JP3567967B2 - Opening and closing mechanism of ink supply channel in ink jet printer - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a mechanism for opening and closing an ink supply channel in an ink jet printer.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Ink-jet printers that process a large amount of data, particularly ink-jet printers that enable large-volume color printing, have a large-capacity ink cartridge that contains at least four types of inks, such as black, cyan, magenta, and yellow. Are provided outside the side frames of the printer main body. However, in order to further reduce the size of the printer, these are also distributed and arranged at lower portions on both sides of the printer main body.
[0003]
However, when the ink cartridges are arranged at the lower portions on both sides of the printer body in this manner, a large head difference occurs between the recording head and the ink cartridge, and when the ink cartridge is tilted, a large head difference occurs between the left and right ink cartridges. Because of the difference, when the printer is vibrated or the printer body is tilted at the time of transfer, there arises a problem that inconveniences such as an outflow of ink and a color mixing of ink may occur.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to distribute the ink cartridges left and right by opening a flow path from the ink cartridge to the recording head only at the time of recording and writing. Another object of the present invention is to provide an ink supply channel opening / closing mechanism in a new printer that can reliably suppress the leakage of ink even in a printer of this type.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
That is, the present invention is to achieve such a problem, in the ink jet printer of the type that the distribution arrangement of the cartridge storage portion for storing ink cartridges on either side of the printer main body, from the ink cartridge in the flow path leading to the recording head some, and opening the flow path by the rotation of the paper feeding direction of the paper feed roller driving means and the valve opening and closing mechanism for closing the flow path by the rotation of the counter-paper feeding direction of the paper feed roller driving means setting only, except when recording write are as hereinbefore to prevent leakage of the ink by previously closed constantly flow path, also the arrangement position of the recording head valve chamber forming a part of the valve opening and closing mechanism By disposing it below, even if air bubbles enter the valve chamber from the ink cartridge, it can be easily discharged. That.
[0006]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Therefore, embodiments of the present invention will be described below.
The drawings all show one embodiment of the present invention.
[0007]
First, a schematic configuration of an ink supply system in an ink jet printer to which this mechanism is applied will be described with reference to FIGS.
[0008]
In the printer body indicated by the reference numeral 1 in the drawing, two cartridges are provided with ink cartridges 3 # for holding respective inks of black, cyan, magenta, and yellow on both sides thereof with the central paper transport path 2 interposed therebetween. The storage chambers 5 and 5 are provided, and the inside of each of the storage chambers 5 and 5 communicates with the inside of the ink cartridge 3 by penetrating through an ink supply port 4 provided on an end surface of the ink cartridge 3. The ink supply needles 6 are protruded from the ink supply needles 6, and a connection provided at a central portion of the printer main body 1 above the valve open / close mechanism 20 via a valve open / close mechanism 20 described later. An ink supply pipe 8 extending to the unit 7 is provided, and ink can be supplied from the connection unit 7 to each recording head 18 of the carriage 17. Sexual ink tubes 9 are extended.
[0009]
Next, the details of the above-described valve opening / closing mechanism 20 will be described with reference to FIG. 1. Reference numeral 10 denotes a valve chamber provided in a flow path 11 from the ink supply needle 6 to the ink supply pipe 8. As shown, a substrate 16 supporting the cartridge accommodating chamber 5 is formed together with the flow path 11, in which a disk-shaped valve 12 made of an elastic material is constantly held by a compression spring 15 in a valve holder 14. The other end of the rod 13 integrally protruded from the center of the valve 12 is disposed so as to close the flow path 11 while being urged from the outside of the valve 10, and protrudes outside the valve holder 14. One end of a valve opening / closing lever 28 that swings around a fulcrum 29 is connected to this end.
[0010]
On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4, a paper feed motor 30 attached to a side frame on one side of the printer body 1 has a paper fixed to one end of a paper feed roller 34 via an intermediate gear 32 meshing with a pinion 31 thereof. A feed gear 33 meshes with a roller gear 35 fixed to the other end of the paper feed roller 34, and a pinion integral with the sun gear 21 constituting the valve opening / closing mechanism 20 via a series of gear trains 36. 22 are engaged.
[0011]
The sun gear 21 opens and closes the ink supply valve 12 by rotation of the paper feed motor 30 in the paper feed direction, and closes the ink supply valve 12 by rotation of the paper feed motor 30 in the anti-paper feed direction. 25, the two planetary gears 23a and 23b coupled to a common lever 24 revolve in the rotation direction of the sun gear 21 on the peripheral surface of the sun gear 21, respectively. It is configured to mesh with the valve opening / closing cam gear 25.
[0012]
On the other hand, the valve opening / closing cam gear 25 that meshes with each of the two planetary gears 23a and 23b and rotates forward and reverse according to the rotation direction of the sun gear 21 has one planetary gear 23a and 23b on its peripheral surface. Two rows of missing gears 26a and 26b meshing with the gear are axially overlapped with the phase shifted by 90 °, and a valve opening / closing lever 28 is swung on one surface of the valve opening / closing cam gear 25. An eccentric cam 27 that is operated to move is integrally formed.
[0013]
In the device configured as described above, since the valve opening / closing mechanism 26 is disposed near the cartridge accommodating chamber 5 and below the recording head 18, bubbles in the ink cartridge 3 may be generated in the valve chamber 10, for example. Even when the ink enters , the air bubbles that have moved into the recording head 18 together with the flow of ink can be easily discharged to the outside by the main suction or the flushing operation at the time of the capping operation. Is prevented.
[0014]
On the other hand, when the paper feed motor 30 is rotated in the paper feed direction in order to perform recording and writing on the recording paper in this state, the pinion 31 and the intermediate gear 32 meshing with the pinion 31 are rotated in the direction indicated by the solid arrow in FIG. The paper feed roller 34 that has started to rotate at a second time rotates the sun gear 21 in the direction of the solid line arrow in the figure via a series of gear trains 36 meshing with the roller gear 35 at the other end.
[0015]
As a result, the sun gear 21 revolves the first planetary gear 23a meshing with the sun gear 21 in the rotation direction of the sun gear 21 as shown in FIG. The valve opening / closing cam gear 21 is stopped by rotating the valve opening / closing cam gear 21 in the direction of the solid line in the drawing to the position of the missing tooth, and the valve opening / closing lever 28 is rotated clockwise in the drawing by the cam 27 provided on one surface thereof. Then, the valve 12 is pulled up against the compression spring 15, and the flow path 11 from the ink cartridge 3 to the supply pipe 8 is opened to keep the ink supply to the recording head 18 possible.
[0016]
Then, when the required recording and writing are completed, the paper feed motor 30 is rotated in the direction opposite to the paper feed direction in accordance with a previously set sequence, and the sun gear 21 is moved through the roller gear 35 and a series of gears 36. 2B, the second planetary gear 23b meshing with the second planetary gear 23b revolves in the rotation direction of the sun gear 21 to rotate the second planetary gear 23b into the other direction of the valve opening / closing cam gear 25, as shown in FIG. After meshing with the gear 26b, it is rotated to the position of the missing tooth portion and stopped. The cam 27 integral with the gear 26b releases the pressure of the valve opening / closing lever 28, and during the period when the printer is not used, the compression spring 13 is attached. The flow path 11 is closed by the valve 12 by the force to prevent the ink in the ink cartridge 3 from leaking out or mixing with other inks.
[0017]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, a mechanism for opening the flow path from the ink cartridge by rotating the paper feed motor in the anti-paper feed direction is provided in the printer of the type in which the ink cartridges are distributed on both sides of the main body. Therefore, the motor used for paper feed is used to open the flow path from the ink cartridge to the recording head only at the time of recording and writing, and the difference in head between the recording head and the ink cartridge and the left and right ink when tilted It is possible to prevent a situation such as ink leakage or ink mixing caused by a difference in water head between the cartridges.
[0018]
In addition, since a gear provided with a cam for opening and closing the valve is formed as a toothless gear and driven by a planetary gear mechanism, the valve can be easily closed or closed by dropping the planetary gear into the toothless part. This type of mechanism can be greatly simplified by making it possible to maintain the open state, and furthermore, the two toothless gears that are superposed in the axial direction while being out of phase with each other are provided. By performing normal rotation and reverse rotation by the planetary gear, the opening and closing operation of the valve according to the rotation direction of the paper feed motor can be further ensured.
[0019]
In addition, by disposing the valve chamber, which forms part of the valve opening / closing mechanism, below the position where the recording head is disposed, even if air bubbles enter the valve chamber from the ink cartridge, the ink suction operation during the capping operation is performed. It is possible to easily discharge this by flushing or flushing operation, to suppress the ink ejection failure beforehand, and to eliminate the incorporation of bubbles in the flexible tube constituting the ink flow path at an early stage, It is possible to prevent the deterioration of the ink caused by the incorporation of air bubbles and prevent the clogging of the flow path, thereby further improving the reliability of the printer.
[0020]
Further, by forming the valve chamber in a part of the substrate, not only this kind of flow passage opening / closing mechanism can be simplified, but also the valve provided in the valve chamber is always closed by the urging member provided outside the chamber. By biasing in the direction, the valve chamber can be further simplified, and the situation in which bubbles remain inside can be further suppressed.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a drive system for an ink supply valve opening / closing mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams showing a valve opening operation and a valve closing operation by the above mechanism.
FIG. 3 is a top view showing a main part of the printer provided with the above mechanism.
FIG. 4 is a side view of the printer including the above mechanism.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printer main body 3 Ink cartridge 8 Ink supply pipe 11 Flow path 12 Valve 18 Recording head 20 Valve opening / closing mechanism 21 Sun gear 23a, 23b Planetary gear 25 Valve opening / closing cam gear 26a, 26b Missing tooth gear 27 Cam 28 Valve opening / closing lever 30 Paper feed motor

Claims (7)

In an ink jet printer of a type in which a cartridge accommodating section for accommodating an ink cartridge is distributed and arranged on both sides of a printer main body,
In a part of the flow path from the ink cartridge to the recording head, the flow path is opened by rotating the paper feed roller driving means in the paper feeding direction, and the paper feeding roller driving means is moved in the direction opposite to the paper feeding direction. An opening / closing mechanism for an ink supply flow path in an ink jet printer, comprising a valve opening / closing mechanism for closing the flow path by rotation . As the valve opening / closing mechanism, a toothless gear having a cam for opening and closing a valve, and rotating the toothless gear to a toothless position in accordance with a rotation direction of a paper feed motor constituting the paper feed roller driving means. opening and closing mechanism of the ink supply channel in an ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the planetary gear mechanism to invert, that is constituted by. As the valve opening / closing mechanism, two cam gears provided with the cam for opening / closing the valve and arranged in the axial direction so as to be out of phase with each other on the peripheral surface, and corresponding to the gears of the respective gears. a planetary gear mechanism having two planetary gears to be forward and invert the respective partial gear to each missing tooth position according to the rotation direction of the paper feed motor What one partial gear meshing, opening and closing mechanism of the ink supply channel in the ink jet printer mounting serial to claim 1, characterized by being configured by. 2. The ink supply channel opening / closing mechanism according to claim 1, wherein a valve chamber forming a part of the valve opening / closing mechanism is disposed below a position where the recording head is disposed. 5. The opening / closing mechanism for an ink supply flow path in an ink jet printer according to claim 4, wherein the valve chamber is disposed near a position where the ink cartridge is loaded. Some of the ink flow path communicating with the valve chamber and the valve chamber, the ink supply flow in the inkjet printer according to claim 5, characterized in that formed on a part of a substrate supporting the housing portion of the cartridge Road opening and closing mechanism. In the valve chamber, the ink supply flow in the inkjet printer according to claim 5, characterized in that arranged the valve for closing the normally passage is urged by the urging member provided on the outside of the valve chamber Road opening and closing mechanism.

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