JPS6143338Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a scanning mechanism for information processing equipment, and more particularly to a scanning mechanism for a carriage that carries a reading head for reading an original image and/or a recording head for recording an image on recording paper.

An example of a conventional scanning mechanism of this type is shown in FIG. 1 for an inkjet recording apparatus. In FIG. 1, 1 is a carriage, 2 is an ink jet head, 3 is an ink tank, 4 is a guide bar, 5 is a threaded rod, and 6 is a drum. In this example, drum 6
Recording paper is wound around the shaft, and the carriage 1 is moved in the direction of the arrow by the rotation of the threaded rod 5. In an example in which the carriage 1 is scanned and driven by a wire or the like, a guide bar 7 is used instead of a threaded rod, as shown in FIG. 8 is a scanning drive wire.

Conventionally, the carriage is guided by two guide members in this way, so if there is even a slight deviation or twist in the parallelism of the guide members 4, 5, 7, the carriage 1
The scanning movement is not smooth, which causes load fluctuations to the scanning drive system. Carriage 1 has guide bar 4,
It is common to install sliding rollers or bearings on the guide bar 4, but even if you do that, the guide bar 4,
7 and the threaded rod 5 and load fluctuations due to twisting are not improved. In the scanning mechanism,
It is necessary that there be no unevenness in speed. When speed unevenness occurs, a striped pattern appears on the recorded image in the recording device. If the guide bars 4, 7 and threaded rod 5 are accurately constructed and pivotally connected to the cartridge 1, there will be little variation in the position of the ink jet head relative to the recording paper, and the printing distance will be stable, but the parallelism of the guide members If the movement is incorrect or the carriage is twisted, the sliding resistance of the carriage will fluctuate, causing load fluctuations and the scanning speed to fluctuate, resulting in speed unevenness. In order to increase parallelism and reduce twist, it is necessary to process the guide bars 4, 7 and threaded rod 5 with high precision. On the other hand, since the carriage 1 is installed in a position that hugs the two guide members,
Adjustments during assembly are very troublesome and time consuming, and the carriage may get in the way when feeding and discharging documents, recording paper, etc., and the carriage cannot be separated from the drum for maintenance, inspection, etc. , poor workability.

The first purpose of the present invention is to improve this type of conventional problem. That is, the first aspect of the present invention
The object of the present invention is to provide a scanning mechanism that has little unevenness in carriage feeding and also allows the carriage to be easily retracted.

A second object of the present invention is to automatically forcibly rotate the cartridge to a retracted position with respect to the first guide bar when the cartridge is driven to a position away from the paper scanning position, such as a standby position or a cap position. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a scanning mechanism.

In order to achieve the above purpose, in this invention,
The first guide bar holds the carriage and guides its scanning and reciprocating motion, and the rotary wheel installed on the carriage is brought into contact with the second guide bar and moved along it. Furthermore, the second guide bar has a linear scanning guide part, that is, a main part, which is parallel to the first guide bar, and a waiting guide part, that is, a secondary part, which is continuous with the curved waiting guide part,
It is installed so as to face the rotating wheel installed on the carriage within the entire range of movement of the carriage.

FIG. 2a shows an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 2a, a guide wheel 9 is pivotally mounted on the carriage 1. In FIG. The guide ring 9 has a bearing therein, and a ring-shaped permanent magnet is fixed to the outer ring of the bearing. 10 is a second guide bar made of a magnetic material, which has a straight main portion 10a parallel to the first guide bar and a curved sub-portion 10b.
has. The second guide bar 10 is arranged so that the guide ring 9 is always in contact with the second guide bar 10 when the carriage 1 moves along the threaded rod 5 (first guide bar) that drives the carriage 1. In this case, when the carriage 1 is driven back and forth within the range facing the drum 6 by forward and reverse rotation of the threaded rod 5, the ink jet head 2 is energized and printing is performed on the recording paper on the drum 6.

Due to the rotation of the threaded rod, the carriage 1 moves to the drum 6.
When the carriage 1 is driven further to the left beyond the left end, that is, when the carriage 1 is driven towards the waiting position, the second guide bar 10 is curved at the sub-portion 10b, so that the carriage 1 moves further to the left. Rotate to the retracted position as shown in Figure 2b. In this state shown in FIG. 2b, the ink jet head 2 can be easily inspected, cleaned and replaced. The curved sub-portion 10b of the second guide bar 10 is connected to the guide ring 9
It is gently curved so that it never separates.

In the embodiment shown in FIG.
A permanent magnet 11 is fixed to the permanent magnet 11, and a magnetic plate 12 is placed facing the permanent magnet with a certain gap.
is fixed to the second guide bar 10. Since an attractive force acts between the permanent magnet 11 and the magnetic plate 12, a force is always applied to the rotary wheel 9 so that it comes into contact with the second guide bar 10. Note that the rotating wheel 9 does not have a magnet in this embodiment. The second guide bar 10 may be made of a non-magnetic material.

In order to bring the rotary wheel 9 into contact with the second guide bar 10, a spring such as a coil spring or a plate spring can be used in addition to a magnet. An example using a coil spring is shown in Fig. 4a (front view) and Fig. 4b.
(a sectional view taken along line B-B in FIG. 4a). In these drawings, 13 ₁ and 13 ₂ are coil springs used as rotation urging means. One end of the coil springs 13 ₁ , 13 ₂ is fixed to the carriage 1 , and the other end is fixed to the outer periphery of the cylindrical member 14 . The cylindrical member 14 is disposed between guide wheels 1a and 1b fixed to the carriage, and is loosely fitted onto the first guide bar 7. Cylindrical member 14
When the carriage 1 moves in the left-right direction, it is pushed by the guide wheel 1a or 1b and moves in the same direction as the carriage 1. The spring force of the coil springs 13 ₁ and 13 ₂ is set to rotate the carriage 1 clockwise (FIG. 4b). Therefore, the third
As in the embodiment shown, the guide ring 9 is pressed against the second guide bar 10 to determine the distance of the ink jet head 2 relative to the drum 6. The movement of the carriage 1 is smooth. The carriage 1 is driven by the wire 8 toward the left end (from the front side to the back side of the paper in FIGS. 4a and 4b), and the guide wheel 9 rides on the curved sub-portion 10b of the second guide bar 10. Yukutokari Tsuji 1
rotates counterclockwise (arrow A1) and moves to the retracted position.

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the present invention. This fifth
The figure is a left side view. In this embodiment, the second guide bar 10 is formed with a sub-portion 10b bent toward the drum 6 at a position outside the longitudinal width of the drum 6, and the guide ring 9 extends to the lower end of the sub-portion 10b.
When the carriage 1 moves, the carriage 1 moves to a retracted position where it is tilted toward the drum 6, as shown by the solid line in the figure.
At this time, the face plate of the inkjet head 2 hits the airtight cap 15 and pushes the cap 15 down against the spring 16. Therefore, when the cartridge 1 is in the retracted position shown by the solid line, the cap 15 is in close contact with the face plate of the ink jet head 2, and the space near the ink jet nozzle on the face plate is sealed, preventing ink from evaporating from the nozzle. Prevented. Main part 1 of the second guide bar 10 of the guide wheel 9 of the carriage 1
0a, the carriage 1 is in the position shown by the two-dot chain line and faces the drum 6.

When using leaf springs instead of the coil springs 13 ₁ and 13 ₂ , Fig. 6a (front view) and Fig. 6b
As shown in the figure (BB line sectional view in Figure 6a), one end of the leaf spring 17 is fixed to the cylindrical member 14,
The other end may be brought into contact with the back surface of the carriage 1 to prevent the cylindrical member 14 from rotating.

In this example, as shown enlarged in FIG. 6c, the guide bar 7 has a flat surface 19 on its upper side surface.
A roller 18 is rotatably fixed to an arm 20 integral with the cylindrical member 14.
By bringing the guide bar 7 into contact with the flat surface 19 of the guide bar 7, rotation of the cylindrical member 14 is prevented. The roller 18 is rotatable at the center portion (non-threaded portion) of a bolt 21 fixed to the arm 20, and its axial movement is restricted by the arm 20 and the nut 22. An example in which such a structure for regulating the rotation of the cylindrical member 14 is applied when using the coil springs 13 ₁ and 13 ₂ is shown in FIG. cross-sectional view)
Shown below. By restricting the rotation of the cylindrical member 14 in this way, the guide bar 10a of the carriage 1
The rotational force in the direction is stabilized.

As described above, in the present invention, the carriage is pivotally connected to the first guide bar so that it can rotate around the first guide bar, and the guide wheel installed on the carriage is
Since the structure is made to follow the second guide bar, which has a main part parallel to the drum axis and a continuous curved sub part, it is possible to prevent the carriage from colliding with the conventional guide bar due to misalignment or twisting of the guide bar. There is no load fluctuation during movement, and the carriage moves smoothly. Furthermore, when the carriage is driven toward the end of its moving range, the carriage automatically rotates around the first guide bar, making maintenance, inspection, and paper feeding/ejection easy, and it also supports the inkjet head. Since the carriage automatically moves to the cap position, the cap arrangement and cap drive mechanism are simplified.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figures 1a and 1b are perspective views of conventional scanning mechanisms, respectively. Figures 2a and 2
Figure b is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention,
Figure 2a shows the carriage in the recording position, and Figure 2b shows the carriage in the retracted position. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4a is a front view showing still another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4b is a sectional view taken along the line B--B. FIG. 5 is a left side view showing still another embodiment of the present invention. Figures 6a and 7a are
6b is a sectional view taken along the line B-B of FIG. 6a, and FIG. 6c is a sectional view showing a part of FIG. 6b in an enlarged manner; FIG. 7b is a sectional view taken along the line BB in FIG. 7a. 1... Carriage, 2... Ink jet head, 3... Ink tank, 4... Guide bar, 5
... Threaded rod (first guide bar), 6 ... Drum, 7 ... First guide bar, 8 ... Wire, 9
... Guide wheel, 10 ... Second guide bar, 10a
... Main part, 10b ... Subpart, 11 ... Permanent magnet, 12 ... Magnetic plate, 13 ₁ , 13 ₂ ... Coil spring, 14 ... Cylindrical member, 15 ... Cap, 1
6... Spring, 17... Leaf spring, 18... Roller, 19... Plane, 20... Arm, 21...
Boruto, 22...Natsuto, PR...recording paper.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] (1) In a scanning mechanism that reciprocates an image reading head, a recording head, etc. along the paper surface; a first guide bar arranged linearly; A carriage that is coupled to be movable in the axial direction and rotatable in the circumferential direction and that carries an image reading head, a recording head, etc.; it has a straight main part and a sub part that is continuous with the main part and curved from the main part. a second guide bar having a main portion parallel to the first guide bar; and a guide member attached to the carriage and abutting the second guide bar; The guide bar is shaped and arranged so that during reciprocating movement of the carriage along the guide bar 1, the guide member continuously abuts the main part and the sub part of the carriage, so that the guide member advances from the main part to the sub part or vice versa. A scanning mechanism characterized in that it is configured to sometimes apply rotational force to a carriage. (2) The scanning mechanism according to claim 1, wherein one of the guide member and the second guide bar is a magnet, and the other is a magnetic material.