JPS62113554A - Ink jet recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the generation of the defective discharge of recording liquid attributable to an attaching matter by providing the first removing member which removes liquid and/or foreign matter attaching to a recording liquid discharge part, the second removing member which takes off matter adhering to the first removing member and the third removing member which clears substance sticking to the second removing member. CONSTITUTION:A blade 2 slides to contact the front of a recording head 11 through the movement of a carriage 12 and removes ink, paper waste and dust attaching to an orifice part. A porous body 13 slides to contact the blade 2 through the shifting of the carriage 12 and clears sticking ink, paper waste or dust. A porous body 8 slides to contact the porous body 13 by the movement of the carriage 12 and takes off sticking ink, paper waste or dust. The removed material is conducted to a porous body 4 in an ink cartridge 23, then is absorbed there. Thus the occurrence of defective ink discharge can be prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus, and more specifically, the present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus, and more specifically, to a method for treating liquid and/or foreign matter that slides into contact with and adheres to a recording liquid discharge part of an inkjet recording head. The present invention relates to an inkjet recording apparatus having a first removal member for removing.

[Prior Art] In an inkjet recording apparatus that performs recording using an inkjet recording head that ejects ink liquid as a recording liquid,
If paper scraps, dust, etc. adhere to the ink ejection part of the recording head, that is, the orifice part, through the ink, the direction in which the ink liquid is ejected changes, causing ejection failure or making ejection impossible. Recording may become impossible.

Therefore, with conventional inkjet recording devices, the ink discharge condition is normal! A device consisting of a suction pump is installed to restore the output, and the negative pressure of the pump is used to suck ink from the orifice, and the flow of the sucked ink removes paper scraps, dirt, etc. from the orifice. has been adopted.

In addition, in order to remove large paper scraps, dust, etc. that cannot be removed by the above-mentioned ink flow, a blade is installed adjacent to the recovery device to shake off these, and the orifice portion is rubbed against the blade through the movement of the carriage. A configuration has been adopted.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the configuration in which the blade described in F is provided, the paper scraps, garbage, etc. that adhere to the blade remain as they are and there is no place to collect them, so these paper scraps, garbage, etc. There was a problem in that during the recovery operation, the blade adhered to the orifice part, repeating the vicious cycle.

In addition, there is a problem in that ink that has not flowed away during ink suction accumulates in the orifice portion, and as the blade brushes off the ink, the ink scatters and contaminates the surrounding area.

Further, if the shape of the blade is configured so that ink adheres well to the blade to prevent ink from scattering, there is a problem in that ink accumulates on the blade and the same vicious cycle as described above repeats.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the present invention, in an inkjet printing apparatus of the type described in the industrial application field, liquid attached to a printing liquid ejection portion of a printing head is removed. and/or a second removal member for removing liquid and/or foreign matter adhering to the first removal member for removing foreign matter; and a second removal member for removing the liquid and/or foreign matter adhering to the second removal member. A configuration further including a third removal member is adopted.

[Function] As shown in FIG. 1, the cap holder 184S supports the cap 19, which is a device composed of the pump 16.
'Adjacent to it, the aforementioned blade 2 is provided so as to be movable back and forth as shown by the arrow. A large number of folds 2a are formed at the tip of the blade 2 that comes into sliding contact with the recording head. During the ejection recovery operation shown in FIGS. 4 to 7, the blade 2 slides into contact with the front surface of the recording pad 11 through the movement of the carriage 12, as shown in FIG. , remove trash, etc. In this case, the removed ink is held between the folds 2a by capillary action and does not scatter around.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 3, a porous body 13 whose surface is raised is provided on the carriage l2. During the discharge recovery operation, this porous body 13 comes into sliding contact with the blade 2 through the movement of the carriage 12, as shown in FIG. 6, and removes ink, paper scraps, dust, etc. that have previously adhered to the blade 2.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, a replaceable ink cartridge 23-12 that supplies ink to a sub-tank that supplies ink to the recording head l1 has a porous body 8 whose surface is embossed on two parts. The end portion thereof is connected to the large porous body 4 inside the ink cartridge 23. During the discharge recovery operation, the porous body 8 is at the home position shown in FIG.
By moving the carriage 12 to the state shown in FIG. 5, the carriage 12 comes into sliding contact with the porous body 13 and removes ink, paper scraps, dust, etc. that have previously adhered to the porous body 13.

The removed ink is guided to the porous body 4 within the ink cartridge 23 and absorbed.

In this way, ink, paper scraps, dust, etc. adhering to the blade 2 are removed by the porous body l3 every time the ejection recovery operation is performed, and ink, paper scraps, dust, etc. adhering to the porous body l3 are further removed by the porous body 8. Since the ink is removed by the ink cartridge 23 and the ink is guided to the ink cartridge 23, ink, paper scraps, dust, etc. are prevented from adhering to the orifice portion from the blade 2.

The occurrence of ink ejection failure due to this adhesion is prevented.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, details of embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the attached drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a recovery device for normally recovering the above-mentioned ink ejection state of the inkjet recording apparatus according to this embodiment.

The recovery device 1 is provided so as to face the carriage in a predetermined area 9 of the movement range of the carriage, which will be described later, for example, at a home position. The pump 16 includes a pump 16 operated by a lever 15 to perform the aforementioned ink suction, and a cap 19 supported by a cap holder 18 on the front of a frame 17 and communicating with a pump chamber inside the pump 16.

The cap holder 18 is provided so as to be movable back and forth as shown by the arrow, and is configured to be displaced back and forth by driving a motor 21 via a gear 20 during a recovery operation.

Also, on one side of the frame 17, as mentioned above, there are ink and paper scum attached to the orifice part.

A blade 2 for removing dust and the like is fixed to the tip of the support plate 22 and supported adjacent to the cap holder 18. The blade 2 is formed from an elastic material into a rectangular plate shape, and has a number of folds 2a formed at its tip portion that slides into contact with the front surface of the recording head during a recovery operation. Further, the support plate 15 is provided to be movable back and forth as shown by an arrow, and is configured to be displaced back and forth via a lever 26 and a drive mechanism (not shown) during a recovery operation.

On the other hand, the apparatus of this embodiment is provided with a replaceable ink cartridge 23 as shown in FIG. 2 for supplying ink to a sub-tank that supplies ink to a recording head, which will be described later.

The ink cartridge 23 is a rectangular plate-shaped porous body 4 for recovering ink sucked during the old pig 39 recovery operation.
Medium nJl pig 5. An ink bag 6 and a lower lid 7 connected to a sub tank via an ink rubber lO and a tube (not shown)
It is constructed by stacking and combining the two below. On the upper surface of the upper lid 3, there is a holder portion 3a with a U-shaped cross section and an open front.
A porous body 8 is fitted into this holder portion a and held via a lid 9.

The porous body 8 is a porous body 1 on a carriage 12, which will be described later.
It removes ink, paper scum, dust, etc. attached to the surface of the paper.It is formed from a porous material into a long rectangular parallelepiped shape, and the upper part of the surface exposed to the outside has many irregularities formed by embossing. It is. Further, the lower end of the porous body 8 is connected to the porous body 4 inside the ink cartridge 23 . The ink cartridge 23 is arranged such that the porous body 8 is adjacent to the cap holder 18 of the recovery device 1 in the home position region of the carriage 12.

Next, FIG. 3 shows the structure around the gear ridge of the device of this embodiment.

The carriage shown with reference numeral 12 in FIG. 3 is a two-piece sliding shaft 14. The sliding shafts i4, 14 are slidably provided on the ljl:, and are slidably provided on the sliding shafts i4, 14 along the recording surface of recording paper (not shown) set on a platen (not shown) by being driven by a drive mechanism (not shown).
run on top.

The recording head 11 is mounted at the center of the front side of the carriage 121 facing the recording paper. Go to record 11
is driven by a drive signal corresponding to recording data applied via a flat cable 24, and performs dot recording by ejecting ink droplets from the tips of a predetermined number of orifices lla arranged in a vertical line d on the front. .

Further, a porous body 13 is provided on the front side of the carriage 12 adjacent to the recording head 11 . The porous body 13 is ink and paper waste adhering to the blade 2.

It is used to remove dust, etc., and is formed into a rectangular block shape from a porous material. The entire side surface of the carriage 12 facing the front side is brushed like a brush.

Further, a sub-tank indicated by reference numeral 25 is provided on the carriage 12, and this sub-tank 25 is connected to the ink cartridge 2.
Receives ink supply from the ink bag 6 of No. 3 and transfers it to the recording pad 11.
supply ink to.

Next, the ink ejection recovery operation by the apparatus of this embodiment having the above configuration will be explained with reference to FIGS. 4 to 7.

If an ink ejection failure occurs, first check the carriage 12.
is the home position shown in FIG.
1 is moved to a position facing the cap 19 of the recovery device 1.

Next, the cap holder 18 is displaced forward as shown by the arrow, and after the cap 19 is brought into close pressure contact with the front surface of the recording pad 11, the pump 16 mentioned above is driven to pump ink from the orifice lla of the recording pad 11. Suction. The sucked ink is guided from the pump 16 to the porous body 4 in the ink cartridge 23 and is disposed of in the porous body 4.

When the suction is finished, the cap holder 18 is the key? -/The blade 2 is moved backward as shown by the arrow along with the blade 19, and the blade 2 is displaced forward as shown by the arrow a.

Next, as the carriage 12 is driven in the direction indicated by the arrow, the fold 2a of the blade 2 slides against the front surface of the recording head 11 as shown in FIG. etc. to be removed.

In this case, the removed ink is retained between the folds 2a by capillary action and does not scatter around.

Then, as the carriage 12 is further driven in the direction indicated by the arrow, the porous body 13 comes into sliding contact with the blade 2 as shown in FIG. Then, the raised bristles of the porous body 13 come into sliding contact with the surface of the folds 2a of the blade 2, and the folds 2a
By passing through the gaps a, paper scraps, dust, etc. adhering to the surface of the pleats 2a and ink accumulated between the pleats 2a are removed.

Next, as shown in FIG. 7, the blade 2 is moved back to its original position as indicated by arrow C, and the carriage
is driven in the direction of arrow d and returned to the home position shown in FIG. 4, thereby completing the discharge recovery operation.

When the porous body 8 returns to the home position, the porous body 8 comes into contact with the bristles of the porous body 13, as shown in FIG.
The ink attached to the bristles is absorbed and removed by capillary action. Furthermore, due to this contact and the sliding contact of the porous body 8 with the bristles of the porous body 13 when the carriage 12 moves from the position shown in FIG. 4 to the position shown in FIG. 5 in the previous operation, the porous body 1
Paper scraps, dust, etc. attached to 3 are removed. - Also, the ink absorbed by the porous body 8 is led to the porous body 4 in the ink cartridge 23 by capillary action and is absorbed therein.

Since the gear ridge 12 is positioned at the home position even when the power of the apparatus is turned off, ink, paper waste, dust, etc. can be effectively removed from the porous body 13.

In this way, ink, paper scraps, dust, etc. adhering to the blade 2 are removed by the porous body 13 every time the ejection recovery operation is performed, and ink, paper scraps, dust, etc. adhering to the porous body 13 are further removed by the porous body 8. Since the ink is removed by and guided to the ink cartridge 23, ink, paper scraps, dust, etc. are prevented from adhering to the orifice portion from the blade 2, and occurrence of ink ejection failure due to this adhesion is prevented.

In addition, since the porous body 8 is replaced by replacing the ink cartridge 23 when it runs out of ink, there is no need to inspect the porous body 8 because there is no excessive amount of paper scraps, dust, etc. attached to it. Nor.

Note that in the configuration of this embodiment as described above, the porous body 8
, 13 may be replaced with a removal member made of other suitable material.

Further, in the above configuration, the porous body 8 is provided separately from the ink cartridge 23 and is not connected to the porous body 4, but instead, an ink storage means similar to the porous body 4 is connected to the porous body 13. It may also be provided. Furthermore, the porous body 8,1
Ink storage means may be connected to both of the porous bodies 8 and 3, and since both porous bodies 8 and 13 have an ink storage function, there is no need to provide separate ink storage means for both.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the following explanation, the inkjet recording apparatus of the present invention can remove liquid and/or foreign matter adhering to the L recording liquid ejecting portion by sliding in contact with the recording liquid ejecting portion of the recording head. The liquid and/or foreign matter attached to the first removal member for removal is removed by the second removal member, and the liquid and/or foreign matter attached to the second removal member is further removed by the third removal member. Therefore, it is possible to prevent recording liquid discharge failure caused by liquid and/or foreign matter from adhering to the recording liquid discharge portion from the first removal member, and to maintain a normal recording state and improve the reliability of the device. You can improve.

Further, the configuration of the present invention is extremely simple and can be implemented at low cost.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The figures explain the present invention in detail. Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the structure of the recovery device, Figure 2 is an exploded perspective view showing the structure of the ink cartridge, and Figure 3 is a perspective view showing the structure around the carriage. 4 to 7 are explanatory diagrams of the ejection recovery operation, respectively. 1... Recovery device 2... Blade 2a... Crease 4,8.13... Porous body 11... Recording head 11a... Orifice 12... Carriage 23... Ink cartridge Q -I, l hat l 1st (fi i〉)zu-hiri, ■9'# helmet ￥彡1i side 2 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) An inkjet recording apparatus having a first removal member that slides into contact with a recording liquid ejection portion of an inkjet recording head and removes liquid and/or foreign matter adhering to the recording liquid ejection portion, a second removal member for removing liquid and/or foreign matter attached to the first removal member;
An inkjet recording apparatus further comprising a third removal member for removing liquid and/or foreign matter adhering to the second removal member. 2) The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for absorbing and storing the liquid adhering to the second removal member. 3) The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising means for absorbing and storing the liquid adhering to the third removal member.