KR100574035B1 - Maintenance apparatus for ink jet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is a maintenance apparatus of an inkjet printer capable of stably performing a maintenance operation while reducing the size of a printer. The present invention, the capping member for sealing the print head in the maintenance area; A wiping member for cleaning the print head moving to the printing area during printing; A thread groove lever for moving the capping member and the wiping member to the capping position by contacting the carriage; And height adjusting means for lowering the height of the thread groove lever so that the carriage and the thread groove lever contact with each other during maintenance, and lowering the height of the thread groove lever so that the carriage and the thread groove lever do not interfere during printing. The height adjusting means includes: a support cylinder for supporting the thread groove lever to be adjustable to a first height and a second height higher than the support groove; An electromagnet composed of a first magnet provided at a lower end of the thread groove lever and a second magnet provided at a lower surface of the support cylinder to maintain the thread groove lever at a first height; An elastic member installed between the lower end of the thread groove lever and the support cylinder lower surface to maintain the thread groove lever in a second height state; And a control unit for controlling the operation of the electromagnet.

Maintenance, Capping, Wiping, Spitoon, Printer, Inkjet, Head, Nozzle, Cleaning

Description

Maintenance device of inkjet printer {MAINTENANCE APPARATUS FOR INK JET PRINTER}

1 is a view schematically showing an example of a maintenance apparatus of a conventional inkjet printer,

2 is a view schematically showing another example of a maintenance apparatus of a conventional inkjet printer,

3 is a view schematically showing a maintenance apparatus of an inkjet printer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Figure 4 is a view showing the thread groove lever height adjusting means that is the main portion of the present invention,

5 and 6 are views for explaining the operation of the present invention, Figure 5 shows the operation of the thread groove lever during printing, and Figure 6 shows the operation of the thread groove lever during maintenance.

<Description of Symbols for Main Parts of Drawings>

30; carriage 31; print head

40; capping member 50; wiping member

60; thread groove lever 70; moving member

80; housing 81; slope guide

91; supporter 92a, 92b; magnet

93; elastic member 94; control unit

The present invention relates to an inkjet printer, and more particularly, to a maintenance apparatus of an inkjet printer which maintains and maintains a normal state so that the surface of the print head is not dried or contaminated when not being used for printing or for a long time.

In general, an inkjet printer includes a paper feeder, a paper feeder, a printing device, a paper ejection device, and a maintenance device for cleaning the surface of the printhead, receiving and storing waste ink, and sealing the printhead.

The maintenance device is to maintain the surface of the print head in a normal state and to maintain the print head to perform a good printing function, which is one of the essential components of the inkjet printer.

Such a maintenance apparatus typically has a structure in which the capping and wiping members are moved up and down by capping and wiping the surface of the print head by moving the capping member and the wiping member along the inclined guide groove of the housing by using the conveying power of the carriage. Have

1 is a view schematically showing a general structure of a maintenance apparatus as described above.

As shown in FIG. 1, the housing 1 has two side surfaces 2 and 3, and two side surfaces 2 and 3 have two pairs of inclined guide grooves 2a and 2b inclined at a predetermined angle. It is formed in front and back respectively.

The moving member 10 is located inside the housing 1, and the guide protrusions 11a and 11b formed at both front and rear sides thereof are installed in the inclined guide grooves 2a and 2b. Therefore, the movable member 10 moves along the inclined guide grooves 2a and 2b when an external force is applied. In addition, a thread groove lever 12, a capping member 13, a wiping member 15, and a latch lever 17 are disposed in the moving member 10 in place.

The thread groove lever 12 is brought into contact with the carriage when an unshown carriage moves from the print area to the maintenance area, whereby the moving member 10 is moved to the capping position along the inclined guide grooves 2a and 2b. . The capping member 13 seals the print head of the carriage at the capping position of the movable member 10, and the wiping member 15 cleans the print head. In addition, the latch lever 17 is installed on the opposite side of the thread groove lever 12 of the movable member 10, and the movable member 10 is moved to the capping standby position by contacting the carriage moving to the printing area during printing. .

As described above, the maintenance apparatus of a general inkjet printer caps and wipes the print head while the capping member 13 and the wiping member 15 are vertically moved by the reciprocating transfer power of the carriage on which the ink cartridge is mounted.

That is, when the carriage moves to the maintenance area and pushes the thread groove lever 12, capping is performed. When the carriage moves in reverse, the wiping is performed, and the thread groove is operated by the operation of the latch lever 17 by the further movement of the carriage. The lever 12 is returned to its original position.

However, in the maintenance apparatus of a general inkjet printer as described above, since the moving member 10 must move smoothly at a sufficient distance for capping and wiping, a relatively long inclined guide groove 2a (2b) with a gentle inclination need. Accordingly, there is a problem in that the size of the printer is increased by increasing the maintenance apparatus such as the size of the housing 1 increases.

On the other hand, the maintenance apparatus of the ink jet printer according to another embodiment of the prior art shown in Figure 2, by receiving the rotational force from a separate power source to operate the crank 21 and the link 22, the capping member 23 and the wiping member ( 24) by alternately operating the capping and wiping of the print head, there is an advantage that the length in the longitudinal direction is smaller than in the case of Figure 1 described above, but a separate power is required, and by using the additional power There is a problem that the height of the maintenance device to increase the function. In Fig. 2, reference numeral 25 denotes a carriage and 26 denotes an ink cartridge.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and by using a part of the print area as a maintenance area, and eliminating the problem of interference with the carriage by adjusting the height of the thread groove lever, the maintenance interval is reduced to reduce the size of the printer. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a maintenance apparatus of an inkjet printer capable of stably performing maintenance operations.

The maintenance apparatus of an inkjet printer according to the present invention for achieving the above object, the capping member for sealing the print head in the maintenance area; A wiping member for cleaning the print head moving to the printing area during printing; A thread groove lever for contacting the carriage to move the capping member and the wiping member to a capping position; And height adjusting means for raising the height of the thread groove lever such that the carriage and the thread groove lever contact each other during maintenance, and lowering the height of the thread groove lever so that the carriage and the thread groove lever do not interfere during printing. Include.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a maintenance apparatus of an inkjet printer is provided on the opposite side of the thread groove lever and caps the capping member and the wiping member by contacting the carriage when the carriage in the maintenance area moves to the printing area. And a latch lever for moving to the standby position.

In addition, the maintenance apparatus of the ink jet printer according to the present invention, the capping member, the wiping member, the thread groove lever and the latch lever is a movable member is installed integrally; And a housing configured to movably receive and support the movable member, wherein both sides of the movable member are provided with guide protrusions, and the housing is formed with an inclined guide groove inclined at a predetermined angle into which the guide protrusion is inserted. The inclined guide groove has a low end corresponding to the capping standby position and a high end corresponding to the capping position.

The height adjustment means, the support cylinder for supporting to adjust the thread groove lever to a first height and a second height higher than this; An electromagnet having a first magnet provided at a lower end of the thread groove lever and a second magnet provided at a lower surface of the support cylinder to maintain the thread groove lever at the first height; An elastic member installed between the lower end of the thread groove lever and the support cylinder lower surface to maintain the thread groove lever in a second height state; And a control unit for controlling the operation of the electromagnet.

According to the present invention as described above, since a part of the printing area is used as the maintenance area, the maintenance section can be reduced as compared with the conventional one, and the size of the printer can be reduced.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

3 is a view schematically showing a maintenance apparatus of an inkjet printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a view showing a thread groove lever height adjusting means which is a main part of the present invention, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are operations of the present invention. 5 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the thread groove lever during printing, and FIG. 6 illustrates the operation of the thread groove lever during maintenance.

3 and 4, the reference numeral 30 is a carriage. The carriage 30 is equipped with an ink cartridge. The carriage 30 prints an image on the supplied paper P while reciprocating the print area indicated by L1 in the figure. In the figure, the subscript L2 denotes a maintenance area, and L3 denotes a common area used as a print area or a maintenance area.

A feature of the present invention is that by overlapping a portion of the print area L1 and the maintenance area L2, the longitudinal size of the maintenance area L2 is made smaller than before, and at this time, the carriage 30 and the thread to be described later are printed. Solving the interference problem of the groove lever by adjusting the height of the thread groove lever, which will be described in detail as follows.

The capping member 40 for sealing the print head 31 of the ink cartridge mounted on the carriage 30 in the maintenance area, and the wiping member 50 for cleaning the print head 31 moving to the print area during printing. And the thread groove lever 60 is integrally installed on the moving member (70).

The movable member 70 is housed in the housing 80 to be movable. Specifically, guide protrusions (not shown) are respectively installed at both front and rear sides of the moving member 70, and the housing 80 is formed with an inclined guide groove 81 inclined at a predetermined angle into which the guide protrusion is inserted. By the guide protrusions and the inclined guide grooves 81, the movable member 70 is housed in the housing 80 to be movable. The inclined guide groove 81 has a low end 81a and a high end 81b.

On the other hand, the thread groove lever 60 is in contact with the carriage 30 when the carriage 30 moves to the maintenance area, the moving member 70 is capping position (the guide projection of the inclined guide groove 81 To be located at the high end 81b]. As a result, the moving member 70 is raised, and the capping member 40 seals the print head 31.

Here, the thread groove lever 60 can be adjusted in height in accordance with the features of the present invention. As described above, this is to prevent interference between the carriage 30 and the thread groove lever 60 that reciprocate during printing.

The thread groove lever height adjusting means as described above includes a support cylinder 91 for supporting the thread groove lever 60 to be adjusted to a first height and a second height higher than the thread groove lever 60, and the thread groove lever 60 to the first height. An electromagnet for maintaining at one height, an elastic member 93 for maintaining the thread groove lever 60 at a second height, and a control unit 94 for controlling the operation of the electromagnet.

The support cylinder 91 is installed at the front end of the movable member 70, and the thread groove lever 60 is installed in the support cylinder 91. The electromagnet is composed of a first magnet 92a provided at the lower end of the thread groove lever 60 and a second magnet 92b provided at the lower surface of the support cylinder 91. The elastic member 93 is installed to elastically support the thread groove lever 60 in an upward direction between a lower end portion of the thread groove lever 60 and a lower surface of the support cylinder 91.

In addition, although not specifically illustrated, the maintenance apparatus of the inkjet printer according to the present invention is linked to the movement of the carriage 30 when the carriage 30 in the print standby state in the maintenance area moves to the printing area at the time of printing. For example, it includes a latch lever for moving the moving member 70 to a capping standby position (which means that its guide protrusion is located at the bottom end 81a of the inclined guide groove 81) by contacting the carriage 30.

In FIG. 3, the reference numeral 100 denotes a spouting part for receiving and storing waste ink during spitting, and 110 is a second wiping member. As can be seen from the figure, the spuntoon portion 100 and the second wiping member 110 is installed at the opposite end to prevent contamination of the paper.

Hereinafter, the operation of the maintenance apparatus of the ink jet printer according to the present invention configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.

5 shows an operation state of the carriage and the thread groove lever in printing. As shown, when the carriage 30 prints an image on the paper P while reciprocating in the printing area in the printing mode, the carriage 30 partially invades the maintenance area according to the characteristics of the present invention. For this reason, the carriage 30 and the thread groove lever 60 should not interfere. At this time, when the electromagnet is turned on through the control unit 94, an attraction force acts between the two magnets 92a and 92b, so that the height of the thread groove lever 60 is lowered so as not to interfere with the carriage 30. Accordingly, the carriage 30 can print an image while smoothly reciprocating.

On the other hand, when printing is completed and the carriage 30 is moved to the maintenance area, when the electromagnet is turned off through the control unit 94, the attractive force acting between the two magnets 92a and 92b is removed and the elastic member 93 is removed. By the elastic restoring force of), the thread groove lever 60 is raised to the second height so that the carriage 30 and the thread groove lever 60 moved to the maintenance area come into contact with each other.

Accordingly, the moving member 70 is moved to the capping position so that the capping member seals the print head 31.

Thereafter, if there is a print signal, the carriage 30 moves back to the printing area, at which time the wiping member cleans the print head 31 of the moving carriage 30, and the continuous carriage 30 When the carriage 30 contacts the latch lever by the movement and pushes the latch lever, the moving member 70 moves to a capping standby position. At this time, the height of the thread groove lever 60 is adjusted to the first height by the height adjusting means does not interfere with the carriage during printing.

As described above, the maintenance apparatus of the inkjet printer according to the present invention uses a part of the printing area as the maintenance area, and solves the problem of interference between the carriage and the thread groove lever during printing. Printing and maintenance can be performed while eliminating adjustment.

According to the present invention as described above, since a part of the print area is used as the maintenance area, the size of the maintenance section can be reduced as compared with the conventional one, and the size of the printer can be reduced.

In addition, it is also possible to expect the effect of reducing the material cost by reducing the frame to guide the carriage movement.

While the invention has been shown and described in connection with the preferred embodiments for illustrating the principles of the invention, the invention is not limited to the construction and operation as shown and described. Rather, those skilled in the art will appreciate that many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Accordingly, all such suitable changes and modifications and equivalents should be considered to be within the scope of the present invention.

Claims (4)

As a maintenance apparatus of an inkjet printer, capping and wiping the print head in the maintenance area by using the reciprocating feed force of the carriage, A capping member sealing the print head in the maintenance area; A wiping member for cleaning the print head moving to the printing area during printing; A thread groove lever for moving the capping member and the wiping member to a capping position by contacting the carriage; And A height adjusting means for raising the height of the thread groove lever such that the carriage and the thread groove lever contact each other during maintenance, and lowering the height of the thread groove lever so that the carriage and the thread groove lever do not interfere with each other during printing. The maintenance apparatus of the inkjet printer characterized by the above-mentioned. delete The method of claim 1, A moving member in which the capping member, the wiping member, the thread groove lever, and the latch lever positioned opposite to the thread groove lever are integrally installed; And And a housing configured to movably receive and support the movable member. Guide protrusions are formed on both sides of the movable member, and the housing is formed with an inclined guide groove inclined at a predetermined angle into which the guide protrusion is inserted, and the inclined guide groove has a low end corresponding to the capping standby position. And a high end corresponding to the capping position. The method of claim 3, wherein the height adjustment means, A support cylinder supporting the thread groove lever to a first height and a second height higher than the support groove; An electromagnet having a first magnet provided at a lower end of the thread groove lever and a second magnet provided at a lower surface of the support cylinder to maintain the thread groove lever at the first height; An elastic member installed between the lower end of the thread groove lever and the support cylinder lower surface to maintain the thread groove lever in a second height state; And And a control unit for controlling the operation of the electromagnet.

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