JPS6124457A - Container for waste ink - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a container for recovered waste ink containing an ink absorber which absorbs ink ejected from the nozzle tip of an ink jet head and causes gelatinization of said ink separately from ink for printing to avoid solidification of printing ink and preventing leakage of ink even when it is not hermetically sealed. CONSTITUTION:Ink drops ejected from an ink jet head nozzle 1 separately from ink for printing to prevent printing ink from solidifying, are passed through a connecting pipe 6 connected to an ink receiving container 4 and are absorbed by an ink absorber 9 in a container for ink recovery 7. The absorbed ink instantly causes gelatinization by a polymer 8 contained in the absorber 9 and loses its fluidity.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to the structure of a waste ink collection container used in an inkjet printer device.

[Prior art]

In recent years, with the spread of office automation, the demand for creating and printing documents in offices has increased, and printers with low noise and good printing quality are in demand. Furthermore, with the spread of personal computers, there is an increasing demand for outputting characters and graphics on color displays in color. In recent years, inkjet kanji printers and inkjet color printers have been put into practical use as printers that meet these demands (Nikkei Electronics, 1).
9B2゜7.5. P2O3). Conventionally, this type of printer uses a technique such as photoetching on the surface of a glass tube or plate to form a nozzle part, an ink pressure chamber, and an ink supply part, which are then glued to the outer wall of the ink pressure chamber. The bending deformation of the piezo vibrator pressurizes the ink pressurizing chamber, causing ink droplets to be ejected from the nozzle tip. If such an inkjet head does not eject ink droplets for a long time, the water in the ink will evaporate and solidify from the ink surface on the nozzle end face, blocking the ink passage on the nozzle end face, making it impossible to eject ink droplets. It becomes a thing. Therefore, in order to prevent this ink from evaporating and solidifying, a method is used in which a fixed amount of ink droplets are ejected from all nozzles at fixed intervals during printer operation, in addition to printing. The ink ejected at that time is collected in a container as waste ink and disposed of.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Such a waste ink recovery system requires a sealed structure to prevent ink from leaking during handling, and the structure of the connection between the receiver for ink droplets ejected from the print head and the recovery container is complicated. There was a drawback.

The present invention provides a waste ink container that does not require special coupling means and is therefore simple in structure and leak-proof.

[Failure to solve the problem]

In the present invention, in order to prevent the ink from solidifying at the tip of the inkjet head nozzle, an ink absorber 9 is provided in the ink recovery container 7 to absorb and gel the ink 5 that is ejected and discarded separately from printing.

[Effect]

Ink droplets 5 ejected to prevent the ink from solidifying on the nozzle end face drip into the waste ink recovery container 7. This ink is absorbed into a highly absorbent polymer and instantly turns into a gel.
The ink is stored in the waste ink collection container 7 after losing its fluidity.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a waste ink recovery system.

In the figure, an inkjet head 1 is fixed to a carrier 2 and moves along a platen 3 in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface in response to a printing command to perform printing.

The inkjet head 1 has a fixed cycle, and an ink receiver provided at a position apart from the side edge of the platen 3 moves to the container 4 to prevent ink from solidifying on the end face of an unused nozzle. In order to do this, a fixed amount of ink droplets 5 are ejected from all the nozzles.The ink droplets 5 pass through a communication pipe 6 connected to the ink receiver container 4, and fall into a waste ink collection container 7. The waste ink recovery container 7 contains a bag-shaped ink absorber 9 made of paper that is sufficiently water resistant and encloses a super absorbent polymer 8, and the ink droplets 5 that fall are absorbed by the ink. The body 90 penetrates the bag-shaped paper, touches the super absorbent polymer 8, is instantly absorbed, changes into a gel-like state, and loses its fluidity.The waste ink collection container 7 stores a certain amount of waste ink. When the ink is collected, it is removed from the apparatus and discarded, and a new waste ink collection container 7 is installed.

In this way, the ink that is ejected and discarded to prevent the ink from solidifying on the end face of the nozzle is collected by the ink absorber 9 using the super absorbent polymer 8 in the waste ink collection container 7, as shown in the figure. It forms a gel and is recovered without losing its fluidity.

The gel-like ink is covered in a paper bag, so
The opening of the waste ink recovery container 7 does not leak even if it is not sealed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention has a special feature for waste ink tanks by converting ejected ink droplets into a gelatinous state using an ink absorber and collecting them after losing fluidity in order to prevent the ink from solidifying at the tip of the nozzle. This has the effect of providing a waste ink collection container that does not require an airtight structure and does not leak ink.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing the configuration of a waste ink recovery system. 1 is an inkjet head 22 as a carrier; 3 as a platen; 4 as an ink receiver; 5 as an ink droplet; 6 as an ink droplet;
7 is a communication pipe, 7 is a container for collecting waste ink, 8 is a super absorbent polymer, and 9 is an ink absorber.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) For an inkjet printer characterized in that an ink absorber is provided in an ink collection container to absorb and gel ink that is ejected separately from printing and is discarded in order to prevent ink from solidifying at the tip of an inkjet head nozzle. Waste ink container.