JP4281466B2 - Inkjet printer - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an ink jet printer that forms an image by ejecting ink droplets from a recording head onto a recording medium that moves in one direction, and more particularly to an ink jet printer that can select the presence or absence of gloss of a recorded image.

  After printing on a recording medium by an ink jet printer, the paper was discharged via a fixing unit to give gloss.

  However, depending on the user's preference and purpose of use, gloss may not be necessary. In such a case, an inkjet printer that always passes through the fixing unit cannot satisfy the user's preference and achieves the purpose of use. There was a problem that could not be done.

  Conventionally, an apparatus described in Patent Document 1 is known as an image forming apparatus capable of feeding paper with roll paper.

In this apparatus, the paper is guided to the paper storage section via the switching guide means during the image forming process, and the paper after the image formation is switched to the paper cutting section by switching the switching guide means. .
Japanese Patent No. 2693734

  Even if the technique described in Patent Document 1 is applied to an ink jet printer having a fixing unit, the above problem is solved only by switching the image-formed paper to the paper cutting section by the switching guide means. Not.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides an ink jet printer capable of selecting the glossiness of a recorded image.

  The other subject of this invention becomes clear by the following description.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a cutting unit that cuts the recording medium after image recording into a predetermined length, and a first unit that is provided upstream of the cutting unit and that transports the recording medium after image recording to the cutting unit. Conveying means; a fixing unit for fixing an image recorded on a recording medium; a first paper discharge path for discharging the recording medium cut by the cutting means via the fixing unit; A second paper discharge path for discharging the recording medium cut by the cutting means without passing through the fixing unit; a second transport means provided in the first paper discharge path; A third conveying means provided in the paper discharge path, and a recording medium provided on the downstream side of the cutting means for conveying the recording medium after the image recording, the first paper discharge path and the second paper discharge path. inkjet provided with switching means for selectively switching the A printer having a storage portion for storing a cut end of the recording medium cut by the cutting unit, the switching unit for guiding the storage of the cut end in the storage portion; An ink jet printer that also serves as the guiding means .

According to the second aspect of the present invention, after the recording medium after the image recording is cut by the cutting means, the trailing edge is removed from the cutting means until the cutting edge of the next recording medium is cut. an ink jet printer according to claim 1, characterized in that it has a retracting means for retracting from the transport path connecting the first discharge path or the second discharge path.

A third aspect of the invention is the ink jet printer according to the second aspect, wherein the switching means also serves as the retracting means.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an ink jet printer capable of selecting the presence or absence of gloss of a recorded image.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  1 and 2 are schematic configuration diagrams of main parts of an ink jet printer according to the present invention. In the figure, P is a recording medium, and here, a roll-shaped recording medium that is continuously fed out from an original winding (not shown) is used.

  In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a recording head. The type of the recording head 1 is not limited, and various recording heads such as a piezoelectric method, a high voltage method, and a bubble bursting method can be used.

  Reference numeral 2 denotes a conveying roller pair (first conveying means) composed of a driving roller 21 and a driven roller 22, and the recording medium P is sandwiched between the driving roller 21 and the driven roller 22 and is driven by a driving motor (not shown). As the roller 21 is driven to rotate, the recording medium P is conveyed in the left direction in the figure.

  Reference numeral 3 denotes a cutter (cutting means) provided on the downstream side of the conveyance roller pair 2 in the conveyance direction of the recording medium P. The type of the cutter 3 is not particularly limited, but in order to achieve the effect of the present invention satisfactorily, a roller that cuts the recording medium P when a disk-shaped rotary blade reciprocates along the width direction of the recording medium P. A cutter is preferably employed. In this embodiment, an example using this roller cutter is shown.

  Reference numeral 4 denotes a switching guide which is an example of switching means provided on the downstream side of the cutter 3 in the conveyance direction of the recording medium P.

  A fixing unit 5 includes a heating roller 51 and a pressure roller 52 for imparting gloss to the inkjet image recorded on the recording medium P.

  Reference numeral 6 denotes a first paper discharge path for discharging the recording medium P after image recording and cut by the cutter 3 through the fixing unit 5. The first paper discharge path 6 is provided with a pair of transport rollers 61, 62, 63 (second transport means) driven by a drive motor (not shown) and transported into the first paper discharge path 6. The cut recording medium P is conveyed to the fixing unit 5.

  Reference numeral 7 denotes a second paper discharge path for discharging the recording medium P after image recording and cut by the cutter 3 without passing through the fixing unit 5. In the second paper discharge path 7, conveyance roller pairs 71 and 72 (third conveyance means) driven by a drive motor (not shown) are arranged, and the recording medium conveyed in the second paper discharge path 7. P is conveyed and discharged.

  Reference numeral 8 denotes a storage unit for dropping and storing unnecessary pieces cut from the recording medium P by the cutter 3.

  The recording medium P fed out from the original roll (not shown) wound in a roll shape is sandwiched between the driven roller 22 by the drive roller 21 of the conveying roller pair 2 being rotated by a drive motor (not shown). Then, it is conveyed in the left direction (sub-scanning direction, downstream direction) in the figure, and conveyed until the recording surface is located directly below the recording head 1.

  The recording head 1 is formed on the lower surface in the drawing in cooperation with the intermittent feeding operation of the recording medium P by the conveying roller pair 2 by reciprocating a carriage (not shown) along a direction orthogonal to the sub-scanning direction. A desired inkjet image is recorded on the recording surface of the recording medium P by ejecting ink droplets from a large number of nozzles. In the present embodiment, a plurality of so-called borderless images in which no non-recording area exists over the entire width of the recording medium P are recorded and formed.

  The image continuously recorded on the recording medium P is conveyed to the position of the cutter 3 by the conveying roller pair 2 and is cut to a desired size by the cutter 3 reciprocating along the width direction of the recording medium P.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the recording medium P is cut into a continuous recording medium P in which an image 1, an image 2, an image 3,... On the other hand, in order to separate each image without a border, two cut positions are provided so as to sandwich the cut of each image, that is, the rear end of image 1 and the front end of image 2, and the rear end of image 2 and the front end of image 3. Cut with. As a result, unnecessary cut edges w1, w2,... Having a predetermined length including image breaks are generated between the images.

  For this reason, the recording medium P after image recording is conveyed by the conveyance roller pair 2 until the leading end side passes through the cutter 3 and the first cutting position of the trailing end of the image comes to the cutting position of the cutter 3. At this time, the recording medium P is discharged from the first discharge path 6 or the second discharge path depending on whether the recording medium P is discharged through the fixing unit 5 or not. 7, the switching guide 4 provided on the downstream side in the transport direction of the recording medium P with respect to the cutter 3 is selectively switched.

  The switching guide 4 includes a guide passage 40, and has an introduction port 41 connected to the guide passage 40 on the introduction side of the recording medium P, and a lead-out port 42 on the opposite lead-out side. In the present embodiment, the guide passage 40 has a form that expands toward the introduction side and gradually tapers toward the lead-out side. In addition, the switching guide 4 in the present embodiment has a configuration that rotates around a shaft 43 by a predetermined angle by a driving means (not shown).

  As shown in FIG. 1, the switching guide 4 having such a configuration can fulfill the function of receiving the leading end of the recording medium P that has passed through the cutter 3 with the introduction port 41 facing upward about the shaft 43. As shown in FIG. 2, the introduction port 41 is directed downward with the shaft 43 as the center so that the leading end of the recording medium P that has passed the cutter 3 is not received in the guide passage 40.

  When the switching guide 4 fulfills the function of introducing the leading end of the recording medium P, the outlet 42 at the leading end of the guide passage 40 faces the second discharge path 7 as shown in FIG. P is conveyed to the second paper discharge path 7 through the guide passage 40 and the outlet 42.

  Further, when performing the function of not accepting the leading end of the recording medium P, the switching guide 4 does not accept the leading end of the recording medium P as shown in FIG. The paper discharge path 6 is guided.

  Such a switching operation of the switching guide 4 is not particularly limited, but can be performed by a switching operation of an operation switch or the like (not shown) by an operator, for example.

  In the present invention, depending on whether or not it is necessary to pass through the fixing unit 5, that is, depending on whether or not gloss is applied, the recording medium P is switched by the switching guide 4 and the first paper discharge path through the fixing unit 5. 6 and the second paper discharge path 7 that does not pass through the fixing unit 5, it is possible to selectively apply gloss to the image recorded on the recording medium P.

  After the leading edge of the recording medium P is conveyed to the first paper discharge path 6 or the second paper discharge path 7, it is cut by the cutter 3 at the first cut position at the rear edge of the image. The recording medium P from which the rear end is cut is discharged through the first paper discharge path 6 or the second paper discharge path 7 switched by the switching guide 4.

  Thereafter, the uncut recording medium P is further conveyed by a pair of conveying rollers 2 for a predetermined distance, so that the recording medium P is cut by the cutter 3 at the second cutting position across the image cut, and then recorded and formed. Unnecessary pieces between the images are cut off. The separated piece is accommodated by free fall in the accommodating portion 8 disposed below the switching guide 4.

  4-7 has shown the preferable aspect of the switching operation | movement of the switching guide 4 at the time of accommodating this piece in the accommodating part 8. FIG.

  FIG. 4 shows a state in which the cut edge w between the next image is cut off after the recording medium P after image recording is transported to the second paper discharge path 7 by the switching operation of the switching guide 4.

  At this time, the cutting edge w is cut by cutting at the two cutting positions while the switching guide 4 is switched to transport the recording medium P to the second paper discharge path 7. Therefore, the cut end w is accommodated in the guide passage 40 of the switching guide 4 as it is.

  When the cutting of the cut end w is completed and the conveyance of the recording medium P is resumed by each of the conveyance roller pairs 71 and 72, the switching guide 4 is arranged so that the introduction port 41 side faces downward from the cutter 3 as shown in FIG. And the cut end w housed in the guide passage 40 is guided to the housing portion 8 disposed below the switching guide 4. As a result, the cut end w is guided from the switching guide 4 toward the accommodating portion 8 and discharged by free fall.

  In this way, the switching guide 4 is also used as a guiding means for guiding the accommodation of the cut end w into the storage portion 8, so that the cut end w can be reliably dropped into the storage portion 8 and stored. There is no need to construct a dedicated means for guiding the housing of w into the housing section 8, and the number of parts can be reduced, the space can be saved, and the cost of the apparatus can be reduced.

  In this case, if the conveyance speed of the recording medium P is the same before and after the recording medium P is cut by the cutter 3, the cut end w may be caught by the rear end of the recording medium P that has been separated earlier. is there. In such a case, the conveyance speed of each conveyance roller pair 71 and 72 in the second paper discharge path 7 is cut off by cutting the rear end of the recording medium P with the cutter 3 and then at least the next recording medium P It is preferable to make the speed faster than the conveying speed by the conveying roller pair 2 until the leading edge is cut and the broken edge w is cut off.

  Thus, the cut end w can be reliably accommodated in the guide passage 40 of the switching guide 4 without being caught by the rear end of the previously separated recording medium P, and the subsequent rotation operation of the switching guide 4 can be performed. Thus, the cut end w can be dropped into the storage portion 8 and securely stored.

  FIG. 6 shows a state where the recording medium P after image recording is conveyed to the first paper discharge path 6 by the switching operation of the switching guide 4 and then the cut end w between the next image is cut off.

  When the recording medium P is conveyed to the first paper discharge path 6, the switching guide 4 is in the state shown in FIG. The first cutting position of the recording medium P, that is, the cutting of the rear end of the recording medium P to be separated is performed in the state shown in FIG. Immediately after the rear end of the recording medium P is cut and separated, the switching guide 4 is rotated so that the inlet 41 side faces the cutter 3 side as shown in FIG. Is accommodated in the guide passage 40 of the switching guide 4.

  Note that immediately after the rear end of the recording medium P is cut off, the rear end of the recording medium P connects the outlet of the cutter 3 and the inlet of the first paper discharge path 6 by the above-described rotation operation of the switching guide 4. It is guided from the transport path so as to retreat upward, which is the opposite direction to the accommodating portion 8. This evacuation operation is continued until at least the leading end of the next recording medium P is cut and the cut end w is cut off after the rear end of the recording medium P after image recording is cut and cut by the cutter 3.

  Thereby, even if the conveyance speed of the recording medium P is the same before and after the recording medium P is cut by the cutter 3, there is no fear that the cut end w will be caught by the rear end, and only the cut end w is switched. Can be accommodated in the guide passage 40. Further, the present embodiment shows a more preferable aspect that also serves as a retracting means for retracting the rear end of the recording medium P from which the switching guide 4 has been separated, and it is necessary to construct a dedicated retracting means thereby. In addition, the number of parts can be reduced, space saving and cost reduction can be achieved.

  When the cutting of the cut end w is completed, the switching guide 4 is rotated so that the introduction side faces downward from the cutter 3 as shown in FIG. 7, and the switching end w accommodated in the guide passage 40 is switched to the switching guide 4. 4 is guided to the accommodating portion 8 arranged below the 4. As a result, the cut end w is guided from the switching guide 4 toward the accommodating portion 8 and discharged by free fall.

  FIGS. 8-10 has shown the other preferable aspect of the switching operation | movement of the switching guide at the time of accommodating a cut end in the accommodating part 8. FIG.

  The switching guide 9 shown here is driven by a driving means (not shown), so that an end 92 extending from the shaft 91 toward the upstream side in the conveyance direction of the recording medium P about a shaft 91 is a predetermined angle. By rotating, the recording medium P that has passed through the cutter 3 is rotated so that the leading end side of the recording medium P is conveyed to the first paper discharge path 6 (position indicated by a solid line in FIG. 8) and the end portion 92 is directed upward. A position to move to the second paper discharge path 7 (a position indicated by a one-dot chain line in FIG. 8) and a position to rotate the end portion 92 downward (a position indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 8) And can be selectively switched to either.

  Here, an example in which the recording medium P is transported to the first paper discharge path 6 is shown, and the rear end of the recording medium P is cut by the cutter 3 at the position indicated by the solid line in FIG. Immediately after that, as shown in FIG. 9, the switching guide 9 rotates the end portion 92 downward to hang the rear end of the separated recording medium P downward. Retreat from the transport path connecting the exit and the entrance of the first paper discharge path 6. Thereafter, the cut end w is cut off to be dropped and accommodated in the accommodating portion 8.

  Here, when the recording medium P is stiff, as shown by a one-dot chain line in FIG. 9, the separated rear end may not hang downward. In such a case, the conveyance speed of each conveyance roller pair 61, 62, 63 in the first paper discharge path 6 is separated by cutting the rear end of the recording medium P with the cutter 3, and then at least the next recording medium It is preferable to make the speed faster than the conveying speed of the conveying roller pair 2 until the leading end of P is cut and the broken end w is cut off.

  As a result, as shown in FIG. 10, a sufficient space S is secured between the cut end w and the rear end of the separated recording medium P so that the cut end w falls into the lower accommodating portion 8. The recording medium P can be reliably dropped and accommodated in the accommodating portion 8 without being caught on the rear end of the recording medium P that has been separated earlier.

  Immediately after the recording medium P conveyed to the first paper discharge path 6 is cut off, the switching guide 9 is rotated as shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. You may make it lift from the conveyance path | route which connects the exit of the cutter 3 and the entrance of the 1st paper discharge path | route 6 so that it may lift. Also in this case, a sufficient space is secured between the cut end w and the rear end of the cut recording medium P so that the cut end w falls into the lower accommodating portion 8, so that the same effect as described above can be obtained.

  Although not shown, when the recording medium P after image recording is conveyed to the second paper discharge path 7 by the switching guide 9, after the recording medium P is separated by the cutter 3, at least the leading end of the next recording medium is moved. Until the cutting, the switching guide 9 is rotated downward as indicated by a one-dot chain line in FIG. 8, so that the rear end of the recording medium P is connected to the outlet of the cutter 3 and the inlet of the second paper discharge path 7. It may also be used as a retreat means for retreating from the transport path connecting the two. As a result, even when the recording medium P is transported to the second paper discharge path 7, the cut end is surely dropped into the storage portion 8 and stored without fear of being caught by the rear end of the recording medium P that has been separated earlier. can do.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a main part of an ink jet printer according to the present invention. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a main part of an ink jet printer according to the present invention. Partial plan view of the recording medium showing the image and the state of the piece 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a main part of an ink jet printer according to the present invention. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a main part of an ink jet printer according to the present invention. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a main part of an ink jet printer according to the present invention. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a main part of an ink jet printer according to the present invention. Schematic configuration diagram of the main part of another inkjet printer according to the present invention Schematic configuration diagram of the main part of another inkjet printer according to the present invention Schematic configuration diagram of the main part of another inkjet printer according to the present invention

Explanation of symbols

P: Recording medium 1: Recording head 2: Conveying roller pair (first conveying means)
21: driving roller 22: driven roller 3: cutter 4: switching guide (switching means)
40: guide passage 41: introduction port 42: outlet port 43: shaft 5: fixing unit 51: heating roller 52: pressure roller 6: first paper discharge path 61, 62, 63: pair of transport rollers (second transport) means)
7: Second paper discharge path 71, 72: Pair of transport rollers (third transport means)
8: Housing part 9: Switching guide (switching means)
91: shaft 92: end

Claims (3)

A cutting unit that cuts the recording medium after image recording into a predetermined length, a first transport unit that is provided upstream of the cutting unit and that transports the recording medium after image recording to the cutting unit, and a recording medium A fixing unit for fixing a recorded image, a first discharge path for discharging the recording medium cut by the cutting unit via the fixing unit, and a post-cut by the cutting unit A second discharge path for discharging the recording medium without passing through the fixing unit; a second conveying means provided in the first discharge path; and a second discharge section provided in the second discharge path. A third conveying unit; and a switching unit that is provided on the downstream side of the cutting unit, and selectively switches the conveyance of the recording medium after image recording between the first sheet discharging path and the second sheet discharging path. an inkjet printer having a front Below the switching means includes a storage portion for storing a piece of recording medium cut by said cutting means, said switching means also serves as a guide means for guiding the housing into the receiving portion of the snips An inkjet printer characterized by the above. After the rear end of the recording medium after image recording is cut by the cutting means, the rear end is cut from the cutting means to the first discharge path or the first until at least the front end of the next recording medium is cut. inkjet printer according to claim 1, characterized in that it has a retracting means for retracting from the transport path connecting the second discharge path. 3. The ink jet printer according to claim 2 , wherein the switching unit also serves as the retracting unit.

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