) is a long-side cross-section;
Figure (B) shows the hearth side cross section. This is ink storage bag 12
In this method, a flat plate member 20 is provided inside. According to this method, since the ink storage bag 12 is sandwiched and fixed between the flat plate member 20 and the bottom plate of the housing 11, the number of connections between the ink storage bag 12 and the flat plate member 20 may be small in terms of strength. There are advantages. Furthermore, since the flat plate member 20 has an integral structure in which the connecting member serving as the ink lead-out portion is integrated, the number of parts can be reduced. Since the upper surfaces of the folded flat plate part and the connecting member part are on the same plane and there is no difference in level, ink can be smoothly drawn out, and there is no possibility that ink will remain in the difference in level.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the flat plate. This is a flat plate 21 provided with concave grooves 11A and convex protrusions 21B. The groove 21A is a plurality of radial grooves extending from the periphery of the flat plate 210 to the ink outlet portion. A plurality of protrusions 21B are provided near the opening of the ink outlet. These are provided to draw out the ink from the ink storage bag 12 to the end. When the ink in the ink storage bag 12 decreases due to ink consumption, the flexible film on the top side of the ink storage bag 12 settles and comes into close contact with the flexible film on the bottom side or the top surface of the flat plate 20. The flow path through which the ink flows becomes blocked. As a result, the ink cannot be drawn out to the end, and the ink supply stops with the remaining ink remaining in the ink storage bag 12. In order to prevent this, such a groove 21A is provided in the flat plate 21 so that the groove 21A is secured as an ink flow path so that the ink can flow out to the ink outlet section and the ink can be taken out to the end. The biting protrusion 21B serves to prevent the flexible membrane on the upper side of the ink storage bag 12 from blocking the opening near the ink outlet portion.

The groove 2] A is particularly effective when the flat plate is provided inside the ink storage bag 12, but the groove width If the depth of the groove is made larger, a groove is formed inside the ink storage bag 12 due to the flexibility of the flexible film 12A, which serves as an ink flow path and prevents residual ink.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of an I/R storage device showing another embodiment of the present invention. This is an upside-down version of the ink reservoir according to the embodiment of Figure 7. In this case, since the flat plate member is warped downward due to the weight of the ink, a second support 22A is installed on the other end side of the ink outlet part of the flat plate member 22, and the second support 22A is connected to the screw member 23, etc. The storage bag 12 is fixed to the upper wall of the housing 11 using a screwdriver.

FIG. 10 shows a flat plate member 2 instead of the second support 22A.
5 is made of an elastic material which is curved in advance, and by tightening the connecting member portion with the cap 15, the ink storage bag 12 is tightly fixed to the housing 11 by the elastic force of the flat plate member 25. It is something to do.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the ink storage device of the present invention, the ink storage bag is fixed by a flat plate, and even if the ink cartridge falls or falls, the ink storage bag will move and the ink storage bag will be torn, causing the ink to leak out. There will be no leakage. Also, when moving the recording device or replacing all the ink cartridges, Fig. 2(A), 2) is a cross-sectional view showing an example of the ink reservoir of the present invention, and Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of the present invention. 4 is a diagram explaining the relationship between the flat plate and the ink storage bag, FIG. 5 is a sectional view of an ink reservoir of another embodiment according to the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the flat plate. Figure 7),
cf3) is a plane view of still another embodiment of IItff, FIG. 8 is an oblique view of the planographic plate V1, FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of still another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of a flat plate member.

IXII... Housing, 2.12...4 Ink storage bag 13.18... Connecting member (support), 15 Middle... Cap 16.17. 19.21...
・River... Flat plate, 20Q22.25... Flat plate member Riri ^ - Anger 0 ha 10 cases Figure 1 (B)! Procedural amendment (method) August 30, 1980] Case description Patent Application No. 98276 of 1982 2.9. Name of Ming Ink Reservoir 3 Relationship with the Supplement 2 Case Patent Applicant Address 1-26-2 Nishi-Shinjuku, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo Name Name
(1,271 Konishiroku Photo Industry Co., Ltd. July 3, 1982)
1st (Delivery date) 6 Subject of amendment 4 [j1 Annex 4141 of [Detailed description of the invention] and brief description of the opening, clear section” column.

7. As shown in the engraving and attached sheet on page 17 of the detailed description of the amendment (no change in content).

It is also possible to eliminate disadvantages such as the internal ink storage bag being lopsided and bent, making it impossible to consume the ink to the end. Fourth, since the ink storage bag can be joined to a flat plate in advance and then inserted into the housing and fixed, assembly and removal are easy and workability is excellent.

4. Brief description of the drawings Figures 1 (3) and (B) are cross-sectional views showing the ink filling state and ink consumption state of a conventional ink cartridge;
Figure 2 (B) is a cross-sectional view showing an example of the ink reservoir of the present invention, Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view of another embodiment of the present invention, and Figure 4 shows the relationship between the flat plate and the ink storage bag. Diagram to explain, 5th
The figures are a sectional view of an ink reservoir according to another embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a flat plate, FIGS. The figure is a perspective view of a flat plate, FIG. 9 is a sectional view of still another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 10 is a sectional view of a flat plate member. 1.11... Housing; 2.12...
・・・・・・Ink storage bag 13.18・・・・・・・・・
Connecting member (supporting link), 15... Cap 1
ξ17.19.21・・・・・・Flat plate, 20.2
2.25...Flat plate member 22A...
...Second pillar agent Patent attorney No 1) Parent-in-law

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] (1) An ink storage device comprising an ink storage bag made of a flexible membrane with a sealed structure in which ink is stored, and a casing that houses the ink storage bag, wherein the ink storage An ink reservoir characterized in that a bag is fixed to a housing via a rigid flat plate. (2) The ink storage device according to claim 1, characterized in that a flat plate is joined to the outer wall of the ink storage bag, and the ink storage bag is fixed to the casing via the flat plate and a support. (3) The ink storage device according to claim 1, wherein a flat plate is built into the inner wall of the ink storage bag, and the ink storage bag is fixed to the casing via the flat plate and a support. (4) The ink reservoir according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the support column is formed of an ink guiding member. (5) The ink reservoir according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the flat plate and the ink guiding member are integrated. (6) The ink reservoir 0 (7) according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the flat plate is provided in contact with a membrane on the bottom side of the ink storage bag. ) The ink reservoir according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the flat plate is provided in contact with a membrane on the upper surface side of the ink storage bag. (8) The ink reservoir according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the flat plate is formed of an elastic plate that is curved in advance. (9) The ink reservoir according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that a groove is provided on a surface of the flat plate that comes into contact with ink.