JPS6352581B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a nozzle cleaning device for removing ink and dust adhering to the nozzle end face of an inkjet printer.

Generally, in an inkjet printer, ink is force-fed from an ink supply device to a nozzle via an ink pipe, and mechanical vibrations are applied to the ink at this nozzle, causing the ink to become particles and ejected from the nozzle. A charging electrode selectively charges the charge, and a pair of deflection electrodes then deflects the charge according to the amount of charge to reach the recording paper, thereby performing desired printing. Further, ink particles not used for recording reach the gutter and are returned to the ink supply device.

In such an inkjet printer, minute ink droplets ejected from a nozzle hole during a recording operation adhere to the end face of the nozzle. This attached ink solidifies if left for a long time.
Additionally, when recording is stopped and ink ejection is stopped, the ink inside the nozzle remains stationary at the tip of the nozzle hole, and if this stationary state continues for a long time due to contact with air, the ink solidifies inside the nozzle. However, solidification of these inks adversely affects recording.

The present invention provides a nozzle cleaning device for preventing such effects of solidification of ink on ink particle formation and, ultimately, on recording.

The present invention will be described below with reference to an embodiment of the drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing essential parts of the inkjet printer of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing the recording head portion of FIG. 1. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a recording head that moves back and forth in the row direction in front of a platen 4 on which recording paper is placed, and is guided by guide rods 2, 2 suspended from a side plate 3 of the apparatus. and then moved back and forth.

The recording head 1 includes a nozzle 5, a pair of deflection electrodes 6, and a gutter 7 for collecting unnecessary ink.
and a moving member 9 provided with a charging electrode 8, which will be described later. The recording head 1 is attached to the moving member 9.
At the top, the nozzle 5 is located at the front position of the nozzle 5.
U-shaped guide rail 1 in the direction perpendicular to the ink jetting direction from the head 1, that is, in the same direction as the moving direction of the head 1
It is now possible to move by being guided by 0.

As shown in FIG.
A cylindrical charging electrode 8, which constitutes an ink flight path, is provided inside the member 9 and is attached to the surface facing the nozzle 5, and as shown in FIG. An ink absorber 12 made of Japanese paper, cloth, etc. is attached to the left side of the electrode 8 on the surface facing the nozzle. When the member 9 moves in the direction of arrow A, the ink absorber 12 comes into contact with the tip of the nozzle 5 and wipes off ink adhering to the nozzle 5.

In other words, the right end of the movable member 9 is supported by the head 1 via the spring 13, and the charging electrode 8 and the nozzle 5 are normally held in a position facing each other by the spring 13 and resisted by the spring 13. By moving the member 9 in the direction of arrow A, the ink absorber 12 sweeps the tip of the nozzle 5.

The recording head 1 is connected to a wire 14 installed on pulleys 11A and 11B, and the pulleys are driven by a motor 15, causing the wire 14 to move the head 1. A timing slit plate 16 is provided along the moving path of the head 1, and is used to detect the position of the head 1. That is, the head 1 is equipped with an optical or magnetic detection means, and as the head 1 moves, the slits in the timing slit plate 16 are sequentially detected to detect the position. When the head 1 is at the left home position, which is a standby state for printing, it outputs a home position signal TH indicating that state, and when it is at the leftmost position, that is, the leftmost position, from the home position, it indicates the state. Outputs signal TS.

On the other hand, in the left side plate 3 of the apparatus, an opening 17 is formed at a position corresponding to the left end of the movable member 9 of the head 1, and is large enough to fit the left end.

A rotary lever 19 rotatably supported on the left side plate 3 by a pin 18 is provided on the left side of the left side plate 3, that is, on the outside. One end side 19A of this rotary lever 19 is connected to the opening 1 of the side plate 3.
The other end 19B is connected to the solenoid mechanism 20.

Therefore, when the solenoid mechanism 20 is energized, the link end 19B of the rotary lever 19 is pulled downward about the pin 18 and one end 1 of the lever 19 is pulled downward.
9A is rotated upward and moved to a position corresponding to the opening 17 of the side plate 3 and closed. Further, when the solenoid mechanism 20 is not excited, the return operation of the solenoid mechanism 20 causes one end of the lever 19 to
9A rotates downward and is held in the position where the aperture 17 is opened.

In the apparatus configured as described above, the recording head 1 is controlled to stop at the left hole position, and when the apparatus is powered on to start printing, the head 1 moves from the home position to the left. be done.

At this time, the solenoid mechanism 20 is energized in response to the power being turned on, and the rotary lever 19 closes the opening 17 of the side plate 3.

Therefore, when the recording head 1 moves to the left from the home position and reaches the leftmost position, the moving member 9
The left end of the member 9 comes into contact with the rotating lever 18 through the opening 17, and the member 9 is pressed and moved in the direction of arrow A via the spring 13, and the ink absorber 12 sweeps the tip of the nozzle 5 to remove the adhered ink. Wipe it off.

At the leftmost position of the head 1, a signal TS indicating the position is output, and the head 1 is thereby moved in the opposite direction to the right, that is, toward the left home position. Thereafter, the excitation to the solenoid mechanism 20 is released, and the moving member 9 is returned to its original position by the spring 13, so that the nozzle 5 and the charging electrode 8 are positioned facing each other.

That is, the cleaning device according to the present invention moves the movable member 9 to clean the nozzle 5 when the power is turned on to the device, and then positions the movable member 9 and the head 1 in a printable state.

Next, the control circuit configuration of the recording head 1 mentioned above will be explained with reference to FIG.

Reference numeral 40 denotes a mechanical section of the inkjet printer, which includes an ink supply device 41, a print control circuit 42, and a motor 43 (corresponding to the motor 15 in FIG. 1).
The recording head 44 (corresponding to the recording head 1 in FIG. 1) is moved by the recording head 44 (corresponding to the recording head 1 in FIG. 1). When the print control circuit 42 is supplied with the ready signal RD, which is the set output of the flip-flop 301, the print control circuit 42 controls the mechanical section 4.
0 is controlled to be printable.

50 is a drive circuit for the motor 43, which receives a back signal BK, a forward signal FW, and a drive instruction signal.
DR is entered. This back signal BK instructs the recording head 44 to move from the right home position to the left home position, that is, in the left direction, and the forward signal FW instructs it to move in the opposite direction to the right. It is. Then, the movement of the head 44 is started in response to the drive instruction signal DR.

60 is a power supply circuit, which is a power supply switch 6 of the device.
1, it receives power from the commercial power supply 62, supplies power to each circuit, and supplies a reset signal R to each circuit for initialization.

30 is a cleaning control circuit when the power is turned on, and flip-flops 301, 302, 303,
304, delay circuits 305, 306, 307, and a solenoid drive circuit 314.
And 308-310 are and gates, 311-
313 is the or gate.

The flip-flop 301 has a ready signal.
This is for generating RD, and when the power is turned on, it is reset by a reset signal R, and its reset output is sent to AND gates 308 to 31.
Supplying to 0.

The flip-flop 302 is for switching the moving direction of the recording head 44, and is set by the reset signal R when the power is turned on, and the set output becomes the back signal BK, and the reset output becomes the forward signal FW. ing.

Flip-flop 303 instructs drive circuit 50 to drive, and its set output serves as drive instruction signal DR. Further, the flip-flop instructs the solenoid drive circuit 314 to drive, and is set by a reset signal when the power is turned on, and this set output instructs the circuit 314 to drive.

Further, a signal TS generated when the recording head 44 reaches the leftmost position is guided to an AND gate 308, a delay circuit 305, and an OR gate 313.
The gate output of the AND gate 308 is introduced to the reset side of the flip-flop 302 via an OR gate 311. The output from delay circuit 305 is introduced to the set side of flip-flop 303 via OR gate 312. Furthermore, the gate output of the OR gate 313 is introduced to the reset side of the flip-flop 303.

On the other hand, the signal TH output when the recording head 44 falls to the left home position is introduced to the AND gate 310, and the output of this gate is led to the delay circuit 307, the OR gate 313, and the reset terminal of the flip-flop 304. ing. Therefore, the output of the signal TH causes the gate 310 to
When the flip-flop 304 is opened, the drive of the solenoid is stopped by resetting the flip-flop 304, and the flip-flop 301 is set via the delay circuit 307. At this time, the ready signal is
RD is output.

To explain a series of operations here, when the power switch 61 is turned on and the reset signal R is output from the power supply circuit 60, the flip-flop 30
1 is reset and the flip-flop 30
2 and 304 are set. Further, the reset signal R is introduced into a delay circuit 306.

By resetting flip-flop 301, AND gates 308-309 become valid. Further, the set output of the flip-flop 302, that is, the back signal BK is introduced to the motor drive circuit 50. Furthermore, a solenoid drive circuit 314 is driven by the set output of the flip-flop 304.
This causes the rotary lever 18 to move to the position where the aperture 17 is closed.

Thereafter, the reset signal R passed through the delay circuit 306 causes the flip-flop 303 to be set via the AND gate 309 and the OR gate 312. This set output is a drive instruction signal to the drive circuit 50.
DR, and the motor drive circuit 50 receives the signal DR.
When input, the motor 43 is driven. At this time,
Since the signal BK is being input, the recording head 44 is moved to the left.

As the recording head 44 moves to the left, the left end of the movable member 9 mounted on the head 44 comes into contact with the rotary lever 18 through the opening 17, so that the movable member 9 moves in the direction of arrow A. The ink absorber 12 moves to sweep the tip of the nozzle 5.

After that, when the recording head 44 reaches the leftmost position, the signal
TS is output. This signal TS is OR gate 31
3, the flip-flop 303 is reset to stop driving the motor 43. Also the signal
AND gate 308 is opened by TS, and flip-flop 302 is reset via OR gate 311. Therefore, the forward signal FW, which is this reset output, is introduced into the motor drive circuit 50.

The signal TS is also introduced into the delay circuit 305, and then passes through the OR gate 312 to set the flip-flop 303 again. Then,
A forward signal FW and a drive instruction signal DR are introduced into the motor drive circuit 50 to drive the motor 43 in the opposite direction. That is, the recording head 44 is moved to the right.

When the recording head 44 comes to the left home position by moving the recording head 44 to the right,
A signal TH is derived.

Then, AND gate 310 opens, causing flip-flop 303 to be reset via OR gate 313, and flip-flop 304 to be reset. As a result, the motor 43 is stopped, the head 44 is placed on standby at the left home position, and the operation of the solenoid drive circuit 314 is also stopped.

Furthermore, the output of the gate 310 is connected to the delay circuit 30.
7, the flip-flop 301 is set, and the ready signal RD is first delivered to the print control circuit 42 in this state.

Therefore, when the power is turned on, the movable member 9 is moved to remove ink adhering to the nozzle 5, and printing can always be performed in a proper state.

In the above embodiment, a solenoid mechanism 20 and a rotary lever 19 are provided to drive the opening 17 in the side plate 3 into an open/closed state. is side plate 3
This is to prevent the inconvenience of closing the injection port of the nozzle 5 due to contact with the nozzle 5, and from the point of view of cleaning the nozzle 5, there is no particular need for such a configuration.

Further, in the above embodiment, the recording head 1 was moved further to the left from the left home position to perform cleaning, but the moving member 9 may be driven while waiting at the left home position. Furthermore, it goes without saying that the cleaning may not be performed at the left home position but may be performed at the right home position.

As described above, the nozzle cleaning device for an inkjet printer of the present invention includes a moving member provided with an ink absorber provided on the head, and a moving member that separates the ink absorber from the end of the nozzle to prevent ink from being ejected from the nozzle. The holding means holds the movable member in a position where the ink absorber is not in contact with the nozzle end by colliding with the movable member when the head moves to a predetermined standby position. a pressing body disposed near a standby position so as to move against the moving member; a pressing body moving means for moving the pressing body to a collision position where it can collide with the moving member; and a pressing body moving means for moving the head to the waiting position when the power is turned on. In addition to driving the head moving means to move the pressing body to the collision position, the head moving means is also provided with a driving means for driving the pressing body moving means to move the pressing body to the collision position. By performing the nozzle cleaning operation, printing can be performed under good conditions at all times, and records of good quality, that is, high printing quality, can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the main structure of an inkjet printer according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the recording head portion of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a circuit block showing the control circuit structure of the printer. It is a diagram. 1: recording head, 4: platen, 5: nozzle,
6: Deflection electrode, 8: Charging electrode, 9: Moving member, 1
2: Ink absorber, 13: Spring, 15: Motor, 19: Rotating lever, 20: Solenoid mechanism, 30: Cleaning control circuit, 40: Ink jet printer mechanism, 50: Motor drive circuit, 60: Power supply circuit .

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Generating ink droplets from a nozzle provided on the head, directing the ink droplets in a predetermined path toward a medium to be recorded, and moving the head to a head moving means. Therefore, in an ink jet printer that performs a desired recording operation by reciprocating the medium in the row direction, an ink jet printer is provided on the head, located in front of the nozzle, and in a direction perpendicular to the path of the ink droplet flow. a movable member that is movable and is provided with an ink absorber that absorbs ink adhering to the nozzle end on a surface facing the nozzle hole; holding means for holding the movable member in a position that does not impede ink ejection; and when the head moves to a predetermined standby position, the ink absorber collides with the movable member to cause the ink absorber to move toward the nozzle. a pressing body provided near the standby position so as to move the movable member against the holding means in a direction in which it abuts the end; and a pressing body that moves the pressing body to a collision position where it can collide with the movable member. a pressing body moving means for moving the head; and driving the head moving means so as to move the head to the standby position in response to power-on of the printer, and to move the pressing body to the collision position. A nozzle cleaning device for an inkjet printer, comprising a driving means for driving the pressing body moving means.