Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
2002-12-26
2004-08-17
Hsieh, Shih-wen (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S029000, C347S033000, C347S032000, C347S036000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06776472
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus employing inks in which pigments are used as coloring agents and to a flushing process for the ink jet recording apparatus. More particularly, the invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus for flushing dark pigment inks and light pigment inks onto flushing portions (boxes) and a flushing process for the ink jet recording apparatus.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As the ink jet recording apparatus in the background art, there is an apparatus that performs the flushing. In such apparatus, the flushing is performed every color at respective positions pursuant to the alignment of head nozzles.
The ink jet recording apparatus is constructed, for example, as shown in JP-A-8-169155 (FIG.
4
).
Here, pigment inks
104
(a black ink
104
A and color inks
104
B to
104
G) are provided to a recording head
101
. As shown in
FIG. 5
, the color inks
104
B to
104
G include dark/light cyan inks
104
B,
104
C, dark/light magenta inks
104
D,
104
E, and dark/light yellow inks
104
F,
104
G.
These inks
104
A to
104
G are ejected from respective nozzles
103
(
103
A,
103
B,
103
C,
103
D,
103
E,
103
F,
103
G) of the recording head
101
.
Meanwhile, in order to prevent the clogging of respective nozzles
103
A to
103
G of the recording head
101
, as shown in
FIG. 5
, the recording head
101
is caused to move to a flushing box position on the outside of a left end edge
102
A of a recording paper
102
, for example, every time when the recording head
101
performs the reciprocating movement several times (4 to 5 times) along a main scanning direction indicated by the arrow A, and then the inks
104
A to
104
G are caused to eject (flush) from respective nozzles
103
A to
103
G.
The flushed inks
104
A to
104
G are allowed to penetrate into flushing portions (boxes) of a platen
105
.
However, in the case where inks using pigments as the coloring agents are employed, a moisture contained in the inks
104
A to
104
G evaporates to start precipitation of the pigment solid components of the inks
104
A to
104
G, depending on the operating circumstances of the ink jet recording apparatus, particularly by a room temperature rise caused, for example, in the summer season.
In particular, weight percents of pigment solid components in the dark pigment inks
104
B,
104
D,
104
F of cyan, magenta and yellow are higher rather than the light pigment inks
104
C,
104
E,
104
G. The concentrations of the pigment solid components in the light pigment inks are ½ or less of the dark pigment inks in terms of weight %.
For this reason, as shown in
FIG. 5
, in some cases the dark pigment inks
104
B,
104
D,
104
F of cyan, magenta and yellow cannot penetrate sufficiently into the flushing portions (boxes) of the platen
105
. Thus, the pigment solid components of the dark pigment inks
104
B,
104
D,
104
F of cyan, magenta and yellow are deposited on the surface of the platen
105
as the so-called piled-up sediment
106
.
In this manner, once the piled-up sediment
106
is generated on the surface of the platen
105
, the deposition proceeds. At a certain time when the recording head
101
comes to the flushing position, such piled-up sediment
106
rubs nozzle surfaces of the recording head
101
to cause the defective ejection.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording apparatus and a flushing process capable of allowing flushed dark inks to sufficiently penetrate into a platen when inks that use pigments as coloring agents are employed.
Other objects and effects of the invention will become apparent from the following description.
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an ink jet recording apparatus that moves a recording head along a guide shaft to flush inks to flushing portions of a platen when employing inks using pigments as coloring agents, the ink jet recording apparatus having a feature that the recording head performs a first flushing for flushing one of dark pigment ink(s) and light pigment ink(s) and a second flushing for flushing the other of the dark pigment ink(s) and the light pigment ink(s) onto the same position(s) of the platen.
Also, the present invention provides a flushing process for an ink jet recording apparatus that employs inks using pigments as coloring agents and moves a recording head along a guide shaft to flush the inks to flushing portions of a platen, the flushing process having a feature that a first flushing for flushing one of dark pigment ink(s) and light pigment ink(s) and a second flushing for flushing the other of the dark pigment ink(s) and the light pigment ink(s) are performed onto the same position(s) of the platen.
Here, the first flushing and the second flushing may be carried out as follows: the dark pigment ink is firstly flushed, followed by the flushing of light pigment ink to cover the flushed dark pigment ink, or alternatively, the light pigment ink is firstly flushed, followed by the flushing of dark pigment ink to cover the flushed light pigment ink. In short, to implement the present invention, the order of flushing of the dark pigment ink and the light pigment ink may be set arbitrarily and selected appropriately.
Also, as the first flushing and the second flushing, it is not necessary to flush the dark pigment ink and the light pigment ink alternately by the same times. Specifically, the light pigment ink may be flushed several times after the dark pigment ink is flushed only once, or the dark pigment ink may be flushed several times after the light pigment ink is flushed only once.
In addition, if the black ink and the color inks are employed, the dark pigment ink and the light pigment ink in the present invention do not necessarily have the same hue mutually. For example, the dark pigment ink of cyan and the light pigment ink of yellow may be flushed onto the same position of the platen in any order.
In the ink jet recording apparatus and the flushing process for the ink jet recording apparatus that are constructed in this manner and employ the inks using the pigments as the coloring agents, the first flushing for flushing one of the dark pigment ink(s) and the light pigment ink(s) and the second flushing for flushing the other of the dark pigment ink(s) and the light pigment ink(s) are performed onto the same position(s) of the platen.
The weight percents of the pigments in the light pigment inks are lower than those in the dark pigment inks. Therefore, for example, in the case that the light pigment ink is to be flushed after the dark pigment ink is flushed, the solvent components constituting the light pigment ink prevent further deposition of the pigment solid components of the dark pigment ink as the piled-up sediment. The dark pigment ink deposited as the piled-up sediment and the light pigment ink are mixed, making it possible to penetrate both together into the flushing portion (box) of the platen.
On the contrary, for example, in the case that the dark pigment ink is to be flushed after the light pigment ink is flushed, the dark pigment ink is mixed with the solvent components constituting the light pigment ink previously penetrated into the flushing position of the platen. Thereby, not only the precipitation of the pigment solid components in the dark pigment inks on the platen can be suppressed, but also the dark pigment ink can be allowed to penetrate into the flushing portion (box) of the platen. As a result, the deposition of the dark pigment inks on the surface of the flushing portions (boxes) as the piled-up sediments can be prevented.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5182582 (1993-01-01), Okamura
patent: 6050671 (2000-04-01), Rotering
patent: 6257696 (2001-07-01), Nakamura
patent: 6312089 (2001-11-01), Imai
patent: 6527361 (2003-03-01), Gotoh et al.
patent: 6619783 (2003-09-01), Kanaya et al.
patent: 8 169155 (1996-07-01), None
Itano Masaaki
Morikoshi Koji
Hsieh Shih-wen
Ladas & Parry
Seiko Epson Corporation
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