Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-23
2001-03-13
Le, N. (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Fluid or fluid source handling means
C347S108000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06199978
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a hot melt ink jet printer, and in full detail, a case structure of an ink supplying device of that printer.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, hot melt ink jet printers include a recording head having a nozzle head with manifold nozzles, ink melting units with heaters, and hoppers which hold ink pellets that are solid at normal temperature was mounted on a carriage. The printers were constructed such that character or graphic images were printed on the surface of paper by letting hot melt ink liquid gush out from the nozzle head, while moving the carriage in a direction (of its primary scan) perpendicular to the paper feed direction.
By the way, these printers had a problem of deterioration in the quality of hot melt ink, because, when an operator touches an ink pellet directly by hand when supplementing the ink, the dirt or sebum, if present on his or her hand, might adhere to the ink pellet. The applicant for the patent of this invention, as specified in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/880,411 (incorporated herein by reference) already modified the structure of the conventional printer by installing an ink case, in which color ink pellets for various colors were previously stored separately per color, in an ink supplying section and integrating a top cover covering over the top of the ink case into the top surface of the main frame casing of the printer.
In this modification, if the ink ran short, it was supplemented to the recording head mounted on the carriage simply by moving the carriage to the ink supply position where the appropriate ink pellet in the ink case was pushed downward.
Meanwhile, various types of printers were designed to remove jammed paper easily by removing a cover section covering over the top of the carriage in the event that a paper jam occurred when images were printed on paper by the recording head.
As the above-mentioned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/880,411 stated, the ink case provided on the top of the printer was not removed from the main frame casing of the printer, which posed another problem that the limited opening area over the carriage made it difficult to remove jammed paper.
Even though the ink case was allowed to open and close or be removed, there was another problem that it was more troublesome to open and close or remove and reinstall the ink case in addition to opening and closing the cover as the work required to remove jammed paper.
The achievement in this invention has been made by the efforts to resolve the problems of the previous ink jet printer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a hot melt ink jet printer which allows the operator to open and close the opening on the top of the printer easily.
To accomplish this object, first, the present invention offers, according to one aspect of this invention, a hot melt ink jet printer constructed by mounting a recording head, which gushes out hot melt ink to the surface of a medium onto which images are printed, on a carriage, by assembling the carriage to be driven to scan in a direction perpendicular to the feed direction of the medium, and by locating an ink supplying section, which is to supply ink pellets to the recording head, on one end of the scan direction. In this printer, an opening area is provided on the top of the printer's main frame casing, and a lid covers the opening area. The opening area includes an ink case to store ink pellets, positioned over the ink supplying section and a cover body which is so constructed as to be joined to one side of the ink case.
According to another aspect of this invention, second, the present invention offers the hot melt ink jet printer according to the first aspect of this invention, wherein the lid is provided with vertically pivotable attachments to the main frame casing, a positioning element is provided for the main frame casing to be used when the opening area is closed, and a lock/release is provided for the main frame casing.
According to another aspect of this invention, third, the present invention offers the hot melt ink jet printer according to at least the second aspect of this invention, wherein an ink pellet supplementing opening is provided on the top of the ink case, a case cover covering over at least the ink pellet supplementing opening is attached, but allowing for pivotable motion to the ink case in a position opposite to the attachment for the main frame casing and the ink case, and a lock/release is provided for the case cover and the ink case.
According to another aspect of this invention, fourth, the present invention offers the hot melt ink jet printer according to at least the first or the third aspect of this invention, wherein the ink case is provided with ejection sections arranged at suitable intervals along the scan direction to eject ink pellets of different colors separately to hoppers on the carriage, and the ink case is located on the upper side of the main frame casing so the ejection sections will be placed in a lower position.
According to another aspect of this invention, fifth, the present invention offers the hot melt ink jet printer according to at least the first or the fourth aspect of this invention, wherein the lid is made of transparent or semitransparent material and formed as an integral construction.
As described above, this invention is beneficial in that, because the lid covering over the opening area includes an assembly of the ink case and the side cover body, the opening area can be exposed simply and at once by opening the lid when paper jam occurs during print operation, and thus it contributes to the improvement of the easiness to use of the printer.
Furthermore, because the lid is provided with vertically pivotable attachments to the main frame casing, the positioning element, and the lock/release, even a large lid can be positioned easily and the opening area closed tightly. Using the lock/release, the opening area can keep closed and the lid can be removed easily, which is another advantage.
Besides, the ink pellet supplementing opening is provided on the top of the ink case and the case cover covering over at least the ink pellet supplementing opening is attached pivotably to the ink case in a position opposite to the attachment for the main frame casing and the ink case. Therefore, even if the assembly of the ink case and the side cover body is opened while the user holds only the ink case section, the case cover will not be removed from the ink case and opened unintentionally, because the case cover opens in a direction opposite to the way in which the ink case opens.
Besides, because the case cover fits on the ink case via the lock/release, even if the ink case is opened widely with the case cover down, the case cover will not be removed from the ink case and opened unintentionally, which is advantageous.
Furthermore, the ink case is mounted on the main frame casing so that ink pellets can easily be moved by their weight to their ejection position. For color printers, selection of an ink pellet to be supplemented to a specific hopper can be made quite easily by simply moving the carriage along the scan direction appropriately, which is another advantage.
Finally, the lid can be made of transparent or semitransparent material and integrally constructed, which is advantageous in that the user can visually check the condition inside the opening area of the main frame casing from the outside easily.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5105210 (1992-04-01), Hirano et al.
patent: 5341164 (1994-08-01), Miyawa et al.
patent: 5442387 (1995-08-01), Loofbourow et al.
patent: 5909226 (1999-06-01), Takeda
patent: 6053608 (2000-04-01), Ishii et al.
Ishii Makoto
Murai Shunji
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Le N.
Nguyen Judy
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
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