Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Controller
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-15
2003-06-17
Hallacher, Craig (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Controller
C347S019000, C347S037000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06578941
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a serial ink jet printer for supplying ink from an ink supply section at a fixed position to an ink jet head mounted on a carriage, moving the carriage in a print width direction, and printing on a recording medium passing through a print position. More particularly, the invention relates to a serial ink jet printer that includes a detection mechanism for detecting, among other things, the presence or absence of ink in an ink supply section and the move position of a carriage in the serial ink jet printer.
2. Related Art
Known as an ink jet printer is a serial ink jet printer for reciprocating a carriage on which an ink jet head is mounted in the print width direction of a transported recording paper and printing on a predetermined surface of the recording paper. As the serial ink jet printer, an off-carriage type serial ink jet printer is available, wherein an ink supply section such as an ink cartridge is not mounted on a carriage, but rather is placed at a fixed position and ink is supplied from the ink supply section via a flexible ink tube to an ink jet head mounted on the carriage.
In the off-carriage type serial ink jet printer, a plurality of ink tanks storing different color inks, for example, a plurality of ink cartridges, are placed in the ink supply section to perform multicolor print. In this case, it is necessary to detect the ink cartridges being placed in the ink supply section and the presence or absence of ink in each ink cartridge. To do this, in the related art, a dedicated detection mechanism for detecting each ink cartridge being placed and a dedicated detection mechanism for detecting the presence or absence of ink are used. Generally, each detection mechanism is made up of an optical detector, etc., and a detected part detected by the detector.
Further, in the serial ink jet printer of the related art, to control the move position of the carriage, a detection mechanism for detecting the home position of the carriage as the reference for controlling the move position of the carriage is used.
Therefore, for example, if the serial ink jet printer comprises the ink supply section in which two ink cartridges are placed, two detection mechanisms for detecting the presence or absence of the ink cartridges, two detection mechanisms for detecting the presence or absence of ink in the ink cartridges, and one detection mechanism for detecting the carriage home position (five detection mechanisms in total) are required.
Also known in the related art is a serial ink jet printer wherein an ink supply section can be switched between a single-color cartridge and a multicolor cartridge for use, and both single-color print and multicolor print can be performed. In this serial ink jet printer, single-color print or multicolor print is specified by operating a DIP switch, etc., installed on a printer controller.
However, to detect the presence or absence of each ink cartridge, the presence or absence of ink in the cartridges, and the carriage home position by separate detection mechanisms as in the related art, the number of the detection mechanisms increases, which in turn increases the costs and inhibits miniaturization of this type of ink jet printer.
With the serial ink jet printer wherein single-color print or multicolor print is specified by operating a DIP switch, etc., when the user forgets to switch the DIP switch, etc., a single-color print may be executed although the user intends to execute multicolor print and vice versa, for example.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the invention to make it possible to determine information concerning an ink supply section such as the presence or absence of ink, information concerning the move position of the carriage such as a home position of a carriage, and whether the print mode is single-color print or multicolor print by a fewer number of detection mechanisms in an off-carriage type serial ink jet printer.
To this end, according to the invention, there is provided an ink jet printer comprising an ink jet head, a carriage for moving the ink jet head in a print width direction, an ink supply section placed at a fixed position for supplying ink to the ink jet head, and a detector and one or more detected parts that can be detected by the detector, wherein the one or more detected parts are placed at a position along a move passage of the detector, and the one or more detected parts are operable to indicate at least one of information concerning the ink supply section and information concerning the move position of the carriage.
In the invention, the detector is mounted on the carriage and is moved together with the carriage for detecting the one or more detected parts. Therefore, if a plurality of detected parts are placed, the detector for detecting the detected parts can be made common. Thus, the invention is advantageous for cost reduction and miniaturization as compared with the detection system comprising detectors and detected parts provided in a one-to-one correspondence with the objects to be detected as in the related art.
In the invention, the information concerning the ink supply section may be, for example, at least one of information indicating whether or not ink exists in the ink supply section and information representing the type of ink stored in the ink supply section.
In addition, the information concerning the move position of the carriage may include information indicating whether or not the carriage is at the home position, etc.
Generally, as the one or more detected parts, a first detected part that can indicate the information concerning the ink supply section and a second detected part that can indicate the information concerning the move position of the carriage may be used.
The detector can be an optical detector comprising a light emission element and a light reception element. In this case, the one or more detected parts can each include a prism having one or more reflection faces for reflecting light from the light emission element toward the light reception element.
If the one or more detected parts indicate the information concerning the ink supply section, the corresponding prism may be formed in a side wall portion of an ink reservoir of the ink supply section. In doing so, if ink exists in the ink reservoir, the back of the one or more reflection faces of the corresponding prism are immersed in the ink and thus the one or more reflection faces do not function as a reflection face and therefore the detector does not detect reflected light. In contrast, if the ink reservoir becomes empty of ink, the one or more reflection faces of the corresponding prism are exposed from the ink and function as reflection faces and therefore the detector detects reflected light. Thus, the presence or absence of ink can be detected based on the presence or absence of reflected light.
To determine the type of ink stored in the ink supply section, the one or more reflection faces need to be made effective regardless of the presence or absence of ink. To do this, one or more of the detected parts may comprise a gap formed between the one or more reflection faces of a corresponding prism and the side wall portion opposed thereto on an opposite side to the light incidence direction from the detector on the corresponding prism. The one or more reflection faces are made effective regardless of the presence or absence of ink in the presence of the gap.
Next, the ink supply section may be a cartridge type having an ink cartridge placement section and an ink cartridge detachably placed therein.
In this embodiment, like above, if the one or more detected parts can indicate the information concerning the ink supply section, the information concerning the ink supply section can be at least one of information indicating whether or not the ink cartridge is placed in the ink cartridge placement section, information concerning the type of placed ink cartridge, and information indicating whether or not ink exists in the placed ink
Arai Kenichiro
Hanaoka Yukihiro
Hallacher Craig
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Seiko Epson Corporation
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