JPS63147650A - Recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To always detect the amount of the ink in an ink tank regardless of a color without bringing about the compositional change of the ink, by successively detecting the position of the float in the ink tank by a plurality of light paths and an electromagnetic wave detection means. CONSTITUTION:A plurality of pairs of light paths 11A, 11B...13A, 13B arranged in an up-and-down direction, light receiving elements 14B-16B capable of detecting electromagnetic waves emitted from light emitting elements 14A-16A through said light paths, a float 17 freely floatable in an ink tank 3 and capable of blocking the electromagnetic waves and a means judging the amount of ink are mounted to the opposed positions of the wall surface of the ink tank 3. As a result, the residual quantity of the ink in the ink tank 3 can be detected according to the position of the float 17 and an operator can foreknow recording quantity from now on. Therefore, without bringing about the compositional change of the ink because of electromagnetic waves, the amount of the ink in the tank 3 can be detected regardless of a color.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a recording device, and particularly to an inkjet type recording device having an ink tank provided near a nozzle unit and capable of detecting the remaining amount of ink.

[Prior Art] In a conventional recording device of this type, a counter electrode provided at a predetermined level position within the ink tank determines whether or not the ink is energized by utilizing the conductivity of the ink. The remaining amount of ink is detected by. FIG. 7 shows an example of such conventional ink,
Here, 1 is an inkjet head unit, 2 is an ink nozzle arranged on the surface facing the recording medium, and ink is supplied to the head unit 1 from an ink tank 3 through an ink supply pipe 4.

Further, the ink tank 3 is provided with an ink remaining amount detection chamber 5 with a portion thereof protruding, and this ink remaining amount detection chamber 5
When the electrodes 6A and 6B are exposed at opposite positions at an appropriate ink level detection level, and the ink level is above this level, the electrodes 6A and 6B are kept energized, so that It is determined that there is ink, and when the ink level falls below this level, the current is turned off, and it is determined that there is no ink.

However, in the case of an ink tank that uses ink conductivity to detect the remaining amount of ink,
When the ink is energized, it is electrolyzed and the composition of the ink changes, causing problems.In addition, electrolytic products adhere to the electrodes due to the electrolysis, which reduces conductivity and deteriorates the detection function. There are problems such as

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The purpose of the present invention is to focus on the above-mentioned problems, and to solve the problems without causing a change in the composition of the ink and regardless of the color of the ink. An object of the present invention is to provide a recording device that can always detect the amount of ink in an ink tank.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a recording apparatus that includes an ink tank disposed near an ink nozzle and is capable of detecting the amount of ink in the ink tank. It is formed at a position facing the wall surface of the ink tank, and has a plurality of pairs of optical paths arranged in the vertical direction, and is arranged in relation to the plurality of pairs of optical paths, has a light emitting element and a light receiving element, and has a light emitting element and a light receiving element. a detection means capable of detecting electromagnetic waves emitted by a light emitting element; and a floating body capable of floating within an ink tank and capable of blocking electromagnetic waves from at least one pair of optical paths among the plurality of pairs of optical paths. , and means for determining the amount of ink according to the detection signal from the detection means.

[Function] In the recording device of the present invention, the combination of a plurality of pairs of optical paths arranged vertically on the wall facing the ink tank and a floating body capable of interrupting these optical paths allows the recording device to operate the optical system according to the position of the floating body. , it became possible to detect the amount of ink in the ink tank, and by detecting the amount of ink remaining, the operator could predict how much more recording could be done, creating an extremely easy-to-use recording device. can be provided.

[Example] The present invention will be described below in detail and specifically based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the invention. Only the detection unit that detects the amount of ink in the ink tank 3 is shown here, and in this figure, the ink liquid 7 is in a nearly full tank state. IIA and IIB, 12A and 12B, and 13A and 138 are pairs of optical paths provided at corresponding positions on opposing walls, respectively, and are formed of a transparent material, and the distance between the paths in the vertical direction is maintained equally.

14A, 15^ and 16A are one optical path 11A,
Light emitting element provided directly connected to 12A and 13^, 1
4B, 15B and 16B are the other optical paths 11B and 12
The light-receiving elements are directly connected to the light-receiving elements B and 13B, and the combination of the light-emitting element and the light-receiving element arranged opposite each other constitutes the optical sensors 14, 15 and 16, respectively. ．． They will be referred to as second and third optical sensors. However, these optical sensors 14,
15 and 16 preferably have good infrared light receiving sensitivity, so that the light transmitted through the ink liquid 7 can be detected.

Reference numeral 17 denotes a float floating on the ink liquid 7. In this example, the height of the float 17 is set so that it can transmit light easily to the two pairs of vertically adjacent optical paths, and the height of the float 17 is set so that it can illuminate the two pairs of vertically adjacent optical paths, as shown in the figure. At the uppermost position of the float 17, the pair of optical paths 1
1^, so that only IIB is blocked, and at the lowest position of the float 17, only the lowest optical paths 13^, 13B are blocked, as shown in FIG. . 3 shows a state where the float 17 is in an intermediate position, that is, the ink liquid 7 has been somewhat consumed from the state shown in FIG. ^.

11B, 12^, and 12B are both illuminated by the wall of the float 17.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the configuration of a control circuit according to the present invention, where 21 is a control section of a recording apparatus having the function of a central processing unit CPU. The recording operation is carried out via this control section 21. For this purpose, a detection signal from the home position detection sensor 22 is input to the control section 21 via its detection circuit 23, and the control section 21 A carriage motor 25 is driven via a motor drive circuit 24 . On the other hand, a driving circuit 26 is connected to the light emitting elements 14A, 15^ and 16^ disposed in the ink tank 3.
When the light receiving elements 14B, 15B, and 16B receive the light emission signals and turn on, the detection signals are sent to the control unit 21 through the detection circuit 27'. Output. 28 is an error and alarm display section, and when the amount of ink in the ink tank 3 decreases to a predetermined amount or becomes nearly empty, an alarm is generated as described later, or an ink amount detection means is displayed. If there is a failure, an error warning may occur. Note that 30 is a recording section that performs recording by discharging ink in response to a recording signal from the control section 21.

Next, referring to FIG. 5, the operation of detecting the remaining amount of ink in the recording apparatus configured as described above will be explained. First, when the recording operation is started in step 51, it is determined in step S2 whether or not the first optical sensor 14 in the ink tank 3 is "off", and if it is determined that it is "off", further Proceeding to step S3, it is determined whether the second optical sensor 15 is "off".

Here, if the second optical sensor 15 is not "off", it means that only the first optical paths 11^, 11B are cut off by the float 17, so the process branches to step S4 and the display section 28 is filled up. After displaying the tank, the process returns to step S2 and continues to detect the amount of ink liquid.

Further, if the second optical sensor 15 is "off", the process advances to the next step S5, where it is determined whether the third optical sensor 16 is "off", and if not, the first Since the optical path 11^, IIB and the second optical path 12^, 12B are both cut off, it is assumed that the tank 3 has decreased slightly from the full tank, and the process branches to step S6 and the display section 28 shows A message to that effect is displayed and the process returns to step S2.

In step S5, the third optical sensor 16 is further turned off.
If so, 1st. The second and third optical paths (11^,
IIB) , (12A, 12B) and (13A, 1
3B), and since such a state is impossible with the configuration of this embodiment, the process proceeds to step S7 and causes the display section 28 to display a failure message as an error.

Further, in step S2, if the first optical sensor 14 is not "off", the process branches to step S8, where it is determined whether the second optical sensor 15 is "off". Here, if the second optical sensor 15 is "off", the process proceeds to step S9, and in step S9 it is determined whether the third optical sensor 16 is also "off". Third optical sensor 1
6 is not "off", the second optical path 1
This means that only 2^ and 12B are cut off, and the process advances to step 510 to display a message indicating that the amount of ink has further decreased compared to the display state in step S6 and that full-scale recording of, for example, ^3 size is possible. The display is performed on the display unit 28, and
If it is determined in step S9 that the third optical sensor 16 is "off", the process proceeds to step 511, where a display is displayed indicating that the amount of ink has further decreased and full-scale recording of, for example, ^4 size is possible. Go to Step S in either case.
Return to 8.

Next, in step S8, if the second optical sensor 15 is not "off", the process branches to step 512, where it is determined whether or not the third optical sensor 16 is "off". 16 is “off”, the third optical path 16^
, 16B are in a cut-off state, so the process advances to step 513 and causes the display section 28 to display that the tank 3 is empty. Further, in step S12, if it is determined that the third optical sensor 16 is not "off", the three optical paths (11^, IIB), (12
Since both A, 12B) and (13^, 13B) are not illuminated, which is an impossible condition, the process advances to the dream tube s7 and a failure is displayed.

FIG. 6 shows still another embodiment of the present invention.In this example, one optical sensor is movable in the vertical direction instead of using a fixed type of multiple pairs of optical sensors consisting of a light emitting element and a light receiving element. The purpose of this is to detect which optical path is blocked. Here, although the carriage is not shown, numeral 41 is a cam-shaped guide member disposed, for example, near the home position of the carriage, and in this example, it is formed in a wave shape.

On the other hand, in the ink tank 3, optical paths (11^, 11B), '(12^, 12
B) and (13^, 13B) are provided, and for example, an optical sensor 42 that is held movably in the vertical direction along the outside of these optical paths is provided.

The sensor 42 may be a combination of a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element arranged in opposing positions, or one light-emitting element may be movable relative to a plurality of fixed light-receiving elements, or a plurality of light-emitting elements may be movable relative to a plurality of fixed light-receiving elements. One light receiving element may be movable relative to the fixed light emitting element.Furthermore, the guide member 41
The shape may also be a simple slope type instead of a stepped type as shown in the figure.

In the ink liquid detection device in the ink tank configured as described above, when the carriage carrying the ink tank 3 moves toward the home position, the support member (not shown) of the optical sensor 42 is pushed up by the guide member 41. , the optical sensor 42 is successively raised to the position shown by the broken line. Therefore, it is possible to detect which optical path is in the blocked state.

In the above explanation, the ink tank 3 has been described as the only tank provided near the head unit 1, but the ink tank is separated into a main tank and a sub tank, and ink is transferred from the main tank to the sub tank. The present invention can also be applied to a sub-tank when replenishment is performed, and in such a case, a drop in the liquid level in the sub-tank indicates that the main tank is empty or there is some other abnormality. An appropriate display or warning may be provided accordingly.

In addition, in the above example, the optical sensors are provided in three stages, but the number of stages is not limited to three stages, and may be two or four stages or multiple stages, and the vertical spacing between the optical sensors is not necessarily limited to three stages. Needless to say, it does not have to be constant.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the position of the floating body in the ink tank is determined by the plurality of pairs of optical paths provided on the tank wall and the positions provided in relation to these optical paths. Since the detection is performed one after another by the infrared detection means installed in the ink tank, it is possible to detect not only the presence or absence of ink in the ink tank, but also the state of the tank from full to empty. By setting the installation position and the vertical spacing, it is possible to predict how much ink can be recorded with the remaining amount of ink, thereby providing a recording device that is extremely easy to use for the operator. can.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1, 2, and 3 are schematic diagrams showing the structure of an ink tank according to the recording apparatus of the present invention, as well as its full tank state, empty tank state, and intermediate state of ink amount, and FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the ink tank. A block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the ink amount detection device, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the ink amount detection operation, FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a conventional ink amount detection device. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing an example of an outline of a tank and its remaining ink amount detection device. 3... Ink tank, 11^, IIB, 12A, 12B, 13A, 13B...
・Optical path, 14.15, 16.42... Optical sensor, 1
4^, 15A, 16A... Light emitting element, 14B, 15B
, 16B... Light receiving element, 17... Float, 21... Control section, 28-... Display section, 30... Recording section, 41... Guide member. ink tank). Figure 2 3 Ink tank Figure 7

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) In a recording device that includes an ink tank disposed near an ink nozzle and is capable of detecting the amount of ink in the ink tank, the ink tank is formed at a position facing a wall surface of the ink tank, and is arranged in a vertical direction. a plurality of pairs of optical paths arranged in a row, and a light emitting element and a light receiving element disposed in relation to the plurality of pairs of optical paths, the electromagnetic waves emitted by the light emitting element being detected via the optical path. a floating body capable of floating within the ink tank and capable of blocking the electromagnetic waves from at least one pair of optical paths among the plurality of pairs of optical paths; 1. A recording device comprising: means for determining an amount of ink according to a detection signal. 2) In the recording device according to claim 1,
A recording apparatus characterized in that the detection means is disposed for each of the plurality of pairs of optical paths. 3) In the recording device according to claim 1,
The recording device characterized in that the detection means is movable in the vertical direction, and the detection means is capable of detecting the electromagnetic waves via the plurality of pairs of optical paths. 4) A recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the ink amount determined by the ink amount determining means can be displayed.