Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-03
2003-05-27
Hsieh, Shih-Wen (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S023000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06568788
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present application is based on Japanese Patent Applications No. 2001-81179 and No. 2000-366906, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus that is provided with a wiping means (cleaner) for wiping off ink adhered to the nozzle forming surface of a recording head.
2. Description of the Related Art
With an ink jet recording apparatus, its printing noise is comparatively small, and small dots can be formed at a high density. Therefore, presently, the ink jet recording apparatus has been widely used for printing including color printing.
Such an ink jet recording apparatus is provided with an ink jet recording head that receives ink from an ink cartridge and a paper feeding means that relatively move recording paper with respect to the recording head.
Recording is carried out by discharging ink drops onto the recording paper while moving the recording head in response to printing signals and forming dots. In this case, a recording head that is capable of discharging ink of, for example, black, yellow, cyan and magenta, is mounted on the carriage, and full-color printing is enabled by varying the ratio of discharge of respective ink.
Thus, in the ink jet recording apparatus, the following problems exist since printing is carried out by discharging ink from nozzles onto recording paper as ink drops. That is, the ink viscosity is increased, resulting from evaporation of an ink solvent through the nozzle openings, ink is solidified on the nozzle forming surface, the nozzle openings are stopped up due to adhesion of dust therein, and bubbles are let in and mixed in the recording head, whereby the printing becomes inferior.
Therefore, the ink jet recording apparatus is provided with a capping means for sealing the nozzle forming surface of the recording head when printing is not executed, a suction pump for sucking ink in and discharging the same into the capping means, and a wiping means (cleaner) for cleaning the nozzle-formed plate of the recording head after ink is sucked in and discharged into the capping means by the suction pump.
In order to prevent the nozzle openings from being clogged and to prevent bubbles from entering the recording head, the nozzle forming surface of the recording head is wiped off (cleaned) by the cleaner after ink is forcibly sucked in and discharged into the capping means by the suction pump.
A process to solve such clogging of the recording head, or a forced discharge process of ink where bubbles remain in the recording head is called a “cleaning operation”. The cleaning operation is carried out where printing is re-started after a long-term delay of the recording apparatus and where a user recognizes an inferiority in the printing quality such as a blurring in printing and operates the cleaning switch.
FIG. 24
shows an example of the cleaning member (a part of the cleaner) of related art. In the same drawing, the cleaning member shown by reference number
100
is composed of a rectangular piece made of a resilient material such as rubber, and is attached so as to be erect on the upper part of a sliding member (holder)
101
.
In the case of wiping off the nozzle forming surface of the recording head by the cleaning member
100
, the sliding member
101
advances in the horizontal direction, and in line with this action, the cleaning member
100
is caused to advance on the movement path of the recording head.
However, in the above-described ink jet recording apparatus, as shown in
FIG. 25
, the cleaning member
100
is resiliently deformed while being brought into contact with the nozzle forming surface of the recording head
102
, in line with the movement of the recording head
102
in the direction shown by the arrow “A”. Further, the tip end part of the cleaning member
100
is slidably brought into contact with the nozzle forming surface of the recording head
102
while the tip end part thereof is resiliently deformed by the movement of the recording head
102
in the direction shown by the arrow “A”, wherein the surface of the nozzle forming surface is wiped off. Thereby, ink adhered to the nozzle forming surface of the recording head
102
is removed, and it is possible to prevent such a hindrance such as ink uncontrollably dropping from the recording head
102
onto recording paper, etc. during printing.
By further movement of the recording head
102
in the direction shown by the arrow “A”, the recording head
102
passes the disposed position of the cleaning member
100
. In this case, immediately after (or at the moment when) the recording head
102
has passed through the disposed position of the cleaning member
100
, as shown in
FIG. 25
, the cleaning member
100
is returned in the direction shown by the arrow “C” by a resilient reset force (self-restoration force), and is reset to its initial state.
Therefore, at the moment when the cleaning member
100
resiliently returned, ink wiped off from the nozzle forming surface was splashed into the inner mechanism of the recording apparatus, particularly, the driving mechanism of the capping means positioned in the vicinity of the cleaner.
As a result, such a problem occurs, wherein ink is adhered to the driving mechanism (elevation mechanism) of the capping means, and smooth movement of the corresponding driving mechanism is hindered by solidification of the ink, resulting in a decrease of reliability with respect to the operation of the capping means.
In the related art ink jet recording apparatus, since a movement force (advancing and retreating movement) of the cleaner is provided from the drive shaft via a friction clutch (clutch plate and cleaner cam), such a problem arises, wherein smooth movement of the cleaner is not ensured with respect to the advancing and retreating movement, and reliability is lowered in the cleaner movement.
Further, if a pigment-based ink having high ink density is adhered to and is solidified on the friction surface of the friction clutch, it becomes difficult to remove ink, wherein load with respect to the friction clutch becomes uneven due to the amount of solidified ink on the friction surface, and such an inconvenience arises, wherein printing disorders may occur in the case where the drive means of the cleaner (friction clutch) is based on a paper feeding motor.
In addition thereto, since the friction clutch is constructed so as to be driven by drive of the above-described ink suction pump, the pump load is increased when driving the pump, and such an inconvenience arises, wherein durability of the pump is lowered.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention was developed in view of the aforementioned problems, and it is therefore an object of the invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus that increases the reliability of a capping means and a cleaner with respect to the movement thereof and durability of the pump where the drive shaft of the cleaner is a pump shaft of an ink suction pump, and simultaneously, can prevent printing disorder from occurring where the drive source of the cleaner is based on a paper feeding motor.
An ink jet recording apparatus according to the invention, which has been developed to achieve the aforementioned object is an ink jet recording apparatus that includes a reciprocating carriage; an ink jet recording head, which is mounted on the carriage and discharges ink drops from a nozzle forming surface, corresponding to printing data; and a cleaner, which is disposed in the vicinity of a movement path of the recording head so as to advance and retreat, and has a cleaning member to wipe off the nozzle forming surface; wherein a driving mechanism of the cleaner includes: a drive shaft, having a sun gear, which is rotatably disposed on a fixing base; a gear holding lever that is pivotally and rotatably supported between two rotation stop positions on the drive shaft and rotatably holds a planet gear engaging with the sun gear; and
Hayakawa Hitoshi
Maruyama Norihiro
Shimizu Yoshiaki
Hsieh Shih-Wen
Seiko Epson Corporation
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
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