JPH07121583B2 - Inkjet type serial printer - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a serial printer equipped with an on-demand type ink jet head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a general ink jet serial printer, in which an ink jet head is mounted on a carriage 2 and the carriage 2 is reciprocally driven along guide shafts 4, 5 facing a platen 3. . The recording head 1 is provided with a signal input line 6 made of a flexible printed circuit board (FPC) for giving a drive signal, and an ink tube 7 for supplying ink from the ink tank 8 to the head 1. There is. Nozzle holes are provided in the head 1 on the side opposite to the platen 3, and ink is ejected from the nozzle holes to perform predetermined recording on the recording paper attached to the platen.

The problem here is that when the head 1 is reciprocally driven along the guide shafts 4 and 5 to perform recording, a large acceleration is applied to the head 1 when the direction changes, and at that time, the ink tube The acceleration also acts on the ink inside 7, and this acceleration has a delicate influence on the head 1. For example, in FIG. 1, when the head 1 is driven from right to left and stopped at the left end, the ink in the ink tube 7 pressurizes the ink in the nosle hole of the head 1, and the ink is pressed from the nosle hole. When the ink flows out and is driven from the left to the right and stopped at the right end, the ink in the ink tube 7 is drawn by the nozzle holes and sucks air from the nozzle holes. Unwanted ink spillage contaminates the printer, and suction of air from the nozzle holes leads to inability to eject ink drops, which in any case reduces printer reliability. In printers with low printing speed, the change in acceleration is small, so even if it does not cause much problems, it will be a very serious problem for models that perform high-speed printing.

[0004]

In order to solve such a problem, a method of mounting an ink tank on a carriage, and a method of winding an ink tube in the shape of a helix near the head to attenuate the flow of ink due to acceleration ( For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-70576), a method of further reducing the change in the acceleration of the carriage has been adopted. However, in the case of mounting the ink tank on the carriage,
The drive load of the carriage becomes large, and it is necessary to secure a space for accommodating the ink tank, and the printer becomes large. Also, even if the ink tube is wound, it is impossible to completely attenuate it due to a trade-off with an increase in flow path resistance. Furthermore, if the acceleration at the start and stop of the carriage is reduced, the printing speed of the printer will decrease. There is a problem that

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is a damper member capable of reliably suppressing rocking of ink due to a change in acceleration due to movement of a carriage. It is to provide an inkjet serial printer including the.

[0006]

In order to solve such a problem, according to the present invention, an ink jet type recording head is mounted on a carriage which reciprocates with respect to a recording sheet, and an ink tank mounted on the main body is removed from the ink tank. In an inkjet serial printer that supplies ink to the inkjet recording head by an ink supply conduit, an ink inlet connected to the ink supply conduit and an ink outlet connected to the inkjet recording head, A filter is arranged inside so as to divide the space between the ink inlet and the ink outlet into two spaces, and one surface is in contact with the ink and faces the filter, and the other surface is in contact with the atmosphere. Is sealed by a flexible film that can be deformed by the pressure fluctuation of the ink due to the swing of the ink supply pipe. Mounting the Tay to the carriage.
The flexible film absorbs the pressure fluctuation of the ink caused by the movement of the carriage in the vicinity of the recording head as much as possible, and the filter is housed in the damper member to reduce the size.

[0007]

2 is an embodiment of an ink jet head block containing a damper member, which is a feature of the present invention, in which reference numeral 10 is an on-demand type ink jet recording head, in which a piezoelectric element 11 is supplied with a voltage. The ink is ejected from the nozzle holes by utilizing the deflection generated in the piezo element 11 by applying the piezo element. Here, the piezo elements 11 are arranged on both sides in order to highly integrate the nozzles.
Further, there are as many nosle holes as there are piezo elements.
By adopting such a configuration, one recording head 10
It is possible to realize a highly integrated multinosle head having 24 to 32 nozzles. Reference numeral 12 is a conductive rubber for electrically connecting the piezo element 11 and the copper foil portion of the FPC 13.

A packing 14 is formed of an elastic material such as rubber and has a piezo element 11 and an FPC 13.
Prevents ink from entering the electrical connection with
The FPC 13 is pressed against the head 10 to ensure electrical connection.

A heater substrate 15 is made of a stainless steel plate, and a heater 16 and a thermistor 17 for temperature detection are bonded to the heater substrate. The heater member configured as described above prevents the viscosity of the ink from increasing at a low temperature and always maintains the viscosity within a certain range to enable reliable ink ejection. As the heater 16, any electric resistance material can be used, but here, like Posister (Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.), it has a Curie point at a certain temperature and has a low electric resistance below that temperature, and above that temperature. A self-temperature control element having high resistance is optimal.

Reference numeral 18 in the drawing is a first ink tube,
One end thereof is connected to the head 10, and the other end is connected to one port of a damper member 19 which will be described later and which is a feature of the present invention. An ink tank (not shown) installed in a box or the like is connected to the other end of the damper member 19 via a second ink tube 20.

In the figure, reference numerals 21 and 22 are a pair of head holders, which form a case for accommodating the head 10, the tamper member 19, the second ink tube 20, and the like. Reference numeral 23 is a front end packing made of an elastic body, which is attached to the front end of the recording head 10 and pressed by the front end pressing member 24 to prevent ink from penetrating into the head holders 21 and 22. As described in JP-A-141297, when the suction cap is engaged with the nozzle surface of the head 10 to fill the ink, the tip presser 24
It is a member for enhancing air tightness by engaging a suction cap with the surface of the ink, and for efficiently filling and purging ink.

In the figure, reference numeral 9 is a mask for protecting the nozzle surface of the head 10, and after attaching the tip packing 23 to the head holders 21 and 22, it is attached to both surfaces of the head holders 21 and 22.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of the above-mentioned damper member 19, which is constructed as two members 31, 32, one of which is laterally described later. An ink outlet 34 that is sealed with a flexible film 38 and that is connected to the first ink tube 18 that is connected to the recording head 10 is provided at the bottom, and the other member 3 is also provided.
2 is sealed by the above-mentioned member 31 and is provided with an ink inflow port 35 connected to the second ink tube 20 connected to the ink tank.

A filter 33 is mounted on the joint surface of these members 31 and 32, and the space inside the damper member 19 is divided into a first cavity 36 and a second cavity 37, and the ink tank and the second cavity 37 are separated. The ink that has flowed into the second cavity 37 from the ink inlet port 35 connected by the ink tube 20 passes through the filter 33 to remove bubbles, and then flows into the first cavity 36. Then, the first ink tube 1 is discharged from the ink outlet 34.
Ink is supplied to the recording head 10 via 8.

In this embodiment, the first cavity 36 is constituted even if the pressure changes in the ink due to the acceleration applied by the movement of the carriage 2 to the long second tube 20 connecting the ink tank and the damper member 19. Since the flexible film 38 is in contact with the ink, the flexible film 38 is deformed and the pressure fluctuation is effectively absorbed before propagating to the recording head 10. The first cavity 36 provided with the flexible film 38 is the recording head 10.
Since it is connected to the recording head 10, it is possible to effectively absorb the fluctuation of the pressure due to the change of the acceleration of the carriage 2 on the recording head 10 and the fluctuation of the ink in the vicinity.

On the other hand, the ink that has flowed from the ink tank to the second cavity 37 flows into the first cavity 36 after passing through the filter 33, so the ink from which bubbles have been removed in this process is supplied to the recording head 10. Will be done. Since the filter 33 is provided so as to face the flexible film 38 and divide the space of the damper member 19, the filter 33 has a relatively large area even if the damper member 19 has a flat configuration. It will be possible.

[0017]

As described above, in the present invention,
In an inkjet serial printer, an inkjet recording head is mounted on a carriage that reciprocates with respect to the recording paper, and ink is supplied to the inkjet recording head from an ink tank mounted on the main body by an ink supply conduit. An ink inlet connected to the ink passage and an ink outlet connected to the ink jet recording head, and two ink outlets are provided between the ink inlet and the ink outlet.
A filter is disposed inside so as to divide the space into one space, and one surface of the ink is in contact with the ink and faces the filter, and the other surface is in contact with the atmosphere. Since the cavity sealed by the flexible film which can be deformed by the pressure fluctuation is mounted on the carriage, the pressure fluctuation of the ink caused by the movement of the carriage can be absorbed as close to the recording head as possible. Also, the filter can be housed in the damper member to reduce the size.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of an inkjet serial printer.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a head block accommodating a damper member of the present invention.

3 (a) and 3 (b) are respectively a front view and a sectional view showing an embodiment of a damper member of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 9 Mask 10 Head 11 Viezo Element 12 Conductive Rubber 13 FPC 14 Bucking 15 Heater Substrate 16 Heater 17 Thermistor 18 Tube 19 Tumbler Member 20 Tube 34 Ink Outlet 35 Ink Inlet 33 Filter 36, 37 Cavity

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An inkjet serial head, wherein an inkjet recording head is mounted on a carriage that reciprocates with respect to a recording sheet, and ink is supplied from an ink tank mounted on the main body to the inkjet recording head through an ink supply conduit. A printer has an ink inlet connected to the ink supply conduit and an ink outlet connected to the inkjet recording head, and divides the space between the ink inlet and the ink outlet into two spaces. As described above, the filter is arranged inside, and one surface is in contact with the ink and faces the filter,
Ink characterized in that the carriage is equipped with a cavity sealed by a flexible film which is deformable by a pressure fluctuation of ink caused by the swing of the ink supply pipe so that the other surface is in contact with the atmosphere. Jet type serial printer. 2. An ink jet serial device in which an ink jet recording head is mounted on a carriage that reciprocates with respect to a recording paper, and ink is supplied to the ink jet recording head from an ink tank mounted on the main body through an ink supply line. A printer has an ink inlet connected to the ink supply conduit and an ink outlet connected to the inkjet recording head, and divides the space between the ink inlet and the ink outlet into two spaces. As described above, a filter is arranged inside, and the space on the ink outflow side can be deformed by fluctuations in ink pressure caused by rocking of the ink supply pipe so that one surface contacts ink and the other surface contacts the atmosphere. An ink jet type cylinder characterized in that a cavity sealed by a flexible film is mounted on the carriage. Le printer.