JPS6122952A - Ink tank - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To miniaturize an ink jet printer device, and to increase the speed of the device and drive the device by mounting a porous body onto the base of an ink tank. CONSTITUTION:Four independent ink tanks are formed by covering a carriage 12 with an ink tank cover 20, and porous bodies 22 made of a sintered resin are fitted into each ink tank. The carriage 12 is reciprocated along guide rails 14a, 14b on recording, and a predetermined signal is inputted to a heating element 19 and ink 24 is discharged from a nozzle slit section 17 in response to the generation of the bubbles of ink due to the heat generation of the heating element 19 and records. In the ink jet printer device, the oscillating wave front of the surface of a liquid generated by the reciprocation of the carriage collides with the porous bodies, and intrudes into the voids of the porous bodies, and an oscillating surface can be reduced by viscous friction with the voids. Accordingly, even when the carriage is moved frequently at high speed, the hydraulic pressure of ink hardly changes, thus minimizing an effect on ink at the nose of a nozzle.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an ink tank for an inkjet printer device.

[Prior art]

In an inkjet printer device in which a recording head is installed on a carriage that reciprocates parallel to the recording medium and performs recording, conventionally the ink tank is installed outside the carriage.
The ink tank and the recording head were connected to each other using an ink supply pipe, and the ink in the ink tank was supplied to the recording head through the supply pipe by driving a pump.

However, in such a device, the supply pipe becomes long and the pressure decreases due to the resistance inside the pipe, which hinders ink supply.The supply pipe is routed in a messy manner, and the supply pipe moves to follow the reciprocating movement of the carriage. It has drawbacks such as stress being applied to the joints of the pipes, and in order to compensate for the drawbacks, the mechanism becomes complicated, which limits the ability to downsize the device.

In order to simplify and downsize the above-mentioned apparatus, an ink supply apparatus has recently been proposed in which a recording head and an ink tank are arranged close to a carriage. However, with such a configuration, when the carriage reciprocates, the ink in the ink tank oscillates due to acceleration, and the ink liquid pressure changes. Changes in ink liquid pressure are transmitted to the ink within the ink nozzles of the recording head, making the ink meniscus at the tips of the nozzles unstable. This causes deterioration in print quality. In addition, the ink may leak from the tip of the nozzle due to the ink movement, staining the print screen. These drawbacks have hindered the increase in drive speed of inkjet printer devices.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an ink tank that enables miniaturization and high-speed operation of an inkjet printer device without degrading print quality, print screen quality, etc.

[Disclosure of the invention]

The object of the present invention is achieved by the ink tank described below.

That is, the present invention is an ink tank for an inkjet printer, characterized by having a porous material adhered to the bottom surface of the ink tank.

The density, size, pore shape, etc. of the porous body are selected in consideration of the properties such as the viscosity of the ink, the driving speed of the inkjet printer, the volume of the ink tank, and the like.

The size of the porous body is 15 to 60% of the ink tank volume.
is preferred.

As the porous body, sintered resin, foamed metal, foamed ceramic, etc. can be used, but sintered resin is particularly preferred.

FIG. 1 shows an example in which the ink supply device of the present invention is incorporated into an on-demand inkjet printer.

Figure 1 shows the carriage part, in which 13 is a platen;
12 is Calitsu? A recording head 11 is provided at a portion of the carriage facing the platen. Carriage 12
Below, guide rails 14a and 14b are provided parallel to the axial direction of the platen 13, and the carriage 12 is reciprocated on the guide rails 14a and 14b by a moving mechanism (not shown) such as a motor. The ink tank is divided into four parts so that the inks do not mix with each other (Fig. 1 shows an ink supply port 23 for supplying ink to each part).
(only one of which is shown) is provided, each filled with, for example, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink.

2 is a sectional view taken along the two-dot chain line AA' in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the two-dot chain line BB' in FIG.

In FIG. 2, the recording head 11 includes an ink introduction path 16 that communicates with the base 15 and the ink tank portion of the carriage 12, a nozzle slit portion 17 that communicates with the ink introduction path 16, a liquid chamber 18, and a liquid chamber 18 formed on the back surface of the liquid chamber 18. The heating element 19 is a heated heater.

By mounting the ink tank lid 20 on the carriage 12, four independent ink tanks are formed.

A porous body 22 made of sintered resin is provided in each ink tank so as to avoid the ink sensor 21. The ink tank lid 20 is provided with an ink supply port 23 and an ink sensor 21 installation part.

In the above configuration, the ink 24 flows from the ink tank through the ink introduction path 16 and into the liquid chamber 18 . This is a system in which an ink sensor 21 detects an ink shortage when the amount of ink 24 falls below a predetermined amount. The ink supply port valve provided on the ink tank lid 20 is located inside the ink tank, and opens and closes according to changes in air pressure to keep the air pressure inside the ink tank constant.

During recording, the carriage 12 moves along the guide rails 14a,
1/IbK and reciprocating, a predetermined signal is input to the heating element T.9, and in response to the generation of bubbles of ink that can generate heat in the heating element 190, ink is ejected from the nozzle slit portion 17 to perform recording.

〔Effect of the invention〕

In the inkjet printer device equipped with the ink tank of the present invention, the oscillating wave front of the liquid surface generated by the reciprocating movement of the carriage hits the porous body and enters the gap in the porous body, reducing the oscillating surface due to viscous friction with the gap. can be done. Therefore, even if the carriage is moved at high speed and in a complicated manner, there is little change in the liquid pressure of the ink, and the influence on the ink at the tips of the nozzles can be minimized.

Furthermore, by providing a porous body in front of the ink introduction path, it also functions as a strainer, and even if foreign matter gets mixed into the ink, clogging of the ink introduction path due to foreign matter can be eliminated.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 shows a carriage part of an inkjet printer device equipped with an ink sensor of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the two-dot chain line AA' in the figure, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the two-dot chain line BB' in FIG. 11-... Recording head 12... Carriage 13... Platen 14a, 14t)... Guide rail 15... Base 16... Ink introduction path 17... Nozzle slit portion 18... Liquid chamber 19... Heating element 20... Ink tank lid 21... Ink sensor 22... Porous body 23... Ink supply port 24... Ink Fig. 2 Fig. 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An ink tank for an inkjet printer, characterized in that a porous material is attached to the bottom of the ink tank. 2. The ink tank according to claim 1, wherein the porous body is a sintered resin.