Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-06
2001-01-09
Le, N. (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
active
06170942
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink supply device and its drive system used in an ink jet printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ink jet printer includes a recording head portion for ejecting liquid ink, a carriage mounted with the recording head portion, a mechanism for transporting the carriage in a main scanning direction, and another mechanism for transporting a recording sheet, such as a sheet of paper, in an auxiliary scanning direction, which is perpendicular to the main scanning direction.
Conventional hot melt ink jet printers use hot melt ink that is solid at room temperature and liquid when melted. The hot melt ink can be provided in pellet form. The recording head portion of hot melt ink jet printers includes: a nozzle head formed with a plurality of nozzles, a hopper portion for receiving and melting the ink pellets, and a heater for maintaining the melted condition of the hot melt ink. During printing, the carriage is transported in the main scanning direction while the recording head portion is driven to eject hot melt ink droplets from the nozzles of the nozzle head so that desired characters and/or images can be printed on the surface of the recording sheet.
When the recording head portion runs out of ink, the user has to drop some ink pellets into the hopper portion. The ink pellets are melted by the heater so the ink can be ejected from the nozzle head. When replenishing the ink pellets, the operator therefore has to pick up the ink pellets by hand. Accordingly, grime and oil from the operator's fingers can cling to the ink pellets and degrade the quality of the hot melt ink.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,146 has proposed a method for enabling replenishment of the ink pellets without requiring the user to directly touch the ink pellets.
According to this method, a flexible ink holder is provided to house an ink pellet therein. The flexible ink holder is formed from a flexible material. One end of the ink holder is open, and covered with a material, such as aluminum foil, that tears when applied with pressure. A plurality of different types of ink holders are provided, each housing a different colored ink pellet.
To supply an ink pellet, the user selects an ink holder containing a desired color of ink pellet. Then, the user places the ink holder against the opening of the hopper for the corresponding color so that the aluminum foil cover presses against the hopper opening. The user then fixes the ink holder in place in this posture. Then, the user presses against the rear side of the ink holder and presses toward the sealed portion. As a result, the rear side of the ink holder presses against the ink pellet, which in turn presses against and tears the aluminum foil cover. This configuration enables the user to replenish ink pellets without directly touching them.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
With the ink supply method proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,823,146, however, the operator still has to manually supply ink pellet holders to the ink jet printer. Accordingly, maintenance of the ink jet printer is still troublesome.
It is conceivable to provide an ink supply device for supplying liquid ink or ink pellets to the ink jet printer. The ink supply device may be designed to include separate ink cartridges for each type of different colored ink. When the ink jet printer runs out of ink, the carriage is positioned below the ink supply device. The operator manually operates the ink supply device so that an appropriate amount of ink or one or more ink pellet is supplied from a corresponding ink cartridge into the corresponding hopper portion. This manual operation is, however, still troublesome.
It is also conceivable to provide the ink supply device with an automatic ink discharging mechanism for automatically discharging liquid ink or ink pellets from the ink supply device to the hopper portions.
In order to provide the full color printer with this conceivable automatic ink discharging mechanism, however, a separate drive mechanism has to be provided for driving the ink discharging mechanism for each different color. These extra drive mechanism increases manufacturing costs of the printer.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an ink supply device, which is capable of being driven with a simple driving mechanism to selectively and automatically supply liquid ink or ink pellets to the recording head.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printer which is provided with the ink supply device and which still has a simple structure.
In order to attain the above and other objects, the present invention provides an ink supply device for use in an ink jet printer, the ink supply device comprising: a carriage capable of being moved in a scanning direction within a scanning region, the scanning region including an ink supply region, the carriage being provided with a plurality of hoppers for receiving ink of a plurality of different colors, respectively, the hoppers being arranged in the scanning direction; an ink storing unit, disposed in the ink supply region, for storing ink of the plurality of different colors, the ink storing unit including a plurality of ink supplying portions each for supplying ink of a corresponding color, the plurality of ink supplying portions being arranged in the scanning direction, distances between the ink supply portions along the scanning direction being different from distances between the hoppers on the carriage along the scanning direction; and a carriage scanning control mechanism for controlling the carriage to move in the scanning direction, the carriage scanning control mechanism selectively stopping the carriage at positions relative to the ink storing unit, thereby selectively controlling the ink supplying portions to supply ink of the corresponding colors from the ink storing unit to the corresponding hoppers according to the stopping positions of the carriage.
The hoppers may be arranged in the scanning direction at a first interval in the scanning direction, and the plurality of ink supplying portions may be arranged in the scanning direction at a second interval, the second interval being different from the first interval.
The ink supply device may further comprise an ink supply control unit disposed in the ink supply region, the ink supply control unit being capable of causing each ink supplying portion to supply a corresponding hopper with ink of a corresponding color, the ink supply control unit causing a selected one ink supply portion to supply its corresponding hopper with ink of the corresponding color in accordance with the stopping position of the carriage.
According to another aspect, the present invention provides an ink Jet printer, comprising: a carriage capable of being moved in a scanning direction within a scanning region, the scanning region including an ink supply region and a printing region, the carriage being provided with a plurality of hoppers for receiving ink of a plurality of different colors, respectively, the hoppers being arranged in the scanning direction, the carriage being further provided with a recording head portion capable of ejecting ink received in the plurality of hoppers; a sheet transport mechanism for transporting a recording sheet in a sheet transport direction orthogonal to the scanning direction, the sheet transport mechanism transporting the sheet in the printing region along the scanning direction; an ink storing unit, disposed in the ink supply region, for storing ink of the plurality of different colors, the ink storing unit including a plurality of ink supplying portions each for supplying ink of a corresponding color, the plurality of ink supplying portions being arranged in the scanning direction, distances between the ink supplying portions along the scanning direction being different from distances between the hoppers along the scanning direction; and a carriage scanning control mechanism for controlling the carriage to move in the scanning direction, the carriage scanning
Ishii Makoto
Ogawa Hiroo
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Hsieh Shih-Wen
Le N.
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
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