JP6009989B2 - inkjet printer - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an inkjet printer that records an image by ejecting ink.

  In order to meet the demand for higher printing speed and higher image quality, inkjet printers are increasingly required to improve printing speed and increase the accuracy of the landing position of ink ejected onto a recording medium. When the device is operated at high speed, the vibration of the carriage, which is not a problem in the past, affects the accuracy of the ink landing position. Therefore, the linear accuracy of the Y rail that guides the carriage is increased, or the connecting portion between the carriage and the Y rail By improving the rigidity, the carriage has been improved so as to move along the linear Y rail faithfully.

  In addition, an ink jet printer having a configuration that suppresses not only the above-described improvement in component accuracy but also movement such as carriage vibration is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-14063. In this technique, a weight is mounted on the carriage to substantially increase the mass of the recording head and suppress the vibration of the carriage. As a result, movement such as vibration of the carriage can be suppressed, deterioration of ink landing position accuracy caused by this can be reduced, and deterioration of print quality due to the behavior of the carriage is prevented.

JP 2013-14063 A

  When the vibration amount is suppressed by making the recording head or the carriage substantially heavy, a motor having a large driving force is required. In addition, when the rigidity of the joint portion with the Y rail is increased, the weight of the joint portion is also increased. On the other hand, it is desired to reduce the size and weight of printers. Further, as the printing speed increases, the moving speed of the carriage must be increased, and there is a problem that the burden on the bearing becomes large by moving a heavy object quickly.

  The present invention has a simple configuration with respect to the above-described problems, and is lightweight and compact, but has excellent followability with respect to the Y rail and high durability, and has a joint portion with the Y rail. An ink jet printer is provided.

  Therefore, an inkjet printer according to the present invention includes a plurality of print heads that eject ink onto a recording medium, a carriage to which the print head is fixed, and a rail that is disposed along a direction that intersects the conveyance direction of the recording medium. A mounting structure having a plurality of bearings for movably connecting the carriage to the rail, wherein the bearings are disposed at an upper portion and a lower portion of the rail, each of the bearings contacting the rail, In an ink jet printer that records an image by ejecting the ink from the print head to the recording medium while moving the carriage along the rail by the mounting structure, there are a plurality of the mounting structures, and the movement of the carriage Arranged in at least two places apart in the direction The mounting structure portion includes a support shaft disposed on the carriage and an arm pivotally supported on the support shaft, and the bearing is disposed at a position symmetrical to the support shaft of the arm. The bearing disposed on the arm is in contact with the upper portion of the rail.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an ink jet printer that is excellent in followability with respect to the Y rail, improves the ink landing accuracy, enables high image quality, and has high durability.

It is a figure explaining the structure of a carriage. It is a figure explaining the state in which the carriage is attached to the Y rail. It is a figure which shows an example of an inkjet printer.

(Outline of the embodiment)
An outline of an embodiment of the present invention will be described. Inkjet printers are equipped with a print head that ejects ink onto a carriage. The carriage reciprocates along the Y rail, and records images by ejecting ink from the print head to a desired position. The carriage is supported by a plurality of mounting structures on the Y rail. For example, a shaft is passed through the center of the arm, bearings are arranged at both ends of the arm, the arm is rotatable about the shaft, and is brought into contact with the Y rail. These are arranged at positions apart from the carriage, for example, at both ends, and connected to the Y rail. By doing so, the bearing moves following the distortion of the Y rail, and at least one bearing on one side moves while contacting the Y rail. Further, since the amount of movement of the rotation center of the shaft can be reduced with respect to the magnitude of distortion of the Y rail, the vibration of the carriage can be suppressed.

  For example, one mounting structure is fixed to the Y rail via at least five bearings. In other words, two of the two mounting structures provided on the carriage are arranged so that two pivotable arms are provided at the upper part of the carriage and one of the three bearings is provided at the lower part so as to mainly receive a vertical force. A single bearing is disposed at the bottom so as to receive mainly horizontal force. The other mounting structure is similarly arranged. In such a case, on one side, including one bearing attached to the arm, the four bearings always touch the Y rail. The remaining one bearing attached to the arm is relatively movable with respect to the Y rail, and is in contact with or separated from the Y rail. By using a structure in which the carriage is hung on the top of the Y rail by two bearings attached to the arm, the load on one bearing is reduced and the life of the bearing is extended.

  In the carriage, a plurality of ink ejection surfaces of the print head are arranged so as to face the recording medium. Further, the recording medium is arranged in parallel so that the conveyance direction of the recording medium coincides with the longitudinal direction of the ejection surface. For example, a print head corresponding to each of four colors of yellow, cyan, magenta, and black is mounted on the carriage. More print heads can be installed.

(Details of the embodiment)
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the carriage. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a state in which the carriage is attached to the Y rail. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an inkjet printer.

First, the overall configuration of the ink jet printer will be described with reference to FIG.
The ink jet printer 1 is provided with a Y rail 2 over almost the entire width of the apparatus. An ink jet head is mounted inside the carriage 3. The belt 6 is a belt wound around a pulley 7, and the carriage 3 is fixed to the belt 6. The pulley paired with the pulley 7 is in the shadow of the carriage 3 in the figure and is not shown. The belt 6 rotates by changing the rotation direction. Accordingly, the carriage 3 fixed to the belt 6 reciprocates along the Y rail 2. The platen 4 supports the recording medium conveyed by the conveyance roller 5. A plurality of conveying rollers 5 are arranged along the platen 4. The recording medium is, for example, a plastic film or paper. The recording medium supported by the platen 4 and the carriage 3 are arranged so as to have an interval of several millimeters. Ink is ejected from the print head mounted on the carriage 3 on the recording medium to record an image. The moving direction of the carriage 3, that is, the scanning direction, moves in a direction that intersects the conveyance direction of the recording medium, and in this example, moves in a direction that is orthogonal. The recording medium is intermittently driven in the transport direction and recorded when stopped, and transport and recording are performed alternately.

  The recording medium on which the image is recorded is conveyed from the back side to the front side of the inkjet printer 1 in the drawing. That is, it is output through the lower side of the Y rail 2 and the carriage 3. For this reason, since there is no attachment structure for the Y rail 2 or the carriage 3 on the front side of the ink jet printer 1, the user can easily open the cover 8 of the carriage 3 and perform operations such as position adjustment of the print head and the like. Further, the carriage 3 can be moved, and since the print head is disposed in the carriage 3, operations such as attachment thereof can be facilitated. In this way, maintenance and assembly can be facilitated. The Y rail 2 has a length equal to substantially the entire width of the ink jet printer 1 and functions as a guide when the carriage 3 scans.

Next, the support structure of the carriage 3 will be described with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 1, the Y rail 2 is drawn by extracting a part of the entire length.
Four print heads 19 are mounted on the head base 12 of the carriage 3, and ink is ejected at an appropriate timing according to image data to record an image on a recording medium. The carriage 3 is attached to the belt 6, and the carriage 3 moves together with the belt 6 by driving the belt 6.

  The carriage 3 is attached to the Y rail 2 via attachment structures 10 and 11. The first mounting structure 10 is on the left side of the page with respect to the carriage 3, and the second mounting structure 11 is on the right side of the page with respect to the carriage 3, that is, disposed at both ends of the carriage 3 in the scanning direction. Here, since each attachment structure part 10 and 11 is the same structure, one of them is demonstrated.

  The mounting structure 10 is mounted on the Y rail 2 in a scannable manner without being detached from the Y rail 2 by the bearing a13, the bearing b14, the bearing c15, the bearing d20, and the bearing e21 included in the first mounting structure 10.

  Of the mounting structure 10, the bearing a <b> 13 and the bearing d <b> 20 are attached to the lower portion of the Y rail 2. Of the mounting structure 10, the bearing b <b> 14, the bearing c <b> 15, and the bearing e <b> 21 are attached to the upper portion of the Y rail 2.

  The bearing a13 is rotatably supported by the support shaft 28, the bearing c15 is rotatably supported by the support shaft 27, the bearing d20 is supported by the support shaft 28, and the bearing e21 is rotatably supported by the support shaft 25. Similarly, the bearing b14 is also rotatably supported by a support shaft (not shown).

  Each bearing is attached to the support base 24. The support base 24 fixes the head base 12. The head base 12 is fixed to the support base 24 by fixing means 22 and 23 such as screws.

  A convex portion 16 is provided on the upper portion of the support base 24 of the carriage 3. The convex portion 16 pivotally supports the central portion of the arm 17 that pivotally supports the bearing b14 and the bearing c15. The arm 17 is rotatably supported by a support shaft 18. Further, a spring may be connected to the arm 17 and biased in the Y rail 2 direction. If it does so, the bearing b14 and the bearing c15 which were connected to the arm 17 can be urged | biased and contact | abutted to the Y rail 2, and the attachment structure parts 10 and 11 can be attached to the Y rail 2 suitably. Even if it is not biased, the bearing b14 and the bearing c15 are in contact with the Y rail 2 strongly because the carriage 3 itself becomes a load. A spring may be provided so that other bearings are also urged toward the Y rail. For example, the portion that supports the bearing a <b> 13 may be rotatable and biased in the direction of the Y rail 2 with a spring. In particular, the lower portion of the Y rail 2 is provided with the bearing a13. However, in the case of a configuration in which two bearings are used for a rotatable arm, such as the bearing b14 and the bearing c15 provided on the upper portion, the Y rail 2 is strongly in contact with the Y rail 2. As described above, when the spring is biased, the followability with respect to the distortion of the Y rail 2 is improved.

  A bearing e21, a bearing b14, and a bearing c15 on the head base side are arranged so as to sandwich the top of the Y rail 2. A bearing d20 on the head base side and a bearing a13 are arranged so as to sandwich the lower portion of the Y rail 2. The attachment structure 10 is attached by applying forces to the Y rail 2 in the vertical and horizontal directions by five bearings.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Inkjet printer 2 Y rail 3 Carriage 4 Platen 5 Conveyance roller 6 Belt 10 Attachment structure part 11 Attachment structure part 12 Head base 19 Print head 13 Bearing a
14 Bearing b
15 Bearing c
17 Arm 18 Support shaft 20 Bearing d
21 Bearing e
24 Support base

Claims (4)

A plurality of print heads for ejecting ink onto a recording medium, a carriage to which the print head is fixed, a rail arranged along a direction intersecting the conveyance direction of the recording medium, and the carriage can be moved to the rail A mounting structure having a plurality of bearings connected to the rail, wherein the bearings are disposed at an upper portion and a lower portion of the rail, and each of the bearings is in contact with the rail, and the mounting structure portion causes the carriage to move the rail. In an inkjet printer that records an image by ejecting the ink from the print head to the recording medium while moving along
There are a plurality of the attachment structure parts, and the attachment structure parts are arranged at least in two places apart in the moving direction of the carriage,
Each of the mounting structures is
A support shaft disposed on the carriage;
An arm pivotally supported on the support shaft,
The ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the bearing is disposed at a position symmetrical to the support shaft of the arm, and the bearing disposed on the arm is in contact with the upper portion of the rail.   The inkjet printer according to claim 1, wherein the attachment structure portion is disposed at an end portion of the carriage.   A spring for biasing the arm in the direction of the rail, the arm biasing the arm in the rail direction by the spring, and biasing and abutting the bearing on the rail. Item 2. Inkjet printer according to item 2 The mounting structure is
Another support shaft different from the support shaft;
Another arm different from the arm pivotally supported by the other support shaft;
A spring for urging the other arm in the direction of the rail;
The bearings are arranged in symmetrical positions with respect to the other support shafts of the other arms, and the bearings arranged on the other arms are moved to the rails by the springs that bias the other arms. The ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the ink jet printer is urged against and in contact with the lower portion of the ink jet printer.

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