Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-04
2001-08-14
Nguyen, Judy (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S030000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06273545
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an ink-jet recording device for recording by jetting ink.
An ink-jet recording device supplies ink stored in an ink tank to an ink-jet recording head, pushes out and jets ink by predetermined quantity from a nozzle via a narrow passage formed in the ink-jet recording head, adheres it to a recording medium records and records. Fine dust, bubbles and others are mixed in ink supplied from an ink tank. Bubbles and dust also invade into the passage of ink by the replacement of ink tanks and others. Normally they are filtered by a filter and others, however, nevertheless, there is a case that dust and bubbles invade into an ink-jet recording head, bubbles greatly grow, they block a narrow passage and ink cannot be jetted. When a passage is blocked as described above, the phenomenon emerges as the defect of the quality of an image.
To maintain the quality of a recorded image, maintenance for removing dust and bubbles which invade into an ink-jet recording head as described above is essential. In maintenance, large quantity of ink is sucked by a pump and others from the side of a nozzle of an ink-jet recording head so as to exhaust dust and bubbles left inside together with the ink outside through a nozzle. The sucked ink is carried to an ink absorber, is impregnated and held. For the ink absorber, the one with large capacity is built in the body of a recording device to reduce the labor of replacement. Therefore, there is a problem that the recording device is large-sized. There is also a problem that maintenance in which ink is sucked is frequently executed and if the quantity of absorbed ink exceeds the capacity of an ink absorber, work for replacing ink absorbers is required. Further, as the absorbed ink is not utilized again and discarded as waste ink, there is a problem that the frequency of the replacement of ink tanks for black ink which is particularly high in the frequency of utilization is high and the running cost is high. To miniaturize the above ink absorber for waste ink and facilitate work for replacement, a method of being provided with an ink absorber to a head cartridge in addition to an ink tank is devised as a method disclosed in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 4-364960 for example. According to the above constitution, ink absorbers can be also replaced by work for replacing ink cartridges when ink in an ink tank is short and the work is facilitated. However, an ink absorber for waste ink still exists and a head cartridge is large-sized because volume for the ink absorber is required.
For a large-sized ink-jet recording device, there is also a method in which waste ink is not produced by sucking every color of ink used for recording and returning the sucked ink to an ink tank. However, according to the method, as a sucking mechanism and a mechanism for returning the sucked ink to an ink tank are required to be provided every color, there is a defect that the whole device becomes large-sized.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is made in view of the above situation and the object is to provide an ink-jet recording device in which for example, ink sucked in maintenance is utilized again without producing waste ink and an ink absorber for waste ink is not required.
In the present invention, black ink processed by mixing ink in cyan, magenta and yellow desirably by the same quantity
1
is used for black ink. When maintenance operation is executed in an ink-jet recording head using three colors of cyan, magenta and yellow and ink in three colors is sucked, the sucked ink in the three colors is mixed to be process black. Heretofore, as ink using black dye is used for black ink, process black ink obtained by mixing ink in three colors is discarded without using the ink for black ink. However, according to the present invention, as process black is used for black ink, process black obtained by mixing sucked ink in three colors can be utilized again.
As the sucked ink is originally ink sucked for maintenance, dust and bubbles may invade. When the sucked ink is used as it is, dust and bubbles are returned into an ink passage and the defect of the quality of an image may be caused. Therefore, it is desirable that a filter for removing dust and bubbles is provided to a path to the ink tank of black ink. If ink is sucked for maintenance, ink the viscosity of which is increased in a nozzle because of drying may be sucked. Also, to correspond to ink the viscosity of which is increased, diluent adding means for adding diluent to adjust the viscosity of ink may be also provided to a path to the ink tank of black ink.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4337468 (1982-06-01), Mizuno
patent: 4847637 (1989-07-01), Watanabe et al.
patent: 5412411 (1995-05-01), Anderson
patent: 5835109 (1995-05-01), Uchida
patent: A-364960 (1992-12-01), None
patent: A-9-58013 (1997-03-01), None
patent: A-10-211718 (1998-08-01), None
patent: 10-272149 (2000-10-01), None
E.T. Osborne et al. “Color balanced Ink Jet System”, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, p.1313, Oct. 1975.*
Ichihasi, Hiroo et al., “Ink Delivery System for BJ Full-Line Head,”Canon Aptex, Inc., 1997, pp. 149-152.
Fuji 'Xerox Co., Ltd.
Nguyen Judy
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
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