JP2875635B2 - INK JET PRINT HEAD, INK JET PRINTING APPARATUS USING THE HEAD, AND METHOD OF CLEANING THE PRINT HEAD OF THE APPARATUS - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink-jet head, an ink-jet recording apparatus using the ink-jet recording head, and a method for cleaning an ink discharge port surface of the recording head in the recording apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional ink jet recording apparatus,
In order to remove ink mist generated when ink is ejected from the print head, wet ink on the ejection port array surface due to satellite ink etc. generated at the time of ink refill, and residual ink suction generated during recovery processing by suction etc. Some have a recovery device. This recovery device is mainly for forcibly discharging ink from the ejection port,
For example, it is composed of a suction device and a wiping device for cleaning by wiping the ejection port arrangement surface. The configuration of the wiping device is such that, for example, in order to perform wiping (also called cleaning) of the ejection port arrangement surface of the ink jet recording head having a plurality of ejection ports, a blade made of an elastic body or the like is directly in contact with the ejection port arrangement surface. The ejection port arrangement surface (hereinafter, referred to as the
(Also referred to as a discharge surface), and the discharge port and its peripheral portion are cleaned to maintain discharge stability.

Here, a conventional cleaning operation for this will be described with reference to FIG. 42 , taking an example of ink adhesion to a discharge surface caused by suction recovery.

A carriage 902 having an ink jet recording head 901 is mounted on a main scanning rail 903 so as to be movable in a printing direction (direction of arrow C). When the ejection port of the ink jet recording head 901 is clogged, a holder 905 having a rubber cap 904 forming a closed shape in the head is moved in the direction of arrow a by a driving unit (not shown), and the rubber cap 904 is moved to the ink jet recording head. The nozzle 901 comes into contact with the discharge surface 901a and stops at a position where a closed shape can be formed. In this state, suction recovery is performed by the suction pump 907 via the tube 906. By suction, the ink jet recording head 90
The ink drawn from 1 is conveyed to a waste ink processing member 909 via a tube 908. After the suction recovery, the holder 9 having the rubber cap 904 is driven by a driving unit (not shown).
05 is retracted in the direction of arrow b. At this time, the ink droplet I pulled out from the nozzle by suction recovery remains on the ejection surface 901a of the ink jet recording head 901. Here, a carriage 90 having an inkjet recording head 901
2 [(A) state] moves in the direction of arrow C, the wiping of the ejection surface 901a is performed by the rubber blade 910 held by the blade holder 911 [(B) state], and the ink droplet I on the ejection surface 901a is removed. It is removed from the ejection surface 901a.

[0005]

However, in order to improve the cleaning performance of the ejection surface of the ink jet recording head and to stabilize the ejection characteristics for long-term use, conventionally, a cartridge type head or a plurality of heads are conventionally used. The following problems may occur with a color recording apparatus that performs recording by using the following method.

[0006] First, there is a problem that the ink accumulated in the gap between the head and the carriage has an adverse effect.

That is, as shown in FIG. 42 (B), when wiping ink droplets remaining on the ejection surface of the head after printing or suctioning, ink enters the gap between the head and the carriage, and the length of the ink drops. There is a possibility that the ink accumulated here may droop after use of the time, or may be scattered due to engagement with the blade, causing a phenomenon that the printed surface or the back surface of the printed matter is stained. In addition, when dust or ink thickens in the ink collected here, it is transferred to the blade in reverse during cleaning and is mixed into the inside of the discharge port of the head downstream in the wiping direction, causing print distortion or non-discharge. There was also a possibility that it might cause. Further, non-ejection due to the mixed dust and thickened ink may adversely affect elements that generate energy used for ink ejection (for example, burning of heating elements).

[0008] Second, there is a problem of adverse effects due to swept ink during wiping.

That is, many recent ink jet recording heads have a plurality of ejection ports arranged therein, and when wiping, the wiping is performed with a blade wider than the ejection port arrangement range. However, as the number of ejection ports increases, the number of ejection ports increases. The amount of the remaining ink droplets becomes considerably large, and tends to accumulate on the ejection port arrangement surface downstream of the blade in the wiping direction during the wiping. If the ink droplets accumulated in this portion adhere for a long period of time, adverse effects such as poor sealing of the cap may occur. When this occurs, not only printing misalignment or non-ejection is likely to occur due to capping failure when the recording head is not used, but also suction failure and wiping failure may occur.

Third, there is a problem of color mixing when wiping a plurality of heads continuously.

For example, in a device in which a plurality of heads are arranged corresponding to inks having different color tones, it is considered that the heads are successively wiped. The ink (wet ink) attached to the ejection surface is transferred to the blade side by wiping, and there is a possibility that inks of different colors may enter the ejection of the downstream head. Then, it is conceivable that color mixing due to mixing of different color inks and ejection failure due to mixing of inks having different components may occur.

As a fourth problem, in the case of a cartridge type head, there is a problem that occurs when the head is replaced. That is, when the cartridge type head is replaced, if the ink is attached to the head for the above-mentioned reason, the hand or clothes may be stained when the operator replaces the head.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and for this purpose, the present invention provides an ejection surface provided with an ejection port for ejecting ink to a recording medium, and comprising an absorbent member provided in the vicinity of the discharge surface, the discharge
The surface and the absorbing member are moved in this order by the wiping member.
Used in ink jet recording device so that iping is done
Is, the end portion of the discharge surface adjacent to said absorbent member
It is characterized by being concave from the discharge surface other than the end .

Further, the ink jet head cartridge of the present invention is characterized in that the recording head and the ink jet recording head are integrally provided with an ink tank containing ink to be supplied to the head.

[0015] Further, the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention comprises:
The recording head, a mounting member for mounting the recording head, and a wiping member that can be engaged with an end surface of the discharge unit and an end surface of the absorbing member, after the wiping member is engaged with the end surface of the discharge unit. Wiping is performed so as to engage with the end face of the absorbing member.

Furthermore, the present invention an ink jet recording apparatus includes a recording head having a first absorbing member provided in the vicinity of the discharge portion and said discharge out section for discharging the ink to the recording medium, the recording head mountable Mounting member, a second absorbing member provided on the mounting member in the vicinity of and adjacent to the first absorbing member, and engaging with the discharge section, the first absorbing member, and the second absorbing member. comprising a wiping member capable of, and, and characterized in that the wiping as said wiping member engaging said first absorbing member after engaging said discharge portion, and then engaged with the second absorbing member I do.

In the above, the discharge section may have means for generating thermal energy for causing film boiling of the ink as energy used for discharging the ink.

Further, the recording head may have a form of a head cartridge in which an ink tank containing ink to be supplied to the ejection section is integrated.

Further, the mounting member can mount a plurality of the recording heads, and the plurality of recording heads are mounted in a state where the absorbing members face in the same direction. In the wiping direction, it may be arranged on the downstream side of each of the recording heads.

Here, the plurality of recording heads can be provided corresponding to inks having different color tones.

Furthermore, the cleaning method of the present invention the recording head, the recording head having a first absorbing member provided in the vicinity of the discharge portion and said discharge out section for discharging the ink to the recording medium, said discharge portion After the cleaning is performed by engaging the wiping member with the first absorbing member, the wiping member is engaged with the first absorbing member, and then provided on the mounting member of the recording head so as to be adjacent to the first absorbing member.
Characterized in that to engage the second absorbing member which is.

Here, the plurality of recording heads and the plurality of second absorbing members can be continuously operated by using the wiping member.

[0023]

According to the present invention, the absorbing member is arranged near the discharge portion of the recording head, and after the wiping of the discharge portion, the wiping member is engaged with the absorbing member or further provided on the head mounting such as the carriage. The wiping member can be cleaned by engaging the absorbing member. In addition, by making the head-side absorbing member convex and / or making the end face portion on the ejection portion concave, the ink absorbing operation can be made more reliable.

Therefore, it is possible to remove impurities which may adversely affect the head, such as dust and thickened / fixed ink adhered to the wiping member or the cap, and at the same time, to efficiently remove the impurities. Excellent for the problems that occurred, for example, the effects of ink that accumulates in the gap between the head and the carriage, the effects of swept ink during wiping, the mixing of colors when wiping multiple heads, and the prevention of operator contamination when replacing cartridge heads. This has improved the durability and printing characteristics.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. (1) Head Cartridge (1.1) General Description FIG. 1 shows a configuration example of a head cartridge that can be mounted on a carriage (described later with reference to FIG. 13) of the ink jet recording apparatus according to the present embodiment. The cartridge according to this embodiment includes the ink tank unit 200 and the head unit 10.
0 and the head unit 100
Can be attached to the ink tank unit 200 as described later. A wiring connector 102 for receiving a signal or the like for driving the ink ejection unit 101 of the head unit 100 and outputting a remaining ink amount detection signal is provided at a position aligned with the head unit 100 and the ink tank unit 200. . Therefore, in a posture which is taken when the cartridge is mounted on a carriage described later, the height H can be reduced and the thickness of the cartridge can be reduced. This makes it possible to make the carriage small when arranging the cartridges side by side as described later with reference to FIG.

When the head cartridge is mounted on the carriage, the knob 201 provided on the ink tank unit 200 can be gripped and placed on the carriage with the ejection section 101 facing down. At the time of mounting, the pins provided on the carriage side are
00 and the head unit 10
Zero positioning is performed. This aspect will be described later.

In the head cartridge according to the present embodiment, an absorber 104 for wiping the surface of the ink ejection section 101 and cleaning a member for cleaning the same is arranged in parallel with the ink ejection section 101. Further, an air communication port 203 for introducing air with consumption of ink is provided substantially at the center of the ink tank unit 200.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the head cartridge shown in FIG. The head cartridge according to the present example includes:
It is composed of a head unit 100 and an ink tank unit 200, and the detailed configuration of these units will be described with reference to this drawing and the like.

(1.2) Head Unit The base for mounting the components of the head unit 100 is a base plate 111 made of Al or the like, on which energy for discharging ink is generated. A printed circuit board (PCB) 1 having a substrate 112 on which an element group is formed, and wiring and the like for supplying power to the elements
15 are mounted, and these are connected by wire bonding or the like. In this example, the substrate 112 is an electrothermal conversion element that generates thermal energy that causes film boiling of ink in accordance with an energization timing based on a facsimile signal, a copying machine read signal, or a recording signal from a host. Are provided in a row. However, the arrangement and the number are not particularly limited. Hereinafter, this substrate 112 is referred to as a heater board.

The above-described wiring connector 102 is connected to the PCB 11
5, a drive signal from a control circuit (not shown) is received by the wiring connector 102, and the PCB 115
Is supplied to the heater board 112 via the. PCB11
Reference numeral 5 denotes a double-sided wiring board in this example, and further includes information unique to the head, for example, appropriate driving conditions for the electrothermal transducer,
A ROM-type IC 128 storing a D number, ink color information, driving condition correction data (head shading (HS) data), PWM control conditions, and the like, and a capacitor 12
9 are provided.

FIG. 3 shows the base plate 111 and the PCB 11
FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the integrated circuit board No. 5 in which the PCB 115 is shown by a thick solid line, and the base plate 111 is shown by a hatched contour. As shown, the IC 128 and the capacitor 129 are
115 are arranged on the side of the joint surface with the base plate 111 and at positions corresponding to the notches 111A of the base plate 111. Accordingly, if the height at the time of mounting the IC or the like is equal to or less than the thickness of the base plate 111, the PCB
The IC and the like do not protrude from the surface when the base plate 111 and the base 115 are joined. Therefore, it is not necessary to consider a storage mode corresponding to the protrusion in the manufacturing process.

On the heater board 112, a common liquid chamber for temporarily storing ink supplied from the ink tank unit 200 side, and a concave portion for forming a liquid path group connecting the liquid chamber and the discharge port are provided. The top plate 113 is arranged.
The top plate 113 is integrally formed with a discharge port forming member (orifice plate) 113A in which ink discharge ports are formed. 114 is the top plate 113 and the heater board 1
12 is a pressing spring that applies a uniform pressure (linear pressure) to the vicinity of the discharge port to form the discharge unit 101 by closely contacting the discharge port 12 with the discharge port.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are a top view and a side view of the holding spring 114, respectively. The pressing spring 114 according to the present example includes a portion 113U bent and formed in a substantially U-shaped cross section in order to apply a pressing force linearly and elastically to the top plate 113, and is located on a side of the portion 113U.
A front leg 113F provided with a claw 113L that hooks on a lower surface of the heater board 112 adhered on the base plate 111, using a relief hole 111F provided in the base plate 111;
It has a pair of rear legs 113R and 113L which are bent downward after extending rearward of 13U and support the force acting on the pressing spring 113 on the base plate 111. The rear legs 113R and 113L have different extending portions, and the former has a through hole 1 provided in the PCB 115 so as to avoid wiring.
Via 15R, the latter directly, together with the base plate 1
11 abuts. If it is not necessary to avoid such wiring, the lengths of the extending portions may be equal. In any case, since the acting force is also supported on the rear leg, the deformation of the sealant, which can be positioned around the discharge portion later, or the action of the undesired force due to the effect of the fixation in the deformed state is dispersed, and the uniform effect is obtained. Pressure distribution can be maintained.

The portion 113U is provided with an opening for receiving the insertion of the ink introduction tube provided on the top plate 113. In addition, the portion 113U has a pair of rising portions 113 protruding outward along the edge of the U-shaped open side.
B to compensate for a reduction in strength due to the formation of the opening.
In this example, the portion 113U is bent by hooking the claw 113L of the front leg portion on the lower surface of the heater board 112, and the resulting elastic force acts on the top plate 113 by the lower portion of the U-shaped portion 113U. That is, the top 1
13 and the heater board 112 are pressed linearly and uniformly along the direction of the arrangement of the discharge ports, whereby the two are joined without generating an undesirable gap.

The main feature of the present invention resides in a jig which generates a U-shaped pressing force and uniformly presses the ejection port arrangement direction by the pressing force. The configuration to be used will be described below.

That is, when the recording head has a plurality of ejection ports and ink paths, a common liquid chamber common to these is generally provided in the recording head. The common liquid chamber is usually provided with an integral member formed on the top plate and a heater board (having a discharge electrothermal transducer and wiring and pads for driving these elements) for forming a liquid chamber. It is constituted by pressing the top plate integrated member.

When a uniform pressure is applied on the liquid chamber side to press and seal each other during the press contact, the press contact force on the discharge port side becomes non-uniform. The non-uniformity of the pressure contact force on the discharge port side may cause a problem that the thermal energy generated by the electrothermal transducer is dispersed and the discharge cannot be performed satisfactorily. For this reason, the liquid chamber side is often sealed with a material such as a silicone sealant called a sealant, and the arrangement direction on the discharge port side is strongly pressed with a uniform pressing force. However, in the sealing portion on the liquid chamber side, there is a case where a defective product such as a decrease in sealing property in production may be generated because strain tends to concentrate even when the sealing portion is bonded. After examining this point, it can be inferred that although there are small steps due to the fact that many thin films are partially laminated on the surface of the heater board, these steps cause the concentration of the strain.

In the embodiment, as shown in FIG.
In order to eliminate this step, a protective layer (Ta protective layer for metal protection in this example), which was conventionally provided only on the portion 3021 where the ink path and the electrothermal converter are disposed, is replaced with a common liquid chamber 30.
25 and up to the lower surface (in this example, up to half the width of the wall) of the partition wall 3900 for forming the liquid chamber.
To form Thereby, the protective layer 3024 and the partition 3
A configuration is adopted in which the gap between the heater board 112 and the top plate is closer to the gap between the heater board 112 and the top plate on the side of the ejection section and the ink path. As a result, the step in the ink existing area is greatly improved, and not only the sealing property, the durability, and the reliability are improved, but also the partition wall 3900 is not affected by the strong pressure on the discharge port side and even if there is manufacturing variation.
An excellent head was obtained so that the problem of peeling from the heater boat and the outflow of ink hardly occurred.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the ink existence area,
In particular, by providing the same protective layer up to the common liquid chamber side, it is possible to provide a stable and highly reliable recording head in a uniform pressure holding state in the above-described bonding.

By forming the Ta protective layer over the entire area of the common liquid chamber as described above, the accuracy of temperature adjustment and temperature detection can be improved, and the ink ejection state can be improved. A more preferable configuration is used in a head to be used or a head having a heating heater indicated by reference numeral 3023 in FIG.

Referring again to FIG. 2, reference numeral 116 denotes a head unit cover, which is used to communicate ink between the ink supply pipe 116A which enters the ink tank unit 200 and the ink introduction pipe to the top plate. Ink channel 116
B, three pins 116C for three-point positioning or fixing to the base plate 111, the pin engaging portion 103, and the absorber 1
This is a member formed by integrally molding the mounting portion of 04 and other necessary parts. A channel cover 117 is provided for the ink channel 116B. A filter 11 for removing bubbles and dust is provided at the tip of the ink supply pipe 116A.
8 is provided, and an O-ring for preventing ink leakage from the connecting portion is provided.

In assembling the above head unit, the pins 111P projecting from the base plate are connected to the PCB.
Positioning is performed so as to be inserted into the through-hole 115P provided in 115, and both are fixed by bonding or the like. In fixing the two, precision is not so required. This is because the heater board 112 to be mounted on the base plate 111 with high accuracy is fixed separately from the PCB 115.

Next, the heater board 112 is precisely placed and fixed on the base plate 111, and necessary electrical connection with the PCB 115 is made. Then, the top plate 113 and the spring 114 are arranged, and after bonding and sealing are performed as necessary, positioning is performed by inserting three pins 116C protruding from the cover into the holes 111C of the base plate 111. Thereafter, the three pins 116C are thermally fused to complete a head unit as shown in FIG.

(1.3) Ink Tank Unit In FIG. 2, reference numeral 211 denotes an ink container forming the main body of the ink tank unit, 215 denotes an ink absorber for impregnating ink, and 216 denotes an ink tank lid. Reference numeral 212 denotes an electrode pin for detecting the remaining amount of ink, the tip of which is inserted into the ink absorber 215, and is sealed and fixed by welding the root to the wall of the container. 213 and 214 are contact members for the pins 212, and the components of the ink tank unit 200 will be described in detail.

FIGS. 6, 7, and 8 are a top view, a bottom view, and a side view of the ink container, respectively, and the structure of the ink container will be described with reference to FIGS.

The ink container 211 generally includes a pin 212,
A portion 220 for mounting the contact members 213 and 214 and mounting the above-described head unit 100, a supply port 231 for receiving the ink supply tube 116A, and a knob 201 are integrally provided, and the bottom side in FIG. It has a hollow cylindrical portion 233 erected almost at the center. The height of the cylindrical portion 233 is substantially equal to the thickness of the ink container. Such an ink container can be formed by integral molding of a resin.

The bottom side of the cylindrical portion 233 is opened in consideration of the ink filling step, and after filling, a cap 217 shown in FIG. 2 is attached and closed to the atmosphere. On the other hand, a spiral or meandering groove 235 is provided on the upper end surface in FIG. 2 (vortex in the illustrated example), and a cylindrical portion 233 is formed at one end 235A of the groove (center of the spiral groove in the illustrated example). There is an opening communicating with the internal space.
The opening communicates with a tube (not shown) having an open end at the center of the cylindrical portion 233. The end of this tube is spaced apart from the attached cap 217 by a predetermined distance to achieve a state of communication with the atmosphere in the tank. The other end 235 </ b> B of the groove is located at the position of the atmosphere communication port 203 provided in the tank lid 216.

A plurality of (four in the illustrated example) grooves 237 are provided on the side surface of the cylindrical portion 233 at an equal circumferential angle, and communicate with the internal space of the cylindrical portion 233. As a result, communication between the inside of the ink tank unit and the atmosphere is
It is through the atmosphere communication port 203, the spiral groove 235, the internal space of the cylindrical portion 233, and the groove 237. The internal space of the cylindrical portion 233 functions as a buffer for preventing ink leakage due to vibration or swing. In addition, since the spiral groove 233 that extends the path leading to the atmosphere communication port 203 is present, ink leakage is more effectively prevented.

Further, by providing a plurality of grooves 237 at an equal circumferential angle on the side surface of the cylindrical portion 233 located substantially at the center of the ink tank as in this example, the absorber 215 located around the periphery is provided. On the other hand, a uniform state of balance with the atmosphere can be ensured, and local concentration of ink in the absorber can be prevented. This corresponds to the absorber compression area (supply port 231 described later).
(Periphery) can also be ensured smoothly.

The groove 237 extends to a region below the center of the thickness W1 of the container in FIG. 8 and extends completely over the region A where the supply port 231 is present in FIG. . In addition, it is formed in a range in which the position of the remaining amount detection pin 212 is also taken into consideration, thereby ensuring a uniform ink presence state or air communication state around the pin existing portion, and improving the accuracy of the remaining amount detection. be able to.
Note that, instead of providing the slit-shaped grooves, a group of discontinuous openings may be provided.

Referring again to FIG. 2, the ink impregnating absorber 215 according to the present embodiment has a hole 215A for receiving the insertion of the cylindrical portion 233 and preventing a compression area from being generated around the cylindrical portion 233. Is provided. By positioning the cylindrical portion 233 in this hole 215A, the absorber 2
No. 15 is not compressed by the cylindrical portion 233, and no ink remains in the compressed portion where the negative pressure is high. on the other hand,
The absorber 215 according to the present example has a shape in which the portion located at the supply port 231 is slightly swelled with respect to the shape of the space formed by the ink tank lid 216 and the ink container 211 (indicated by a dashed line in FIG. 2). Has become. Thus, when the absorber 215 is stored in the ink tank unit, the expanded portion is in a compressed state.
In the portion 15, the capillary force is increased in that portion,
5 is always collected on the supply port 231 side. Therefore, the ink can be smoothly introduced into the supply port 231 side.

FIG. 9 is a rear view of the tank lid 216. On the back of the tank lid 216, a groove 2 provided on the upper surface of the cylindrical portion is provided.
A portion 261 for forming a vortex air communication path together with 35 is provided.

In assembling the ink tank unit having the above components, first, the ink container 211
The absorbent 215 is stored. Then, the pin 212 for detecting the remaining amount is inserted through a hole 241 provided on the side of the container 211, and is held by the holding portion 245 in a state where the contact members 213 and 214 are connected to the pin 212. Then, the tank lid 21
6, the ink container 211 is covered,
Bonding is performed by heat welding, ultrasonic welding or any other appropriate method. Next, air bleeding and ink injection are performed while appropriately closing or opening the atmosphere communication port 203, the ink supply port 231, and the opening on the bottom side of the cylindrical portion. Then, after the ink is injected, the opening on the bottom surface of the cylindrical portion is closed by press-fitting the cap 217 or other appropriate method, and the ink tank unit 2 shown in FIG.
00 is obtained.

In the ink tank unit according to this embodiment, a member (tubular portion 233) forming a space serving as a buffer for preventing ink leakage is provided integrally with the ink container 211. Thereby, in the attaching process of the lid 216, the edge of the container and the upper surface of the cylindrical portion 233 can be simultaneously and uniformly welded, and the sealing property is excellent.
Further, the absorber 215 is provided in the ink container 211 integrally molded.
If the lid 216 is welded after storing the ink tank unit, the ink tank unit can be configured, so that the manufacturing process is simplified as compared with the case where the buffer forming member is arranged on the lid side.

In this embodiment, the ink tank unit 20
0 is rounded at one corner, whereby a lever operation for mounting to a carriage described later can be smoothly performed. Also, there is no occurrence of erroneous mounting of the tank lid.

(1.4) Attachment of Head Unit to Ink Tank Unit Referring to FIGS. 5, 10 and 11, the head unit 10 will be described.
The attachment of the “0” to the ink tank unit 200 will be described. FIG. 11 is a schematic view of the mounting mode.
Appropriate portions are broken and simplified.

First, in FIG. 5 and FIG.
And 221 are a protrusion provided on the cover 116 of the head unit 100 and the ink tank unit 2 respectively.
A latch having a spring property provided on the container 216 of No. 00. The engagement of the two prevents the head unit 100 from falling off (displacement in the Z ′ direction in FIG. 11). In FIGS. 5, 10 and 11, 163 is provided on the head cover 116 and opposes at a predetermined interval.
5 and an abutting portion 167.
The fitting part 223 on the container side is engaged between the
7, the movement of the head unit 100 in the y and y 'directions in FIG. 11 and the movement in the mounting direction (Z direction in FIG. 11) are restricted.

In FIG. 10, reference numerals 227 and 229 denote regulating members, each of which has a lower surface portion 1111 on the rear edge side of the base plate 111 when the head unit is mounted.
1B (see FIG. 11) to restrict displacement of the head unit 100 in the upward direction (y 'direction in FIG. 11).
Further, the head unit 100 may be engaged with the rear edge portion of the head unit 100 by using a regulating member to regulate the displacement in the right or left direction (x or x 'direction in FIG. 11).
As shown in FIG. 11, a convex portion 251 provided at the innermost portion of the head unit mounting portion of the container can be fitted into a concave portion 171 provided at the rear end edge of the base plate 111. When the head unit is mounted, displacement of one end side of the base plate 111 in the left-right direction (x, x 'directions in FIG. 11) is restricted.

Reference numeral 253 denotes a rail provided on the head unit mounting portion of the container 211 along the direction in which the head unit is mounted.
A convex portion 253A for slightly displacing upward (y 'direction in FIG. 11) is provided.

On the other hand, the contact members 213, 214 connected to the electrodes 212, 212 are appropriately bent to avoid contact between them (note that FIG. 11 shows the bent portions for simplification of the drawing). 10, but it may be any one), but extends to the back side in the head unit mounting direction, and its tip portions 213A and 214A are in the y direction in FIG. 11 (the downward direction in FIG. 10). It has a leaf spring shape so as to act on the urging force. Further, the position of the leaf spring-like tip is near the convex portion 253A. The PCB 115 is provided with contact surfaces 173 and 174 that can contact the contact member tip portions 213A and 214A, respectively. That is, when the head unit 100 is mounted, the head unit 100 is slightly displaced upward in FIG. 10 (y 'direction in FIG. 11) by the convex portion 253A, and the contact member tip portions 213A and 214A near the convex portion. It is urged in the opposite direction, and is held in a state of being abutted on the projection 253A. Further, since the head unit is elastically urged in the vicinity of the convex portion 253A constituting the abutting portion, occurrence of play in the urging direction can be prevented.

In FIGS. 10 and 11, reference numeral 259 denotes a regulating member provided below (in the y direction in FIG. 11) portion other than the pin 212 and the tip of the contact member, and engages with the PCB 115 during the bonding operation. What you get.

Next, the mounting operation of the head unit 100 will be described mainly with reference to FIG.

In mounting, the head unit 100 is slid as shown by the arrow in FIG. 11 while the bottom surface of the base plate of the head unit is regulated by the slide rail 253 and the side edges of the head cover and the base plate are regulated by the side surface of the container 211. Let me go. Also, during the sliding process, the head unit 100 is moved in FIG.
1 even if it is displaced in the y 'direction
Since the engagement is performed, the further displacement is regulated, and the PCB 115 does not come into contact with the pins 112 or the contact members to damage them.

As the head unit 100 is further slid, the contact member tip 213A on the near side in the mounting direction eventually presses the vicinity of the contact surface 174 of the PCB 115,
The head unit 100 is temporarily pressed. In this state, the supply pipe 116A faces the supply port 231.

The head unit 1 temporarily held as described above
When 00 is further pushed in, the contact member distal end 214A located on the back side in the mounting direction soon comes into contact with the contact surface 174. In this state, the supply pipe 116A is substantially fitted into the supply port 231, and the concave portion 171 and the convex portion 251, the fitting portion 163, and the fitting portion 2
23 respectively begin to engage. Also, the latch 221 starts to ride on the slope of the projection 161.

When the mounting operation is completed, the contact member tip portions 213A and 214A contact the contact surfaces 173 and 1
74, and the supply pipe 116A is completely connected to the supply port 23.
1, the base plate 111 is pressed against the abutting surface on the convex portion 253A by the urging caused by the contact, the concave portion 171 and the convex portion 251, the fitting portion 163 and the fitting portion 223, the projection 161 and the latch. 221, regulating member 22
7, 229 and the base plate 111, and the restricting member 229 and the rear edge 169 of the head cover restrict the displacement in each direction, so that the head unit 100 is attached to the ink tank unit 200. In addition, the regulation of the above-described directions and the rotation directions θ _x , θ _y , and θ _z involves not only the engagement relationship of the above-described parts but also the engagement between the ink supply pipe 116A and the ink supply port 231. .

When the ink in the ink tank is consumed, or when the head unit 100 and the ink tank unit 200 are detached when performing maintenance of any unit, the latch 221 is released from the projection 161. However, if the head unit 100 is slid from the ink tank unit 200 in the direction opposite to the mounting direction, the two can be easily separated.

According to the present embodiment as described above, since the electrode contact surface is on the rear side of the PCB, by providing the distal end of the contact member on the rear side in the mounting direction, the sliding amount of the distal end on the PCB can be reduced. Also, a rail 253 for guiding slide mounting.
Is provided, the sliding can be performed smoothly, and the rail can also function as a reinforcing member.
Further, the contact member tip portions 213A and 214A are formed in a leaf spring shape, and are arranged near the abutting surface of the projection 253A and also serve as a pressing member against the abutting surface, so that the contact with the contact surface is reliably performed. In addition, the number of components is reduced, and the head unit 100 can be held without large backlash. In addition, when the head unit is mounted, the pins 212 and the contact members 213 and 214 are housed in the space formed by the head cover 116 and the PCB 115, so that these members are reliably protected from displacement due to external factors and adhesion of dust. The detection can be prevented.

By adopting the above-described configuration, the head unit 100 can be replaced with the ink tank unit 200.
However, it is not necessary to hold the ink supply unit completely rigidly as long as the connected state of the ink supply unit can be maintained and the positioning accuracy of the head unit due to the play does not decrease. The specific slight play (fixed and held after mounting the device) is preferably within ± 3 μm. In short, when the head unit 100 is mounted on a printer body using the
1 may be set to an appropriate position, and the coupling between the head unit 100 and the ink tank 200 may be inconvenient due to vibration or other influences during use, such as ink leakage from the ink supply unit or the like. It is sufficient that the positioning accuracy is secured to such an extent that the positioning accuracy does not decrease due to rattling of the head unit as described later. In this sense, the head cartridge of the present example is temporarily held so that the ink tank unit 200 and the head unit 100 do not cause the above-described inconvenience (however, there is no backlash in the y direction in FIG. 11 in the embodiment). From this point of view, the configuration and mounting operation of each of the engaging portions can be remarkably simplified. This is made more effective by arranging the engagement portions substantially behind the head unit, that is, on the side opposite to the ejection portion 101.

The above-mentioned engagement relationship may be such that the head unit side and the ink tank unit side have one of the concave and convex engaging portions. Preferably, as in the above example, each of the head unit side and the ink tank unit side has a plurality of engaging portions. It is preferable to have a convex part and a concave part. Also,
In this example, the vertical direction of the regulating member 227, 229 is regulated by fitting the base plate 111 into the lower gap in FIG. This is base plate 1
Although it is preferable to position the reference numeral 11 to some extent in the vertical direction in FIG. 10, the upward displacement may be restricted. Also, a PC integrated with the heater board
Such an engagement relationship with B may be achieved.

The above idea is not only for reliable positioning of only a minute portion, especially for positioning in the vicinity of the discharge port of the discharge unit, but also for surface positioning of the discharge unit and cleaning of a blade or the like for cleaning the discharge unit. There is an effect that positioning with respect to the member (absorber) to be performed becomes easy. Therefore, a head unit having such an absorber is particularly excellent.

In the present embodiment, when the head unit 100 is mounted on the ink tank unit 200 as described above, the supply pipe 116A enters the inside of the supply port 231 and compresses the ink absorber 215 to compress that portion. The structure is adopted such that the capillary force is increased so that the ink is smoothly introduced into the supply port or the supply tube side. In order to make this more effective, the following configuration is employed in this example.

Since the pin 212 is inserted into the absorber 215 before the supply pipe 116A enters, the pin 212 can be positioned at least in that portion of the absorber 215 by arranging these pins in the following manner. It can function as a member that cooperates with the supply pipe 116A to form a maximum compression. That is, the pin 212 is also used as a member for guiding the ink toward the supply pipe 116A by performing the compression.

FIGS. 12A and 12B are views for explaining the positional relationship, wherein FIG. 12A is a top view, and FIG. 12B is a side view of the state in which the tip of the supply pipe is projected (shown hatched) onto the pin 212. It is. As shown in FIG. 12A, the distance from the inner wall surface of the ink container into which the supply pipe 116A is inserted to the pin 212 is L (for example, 6 mm).
Is 1 (for example, 3 mm), it is practically preferable that L / 4 ≦ l ≦ 3L / 4 to obtain an appropriate compression state (l = L / 2 in the figure). In addition, supply port 2
Make the center of 31 and the height of the insertion opening of the pin 211 appropriate,
It is strongly desirable that the pin 212 pass through substantially the center of the projection plane indicated by hatching as shown in FIG. In order to maintain the compressed state, the thickness of the pin 212 (at least the pin closer to the supply pipe 116A involved in the compression) is preferably about 0.5 to 2.0 mm.

As described above, the compressed portion 215A of the absorber is formed by the supply pipe 116A and the pin 212 as shown in FIG. Can be secured. (2) Example of Apparatus Using Head Cartridge (2.1) Mounting of Head Cartridge on Carriage FIGS. 13 and 14 show a cartridge mounting member in a serial printer type ink jet recording apparatus to which the above-described head cartridge can be mounted. FIG. 1 is a perspective view and a side view showing a configuration example around a carriage as a first embodiment. The figure shows an example in which four head cartridges (each containing a different color ink (for example, yellow, magenta, cyan, and black); hereinafter, simply referred to as cartridges) are positioned and loaded on a carriage 2. I have.

Four push pins 10 are engaged on a connector holder 40 as a holding member, and are urged leftward in FIG. 14 by a spring 10a. Here, the connector holder 40 as a holding member engages with the link 21 via the shaft 20, and further follows the rotation operation (clockwise / counterclockwise) of the operating lever 7 engaging with the link 21 in FIG. The cartridge can be moved in the left-right direction, and is moved rightward to release the pressurization to allow replacement of the cartridge, while it is moved leftward to receive the loading of the cartridge.

[0076] Therefore when loading the cartridge into the loading portion 2f, first On drop from above the recording head portion 86 of the cartridge to the tip recess 2f ₁ of the loading portion 2f. And
If the operating lever 7 is rotated clockwise about the shaft 9,
The holder 40 advances, and the guide 54 (see FIG. 14) on the carriage 2 side is inserted into the groove 190 (see FIG. 1) of the cartridge.
And the pin 10 engages with the cartridge, and the cartridge is loaded into the loading section 2f. Reference numeral 59 denotes a spring, which is provided on the carriage 2 side.
The urging force is generated to press the cartridge loaded in the rearward rearward to more accurately perform positioning. Then, the tip portions 10b of the push pins 10 respectively contact the pin engagement portions 103 of the four cartridges, and press the cartridges. Further, the outer peripheral surface 10 of the push pin 10 abuts on a predetermined abutting surface on the carriage 2 and is configured to receive a thrust force generated in a direction perpendicular to the push pin axis independently of each other. Therefore, since the holding member 40 receives only the reaction force of the spring 10a and does not receive a thrust force, even when a plurality of cartridges are simultaneously released, the release lever 7 is operated with a small operation force to perform the attaching / detaching operation. It becomes possible.

Next, the wiring connector 102 on the cartridge side
And a mechanism or operation for fitting and disengaging with a connector (body connector) 6 provided on the main body side to be engaged with this.

When the wiring connector 102 is inserted into the main body connector 6, the engaging shaft 6a integral with the main body connector 6 is formed by the elastic force of the tension spring 41 (see FIG. 14). When the lever 7 is operated in a state of being fitted to the connector 40b, the main body connector 6 and the connector holder 40 move integrally. The wiring connector 102, which is roughly positioned when the cartridge C loaded in the loading section 2f of the carriage 2 is loaded.
And the main body connector 6, which is substantially positioned by the engagement of the engagement shaft 6 a into the fitting portion 40 b, meets, and is guided by the slope (not shown) of the main body connector 6 to connect the main body connector 6 to the wiring connector 102. Is fitted (coupled) with. Thereafter, the connector holder 40 moves to the far side in FIG. 13 by a predetermined distance (this movement is performed by the rotation of the lever 7). Here, the predetermined distance is a distance at which the engagement shaft 6a is separated from the fitting portion 40b, and is a moving distance of the connector holder 40 for changing the main body connector 6 from the positioning state to the movable (released) state. .

The main body connector 6 is connected to the wiring connector 1.
02 and the tension spring 41 (see FIG. 14), the main body connector 6 is connected to the connector holder 40.
Released from. That is, the engagement is released. Here, the large diameter portion of the engagement hole 40a has a larger diameter than the engagement shaft 6a of the main body connector 6, so that a gap is formed between the two. Therefore, when the main body connector 6 and the head connector 85 are fitted (coupled), the main body connector 6 is released from the connector holder 40, and the cartridge is positioned with respect to the carriage 2 only by the pressing force of the push pin 10. Thus, accurate positioning of the recording head 86 with respect to the carriage 2 is ensured.

Next, when the cartridge is to be removed (released), the lever 7 is rotated counterclockwise from the upright position to the horizontal position (the position in FIG. 13). Then
Although the engagement shaft 6a is coupled to the head connector 85 with a strong force, as the connector holder 40 moves to the right,
The large diameter side surface of the engagement hole 40a abuts on the engagement shaft 6a,
The body connector 6 is detached (released) from the head connector 8 while pushing the engagement shaft 6a in the depth direction in FIG. At the same time, the push pin 10 moves together with the connector holder 40 and moves away from the head unit 100.

In FIG. 13 or FIG.
Denotes a scanning rail extending in the main scanning direction of the carriage 2 and slidably supporting the carriage 2; 11a, a bearing; 51, a flexible cable for transmitting and receiving various signals to and from the cartridge via a connector; Is carriage 2
Is a belt for transmitting a driving force for reciprocating the belt.
Reference numerals 17, 18 and 15, 16 denote a pair of rollers which are arranged before and after the recording position of the ejection unit 101 of the head unit 100 in the recording medium transport mechanism in order to carry out the nipping and transporting of the recording medium. This is a platen that regulates the recording surface to be flat.

In order to perform recording on a recording medium without causing any deviation between the heads, each head unit, particularly, its discharge section must be accurately positioned on the carriage. In the recording apparatus according to the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 14, the abutting portions 55 of both the head unit and the carriage are engaged by the component force of the urging force of the pin 10 engaged with the pin engaging portion 103 having the inclined surface. The positioning in the left-right direction in FIG. 14 is performed, and the positioning in the height direction is similarly performed by engagement of the abutting portion 56. Further, the positioning in the scanning direction in FIG. 13 is performed as follows.

FIG. 15 is a front view when the ink jet head cartridge is mounted on the carriage 2. Contact member tip 213A of the leaf spring shape, a base plate 111 of the head unit 100 is pressed by the contact pressure force F _s generated by 214A, or abutting on the abutting face of the ink tank unit contacting surfaces 253A, the head unit 100 And the ink tank unit 200 are fixed without play in the pressing direction. The pressing force is F
_S × 2 ≒ 800 g is sufficient as the pressing force for offsetting. The head cartridge has a component force generated by the pressing force F of the push pin 10 with the contact surface 1b of the head unit 100 on the contact surface 2b of the carriage 2 and the contact surface 200a of the tank unit 200 on the carriage contact surface 2d. F _b, is pressurized圧当contact with F _d, have been made positioning.
Therefore, reliable positioning of the head cartridge including the head unit 100 in the horizontal direction in FIG. 15 can be achieved.

In this embodiment, the contact member tips 213A, 213A
The head unit 100 is pressed against the ink tank unit 200 by the elastic force of the plate unit 14A so as to eliminate play in the pressing direction, so that the head unit 100 can be reliably positioned on the carriage. Instead of using the contact member itself as a pressing member, as shown in FIG.
May be separately provided. This also eliminates backlash in the left-right direction in FIG. 16 and ensures the positioning of the carriage in that direction.

In the above example, a spherical projection is provided on the slope of the head unit side pin engaging portion 103 in order to ensure the action of the pressing force by the pin 10.

This effect will be described with reference to FIG. When the pin engaging portion 103 'has a flat tapered surface as shown in FIG. 11A, the tapered surface of the pin tip 10b and the tapered surface of the pin engaging portion 103' are always in contact in a parallel posture. ,
Alternatively, there is no problem as long as they are always in the same posture even if they are not parallel due to the inclination of the pin axis, but if the abutment posture is not uniform due to a manufacturing error of the head cartridge, etc. There is a possibility that the application point of the pressing force shifts by the length of the tapered surface of the pin tip 10b, so that an appropriate pressing force does not act on each part.

On the other hand, in this example, since the spherical projection 103A is provided as shown in FIG. 9B, the action point can be maintained substantially uniform even if the contact posture is shifted.

As a configuration for maintaining the point of action, instead of or instead of providing a spherical projection on the tapered surface of the pin engaging portion 103, the pin tip 10b is made spherical. Alternatively, a spherical portion may be provided.

(2.2) Outline of Recording Apparatus FIGS. 14 and 18 are schematic views of a recording apparatus such as a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile or the like to which the above configuration is applied.

The recording apparatus main body 1000 has a cover 1101 that can be opened and closed at the front of the operation side. This cover 11
When 01 is opened around the rotation center axis, the inside of the main body is opened. By this opening, the lever 7
Can be rotated, and the cartridge can be attached to and detached from the apparatus main body. Lever 7 indicated by solid line in the figure
Indicates a position where the cartridge of FIG. 1 can be mounted. In this position, the cover 1101 is prevented from moving to the closed state. In the drawing, the cartridges indicated by broken lines indicate those in the mounting operation, and the cartridges indicated by solid lines are positioned in the apparatus main body at predetermined positions where recording is possible. At this time, the ejection port forming surface of the head unit 100 of the cartridge faces in parallel with the guide surface of the platen 50, and the protruding recording head portion protrudes downward from the carriage and is located between the recording medium transport rollers 16, 18. ing. Reference numeral 1102 denotes a flexible sheet of an electric wiring portion, and reference numeral 12 denotes a rail for supporting and guiding the carriage 2 together with the rail 11 described above.

The connector holder 40 is shown in a state after the cartridge is mounted and the lever 7 is set in a broken line state to complete the fixing of the cartridge to the carriage. Reference numerals 20 and 2202 denote shafts provided on both sides with respect to the direction of relative movement of the connector holder 40 with respect to the carriage, and are arranged at the same position at the same position. This shaft has a cylindrical shape that is movable within two elongated holes having its central major axis on a straight line on both sides of the carriage. In the figure, axis 2
0, 2202 is the lever 7 shown in the solid line at the position indicated by the solid line.
It corresponds to. These shafts 20 and 2202 make the translation of the connector holder more reliable. In this example, since the shafts 20 and 2202 are provided other than the connector main body and are disposed near and above the print head positioning push pin 10, the positional accuracy of the print head positioning push pin 10 is improved. A shaft similar to the shafts 20 and 2202 is provided in the connector main body to stabilize the parallel movement of the connector main body, and to provide a degree of freedom in the front-rear direction and in the left-right direction for the gap between the connector and the side plate after the connector is connected. You can also. In the present embodiment, the positioning push pin 10 is fixed to the shaft 2202 without fixing the shaft 2202 in the front-rear direction after the connector main body makes the connector connection.
It is preferable to make it dominant only to 0.

FIG. 18 is a side view of the engagement relationship between the lever 7 and the shaft 20, and corresponds to the side view of FIG. FIG.
As described above, the link 21 connects the lever 7 and the shaft 20. In this drawing, the apparatus main body is shown as being applied to a copying machine, and a brief description of this configuration is provided by an optical reading unit located below the upper original cover and the original platen glass. A means 212 for converting the read information into an electric signal is provided, and this signal is converted into a driving signal for the recording head via the flexible sheet 1102 to form a full-color ink image. A cassette 2210 is inserted into the lower portion of the main body from the side of the discharge tray 2213, and a cassette 2211 for carrying out the recording medium in a direction opposite to the insertion direction is provided with a feeding roller 2211 corresponding to a recording medium unloading section of the cassette. is there.

(2.3) Outline of Recovery System Unit Next, the recovery system unit according to this embodiment will be described.

FIG. 19 is a schematic diagram of an ink jet recording apparatus for explaining the arrangement portion and the schematic configuration of the recovery system unit. In this example, the recovery system unit is shown in FIG.
3 is located on the right side of the home position.

In the recovery system unit, a cap unit 300 is provided corresponding to each of the plurality of cartridges C having the head unit 100. The cap unit 300 is slidable in the horizontal direction in FIG. It can move up and down in the direction. When the carriage 2 is at the home position, the carriage 2 is joined to the ejection section 101 of the head unit and capped. The configuration of the cap unit 300 will be described later with reference to FIG.

In the recovery unit, 401 is a blade as a wiping member, and 403 is a blade 4
For example, a blade cleaner formed of an absorber is used to completely perform cleaning of No. 01. In this example,
The blade 401 is held by a blade elevating mechanism driven by the movement of the carriage 2, and the blade 401 is protruded (raised) to be cleaned by wiping the discharge port forming surface portion of the recording head unit 100. Can be set to the backward (down) position so as not to interfere with In this example, cleaning is performed by wiping with the blade 401 when the carriage 2 moves from the right side to the left side in the figure. The lifting mechanism of these blades 401 will be described later with reference to FIG. If there is a portion on the ejection port forming surface of the head unit 100 that is not wiped by the blade 401, an auxiliary grade (indicated by reference numeral 402 in FIG. 19) is provided at a position where the portion is wiped.
May be provided.

Further, in the recovery system unit, 500
Is a pump unit communicating with the cap unit 300, and the cap unit 300 is connected to the head unit 100.
It is used to generate a negative pressure for the suction process or the like performed by joining the substrates.

FIG. 20 is a front view showing a detailed configuration example of the recovery system unit. Such a recovery unit is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2-126655 (a priority application based on Japanese Patent Application No. 1-12878) proposed by the present applicant.
Can be used, and the configuration will be briefly described here.

First, the cap unit 300 is provided with the cap 30 which is in close contact with the periphery of the ejection opening of the head unit 100.
2, an holder 303 for supporting the same, an absorber 306 for receiving ink during idle discharge processing and suction processing,
Suction tube 3 for sucking the received ink
04, and further, a connection tube 305 and the like communicating with the pump unit 500. This cap unit 3
00 are provided in the positions corresponding to the respective cartridges C by the same number (four in this example).
0 supported.

332 and 334 are cap holders 33
The pin is protruded from 0, and the fixed recovery base 350
Are engaged with cam grooves 352 and 354 for guiding the cap holder 330 in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction in the figure. A spring 360 is stretched between one of the pins 334 of the cap holder 330 and the rising portion 364 of the recovery system base 350, whereby the cap holder 330 is moved to the position shown in FIG. The urging force is applied so as to be held. The position where the head unit 100 of the cartridge C mounted on the carriage 2 is opposed to the cap holder 330 or the cap unit 300 at this position is the start position of the carriage 2 at the time of one scan recording processing. .

Reference numeral 342 denotes an engaging portion which is raised from the cap holder 330 and engages with the carriage 2 at a position on the right side of the start position. When the carriage 2 moves further to the right from the start position in the figure, the cap holder 330 is moved by the engaging portion 342 against the urging force of the spring 360. At this time, the cap holder 330 is guided along the cam grooves 352 and 354 via the pins 332 and 334, and is displaced rightward and upward. Therefore, the cap 302 is the head unit 1
The cap is provided in close contact with the periphery of the discharge port of No. 00. The position of the carriage 2 when the capping is performed is referred to as a recovery position.

The cap 302 is made of an elastic material.
It comprises a joint fixing portion to the holder 303 and an edge portion for extending a tubular structure to the fixing portion, and these are integrally molded. Then, the cap 302 can be formed from an elastic body such as silicon rubber or butyl rubber.

Next, the raising and lowering mechanism of the blade 401 will be described.

Referring to FIG. 20, reference numeral 410 denotes a vertically movable blade holder, on which a blade 401 is mounted by a suitable mounting tool. 412 is a holder return spring for urging the blade holder 410 toward the lowered position.

A lock lever 430 is rotatable around a pin 414 protruding from the blade holder 410, and locks the blade holder 410 at its raised position by engaging with the upper surface of the stopper 432. It is urged clockwise in the figure by a spring 434.
Further, in the state shown in the figure, it engages with the portion 416 protruding from the blade holder 410 and is held at the position shown in the figure.

440 is rotatable around a pin 418 projecting from the blade holder 410.
This is a release lever for releasing the locked state of the lock lever 430 at the ascending position of 10, and the lock is released by rotating around the pin 418 in the clockwise direction in the figure. That is, a pin 442 that engages with the lock lever 430 is provided upright on the release lever 440, and when the release lever 440 rotates around the pin 418 in the clockwise direction in FIG. The lock lever 430 is rotated about 414 to release the engagement between the lock lever 430 and the upper surface of the stopper 432.

A reference numeral 450 denotes a cam member for transmitting a driving force for raising the blade holder 410 with the movement of the carriage 2.
It is held rotatably around 70.

With the mechanism as described above, the blade 401 rises with the sliding of the cap unit 300 due to the displacement of the carriage 2 to the right in FIG. 19, and then the left of the carriage 2 after the suction recovery using the pump unit 500. The wiping is performed along with the movement to the side. At this time, in this example, the ink that has been wiped and received by the blade 401 is absorbed by a head unit described later and also by an absorber provided on the carriage, and there is no occurrence of color mixing or other problems between the heads. It may flow down along the surface of the blade 401. This can be cleaned as follows.

When the carriage 2 moves from the left, the blade 401 descends. Blade cleaner 403
Is in contact with the blade 401 because the cap unit 300 has already returned to its original position even if it is attached to the cap unit 300. Therefore, as the blade 401 descends, even if ink adheres to the surface, all of the ink is received by the absorber-type cleaner 403, and the blade 401 is reliably wiped.

Since the blade portion that engages with the ejection port forming surface is cleaned by the head unit-side absorber and the carriage-side absorber described below, a part of the ink that can adhere to the head is removed between the heads. It does not affect color mixing. In addition, if the cleaning by the head unit-side absorber and the carriage-side absorber is complete, the cleaner 403 may not be necessarily provided.

In the above example, the recovery unit has a mechanism for raising and lowering the cap and the blade in accordance with the mechanical engagement and movement with the carriage. May be separately provided.

(3) Blade Cleaning (3.1) Operation of Absorber 104 The head unit 100 shown in FIG. 1 is provided with an absorber 104 as a first absorbing member adjacent to the discharge port forming surface. is there. In this embodiment, when the carriage 2 at the cap position moves to the left in FIG. 19, the ejection port forming surface of one head is wiped by the blade 401, and the absorber 104 provided on the head is replaced by the blade 4.
01 and cleans it to prevent inconveniences such as color mixing for the next head, sweeping over the wiped ink 9 ejection surface, sneaking around the head and carriage, and dirt when replacing the head cartridge. I am trying to do it. The details and operation of this absorber will be described below.

FIGS. 21 and 22 are a sectional view and an enlarged perspective view of the recovery unit according to the present embodiment, respectively, as viewed from the front side (the side opposite to FIG. 19).

The head unit 100 is fixed to the carriage 2 as described above, and the carriage 2 is
And mounted so as to be movable in the printing direction (direction of arrow c). Then, for example, the head unit 10
When the clogging occurs in the 0 ejection port 101b, the holder 330 having the cap 300 that forms a closed space in the head at the non-printing position (state (A) in FIG. 21).
Moves in the direction of arrow a, and the cap 300
a and stops at a position where a closed shape can be formed. In this state, suction recovery is performed by the pump unit 500 via the tube 304. Head unit 1 by suction
The ink extracted from 00 is carried to a waste ink processing member 509 via a tube 508. After the suction recovery, the holder 330 having the cap 300 retracts in the direction of the arrow b. At this time, the ejection surface 1 of the head unit 100
The ink I drawn out from the ejection port 101b by the suction recovery remains in 01a. Here, the carriage 2 ((A) state) moves in the direction of arrow c, and the wiping of the ejection surface 101a is performed by the blade 401 held by the blade holder 410 ((B) state in FIG. 21).
The ink I on a is removed from the ejection surface 101a.

As described above, on the downstream side of the wiping of the head unit 100, the absorbers 104 are fixed to the head unit 100 one by one by means of bonding or thermal caulking. In the configuration on the head side, a tapered portion is formed in a portion of the ejection surface 101a adjacent to the absorber 104 and located on the upstream side of the wiping by the absorber 104, and an edge portion of the absorber 104 protrudes. It has become.

The material of the absorber 104 is a polyolefin-based porous member that hardly swells when absorbing liquid (for example, a porous sintered body of polyethylene is subjected to a hydrophilic treatment, Rate is 0.01-0.0
2%. Product name: Sunfine AQ, Asahi Kasei Corporation.

Next, the behavior of ink droplets during wiping will be described with reference to FIGS. 23 (a) and 23 (b).

FIG. 23 is an enlarged view of the ejection surface portion of FIG. The ink I attached to the ejection surface 101a due to the suction recovery is removed from the ejection surface 101a by the blade 401 along with the movement of the carriage 2 in the direction of the arrow c, and moves along the ejection surface 101a together with the blade 401, and moves to the ejection surface 101a. The ink I is scraped from the blade 401 by making contact with the edge 104a of the absorber 104 of the head at the formed tapered portion 101c, and the ink is once stored in the tapered portion 101c. Then, the ink I 'is immediately absorbed by the absorber 104 (the state of I' in (a)). Then, the carriage 2 further moves in the direction of arrow c, and when the blade 401 reaches the head next time, the ink is completely removed from the edge 401a of the blade 401 (state (b)). Therefore, the ink removed from the ejection surface 101a does not affect the next head, preventing the occurrence of inconvenience such as color mixing and the like.
Wiping can be performed while the edge 401a is always clean.

By providing the absorber in the area adjacent to the head as described above, the ink adhering to the blade 401 can be satisfactorily removed.

In this embodiment, an IC or the like containing information is mounted on the recording head substrate side as in the above-described embodiment. The IC or the like may be damaged if ink scattered by a cleaning operation or the like adheres.

Therefore, it is preferable to provide an absorber on the side of the substrate on which the IC is provided.

It is more preferable that an IC is provided on the side surface of the substrate located downstream of the head ejection port in the cleaning direction, in combination with the blade cleaning effect described above.

Further, even if the absorber is on the side opposite to the IC with respect to the cleaning direction as in this example, when cleaning a plurality of heads continuously, the side surface on which the IC is provided before head cleaning is used. , The ink does not break due to scattering or the like.

In the embodiment, the taper portion 101c is formed in a portion of the ejection surface 101a adjacent to the absorber 104 as a configuration of the head unit 100.
The same effect can be obtained by forming a groove 101d in the discharge surface 1a adjacent to the absorber 12 as shown in FIG.

Further, as shown in FIG.
Instead of forming a recess in the absorber 104 side
It may be configured to protrude with respect to 01a. In other words, the same effect can be obtained if the ejection surface 101a adjacent to the absorber 104 and located upstream of the absorber 104 in the wiping direction is more concave than the absorber 104 and the edge 104 of the absorber 104 protrudes. That's what it means. Further, both may be combined.

Further, in the embodiment, the wiping configuration in the main scanning direction (printing direction) has been described. However, a configuration similar to that of the present embodiment can be applied to a configuration in which wiping is performed in a direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction. This will be described later with reference to FIG.

(3.2) Specifications of the absorber Here, the structure of the absorber will be described.

First, in the above configuration, the head unit 1
The amount of ink moved from 00 to the absorber 104 by the cleaning operation of the blade 401 will be described.

The structure of the ink jet head of this embodiment has 128 discharge ports and an image density of 400 dpi. Further, the supply of the ink is performed by the ink tank unit 200 integrally formed with the head unit 100 as described above. The weight of the ink stored in the ink tank unit 200 is 6
0 g, and the specific gravity of the ink is 1.05. It is assumed that the weight of the ink usable for printing is 40 to 50 g.
As described above, the remaining ink level is determined by arranging the electrode pins for detecting the remaining amount of ink in the tank and detecting a change in the resistance value between the electrodes due to a decrease in the amount of ink. Immediately before, the operator can be notified of the time for replacing the ink cartridge.

The number of printable sheets of the ink tank unit as described above will be described.

The most commonly used printing duty is 10% to 30% per head, and the ink weight in the ink tank is 60 g (the usable weight is 40 to 50 g).
Then, the printable number is assumed to be 300 to 1000 sheets. This assumption is based on ink used for printing as ink consumption, ink used for the above-mentioned suction recovery, and before printing, after printing, or during printing (one line) for the purpose of keeping the ejection state of each nozzle constant. After printing the next one
Before performing line printing) and after performing a cleaning operation by the blade 401, there is ink used when performing operations called idle discharge and preliminary discharge for performing a predetermined number of discharges from all the discharge ports. 300-1
000 sheets are obtained by actual measurement values measured in a certain print mode and recovery mode described later.

Next, the amount of ink moved from the head unit to the absorber 104 by the cleaning operation of the blade 401 will be described.

The cleaning operation of the blade 401 is roughly divided into two. (A) When cleaning ink remaining on the head surface by suction recovery (b) When cleaning ink adhering to the head surface by printing Kind.

First, the amount of ink when the ink remaining on the head surface due to the suction recovery in (a) is cleaned will be described. The ink remaining on the head surface in one suction recovery operation is the same as the ink remaining on the ejection port and the cap
Is in contact with head unit 100 (cap mark)
0.000 including the remaining ink (cap mark ink)
3 g to 0.0015 g. This is achieved by arranging a water-repellent treatment on the head surface (the ejection surface 101a and the cap contact portion), a water-repellent treatment around the head contact portion of the cap 300, and an absorber (not shown) in the cap 300. This is obtained from experimental values under the condition that the gap between the discharge surface 101a and the absorber during capping (suction) is 0.2 to 1 mm.

In some cases, the suction recovery sequence is set so that suction recovery is performed once for a predetermined number (for example, 10) of prints. This is due to the fact that bubbles are generated in the liquid chamber of the head by printing, and the growth of the bubbles causes the bubbles to block the liquid path, causing non-ejection.
The purpose is to prevent in advance by suction for each print of zero sheets.

Therefore, assuming the amount of ink moving to the head absorbing member in the above sequence, the maximum is 0.0
015 g (MAX value of residual ink) × 100 times (= 1000 printed sheets / 10 sheets) = 0.15 g, minimum is 0.0
003 g (MIN value of residual ink) × 30 times (= 300 printed sheets / 10 sheets) = 0.09 g.

Next, a description will be given of the amount of ink in the case of cleaning the ink adhering to the head surface by the printing of (b). The amount of ink adhering to the head surface during printing (called wet ink) differs depending on the print duty. As shown in FIG. 26, the amount of wet ink decreases when the print duty is low, and the amount of wet ink increases as the duty increases, When the print duty is around 70 to 100%, the increase tends to be large. The amount of wet ink for printing one sheet of A4 size paper is 0.5 × 10 ⁻⁵ g at a print duty of 10% and 1.5 × at a print duty of 30%.
It becomes 10 ^-5 g.

The amount of wet ink changes depending on the gap (paper gap) between the ejection surface 101a and the recording sheet material. The narrower the gap, the larger the amount of wet ink tends to be. FIG. 26 shows the values when the paper gap is set to 0.5 to 0.9 mm. Also, the amount of wet ink increases in proportion to the number of ejection ports. FIG. 26 shows the values for 128 nozzles.

Assuming a sequence of performing one cleaning after printing one sheet, the maximum amount of ink moved to the absorber 104 is 1.5 × 10 ⁻⁵ g (wet ink amount at a print duty of 30%) × 1000. Times = 0.015 g, minimum 0.5 × 10 ⁻⁵ g (wet ink amount when print duty is 10%) × 300 times = 0.015 g.

Assuming the amount of ink to be moved to the absorber 104 by cleaning based on the results of (a) and (b), a maximum of 0.15 g (the maximum value of (a)) + 0.015
g (maximum value of (b)) = 0.165 g minimum 0.009
g (minimum value of (a)) + 0.0015 g (minimum value of (b)) = 0.0105 g.

Therefore, according to the above calculation result, it is necessary that the absorber 104 of the head can hold the ink of 0.165 g or more which is the maximum ink amount.

Next, the structure of the absorber 104 will be described.

The material may be any material as long as it can achieve the above-described ink absorption, and may have swelling properties. However, a non-swellable material is preferable from the viewpoint of miniaturization of the apparatus and prevention of dripping of the absorbing ink. That is, as described above, a polyolefin-based porous sintered body that has been subjected to a hydrophilic treatment (trade name: Sunfine AQ, manufactured by Asahi Kasei Corporation) has a swelling ratio of 0.01 to 0.1.
A very small value of 02% is preferable. Therefore, even if the ink is absorbed, there is almost no change in the volume of the absorbing member itself. That is, in this embodiment, since the head cartridge is also mounted on the head, it is necessary to guarantee the gap between the main scanning carriage 2 when the head cartridge is attached and detached and in the mounted state, and to improve the gap accuracy between the absorber 104 and the recording sheet. It is effective for Therefore, although it is possible to use even a material having swelling properties, the area where the absorber is provided is a very narrow space. As such, non-swellable materials are more preferred in this regard. The liquid absorption of the absorber 104 is 35 to 50%.

Next, the amount of ink evaporation will be described. The amount of ink evaporation varies depending on the environment. In a low-humidity environment (for example, 10% or less), it is large, and all components that can evaporate the ink evaporate. However, high humidity environment (for example, 80% or more)
In this case, the evaporation speed becomes slow and the amount of evaporation becomes small. That is, in actual use, the size of the absorber must be determined based on the amount of evaporation in a high humidity environment. In the ink of Example, 80% evaporates and 20% remains in a low humidity environment, and 30% evaporates and 70% remains in a high humidity environment.

The size of the absorber 104 is set based on the above conditions.

The volume of the absorber 104 and the head unit 10
The following relational expression holds between 0 and the amount of ink moving to the absorber 104.

Head absorber volume: A [cm ³ ] Head absorber absorptivity: B Ink specific gravity: C [g / cm ³ ] (1.0 to 1.1) Ink transferred from head to head absorber Amount: i [g] Ratio of residual ink after evaporation: D ABC> iD (1) A> iD / BC (2) The volume A of the head absorber is obtained from the equation (2).

(A) When A becomes largest i = A + B maximum value = 0.165 g, D = value under high humidity = 0.7, B = minimum value = 0.35, C = ink specific gravity minimum Value = 1.00, A = (0.165 × 0.7) / (0.35 × 1.00) = 0.33 [cm ³ ] (b) When A is smallest i = A + B The minimum value = 0.0105 g, D = value under low humidity = 0.2, B = maximum value = 0.5, C = ink specific gravity maximum value = 1.1, and A = (0.0105 × 0. 2) / (0.5 × 1.1) = 0.004 [cm ³ ] (c) Minimum required volume Ai = A + B in this example = 0.165 g, D = High humidity Value = 0.7, B = 0.35, C = 1.05 A = (0.165 × 0.7) / (0.35 × 1.05) = 0.31 [cm ³ ] Next, ink cart Tsu ink capacity of di I [g] = 60
When [g] (the printable ink amount is 40 to 50 g), the following relationship is established with the volume A of the head absorber.

(A) A / I> 0.33 / 60 = 11/2
000 (b) A / I> 0.004 / 60 = 1/15000 (c) A / I> 0.31 / 60 ≒ 1/200 In other words, if the best conditions are set, the volume A of the head absorber is equal to the ink. It suffices if the relationship of 1/15000 or more of the capacity I is satisfied, and considering the worst condition, 11/20
It must be of such a magnitude that a relationship of at least 00 is established.

The volume of the head absorber of one embodiment was 0.34.
０．４0.4 [cm ³ ], which is larger than the minimum required volume of 0.31 [cm ³ ] in the present embodiment (c).

Next, factors that determine the maximum value of the volume A of the absorber will be described. First, a maximum amount for cleaning the ink remaining on the head surface by the suction recovery in the above (a) is assumed. The suction recovery is one suction per sheet. Therefore, the ink amount is 0.0015 g (M of residual ink)
(AX value) × 1000 times = 1.5 g. Further, a mode for performing suction recovery instructed by the operator is added, and when the operation is performed once for each sheet, the value is 0.0015 g (MAX value of residual ink) × 1000 times = 1.5 g. Therefore, the worst value in the case of (a) is set to 1.5 g + 1.5 g = 3 g.

Next, it is assumed that the maximum amount for cleaning the ink adhering to the head surface by the printing in (b) above. Assuming that printing is performed at a print duty of 100%, the ink amount is 7 × 10 ⁻⁵ g (wetting amount at a print duty of 100%) from FIG.
× 1000 times = 0.07 g.

Therefore, the maximum value of the weight i of the ink that moves to the absorber is (a) + (b) = 3 g + 0.07 g = 3.07 g.

When the volume A of the head absorber was calculated from this value, i = 3.07 g, D = 0.7, B = 0.35, C
= 1.00, A = (3.07 × 0.7) / (0.35 × 1.00) = 6.14 [cm ³ ] A / I = 6.14 / 60 ≒ 1/6 The volume A of the absorber is desirably 6.14 g or more, and the relationship of A / I of 1/6 or more needs to be satisfied. In an actual design, it is desired to set the volume to about twice the set value in consideration of the safety factor. That is, 6.14 × 2 = 12.28 [cm ³ ], A / I = 12.28 / 60 ≒ 1/5, and there is no functional problem if A / I is set to 1/5 or more.

However, since the space around the head is limited, and the price of the absorber itself increases as the volume increases, it is best to minimize the absorber as far as there is no functional problem. Is preferably set to A / I = 1/5.

Next, considering the volume A of the head absorber and the printable ink weight I ^* of the ink cartridge, the maximum value A / I ^* <12.28 / 40 ≒ 3/10 the minimum value A / I ^* > The relationship of 0.004 / 50 = 1/12500 is established.

In this embodiment, the size of the absorber of the heads is the same for the four heads. However, the size of the absorber may be changed for each head if the above-mentioned conditions are satisfied. This is because the amount of ink adhering to the ejection surface 101a during printing may vary depending on the position of the head. As shown in FIG. 21, when the printing direction is the direction of arrow C, the amount of ink adhering to the head ejection surface 101a by printing may increase in accordance with the head arrangement order in the printing direction. This is because the density of the fine ink droplets floating in the space around the head during printing increases as the position is further downstream in the printing direction, and a phenomenon occurs in which the ink adheres more to the ejection surface in the downstream head. Therefore, in accordance with this behavior, the size of the absorber of the head can be determined differently for each head within a range satisfying the above conditions.

(3.3) Another Embodiment of Arrangement of Absorber In the above-described embodiment, the absorber 104 is provided in the head unit 100 to prevent inconvenience such as color mixing. An embodiment in which the effect is obtained will be described.

FIGS. 27 and 28 are a cross-sectional view and an enlarged perspective view of the recovery unit according to the present embodiment, respectively, as viewed from the front side, and can be configured in the same manner as the embodiments shown in FIGS. 21 and 22. The same reference numerals are given to corresponding parts.

Also in this example, as shown in FIG. 27, wiping is performed during the carriage movement in the direction c from the state A to the state B, and the blade 401 is moved by the absorber 104.
Cleaning, but with a slight blade 40
The ink remaining on the ink cartridge 1 is absorbed by an absorber 73 as a second absorbing member provided on the carriage 2 so that the blade 401 can be more completely cleaned. Note that the absorber 73 can be made of the same material as the absorber 104, and can be provided by the same fixing method.

The operation of this example will be described with reference to FIG.

The ink I adhering to the ejection surface 101a due to the suction recovery is removed from the ejection surface 101a by the blade 401 with the movement of the carriage 2 in the direction of the arrow c, and moves along the ejection surface 101a together with the rubber blade 401. By contacting the edge 104a of the absorber 104 of the head at the tapered portion 101c formed on the surface 101a, the ink I is scraped from the blade 401, and the ink is once stored in the tapered portion 101c. Then, the ink I 'is immediately absorbed by the absorber 104 (I' state of (a)). When the carriage 2 further moves in the direction of arrow c, the blade 401 moves by sliding against the absorber 73 of the carriage. At this time, the blade 401 moves while absorbing a small amount of the ink I ″ that could not be removed by the absorber 104 of the head into the absorber 73, and when reaching the next head, completely removes the ink from the edge 104 a of the blade 401. (State (b)).
The ink removed from the ejection surface 101a does not affect the next head and prevents color mixing and the like.
Wiping can be performed with the one edge 104a always being clean.

The carriage-side absorber 73 is also replaced integrally with the head absorber 104 by exchanging the head, whereas the carriage-side absorber 73 cannot be easily exchanged. Therefore, the absorber 73 is as large as possible in a limited space. Good to do. In other words, since the head-side absorber is refreshed periodically, the carriage-side absorber 7 that is difficult to replace is used.
By improving the durability of 3, the size of the head-side absorber can be reduced, and the size and cost of the head cartridge and, consequently, the device can be reduced.

Here, the absorber 104,
The desirable relationship of the dimensions such as 73 is as follows.

FIG. 30 is an explanatory diagram of the relationship between the dimensions of each part.
WN is the width of the arrangement range of the ejection ports 101b (including so-called dummy nozzles). WC is the width of the range 101 e covered by the cap 300, and WN <WC because all the ejection ports 101 b should be located in the space formed by the cap 300. Further, WB is the width of the blade 401. Considering that the ink droplet I often remains in the range 101e, this range 101e
Is highly desirable, so that WC <WB. WH is the width of the absorber 104 provided in the head unit 100, and WB ≦ WH because the blade 401 is in contact with the blade 401 for cleaning. The above relationship is shown in FIG.
1, which also applies to the embodiment shown in FIG.

WK is the width of the absorber 73 provided on the carriage according to this embodiment,
Considering that the ink that could not be absorbed during the cleaning process may spread outward, WH ≦ W
K. That is, in this example, WN <WC <W
The dimensions of each part are determined so that the relationship of B ≦ WH ≦ WK holds.

FIGS. 31 and 32 show still another two embodiments. These are generally shown in FIGS. 24 and 25, respectively.
The head unit has the shape shown in FIG. 3, but the ejection port 1b has a concave portion 1
01a '.

For such a head, FIG.
The following relationship can be adopted. That is, the discharge surface is formed by the cap contact surface 101e and the concave portion 101a 'which is a surface to be wiped which is recessed from this surface. The first blade having a width WB1 for actually wiping the periphery of the discharge port and the outer surface thereof The wiping can be performed with two blades having a width WB2 that wipes the cap contact surface portion of the wiping member. Incidentally, the width of the cap is WC.

At this time, the following relationship exists between the blade width WB '(the maximum blade width formed by WB1 and WB2) and the cap width WC.

WB1 <WC, WN <WB1, but WB ′> WC That is, at least the width WB of the blade that wipes around the discharge port
1 must be wider than the discharge port arrangement width WN,
It is not always necessary to be wider than the cap width WC, and the maximum width WB ′ by the sum of the first blade width WB1 and the second blade width WB2 is used to wipe off the cap marks.
It is better if it is wider than it.

This is the case with the head unit having the shape shown in FIG. 21, FIG. 22 or FIG. 27, FIG.
Needless to say, the present invention can be similarly applied to the case where the discharge port is arranged in the concave portion.

Further, in the above embodiment, the configuration in which the wiping is performed in the main scanning direction (printing direction) has been described. However, the wiping in another direction, for example, as shown in FIG. The same configuration is effective for wiping in the orthogonal direction e. This is the same even if the carriage 2 does not have the absorber 73.

(3.4) Shape of Discharge Port and Wiping Direction Next, return of dust and the like into the discharge port by wiping is performed.
A description will be given of the relationship between the shape of the ejection port and the wiping direction in the present embodiment, which is defined to prevent inconveniences such as ink withdrawal from the ejection port and color mixing. Incidentally, the wiping conditions of this example are as follows. Urethane rubber is used as the material of the blade 401, and the contact condition is a rubber hardness of 65 ° (JIS).
A), free length L = 9 mm, penetration amount d into the discharge port d =
1.5 mm, thickness t = 0.7 mm, and wiping speed v = 180 mm / sec.

In FIG. 35, the shape of the ejection port of the head is trapezoidal (in this example, a trapezoidal shape), and a plurality of ejection ports are formed in the X direction in the figure.

For the trapezoid, vertices P1, P4, P5, P
Considering the axes of X2, X3, Y1, Y2, Y3, and Y4 passing through 6, the length of each side of the trapezoid is a for the upper base, b for the lower base, and (ba) for the height of the lower base. (Where b> a).
Incidentally, the angle sandwiching the vertex P1 is 60 °, and the angle sandwiching the vertex P5 is 30 °.

Next, assuming that X1 is an axis perpendicular to the axis in the wiping direction CC (in this example, the direction opposite to the carriage moving direction C in FIGS. 21 and 27), X1 It can be seen that the trapezoidal shape of the discharge port is not line-symmetric. When X1 cut by the periphery of the discharge port becomes the maximum (the maximum width becomes b), the X1 axis becomes the X2 axis (which will be referred to as a separation axis). There are two line segments cut off at intersections P1 and P4 with the line segment forming the contour). One is a line segment from P1 to P4 through P2 and P3 (referred to as a perimeter component 1. Its length L1 = b), and the other is a line segment from P1 to P4 through P5 and P6. (It is called a perimeter component 2. Its length L2 = a + ａ3 (b−
a)). At this time, the relationship between the perimeter components 1 and 2 is L
1 <L2.

When wiping is performed in this example,
As shown in FIG. 35, the wiping is performed in the CC direction with respect to the ejection port, which makes it possible to reduce the mixing of dust, the drawing out of ink from the ejection port, and the color mixture.

The relationship between the wiping direction that produces such an effect and the shape of the discharge port will be described in detail.

(A) Dust adhering around the discharge port (dust,
The amount of paper powder, etc.), thickened or fixed ink that is expected to be mixed into the ejection port when wiped by the blade differs depending on the wiping direction. In other words, the amount of dust, thickened, or fixed ink adhering to the peripheral portion of the discharge port is proportional to the peripheral length of the discharge port. Foreign matter is most frequently mixed into the discharge port. When the circumference of the discharge port contacts the inside of the discharge port after the circumference of the discharge port comes into contact with the blade, the longer the circumference of the discharge port is before the contact with the discharge port, the larger the tendency is.

In FIG. 35, for cleaning from the wipe pink direction CC, dust, thickening and sticking ink (hereinafter also referred to as impurities) of L1 (= b) may be mixed into the discharge port. For cleaning from the direction, L2 (= a + √
3 (ba)), the amount of impurities of the subtraction (L2−L1 = ab + √3 (ba)) increases.

(B) As shown in FIG.
4 penetrates into the ejection port 101b, contacts the meniscus M of the ink formed in the ejection port with the movement of the blade, and adheres to the blade (the ink is drawn out by the surface tension of the ink itself and the liquid repellency of the blade). The amount of the change in the amount varies depending on the wiping direction. In other words, the length of contact between the blade and the discharge port when the blade 104 finishes passing through the discharge port is related to the amount of ink drawn out, and the longer the length of a portion parallel to the blade around the discharge port is longer. It shows a tendency that the amount of ink drawn out increases. Ink withdrawal is related to the wiping speed and the amount of intrusion into the ejection port of the blade.If the speed is increased, the amount of ink withdrawal decreases, but the wiping performance, which is the basis of wiping, tends to decrease at the same time. As the number increases, the ink withdrawal amount decreases, but the wiping performance tends to decrease. That is,
Although the relationship with the contact condition of the blade is deep, it is desirable to define the wiping direction as in this example because the allowable range of the contact condition is widened. In FIG. 35, for the cleaning from the wiping direction CC, the contact of the length a when the blade comes off from the discharge port (proportional to the amount of ink adhering) is sufficient. Since a large amount of ink is drawn out due to contact with the length b, a large amount of ink is drawn out for the subtraction (ba). FIGS. 37 (a) and 37 (b) show the difference in ink withdrawal when the wiping direction is set as in this example and when the wiping direction is reversed.

(C) Due to the same phenomenon as described in (b), as the amount of ink drawn out increases, the amount of ink adhering to the blade also increases, and the head moves downstream in the wiping direction as the blade moves. Different colors of ink are carried and come into contact again in the ejection openings, thereby causing color mixing. Since the phenomenon here is the same as in (b), the description is omitted.

FIG. 38 is a diagram for explaining another embodiment.
In the embodiment, a simple head configuration and a wiping direction will be described.

38A is a sectional view of the head, and FIG. 38B is a front view of the head, showing the shape of the discharge port 111b ". The head structure is such that a silicon is formed on a base plate 111 'made of aluminum or the like. A heater board 11 on which a chip 812 is mounted and a heater, a semiconductor, and the like are formed on the chip.
2 'is provided. A grooved top plate 11 made of PSF (polysulfone) or the like having a common liquid chamber 813 and a groove for forming a liquid path 815 thereon, and integrally having a discharge port forming plate thereon.
3 'is pressed against the silicon chip by the same spring 114 as described above. Incidentally, the base plate 111 'and the top plate 113' are joined in such a manner that they are inclined at an angle θ = 15 °. The wiping direction by the blade is the CC direction in the figure. The outlet shape is basically trapezoidal, but the corners are rounded. This is to improve the separation characteristics of the ink from the ejection port 111b 'when the ink is separated from the ejection port and to reduce the flow path resistance, and is performed to improve the ejection characteristics. . The shape of the discharge port of the head is widened on the heater side as shown in the figure because the flow path structure inside the discharge port has a trapezoidal shape to obtain foaming stability, and the laser discharge port on the top plate This is to prevent kicking when drilling holes.

Next, the relationship between the head configuration of this example and the wiping direction will be described in detail. FIG. 39 shows FIG.
FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of FIG. 5, showing a force relationship exerted by a blade during wiping. When wiping is performed in the direction as shown in the figure, a resultant force f ′ due to the contact pressure f of the blade and the frictional force μN is applied, and a force acts to move the grooved top plate in the resultant force direction. In the wiping direction of this example, the gap 2 becomes a narrowing direction. However, if the wiping is performed in the opposite direction, a force acts in a direction to widen the gap 2. Where g
Describing the role of ap1 and gap2, gap1
Is related to crosstalk (occurrence of escape of foaming power) in the arrangement direction of liquid paths (between adjacent liquid paths), and gap2 is related to crosstalk on the front side in one passage, and both have wide gaps. The more it becomes, the greater the crosstalk. The crosstalk causes various adverse effects such as unevenness of the discharge speed, unevenness of the discharge amount, deviation, and non-discharge. ga
While p1 is always devised to be constant by the spring load from above, gap2 relies solely on the frictional force between the grooved top plate and the silicon chip and is easily moved.
Therefore, it is desirable to perform wiping by the method of the present example.

FIG. 40 is a view for explaining still another embodiment. (A) in the figure shows a case where the shape of the discharge port is triangular.
(B) is a case in which the shape is a pentagon. By applying a wiping direction based on the same idea as the above example,
In the case of (a), the direction is CC1, and in the case of (b), the direction is CC2.

In the above example, a polygon has been described. However, the present invention can be similarly applied to a case where a polygon is used.

(Others) It should be noted that the present invention includes a means (for example, an electrothermal converter or a laser beam) for generating thermal energy as energy used for discharging ink, particularly in an ink jet recording system. An excellent effect is obtained in a recording head and a recording apparatus of a type in which the state of ink is changed by the thermal energy. This is because according to such a method, it is possible to achieve higher density and higher definition of recording.

The typical configuration and principle are described in, for example, US Pat. Nos. 4,723,129 and 4,740.
It is preferable to use the basic principle disclosed in the specification of Japanese Patent No. 796. This method is a so-called on-demand type,
Although it can be applied to any type of continuous type, in particular, in the case of the on-demand type, it can be applied to a sheet holding liquid (ink) or an electrothermal converter arranged corresponding to the liquid path. By applying at least one drive signal corresponding to the recorded information and giving a rapid temperature rise exceeding the nucleate boiling, heat energy is generated in the electrothermal transducer, and film boiling occurs on the heat acting surface of the recording head. Liquid (ink) corresponding to this drive signal on a one-to-one basis.
This is effective because air bubbles inside can be formed. The liquid (ink) is ejected through the ejection opening by the growth and contraction of the bubble to form at least one droplet. When the drive signal is formed into a pulse shape, the growth and shrinkage of the bubble are performed immediately and appropriately, so that the ejection of a liquid (ink) having particularly excellent responsiveness can be achieved, which is more preferable. As the pulse-shaped drive signal, those described in US Pat. Nos. 4,463,359 and 4,345,262 are suitable. Further, if the conditions described in US Pat. No. 4,313,124 relating to the temperature rise rate of the heat acting surface are adopted, more excellent recording can be performed.

As the configuration of the recording head, in addition to the combination of the discharge port, the liquid path, and the electrothermal converter (linear liquid flow path or right-angled liquid flow path) as disclosed in the above-mentioned specifications, U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,333 and U.S. Pat. No. 44,558 which disclose a configuration in which a heat acting portion is arranged in a bending region.
A configuration using the specification of Japanese Patent No. 59600 is also included in the present invention. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 59-123670 discloses a configuration in which a common slit is used as a discharge portion of an electrothermal converter for a plurality of electrothermal converters, and an aperture for absorbing a pressure wave of thermal energy is provided. The effect of the present invention is effective even if the configuration is based on JP-A-59-138461, which discloses a configuration corresponding to a discharge unit. That is, according to the present invention, recording can be reliably and efficiently performed regardless of the form of the recording head.

Further, the present invention can be effectively applied to a full-line type recording head having a length corresponding to the maximum width of a recording medium on which a recording apparatus can record. Such a recording head may have a configuration that satisfies the length by a combination of a plurality of recording heads, or a configuration as one integrally formed recording head.

In addition, even in the case of the serial type as described above, a recording head fixed to the apparatus main body, or an electric connection with the apparatus main body or ink from the apparatus main body by being mounted on the apparatus main body. The present invention is also effective when a replaceable chip-type recording head that can be supplied or a cartridge-type recording head in which an ink tank is provided integrally with the recording head itself is used.

It is preferable to add recovery means for the recording head, preliminary auxiliary means, and the like provided as a configuration of the recording apparatus in the present invention, since the effects of the present invention can be further stabilized. . If these are specifically mentioned, capping means for the recording head, cleaning means, pressurizing or suction means, preheating means using an electrothermal transducer or another heating element or a combination thereof, Performing a preliminary ejection mode in which ejection is performed separately from printing is also effective for performing stable printing.

The type and number of recording heads to be mounted are not limited to those provided only for one color ink, for example, and for a plurality of inks having different recording colors and densities. A plurality may be provided. That is, for example, the printing mode of the printing apparatus is not limited to the printing mode of only the mainstream color such as black, but may be any of integrally forming the printing head or a combination of a plurality of printing heads. The present invention is also extremely effective for an apparatus provided with at least one of full colors by color mixture.

In addition, in the embodiments of the present invention described above, the ink is described as a liquid. However, an ink which solidifies at room temperature or lower and which softens or liquefies at room temperature, or an ink jet system In general, the temperature of the ink itself is controlled within a range of 30 ° C. or more and 70 ° C. or less to control the temperature so that the viscosity of the ink is in a stable ejection range. Anything can be used. In addition, the temperature rise due to thermal energy can be positively prevented by using it as energy for changing the state of the ink from a solid state to a liquid state, or ink that solidifies in a standing state to prevent evaporation of the ink can be used. In any case, the ink is liquefied by the application of the thermal energy according to the recording signal, and the ink is liquefied, and the liquid ink is discharged. The present invention is also applicable to a case where an ink that liquefies for the first time by energy is used. In such a case, the ink is disclosed in JP-A-54-56847 or JP-A-60
As described in JP-A-71260, a configuration may be adopted in which a liquid or solid substance is held in a concave portion or through hole of a porous sheet and opposed to an electrothermal converter. In the present invention, the most effective one for each of the above-mentioned inks is to execute the above-mentioned film boiling method.

In addition, the form of the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention is not limited to those used as image output terminals of information processing equipment such as computers, copying apparatuses combined with readers and the like, and facsimile apparatuses having a transmission / reception function. It may take a form.

[0197]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By disposing an absorbing member in the vicinity of the ejection portion of the recording head, and by wiping the ejection portion, by engaging the wiping member with the absorbing member, or by further engaging the absorbing member provided on the head mounting such as the carriage, The wiping member can be cleaned. In addition, by making the head-side absorbing member convex and / or making the end face portion on the ejection portion concave, the ink absorbing operation can be made more reliable.

Therefore, impurities which may adversely affect the head, such as dust adhered to the wiping member or the cap and thickened / fixed ink, can be removed beforehand, and this can be efficiently performed. Excellent for the problems that have occurred, for example, the effects of ink that accumulates in the gap between the head and the carriage, the effects of sweeping ink during wiping, the mixing of colors when wiping multiple heads, and the prevention of operator contamination when replacing cartridge heads. This has improved the durability and printing characteristics.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of an external configuration of a head cartridge mountable on a carriage of an ink jet recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view thereof.

FIG. 3 is a plan view for explaining a bonding relationship between a base plate and a PCB in a head unit of the head cartridge.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are a plan view and a side view showing a configuration example of a pressing spring used in the head unit, respectively.

FIG. 5 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing an example of an external configuration of a head unit.

FIG. 6 is a top view of an ink container in the ink tank unit of the head cartridge according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a bottom view of the same.

FIG. 8 is a side sectional view of the same.

FIG. 9 is a rear view of a lid member in the ink tank unit.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view illustrating an example of an external configuration of an ink tank unit.

FIG. 11 is a schematic perspective view for explaining the operation when the head unit is attached to the ink tank unit.

12 (a), (b) and (c) show the relationship between an ink supply pipe provided on the head unit side and a pin for detecting the remaining amount of ink provided on the ink tank unit side, and an operation based on the relationship. It is an explanatory view for explaining.

13 is a perspective view showing the vicinity of a carriage of the ink jet recording apparatus to which the head cartridge shown in FIG. 1 is mounted.

FIG. 14 is a schematic side view of the same.

FIG. 15 is a schematic front view of the head cartridge according to the embodiment for explaining a mounting state of the head cartridge on a carriage.

FIG. 16 is a schematic front view of a head cartridge according to another embodiment for explaining a mounting state of the head cartridge on a carriage.

FIGS. 17A and 17B are explanatory views of an engagement relationship between a carriage-side engagement pin and a head cartridge-side pin engagement portion.

FIG. 18 is a schematic side sectional view for explaining a copying apparatus configured by using the ink jet recording apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a schematic perspective view of the inkjet recording apparatus.

FIG. 20 is a front view showing a detailed configuration example of the recovery system unit.

FIG. 21 is an explanatory diagram for explaining wiping and blade cleaning operations on the head unit of the head cartridge according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 22 is a schematic perspective view for explaining the same.

23 (a) and 23 (b) are partially enlarged views of FIG. 21 for the same explanation.

FIG. 24 is an explanatory diagram showing another configuration example of the wiped portion and the blade cleaning portion of the head unit.

FIG. 25 is an explanatory view showing still another configuration example.

FIG. 26 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between a print duty and a leaked ink amount, which is one factor for determining the specifications of the absorber provided in the head unit.

FIG. 27 is an explanatory diagram for explaining wiping and blade cleaning operations on a head unit of a head cartridge according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 28 is a schematic perspective view for explaining the same.

29 (a) and 29 (b) are partially enlarged views of FIG. 27 for the same explanation.

FIG. 30 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a relationship among an ink discharge port arrangement range, a cap width, a blade width, a head-side absorber width, and a carriage-side absorber width in the embodiment of FIG. 27;

FIG. 31 is an explanatory view showing a head unit having a concave ink ejection port arrangement surface as a modification of FIG. 24;

FIG. 32 is an explanatory view showing a head unit having a concave ink ejection port arrangement surface as a modification of FIG. 25;

FIG. 33 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the relationship between the arrangement of the ink ejection ports, the cap width, and the first and second blade widths with respect to the configurations in FIGS. 31 and 32;

FIG. 34 is a schematic perspective view for explaining a head cartridge having a configuration in which the carriage moving direction and the wiping direction are different.

FIG. 35 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a wiping direction with respect to a trapezoidal discharge port.

FIG. 36 is a schematic side sectional view for explaining the wiping.

FIGS. 37 (a) and (b) are explanatory diagrams for explaining a result caused by a difference in the wiping direction.

FIGS. 38 (a) and 38 (b) are a side sectional view and a front view, respectively, for explaining a wiping direction with respect to a discharge port having another shape.

FIG. 39 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the wiping.

FIGS. 40A and 40B are explanatory diagrams for explaining a wiping direction with respect to a discharge port adopting still another shape.

FIG. 41 is a top view of a heater board according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 42 is an explanatory diagram for describing a conventional inconvenience that may be caused by wiping.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Carriage 2f Cartridge mounting part 6 Main body connector 7 Operation lever 10 Pin 10a Spring 10b Pin tip 11 Scanning rail 15, 16, 17, 18 Roller 40 Connector holder 50 Platen 52 Belt 100 Head unit 101 Discharge part 101a Discharge face 101b Discharge port Reference Signs List 102 Wiring connector 103 Pin engaging portion 104 Head side absorber 111 Base plate 112 Heater board 113 Top plate 114 Holding spring 115 PCB 116 Head cover 128 ROM 161 Projection 163 Fitting portion 171 Recess 173, 174 Contact surface 116A Supply pipe 200 Ink tank unit 201 knob 203 air communication port 211 ink container 212 remaining amount detection pin 213, 214 contact member 213A, 214A contact member tip 215 absorption 216 Container lid 217 Cap 221 Latch 223 Fitting part 227, 229 Restriction member 233 Cylindrical part 235 Spiral groove 251 Convex part 253 Slide rail 253A Convex part 300 Cap unit 302 Cap 303 Holder 304 Suction tube 401 Blade 410 Blade holder 500 Pump unit 1000 Recording device body

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Kazuaki Masuda 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Seiichiro Karita 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Hiroshi Taka 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Norifumi Koitabashi 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Miyuki Matsubara 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Akio Suzuki 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (56) References JP-A-59-45161 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B41J 2/165

Claims (15)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method for ejecting ink to a recording medium.
A discharge surface in which the discharge ports are arranged, et al provided in the vicinity of said discharge exit surface
The discharge surface and the absorbing member are provided.
Wiping by the wiping member is performed in this order.
Cormorant used in the ink jet recording apparatus, the discharge face the end than the end of which adjacent to the absorbing member
An ink jet recording head characterized in that it is concave from the outer ejection surface. 2. The recording head according to claim 1, wherein the recording head includes an electrothermal converter that generates thermal energy that causes film boiling of the ink as energy used for discharging the ink. The inkjet recording head according to the above. 3. An ink jet head cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the ink jet recording head according to claim 1 or 2 is integrally provided with an ink tank containing ink to be supplied to the head. 4. A recording head according to claim 1, comprising: a mounting member on which the recording head is mounted; and a wiping member capable of engaging with an end surface of the discharge section and an end surface of the absorbing member . An ink jet recording apparatus, wherein wiping is performed so that the wiping member engages with the end surface of the discharge unit after engaging with the end surface of the discharge unit. 5. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the recording head has a form of a head cartridge in which an ink tank containing ink to be supplied to the discharge unit is integrated. 6. The mounting member according to claim 5, wherein the plurality of recording heads can be mounted on the mounting member, and the plurality of recording heads are mounted in a state where the absorbing members face in the same direction. Inkjet recording device. 7. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the plurality of recording heads are provided corresponding to inks having different color tones. 8. A recording head having a first absorbing member provided in the vicinity of the discharge portion and said discharge out section for discharging the ink to the recording medium, and can be mounted mounting member the recording head, the second a second absorbing member provided on said mounting member in engagement Migihitsuji next thereto in the vicinity of the first absorption member, the discharge portion, engageable with a wiping member in the first absorbent member and said second absorbing member, After the wiping member is engaged with the discharge portion, the first
An ink jet recording apparatus, wherein wiping is performed so as to engage with the absorbing member and then engage with the second absorbing member. 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the discharge unit includes an electrothermal converter that generates thermal energy that causes film boiling of the ink as energy used for discharging the ink. The inkjet recording apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims. 10. An end face of the first absorbing member engaged with the wiping member is more convex than an end face of the discharging part engaged with the wiping member, and / or the discharge part adjacent to the first absorbing member. 10. An end face portion of the first suction member is recessed from an end face of the first suction member.
3. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1. 11. The recording head according to claim 8, wherein the recording head has a form of a cartridge in which an ink tank containing ink to be supplied to the ejection unit is integrated. Ink jet recording device. 12. The mounting member can mount a plurality of the recording heads, and the plurality of recording heads can be mounted on the first recording head.
While the absorbing member is mounted in the same direction,
12. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the second absorbing member is disposed downstream of each of the recording heads in the wiping direction. 13. The inkjet recording apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the plurality of recording heads are provided corresponding to inks having different color tones. To 14. A recording head having a first absorbing member provided in the vicinity of the discharge portion and said discharge out section for discharging the ink to the recording medium, cleaning the wiping member engaged to the discharge portion After that, the wiping member is engaged with the first absorbing member, and then the wiping member is engaged with the second absorbing member provided on the mounting member of the recording head so as to be adjacent to the first absorbing member. A method for cleaning a recording head, which is characterized by the following. 15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the wiping member is used to perform a continuous operation on the plurality of recording heads and the plurality of second absorbing members.