Typewriting machines – Including control of format and selection of type-face by...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-21
2002-01-08
Hilten, John S. (Department: 2854)
Typewriting machines
Including control of format and selection of type-face by...
C400S283000, C400S279000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06336756
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ink jet printers, and particularly to a small ink jet printer that has a narrow lateral width for the runway portion and the overrun portion of the ink carriage.
2. Description of the Background Art
Referring to
FIG. 1
, a conventional ink jet printer
261
includes a scan guide
264
formed of a linear metal rod, and an ink carriage
263
that moves linearly along scan guide
264
to eject ink onto a recording sheet
62
for printing. At both sides of the printing region by ink carriage
263
are provided a region called the runway portion provided to bring ink carriage
263
from a stop state to a certain speed and a region called the overrun portion provided to stop ink carriage
263
moving at a constant speed. More specifically, ink carriage
263
runs over the runway portion to prepare for printing from position A to position B in the drawing along scan guide
264
. Then, printing is carried out at a constant rate in the printing region. When ink carriage
263
moves passed the printing region to arrive at the overrun portion, ink carriage
263
decelerates and then stops. The change in speed of ink carriage
263
during this travel is as shown in FIG.
1
.
Referring to
FIG. 2
, an ink jet printer
271
disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,831,655 includes a heat roller
274
to transport and apply heat to recording sheet
62
for drying the ink jetted out on recording sheet
62
, a recording head
275
located opposite to heat roller
274
to spray out ink on recording sheet
62
for printing, and an exhaust fan
276
for discharging the heat accumulated in ink jet printer
271
outside. Recording sheet
62
is heated by heat roller
274
while ink is sprayed on recording sheet
62
by recording head
275
for printing. Recording sheet
62
continues to be heated by a similar method even after printing. Accordingly, the ink jetted out on recording sheet
62
is dried.
According to ink jet printer
261
, a runway portion and an overrun portion are required in addition to the printing region. A region besides the region required for printing must be provided in ink jet printer
261
. This accounts for preventing reduction of the size of ink jet printer
261
. Ink jet printer
271
has a similar problem since printing is effected in a similar manner.
In ink jet printer
271
, the entire heat roller
274
discharges heat. Heat is provided to elements other than recording sheet
62
. Heat roller
274
dries one horizontal line at a time on recording sheet
62
. Therefore, the size of heat roller
274
per se is great and the heat generated from heat roller
274
is increased. Thus, ink jet printer
271
is increased in size and power consumption. There is also the problem of modification in the quality of the ink caused by recording head
275
being heated since the distance between heat roller
274
and recording head
275
is small. Although cooling is effected by exhaust fan
276
to reduce the heat effect, space and power are required to install and drive, respectively, exhaust fan
276
. This also leads to increase in the size and power consumption of ink jet printer
271
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing, an object of the present invention is to provide a small-size ink jet printer.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a compact ink jet printer that has many and high density of ink heads arranged in the ink carriage.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a compact ink jet printer without deviation between dots in printing.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a compact ink jet printer without deviation between dots in printing and capable of printing without arc-like distortion.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a compact ink jet printer without deviation between dots in printing and capable of printing without arc-like distortion, and that can dry printed out ink with lower power.
Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printer that can dry printed out ink without quality modification or coagulation of ink in the ink carriage.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printer that can dry printed out ink without quality modification of ink sprayed out onto a recording sheet and without deformation of the recording sheet.
Yet a still further object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printer that can dry printed out ink without quality modification or coagulation of ink in the ink carriage caused by heated air flow generated from a heat generator and that does not deform the spray out of ink droplets jetted out from the ink carriage caused by air blow.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printer that can dry printed out ink without erroneous spray out of ink from the ink carriage and without disturbance in the printed out image or text due to vibration of a heat generator.
Yet an additional object of the present invention is to provide a compact ink jet printer that can carry out printing at high speed.
According to an aspect of the present invention, an ink jet printer includes a shaft provided rotatably about a predetermined axis, a strut fixed to the shaft so as to move along an arc about the axis with rotation of the shaft, an ink carriage having a plurality of ink heads provided at a predetermined position from the shaft of the strut, and a control device controlling forwarding of a recording sheet, rotational motion of the shaft, and ink jetting from the plurality of ink heads.
The scanning operation of the ink carriage is effected by a reciprocating arc motion about the shaft. Therefore, even if the runway portion and the overrun portion of the same running distance as the conventional case are provided along the circular segment, the lateral widths of the runway portion and the overrun portion can be made smaller than those of the conventional ink jet printer. Thus, the travel width in the lateral direction of the ink carriage can be reduced to allow a smaller ink jet printer.
Preferably, the control device controls forwarding of a recording sheet, the rotational motion of the shaft, and ink jetting from a plurality of ink heads by defining the reciprocating motion width of printing for the ink carriage on the basis of the relationship between the width of the reciprocating motion of the ink head out of the plurality of ink heads located farthest away from the shaft and the width of the recording sheet.
The width of the reciprocating motion of printing for the ink carriage is defined on the basis of the relationship between the width of the reciprocating motion of the ink head located farthest away from the shaft and the width of the recording sheet. Therefore, by setting the width of the reciprocating motion of printing for the ink head located farthest from the shaft equal to the width of the recording sheet, printing can be carried out by the ink carriage at the minimum width of the reciprocating motion. Accordingly, the travel width of the ink carriage in the lateral direction can be reduced to allow a more compact ink jet printer.
Further preferably, a maintenance mechanism of the ink carriage is provided outside the printing motion range of the ink carriage, located opposite to the ink carriage.
The maintenance mechanism is provided on the extension of the reciprocating arc motion of the ink carriage. Therefore, the travel width of the ink carriage in the lateral direction can be suppressed to approximately the diameter of the circle at most, i.e., two times the length from the shaft to the leading edge of the ink carriage. Therefore, the ink jet printer can be reduced in size.
Further preferably, the ink carriage includes a plurality of ink heads fixed at the other end of the strut in a radial arrangement.
Since the ink heads are arranged radially, the ink heads can be arranged in an honeycomb manner. The number and density of the ink heads arranged at the ink carria
Arai Takeshi
Asaka Toshihiro
Hatanaka Masatsugu
Kishi Nobuya
Miyao Nobuyoshi
Hilten John S.
Nolan, Jr. Charles H.
Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
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