JPH03175048A - Ink cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable ink and waste ink to be contained to their maximum by a method wherein a movable partition wall is provided between an ink bag and a waste ink absorbing material, the waste ink absorbing material is formed of a material swelling by absorbing waste ink, and the movable partition wall is displaced according to variation in volume of the ink bag and the water ink absorbing material. CONSTITUTION:A movable partition wall 40 capable of being freely moved vertically is provided to an ink cartridge 4. An ink bag 42 is contained in its upper chamber 41A, and a waste ink absorbing material 43 is contained in its lower chamber 41B. The waste ink absorbing material 43 is formed by a material swelling by absorbing liquid and there is high water absorbing polymer being water absorbing macro molecu lar material as an optimum material. As ink is being consumed in the ink cartridge 4, the ink bag 42 is contracted in a depressed manner. Besides, the ink used for recov ery operation is introduced to the waste ink absorbing material 43 via a guide tube 107, which is swollen. The movable partition wall 40 is vertically moved according to contraction of the ink bag 42 and expansion in a volume of the waste ink absorbing material 43, and miniaturization and cost reduction can be achieved by effective utiliza tion of a space 40 inside the cartridge.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an ink cartridge, and more particularly to an ink cartridge for an inkjet recording device having an ink storage portion and a layered ink reservoir.

[Prior Art] An inkjet recording device records characters and images by ejecting ink droplets from the ink ejection ports of a recording head according to recording data and landing them on a recording material to form pixel dots. known as. By the way, in the liquid path communicating with the ink ejection opening, the viscosity increases due to evaporation of the ink, and the ink ejection speed becomes slow, which may cause deterioration of recording or clogging. Furthermore, if paper dust from the recording sheet, surrounding dust, etc. adhere to the ink ejection surface in addition to the ink, the ejection direction will deviate from the normal angle, and the quality of printing will be impaired.

Therefore, in order to deal with this problem, a hollow elastic member is pressed against the ink ejection surface of the recording head, and a negative pressure is generated in a part related to the ejection surface using a negative pressure generating means, and the ink is removed from the liquid path. So-called recovery operations have been carried out to recover and prevent clogging by suction, or to pressurize the liquid path from the upstream side to forcibly discharge ink from the ejection port. However, when such a recovery operation is performed, it is necessary to store the ejected ink, and on the other hand, since an ink storage section is required to replenish the ink to the recording head, the ink storage section must receive the repelled ink. An ink cartridge has been used that is equipped with a salt ink reservoir and is removably attached to a recording device.

FIG. 6 shows an example of such a conventional ink cartridge. Here, 101 is an ink cartridge, 102 is an ink bag, and 103 is a layered ink absorber.The ink cartridge 101 is partitioned by a partition wall 101A, and the ink bag 102 is in one chamber and the ink-repellent ink in the other chamber. An absorber 103 is housed therein. 104 is a supply tube for supplying ink to the recording head 1, 105 is a hollow elastic cap member that is pressed against the ink ejection surface IA of the recording head 1, 10B is a suction pump, and 107 is a layered ink guide tube.

The reason why the partition wall 101^ is provided here is as follows.
The ink absorbed by the ink-repellent absorber 103 is transferred to the ink bag 1.
This is to prevent it from adhering to 02.

That is, the ink bag 102 is composed of a multilayer film, and the innermost layer is made of polyethylene film, for example, as a material that does not contain anything eluted into the ink and is not attacked by the ink, and the outer layer is made of a gas barrier. For example, aluminum foil or aluminum vapor-deposited film, which has high strength, has been used, and for the outermost layer, a nylon film, which has mechanical strength, has been used.

By the way, the ink bag 102 has as few layers as possible even if it is multi-layered so that it can easily change according to the remaining amount of ink.
Also, the softer the better, and it is also advantageous in terms of cost.
The nylon film on the exterior is water-absorbent and easily damaged by moisture. On the other hand, the components of ink are also improved in order to improve fixability, adaptability to recording materials, and images, but especially in such cases, chemical changes are likely to occur on the exterior of the ink bag 102. .

For the reasons mentioned above, the structure is such that the salt ink absorber 103 does not come into direct contact with the ink bag 102, but when the ink cartridge 101 is removed, the ink in the ink bag 102 runs out. It will be replaced when

Therefore, even if all the ink in the ink bag 102 is used for the recovery operation, the ink repellent absorber 103 and the ink bag 102 are designed to prevent the hot ink absorber 103 from being unable to accommodate all of the ink. Conventionally, the capacity has been set to be the same.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional ink cartridge as described above, a fixed partition wall 101A is provided, and the ink bag 102 and the layered ink absorber 103 having the same capacity are connected via the partition wall 101A. Since the ink cartridge 101 is configured to be individually stored in each chamber, the ink cartridge 101 itself becomes large in size relative to the ink storage capacity, leading to an increase in the size of the recording apparatus and an increase in cost.

The purpose of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems,
An object of the present invention is to provide an ink cartridge that can reasonably accommodate ink and layer ink to the maximum extent and do not interfere with each other.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes an ink bag containing recording ink to be supplied to a recording head, and an ink bag that receives ink discharged from the recording head by a recovery operation. In an ink cartridge that has a built-in layer ink absorber and is removably attached to an inkjet recording device, a movable partition wall is provided between the ink bag and the ink-repellent absorber, and the layer ink absorber absorbs the layer ink. It is characterized in that it is made of a material that swells and that the movable partition wall is displaced in response to changes in the volumes of the ink bag and the ink-repellent absorber.

[Function] According to the present invention, the ink-repellent absorber made of water-absorbing polymer is kept in the smallest shape before absorbing ink, so if the ink cartridge has the same capacity, the ink-repellent absorber can be made smaller. It is now possible to set the capacity of the ink bag as large as possible, and by making the partition wall between the chamber housing the ink bag and the chamber housing the ink-repellent absorber movable, it is possible to prevent ink consumption or layering. Since the partition wall moves freely as the amount of ink increases, it is possible to provide a rational ink cartridge with high usage efficiency.

[Examples] Examples of the present invention will be described below in detail and specifically based on the drawings.

FIG. 3 shows an example of an ink jet recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied. Here, 1 is a recording head mounted on a carriage 2, and the carriage 2 is driven by a timing belt stretched between an idler boot (not shown) and a carriage drive motor (not shown). The guide shaft 3 is reciprocated along the direction by forward and reverse rotation. Note that ink is supplied to the recording head 1 from an ink cartridge 4 via an ink tube (not shown), and the ink discharge port (not shown) is supplied to the recording head 1 while the carriage 2 is moving from left to right.
Ink is ejected from the ink toward a recording material, for example, a recording sheet 5, and recording is performed.

6 is a plate-shaped fixed platen that holds the recording sheet 5 at a position facing the ejection surface of the recording head 1 while maintaining a predetermined interval; 7 is a feed roller that feeds the recording sheet 5; 8 is in pressure contact with the feed roller 7; A pinch roller 9 is driven to sandwich the recording sheet 5 between them, and 9 is a pinch roller holder for applying pressure to the pinch roller 8. The holder 9 is made of a stainless steel plate or the like, and the spring force of the holder 9 causes the pinch roller to 8 toward the feed roller 7. IO and 11 hold the recording sheet 5 fed manually, etc., and the feed roller 7 and pinch roller 8
An upper guide and a lower guide for guiding between.

The upper guide 10 is provided with a guide rail IO at its upper portion, and a leaf spring portion 2A provided on the lower surface side of the carriage 2 is held slidably along the guide rail IOA. Thus, the spring force of the leaf spring 2A urges the carriage 2 itself toward the fixed platen 6, and the carriage 2
A part of the platen 6 is attached to the sheet holding plate 1 provided in front of the platen 6.
The head 1 is slidably brought into contact with the head 3.
A predetermined distance is maintained between the ink ejection surface 18 of the recording sheet 5 and the recording sheet 5.

Note that the sheet presser plate 13 that a part of the carriage 2 comes into contact with
This area is near the back side of the part of the sheet presser plate 13 that is in contact with the feed roller 7, and when the sheet presser plate 13 retreats by that amount due to the passage of the recording sheet 5, the carriage 2
will also retreat as well. Therefore, it is possible to maintain the above-mentioned interval at a predetermined interval regardless of paper thickness and form a high-quality recorded image.

The recording sheet 5 fed by the feed roller 7 and the pinch roller 8 is held by a fixed platen 6 tilted rearward at an angle of approximately 30 degrees, making it easy to see the recording results. In this way, the recorded recording sheet 5 is held between the discharge roller 12 and a spur (not shown) that presses against the discharge roller 12, and is discharged to the stacker section.

Next, the ink supply device, recovery device, sheet feeding device, etc. will be described. These devices are concentrated on the left side of the recording area, simplifying the drive transmission mechanism and compacting the space, and share the drive source. 20 is the feed motor provided as the drive source. It is.

As will be described later, the feed motor 20 can drive the feed roller 7 and the discharge roller 12 as well as an ASF (not shown), and can also perform a series of recovery operations by a recovery device.

Reference numeral 21 denotes a cartridge insertion opening, and 22 denotes a hollow needle that pierces the ink cartridge 4 when inserted from the insertion opening 21 to supply ink to the recording head 1 via a tube (not shown) or an ink remaining amount detector. be. The recovery device also operates the cap member 23, the cap guide shaft 24 that movably holds the cap carrier 23A on which the cap member 23 is mounted, and the cap member 23 and the ink ejection surface IA of the recording head 1 as the cap member 23 moves. It includes a rail 25 for guiding the cap member 23, a spring 26 for biasing the cap member 23 toward the initial position on the right side, a pump 27 for sucking ink, and the like.

Furthermore, the cap carrier 23A is provided with an arm portion 23B that projects toward the travel path of the carriage 2, and when the carriage 2 moves leftward from the position shown in FIG. 3 and returns to the initial position, the cap carrier 23A A part of the upper arm part 23B
The cap member 23 contacts and engages with the cap member 23, and moves further leftward together with the cap member 23.

Reference numeral 28 denotes a fixed shutter for detecting the initial position. When the carriage 2 is guided to the initial position, the fixed shutter 28 is detected by a transmission type sensor 29 provided on the carriage 2, and the initial position is determined. Note that during the subsequent movement, the ink ejection surface IA is capped by the cap member 23, and the timing at which the capping is completed is determined by a counting means (not shown) counting the number of steps of the carriage drive motor from the above-mentioned detection point. be judged by that.

In addition, in the recovery operation after capping, the tube 10 is attached to the cap member 23 as shown in FIG.
Negative pressure is generated in the cap member 23 by driving the pump 27 connected at 7, and ink is sucked from within the nozzles of the recording head 1. Such a recovery operation is performed by the driving force switching means described later. feed motor 2
This is done by 0. 31 is a pump cam for driving the pump 27, 32 is a pump output gear, 33 and 34 are an XSF output gear and a sheet feed output gear provided coaxially with the pump output gear 32, and 35 is a gear. It is an idler gear that meshes with the row 36 and can rotationally drive the feed roller 7 via the feed gear 37.

Next, the ink cartridge 4, ink supply system, and recovery system piping C of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

As shown in these figures, the ink cartridge 4 has a vertically movable partition wall (hereinafter referred to as a movable partition wall).
40 is provided, and an ink bag 4 is provided in the upper chamber 41A.
2 and a lower chamber 41B &:m ink absorber 43 are accommodated therein. Note that FIG. 1 shows an unused state in which the salt ink has not yet been discharged, and the ink bag 42 is also kept fully loaded with ink, and the area occupied by the layered ink absorber 43 is It can be seen that the .

That is, the layered ink absorber 43 is made of a material that absorbs moisture from a liquid such as ink and swells, and as the material, bulb, pulp foam, or absorbent cotton can be used, but it is most preferable. An example of such a material is a superabsorbent polymer, which is a water-absorbing polymer material. However, it may be formed by combining the above-mentioned swellable materials. In particular, super absorbent polymers are
It has an absorption capacity of about 0 to 1000 times more moisture, and the volume required in a dry state to absorb the same amount of ink is significantly smaller than other materials. However, since the superabsorbent polymer is a powdery substance, it is desirable to form it by incorporating it into the bulb or coating it with a nonwoven fabric.

Therefore, for example, the layered ink absorber 43 is formed by incorporating a super absorbent polymer in pulp or the like in an amount of about 1/30 to 1/60 of the weight of the ink filled in the ink bag 42 . Furthermore, the movable partition wall 40 may be made of any material as long as it does not allow ink to pass through and is not altered by the ink, such as a resin plate, a rubber plate, or a coated paper plate. can be used.

In the ink cartridge 4 configured in this way,
As the ink is consumed, the ink bag 42 shrinks into a flat shape as shown in FIG. swell. In this way, the movable partition wall 40 moves up and down in accordance with the contraction of the ink bag 42 and the volumetric expansion of the ink-repellent absorber 43, and since the movable partition wall 40 is separated from each other, the ink absorbed by the layered ink absorber 43 is absorbed by the ink. The bag 42 is never violated.

Figures 4^ and 4B show a second embodiment of the invention. In this example, the inside of the ink cartridge 4 is vertically partitioned by a movable partition wall 50 as shown in the figure, and a bellows-type ink bag 52 is provided in one chamber, and a swellable layer ink absorber 53 is provided in the other chamber. It is stored. Therefore, before use, the movable partition wall 50 is in the state shown in FIG. 4A, but as the ink is consumed and more ink repellent is accepted, the movable partition wall 50 is displaced as shown in FIG. 4B. Regardless of the amount of ink in the ink absorber 53:r:, the head of water is directed downward, so the weight of one does not affect the other.

In the above-described embodiment, the movable partition wall 50 is oriented perpendicularly to the insertion direction of the ink cartridge 4, but the movable partition wall is provided along the insertion direction of the ink cartridge 4, It is also possible to arrange the ink bags and the ink-repellent absorber in a direction perpendicular to the direction.

Figures 5A and 5B show a third embodiment of the invention. In this example, the ink bag 42, which is relatively heavier than the first example, is stored in the lower chamber 41B, and the layered ink absorber 43 is stored in the upper chamber 41A. In order to prevent the weight from being applied to the ink bag 42, a balance spring 44 is provided to lightly support the layered ink absorber 43 via the movable partition wall 40. Reference numeral 45 designates a guide pin into which the movable partition wall 40 is loosely fitted vertically and supports the balance spring 44. Note that the balance spring 44 is compressed while supporting it in accordance with the expansion due to the ink-repellent absorption of the ink-repellent absorber 43.
A spring constant suitable for moving the movable partition wall 40 is selected.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a movable partition wall is provided between the ink bag and the ink-repellent absorber, and the layered ink absorber is made of a material that swells when hot ink is absorbed. In addition, the movable partition wall is moved in response to changes in the volume of the ink bag and the layered ink absorber, making it possible to reduce the size and cost by efficiently utilizing the space inside the cartridge, making it possible to reduce the size and cost of inkjet recording. Miniaturization of the device itself.

Contribute to cost reduction.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 and 2 are cross-sectional views schematically showing the configuration of the ink cartridge of the present invention when it is installed in a recording device and during use, respectively. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of an inkjet recording device to which the present invention is applied. FIGS. 4A and 4B are sectional views showing the configuration according to the second embodiment of the present invention when it is attached to a recording device and during use; FIGS. FIG. 6 is a sectional view schematically showing the configuration of a conventional ink cartridge. FIG. 1... Recording head, 4... Ink cartridge, 40.50... Movable partition wall, 41A, 41B... Chamber, 42.52... Ink bag, 43.53... Ink repellent absorption Body, 44...Equilibrium spring. 23 Camp Kuchisu＼ Fig. 4B 23 Cap part IJ) 4181 Kunshu 1st awn, 3rd cusp, 1st row of awns
A diagram

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) An inkjet printer having a built-in ink bag containing recording ink to be supplied to the recording head and an ink absorber that receives and absorbs the ink discharged from the recording head during a recovery operation. In an ink cartridge that is detachable from a recording device, a movable partition wall is provided between the ink bag and the flammable ink absorber, the flammable ink absorber is formed of a material that swells upon absorption of the flammable ink, and the ink is An ink cartridge characterized in that the movable partition wall is displaced according to changes in volume of the bag and the ink absorber. 2) The ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the ink absorber is formed using a water-absorbing polymer material. 3) The ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the ink absorber is formed of pulp containing a polymer of the water-absorbing polymer material in a range of 1 to 99%.