KR100561459B1 - Ink pump of inkjet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an ink pumping apparatus of an ink jet printer. The ink pumping apparatus of the disclosed inkjet printer has a circular inner circumferential surface, and has a housing having two entrances formed at one side thereof; An elastic tube disposed along an inner circumferential surface of the housing formed on an opposite surface of the entrance and having both ends protruding through the entrance; A roller which partially presses the elastic tube against the inner circumferential surface; A lever, one end rotatably supporting the roller; A fixing pin symmetrically formed on one surface of a rotation shaft to support the other end so that the lever is rotatable; A rotary table fixing the pivot shafts of the fixing pins; And rotation transfer means for imparting rotational force to the rotary table, wherein a stopper for regulating an angle rotated in a direction opposite to the direction in which the lever rotates from the center line connecting the pivot shafts is inclined 1 to 3 degrees from the center line. It is characterized in that installed on the rotary table. According to this, the roller is rotated while the pump is reliably pressing the tube during the pumping operation, there is an advantage that the noise is significantly reduced because the rotating member is installed spaced apart from the housing.

Description

Ink pumping device of an inkjet printer {Ink pump of inkjet printer}

1 is a view schematically showing the configuration of a conventional tube pump disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-190279.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the ink pumping apparatus of the inkjet printer according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, showing the cover opened. FIG.

3 is an exploded perspective view of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a state in which the ink pumping device of FIG. 2 is rotated in a reverse direction to release the roller from the tube.

* Description of Signs of Major Parts of Drawings *

10: housing 11: housing inlet

12: housing outlet 13: cover

20: tube 30: rotary table

31: gear 32: spring

33: Stopper 40: LEVER

41: roller 41a: center of rotation axis

42: rotation hole 50: fixing pin

51: rotating shaft

The present invention relates to an ink pumping apparatus of an inkjet printer, and more particularly, to an ink pumping apparatus for extracting ink from a clogged nozzle of a printhead of an inkjet printer to clean the nozzle.

An ink jet printer that ejects and prints ink in the form of droplets does not operate for a long time, or nozzle clogging occurs due to bubbles or foreign matter and solidification of ink at the nozzle when the ink is operated for a long time. When this nozzle clogging occurs, it affects the print quality and causes print defects. To solve this problem, connect a tube to a cap that seals the lower portion of the ink cartridge including the printhead at the service station. The pumping apparatus which draws ink from a nozzle by applying negative pressure to the inside of a cap and a nozzle plate by pumping the air of the sealing space in a cap to the outside is used.

1 is a view schematically showing the configuration of a conventional tube pump disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-190279.

Referring to the drawings, the tube pump includes a guide member 1 having an inner circumferential surface in an arc shape, an elastic tube 2 disposed along the inner circumferential surface of the guide member 1, and a roller for pressing the tube 2 ( 3) and a second support member 5 for rotatably supporting the first support member 4 of the roller 3 and the center of rotation shaft 4b of the first support member 4; Rotating regulating portions 5c and 5d for regulating the range of rotation of the first supporting member 4 are provided in the second supporting member 5. One end of the tube (2) is in communication with a cap (7) surrounding and sealing the printhead (6) located below the ink cartridge (8), and the other end of the tube (2) is connected to the waste ink recovery tank (9). In communication.

When the tube pump having such a configuration is rotated in the direction of arrow a by a driving means not shown, the roller 3 is in contact with the rotational control part 5c in the state where the first supporting member 4 The tube 2 is pressed while rotating the inner circumferential surface. As a result, negative pressure is generated at the end of the tube 2, and the inner space of the cap 7 sealing the ink ejection nozzles of the print head 6 becomes negative pressure. By this negative pressure state, ink is sucked from the ink discharge port of the print head 6, and it moves to the waste ink collection tank 9 along the tube 2. As shown in FIG.

However, the tube pump of the above structure is moved to the guide member 1 in a state in which the first support member 4 is inclined in the direction of the arrow a with respect to the center line connecting the centers of rotation 4b by the elastic force of the tube 2. When the roller is pulled in and rotated apart from the tube 2, the roller 3 may be rotated, and thus, the pressure function may be lost, thus preventing the pump from serving as a pump. In addition, noise may be generated by friction between the housing that covers the tube pump and the first support member 4 and the second support member 5 that rotate at high speed.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and means for causing the roller to be eccentric in a direction opposite to the pressing direction from a rotation center line connecting the rotational center axes in advance when the roller rotates in the pressing direction of the tube. The present invention provides an ink pumping apparatus of an inkjet printer, by which roller support members are coupled to a rotary table to rotate the rotary table, thereby preventing noise problems that may occur due to friction of the support members due to high speed rotation.

In order to achieve the above object, the ink pumping apparatus of the inkjet printer of the present invention, in the ink pumping apparatus for discharging the ink blocking the nozzle of the print head of the inkjet printer,

A housing having a circular inner circumferential surface and having two entrances formed at one side thereof;

An elastic tube disposed along an inner circumferential surface of the housing formed on an opposite surface of the entrance and having both ends protruding through the entrance;

A roller which partially presses the elastic tube against the inner circumferential surface;

A lever, one end rotatably supporting the roller;

A fixing pin symmetrically formed on one surface of a rotation shaft to support the other end so that the lever is rotatable;

A rotary table fixing the pivot shafts of the fixing pins; And

Rotation transmission means for imparting a rotational force to the rotary table;

A stopper for regulating the angle of rotation in a direction opposite to the direction in which the lever rotates from the center line connecting the rotation shafts is characterized in that installed on the rotary table inclined 1 to 3 degrees from the center line.

Preferably, the rotation transmission means is a gear formed on one side circumference of the rotary table, or the rotation transmission means is a shaft that penetrates the rotary table and the fixing pin and protrudes outwardly of the housing.

It is preferable that a spring connecting one side of the lever and the rotary table is further installed so that the lever is eccentric to contact the stopper.

The rotary table is preferably installed substantially vertically.

Hereinafter, an ink pumping apparatus of an ink jet printer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this process, the thicknesses of layers or regions illustrated in the drawings are exaggerated for clarity.

Figure 2 is a plan view of the ink pumping apparatus of the ink jet printer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the cover is opened, Figure 3 is an exploded perspective view of Figure 2, the same reference to the object of the same structure as the conventional invention Use numbers and omit detailed descriptions.

Referring to the drawings, the inner circumferential surface is circular and has a housing 10 formed with two entrances to one side, and an elastic tube disposed along the inner circumferential surface opposite to the side where the entrance is formed and both ends protrude outward from the two entrances, respectively. 20 and the lower surface of the housing 10 are fitted with an upper surface spaced apart by a predetermined gap, and a rotary table 30 having a gear 31 formed thereon is disposed at the lower circumference thereof. In addition, the rotary table 30 is provided with two levers 40 symmetrically arranged to support the roller 41 to be rotated in contact with the elastic tube 20. The central axis of rotation 41a of the roller 41 is supported to be rotated at one end of the lever 40. At the other end of the lever 40, a rotation hole 42 into which the rotation shaft (51 described later) of the lever 40 is inserted is formed. The rotating holes 42 facing each other are rotatably fixed to the rotary table 30 by fixing pins 50 connecting two rotating shafts 51. In addition, a cover 13 covering the housing 10 is disposed above the rotary table 30. In FIG. 3, the rotary table 30 is illustrated as being horizontally formed. However, the rotary table 30 is actually fixed in the inkjet printer (not shown), and in use, the rotary table 30 is installed in a substantially vertical direction and the housing inlet 11 is disposed at the top. One end of the tube 20 inserted therein is in communication with the cap (7 in FIG. 1), and the housing outlet 12 is disposed at the bottom so that one end of the tube 20 inserted therein is a waste ink recovery tank (FIG. It is preferable to communicate with 9) of 1).

On the rotary table 30, a spring 32 is disposed to elastically bias the rotary table 30 to the opposite side of the forward rotation direction (the arrow A direction in the tube pressing direction) of the lever 40. And a stopper 33 for restricting excessive rotation of the lever 40 in the reverse rotation direction (the direction opposite to the pressing direction of the tube) with respect to the rotation center line connecting the center of the rotation shaft 42 of the lever 40. Is arranged. The stopper 33 is preferably arranged eccentrically about 1 to 3 degrees with respect to the rotation center line of the lever 40. The spring 32 exerts an elastic force in contact with the stopper 33 by pulling the lever 40. The eccentric lever 40 prevents the lever 40 from being rotated in the rotational direction from the elastic force of the tube at the time of rotation so that the lever 40 is floated and rotated from the tube 20.

The operation of the ink pumping device of the ink jet printer of the above structure will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, the ink cartridge (8 in FIG. 1) is moved to the service station to seal the print head (6 in FIG. 1) with the cap (7). Next, when the rotary table 30 is rotated in the direction of the arrow A by rotating the gear 31 by the driving means, not shown, the fixing pin 50 and the rotating shaft 51 fixed to the rotary table 30 rotate together. While the roller 20 presses a part of the tube 20, the air in the tube 20 is discharged toward the waste ink recovery tank 9. As a result, the inside of the tube 20 is temporarily vacuumed, and a predetermined negative pressure is applied to the inside of the cap 7 and the print head 6 communicated with the tube 20. As the rotary table 30 rotates, the negative pressure increases, so that the ink formed on the nozzle plate (not shown) of the print head 6 is drawn out from the nozzle plate, and the waste ink recovery tank 9 is moved along the path of the tube 20. Enter). At this time, the spring 32 keeps the lever 40 in contact with the stopper 33 by causing the lever 40 to be eccentric in a direction opposite to the rotation direction of the rotary table 30. When the lever 40 is eccentrically rotated in this manner, the lever 40 is bent in the rotational direction during rotation to be spaced apart from the tube 20 to press the tube 20, thereby reducing the pumping effect is reduced in advance. .

On the other hand, the upper outer peripheral surface of the rotary table 30 which rotates at a high speed is fixed while maintaining a predetermined gap from the inner peripheral surface of the housing 10, the gear 31 formed on the lower surface of the rotary table 30 is the housing 10 When installed to protrude outward of the noise does not occur due to friction between the components due to the high-speed rotation.

On the other hand, when the extraction of ink from the print head 6 is stopped, the cap 7 is spaced apart from the print head 6 by the driving means not shown after the rotation of the rotary table 30 is stopped. When the table 30 is rotated in the reverse rotation direction, as shown in FIG. 4, the roller 41 contacting the tube 20 bends in the opposite direction to the rotation direction (the B direction) of the rotary table 30 so that the tube ( Reduces the pressure applied to 20. This operation has the effect of preventing deformation of the tube.

Meanwhile, in the above embodiment, the gear 31 formed on the outer circumferential surface of the rotary table 30 is used as a means for transmitting a drive to the rotary table 30, but is fixed to the rotary table 30 instead of the gear 31. The rotary table 30 and the fixing pin 50 may be rotated by forming a rotating shaft (not shown) to protrude out of the housing 10 and rotating the shaft. The configuration and operation of this embodiment are substantially the same as described above in the above embodiment, and thus detailed description thereof will be omitted.

As described above, the ink pumping apparatus of the inkjet printer according to the present invention has the advantage that the roller is rotated while pressing the tube stably during the pumping operation, and the rotating member that is rotating at a high speed is spaced apart from the housing, thereby significantly reducing noise.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments with reference to the drawings, this is merely exemplary, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications and equivalent embodiments are possible. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention will be defined only by the appended claims.

Claims (5)

An ink pumping device for discharging ink blocking a nozzle of a print head of an ink jet printer, A housing having a circular inner circumferential surface and having two entrances formed at one side thereof; An elastic tube disposed along an inner circumferential surface of the housing formed on an opposite surface of the entrance and having both ends protruding through the entrance; A roller which partially presses the elastic tube against the inner circumferential surface; A lever, one end rotatably supporting the roller; A fixing pin in which a rotation shaft for supporting the other end of the lever is symmetrically formed on one surface such that the lever is rotatable; Rotary table for fixing the pivot shaft of the fixing pin Rotation transfer means for imparting rotational force to the rotary table; A stopper installed on the rotary table inclined 1 to 3 degrees from the center line to regulate an angle of rotation of the lever in a direction opposite to the direction in which the lever rotates from the center line connecting the pivot shafts; And And a spring for connecting the rotary table with one side of the lever such that the lever is eccentric to be in contact with the stopper. The method of claim 1, The rotation transfer means is an ink pumping device of an ink jet printer, characterized in that the gear formed on one side circumference of the rotary table. The method of claim 1, And the rotation transfer means is a shaft fixed to the rotary table to protrude outwardly of the housing. delete The method of claim 1, And the rotary table is installed substantially vertically.

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