Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids – Apparatus – For diverse operations on treated material
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-01
2002-03-12
Hoang, Tu Ba (Department: 3742)
Drying and gas or vapor contact with solids
Apparatus
For diverse operations on treated material
Reexamination Certificate
active
06354015
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a drying device for drying recording paper printed by an ink jet head.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the ink jet printer, characters or images are formed on recording paper by discharged ink. Recently, slow dry black ink has been used to obtain high character image quality, and on the other hand, the print speed has been more and more accelerated. Therefore, incomplete dryness of ink is liable to occur, so it is necessary to quickly dry ink by a drying device.
As shown in
FIG. 13
, in a drying device
100
disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 8-224871, the upper surface of a single infrared heater
102
is covered with a dome-like hood
104
, and a reflector
106
is disposed between the infrared heater
102
and the hood
104
.
The drying device
100
is provided with an exhaust fan
108
, and the interior pressure of the hood
104
is negative. An inlet port
104
A is formed in the hood
104
, and the outside air sucked through the inlet port
104
A is guided toward recording paper P to dry the recording paper P by radiation heat by the infrared heater
102
and warmed outside air.
The outside air sucked through the inlet port
104
A falls straight down toward the recording paper P, and then branches off to the upstream side and the downstream side in the transport direction of the recording paper P to be passed through a gap between the recording paper P and the lower end face
112
A of the inner wall
12
of a housing
110
and be guided to the exhaust fan
108
by a blowing space formed between the inner wall
112
and the outer wall
114
.
However, since only the single infrared heater
102
is used, the distribution of heat energy received by the recording paper P surface is not uniform, and the interior of the housing
110
of the drying device
100
has a complicated form, so that when the outside air is guided from the lower end face
112
A of the inner wall
112
onto the surface of the recording paper P, the ventilating area of the blowing space changes considerably to generate a turbulent flow, resulting in variation in distribution of wind velocity on the recording paper P surface.
Therefore, even if the heat energy amount received by the moving recording paper P surface is set uniform at each point, that is, the distribution of heat radiation energy on the recording paper P surface is set uniform, the temperature (distribution of energy received by the recording paper P) of the recording paper P varies, so that an incompletely dried portion is caused. Accordingly, to evenly drying the recording paper P, it is necessary to increase the radiation heat amount (heat radiation energy) of the infrared heater
102
.
Further, it is apprehended that if the recording paper P is exposed to a large amount of radiation heat for a long time due to the occurrence of a jam of the recording paper P in the drying device, scorching or fuming is caused.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and provides a drying device capable of evenly drying recording paper by keeping the temperature of the moving recording paper substantially constant without any increase in the heat radiation amount (heat radiation energy).
According to an aspect of the present invention, the drying device has a heating element for drying recording paper printed by an ink jet head. Below the heating element, a platen to which the recording paper is transported is disposed, and the radiation heat of the heating element is reflected toward the platen by a reflector.
Further, a space is formed between the heating element and the platen surface, and an airflow is generated in the space by an airflow generating unit. On the other hand, an energy adjusting unit is provided to keep the temperature of recording paper moved in the space substantially constant.
By this arrangement, in the case where the wind velocity of the airflow is constant in the space, for example, comparing between the upstream and the downstream in the drying region (space), the surface temperature of the recording paper is also lower and also the temperature of the outside air blown into the drying region is lower on the upstream, so that the radiation heat amount is made larger on the upstream than on the downstream. Thus, the radiation heat amount is adjusted so that the temperature of moving recording paper is substantially constant both on the upstream and on the downstream in the drying region.
In the case where the velocity of the airflow is different in the drying region, the radiation heat amount in the higher velocity region is made larger than that in the lower velocity region. Thus, the radiation heat amount is varied according to the velocity of the airflow or the like so that the recording paper is evenly dried and when a recording paper jam occurs in the drying device, there is no possibility of scorching, fuming or the like.
According to another aspect, the drying device has plural heating elements disposed along the transport direction of recording paper, and the output of the individual heating element is varied to adjust the radiation heat amount.
Thus, the plural heating elements are disposed in the transport direction of recording paper, whereby as compared with the case of drying recording paper with a single recording element, near infrared rays and radiation heat are not concentrated so that the recording paper is evenly dried. Further, the output of an individual heating element is made differ so that the temperature of the recording paper moved in the drying region is substantially constant.
According to another aspect of the invention, the drying device has plural heating elements disposed along the transport direction of recording paper and respectively varied in the clearance from a platen so that the temperature of recording paper moved in the drying region is substantially constant.
According to another aspect of the invention, the drying device has plural heating elements disposed along the transport direction of the recording paper, and the space between the heating elements is varied so that the temperature of recording paper moved in the drying region is substantially constant.
According to another aspect of the invention, the distance of a reflector from the platen is varied so that the temperature of recording paper moved in the drying region is substantially constant.
According to another aspect of the invention, the drying device has plural heating elements disposed along the transport direction of the recording paper. The heating elements are divided into each heating element by partition plates, and the respective heating elements are demarcated. Therefore, even with the heating elements having the same output, the demarcating size is varied to adjust the amount of radiation heat applied to moving recording paper.
According to another aspect of the invention, the drying device has a heating element disposed in a housing demarcating the drying region for drying recording paper printed by an ink jet head. Below the heating element, a platen to which the recording paper is transported is disposed, and the radiation heat of the heating element is reflected toward the platen by a reflector.
Further, a space is formed between the heating element and the platen, and an airflow is generated in the space by an airflow generating unit.
On the other hand, an airflow rectification unit is provided opposite to the platen in the space, and an airflow is rectified by the airflow rectification unit. Therefore, the wind velocity in the drying region becomes constant so that the recording paper is evenly dried.
As an airflow generating unit, an intake fan, for example, is provided and the taken outside air is abutted to the housing, and the outside air is flowed into the space formed by the housing and the reflector to prevent overheat of the heating element and restrain a temperature rise in the drying region. Further, an exhaust fan is provided to quick
Fujimura Yoshihiko
Isozaki Jun
Kinoshita Hisayuki
Namba Yumiko
Ogasawara Fumihiko
Fuji 'Xerox Co., Ltd.
Hoang Tu Ba
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
Robinson Daniel
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