JP3515822B2 - Color inkjet printer and information processing device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color thermal ink jet recording apparatus for ejecting ink droplets toward a recording medium, and more particularly to a personal computer having an input / output section, a display section, a recording section and the like. The present invention relates to a color recording device suitable for use in a small information processing device such as a computer and a word processor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A thermal ink jet recording apparatus is a recording apparatus of a type in which a part of ink is rapidly vaporized by pulse heating and an ink droplet is ejected from an orifice by its expansion force. The simplest method of pulse heating is to energize the heating resistor with pulses. The conventional heating resistor has a common basic structure in which the thin film resistor and the thin film conductor are covered with an antioxidation layer, and one or two cavitation layers are formed on the antioxidation layer for the purpose of preventing cavitation destruction of the antioxidation layer. It was to coat.

As a radical simplification of this complicated multi-layered structure, heat generation composed of only a Cr-Si-SiO alloy thin film resistor and a Ni thin film conductor having excellent pulse resistance, oxidation resistance and electrolytic corrosion resistance. There is a method in which the anti-oxidation layer and the anti-cavitation layer are unnecessary by using a resistor. In this case, since the thin film resistor is in direct contact with the ink, the rapid vaporization of the ink due to pulse heating and the resulting ink ejection characteristics are greatly improved, and the thermal efficiency and the ejection frequency are significantly improved. be able to.

Even if the heating resistor is formed in the vicinity of the device area on the driving LSI chip, the heating of the LSI device does not cause a temperature rise, and a monolithic LSI head having a very simple structure is provided. Can be realized. For details, see JP-A-6-238901 and JP-A-6-238901.
-297714 and Japanese Patent Application No. 6-201985. With such a technology, an on-demand type ink jet print head having many ink jet nozzles can be manufactured with high density and two-dimensionally integrated, and a full color ink jet printer capable of high speed printing is provided. Has been realized.

Hewlet-Packard Journal; February
On pages 35-40 of 1994, as a method of drying a recording paper printed with a water-based ink, a heater is arranged on the side opposite to the inkjet print head with the recording paper sandwiched therebetween, and at the same time, the recording paper is printed on the back side while printing. It is shown in the article to be heated by radiant heat and dried.

In information processing devices such as personal computers and word processors, small and thin information processing devices called notebook type or book type and further excellent in portability and storability are being developed one after another. Along with this, a printer that is small and inexpensive and that can be used by a user more easily has been required. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-32005 discloses an information processing device including an integrated recording unit.

[0007]

By the way, with recent great progress in semiconductor technology, personal computers having a display section having a full-color LCD have been supplied at a relatively low cost. And as the software that makes full use of high-definition screens that support full-color has become more and more popular, there are more opportunities for color printing, and it is possible to reduce the size, cost, high-speed printing, and low running cost of color printers. The need is growing.

However, since the color printer normally prints on the entire surface of the recording paper using four color inks including black ink, the entire surface of the recording paper absorbs a large amount of water contained in the ink. Therefore, for high-speed printing, forced drying of the recording paper is essential.

The recording unit described in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-32005 does not give any consideration to the drying of the recording paper. Therefore, it takes 1 to 2 minutes to print one recording paper at a relatively low speed. It is considered that the target is monochromatic printing.

On the other hand, the printer described in the above Hewlet-Packard Journal has a heating means for the recording paper, but its drying efficiency is not high, and therefore the apparatus is large and the printing process takes a considerable amount of time. (1-2 in full color printing
It is thought that it will take a minute).

An object of the present invention is to provide a color ink jet printer which is compact and capable of high speed printing. Another object of the present invention is to provide a color inkjet printer having a low running cost. Another object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus including a color inkjet printer which is small in size, excellent in portability, and capable of high-speed printing.

[0012]

A feature of the present invention is that it has a conveying means for conveying a recording medium, and a color scanning print head having a plurality of rows of ink ejection nozzles arranged in parallel. A color inkjet printer that ejects ink from the plurality of rows of ink ejection nozzles of a scanning print head toward the recording medium that is opposed to perform printing on the recording medium. From a flat plate-shaped preheater for heating the recording medium, which is provided on the upstream side of the print head, and a belt-shaped brush having a substantially flat surface, which is provided so as to face the preheater.
And a pressing unit configured to press the surface of the recording medium against the preheater.

Another feature of the present invention is to convey a recording medium.
Conveyor and multiple rows of ink ejection nozzles arranged in parallel
And a scanning print head for color with
Of the plurality of rows of ink discharge nozzles of the print head
The recording is performed by ejecting ink toward the facing recording medium.
A color inkjet printer that prints on media
The print head in the transport direction of the recording medium
A flat plate shape for heating the recording medium, which is provided on the upstream side of the
Of the preheater and the preheater
And a pressing means having a substantially flat surface, and
The recording medium heated by the preheater
A method of intermittently sending a medium, and a method of carrying the recording medium
In front of the preheater and the scanning printhead
The distance from the center to the ink ejection nozzle array is
It is an integer multiple of 2 or more of the length of the exit nozzle row in the transport direction.
The recording medium is separated from the surface of the recording medium by the pressing means.
Is configured to press against the preheater.
It

Another feature of the present invention is that the preheater is
Is a PTC heater. Another feature of the present invention is that the carrying means is provided between a first carrying means provided upstream of the preheater in the carrying direction, and between the preheater and the scanning print head in the carrying direction. And a second transporting means, the first transporting means being a soft feeder that causes a slip when the force for pulling the recording medium is a certain value or more, and the recording by the second transporting means. The medium transport speed is higher than the transport speed of the first transport means. Another feature of the present invention is that the second conveying means is a hard feeder that conveys the recording medium toward the scanning print head, and further, a position where the soft feeder bites into the hard feeder. And a controller that controls to print on the recording medium by the scanning print head while intermittently feeding the heated recording medium by the hard feeder. Furthermore, another feature of the present invention is that the ink of the ink ejection nozzle array that is first printed on the recording medium is black ink. Furthermore, another feature of the present invention is that the width of the preheater in the transport direction of the recording medium is wider than the recording width in one scan of the scanning print head.

Another feature of the present invention is an information processing apparatus having a printer section having the color ink jet printer according to any one of claims 1 to 7 , an input / output section, a display section and a recording section. The printer unit is provided at the rear of the display unit, and each ink ejection nozzle is attached to the cartridge mounting table on which the scanning print head can be mounted and the ink ejection nozzle surface of the scanning print head. And a storage portion of the scanning print head having capping means for sealing each of the rows independently and simultaneously. Another feature of the present invention is that the capping means is made of a corrugated silicone rubber capable of sealing the respective ink discharge nozzle rows, and after the capping is released, the corrugated silicone rubber surface is swept and cleaned for sealing. It is to store. Another feature of the present invention is that the printer unit has an openable / closable cover, and the cover is opened during printing to mount the scanning print head on the cartridge mounting base.

[0016]

According to the present invention, high-speed printing can be performed by a large-scale and high-density thermal ink jet print head, and the surface of the recording medium in the area immediately before printing is pressed and dried by a pre-heater and is also dried by heating. By printing on the surface of the recording medium while it is being transported, it is possible to effectively dry at high speed. This enabled high-speed color printing.

According to the inventor's experiment, the Hewlet-Pack
The method of indirectly heating the recording paper from the back side of the printing surface with radiant heat as in the printer described in ard Journal is inefficient and requires a considerable amount of time for drying. In the present invention, since the recording paper is heated from the front side of the printing surface and under pressure contact, the temperature of the recording paper rises in a short time, and by printing on the recording paper which has been preheated and dried, the ink Can be dried at high speed.

By heating and drying the recording medium with the pre-heater, it is possible to perform clean color printing with less bleeding on inexpensive plain paper for laser beam printers and recycled paper without using a recording medium dedicated to an ink jet printer. You can As a result, a color inkjet printer with low running cost is provided.

According to another aspect of the information processing apparatus of the present invention, the cover of the print scanning unit which is normally closed is opened at the time of printing, and the print head which is normally stored in the recording head storage unit is opened. By mounting on the cartridge mount and printing, it is compact and portable,
An information processing apparatus including a color inkjet printer capable of high-speed printing is provided.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a personal computer (hereinafter abbreviated as a personal computer) equipped with a full-color printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view when the portable computer is carried. In FIG. 1 , 1 is a personal computer body,
Reference numeral 2 is a printer unit for recording characters and images on a recording medium, and 3 is a paper feed port having an opening corresponding to an A4 size for feeding the recording medium. Reference numeral 4 denotes a keyboard unit having keys for inputting characters and keys for giving various commands. Reference numeral 5 denotes a full-color display section, and a liquid crystal display element, a plasma display or the like is used as the display element because the display section can be made thin. The PC main body 1, CPU and for controlling the computer, controls 70 mounted with such a driver and a power supply circuit for peripheral devices such as a full-color printer is built. 6 is
It is a floppy deck. The display unit 5 is attached to the personal computer body 1 so as to be rotatable back and forth via hinges provided at both ends of its rear edge.

As shown in FIG. 2 , the printer unit 2 is arranged at a rear position of the display unit 5 of the personal computer body 1, and has a printing mechanism unit 2A and a head cartridge storage unit 2B. The printing mechanism unit 2A includes a printing mechanism and a cover 30,
Normally, the cover 30 is closed as shown in FIGS.
When printing, as shown in FIG. 6, the cover 30 is opened, the head cartridge 24 is mounted, and printing is performed. The head cartridge accommodating portion 2B has a lid 7 and accommodates the head cartridge 24 therein except when printing.

The display unit 5 and the cover 30 may be integrally formed so that the display unit 5 and the cover 30 can be rotated back and forth via a hinge provided at the rear end of the personal computer body 1.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 2 showing a longitudinal section of the printing mechanism section 2A of the printer section 2. Figure 3 and
As shown in FIG. 6 and FIG.
Preheater 2 that heats the substrate to evaporate the water in the recording medium
1 (21A to 21C), the recording medium 32 to the preheater 21
A pressing brush 22 that is pressed against and a hard feeder 23 that conveys the recording medium 32 toward the print head 11 (see FIG. 7) are provided. The scanning print head 11 integrated with the head cartridge 24 is mounted on the head cartridge mounting base 26 fixed to the head traveling lead screw 25. Reference numeral 27 is a conveyance guide that guides the recording medium 32 from the opening 3 to the printer unit 2 under the keyboard unit. Reference numeral 28 denotes a soft feeder that conveys the recording medium 32 sent from the paper feed port 3 to the preheater 21. Reference numeral 29 is a sliding shaft of the mounting table. Reference numeral 40 is a sensor for detecting that the front end of the recording medium 32 has passed the preheater 21, and 41 is a sensor for detecting that the front and rear ends of the recording medium 32 have passed the hard feeder 23. Four
2 is a connection terminal electrically connected to the control signal terminal of the head cartridge 24, the terminal is connected to <br/> Control unit 70 via the main body. Preheater 21
Is a PTC chip 21A, a thin plate 21B and a heat insulating holder 2
It is composed of 1C. Details will be described later.

FIG. 4 is a plan view of an essential part of the printing mechanism section 2A, which shows the holes 26 of the head cartridge mounting table 26 during printing.
The print head 11 of the head cartridge 24 is inserted into B.

FIG. 5 is a plan sectional view showing the structure of the head cartridge housing portion 2B of the printer unit 2, which is a space for housing the head cartridge 24 in the personal computer body 1 at the time other than when printing. Is. When stored,
The head cartridge 24 to urge the spring 34 provided on the lid 7 is applied, each nozzle array of the print head 11, Color silicone rubber cap 36 of the corrugated shape shown the longitudinal section in FIG. 8 ( B, M, C, Y)
To be capped. By capping each color, all nozzles are hermetically sealed by the ejection port surface, and the amount of air exposed to the ink surface in the nozzles becomes almost zero, so that ink drying is no longer a problem. The water repellency of the cap material minimizes the wetting of the ink on the cap surface when the capping is released, and after cleaning the surface of the cap 36 with simple wiping, the cap 7 is kept airtightly stored so that the cap surface is free from dust and the like. It will not be contaminated. Further, since the corrugated silicone rubber cap 36 is used, color mixing due to capping does not occur. 38
Is a cleaner for cleaning the cap 36 when the head cartridge 24 is not housed.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a printing operation state of the full color high speed ink jet printer according to the present invention. Recording media such as plain paper, recycled paper, OHP film 3
2 can be transported in the state of FIG. That is,
The recording medium 32 can be set at the recordable position by inserting the recording medium 32 along the recording medium insertion conveyance guide 27 from the paper feed port 3 provided on the front side of the personal computer main body 1 in the direction of the arrow in the figure. . Recording medium (hereinafter referred to simply as
Recording paper also called) 32 during the recording operation, it continues to be conveyed printed width increments intermittently in the arrow direction, and is discharged to the rear of the personal computer 1.

The recording paper 32 is first conveyed to the preheater 21 by the soft feeder 28 and heated there. Next, the hard feeder 23 intermittently conveys just below the full-color print head 11 for each print width. At this time, printing is performed on the recording paper 32 by the full-color print head 11 that ejects four color inks from the nozzle rows arranged in four rows. The drying speed of the ink on the recording paper 32, which has been sufficiently heated and dried by the preheater 21 in advance, is high.
Paper can be handled even during high-speed printing of 10 times. This method brings about a great effect that the beard-like bleeding, which is seen in the conventional inkjet printer for plain paper or the like, is greatly reduced and the print quality is greatly improved.

A perspective view of the head cartridge 24 is shown.7
In the vicinity of one nozzle row of the print head 11.
Figure 9 shows a detailed sectionandAs shown in FIG. Head cartridge
The inkjet printer 24 is mainly connected to the inkjet print head 11.
It is integrated with a tank. Print
The head 11 has an ink ejection nozzle 59 of 300 dpi.
128 dots linearly aligned at a density of (dots / inch)
And the configuration in which it is arranged for four colors at intervals of about 1.6 mm
Has become. To drive this 128 nozzles x 4 colors
20 control signal terminals 12 of the head cartridge 24
It is located on the side.

The head cartridge 24 is detachably attached to the ink jet recording apparatus, and can be replenished with ink or replaced with a new head cartridge before the ink in the ink tank is used up. it can. The ink tank occupies most of the head cartridge 24, and contains about 20 cc of black ink and about 4 inks of yellow, cyan, and magenta inside.
It has an ink storage chamber for storing each cc. The head cartridge mounting base 26, on which the head cartridge 24 is mounted, has a head traveling lead screw 25 that rotates in association with forward and reverse rotations of a carrier motor via a transmission mechanism.
Engages with the spiral groove of and is reciprocated as the carrier motor rotates.

In FIGS. 9 and 10, the print head 1
Reference numeral 1 denotes a substrate on which a plurality of heating resistors 52, which are electrothermal converters that generate thermal energy used for ink ejection, and a drive circuit 56 for driving the heating resistors are formed, and the plurality of substrates on the substrate. An ejection port 59 corresponding to each of the heating resistors 52, an individual ink liquid passage 60, and an orifice plate 58 for forming a common liquid chamber communicating with each individual ink liquid passage 60 are laminated. Composed by.
Then, the recording head configured as described above is mounted in the apparatus so that the ejection port surface of the orifice plate 58 in which the ejection ports 59 are arranged faces the recording medium 32.

In FIG. 9, the four color inks supplied from the respective ink tanks are guided to the respective ink supply ports 63 of the frame, the connection holes 62 formed in the silicon substrate, the common ink groove 61 in the silicon substrate, Ink droplets 80 are ejected from each ejection nozzle 59 via the individual ink liquid passage 60.

The details of the structure and manufacturing method of these heads will be replaced with the detailed description thereof by referring to Japanese Patent Application No. 6-201985 filed by the present inventors.

The applied energy to the heat generating resistor 52 of the head 11, 2.2 W / dot × 1 .mu.sec, the transfer speed of the shift register of the drive circuit 56 20MH z, and 128 of the nozzle, first to drive the odd-numbered columns , 25 μsec
Drive the even-row nozzles with a time difference of 160μ
128 nozzles were discharged at a repeating cycle of sec.
These driving methods realize high-quality printing as a non-interference flying ink driving method (see Japanese Patent Application No. 5-231913) and a crosstalk-free driving method (see Japanese Patent Application No. 6-49202) according to the present invention. It is a possible method.

The scanning speed of the head cartridge 24 is about 6
The recording speed was 0 cm / sec, and recording was performed only during one-direction scanning.
It goes without saying that the ink to be printed at the beginning of the four nozzle rows arranged at this time is black ink and a method capable of realizing clear color printing is adopted (patent application by the present inventor, Japanese Patent Application No. 278852).

Since full-color printing can be performed with a width of 10.67 mm by one head scan, the recording paper 32 is 10.67 m.
The heating width of the preheater 21 was set to 12 mm, which was wider than this. This is a result of considering that the unheated portion is not generated and the recording paper is not heated more than necessary. Generally, it is optimal to use a preheater that is 1 to 3 mm wider than the recording width in one scan. I knew that.

Further, in the case of such intermittent feeding, it is easy to satisfy the condition of uniform printing quality when the time from heating to printing is almost constant, so that the central position of the preheater 21 in the recording paper conveying direction is satisfied. And the distance between the center position of the orifice row (ink ejection nozzle row) of the print head 11 is
It is best to double or triple the recording width of the orifice array. That is, it is necessary to give sufficient time for the moisture occluded on the recording paper to evaporate and diffuse, and to sufficiently dry it, and to complete the printing before the temperature of the recording paper decreases.

The preheater 21 includes a plurality of thin PTCs (positive electrodes) having a self-temperature control characteristic as a heating source.
The thermistor heater chip 21A is a smooth thin plate 2 with good thermal conductivity.
It is attached to 1B and embedded in a heat insulating holder 21C. A zirconia-added alumina ceramic radiator plate as a smooth thin plate 21B having good thermal conductivity and excellent lubricity (patent application by the present inventor, Japanese Patent Application No. 6-100143).
(See No.) is suitable for this, but in this case, the pressure applied to this heat sink is very small and lubricity is not required so much. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the manufacturing cost by replacing the metal plate with high rigidity. It is also possible to use a thick film heater or the like as the heating source, but in this case, a temperature sensor and a temperature control device are required, which may increase the cost of the device. That is, the PTC heater is the best in terms of cost and the number of parts. The PTC heater may be energized by DC or AC, neither a thermometer nor a temperature control device is required, and it takes about 15 seconds with one switch to set, for example, 130
Raise the temperature to ℃ . The maximum energizing power at this time is about 80 W, and about 40 W × 25 sec / A at the time of printing described later.
The number of pages is 4, 1 and there is no need to energize during non-printing, so the power consumption is extremely small.

That is, there is no substantial waiting time, and
High-speed drying and high-quality printing (feature of the preheat printing method) in full-color printing at an unprecedented speed of 3 ppm (pages / minute) can be realized with such a small battery-powered printer.

It has been found that the pressing brush method is the best as an inexpensive method for appropriately pressing the recording medium 32 against the preheater 21 to smoothly slide the recording medium 32 and heating the recording medium 32 sufficiently. We call it Figure 1
Sufficient characteristics and service life are achieved by the elongated plate-shaped pressing brush 22 having a substantially flat surface in which thin glass fibers are densely implanted as shown in FIG. Each glass fiber as shown in FIG., A recording medium that does not become resistance to 32 conveying force, further preheater recording medium 32 with a moderate force 2
The function of pushing to 1 is required. This pressing force is
The weight of the recording medium 32 is preferably 2 to 5 times. It has been confirmed that the same characteristics can be obtained by using a heat-resistant plastic fiber that withstands about 150 ° C. and has appropriate elasticity other than glass fiber. By combining this flat plate-shaped preheater 21 and a large number of point contact type planar pressing brushes 22, a preheat print heater with a low height can be realized, and a full-color printer capable of high-speed printing that has never existed is built in. It was possible to realize the ultra thin information processing device.

Next, the relationship between the soft feeder 28 and the hard feeder 23 will be described. The soft feeder 28 feeds the manually inserted recording medium 32 into the preheater 21, and temporarily stops when the tip of the recording medium 32 comes out from the end of the preheater 21 by 2 to 3 mm (for an intermittent feeding cycle of 0.8 sec). ), And then the recording medium 32
The sheet is conveyed until the front end of is caught in the hard feeder 23 and then stopped. Subsequent intermittent conveyance of the recording medium 32 is performed only by the hard feeder 23 and the soft feeder 28.
Will act as a weak tensile resistance to this intermittent transport. That is, the conveying force of the soft feeder 28 is set to be small, and the preheater 21 and the pressing brush 22 are configured so that the conveying resistance (dynamic friction resistance) is sufficiently smaller than this. A method may be adopted in which the roller contact pressure of the soft feeder 28 is released when the tip of the recording medium 32 is bitten into the hard feeder 23. Which method to use is a matter of manufacturing cost and performance. Does not change.

The full-color printer constructed as described above has a recording scanning cycle of 0.8 sec for the head cartridge.
It was possible to print the entire A4 surface in about 22 sec by full-color printing, and it was possible to obtain a clear image with very little bleeding even on plain paper for laser beam printers and recycled paper. This is a feature of the preheat printing method disclosed in the present inventors' patent application invention, JP-A-6-297714, and Japanese Patent Application No. 6-278852.
By utilizing this feature, it was possible to provide an ultra-thin information processing device which is the object of the present invention.

FIG. 12 shows a configuration example of the printer control section 70 provided in the main body of the personal computer and each element connected thereto via the interface. The printer control unit 70 includes a preheat control unit 71 that controls energization to the preheater 21, a hard feeder control unit 72 that controls a hard feeder drive motor 82 that drives the hard feeder 23, and a head traveling lead screw 25.
To drive the carrier motor 83 and the print head 11 to control the reciprocation of the head cartridge 24 mounted on
The print head driver 73 for controlling the print head driver 84, and the soft feeder control means 74 for driving the soft feeder drive motor 85 for controlling the rotation of the soft feeder 28. The printer control section 70 is further connected to an input section 75, various sensors 76, a memory 77, a document edit control means 78, and the like.

FIG. 13 is a flow chart showing the operation of each section centering on the printer control section 70. In printing, first, the head cartridge 24 is mounted on the head cartridge mounting base 26 (step 130).
2). When properly mounted, the control signal terminal 12 (FIG. 7 ) of the head cartridge 24 and the connection terminal 42 of the mounting base 26 .
(Fig. 3) is electrically connected to the printer, and printing is possible. Therefore, the print command from the control roll 70 is issued (step 1304). Along with this, head startup processing ( step 1306) is performed, and the power of the preheater 21 is turned on ( step 1308). Then, the power supplies of the drive motors of the soft feeder 28 and the hard feeder 23 are turned on, and these feeders rotate,
It becomes in a transportable state ( step 1310). When the recording medium 32 is supplied from the paper feed port 3 here, the soft feeder
The recording medium 32 is conveyed to the preheater 21 by 28 , the tip position of the recording medium 32 is confirmed by the sensor 40, and heated in this state ( steps 1312 to 1314). The heated recording medium 32 is conveyed by the soft feeder 28 , and when the sensor 41 detects that the tip of the recording medium 32 is bitten by the hard feeder 23, the main body of conveyance moves from the soft feeder 28 to the hard feeder 23, and the recording medium 32 is conveyed. The print head 1 is placed on the recording medium 32 after being intermittently fed.
Color printing according to No. 1 is performed ( steps 1316-1)
320). When the sensor 41 detects that the rear end of one recording medium 32 has passed and the printing is completed, the rotation of the hard feeder 23 is once stopped ( step 1322), and it is checked whether the printing is completed or not. Step 131 if there is
Return to 0, and if finished, turn off the preheater 21 ,
Remove the head cartridge 24 ( step 132)
8).

Needless to say, the position of the printer unit with respect to the main body of the personal computer in the above-described embodiment may be such that the printer unit is located in front of the full-color display unit.

In the above embodiment, the personal computer and the printer unit are integrated, but it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to an independent type printer in which only the printer unit is separated.

Since full-color printing is multi-color overprinting that spreads two-dimensionally, the recording paper is heated to 100 ° C. or higher.
Printing while drying is an essential condition for high quality. Then, the effect of obtaining the same image quality as the expensive special-purpose special-purpose paper using inexpensive plain paper or recycled paper is tremendous.

[0047]

According to the present invention, the recording material in the area immediately before printing is printed while being heated and dried by the preheater which is small and structurally simple. In addition, it is possible to realize a small-sized high-speed full-color printer that can dry ink at high speed. As a result, a color inkjet printer with low running cost is provided. Further, there is provided an information processing apparatus including a color inkjet printer which is small in size, excellent in portability, and capable of high-speed printing.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an external appearance of a personal computer equipped with a full-color printer according to an embodiment of the present invention when in use.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a portable state of the personal computer in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a printing mechanism unit of the printer unit according to the embodiment of FIG.

4 is a plan view of a main part of a printing mechanism section of the printer section of the embodiment of FIG.

5 is a plan sectional view of an essential part showing the configuration of a head cartridge storage section 2B of the printer section of the embodiment of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a printer unit showing a printing operation state of a full-color high-speed inkjet printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged perspective view of a full-color printhead.
It

FIG. 8 shows an example of a rubber cap of a print head .
It is a figure.

9 is a diagram showing a detailed cross section in the vicinity of one nozzle row of the full-color print head of FIG.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a cross section taken along the line AA ′, BB ′, and CC ′ of FIG. 9;

11 is an enlarged perspective view showing an example of the presser brush 22. FIG.

[12] controls the printer portion of the embodiment of FIG. 1
It is a figure which shows the structure of a part .

13 is a diagram for describing operation of the controls of Fig.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... PC main body, 2 ... printer section, 3 ... paper feed port, 4 ...
Keyboard part, 5 ... Full color display part, 6 ... Floppy deck, 21 ... Preheater, 22 ... Pressing brush, 23 ...
Hard feeder, 24 ... Head cartridge , 25 ... F
Lead screw for running the head, 26 ... Head cartridge mounting base, 27 ... Conveying guide, 28 ... Soft feeder,
29 ... Sliding shaft , 32 ... Recording medium (recording paper)

Claims (10)

(57) [Claims] 1. A scanning means for color, comprising a conveying means for conveying a recording medium, and a plurality of rows of ink discharge nozzles arranged in parallel, the ink of the plural rows of ink of the scanning type print head. A color inkjet printer that ejects ink from an ejection nozzle array toward an opposite recording medium to perform printing on the recording medium, the color inkjet printer being provided on an upstream side of the print head in a transport direction of the recording medium. It has a flat plate-shaped preheater for heating the recording medium, and a pressing means formed of a belt-shaped brush having a substantially flat surface, which is provided so as to face the preheater. A color ink jet printer characterized by pressing against the preheater. 2. A recording medium is conveyed in parallel with a conveying means for conveying the recording medium.
Color scanning with multiple rows of ink ejection nozzles
Type print head, and the above-mentioned scanning print head
From several rows of ink ejection nozzles to the opposite recording medium
To eject ink to print on the recording medium.
An inkjet printer, the upstream side of the print head in the transport direction of the recording medium.
A flat plate-shaped preheater provided on the side for heating the recording medium.
A heater and a substantially flat
And a pressing means having a flat surface, and the conveying means is heated by the preheater.
The recording medium is sent intermittently.
The pre-heater and the scanning type print
The distance between the center of the head and the ink discharge nozzle array is
If the length of the ink ejection nozzle array in the transport direction is 2 or more
They are separated by an integral multiple, and the surface of the recording medium is preheated by the pressing means.
A color inkjet printer that presses against a printer. 3. The color inkjet printer according to claim 1, wherein the preheater is a PTC heater. 4. The first transporting means provided upstream of the preheater in the transporting direction,
A second conveyance unit provided between the preheater and the scanning print head in the conveyance direction, wherein the first conveyance unit is provided when the force for pulling the recording medium is a certain value or more. 4. A soft feeder that causes slippage, and a transport speed of the recording medium by the second transport means is higher than a transport speed by the first transport means. The color inkjet printer described in. 5. The second conveying means is a hard feeder that conveys the recording medium toward the scanning print head, and further conveys the recording medium to a position where the soft feeder bites into the hard feeder, and heats the recording medium. While intermittently sending the recording medium by the hard feeder,
The color inkjet printer according to claim 4, further comprising a controller that controls the scanning type print head to print on the recording medium. 6. The color ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the ink of the ink ejection nozzle array which is first printed on the recording medium is black ink. 7. The width of the preheater in the conveying direction of the recording medium is wider than the recording width of one scan of the scanning print head. The color inkjet printer described in. 8. A printer having a color ink jet printer according to any one of claims 1 to 7 and an information processing apparatus having input and output portions, display and recording unit, the printer unit It is provided behind the display,
The scanning having a cartridge mounting table on which the scanning print head can be mounted, and a capping unit that seals each ink ejection nozzle row independently and simultaneously by closely contacting the ink ejection nozzle surface of the scanning printing head. An information processing apparatus having a storage unit for a print head. 9. The capping means is made of a corrugated silicone rubber capable of sealing each of the ink discharge nozzle rows, and after the capping is released, the corrugated silicone rubber surface is swept and cleaned and hermetically stored. The information processing device according to claim 8 . Wherein said printer section includes an openable cover, open the cover when printing according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in that mounting the scanning print head on the cartridge mounting platform Information processing equipment.