JP6006504B2 - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus to which a detachable recording head can be connected without leaking, and mainly relates to an image forming apparatus such as an image forming apparatus, a copying machine, a facsimile machine, and a laminator.

  A conventional image forming apparatus provided with a recording head will be described below. The image forming apparatus is connected to a host PC (personal computer) that sends image information, and four recording heads corresponding to each color of ink are arranged side by side in the conveyance direction of the recording medium. The image forming apparatus also includes a main tank for storing ink supplied to each recording head, and various pumps (not shown) for supplying ink to the recording head and performing recovery operations. ing.

  In the ink supply unit that supplies ink to the recording head of such an image forming apparatus, in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, a detachable recording head that can supply ink from the image forming apparatus is supplied without ink leakage. Technology has been proposed. It has a metal pipe supply needle member provided with a hole near the tip on the image forming apparatus side, an elastic member is provided on the removable head side at a position facing it, and the needle member provided on the image forming apparatus side The ink can be supplied through the elastic member on the head side.

  In such a configuration, when the recording head is removed from the image forming apparatus in the presence of ink in the recording head, a small-diameter hole pierced by the needle member on the elastic member is caused by the deformation of the elastic member. The ink does not leak due to the blockage and the negative pressure in the recording head.

  In addition, in order to guide the joint portion with the guide provided on the image forming apparatus side even if the user removes the recording head from the image forming apparatus and installs it again and again, even though it is not time to replace the head. The needle is guided again to the part where the hole has been made once. Therefore, it can be repeatedly mounted without leaking ink from the image forming apparatus side.

  However, when high-speed and large-volume recording is performed by the image forming apparatus, the supply amount of ink is limited if the supply port is a thin needle, and the ink supply is not in time. Although it is conceivable to increase the supply port for this problem, increasing the length of the metal needle-shaped pipe increases the overall length to secure the taper for taper and requires that much space. It means becoming and cost up. On the other hand, a pipe-like convex portion is provided in a part of a mold container constituting the recording head, and a receiving portion of an elastic member is provided on the opposite side to be a connecting portion to form a connecting portion.

JP 2006-103056 A JP 2010-234801 A

  However, the pipe-shaped convex portion of the mold container may be formed with a slight inclination and different directions. In other words, the position accuracy and perpendicularity of the pipe-shaped convex portion may vary. When connecting a recording head equipped with such a mold container to an image forming apparatus, due to this variation, the degree of sealing with a receiving part provided on the image forming apparatus side is lowered, and ink leaks from the connecting part (leaks). )

  Furthermore, when a plurality of recording heads having pipe-shaped convex portions having such variations are unitized, the degree of sealing at the connection portion is further lowered, and ink leakage from the connection portion occurs. In addition, there are some which are provided with a guide for facilitating work when a plurality of recording heads are unitized (unit head) mounted on an image forming apparatus. Since the guide has a backlash with the pipe-like convex part, there is a case where ink leaks between the receiving part as the joint means and the pipe-like convex part in the detaching operation.

  If ink leaks at the connection portion in this manner, the inside of the image forming apparatus or the medium on which the image is formed may be soiled with ink.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to realize an image forming apparatus in which the inside of the apparatus and the medium on which the image is formed are not stained with ink.

Therefore, the image forming apparatus of the present invention connects a recording head that forms an image by ejecting ink, an ink tank that supplies the ink to the recording head, the ink tank and the recording head, and the ink tank A supply unit that supplies the ink to the recording head, wherein the connection unit connected to the recording head includes a convex ink introduction unit provided in the recording head. A first elastic body having an insertion hole that can be inserted, the insertion hole being deformable in accordance with the insertion of the convex ink introduction portion; and the first elastic body provided inside the first elastic body. have a sealing portion configured and second elastic bodies harder, by, outermost of said sealing portion is equal to or constituted by said first elastic body.

According to the present invention, without requiring more time than necessary at the time of images formed, the medium was subjected to device and image formation can be realized an image forming apparatus without soiling with ink.

1 is an overall view showing the inside of an image forming apparatus. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an ink supply unit having a hole connected to a recording head. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an ink supply unit having a hole connected to a recording head. It is sectional drawing of the joint part in an image forming apparatus. It is sectional drawing of the joint part in an image forming apparatus.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is an overall view showing the inside of an image forming apparatus to which this embodiment can be applied. The image forming apparatus 100 is connected to a host PC (personal computer) 101 that sends image information to the image forming apparatus 100. In the image forming apparatus 100, four (four) recording heads (image forming units) 102K, 102C, 102M, and 102Y are arranged in the conveyance direction (arrow A direction) of the recording medium (roll paper in this case). Has been placed. The four recording heads 102K, 102C, 102M, and 102Y eject black, cyan, magenta, and yellow inks, respectively. These four recording heads 102K, 102C, 102M, and 102Y are line heads and extend in a direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. 1 (a direction perpendicular to the arrow A direction). The lengths of these four recording heads 102K, 102C, 102M, and 102Y are slightly longer than the maximum width (the length in the direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. 1) of the recording media that can be recorded by the image forming apparatus 100. Further, these four recording heads 102K, 102C, 102M, and 102Y are fixed and do not move during image formation.

  A suction recovery device 105 is incorporated in the image forming apparatus 100 so that ink can be stably ejected from the four recording heads 102K, 102C, 102M, and 102Y. By this suction recovery device 105, the ink ejection state from the recording heads 102K, 102C, 102M, and 102Y is restored to the initial ink ejection state. The suction recovery device 105 includes a known blade, an ink removing member, a blade holding member, a cap, and the like. Further, the suction recovery device 105 is configured to be detachable from the device with a single touch, and can be replaced by a service person or a user at a predetermined timing.

  The suction recovery device 105 includes a capping mechanism 104 that removes ink from the ink discharge port formation surfaces 103K, 103C, 103M, and 103Y of the four recording heads 102K, 102C, 102M, and 102Y during the recovery operation. The capping mechanism 104 is provided independently for each recording head 102K, 102C, 102M, 102Y.

  The roll paper P is supplied from the roll paper supply unit 106 and is transported in the direction of arrow A by a transport mechanism 107 incorporated in the image forming apparatus 100. The transport mechanism 107 includes a transport belt 108 that loads and transports the roll paper P, a transport motor 109 that rotates the transport belt 108, a roller 110 that applies tension to the transport belt 108, and the like.

  When forming an image on the roll paper P, after the recording start position of the roll paper P being conveyed reaches below the black recording head 102K, the black ink is transferred from the recording head 102K based on the recording data (image information). Is selectively discharged. Similarly, each color ink is ejected in the order of the recording head 102C, the recording head 102M, and the recording head 102Y to form a color image on the roll paper P. In the image forming apparatus 100, in addition to the components and members described above, main tanks 111K, 111C, 111M, and 111Y that store ink to be supplied to each recording head, ink supply to each recording head, and recovery operations are performed. Various pumps (not shown) or the like are provided.

  2 and 3 are diagrams illustrating an ink supply unit having an insertion hole connected to the recording head of the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment. Ink from the ink container (not shown) is guided to the insertion holes of the plurality of cylindrical receiving insertion hole groups 2 provided in the joint portion 1 through the ink tank joint 51 and the tubes of the tube groups 50 of the respective colors. The recording head 20 is a head for ejecting ink. The ink supplied from the image forming apparatus 100 is piped as a part of the recording head 20 from the hole 2 a of the cylindrical receiving insertion hole group 2 of the joint portion 1. The convex part 200a is received. In addition, the recording head 20 includes a pipe-like convex portion 20b for forcibly extracting bubbles discharged from the recording head from the insertion holes of the cylindrical receiving insertion hole group 2 through the tube 50b (discharged to the outside). The bubbles can be moved to the bubble buffer provided on the image forming apparatus side. Similar to the recording head 20, the pipe-shaped convex portions corresponding to the pipe-shaped convex portions 20 a and 20 b are also provided on 21 to 23, respectively.

  The recording head unit H is composed of a plurality of sets of recording heads, and the respective pipe-like convex portions of the recording heads 20 to 23 of the respective colors are provided corresponding to the cylindrical receiving insertion hole group 2 of the joint portion 1. Yes. The cylindrical receiver insertion hole group 2 is formed of a plurality of cylindrical receivers (hereinafter referred to as first elastic members) 2a to 2h formed of elastic members. The first elastic portions 2a to 2h are provided to face the pipe-like convex portion 20a of the supply port provided in the recording head 20 of the recording head unit H that is detachable from the material and the pipe-like convex portion 20b for removing bubbles. It has been. Although not shown, the first elastic members 2c and 2d are opposed to the pipe-shaped convex portions 21a and 21b of the recording head 21, and the first elastic member 2e is opposed to the pipe-shaped convex portions 22a and 202b of the recording head 22. 2f, first elastic members 2g and 2h are provided to face the pipe-like convex portions 23a and 23b of the recording head 23.

  4 and 5 are cross-sectional views of the joint portion in the image forming apparatus 100 of the present embodiment. The joint portion (connecting portion) 1 is integrated by joining a lid 1b to a joint base 1a provided with flow channel grooves of each color, and is formed inside first elastic members 2a to 2h formed of elastic members. Are each provided with a second elastic member 3 formed of an elastic member. The first elastic members 2a to 2h are provided with insertion holes into which the pipe-shaped convex portions 20a and 20b can be inserted, and the second elastic member 3 is provided inside the insertion holes. The second elastic member 3 is an elastic member made of a material harder than the first elastic member 2 and is formed in a shape capable of shielding (sealing) the joints 20a to 20h, and prevents ink leakage from the joint portion. doing.

  Note that the first elastic members 2a to 2h themselves can be made of an elastic member made of a soft material as much as possible to have a diameter close to the pipe-shaped convex portion. However, the first elastic members 2a to 2h are easily worn with respect to the detaching operation of the recording head, which is a consumable, and may be buckled and damaged or leaked if set too softly. Therefore, in the present embodiment, a moderately soft material is used for the first elastic members 2a to 2h so that the first elastic members 2a to 2h slightly follow the pipe-shaped convex portion of the recording head 20, and the second elastic member 3 is firmly attached. The connection is made by close contact. As specific materials of the first elastic members 2a to 2h and the second elastic member 3, for example, the first elastic members 2a to 2h are butyl rubber with a rubber hardness of 30, and the second elastic member 3 is fluoro rubber with rubber. A hardness of 70 is desirable.

  By adopting such a configuration, it is possible to prevent wear due to the detaching operation as much as possible, and to closely follow the variation of the pipe-like convex portion of the recording head. Further, even if the diameter of the pipe-like convex portion of the recording head is tuned to be large or small depending on the type of ink, the joint portion can be utilized with minimal configuration change and cost by replacing the second elastic member 3. can do. The pipe-like convex portions 20a and 20b in the recording head 20 have tapered ends so as to minimize stress when connected to the joint portion 1 provided in the image forming apparatus. In such a configuration, even if the pipe-shaped convex portions 20a and 20b are inclined, the first elastic members 2a to 2h, which are relatively soft materials, follow the pipe-shaped convex portions 20a and 20b together with the second elastic member 3. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently prevent ink leakage.

  The first elastic members 2a to 2h and the first elastic members 2a to 2h formed of cylindrical elastic members into which the pipe-like convex portions can be inserted into the joint portion 1 that receives the pipe-like convex portions 20a and 20b. The second elastic member 3 formed of an elastic member is formed inside 2h. As a result, it is possible to realize an image forming apparatus in which the time required for image formation does not take longer than necessary and the inside of the apparatus and the medium on which the image is formed are not stained with ink.

2 Insertion hole group 2a-2h 1st elastic member 3 2nd elastic member 20 Recording head 20a, 20b Pipe-shaped convex part 100 Image forming apparatus H Recording head unit

Claims (4)

A recording head that forms an image by ejecting ink, an ink tank that supplies the ink to the recording head, and the ink tank and the recording head are connected, and the ink is supplied from the ink tank to the recording head An image forming apparatus comprising:
The connecting portion of the supply unit connected to the recording head has an insertion hole into which the convex ink introducing portion provided in the recording head can be inserted , and the insertion hole is inserted along with the insertion of the convex ink introducing portion. A deformable first elastic body ; a second elastic body provided inside the first elastic body and harder than the first elastic body ;
Have a sealing portion constituted by the image forming apparatus outermost of said sealing portion is equal to or constituted by said first elastic body.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording head includes a bubble removing unit that discharges bubbles in the recording head to the outside.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a recording head unit in which a plurality of the recording heads are combined.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the ink introduction portions and the insertion holes are provided corresponding to each of the ink introduction portions and the insertion holes.

Images