JPH0377065B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention is directed to preventing ink from drying in an inkjet recording device, particularly in its recording head, and to easily correct ejection failure of a nozzle at the tip of an inkjet recording head. The present invention relates to a capping device for an inkjet recording head.

[Prior art]

When an inkjet printer is mounted on a small, portable electronic device such as a calculator, there are various problems associated with carrying the printer, unlike when it is mounted on an electronic device such as a data terminal, which is rarely carried. For example, shocks and vibrations caused when the electronic device is carried, or the ink meniscus in the nozzle at the tip of the recording head recede due to the tilting of the electronic device, ink leakage from the nozzle, and the generation of air bubbles. These phenomena cause ink ejection failure, printing failure, or contamination within electronic equipment. Furthermore, if an inkjet printer is not used for a long period of time, the ink inside the nozzle dries, making it impossible to immediately reuse it.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The object of the present invention is to eliminate these drawbacks and to appropriately configure a capping device so that the recording head can be covered with a cap during transportation and when not in use.
An object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet recording device in which, when an ejection failure occurs during reuse, the ejection failure can be easily canceled by suctioning ink from the cap, and also prevents malfunction when suction operation is not required. .

[Means for Solving the Problems] An inkjet recording device of the present invention that achieves the above object includes a cap that can be in a capped state covering an ejection port for ejecting ink and a non-capping state separated from the ejection port; The apparatus is characterized by comprising a suction means for performing a suction operation from the discharge port through the cap, and means for regulating the suction operation by the suction means when the cap is not in the capping state.

[Operation] According to the present invention, a capping state can be obtained by moving the cap to a position covering the discharge port. At this time, the suction means is switched to the suction enabled state by the switching means.

Therefore, suction operation can be performed when in the capping state, and malfunctions can be prevented.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be explained in detail below based on the drawings.

1A and 1B show an example of the configuration of a capping device in an inkjet recording apparatus of the present invention, where 1 is a recording head mounted on a carriage 2, and 3 is a nozzle attached to the tip of the recording head 1. Chamfered portions 2A are formed on the left and right outer walls (the upper and lower outer walls in FIG. 1A) of the recording head 1 side of the carriage 2.
A recess 1A is provided by cutting out the tip of the recording head 1. 4 is a cap slide, and 5 is a manual lever that pushes the slide 4 toward the carriage 2. A deep hole 7 filled with an ink absorber 6 is formed in a cap portion of the cap slide 4 corresponding to the recording head 1. A passage 6A is provided in the center of the absorbent body 6. At the tip of the cap part, facing the cartridge 2, there is a chamfered part 2A.
A recess 8 is formed into which the recess 8 can be fitted. A convex elastic cap 9 is fitted into the center of the recess 8 to cover the absorber 6 and to be press-fitted into the recess 1A of the recording head 1. A hole 9A communicating with the passage 6A is provided in the center of the elastic cap 9. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 1B, a shaft hole 10 is bored in the cap slide 4 parallel to the deep hole 7, and a shaft 11 is inserted into the shaft hole 10. The shaft 11 is fixed by a snap ring 13 or the like to a cap fixing plate 12 attached to an electronic device in which an inkjet printer is mounted. A boss 14 is fitted into the other end of the shaft 11 by engaging in the shaft hole 10, and the other end of the shaft 11 is fixed to the tip of the boss 14 by a snap ring 15. Therefore, when the cap slide 4 is moved toward the recording head 1, the shaft hole 10 can slide along the boss 14 in the axial direction of the shaft 11. A compression spring 1 is provided between the shaft hole 10 and the boss 14.
6 is attached, and the cap slide 4 is removed during such sliding.
is angled toward the fixed plate 12. 1
Reference numeral 7 designates a spring locking member for locking the lever 5 when the lever 5 rotates counterclockwise. 20 is a suction pump main body of a nozzle suction device, and 35 is a suction pipe that connects the passage 6A and the pump main body 20. Details of these portions 20, 35 are shown next in FIG.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a nozzle suction device provided in a capping device according to the present invention, where 20 is a cylindrical suction pump body fixed to a base 21. The suction pump main body 20 has a large diameter suction chamber 22
and an annular sealing groove 23 provided at the upper end separated from the suction chamber 22, and an opening 20A is formed above the sealing groove 23 in the main body 20. An O-ring 24 is fitted into this sealing groove 23. Inside the pump body 20, a shaft 25 fixed to a pedestal 21 is inserted into a sealing groove 3.
3. Extend it upward to about the halfway point. 26 is a piston of a suction pump, and this piston 26 has a narrow diameter portion 28 that is shaped to be able to slide through the opening 20A and the sealing groove 23, and the above-mentioned lever 5 is fixed to the upper end thereof. The lower end of the piston 26 has a large diameter portion 27 that fits into the suction chamber 22, and a peripheral portion of the large diameter portion 27 that overhangs the narrow diameter portion 28 passes through the large diameter portion 27 in the axial direction. A passage 29 is opened, and a valve 30 that opens and closes in response to pressure difference fluctuations at the openings at both ends of the passage 29 is installed at the lower end of the passage 29 on the suction chamber 22 side. In addition, the large diameter portion 2
An O-ring 31 is attached to the outer wall of 7 to seal between the outer wall and the suction chamber 22. Further, a recess 32 is cut out in the bottom surface of the large diameter portion 27 of the piston 26 on the suction chamber side, and a compression spring 33 is attached between the recess 32 and the base 21. This spring 33 is
This is for automatically returning the piston 26 upward after the piston 26 is manually pushed downward when necessary. A communication hole 3 is provided in the upper side wall of the suction chamber 22.
4 and connect the suction tube 35 to this hole 34.
The other end of the suction tube 35 communicates with the passage 6A of the passage 6 of the ink absorber 6, as shown in FIG. Therefore, when the piston 26 is pushed down, the large diameter portion 27 of the piston 26 and the pump body 20
A space 36 under negative pressure formed between the upper end of the
On the other hand, the passage 6A is sucked into a negative pressure state from the communication hole 34 via the suction pipe 35. Furthermore, one side wall of the lower part of the pump body 20 (left side wall in FIG. 3)
A hole 37 is provided in the hole 37 to release the negative pressure in the space 36 when the space 36 expands downward, and also to allow ink to be discharged.

Next, the operation of the recording head capping device according to the present invention constructed as described above will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B and FIG. 4.

3A and 3B show a state in which the lever 5 is manually rotated counterclockwise (in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1A) and the lever 5 is locked by the locking member 17. 9 is pressed against the recording head 1 to seal its nozzle 3.
At the same time, the nozzle 3 passes through the hole 9A and faces the ink absorber 6 at the rear of the cap 9. Since the ink absorber 6 absorbs ink, the inside of the hole 9A, and thus the area around the nozzle 3, is always filled with ink vapor, and the tip of the nozzle 3 does not dry out.

On the other hand, if ink ejection failure occurs due to the receding meniscus of the ink liquid level or the generation of air bubbles in the nozzle 3, the piston 23 should be pushed downward as shown in FIG. As a result, a negative pressure is generated in the space 36, and ink is sucked from the discharge port of the nozzle 3 by the negative pressure. In order to do this, by means of switching to the state where suction is possible,
First, as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the elastic cap 9 at the tip of the cap slide 4 is pressed against the recording head 1, and in this state, the lever 5 is slid between the cap fixing plate 12 and the cap slide 4. the piston 26. At this time, a space 36 is formed between the large diameter portion 27 of the piston 26 and the upper end of the pump body 20.
becomes a negative pressure due to the volume expansion caused by pushing down the piston 26, so the passage 6 connected to this cavity 36
Inside A also becomes negative pressure. Further, since the tank (not shown) that supplies ink to the recording head 1 is always open to the atmosphere, the ink in the nozzle 3 is ejected outward from the nozzle 3 due to the pressure difference between the front and rear sides of the nozzle 3.
Therefore, for example, when the meniscus is receding, the receding meniscus is attracted and can return to its normal state, thereby resolving the ejection failure. Next, when the piston 26 is released, the compression spring 33 causes the piston 26 to return upward as shown by the arrow in FIG. At this time, valve 3
Since the valve 30 is made of a film with a thickness of several tens of micrometers, it responds sensitively to fluctuations in the pressure difference between the upper and lower sides, and the valve 30
is in an open state, and the ink sucked into the cavity 36 passes through the passage 29 and is discharged to the outside from the hole 37 provided below the pump body 20. In addition, passage 29
By making the line resistance of the suction tube 35 smaller than that of the suction tube 35, the ink accumulated in the space 36 can be easily discharged from the passage 29. In addition, the side wall 2A at the tip of the carriage 2 is chamfered,
Since the cap slide 4 that comes into contact with this is also provided with a recess 8, the recording head 1 is provided with a recess 1A, and the elastic cap 9 is also provided with a convex tip, there is no misalignment between the carriage 2 and the slide 4. Even if there is a slight deviation in the positional relationship between the two, these irregularities are corrected, and the recording head 1 is reliably sealed by the cap slide 4.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the inkjet recording device of the present invention, when the inkjet printer is not used for a long period of time, the recording head 1
Since the nozzle 3 at the tip of the nozzle 3 is covered with a cap, the tip of the nozzle 3 does not dry out and printing can be performed immediately upon reuse. Also,
In the present invention, since a suction means is provided to suck ink from the ejection port through the cap, when carrying an electronic device with an inkjet printer, there is no possibility that the inkjet printer will be subject to shocks or vibrations, or the inkjet printer may be tilted. Even if the meniscus inside the nozzle retreats or air bubbles are generated, causing ejection failure, the ejection failure can be easily removed by ejecting the ink inside the nozzle to the outside using the suction means when reusing the nozzle. I can do it. Moreover, since a means is provided for moving the cap to a position covering the ejection port and switching the suction means to a suction enabled state, that is, means for regulating the suction operation by the suction means when the cap is not in the capping state, the ejection port of the recording head The cap can be reliably moved to a position that covers the cap, and suction can be performed only when the cap is in the capping state, thereby preventing malfunctions. In addition, this suction device does not require special equipment such as motors, solenoids, pumps, etc.
An inexpensive and highly reliable capping device can be provided.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1A is a plan view showing an example of the configuration of a recording head capping device according to the present invention, FIG. 1B is a sectional view taken along the line A-A, and FIG. FIG. 3A is a partially cutaway sectional view showing one example, and FIG. 3A is a plan view for explaining the operation of the recording head capping device of the present invention shown in FIGS. 1A and B, respectively. A cross-sectional view taken along the line B-B, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of FIG. 2. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Recording head, 1A... Recessed part, 2... Carriage, 2A... Chamfered part, 3... Nozzle, 4...
...Cap slide, 5...Manual lever, 6...
Ink absorber, 6A...passage, 7...deep hole, 8...
...Recess, 9...Elastic cap, 9A...Hole, 10
... Shaft hole, 11 ... Shaft, 12 ... Cap fixing plate, 13, 15 ... Snap spring, 14 ... Boss, 16 ... Compression spring, 17 ... Lock member, 2
0... Suction pump body, 20A... Opening, 21...
...Pedestal, 22...Suction chamber, 23...Sealing groove, 24
...O-ring, 25...shaft, 26...piston,
27... Large diameter part, 28... Small diameter part, 29... Passage, 30... Valve, 32... Recess, 33... Compression spring, 34... Communication hole, 35... Suction pipe, 36...
Blank space, 37... hole.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A cap that can be in a capped state covering an ejection port that ejects ink and a non-capping state separated from the ejection port, and a suction device that performs a suction operation from the ejection port via the cap. An inkjet recording apparatus comprising: means for regulating the suction operation by the suction means when the cap is not in the capping state.