Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-04
2001-03-27
Le, N. (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S033000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06206498
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink purge apparatus, an ink purging method, a nozzle wiping apparatus and a wiping method in a printer using hot-melt ink.
2. Description of the Related Art
Examples of a method for purging a print head using hot-melt solid ink include: a method in which an ink chamber of the print head is pressurized to discharge ink from an orifice; and a method in which a suction unit is pressed against an orifice to suck ink from the orifice directly. As the ink chamber pressurizing method, a method in which waste ink is sucked by a sheet of wiping paper is employed in manufactured articles. On the other hand, as the orifice suction method, there is a method described in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. Hei 4-111149.
In the orifice suction method, however, a surface of the orifice may be stained with ink when the ink is sucked from the orifice or ink may be spilled around the head when the ink is discarded.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems with the prior art, and therefore an object of the invention is to provide an ink purge apparatus of the suction type which is simplified in structure without using a motor and a solenoid, resulting in the reduction of the costs.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an ink purge apparatus which prevents the orifice surface from being stained with ink when the orifices are sucked and prevents the ink from being spilled around the head when the ink is discarded.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an ink purging method in which an ink discarding process is simple.
Yet still another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus having a simple configuration for wiping a nozzle surface, and a wiping method, particularly, to provide a method for preventing ink from being spilled around a head.
In order to achieve the above object,according to the present invention, there is provided an ink purge apparatus for use in a printer for discharging an ink which is located outside of a printing region of an ink jet head having a horizontally and vertically movable mechanism, in which when the ink received in an ink tank of said ink jet head is discharged, said ink jet head is moved out of the printing region, the ink received within the ink tank is sucked from a nozzle portion of the ink jet head and discharged to the external, said apparatus comprising:
an ink suction casing with an opening portion that comes in close contact with and covers the nozzle portion of the ink jet head when the ink jet head moves forward up to a given position;
a mechanism for moving the nozzle portion of the ink jet head forward and backward relatively with respect to said ink purge casing;
a suction pump connected to said ink suction casing;
an ink discard hole portion provided on the bottom of said ink suction casing for discharging the ink;
open/close means for said ink discard hole portion, said open/close means having a protrusion which is made of an elastic member and a tip of which protrudes from the opening surface of said ink suction casing when the tip is out of contact with the ink jet head, said open/close means closing said ink discarding hole while being pushed by said protrusion when the ink jet head moves forward toward said ink purge casing.
The ink purge apparatus may be designed such that the opening portion of said ink suction casing has an elastic seal member which is brought into close contact with the nozzle plate surface of said ink jet head, the elastic member of said open/close means is molded integrally with said seal member and has a valve portion located on an extension of said protrusion portion and below said ink discarding hole, and the value portion and the peripheral bottom portion of the ink discarding hole of said ink suction casing are inclined and face each other.
The ink purge apparatus may be designed such that said printer includes an easel to which an object to be printed is fixed and guides disposed on said easel for guiding the movement of the ink jet head horizontally and vertically, and said ink purge unit is disposed on an arbitrary end portion of said easel.
The ink purge apparatus may be designed such that the ink received within the ink tank of the ink jet head is a thermally meltable ink, and said ink purge unit includes a heat for melting the ink within said ink suction casing.
Also, according to the present invention, there is provided an ink purge method for use in a printer in which a thermally melted ink received within an ink tank of the ink jet head is sucked and discharged from a nozzle portion of an ink jet heat toward the exterior of the ink jet head by ink suction purge means, said method comprising the steps of:
providing on a bottom portion of an ink suction casing of said purge means an ink discard hole from which the sucked melted ink is discharged to the external;
disposing a suction ink sheet and a suction ink sheet winding-up means below the ink discard hole; and
discarding the ink sucked and collected by said purge means onto said suction ink sheet while the suction ink sheet is wound up by the winding-up means to discard the ink.
Further, according to the present invention, there is provided an nozzle wiping apparatus for use in a printer comprising an ink jet head constituted by an ink tank for reserving ink, a plurality of nozzles provided so as to discharge ink as liquid drops by an ink drop generating means, and a carriage for carrying these nozzles to an arbitrary position, an easel erected substantially vertically, a printing medium fixed onto said easel, a suction purge means disposed at an arbitrary end portion on said easel and in a position facing said nozzles, and a moving means for making said nozzles move forward or backward relative to said suction purge means, whereby printing is performed by moving horizontally and vertically relative to said easel, said nozzle wiping apparatus comprising:
a waste ink discard means for discarding ink sucked by said suction purge means;
an ink-absorbent sheet placed below said waste ink discard means; and
a winding-up means for winding said ink-absorbent sheet up;
wherein said ink-absorbent sheet is always brought in contact with a part of said nozzles during a purging operation.
The nozzle wiping apparatus may be designed such that said ink-absorbent sheet winding-up means comprises a driving roller, a driven roller, a pulley, a guide cover slidably engaged with opposite ends or one end of said pulley, and a spring having one end fixed to said guide cover and the other end fitted to one end of said pulley.
The nozzle wiping apparatus may be designed such that said ink-absorbent sheet winding-up means comprises a driving roller, a driven roller, a pulley, a guide base for rotatably mounting said pulley, said driving roller and said driven roller, a pivot for making said guide base rockable, and a spring laid between said easel and said guide base.
The nozzle wiping apparatus may be designed such that a part of said ink-absorbent sheet winding-up means is made rockable in linkage with said purging operation.
Also, in the above-described nozzle wiping apparatus of a printer,
a wiping method comprising the steps of:
moving said ink jet head resting in an arbitrary position of said easel to a position facing said suction purge means;
advancing said ink jet head toward said suction purge means to bring only said ink-absorbent sheet into contact with a part of a nozzle plate;
further advancing said ink jet head to bring said ink jet head into contact with said suction purge means to perform a purging operation;
retracting said ink jet head from said suction purge means while bringing said ink-absorbent sheet into contact with said nozzle plate after completion of said purging operation; and
moving said ink jet head downward while bringing said ink-absorbent sheet into contact with said nozzle plate to thereby wipe ink deposited on said nozzle plate.
REFERENC
Kondo Norimasa
Sugano Kazuo
Takano Yasuo
Hitachi Koki Co,. Ltd.
Hsieh Shih-Wen
Le N.
Pillsbury Madison & Sutro LLP
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