JP2008221796A - Head maintenance method, head maintenance mechanism and recorder equipped with the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a head maintenance method which can suppress burden on a driving part and a mechanism part as much as possible while preventing overflow of an ink from a head cap, and to provide a head maintenance mechanism and a recorder. <P>SOLUTION: In the head maintenance method in which flushing to form a meniscus of the ink is carried out by ejecting the ink from an ink nozzle into the head cap, a flushing estimation amount in the head cap which has ink amounts of pre-printing flushing associated with subsequent printing processing to a next medium and of regular flushing added to a flushing amount in the head cap that is an ink amount stored in the head cap is obtained. When the flushing estimation amount in the head cap is not smaller than a threshold value, idle suction processing of discharging the ink stored in the head cap is carried out. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a head maintenance method and a head maintenance mechanism for performing maintenance of a print head such as an ink jet printer, and a recording apparatus including the head maintenance method.

  In recent years, there has been a media processing device such as a disc dubbing device that writes data to a large number of media such as blank CDs and DVDs, and a CD / DVD publisher that can produce and issue media by performing data writing and label printing. Are known. This type of media processing apparatus includes a drive that writes data to a medium and a printer that is a recording apparatus that performs printing on the label surface of the medium.

  Generally, this type of printer is configured such that an ink jet head mounted on a reciprocating carriage ejects ink droplets from a plurality of ink nozzles to desired positions to perform printing. Since foreign matter such as ink or dust may adhere to the nozzle forming surface of the inkjet head during printing, it is necessary to clean it appropriately outside the printing area.

Therefore, a head maintenance mechanism for performing the maintenance operation of the inkjet head is arranged in a maintenance area outside the printing area by the inkjet head, and the head cap is brought into close contact with the nozzle formation surface of the inkjet head by this head maintenance mechanism to increase the viscosity state. Suction cleaning to suck ink, wiping to wipe off the dirt on the nozzle forming surface of the inkjet head, capping to close the head cap to the nozzle forming surface to prevent clogging of the ink nozzle, increased viscosity at the ink nozzle of the inkjet head In order to remove the ink, flushing or the like is performed such that ink is ejected from the ink nozzles of the inkjet head into the head cap before printing is started or periodically (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-1835

Here, in the maintenance mechanism, at the time of maintenance, when the amount of ink stored in the head cap becomes a preset threshold value, the drainage process for discharging the ink stored in the head cap by a pump As shown in FIG.
By the way, at the time of maintenance, even when the ink storage amount has not reached the threshold value, the ink in the head cap is stored in the head cap by the ink discharged by the flushing performed before the start of printing after maintenance or periodically. In order not to exceed the permissible ink storage capacity, it is sufficient to set a threshold value that is a criterion for determining the start timing of the idle suction process to, for example, about 2/3 of the permissible ink storage capacity. Have a margin.
However, if the threshold value is set with a large margin with respect to the actual ink storage capacity, problems such as overflow of ink from the head cap can be eliminated, but the frequency of idle suction processing is reduced. This increases the burden on the drive unit and mechanism unit of the maintenance mechanism.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, a head maintenance method, a head maintenance mechanism, and a recording apparatus that can suppress the burden on the drive unit and the mechanism unit as much as possible while preventing the ink from overflowing from the head cap. The purpose is to provide.

  In order to achieve the above object, the head maintenance method of the present invention is a head maintenance method for performing flushing for removing ink thickened by ejecting ink from an ink nozzle of a print head into a head cap, wherein the head A predicted amount obtained by adding the ink amount of flushing accompanying the subsequent printing process to the amount of ink stored in the cap is obtained, and the threshold value obtained from the allowable amount of ink stored in the head cap is compared with the predicted amount. When the predicted amount is equal to or greater than the threshold value, the liquid draining process for discharging the ink stored in the head cap is performed.

  According to this head maintenance method, a predicted amount obtained by adding the amount of ink stored in the head cap to the amount of ink flushed in the subsequent printing process is obtained, and the threshold obtained from the allowable amount of ink stored in the head cap is obtained. When the predicted amount is equal to or greater than the threshold value, the drainage process is performed to discharge the ink stored in the head cap. Even if the amount is set without giving a large margin, it is possible to reduce the frequency of the drainage process while preventing overflow and to minimize the burden on the drive unit and the mechanism unit. In particular, when the draining process is performed during the printing process, the influence on the throughput of the printing process can be suppressed as much as possible by reducing the frequency of the draining process.

Further, it is preferable to determine whether to execute the drainage process between print processes by the print head.
According to this head maintenance method, the influence on the throughput of the printing process due to the execution of the drainage process can be eliminated.

Further, it is preferable that the threshold value is substantially equal to an allowable ink storage amount in the head cap.
According to this head maintenance method, it is possible to minimize the frequency of the drainage process while preventing overflow and the like, and to minimize the burden on the drive unit and the mechanism unit.

  The head maintenance mechanism of the present invention also includes a head cap that receives ink at the time of flushing that is ejected from the ink nozzles of the print head in order to remove the thickened ink from the ink nozzles, and discharges the ink stored in the head caps. A drainage means, wherein the drainage means has a predicted amount obtained by adding an ink amount of flushing associated with a subsequent printing process to a storage amount of ink stored in the head cap. The ink stored in the head cap is discharged when a threshold value obtained from an allowable storage amount of ink in the head cap is reached.

  According to this head maintenance mechanism, the estimated amount obtained by adding the ink amount of the flushing accompanying the subsequent printing process to the amount of ink stored in the head cap is a threshold value obtained from the allowable amount of ink stored in the head cap. In this case, the drainage means discharges the ink stored in the head cap, so that even if the threshold value is set without giving a large margin with respect to the actual ink storage capacity, it overflows. It is possible to reduce the execution frequency of the drainage treatment while preventing the load on the drive unit and the mechanism unit as much as possible. In particular, when the draining process is performed during the printing process, the influence on the throughput of the printing process can be suppressed as much as possible by reducing the frequency of the draining process.

In addition, it is preferable that the determination of execution of the drainage process in the drainage unit is performed between print processes by the print head.
According to this head maintenance mechanism, the influence on the throughput of the printing process due to the execution of the draining process can be eliminated.

Further, it is preferable that the threshold value is substantially equal to an allowable ink storage amount in the head cap.
According to this head maintenance mechanism, it is possible to minimize the frequency of executing the drainage process while preventing overflow and the like, and to minimize the burden on the drive unit and the mechanism unit.

In addition, a recording apparatus of the present invention includes the above-described head maintenance mechanism.
According to this recording apparatus, the drainage processing is performed less frequently and the burden on the drive unit and the mechanism unit is suppressed as much as possible. Therefore, the life can be extended, and the drainage process is performed during the printing process. In this case, the recording apparatus can be excellent in throughput of the printing process by reducing the frequency of executing the draining process.

Embodiments of a head maintenance method, a head maintenance mechanism, and a recording apparatus including the head maintenance method according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
In the present embodiment, a case where the present invention is applied to a media processing apparatus including a publisher will be described as an example.
1 is an external perspective view of the publisher (media processing apparatus), FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of the publisher with the case removed, and FIG. 3 is a rear perspective view of the publisher with the case removed. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a label printer portion installed in a publisher.

  The publisher 1 is a media processing apparatus that writes data on a disk-shaped medium such as a CD or DVD and prints on the label surface of the medium, and includes a substantially rectangular parallelepiped case 2. Opening and closing doors 3 and 4 that can be opened and closed to the left and right are attached to the front surface of the case 2. An operation surface 5 on which display lamps, operation buttons, and the like are arranged is provided at the upper left end of the case 2, and a media discharge port 6 is provided at the lower end of the case 2.

The open / close door 3 on the right side of the front view is a door that opens and closes when an unused blank medium MA is set or when a created medium MB is taken out.
The open / close door 4 on the left side when viewed from the front is for opening and closing when the ink cartridge 12 of the label printer 11 is replaced. When the open / close door 4 is opened, the open / close door 4 has a plurality of cartridge holders 13 arranged in the vertical direction. The cartridge mounting portion 14 (see FIG. 2) is exposed.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a blank media stacker 21 as a media storage unit capable of stacking a plurality of unused blank media MA that has not been subjected to data writing processing is provided in the case 2 of the media processing device 1. Then, the created media stacker 22 as a media storage unit in which the created media MB is stored is arranged vertically in a coaxial state. The blank media stacker 21 and the created media stacker 22 are detachable from the predetermined positions shown in FIG.

  The blank media stacker 21 is provided with a pair of left and right arc-shaped frame plates 24 and 25, thereby allowing the blank media MA to be received from above and stored in a coaxially stacked state. The operation of storing or replenishing the blank media MA in the blank media stacker 21 can be easily performed by opening the door 3 and taking out the stacker.

  The created media stacker 22 on the lower side has the same structure, and includes a pair of left and right arc-shaped frame plates 27 and 28. By this, the created media MB is received from the upper side and stacked in a coaxial manner. A stackable stacker is configured.

  Further, the created media MB (that is, the medium on which data writing and label surface printing have been completed) can be taken out from the open / close door 3.

  A media transport mechanism 31 is disposed behind the blank media stacker 21 and the created media stacker 22. The media transport mechanism 31 has a vertical guide shaft 35 that is vertically extended between a horizontal support plate portion 34 attached to the base 72 and the top plate 33 of the chassis 32. A transport arm 36 is supported on the vertical guide shaft 35 so as to be able to move up and down and turn. The transport arm 36 can be moved up and down along the vertical guide shaft 35 by a drive motor 37 and can be swung left and right about the vertical guide shaft 35. The media transported to the media discharge port 6 by the media transport mechanism 31 can be taken out from the media discharge port 6.

Two media drives 41 that are stacked one above the other are disposed on the sides of the upper and lower stackers 21 and 22 and the media transport mechanism 31, and a carriage 62 (described later) of the label printer 11 is disposed below these media drives 41. 4) is movably arranged.
The media drive 41 has media trays 41a that can move between a data writing position on the media and a media delivery position for receiving and delivering media.

  Further, the label printer 11 has a media tray 51 that can move between a label printing position on the label surface of the media and a media delivery position for receiving and delivering the media.

  2 and 3, the media tray 41a of the upper media drive 41 is pulled out to the front and is in the media delivery position, and the media tray 51 of the lower label printer 11 is in the back label printable position. It is shown. The label printer 11 is an ink jet printer, and ink cartridges 12 of various colors (black, cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan, and light magenta in this embodiment) are used as the ink supply mechanism 71, and these ink cartridges are used. 12 is mounted on each cartridge holder 13 of the cartridge mounting section 14 from the front.

  Here, between the pair of left and right frame plates 24 and 25 of the blank media stacker 21 and between the pair of left and right frame plates 27 and 28 of the created media stacker 22, the transport arm 36 of the media transport mechanism 31 can be raised and lowered. A gap is formed. Further, there is a gap between the upper and lower blank media stackers 21 and the created media stacker 22 so that the transport arm 36 of the media transport mechanism 31 can be rotated horizontally and positioned directly above the created media stacker 22. Is open. Further, when the media tray 41a is pushed into the media drive 41, the transport arm 36 of the media transport mechanism 31 is lowered to access the media tray 51 at the media delivery position. Therefore, the media can be transported to each part by a combined operation of raising and lowering the transport arm 36 and turning left and right.

  Below the media delivery position of the media tray 51, a disposal stacker 52 for storing the disposal media MD is arranged. For example, about 30 disposal media MD are stored in the disposal stacker 52. It is possible. With the media tray 51 retracted from the media delivery position above the discard stacker 52 to the data writing position, the discard media MD can be supplied to the discard stacker 52 by the transport arm 36 of the media transport mechanism 31. .

  In summary, a medium composed of a CD or a DVD is inserted between the blank media stacker 21, the created media stacker 22, the disposal stacker 52, the media tray 41 a of the media drive 41, and the media tray 51 of the label printer 11 by the media transport mechanism 31. It is transported by the transport arm 36.

  The label printer 11 includes a carriage 62 having an ink jet head 61 having ink discharge nozzles (not shown). The carriage 62 is horizontally shown along the carriage guide shaft by a driving force of a carriage motor (not shown). Move back and forth.

  The label printer 11 includes an ink supply mechanism 71 having a cartridge mounting portion 14 to which the ink cartridge 12 is mounted. The ink supply mechanism 71 has a vertical structure and is erected on the base 72 of the publisher 1 and arranged in the vertical direction. One end of a flexible ink supply tube 73 is connected to the ink supply mechanism 71, and the other end of the ink supply tube 73 is connected to the carriage 62.

Then, the ink of the ink cartridge 12 mounted on the ink supply mechanism 71 is supplied to the carriage 62 via the ink supply tube 73, and passes through a damper unit and a back pressure adjustment unit (not shown) provided on the carriage 62, and then the inkjet head. 61 is discharged from an ink nozzle (not shown).
The ink supply mechanism 71 is provided with a pressurizing mechanism 74 so as to dispose a main portion on the upper portion thereof. The pressurizing mechanism 74 pressurizes the ink cartridge 12 and ink in the ink cartridge 12. The ink stored in the pack is sent out.

A head maintenance mechanism 81 is provided on the lower side of the carriage 62 at the home position (position shown in FIG. 4).
The head maintenance mechanism 81 includes a head cap 82 that covers the ink nozzles of the inkjet head 61 exposed on the lower surface of the carriage 62 disposed at the home position, and is discharged to the head cap 82 by a head cleaning operation and an ink filling operation of the inkjet head 61. And a waste ink suction pump 83 for sucking the discharged ink.

The ink sucked by the waste ink suction pump 83 of the head maintenance mechanism 81 is sent to the waste ink absorption tank 85 through the tube 84.
The waste ink absorption tank 85 has an absorbent material (not shown) disposed in a case 86, and the upper surface thereof is covered with a cover 88 having a plurality of air holes 87.
Below the head maintenance mechanism 81, a waste ink receiving portion 89, which is a part of the waste ink absorption tank 85, is provided to receive the ink dropped from the head maintenance mechanism 81 and absorb it by the absorbent material. Yes.

Next, the head maintenance mechanism 81 will be described in detail.
5 is a perspective view for explaining the structure of the head maintenance mechanism, FIG. 6 is a front view for explaining the structure of the head maintenance mechanism, FIG. 7 is a perspective view for explaining the operation of the head maintenance mechanism, and FIG. FIG.

  As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the head maintenance mechanism 81 includes a head cap mechanism 101 for sealing the nozzle formation surface 61a of the inkjet head 61 and a wiper mechanism 102 for wiping the nozzle formation surface 61a. I have.

  The head cap mechanism 101 includes a cap slider 111. The cap slider 111 is formed in a case shape, and slides in a direction approaching or separating from the nozzle forming surface 61 a of the inkjet head 61.

  A cap holder 112 having a head cap 82 fixed to the tip end portion is held in the upper end recess of the cap slider 111 so as to be able to move forward and backward with respect to the cap slider 111. The head cap 82 is formed of a box-shaped rubber having an opening large enough to seal the nozzle forming surface 61a of the inkjet head 61, and a multilayer structure absorbent material 113 is attached to the opening. It has been.

The wiper mechanism 102 includes a wiper 121 made of a rubber plate, which is an elastic material. The wiper 121 is supported so that the wiper 121 can advance and retreat in a direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the inkjet head 61. It is fixed to.
The wiper 121 is moved to the wiper slider 122 to wipe the dirt on the nozzle formation surface 61a. The wiper 121 is disposed in the movement path of the inkjet head 61 (state shown in FIG. 5). As shown in FIG. 7, the inkjet head 61 can move between the retracted position deviated from the moving path.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the wiper 121 has its tip disposed on the ink jet head 61 side by an amount s that protrudes from the nozzle forming surface 61a. Accordingly, by moving the inkjet head 61 from the home position to the printing area with the wiper 121 disposed at the wiping position, the wiper with respect to the nozzle forming surface 61a of the inkjet head 61 as shown in FIG. 121 comes into contact and rubs, and the nozzle forming surface 61a is wiped by the wiper 121 to remove foreign matters such as ink adhering to the nozzle forming surface 61a. Depending on the type of ink, the wiper 121 may be formed of soft plastic or the like.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 7, the wiper mechanism 102 includes an absorbent material 123 in the middle of the path of the sliding wiper 121, and the wiper 121 slides while contacting the absorbent material 123. Ink adhering to the wiper 121 is wiped off by the absorbent material 123.
The cap slider 111 of the head cap mechanism 101 and the wiper slider 122 of the wiper mechanism 102 are both slid by driving the waste ink suction pump 83.

  In the label printer 11, the inkjet head 61 is cleaned by the head maintenance mechanism 81. This cleaning process is performed at a predetermined timing or a user operation, and the head cap 82 is brought into close contact with the nozzle forming surface 61a of the inkjet head 61 and the waste ink suction pump 83 sucks the inside. Ink suction cleaning for sucking thickened ink from the ink nozzles of the inkjet head 61 and wiping for wiping the dirt on the nozzle forming surface 61a of the inkjet head 61 with the wiper 121 are performed.

  Further, in the label printer 11 provided with the head maintenance mechanism 81, a predetermined amount of ink is discharged from the ink nozzles of the inkjet head 61 before starting printing or periodically in order to remove the thickened ink from the ink nozzles of the inkjet head 61. Flushing for discharging ink into the head cap 82 and capping for protecting the head cap 82 in close contact with the nozzle forming surface 61a of the ink jet head 61 after printing is stopped to prevent clogging of the ink nozzles are also performed.

Here, in the publisher 1, the label printer 11 performs a pause operation during the printing process on each medium, and an empty suction process for draining the ink stored in the head cap 82 as necessary during the pause operation. I do.
Hereinafter, the pause operation in the label printer 11 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When the printing process on the medium is completed, the pause operation is started.
When the pause operation is started, a head cap flushing amount (storage amount) that is the amount of ink stored in the head cap 82 by the flushing before printing start and the regular flushing is calculated (step S01).
Further, with respect to the flushing amount in the head cap, the flushing amount during pause, the flushing amount before starting printing associated with the subsequent printing process on the next medium, and the regular flushing amount performed during the printing process are as follows: The added head cap flushing prediction amount is calculated (step S02).

Then, it is determined whether the calculated in-head cap flushing prediction amount is equal to or larger than a preset threshold value (step S03).
Here, the preset threshold value is determined from the allowable storage amount of ink stored in the head cap. In this embodiment, the threshold value is substantially equal to the allowable storage amount. ing.

When it is determined that the estimated amount of flushing in the head cap is equal to or greater than the threshold value, the idle suction process is performed (step S04).
Specifically, the waste ink suction pump 83 is driven, and the ink stored in the head cap 82 is sucked and sent to the waste ink absorption tank 85 through the tube 84.

  When the idle suction process is completed, flushing is performed to protrude ink from the ink nozzles of the inkjet head 61 into the head cap 82, and the thickened ink at the ink nozzles is removed (step S05).

If it is determined that the predicted amount of flushing in the head cap is less than the threshold value (step S03), flushing is performed without performing the idle suction process (step S04) (step S05).
Thereafter, capping is performed so that the head cap 82 is brought into close contact with the nozzle forming surface 61a of the ink jet head 61 to seal and protect the nozzle forming surface 61a (step S06).

  As described above, according to the head maintenance method and the head maintenance mechanism according to the present embodiment, the amount of ink in the head cap 82 that is the amount of ink stored in the head cap 82 is changed to the subsequent printing process on the next medium. The estimated amount of flushing in the head cap obtained by adding the ink amounts of the pre-printing flushing and the regular flushing is compared, and the threshold obtained from the allowable amount of ink stored in the head cap 82 is compared with the estimated flushing amount in the head cap. When the estimated amount of flushing in the cap is equal to or greater than the threshold value, the idle suction process for discharging the ink stored in the head cap 82 is executed. Even if it is set without giving a margin, empty suction is performed while preventing overflow. To reduce the physical execution frequency, the burden on the driving unit and the mechanism of such a waste ink suction pump 83 can be minimized.

In addition, since the determination of the execution of the idle suction process is performed between the printing processes by the inkjet head 61, the influence of the idle suction process on the throughput of the printing process can be eliminated.
In particular, by making the threshold value substantially equal to the ink allowable storage amount in the head cap 82, the frequency of performing the empty suction process is minimized while preventing overflow and the like, a drive unit such as the waste ink suction pump 83, The burden on the mechanism part can be suppressed as much as possible.

  In the above-described embodiment, the execution determination of the idle suction process in the pause operation performed between the printing processes on the medium that is the print medium has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this case. The present invention can also be applied to a case where printing processing is continuously performed on a printing medium such as media or paper. In this case, the execution determination (steps S01 to S04) of the above-described idle suction process is performed during the printing process. In this case as well, the number of executions of the idle suction process can be suppressed as much as possible to reduce the load on the drive unit and the mechanism part of the maintenance mechanism 81 as much as possible, and the influence on the throughput of the printing process can be suppressed as much as possible. it can.

  According to the recording apparatus such as the label printer 11 including the head maintenance mechanism 81, the frequency of the idle suction process is reduced and the burden on the drive unit and the mechanism unit can be suppressed as much as possible. In addition, when the idle suction process is performed during the printing process, the recording apparatus having an excellent throughput of the printing process can be obtained by reducing the frequency of the idle suction process.

It is an external appearance perspective view of a publisher (media processing apparatus). It is a perspective view of the front side of the state which removed the case of the publisher. It is a perspective view of the back side of the state which removed the case of the publisher. It is a perspective view of the label printer part installed in the publisher. It is a perspective view explaining the structure of a head maintenance mechanism. It is a front view explaining the structure of a head maintenance mechanism. It is a perspective view explaining operation | movement of a head maintenance mechanism. It is a front view explaining operation | movement of a head maintenance mechanism. It is a flowchart which shows the pause operation | movement by which execution determination of an empty suction process is performed.

Explanation of symbols

  61 ... Inkjet head (printing head), 81 ... Head maintenance mechanism, 82 ... Head cap, 83 ... Waste ink suction pump (drainage means).

Claims (7)

A head maintenance method for performing flushing for discharging ink from an ink nozzle of a print head into a head cap to remove thickened ink,
A predicted amount obtained by adding an ink amount of flushing associated with a subsequent printing process to a stored amount of ink stored in the head cap, a threshold value calculated from an allowable stored amount of ink in the head cap, and the predicted amount, And a drainage process for discharging the ink stored in the head cap when the predicted amount is equal to or greater than a threshold value.   The head maintenance method according to claim 1, wherein the execution of the drainage process is determined between print processes by the print head.   The head maintenance method according to claim 1, wherein the threshold value is substantially equal to an allowable ink storage amount in the head cap. Head maintenance provided with a head cap for receiving ink during flushing discharged from the ink nozzles of the print head to remove thickened ink at the ink nozzles, and a drain means for discharging the ink stored in the head caps Mechanism,
The drainage means has a threshold value obtained by adding an ink storage amount stored in the head cap to a predicted amount obtained by adding a flushing ink amount associated with a subsequent printing process from an allowable storage amount of ink in the head cap. In this case, a head maintenance mechanism is characterized in that the ink stored in the head cap is discharged.   5. The head maintenance mechanism according to claim 4, wherein the determination of execution of the drainage process in the drainage unit is performed between print processes by the printhead.   6. The head maintenance mechanism according to claim 4, wherein the threshold value is substantially equal to an allowable ink storage amount in the head cap.   A recording apparatus comprising the head maintenance mechanism according to any one of claims 4 to 6.

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