Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
2002-01-23
2004-06-29
Hsieh, Shih-Wen (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S085000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06755500
ABSTRACT:
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application Nos. 11-153060 (1999) filed May 31, 1999, 11-153062 (1999) filed May 31, 1999, 11-153063 (1999) filed May 31, 1999, 11-153064 (1999) filed May 31, 1999, and 2000-117063 filed Apr. 18, 2000, the contents of which are incorporated hereinto by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink tank, an ink-jet cartridge, an ink-supplying apparatus, an ink-jet printing apparatus, a method for supplying ink, an ink-jet printing head and a printing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
(First Prior Art)
Heretofore, a serial-scanning type printing apparatus has been known as an example of the ink-jet printing apparatus. This kind of the printing apparatus exchangeably carries a printing head as a printing means and an ink tank as an ink container on the carriage which is capable of movement in the direction of main-scanning perpendicular to the direction of sub-scanning (i.e., the direction of moving a printing medium such as a piece of paper). As for this kind of the printing system, images are sequentially printed on a printing medium by repeating the movement of the carriage on which the printing head and the ink tank are mounted in the direction of main-scanning and the movement of the printing medium in the direction of sub-scanning.
The serial-scanning type printing apparatus is able to print an image on a large sized printing medium (e.g., A1, A0 size) by enlarging the migration width of the carriage. In this case, however, the ink storage capacity of the ink tank should be increased for using a great volume of ink to print an image on the surface of a large-sized printing, so that the whole weight of the carriage is increased in proportion to the capacity of the ink. In addition, an inertial force in the movement of the carriage is also proportionally increased. For moving the carriage at a high speed against the inertial force, there is the need for installing a driving motor with a large amount of electric power for driving the carriage in high power, resulting in the problem of increasing the price of the printing apparatus in its entirety. In addition, as the total weight of the carriage is increased, there is another problem that the printing apparatus oscillates greatly as a whole by the counterforce contrary to the force for deaccelerating the carriage to zero against the inertial force when the carriage returns at a returning point of its reciprocating motion in the main-scanning direction. Therefore, it was difficult for speeding up the travel speed of the carriage.
For reducing the weight of the carriage, on the other hand, the capacity of the ink tank may be lessened. In this case, however, the frequency of replacing the ink tank rises and thus there is a high possibility of replacing the ink tank with the new one in the middle of the printing movement.
One of the solutions to solve the problem about such a replacement of the ink tank is proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laying-open 9-24698 (1997). In this prior art document, a deformable ink container is connected to a printing head. The deformable ink container can be connected to an auxiliary ink container as necessary for supplying ink from the latter to the former. The deformable ink container comprises a bag that stores ink under the negative pressure enough to restrain the leakage of ink from the ink-eject port. Therefore, ink can be supplied from the auxiliary ink container to the deformable ink container by an effect of such a negative pressure.
The bag used in the deformable ink container is a flexible one enough to reduce its capacity in proportion to become flat, depending on the volume of ink ejected from the printing head (i.e., the usage of ink in the bag). When the volume of the bag is decreased to less than the fixed volume, a supply opening of the deformable ink container is opened to establish connection with the auxiliary ink container. As a result, ink is supplied into the bag of the deformable ink container from the auxiliary ink container by the negative pressure of the inside of the bag. When the ink capacity of the bag reaches to a maximum level, the negative pressure in the bag becomes zero and the supply of the ink is automatically stopped. According to such a prior art, therefore, the supply of ink can be automatically stopped by using the negative pressure without requiring the control using a pressure sensor, a volume detection sensor, and so on.
By the way, the upper limit of the negative pressure in the deformable ink container can be determined by its balance with the force of ejecting ink from the printing head. If the negative pressure becomes too high, the force of ejecting ink from the printing head is decreased by an effect of the negative pressure. Therefore, the negative pressure must be decided within the scope of the best ink-eject conditions in the printing head. In addition, a head location of ink in the auxiliary ink container must be configured so that it is lower than that of ink in the deformable ink container. If the deference between those heads is too large, ink cannot be supplied any more even if the negative pressure in the deformable ink container is defined so as to correspond to the conditions of ink-eject of the printing head.
As for the prior art, therefore, it is provided with the special device to configure a position of the auxiliary ink container in the vertical direction with respect to the deformable ink container. As for being provided with such a device, however, the problems of upsizing and cost up of the printing apparatus may be caused. If air enters into an ink flow path that connects between the auxiliary ink container and the deformable ink container from a part of the path at the time of ink supply, the entering air moves into the bag of the deformable ink container and then reduces the ink capacity of the deformable ink container by a large amount. Furthermore, the deformable ink container is filled with air if a large amount of the air is entered into the bag, so that there is a problem that a further supply of ink cannot be made. Still furthermore, the deformable ink container comprises an elastic container part that forms a bag and a movable part such as a spring that inflate the bag to a predetermined volume. Thus, there are further problems of the limitation of downsizing, complicated and heavy-weighted structure, and the rise in production cost.
(Second Prior Art)
Heretofore, a serial-scanning type printing apparatus has been known as an example of the ink-jet printing apparatus. This kind of the printing apparatus exchangeably carries a printing head as a printing means and an ink tank as an ink container on the carriage which is capable of movement in the direction of main-scanning perpendicular to the direction of sub-scanning (i.e., the direction of moving a printing medium such as a piece of paper). The printing head and the ink tank are connected each other by an ink path. As for this kind of the printing system, images are sequentially printed on a printing medium by repeating the movement of the carriage on which the printing head and the ink tank are mounted in the direction of main-scanning and the movement of the printing medium in the direction of sub-scanning.
On the other hand, a method for supplying ink to the ink tank of the ink-jet printing apparatus may be of the supply of ink through the application of pressure to the ink or the sucking of ink through the induction of negative pressure in the ink tank.
By the way, if the method for sucking of the ink into the ink tank is used as a method for supplying ink to the ink tank being connected to the printing head, there is the possibility of sucking ink in the printing head into the ink tank by an effect of the negative pressure to be introduced into the ink tank at the time of supplying ink under suction. If the ink in the printing head is introduced into the ink tank, a meniscus of ink to be formed on each of ink eject ports of the printing head is
Ara Yohji
Asaki Noriyasu
Fukazawa Hideo
Hayashi Hiroki
Hirano Hirofumi
LandOfFree
Ink tank, ink-jet cartridge, ink-supplying apparatus,... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Ink tank, ink-jet cartridge, ink-supplying apparatus,..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Ink tank, ink-jet cartridge, ink-supplying apparatus,... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3348617