JPS62246741A - Ink jet recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To miniaturize and simplify an ink recovery system, by a method wherein a tension pulley imparting tension to a timing belt is made rockable to be used as a running block and the recovery pump of a recording head is driven by the movement of said pulley. CONSTITUTION:When a carriage 7 gets out of a printing region and moves to the left side, a projection 23 is engaged with the projection 24 of a cap arm 20 and both projections together move to the left direction and a cap 17 caps the front surface of a recording head 8 by the action of a cap cam 22. Further, the release cam 29 of the carriage 7 is contacted with a lock lever 28 and a tension lever becomes rockable. A motor 10 is driven to an A-direction to allow a tension pulley 12 to move to an E-direction and a plunger 18 is pressed by this movement to drive a recovery system pump 18 and the cap is sucked to be brought to negative pressure to recover ink. An exclusive motor is not required and a structure is simplified.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a drive mechanism for a recovery pump in an inkjet recording apparatus.

[Prior art]

Inkjet recording devices employ recovery operations such as suctioning ink with a pump and washing it away with cleaning fluid to prevent the ink discharge ports of the recording head (inkjet head) from clogging and ensure normal ink discharge. ing. There are various causes of clogging of the ink ejection ports, such as thickening of the ink due to drying, adhesion of paper scraps and fine dust in the air, and generation of air bubbles.

The present invention covers the recording head with a camp when not printing, and
The target is an inkjet recording device equipped with an ink recovery system that uses a suction pump to suck out dust from the ink ejection port when ejection fails.

Previously, the suction pump for ink recovery systems was driven by a dedicated motor.

For this reason, in conventional inkjet recording devices,
There were problems such as the large number of motors and related parts, high parts and assembly costs, and the need for space.

In addition, if the recovery system suction pump is manually operated, the number of motors etc. can be reduced, but since the manual operation intervenes in the recovery system sequence, the control becomes slow.
If the recovery operation is performed when the power is turned off, the recovery system sequence is disturbed, causing problems such as ink overflowing into the cap and excessive pressure acting on the recording head, resulting in damage.

〔the purpose〕

An object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, to operate a recovery system suction pump using a carriage drive motor with a simple structure, and to provide an ink generator that can be downsized and cost reduced. The purpose is to provide a recording device.

〔overview〕

The present invention provides an inkjet recording apparatus that transmits driving force to a carriage moving in a printing digit direction via a timing belt, in which a tension pulley that applies a predetermined tension to the timing belt is swingably supported;
The above object is achieved by using the tension pulley as a movable pulley and using its movement to drive the recovery pump of the recording head.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an inkjet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In Fig. 1, the main body frame 1 has a platen roll 2.
is supported by its shaft portion 3, and one end of the shaft portion 3 is connected to a sheet conveyance motor 4 directly or via a reduction gear.

A paper pan 5 for guiding the recording sheet is provided near the surface of the platen roll 2.

Two guide shafts 6.6 are installed parallel to each other in front of the platen roll 2, and a carriage 7 is supported on the guide shafts so as to be slidable in the printing column direction.

The carriage 7 has a recording head (inkjet head) 8
and an ink tank 9 are mounted.

A plurality of ink ejection orifices are formed on the front surface of the recording head 8, and by driving these ink ejection orifices based on print data while driving the carriage 7 and forming flying ink droplets, banks are formed on the platen roll 2. It is configured to record on an uploaded sheet.

The carriage 7 has a carriage motor 101 and a drive pulley 11.
, a tension pulley 12, and a timing belt 13. Both ends of the timing belt 13 are connected to a carriage 7, and when the drive pulley 11 rotates in the direction of arrow A, the carriage 7 moves in the direction of arrow B, and when the drive pulley is reversed, the carriage moves in the opposite direction. do.

The tension pulley 12 is a tension spring 1
4, the timing belt 13 is pivoted on a tension lever 16 which is biased in the direction of arrow C about a fulcrum 15, and a predetermined tension is applied to the timing belt 13 by the tension spring 14.

A cap 17 and a recovery pump 18 connected to the cap via a suction tube 35 are disposed on the left side of the platen roll 2, that is, on the left side outside the printing range, and in the illustrated example, the left end position of the carriage 7 is disposed. has been selected as the home position.

The cap 17 is fixed to a cap arm 20 that is slidably supported on a cap shaft 19 projecting from the left side wall of the frame 1, and the cap arm is equipped with a cap spring 21 that serves as both a compression spring and a torsion spring. is biased to the right and rearward.

Further, behind the cap shaft 19, a cap cam 22 is provided for displacing the cap 17 forward when the cap 17 moves to the left.
is provided.

The cap arm 20 is formed with a protrusion 24 that engages with the protrusion 23 when the carriage 7 moves to the left, and when the carriage 7 moves to the left, the cap 17 moves to the left together with the carriage. It is supposed to move.

The carriage 7 has a stopper 2 for regulating the left end position.
5 is provided.

The tip 16A of the tension lever 16 comes into contact with a lock lever 28 that is biased by a spring 27 supported by a lever shaft 26, and as long as the carriage 7 does not come to the home position, it will not move as shown in the figure. The swinging of the tension lever 16 in the direction of the arrow E, that is, the movement of the tension boot 1J12 in the direction of the arrow E, is restricted (locked).

A cam 29 for releasing the lock lever 28 is formed on the carriage 7, and when the carriage comes near the home position, it contacts a cam pin 30 provided on the lock lever 28 and releases the cam 29 against the spring 27. The lock lever is layered from the tip 16A of the tension lever 16. From this unlocked state, when the carriage motor IO is reversed to move the carriage 7 to the right, the tension lever 16 is automatically locked by the lock lever 28 due to the action of the return spring 27.

In the recovery pump 18, the plunger 18A is pressed by the swinging of the tension lever 16 in the direction of the arrow E, that is, the movement of the tensioner pulley 12 in the direction of the arrow E, and a suction operation, that is, the ink discharge port is opened via the tube 35 and the cap 17. An operation is performed to suck ink from the ink and discharge the sucked ink as waste ink.

A drive pulley 11 supported at a position opposite the tension pulley 12 (on the carriage motor 10 side) is pressed with a roller 31 at a predetermined pressure to prevent the timing belt 13 from coming off when it becomes slack. In the illustrated example, the roller 31 is pivotally supported by an elastically deformable support arm 32.

A separator plate 33 having a predetermined length is provided between the reciprocating paths of the timing belt 13.

This separator plate 33 is provided to prevent the inner teeth of the running portions on both sides from getting caught in each other when the timing belt 13 becomes slack, thereby preventing malfunction or belt jamming.

Further, a guide member 34 is provided outside the reciprocating path of the timing belt 13 (on the rear side in the illustrated example).

This guide member 34 prevents the timing belt 13 from coming into contact with other parts within the recording apparatus when the timing belt 13 becomes slack.

In the illustrated example, the separator 33 and the guide portion 34 are integrally formed using a channel member.

Next, the operation of the inkjet recording apparatus described above will be explained.

First, a case will be described in which the recording head 8 is capped during paper feeding, standby, etc. in addition to normal printing.

When the carriage 7 moves to the left (home position side), the protrusion 23 of the carriage engages with the protrusion 24 of the cap arm 20 after leaving the printing area 9-' as shown in FIG. 2(A). Both move to the left together.

During this movement to the left, the cap 17 is displaced forward (downward in FIG. 2) by the cap cam 22 and pressed against the front surface of the recording head 8, capping the ink discharge ports.

As shown in FIG. 2(B), the stopper 25 of the carriage 7 collides with the frame 1, and capping is completed when the carriage 7 reaches the left end (home position).

Next, the rotational operation of the recording head 8 will be explained.

FIG. 3(A) and FIG. 3(B) show timing bell l-
13 (drive of the carriage motor 10) and the displacement of the tension lever 16 and lock lever 28. If the carriage 7 has not reached the far left side (near the home position at the left end), the state shown in FIG. As shown, the tension lever 16 is locked in place by a lock lever 28.

When the carriage 7 moves further to the left, it first moves as shown in Figure 2 (A).
The capping operation is started as shown in FIG. 3(B), and the release cam 29 of the carriage 7 is opened as shown in FIG.
comes into contact with the cam pin 30 of the lock lever 28, and rotates the lock lever in a direction away from the tip 16A of the tension lever 16.

In this way, the tension lever 16 is in a state where it can swing in the direction of the arrow.

The second stopper 25 of the carriage 7 abuts against the frame 1
Camping is completed at the position shown in Figure (B) (home position).

After the capping is completed, that is, after the carriage 7 is stopped at the home position, the carriage motor 1
0 in the direction of arrow A, a tensile force T acts on the timing belt 13 and a force in the direction of arrow E acts on the tension pulley 12, as shown in FIG. 3(B).

In this case, since the lock lever 28 has already been released, the tension lever 1 is moved by the force in the direction of the arrow E.
6 overcomes the spring force of the tension spring 14 and swings around the fulcrum 15 in the direction of the arrow, and the recovery pump 18 is driven. In this way, ink is suctioned through the ink ejection port of the recording head 8 by the negative pressure suction force within the cap 17, and further the tube 35 and the pump lB
Waste ink is discharged through the recording head 8, and the ink recovery operation of the recording head 8 is performed.

Note that when the tension pulley 12 is pulled, the timing belt 13 becomes slack as shown in FIG.
4 and a roller 3 that presses the drive pulley 11.
1, it is possible to prevent problems such as belts getting caught with each other or other parts or coming off due to the slackness.

In the ink recovery operation, the tension pulley 12
is used as a moving pulley, and its movement drives the recovery pump 18 of the recording head 8.

In addition, when the recovery pump 18 is driven a plurality of times, the carriage motor 10 can be smoothly controlled by rotating the carriage motor 10 in the forward and reverse directions by a predetermined amount a plurality of times.

According to the embodiment described above, by using the motor 10 for driving the carriage, the capping mechanism and the pump 18 of the ink recovery system can be operated with a simple structure without requiring a dedicated motor. By simplifying the size of the ink recovery system, it was possible to reduce the size and cost of the inkjet recording apparatus.

〔effect〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain an inkjet recording apparatus that does not require a dedicated motor and can configure an ink recovery system with a simple structure and at low cost.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of an inkjet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG.
3A and 3B are schematic plan views showing the locked and released states of the tension lever. 7.--1--carriage, 8--1 recording head, 10.--carriage motor, 11.-1--
- Drive pulley, 12・----1・Tension pulley,
13-...- Timing belt, 17...--
・Cap, 1B--Recovery pump, 31--
-Koro, 33...---One separator, 34-...--
Guide member.

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) In an inkjet recording device that transmits driving force to a carriage moving in the printing digit direction via a timing belt, a tension pulley that applies a predetermined tension to the timing belt is swingably supported, and the tension pulley An inkjet recording apparatus characterized in that a recovery pump of a recording head is driven by the movement of a pulley. (2) The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a roller is pressed with a predetermined pressure against a drive pulley supported at a position facing the tension pulley. (3) The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that a separator plate of a predetermined length is provided between the reciprocating paths of the timing belt. (4) The inkjet recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that a guide member is provided outside the reciprocating path of the timing belt.