JP4287178B2 - Drive control tube pump and inkjet recording apparatus - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention belongs to the technical field of a drive control tube pump and an ink jet recording apparatus to which the drive control tube pump is applied. In particular, the present invention relates to a tube pump that enables fluid transfer using the principle of siphon when stopped while pressing a pressing member that pushes out the liquid in the tube by pressing the tube.
[0002]
[Prior art]
An ink jet recording apparatus records on a recording medium by ejecting ink from nozzles in accordance with an electric signal. This nozzle may not be able to discharge normally due to the intrusion of air into the nozzle or the thickening of ink due to drying. In order to recover such an ink non-ejection state, an operation of sucking ink from the tip of the nozzle using a suction unit and restoring it to a normal state is performed. A tube pump is used as the suction means. The tube pump includes, for example, an arc-shaped guide member, a tube disposed along the inner periphery thereof, a pressing member (roller) that rotates by pressing the tube against the guide member, and the like.
[0003]
In a tube pump that transfers fluid such as liquid, gas, etc., when the tube pump is stopped, the roller that rotates and pushes the liquid in the tube is stopped with the tube crushed, so that the fluid is not transferred There's a problem. As a method for solving this problem, Patent Document 1 describes that the rotation radius is changed in the direction opposite to the normal direction to change the position of the support shaft of the roller, thereby reducing the rotation radius so that the tube is not pressed. ing. Patent Document 2 describes that all rollers are retracted within a rotation angle range in which the tube is not pressed by rotating in a direction opposite to the normal direction.
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 07-217541 [Patent Document 2]
JP-A-11-190280 [0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in any of the methods described in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, in order to transfer the fluid when the roller is stopped in a state where the roller has crushed the tube, the pressing is performed together with a mechanism for holding the roller to be pressed. A complicated mechanism such as a mechanism for releasing the state to be performed is required. Also, every time the roller is moved to a state where the roller is not pressed, the rotational movement direction of the roller is changed in the direction opposite to the normal direction, which is the movement direction when transferring the liquid. Causes a negative pressure in the tube and the liquid flows backward. Further, since the rotational movement direction of the roller is changed in the reverse direction, the efficiency is poor. Also, when restarting the tube pump, since the time delay for the roller to reach the pressable position is large, it is not possible to restart the engine quickly.
[0005]
The present invention has been made to solve such problems. An object of the present invention is to provide a drive control tube pump having a small time delay when restarting the start without causing a backflow of fluid and an ink jet printer to which the drive control tube pump is applied.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 includes a tube having elasticity, an arc-shaped guide member for guiding the tube, and at least one pressing member for pressing the tube against the guide member. And a drive control tube pump having a drive means for rotating the pressing member along the guide member, the fluid inlet side tube leading to one end of the tube, and the fluid outlet leading to the other end of the tube Side tube, bypass tube connecting the fluid inlet side tube and fluid outlet side tube, a discharge tube leading to the bypass tube and discharging the fluid from the bypass tube, and a direction in the tube and bypass drive control tube and having a a flow path switching means for switching the flow path and the direction of the tube It is a pump.
[0007]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the drive control tube pump according to the first aspect, the bypass tube has a smaller diameter on the side leading to the fluid outlet side tube than the side leading to the fluid inlet side tube. This is a drive control tube pump.
[0008]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the drive control tube pump according to any one of the first and second aspects, the bypass tube flows from the side leading to the fluid inlet side tube toward the side leading to the fluid outlet side tube. A drive control tube pump characterized in that the road height is horizontal or high.
[0009]
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the drive control tube pump according to any one of the first to third aspects, the flow path height of the discharge tube is made higher than the flow path height of the bypass tube. Control tube pump.
[0010]
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the drive control tube pump according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the diameter of the discharge tube is made smaller than the diameter of the bypass tube. It is.
[0011]
The invention according to claim 6 is the drive control tube pump according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the fluid outlet portion height and the fluid inlet portion height of the discharge tube are the same. It is a tube pump.
[0012]
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the drive control tube pump according to any one of the first to sixth aspects is used in a mechanism for recovering a non-ejection state of a recording head that ejects ink.
[0013]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a view showing an example of an embodiment of a drive control tube pump according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a view showing an operation of the drive control tube pump according to the present invention.
[0014]
The drive control tube pump 10 of this embodiment includes a tube 101 having elasticity, an arc-shaped guide member 102 that guides the tube 101 on its inner periphery, and rollers 103 a and 103 b that press the tube 101 against the guide member 102. 103c, 103d, arms 104a, 104b that rotatably support the rollers 103a, 103b, 103c, 103d at both ends, a pump shaft 105 that rotates by supporting the centers of the arms 104a, 104b, both ends of the tube 101, and guide members Pipe joint members 106a and 106b for fixing both ends of the arc of the tube 102, a fluid inlet side tube 107a and a fluid outlet side tube 107b communicating with the both ends of the tube 101 through the pipe joint members 106a and 106b, and the fluid inlet side thereof. Tube 107a, fluid outlet side tube The bypass tube 108 that connects to the tube 107b, the discharge tube 109 that discharges the liquid existing in the bypass tube 108, and the fluid inlet side tube 107a that switches the flow path between the direction in the tube 101 and the direction in the bypass tube 108. The flow path switching valve (or cock) 110 for this purpose.
[0015]
In the bypass tube 108, the ratio of the diameter of the fluid outlet side tube 107b side to the fluid inlet side tube 107a side is reduced to ½, and the flow path height on the fluid outlet side tube 107b side with respect to the fluid inlet side tube 107a side. Raise or level.
[0016]
The discharge tube 109 has a flow path height higher than the flow path height of the bypass tube 108, and has a reverse U-shape with respect to the bypass tube 108. Further, the height of the fluid outlet portion is made lower than the height of the fluid inlet portion of the fluid inlet side tube 107a.
[0017]
Switching of the flow path switching valve 110 can be controlled by setting the number of rotations, the rotation time, etc. of the rollers 103a, 103b, 103c, 103d or the pump shaft 105.
[0018]
The configuration has been described above. Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 2A, the tube pump 10 is operated to fill the liquid in the tube 101 together with the air venting in the tube 101 first. At this time, the operation is performed with the bypass tube 108 direction of the flow path switching valve 110 closed so that the liquid flow path direction is the tube 101 direction.
[0019]
When the pump shaft 105 is rotated in the direction of the arrow, fluid such as liquid, gas, etc. existing inside the tube 101 is transferred at the positions of the rollers 103a, 103b, 103c that press the tube. Since the fluid inlet side tube 107 a has a negative pressure in the tube 101, the fluid existing in the fluid inlet side tube 107 a is sucked into the tube 101. Moreover, since the fluid outlet side tube 107b becomes a positive pressure in the tube 101, the fluid existing in the tube 101 on that side is discharged to the fluid outlet side tube 107b. That is, the fluid is transferred from the fluid outlet side tube 107a to the fluid outlet side tube 107b.
[0020]
The air existing in the tube 101 is transferred to the fluid outlet side tube 107b, and all the flow paths in the tube 101 and the bypass tube 108 are filled with liquid. At this time, by reducing the diameter of the bypass tube 108 relative to the fluid inlet side tube 107a, the fluid outlet side tube 107b has a smaller liquid flow velocity on the fluid outlet side in the bypass tube 108 than on the fluid inlet side. Thus, the air present in the tube 101 is easily transferred to the fluid outlet side tube 107b.
[0021]
Further, by increasing the flow path height of the bypass tube 108 from the fluid inlet side tube 107a toward the fluid outlet side tube 107b, the air existing in the tube 101 is transferred to the fluid outlet side tube 107b by the buoyancy received by the air. It becomes easy to be transferred. Further, by making the flow path height of the inverted U-shaped discharge tube 109 higher than that of the bypass tube 108, the air existing inside the bypass tube 108 is easily transferred to the discharge tube 109 due to the buoyancy received by the air. .
[0022]
After the air existing in the tube 101 and the bypass tube 108 is transferred to the discharge tube, and there is no air accumulation in each tube and the flow path is filled with the liquid, the rotation of the pump shaft 105 is stopped. Then, the operation of the tube pump 10 is stopped.
[0023]
At this time, since the rollers 103 a, 103 b, 103 c, and 103 d are stopped while pressing the tube 101 at an arbitrary position, the liquid cannot be transferred into the tube 101. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2 (b), in order to set the liquid flow path direction to the bypass tube 108 direction, by opening the bypass tube 108 direction of the flow path switching valve 110, the tube pump 10 After the operation is stopped, the inverted U-shaped discharge tube 109 can transfer the fluid using the siphon principle that the liquid flows from the higher water level to the lower water level.
[0024]
When the liquid is transferred again by the tube pump, the liquid in the tube pump is made by closing the bypass tube 108 direction of the flow path switching valve 110 so that the liquid flow direction is the tube 101 direction. Can be transferred.
[0025]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the drive control tube pump of the first aspect of the present invention, the tube pump roller squeezes the tube at an arbitrary position so that the fluid can be transferred when stopped. A complicated mechanism such as a mechanism for releasing the pressing state is not required together with a mechanism for holding the roller so that the rotating support is pressed. Further, since the roller can be stopped at any position, it is inexpensive regardless of the type of tube pump. Furthermore, there is no need to shift to a state where the roller is not pressed, and each time the roller is shifted to a state where the roller is not pressed, the rotational movement direction of the roller is changed in the direction opposite to the normal direction which is the movement direction when liquid is transferred. Also, there is no problem of the backflow of the liquid that has occurred in the tube in a short period immediately after the start of such rotational movement.
According to the drive control tube pump of claims 2 to 5 of the present invention, the air in the tube is discharged by utilizing the buoyancy received by the air, so that there is no air accumulation in the tube.
According to the drive control tube pump of claim 6 of the present invention, fluid transfer using the siphon principle can be performed when the roller of the tube pump is stopped in a state where the tube is crushed at an arbitrary position.
According to the drive control tube pump of the present invention, the efficiency can be improved and the time delay can be reduced without causing the ink to flow backward in the operation for recovering the non-ejection state.
[0026]
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of an embodiment of a drive control tube pump according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the operation of a drive control tube pump according to the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Tube pump 101 Tube 102 Guide member 103a, 103b, 103c, 103d Roller 104a, 104b Arm 105 Pump shaft 106a, 106b Pipe connection member 107a Fluid inlet side tube 107b Fluid outlet side tube 108 Bypass tube 109 Discharge tube 110 Flow path switching valve

Claims (7)

An elastic tube, an arcuate guide member for guiding the tube, at least one pressing member for pressing the tube against the guide member, and a drive for rotating the pressing member along the guide member A drive control tube pump comprising means,
A fluid inlet tube leading to one end of the tube;
A fluid outlet tube leading to the other end of the tube;
A bypass tube connecting the fluid inlet side tube and the fluid outlet side tube;
A discharge tube leading to the bypass tube and discharging fluid from the bypass tube ;
A flow path switching means provided on the fluid inlet side tube for switching the flow path between the direction in the tube and the direction in the bypass tube ;
A drive control tube pump comprising: The drive control tube pump according to claim 1, wherein the bypass tube has a smaller diameter on the side communicating with the fluid outlet side tube than on the side communicating with the fluid inlet side tube . 3. The drive according to claim 1, wherein the bypass tube has a horizontal or higher flow path height from a side communicating with the fluid inlet side tube toward a side communicating with the fluid outlet side tube. 4. Control tube pump.   The drive control tube pump according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a flow path height of the discharge tube is set higher than a flow path height of the bypass tube.   The drive control tube pump according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein a diameter of the discharge tube is made smaller than a diameter of the bypass tube.   The drive control tube pump according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein a height of the fluid outlet of the discharge tube is the same as a height of the fluid inlet of the tube pump.   An ink jet recording apparatus, wherein the drive control tube pump according to claim 1 is used in a mechanism for recovering a non-ejection state of a recording head that ejects ink.

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