JPS60192645A - Inkjet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To gather ink effectively and drain it outside an equipment by arranging a porous projection in a groove on a carriage to absorb ink while a fitting section for receiving the projection and a porous member contacting the projection are provided at the bottom of a detachable printing unit. CONSTITUTION:A projection 12 made of a porous material for absorbing ink in a groove 11 is provided at the position of a groove 11 for ink recovery right below a printing unit 20 in such a manner as to be higher above the top surface of a carriage 10 while thin at the right angle to the direction of moving the carriage 10. When the printing unit 20 is fixed at the specified setting position of the carriage 10, the projection 12 made of the porous member on the carriage 10 is fitted into a groove hole (slot) 23 of the printing unit 20 so as to make the upper end face of the projection 12 fully contact the undersurface of the porous member 27. With such an arrangement, undesired ink absorbed by the projection 12 from the groove 11 by a capillary force and carried rising upward propagates to the porous members 27 and 28 from the contact face of the projection 12 to be recovered and retained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to an inkjet printer having an inkjet printing unit (hereinafter referred to as a printing unit).

[Prior art]

On-demand inkjet printers are configured to eject ink only when dot printing is necessary, so compared to unitary inkjet printers, there is no need for various ink collection mechanisms to collect excess ink. In addition, the ink ejection mechanism is simplified as there is no need for high pressure or voltage, and there are fewer locations that require various controls to fully utilize the ink ejection function. For this reason, in on-demand F'yw and inkjet printers, for example, as shown in FIG. It has become possible to provide an inkjet printer that can be easily replaced by a person. It is thought that such printers will become quite popular as inkjet printers that are relatively inexpensive and easy to use. However, no matter how theoretically there is no generation of excess ink and no ink recovery mechanism is required, in reality, in the unlikely event of a leakage accident or impact, ink may unexpectedly leak into the printing unit. In addition, when printing is performed on the printing object (usually paper) 4 on the platen 3, ink mist droplets that bounce back from the printing object 4 can reach the inkjet head. 2, these ink mist particles may collect and form droplets, so during long-term use or transportation, the ink may leak or collect and form droplets. will accumulate on the carriage l on which the inkjet head 2 is mounted.

Conventionally, in preparation for such a case, no special treatment for ink treatment was carried out on the carriage 1, so the ink liquid accumulated on the carriage dripped from the carriage 1 onto the shaft section 5, flexible signal line 6, etc. Furthermore, the shaft part 5
etc., and propagated into the machine body, or as the carriage 1 moves at high speed, ink droplets may be blown off by the inertia force and cause damage to the object to be printed, the inside of the printer equipment, and the surrounding areas. Problems such as getting dirty with ink were occurring. Furthermore, when the user replaces the printing unit 2, since the printing unit 20 is on the carriage l that has ink on it, there is a risk that the user's hands or clothes may get stained with ink. Ta.

For this reason, users and maintenance personnel (service personnel) must frequently clean the carriage and its surroundings to keep it dry at all times to prevent ink stains from adhering to other surfaces. did not become. Furthermore, as mentioned above, the formation of an ink film on the carriage 1 causes leakage current to occur, as this type of ink is usually conductive, which prevents the printing unit from operating normally. This has caused malfunctions and even damage to the main unit equipment. In addition, in conventional printer equipment, in order to prevent the problems caused by ink adhesion as described above, measures such as capping the printing unit, ink collection pump, and ink storage part to collect unnecessary ink are installed. Since it had to be provided in particular, the structure of the device became complicated, the shape became larger, and the manufacturing cost increased.

〔the purpose〕

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet printer in which a printing unit equipped with an ink ejection function is mounted on a carrier, without providing any particularly complicated means.
To provide an inkjet printer equipped with a replaceable printing unit that keeps the top of a carriage always dry and does not stain the inside of printer equipment, an object to be printed, or a user with ink.

An object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet printer in which a printing unit for discharging ink droplets is mounted on a carriage, in which a groove for collecting ink is formed in the carriage, and a protrusion made of a first porous material is provided in the groove. This is achieved by a configuration in which the printing unit has a fitting portion that fits into the protrusion, and the second porous body is provided within the printing unit so as to be in contact with the porous body.

That is, the present invention brings unnecessary ink on the carriage into the printing unit through the groove by bringing the protrusion of the porous body in the groove that guides the ink liquid on the carriage into contact with the porous body in the printing unit. The purpose is achieved by absorbing and retaining it in the porous body of the device and making it easily expelled from the equipment.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the structure of the carriage portion of the inkjet printer of the present invention. Here, 10 is a carriage that moves in the main scanning direction. Reference numeral 20 denotes a printing unit as shown in FIG. 6, which will be described later, having a nozzle for ejecting ink droplets, an ink tank, etc., and is detachably mounted and fixed on the carriage 10. Further, 11 is a groove for collecting unnecessary ink formed on the upper surface of the carriage 10, 12 is a protrusion made of a porous member capable of absorbing ink, and 12 is protruded into the groove 11.
3 is a member for fixing the printing unit disposed on the upper surface of the carriage 10.

The above-mentioned grooves 11 may be arranged in a concentrated manner in places where ink is likely to leak, such as below the nozzle array or in places where ink tends to stay, as shown in FIG. 3, for example. The ink on the carriage 10 is guided to the groove 11 and temporarily retained, but the edge of the groove 11 is removed as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. It may be formed so that it becomes wider and shallower toward the bottom. Also, carriage 1
As shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of baffle plates 14 are provided in the groove 11 to prevent the gear ridge 10 from moving at right angles to the movement 31 of the gear ridge 10.
The ink may be prevented from leaking inside the buttocks 11 due to high-speed movement in the left and right direction. Further, it is also preferable that the surface of the carriage lO be slightly inclined toward the groove 11 so as to facilitate the collection efficiency of the ink accumulated on the carriage lO. Furthermore, when the lla slope is provided in the groove 11 in this way, the degree of parent tree treatment is increased toward the deeper side, or treatment is applied to increase the interfacial vitality. Also good.

A protrusion 12 made of a porous material that absorbs ink in the groove 11 is provided at a position of the ink recovery groove 11 directly below the printing unit 20 and protrudes higher than the upper surface of the carrier 10.
Moreover, it is arranged in an elongated manner perpendicular to the moving direction of the carriage 10. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, this projection 12, which is fixed integrally with the groove 11 of the carriage 10, is shown in FIG. 6 (A), which will be described later.
, is inserted into a fitting groove (fitting portion) 23 formed on the lower surface of the printing unit 20 as shown in (B). In other words, is there a printing unit on the carriage lO? ) 20 is installed correctly, the protrusion 12 of the carriage lO and the printing unit)
20 grooves 23 are fitted. Note that this fitting can also serve as a guide for positioning. Further, the unnecessary ink collected and stored in the groove 11 rises due to the capillary force (capillary phenomenon) of the porous member of the protrusion 12 and is carried upward. The protruding member may be subjected to parent wood treatment, such as plasma treatment, coating with a hydrophilic substance, coating with a surfactant, or the like.

FIGS. 6(A) and 6(B) show the appearance of the printing unit of the inkjet printer of the present invention. This printing unit 20
, a nozzle array 21 for ejecting ink droplets, an ink ejection section 22 for activating ejection energy to eject ink droplets from the nozzle array 21, and a long groove 23 that fits with the protrusion 12 on the carriage 10 described above. and an ink tank section 24 for storing ink liquid that supplies ink to the nozzle array 21 of the discharge section 22, and is formed compactly and simply as shown in the figure, and the carriage 10 as shown in FIGS. 2 to 5
It is removably mounted on the top and is also disposable.

FIG. 7 to FIG. 1O show examples of the internal configuration of the above-described printing unit 20. Here, 25 is a replaceable ink storage bag disposed inside the ink tank section 24, and 26 is an ink storage bag 25.
Inks 27 and 28 inside are porous members that cover the upper portions of the long grooves 23 and come into contact with the protrusions 12 described above. 2
The porous member 7 is housed in the base of the ink discharge section 22 or the ink tank 24, and the porous member 28 constitutes the base itself of the printing unit 20.

When the printing unit 20 is fixed at a predetermined installation position of the carriage 10, the protrusion 12 of the second porous member of the carriage 10 is inserted and fitted into the slot (long groove) 23 of the printing unit I. , the upper end surface of the protrusion 12 and the lower surface of the porous member 27 or 28 are in full contact with each other. As a result, the unnecessary ink that is absorbed by the protrusion 12 from the groove 11 by the capillary force and carried upward is propagated from the contact surface of the protrusion 12 to the porous member 27 or 28, where it is collected and reserved. At this time, from the porous member 12 of the protrusion to the internal porous member 2
In order to smoothly transfer the ink to the printing unit 7, it is necessary to make the mesh of the porous member 27 finer or to increase the strength of the parent wood treatment so that the capillary force on the printing unit side becomes stronger. It is best to do so depending on the situation.

Further, as shown in FIG. 7, when the printing unit base part includes a porous member 27, when the ink tank part 24 runs out of ink, the printing unit 20
When some abnormality occurs in the printing unit 20 and normal ink ejection is no longer possible, the entire printing unit 20 is replaced with a new one. By replacing the printing unit in this way, the porous member 27 is replaced with a new one, and the unnecessary ink is thrown out of the printer together with the old printing unit.

In addition, as shown in FIG.
or as part of the ink tank section 24,
In addition, when the ink tank 24 is separated from the discharge section 22 of the printing unit 20 and made detachable, unnecessary ink on the carriage 10 is removed from the groove 11 and the protrusion 12 in the same way as described above.
However, when the ink tank section 24 is replaced due to running out of ink, the ink retaining porous body 27 is also replaced with a new one, and the old one is removed from the printer equipment. be thrown away. That is,
Normally, when the ink runs out, only the ink tank section 24 is replaced and printing is continued by replacing the ink tank section 24 with a new one.
The porous body 27 is also replaced every time 4 is replaced.

The one shown in FIG. 9 is similar to that shown in FIG.
4 and the discharge section 22 are independently detachable, but a porous body 27 for ink collection and retention is housed within the discharge section 22, and FIG.
This is a case in which the base of the printing unit 20 is made to be detachable and separate from the ink tank section 24 and the discharge section 22. In the latter case, the porous body 2 is removed from the printing unit 20.
8 can be removed and replaced with a new one. In this way, when a porous body for absorbing ink is used as a member constituting the outer surface of the printing unit, a hydrophobic substance is added to prevent the ink from seeping out on the outer surface of the porous body that is touched by the operator's hands, etc. It is preferable to apply The porous member 27 housed in the printing unit 20' may be a powder or a polymer.

〔effect〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, a groove is formed in the carriage J14 to collect unnecessary ink due to leakage, etc., a porous protrusion for absorbing ink is provided in this groove, and a fitting for fitting the protrusion is further provided. Since the porous member that contacts the parts and protrusions is provided at the bottom of the removable printing unit, unnecessary ink on the carriage can be effectively removed without using special complicated means such as conventional ink collection pumps. The ink can be collected and removed from the device. In addition, since the part that contacts the porous protrusions is located deep inside the recess of the printing unit, the ink-retaining part that is stained with ink will be directly exposed to the operator's hands or the object to be printed when replacing the printing unit. Since there is no touching, secondary contamination due to ink can be prevented. Further, the head can also be positioned using the fitting portion.

Note that the present invention is also suitable for a disposable printing unit that can be easily replaced with a cartridge.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a conventional inkjet printer, Figures 2 to 4 are plan views showing the configuration of the carriage portion of an embodiment of the present invention, and Figure 5 is a cross section showing the cross section of Figure 2. Figure, Figure 6 (A)
6(B) is an upper perspective view showing the external appearance of a printing unit according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6(B) is a lower perspective view thereof. FIGS. 7 to 10 are sectional views showing the internal structure of an embodiment of the present invention. ■...Key ridge, 2...Printing unit, 3...Platen, 4...Printed object, 5...Spindle, 6...Flexible signal line , 10... Carriage, 11... Ink collection groove, 12... Porous protrusion, 13... Printing unit fixing member, 14... Shedding prevention member, 20... ...Printing unit, 21--Nozzle array, 22--Ejection section, 23--Slot hole (fitting section), 24--Ink tank section, 25--Ink Storage bag, 26... Ink, 27... Porous member, 28... Porous member, 29... Joint. Patent applicant Canon Co., Ltd. agent Patent attorney Yoshi Tani - 651 Figure 2 3 II 1213 20 IQ Figure 3 II 15 +2 Figure 4 Figure 5 22 26 24 22 24

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] An inkjet printer in which a printing unit for discharging ink droplets is mounted on a carriage, wherein a groove for collecting ink is formed in the carriage, and a first porous body is disposed in the groove. The printing unit has a fitting portion that fits with the projection, and a second projection is provided in the printing unit at a ridge in contact with the porous body.
An inkjet printer characterized by being provided with a porous body.