Ink container

Details Ink container Ink container

1998-08-10

2001-09-25

Le, N. (Department: 2861)

Incremental printing of symbolic information

Ink jet

Fluid or fluid source handling means

Reexamination Certificate

active

06293661

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART
The present invention relates to an ink container for containing ink for ink jet recording, an ink jet cartridge provided with a recording head, and a manufacturing method for manufacturing the same. The present invention is applicable to recording equipment, communication equipment, office equipment, compound equipment, printer or the like such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine or the like using ink jet technique. Here, the recording covers not only an image of sense such as letter or the like but also an image of no sense such as a pattern image or the like. The recording equipment includes information processing apparatuses printers as output devices therefor.
Recording devices of thermal transfer, laser beam, dot impact, ink jet types are used for output devices in personal computer terminals, copying machines, facsimile machines or the like. Among various recording types, the ink-jet type is particularly noted as a printing method excellent in low-noise property, among the ink jet printer type machines, the type using bubble generation of liquid by heating, is further particularly noted because high density recording head is easy to manufacture; the low-noise property is excellent; color printing is easy; high speed printing is possible; high quality printing is possible with low cost. In an example of a recording means for the ink jet recording device, the ink jet recording head and an ink container for retaining the ink to be supplied to the ink jet recording head are unified, and they are exchangeably mounted as a unit to a scanning carriage of the device (ink jet cartridge).
Such an ink jet cartridge is thrown away when the ink in the ink container becomes unable to be ejected from the recording head. In the ink container of the ink jet cartridge, there is provided a negative pressure producing member which is capable of retaining ink while generating a desired negative pressure in the recording head. With the consumption of the ink, the negative pressure produced by the negative pressure producing member increases gradually. Then, the ink is not refilled properly in response to the ejection of the ink from the recording head. Finally, the ink jet cartridge becomes non-usable. In such a cartridge, a relatively large amount of the ink remains although the amount is dependent on the performance of the negative pressure producing member. The remaining amount of the ink is determined by the ink retaining power of the sponge namely the negative pressure producing member occupying substantially the entirety of the ink container, and therefore, it is not easy to improve the performance of the sponge.
The negative pressure produced by the negative pressure producing member gradually increases in response to the ink consumption, and therefore, it is difficult to maintain a substantially constant negative pressure from the start of the use to the end of service life thereof. On the other hand, an ink jet cartridge has been proposed which contains substantially only the ink.
On the other hand, an ink jet cartridge containing substantially only ink has been proposed. For example, Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. HEI-2-522 discloses an ink jet cartridge comprising a primary ink storing portion for containing a large amount of ink only at an upper position, and a small porous member at a lower position before the ink jet recording head. In this case, it is described that the porous member is not contained in the ink storing portion, but is posited in the ink flow path, by which the use efficiency is improved. In addition, a secondary ink storing portion is provided as a space holdable of the ink at the side of the porous member, upon the temperature rise (pressure decrease), or the like, the air in the primary ink storing portion expands so as to push the ink in the primary ink storing portion out, but the ink can be stored there, so that the negative pressure of the recording head during the recording can be maintained substantially constant.
On the other hand, Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. HEI-7-125232 discloses that the inside of the ink container portion is divided substantially equally by a wall into two chambers, and a negative pressure producing member is contained in the chamber closer to the recording head. Between the partition wall and the bottom portion, a communicating portion is provided to permit ink supply. In this case, the recording head portion and the ink container portion are separable. When the recording head portion is mounted to the ink container portion, the ink supply tube of the recording head portion is inserted into the negative pressure producing member side of the ink container portion so that the negative pressure producing member is compressed adjacent the ink supply tube.
When this structure of the ink container portion is applied to an ink Jet cartridge integrally having the recording head, a satisfactory result has been confirmed as long as the ink supply is concerned. However, the stability during transportation is not good. For example, the air enters the negative pressure producing member upon the change of the situation such as positions of the cartridge, temperature or pressure change, vibration, impact or the like, with the result of the ink distribution change. This may result in a non-uniform distribution of the ink retained in the negative pressure producing member disposed in the region between the communicating portion and the ink supply tube. If it is mounted to the recording device, and the initial recovering operation is carried out, the air in the ink passage between the communication portion and the ink supply tube moves toward the ink supply tube with the possible result of discontinuity of the ink path. In the case of the ink container disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. Hei-7-125232, the negative pressure producing material is inserted into a casing having an open bottom, through the open bottom, and then, the bottom is closed. This will not be used easily for an ink jet cartridge integrally having a recording head.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide an ink container, an ink jet cartridge and a manufacturing method for the cartridge, wherein the ink can be supplied to the recording head stably at all times irrespective of the transportation, pose and ambient condition experienced.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an ink container, an ink jet cartridge and a manufacturing method for the ink jet cartridge, with which cost is low without difficulty.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink container connectable with an ink jet head detachably mountable to an ink jet device, said ink container comprising a container body; a partition wall dividing an inside of said body into a first accommodating chamber and a second accommodating chamber; wherein said first accommodating chamber contains a negative pressure producing member and is provided with an ink supply opening connected with said ink jet head to supply ink and an air vent portion for communication with the ambience, said ink supply opening being formed in a wall faced to said partition wall; wherein said partition wall is provided with a fine communicating portion which is effective to permit movement of the ink from said second accommodating chamber to said first accommodating chamber and to permit movement of the air from said first accommodating chamber to said second accommodating chamber; and wherein such a portion of said negative pressure producing member as is in a path connecting ink supply opening and said fine communicating portion is more compressed than another portion thereof.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink container connectable with an ink jet head detachably mountable to an ink jet device, comprising: a container having an open end; a ink supply opening formed in a side faced to said opening portion; a nega

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Ink container does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Ink container, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Ink container will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2451997