Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-02
2003-08-26
Vo, Anh T. N. (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
active
06609788
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART
The present invention relates to a liquid container, in particular, a liquid container with a large capacity, which is removably mountable in the main assembly of a recording apparatus, and stores liquid (ink) used for recording by a recording apparatus. The present invention also relates to a recording apparatus in which such a liquid container. in particular, a liquid container with a large capacity, is removably mountable.
Conventionally, a recording apparatus records on recording medium such as paper, fabric, plastic sheet, OHP sheet, and the like. It employs one of various recording heads different in the recording system they employ. As for the types of recording heads mounted in a recording apparatus, there are various recording heads different in the recording methods they use. For example, there are a wire-dot recording method, a thermal recording method, a thermal transfer method, and an ink jet method. Among various recording apparatuses, those that employ an ink jet recording system have been commercialized and have been used as an outputting means of an information processing system, for example, a printer as an output terminal of a copying machine, a facsimile machine, an electric typewriter, a word processor, or a work station, or a handy printer, that is, a portable printer, with which a personal computer, a host computer, a disk apparatus, a video apparatus, and the like, are provided.
In an ink jet system, an ink jet head is provided with microscopic ejection holes, and ink is shot out, in the form of an ink droplet, from these microscopic ejection holes. A desired recording is made by causing a plurality of ink droplets to land on the recording medium. An ink jet head for an ink jet recording apparatus employs one of various means for generating energy for ejecting ink from an ejection orifice, for example, a means which employs electromechanical transducers such as a piezoelectric element, or a means which ejects ink droplets by the effect of the heat generated by irradiating electromagnetic waves such a laser beam upon ink.
In recent years, a great amount of progress has been made in the field of a computer and the software therefore. As a result, it has become possible to process a color image, and therefore, a recording apparatus capable of outputting a high quality image, that is, a highly precise image, is in high demand as an output terminal for a computer capable of processing a color image. In order to enable an ink jet recording apparatus to output a color image, a plurality of inks different in color are used. Further, ejection hole density is increased, and ink density is changed.
With the drastic improvement in ink and a recording head, an ink jet recording apparatus has been improved in terms of durability (fastness) and water resistance of an image recorded by the apparatus, the recording speed, along with the reliability. As a result, an ink jet recording apparatus, which had remained in a small market for the users who use the apparatus at home or in a small office, has begun to penetrate into a large market for business users who use the apparatus in an office on a large scale. In comparison to a personal user, a business user has greater printing frequency and print count, and also is more sensitive to the cost of running the apparatus.
FIGS. 10 and 11
show an example of a conventional replaceable ink cartridge (liquid container) used with the above described ink jet recording apparatus.
FIG. 10
is an exploded perspective view of this ink cartridge, and shows component structures
FIG. 11
is a sectional view of the ink cartridge illustrated in FIG.
10
.
As shown in
FIGS. 10 and 11
, this ink cartridge has an ink storage chamber formed by an ink container
541
and an ink container lid
542
. It also has a waste ink storage chamber formed by a waste ink container lid
545
. Within the waste ink container
543
, an absorbent member
544
for absorbing and retaining the recovered ink (the shape of the absorbent member
544
in the drawing represents the shape of the absorbent member
544
after its installation into the waste ink container
543
) is contained. The lid
542
is attached to the ink container
541
by supersonic welding. It is also by supersonic welding that the waste ink container
543
and its lid
545
are attached to each other.
The ink container
541
is provided with a plurality of tubular claw grippers
555
, which are located on the external surface of one of the lateral walls of the ink container
541
, and the waste ink container
543
is provided with a plurality of claws
554
, which are located on the external surfaces of one of the lateral walls of the waste ink container
543
. Thus, as the ink container
541
and waste ink container
543
are slid against each other, while keeping the lateral wall surface with claws
555
and the lateral wall surface with tubular claw grippers flatly in contact with each other, the claws
554
engage into the tubular claw grippers
555
, securing the ink container
541
and waste ink container
543
to each other.
As the ink container
541
and the waste ink container
543
are joined with each other, the external surface of the lid
542
and the external surface of the lid
543
become level with each other. These two surfaces are each provided with a housing
550
which contains an ink path. Each housing
550
is filled with a dorm-shaped elastic member
556
, and is capped with a crown
547
or a fixing member. These components make up the joint portion through which the ink storage chamber is connected to the apparatus main assembly to allow ink to flow between the ink storage chamber and the apparatus main assembly. This joint portion and its adjacencies are surrounded by a wall
553
provided for preventing a hand or the like from coming in contact with them. The height of the joint portion is approximately the same as, or less than, that of the wall
553
.
The external surface of one of the lateral walls
553
of the ink cartridge is provided with a plurality of insertion error prevention grooves
551
for preventing an ink cartridge different in type from the standard cartridge for the recording apparatus from being inserted into the apparatus main assembly.
As described above, the ink jet recording apparatus market has expanded from the size of the personal user market to the much greater size of the business user market. In comparison to a personal user, a business user has greater printing frequency and print count, and also is more sensitive to the cost of running the apparatus. Thus, it is important to reduce ink cartridge exchange frequency, and also to reduce the running cost by reducing the ratio of the ink cartridge cost exclusive of the cost of the ink within the ink cartridge, relative to the cost of the ink within the ink cartridge, in order to meet the needs of the business users. As a result, an ink cartridge with a larger ink capacity has come to be widely used.
As an ink cartridge is increased in its ink capacity, the overall weight of the ink cartridge increases. Therefore, the impact to which the ink cartridge is subjected if a user accidentally drops the ink cartridge increases. In the case of an ink cartridge with a small ink capacity, even if the claws and tubular claw grippers of the ink cartridge were subjected to the impact caused by dropping, there was no problem. However, in the case of an ink cartridge with an increased ink capacity, the impact to which the claws
554
and tubular claw grippers
555
are subjected is much greater, creating a possibility that the ink container
541
and waste ink container
543
become separated due to the impact. Further, in the case of an ink cartridge which has a large capacity and is structured as was the above described conventional ink cartridge, if it is subjected to the impact which applies to the waste ink container
543
from the direction of the lid
545
, a relatively large force applies to the claws
552
and tubular claw grippers
553
in the direction t
Fukazawa Hideo
Hatasa Nobuyuki
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
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