Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-01
2003-04-29
Vo, Anh T. N. (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
active
06554411
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid container detachably replaceably attached to a main body of a printing apparatus for reserving a liquid (ink) used for printing in the printing apparatus and the printing apparatus onto which the liquid container is attachable, and more particularly to an ink jet printing apparatus using a large-capacity liquid container.
2. Related Background Art
Up to now, as printing apparatuses that print a print medium such as a paper, a cloth, a plastic sheet or an OHP sheet, there have been employed printing apparatuses each having a head mounted thereon, using various printing systems such as a wire dot system, a thermal printing system, a heat transfer system or an ink jet system. Among them, the printing apparatus using the ink jet system (ink jet printing apparatus) is employed as a printer which is output means of an information processing system, for example, an output terminal of a copying machine, a facsimile machine, an electronic typewriter, a word processor or a work station, or a handy printer or a portable printer equipped in a personal computer, a host computer, a disk apparatus or a video apparatus. Thus, the ink jet printing apparatus is made commodity of commercial basis.
The ink jet system is of the print system in which an ink droplet is flied from a fine discharge port defined in an ink jet head, and the ink droplet is attached onto a print medium, to thereby conduct a desired print. The ink jet head of the ink jet printing apparatus is equipped with an electromechanical converting element such as a piezo electric element which generates a pressure with application of an electric energy, means for generating a heat due to irradiation of an electromagnetic wave such as laser or an electrothermal converting element having a heating resistor to discharge the ink droplet by using the heat energy, or the like, as discharge energy generating means for generating energy for discharging an ink from the discharge port.
Recently, an improvement in computers and its software leads to the execution of a precise color image processing, and as its output terminal, a printing apparatus which can output a color image with high precision and high quality has been demanded. In the ink jet printing apparatus, an ink jet head which can discharge a plurality of liquid different in color is employed in order that the color image can be outputted, and also the density of the discharge port is heightened or the concentration of ink is changed so as to output the high-precision and high-quality image.
The above-described ink jet printing apparatus is equipped with a liquid supply container which reserves a liquid (ink) for printing and a waste liquid container which retains the ink that does not contribute to print and falls into disuse. As an example of the liquid supply container and the waste liquid container, an ink cartridge into which the liquid supply container and the waste liquid container are integrated and which is detachably replaceably attached onto a main body of the printing apparatus is shown in
FIGS. 73 and 74
.
FIG. 73
is an exploded perspective view showing the structure of the parts of the ink cartridge, and
FIG. 74
is a cross-sectional view of the ink cartridge shown in FIG.
73
.
As shown in
FIGS. 73 and 74
, the ink cartridge has an ink reservoir chamber formed by an ink container
541
and a cap
542
joined to an opening portion of the ink container
541
, and a waste ink reservoir chamber formed by the waste ink container
543
and a cap
545
joined to the waste ink container
543
. The ink container
541
and the waste ink container
543
are integrally engaged with each other. The waste ink container
543
includes an absorber
544
that absorbs and retains a recovery ink therein. The ink container
541
and the cap
542
, and the waste ink container
543
and the cap
545
are joined to each other by, for example, ultrasonic welding, respectively.
Two cylindrical housings
550
formed so as to surround a communication port are disposed on a face of the cap
542
of the ink container
541
which is in contact with the exterior, and a dome-shaped elastic member
556
is fitted to each opening portion of the cylindrical housings
550
by a crest member
547
attached to the housing
550
so as to cover the housing
550
. Thus, each of connecting portions of the ink container
541
with the main body of the apparatus for ink communication, etc., is formed by the communication port, the housing
550
, the elastic member
556
and the crest member
547
. Likewise, the waste ink container
543
has a connecting portion formed on a face connected to the face where the connecting portion of the ink container
541
is formed in a state where the ink container
541
and the waste ink container
543
are engaged with each other. A wall
553
is formed around those plural connecting portions on a face where the connecting portion of the ink cartridge is formed.
In the printing apparatus that enables color print, since plural kinds of inks are employed, in order to prevent an ink cartridge that reserves an ink different in kind from an ink reserved in an ink cartridge to be intentionally equipped in the apparatus from being erroneously inserted into a connecting port at the time of replacing the ink cartridge by a fresh cartridge, mis-insertion preventing grooves
551
having a configuration different for each of the ink cartridges that reserves various kinds of inks are provided in each of the ink cartridges. In other words, the main body of the printing apparatus is equipped with rails corresponding to the mis-insertion preventing grooves
551
. Therefore, even if the ink cartridge different from the ink cartridge to be intentionally connected is going to be inserted thereinto, the ink cartridge cannot be inserted.
The wall
553
is so adapted as to protect the connecting portions and the mis-insertion preventing grooves
551
so that an operator's hand is prevented from entering the connecting portions and the mis-insertion preventing grooves
551
, and the height of the wall
553
is normally equal to the height of the connecting portions or higher than the connecting portions.
The ink jet printing apparatus improves in the preservativity and the water resistance of a printing material with remarkable improvements of the ink, the head, etc., and also enhances its reliability such that the printing speed is increased, etc. For that reason, up to now, the ink jet printing apparatus market is mainly the personal user market for the purpose of utilization in a home, a small-scaled office, etc. However, now, the ink jet printing apparatus market is also advancing into a business user market for the purpose of utilization in a large-scaled office.
As compared with the personal user, the business user increases the printing frequency and the number of print sheets and is also highly conscious of the running costs. Under the circumstances, in order that the replacing frequency of the ink cartridges is reduced and the rate of the container costs to the ink costs is reduced to decrease the running costs in response to the user's demands, a large-capacity ink cartridge is increasingly employed.
In the small-capacity ink cartridge, there does not arise any problem even if the user drops down the ink cartridge in error to apply an impact to the wall
553
. In the large-capacity ink cartridge, because an increased capacity causes an increase in weight, an impact becomes large when the ink cartridge drops down, resulting in the large possibility that the wall
553
is destroyed by the impact such as dropping.
The wall
553
is provided with a convex portion matched with a guide groove of the main body of the printing apparatus in order to surely connect the ink cartridge to the connecting port of the main body of the printing apparatus when the ink cartridge is inserted into the main body of the printing apparatus. Also, the mechanical key mechanism such as the above-mentione
Abe Tsutomu
Hatasa Nobuyuki
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Vo Anh T. N.
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