Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
2002-11-26
2004-10-05
Vo, Anh T. N. (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
active
06799843
ABSTRACT:
This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-401669 filed Dec. 28, 2001, which is incorporated hereinto by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a structural body, a liquid tank and an ink jet printing apparatus and to an ink jet printing apparatus. More specifically the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a structural body, a liquid tank and an ink jet printing apparatus, all having a porous film (hereinafter referred to as a “gas-liquid separation members”) attached to a gas-liquid separation portion, and to an ink jet printing apparatus.
Further, the present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a structural body, such as a liquid tank, that has a communication portion for communicating an interior of the tank, into which a liquid is introduced, to an exterior thereof through an gas-liquid separation member permeable only to gases. The invention also relates to a liquid tank and a head cartridge manufactured by the manufacturing method and an ink jet printing apparatus that uses the liquid tank and the head cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ink jet printing apparatus have come into rapidly expanding use in recent years thanks to their advantages of being able to perform color printing and reduce the size of apparatus relatively easily. Particularly a serial type ink jet printing apparatus, which can easily be reduced in size, is in widespread use. In the serial type, however, since the printing is done by scanning a carriage that mounts a print head, there is a limit to the weight that can be carried by the carriage in order to ensure its normal operation. Hence, an ink tank integrally formed with the print head (hereinafter referred to as a “subtank”) has a limitation on its capacity. To deal with this problem, a construction has been proposed in which a large-capacity ink tank (or “main tank”) is provided separately from this subtank to supply ink from the main tank to the subtank while the printing is not performed.
As the method for supplying ink from the main tank to the subtank a pit-in method is available. In this method the main tank is located at a desired position in the ink jet printing apparatus other than the carriage and supplies ink to the subtank through a predetermined ink supply port when the subtank comes to a predetermined position. The subtank is often formed with an atmosphere communication port to keep an inner pressure equal to the atmospheric pressure and with a suction port to make the inner pressure negative when the ink is supplied. These ports or openings are provided with a porous liquid-repellent film of fluororesin that only passes gases, not liquids, so that the ink in the tank does not leak out. An example that uses the porous liquid-repellent film of fluororesin for the atmosphere communication port is an invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 5-201021 (1993). In this invention, a porous liquid-repellent film that is applied a liquid-repellency application agent in advance to enhance its repellency is attached to the atmosphere communication port and, heat is applied from inside the tank to the porous liquid-repellent film to fuse it to the tank body.
Thermally fusing the porous liquid-repellent film to the subtank may cause the following problem. A portion of the subtank to which the film is to be fused is heated to a temperature close to a melting point of polypropylene, which is the material of the subtank. The heat applied, however, gets applied not only to the portion where the film is to be fused but also to other portions, changing the surface of the porous film, which in turn degrades the liquid repellency of the porous film.
The deteriorated liquid repellency of the porous film results in water in the container easily permeating to the outside through the atmosphere communication port. If the liquid is ink, the degradation of the liquid repellency of the porous film increases the viscosity of the ink, changing its physical property.
Considering the above-mentioned problems experienced with the conventional apparatus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a structural body, which has an opening attached with a porous film kept in a good liquid-repellent condition, a liquid tank and an ink jet printing apparatus and also to provide an ink jet printing apparatus.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing with ease and at low cost a structural body which has a communication portion for communicating an interior of the structural body, into which a liquid is introduced, to an exterior through a gas-liquid separation member that passes only gasses, and which can keep the liquid-repellent performance of the gas-liquid separation member in good condition.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One aspect of the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a structural body, wherein the structural body has a communication portion for communicating an interior of the structural body to an exterior thereof and a gas-liquid separation member permeable only to gases and arranged on the communication portion, the method comprising the steps of: mounting the gas-liquid separation member to the communication portion; and after the mounting step, applying repellency to the gas-liquid separation member with a repellency application agent.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a liquid tank, wherein the liquid tank has a negative pressure introducing portion for introducing a negative pressure into the liquid tank, a liquid intake portion for drawing a liquid into the liquid tank by the negative pressure introduced by the negative pressure introducing portion, and a gas-liquid separation member permeable only to gases and arranged on the negative pressure introducing portion, the method comprising the steps of: mounting the gas-liquid separation member to the negative pressure introducing portion; and after the mounting step, applying repellency to the gas-liquid separation member with a repellency application agent.
Still another aspect of the present invention provides a method of manufacturing a liquid tank, wherein the liquid tank has a container body for accommodating a liquid, an opening for drawing out the liquid, an atmosphere communication port for communicating the container body to the atmosphere, and a gas-liquid separation member permeable only to gases and arranged on the atmosphere communication port, the method comprising the steps of: mounting the gas-liquid separation member to the atmosphere communication port; and after the mounting step, applying repellency to the gas-liquid separation member with a repellency application agent.
A further aspect of the present invention provides a method of manufacturing an ink jet printing apparatus, wherein the ink jet printing apparatus has a liquid tank, the liquid tank having a negative pressure introducing portion for introducing a negative pressure into the liquid tank and a liquid intake portion for drawing a liquid into the liquid tank by the negative pressure introduced by the negative pressure introducing portion; a negative pressure generation mechanism for applying a negative pressure to the liquid tank to introduce the liquid into the liquid tank; and a gas-liquid separation member permeable only to gases and arranged in a vicinity of a joint portion of the negative pressure generation mechanism with the negative pressure introducing portion; the method comprising the steps of: mounting the gas-liquid separation member to the negative pressure introducing portion; and after the mounting step, applying repellency to the gas-liquid separation member with a repellency application agent.
A further aspect of the present invention provides an ink jet printing apparatus which has a negative pressure generation mechanism for applying a negative pressure to the liquid tank manufactured by the method de
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