Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-29
2001-10-30
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S019000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06309045
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a carriage of an ink jet recording device. The carriage is provided with an ink jet head for recording by ejecting droplets of ink. A detachable ink cartridge for supplying ink to the ink jet head is mounted on the carriage. The present invention relates to an improvement in detecting presence and mounting condition of the ink cartridge.
RELATED ART
There has been known a conventional ink jet recording device with an accommodation portion for accommodating an ink cartridge. A push switch is provided on a side wall of accommodation portion. When an ink cartridge is mounted in the accommodation portion, the push switch is pressed by the side wall of the ink cartridge. The switch accordingly generates a switching signal for indicating that the ink cartridge is mounted in the accommodation portion. The detection results are displayed on a liquid crystal display provided to the ink jet printer or on the display of a computer connected to the ink jet recording device.
Japanese Patent-Application Publication (Kokai) No. HEI-7-246716 discloses a configuration for mounting an ink cartridge onto a carriage of a printing device. The configuration includes an ink cartridge accommodation case provided on the carriage. A lever formed with a pinion is pivotably attached to the accommodation case. A rack for meshingly engaging with the pinion is formed on the ink cartridge. The free end of the lever is provided with a grip portion for engaging with the upper edge of the other side wall of the accommodation case. To mount the ink cartridge in the accommodation case, the user grips the grip portion and pivots and the lever until the grip portion engages with the upper edge of the other side wall of the case. While the lever is being pivoted, the rack and pinion operated to move the ink cartridge into the accommodation case.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
However, neither of these configurations enables detection of whether the ink cartridge is accurately mounted or not. That is, with the former configuration, the ink cartridge is detected as being mounted whenever the ink cartridge presses against the switch, even if the ink cartridge is improperly mounted. The configuration described in Japanese Patent-Application Publication (Kokai) No. HEI7-246716 includes no detection means of any kind.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a configuration that detects presence of an ink cartridge only when the ink cartridge is accurately mounted.
A carriage of an ink jet recording device achieves the above-described objective according to the present invention. The carriage is for transporting a print head and an ink cartridge reciprocally within a recording region. The carriage includes an accommodation portion, a lever member, a detection switch, a switching member, and an abutment member.
The accommodation portion has confronting first and second side walls for accommodating the ink cartridge therebetween. The lever member is pivotably attached to the first wall and pivots in an engagement direction into releasable engagement with the second wall. The detection switch, when switched, indicates that the ink cartridge is accommodated in the accommodation portion. The switching member is for switching the detection switch.
The abutment member abuts against the ink cartridge, which is accommodated between the first and second side walls, when the lever member pivots a predetermined amount in the engagement direction. Pivoting movement of the lever member in the engagement direction beyond the predetermined amount is transmitted to the abutment member by abutment between the abutment member and the ink cartridge. Because the abutment member is in an interlocking condition with the switching member, pivoting movement transmitted to the abutment member is transmitted to the switching member so that the detection switch is switched.
With this configuration, the abutment member abuts the ink cartridge after the lever member has been pivoted a predetermined amount in the direction for engaging it with the first wall. When the lever member is further pivoted, the switching member operates to switch the detection switch because of its interlocked condition with the abutment member. In other words, the switching member will not switch the detection switch unless the abutment member abuts against the ink cartridge. Accordingly, the detection switch will not be switched unless the ink cartridge is accommodated in the accommodation portion. Further, the lever member will not engage with the first wall unless the ink cartridge is properly mounted in the accommodation portion. As a result, recording can be performed while the ink cartridge is properly mounted.
It is desirable to further provide the lever member with a resilient pressing portion for resiliently pressing against the ink cartridge when the lever member pivots the predetermined amount or less than the predetermined amount in the engagement direction. With this configuration, the pressing portion resiliently presses against the ink cartridge whenever the abutment member abuts the ink cartridge. Therefore, unless the lever member properly engages with the second wall, the pressing portion will resiliently urge the lever member to pivot in the opposite direction of the engagement direction, so that the switching member will not be switched. The detection results of the detection switch, which indicate whether or not the ink cartridge is accurately mounted, can be displayed on a liquid crystal display provided to the ink jet printer or can be displayed on the display of the computer connected to the ink jet recording device. Whether or not the ink cartridge is accurately mounted can be known by viewing the display.
Ink jet recording devices often include a circuit board mounted with a drive circuit for driving the ink jet head. The circuit board is often provided near the ink jet head and connected to the ink jet head by wiring. A detection switch for detecting presence of an ink cartridge can be configured to cut off power to the ink jet head when no ink cartridge is detected. When such a detection switch is provided, then wiring for connecting the circuit board with the ink jet head must be run by the detection switch. If the detection switch is located far from the ink jet head, then the wiring becomes longer and costs for producing the ink jet printer increase.
It is therefore desirable that a circuit board, which is mounted with a drive circuit driving the ink jet head, be attached to an outer surface of the first side wall, and the detection switch be attached to the circuit board. Therefore, there is no need to provide wiring from the circuit board to the detection switch so that production costs can be reduced.
When the accommodation portion is adapted to accommodate a plurality of ink cartridges, it is desirable that a separate holding member, detection switch, and switching member be provided for each of the plurality of ink cartridges. With this configuration, whether or not each ink cartridge is accurately accommodated can be independently detected. By displaying each detection result, the user will know which ink cartridges are accurately mounted.
It is also desirable that an urging member be provided for urging the switching member in a direction to separate the switching member from the detection switch. With this configuration, when the lever member is pivoted in a direction opposite from the engagement direction in order to release the engagement condition between the lever member and the second wall, urging force of the urging member will reliably separate the switching member from the detection switch so that the detection switch will be turned off. Accordingly, the detection switch can be accurately put into an OFF condition when an ink cartridge is removed for some reason.
It is desirable that the abutment member and the switching member be integrally formed together and pivotably attached near a pivotal center of the lever member. With this configuration, the functions of b
Suzuki Hiroshi
Yamada Noriyuki
Barlow John
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Hallacher Craig A.
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
LandOfFree
Printer carriage with configuration to insure proper... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Printer carriage with configuration to insure proper..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Printer carriage with configuration to insure proper... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2576247