Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
1998-03-06
2001-01-09
Le, N. (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
active
06170941
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a replenishable ink cartridge for use in an ink-jet printer with a recording head.
A prior art ink jet printer in which an ink-containing unit and an ink jet recording head are mounted on a carriage is disclosed in European Patent Publication No. 581,531. In the disclosed printer, to prevent printing failures caused by fluctuation of ink head pressure or air bubbles due to movement of the ink cartridge caused by the movement of the carriage, the ink container is divided into two regions. A first region of the container adjacent the recording head houses ink impregnated in a porous member, and a second region contains liquid ink without a porous member. This structure enables the ink to be conducted to the recording head via the porous member so that the problems arising from movement of the ink in the cartridge are prevented from occurring to a certain extent.
As shown in
FIGS. 8 and 9
, to cause the ink absorbed in a porous member
451
to flow into the recording head (not shown) smoothly, a projecting member
452
is formed inside a container body
440
so as to draw ink toward an ink supply inlet
458
of an ink supply port
450
by locally pressing porous member
451
to selectively increase the capillary force.
To improve full-color print quality, on the other hand, an ink-jet recording apparatus has been designed to reduce the granular look of printed material produced by printers of the prior art by using light ink and dark ink to form dots. Such a recording apparatus requires ink of at least six colors: dark magenta, light magenta, dark cyan, light cyan, yellow and black. One problem caused by using an increased number of inks, however, is that the weight of the carriage is increased, which thereby impairs the movement of the carriage and increases the time it takes the carriage to return to a printing position.
To mitigate the aforementioned problems, the weight of the carriage is reduced by decreasing the size of each color's ink cartridge. Consequently, the width of each color in a container body forming the ink cartridge is narrowed to a small dimension. Referring to
FIG. 9
, as the width of the ink cartridge is narrowed, however, the rigidity of porous member
451
correspondingly increases and a portion
459
of porous member
451
located between a front wall
456
and projecting member
452
is deformed into a V shape, thereby creating a blank space
454
. A portion
460
located between projecting member
452
and a back wall
461
creases such that portion
460
is not pressed against projecting member
452
, thereby creating a blank space
455
. Finally, as is shown in
FIG. 8
, at a location above projecting member
452
, porous member
451
spans the gap from projecting member
452
to a side wall
463
and an internal wall
464
, thereby creating a blank spaces
453
. Thus, blank spaces
453
,
454
,
455
are produced because porous member
451
does not fully occupy the space defined by container body
440
. Even though spaces
453
,
454
,
455
may be filled with ink, because spaces
453
,
454
and
455
are positioned below ink supply inlet
458
, ink stored in such spaces cannot flow to the recording head via ink supply port
480
. Thus, spaces
453
,
454
,
455
waste the ink and also may become bubble reservoirs.
One possible solution to this problem is to join porous member
451
to container body
440
during the manufacturing process. However, to do so requires that porous member
451
be cut to precise specifications, which is a complicated undertaking. Moreover, the supply of ink from those portions of porous material that would occupy spaces
453
,
454
,
455
in such a construction would be reduced because the portions would not be adequately compressed if joined to the walls of container body
440
.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved ink cartridge that overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Generally speaking, in accordance with the invention, an ink cartridge for an ink-jet recording apparatus can include a container formed by a plurality of walls, an ink supply port extending through at least one of said walls of the container to permit ink to pass out of the container, a porous member disposed within the container for transferring ink to the ink supply port, and a projecting member that projects into the container and is formed with an inlet of the ink supply port. The projecting member engages against and locally compresses a portion of the porous member in the region of the inlet of the ink supply port. The projecting member is formed so that a first region of the container proximal the front wall of the container is shallower than a second region of the container proximal the back wall of the container.
Further, in a first cross section, the projecting member can have a V-shaped profile at a region proximal to the front wall of the container, a slope region distal to the front wall of the container, and a plateau region containing the ink supply port therebetween. In a second cross section, the projecting member can have a first sloping region and a second sloping region having a plateau region containing the ink supply port therebetween.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved ink cartridge.
Another object of the present invention is to overcome the foregoing problems by providing an ink cartridge with a porous member that occupies blank spaces within the container body, without requiring the porous member to be cut to a specific shape.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.
The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the constructions hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.
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Hara Kazuhiko
Kobayashi Atsushi
Toba Kouichi
Le N.
Nghiem Michael
Seiko Epson Corporation
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP
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