JPH0729441B2 - Recording device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus provided with a recording head and a cap that closes the recording head, and more particularly to a recording apparatus that controls the relative position of the recording head and the cap.

[Prior Art] In a conventional ink jet recording apparatus, when the orifice surface of the recording head is sealed by a cap, the locking member of the cap device locks the carriage equipped with the recording head at the same time as this sealing operation, and the carriage cannot be moved. Have something to hold. Since the locking member of the capping device locks the carriage in this manner, the capping device has a large stroke to move in and out of the recording head.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In such an ink jet recording apparatus, when the carriage is powered off while traveling toward the home position, the carriage stops in a state where its relative position to the cap cannot be determined. . Therefore, when the cap moves forward and backward to detect its own position when the power is turned on again, the cap comes into contact with the recording head as shown in FIG. 9 and dust is attached to the nozzle of the recording head, or ejection failure occurs. May occur.

Further, the ink jet recording apparatus having the power-off sequence has problems that the structure is complicated, the cost is high, and a waiting time at the power-off is required.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus that does not damage the recording head due to movement of the cap.

[Means for Solving Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a recording apparatus according to the present invention is equipped with a recording head, and a carriage capable of traveling along one direction, and the carriage as a home position. A first detecting means for detecting a certain thing, a cap provided so as to be capable of coming into contact with and separating from the carriage and closing the recording head in the contact state, and whether or not the cap is at a separated position permitting the carriage to travel. When the cap is in the separated position by the second detection means when the power is turned on, the carriage is moved to the home position, and when the cap is not in the separated position, the carriage is once separated. It is characterized by comprising a driving means for moving the carriage to the home position after moving it to the position.

[Operation] In the recording apparatus according to the present invention, the position of the cap is first detected when the power is turned on, and if the cap is separated from the recording head, the carriage is moved to the home position and the cap is separated from the recording head. If not, the cap is once moved until it is separated from the recording head, and then the carriage is run to the home position.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of a recording apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, an ink jet recording apparatus 10 as an example of the recording apparatus includes a pair of guide rails 12a,
The carriage 14 is slidably guided by the platen 16 in parallel with the platen 12b. This carriage 14 has an orifice for ejecting ink on the surface facing the platen 16.
A recording head 18 having an opening 18a is mounted. Also,
On one side surface of the carriage 14, when the carriage 14 is returned to the home position, the home position sensor 20 as the first detecting means is turned on, and the carriage 14 is turned on.
A pin 22 is provided as a detected portion for detecting that 14 is in the home position.

An ink jet cap device 24 as a cap device for locking the carriage 14 to the home position and closing the recording head 18 mounted on the carriage 14 is provided opposite to the carriage 14 in the home position. .

The ink jet cap device 24 has a base 26 as shown in FIG. A guide hole 30 is formed on the upper surface of the base 26 so as to guide the cap holder 28 so that the cap holder 28 can slide in and out of contact with the carriage 14.

On the side surface of the cap holder 28 facing the recording head 18,
A cap 32 is provided which can close the recording head 18. With the cap holder 28 in proximity to the recording head 18 and the cap 32 in contact with the recording head 18, the recording head 18
Is closed by the cap 32.

On the other hand, a pair of protrusions 34a, 34b functioning as a carriage locking member are provided on both side edges of the side surface of the cap holder 28 provided with the cap 32. Both ridges 34a, 34b
With the cap 32 brought so as to close the recording head 18, as shown in FIG. 3, the carriage 14 is held so as to be sandwiched from both sides, and the movement of the carriage 14 is locked. There is. Carriage 14 like this
By locking the recording head 10, it is possible to prevent the ink from leaking from the recording head 18 and to securely fix the recording head 18 when handling the recording apparatus 10 during transportation or storage.

Next, the drive mechanism of the cap device 24 will be described.

The cap holder 28 is constantly urged in a direction closer to the recording head 18 by a coil spring 36 provided on the back surface of the cap holder 28. On one side of this cap holder 28,
The driven pin 38 is projected.

The tip of the driven pin 38 is inserted into a cam groove 40 described later. On the other hand, facing one side of the cap holder 28,
A driven gear 42 is rotatably attached to the side wall of the base 26 via a shaft 42a. On the surface of the driven gear 42 facing the cap holder 28, the above-mentioned cam groove 40 is formed. The cam groove 40 is formed in a circular shape and is arranged so as to be eccentric from the rotation center of the driven gear 42. The driven pin 38 is driven by the urging force of the coil spring 35 to cause the cam groove to move.
Abut on the peripheral surface of 40, and at this abutting position, the cap holder
28 stop positions are defined.

A driven gear 44 having a small diameter meshes with the driven gear 42. The drive gear 44 is a drive shaft 46a of the drive motor 46.
It is fixed coaxially to.

Since the drive mechanism is configured in this way, the drive motor
The driven gear 42 rotates in response to the driving of 46, and as a result, the distance from the rotation center of the driven gear 42 to the portion of the peripheral surface of the cam groove 40 in contact with the driven pin 38 changes. In this way, the cap holder 28 is moved to the carriage 14 and the recording head.
It will move toward and away from 18.

That is, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, when the portion of the peripheral surface of the cam 40 with which the driven pin 38 is in contact is in the closest position due to the rotation center of the driven gear 42, the driven pin 38 Is pushed back by the circumferential surface of the cam groove 40 against the biasing force of the coil spring 36, and accordingly, the cap holder 28 is held at the first position separated from the carriage 14 and the recording head 18. Positioning the cap holder 28 at this first position allows the carriage 14 to travel freely without being hindered by the cap holder 28.

On the other hand, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, the driven gear 42 rotates 180 degrees from the first position, and the peripheral portion of the cam groove 40 in contact with the driven pin 38 is the driven gear 42. When the driven pin 38 is located at the most remote position from the center of rotation of the cam holder 40, the driven pin 38 is pushed by the biasing force of the coil spring 36 so as to abut on the peripheral surface of the cam groove 40.
Brought into a second position for engaging 14; When the cap holder 28 is located at the second position, the carriage 14 is engaged with the cap holder 28 to lock the traveling, and the recording head 18 is closed by the cap 32.

It should be noted that the above-described first position does not substantially move in the lateral direction due to the shape of the cam groove 40 even if the driven gear 42 is rotated in a slight range from the position shown in FIG. The first position is retained.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the driven gear 42 has
A detection mechanism 48 is provided as second detection means for detecting the position of the cap holder 28 based on the rotational position of the driven gear 42. The detection mechanism 48 includes an eccentric cam disk 48a eccentrically attached to the shaft 42a of the driven gear 42 and a detection switch 4 which is turned on / off by a large diameter portion of the eccentric cam disk 48a.
With 8b. The detection mechanism 48 is an eccentric cam disk 48.
As shown in FIG. 1, when the detection switch 48b is off, the large-diameter part of a electrically detects that the cap holder 28 is at the first position away from the carriage 14, and turns it on. When it is present, it is electrically detected as being in the second position in contact with the carriage 14.

Here, as shown in FIG. 6, the drive motor 46 is an MPU.
The drive timing is controlled by (microprocessor unit) 50. The MPU 50 controls the drive timing of the drive motor 46 on the basis of the initialization signal and the print start signal input thereto, the detection signal from the detection mechanism 48, and the detection signal from the home position sensor 20. .

That is, as shown as a timing chart in FIG.
When the detection switch 48b is turned off from the on state while the drive signal for the motor 46 is being sent from the MPU 50 by the print start signal or the like, the MPU 50 stops the output of the drive signal for the motor 46. In this state, the cap holder 28 is held at the first position.

On the other hand, when the detection switch 48b is turned on from the off state while the drive signal of the motor 46 is sent from the MPU 50, the MPU
50 stops the output of the drive signal of the motor 46. In this state, the cap holder 28 is held at the second position.

Such drive control executes the same control content not only when the print start signal is input to the MPU 50 but also when the power is turned on.

Here, as in this embodiment, even when the position of the cap holder 28 is detected by one contact, even when the position of the cap holder 28 is detected by two contacts, the position of the cap holder 28 is There will be an intermediate indefinite position between the first position and the second position. Then, when the power is turned off while the cap holder 28 is moving, the cap holder 28 stops at this indefinite position. For this reason, when the power is turned on, the position of the cap holder 28 itself is detected, so that the cap holder 28 is moved back and forth regardless of whether the cap holder 28 is in an indefinite position or not.

In this embodiment, the MPU 50 controls the movement of the cap holder 28 when the power is turned on based on the contents shown as a flow chart in FIG.

That is, when the power is turned on, as shown in step S1,
It is determined whether the cap holder 28 is in the first position.
As a result, when it is determined that the cap holder 28 is at the first position, the carriage 14 travels toward the home position at step S2, the home position sensor 20 is turned on at step S3, and the carriage is turned on. Carry Carriage 14 until 14 reaches home position. Then, after this, as shown in step S4, the cap holder 28 is moved to the second position, and in step S5,
Move to the first position.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S1 that the cap holder 28 is not in the first position, in step S6 the cap holder 28 is moved to the first position, and then the carriage 14 is opened as shown in step S2. I am driving toward the home position.

As is clear from this flow chart, when the carriage 14 is located at a position other than the home position,
Even if the power is turned off in any state, the cap holder 28 is in the first position, so the cap holder 28 will be turned on the next time the power is turned on.
28 does not unnecessarily contact the carriage 14. Also,
Even if the power cord is suddenly pulled out, the cap holder 28 will not operate so as to damage the recording head 18 at the next power-on.

As described above in detail, according to this embodiment, even if the recording apparatus is powered off in an arbitrary state, the timing of operating the carriage depending on the position of the cap at the next power-on. Are in control. In this way, unnecessary contact between the cap device and the recording head is prevented, and ejection failure does not occur.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, the recording apparatus according to the present invention is equipped with a recording head, and is capable of traveling along one direction and a carriage for detecting that the carriage is in the home position. The first detecting means, the cap that is provided so as to be able to come into contact with and separate from the carriage and that closes the recording head in the contact state, and the second that detects whether the cap is at a separated position that allows the carriage to travel. When the cap is in the separated position by the detecting means and the second detecting means when the power is turned on, the carriage is moved to the home position, and when the cap is not in the separated position, the carriage is once moved to the separated position. Drive means for moving the carriage to the home position. Therefore,
According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a recording apparatus which does not damage the recording head due to movement of the cap.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a top view showing an embodiment of a recording apparatus according to the present invention with a cap holder in a first position, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the cap apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is a top view showing the recording apparatus shown in FIG. 1 in a state where the cap holder is in the second position, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are first and second driven pins engaging with the driven gear, respectively. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the drive system of the cap device, FIG. 7 is a timing chart showing the drive timing of the cap holder, and FIG. 8 is a drive control content of the cap holder. FIG. 9 is a top view of the recording apparatus showing the conventional problems. In the figure, 10 ... Recording device, 12a, 12b ... Guide shaft, 14 ...
Carriage, 16 ... Platen, 18 ... Recording head, 18a
…… Orifuisu, 20 …… Home position sensor, 22…
… Detecting pin, 24… Ink jet cap device, 26…
… Base, 28 …… Cap holder, 30 …… Guide groove, 32
...... Caps, 34a, 34b ...... Lock members (projections), 36 ...
… Coil spring, 38… Follower pin, 40… Cam groove,
42 …… driven gear, 44 …… driving gear, 46 …… motor, 46a
...... Drive shaft, 48 …… Detection mechanism, 48a …… Eccentric cam disk, 4
8b: Detection switch, 50: MPU.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A carriage equipped with a recording head and capable of traveling in one direction, a first detecting means for detecting that the carriage is in a home position, and a carriage which can be attached to and detached from the carriage. The cap that closes the recording head in the contact state and the second detecting means that detects whether or not the cap is in the separated position that allows the carriage to travel, and the second detecting means when the power is turned on. When the cap is at the separated position, the carriage is moved to the home position, and when the cap is not at the separated position, the carriage is once moved to the separated position and then the carriage is moved to the home position. A recording device characterized by the above.