Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-19
2002-05-07
Nghiem, Michael (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
active
06382783
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink tank preferably used for an ink-jet recorder or the like, particularly to a liquid supply method in which a part of a container can be changed.
2. Related Background Art
A conventional ink-jet recorder uses an ink tank for storing ink by a negative pressure generated by a capillary force as an ink tank for storing a liquid (ink) to be attached to a recording medium to perform recording and supplying the ink to an ink-jet recording head for discharging the ink to the recording medium.
The most general configuration of the ink tank uses the capillary force of a porous body and includes a porous body such as sponge set or preferably compressively set in the whole ink tank to store ink and an atmospheric air communication portion capable of introducing air into an ink storage portion for smoothly supplying ink under printing.
However, the ink tank using the porous member as a capillary force generating member for storing ink has a low ink-storage efficiency for unit volume. Therefore, the present applicant proposes an ink tank comprising a capillary force generating member container for storing a capillary-force generation member and a liquid supply container for storing the ink to be supplied to the capillary force generating member container though a communication portion in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-125232. That is, in case of the above configuration, because the liquid supply container stores only ink, the ink storage efficiency is improved by storing ink in the container.
The liquid supply container is substantially closed except the communication portion and the capillary force generating member container is exposed to the atmospheric air through the atmospheric air communication portion. When ink is supplied from the liquid supply portion, air is introduced into the capillary-force generation member from the atmospheric air communication portion through a buffer chamber and the ink is supplied to the capillary-force generation portion from the liquid supply container while the air is introduced into the liquid supply container from the capillary-force generation member. Ink is supplied to the capillary force generating member container from the liquid supply container in accordance with gas-liquid change operation.
Moreover, the present applicant proposes an invention making it possible to change liquid containers of an ink tank having the above structure in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-226990. According to the invention, it is possible to repeatedly use a capillary force generating member container by consuming the ink in the liquid supply container and thereafter, changing the empty liquid supply container to a new liquid supply container filled with ink.
On the other hand, the present applicant proposes an ink tank using a fiber body made of a thermoplastic olefin-based resin (e.g. polypropylene or polyethylene) as a capillary-force generation member of the ink tank in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-20115. The ink tank is superior in ink storage stability and moreover superior in recycling characteristic since both the body of the ink tank and the fiber body are made of the same kind of material.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present inventor et al. studied a liquid supply method using the above gas-liquid change system and resultantly obtained new information for flow and change of liquid and gas introduction about connection position and setting/removal between a liquid supply container and a negative pressure generating member container.
That is, the present inventor et al. completed a new liquid supply method by setting a plurality of liquid storage members (sponges or fiber bodies or the like serving as negative pressure generating members) in a negative pressure generating member container, noticing the positional relation between their contact faces of the storage members and joints of a liquid supply container with the members, and technically analyzing a configuration or system for further improving a liquid supply performance.
A liquid supply method according to the present invention is a liquid supply method according to a liquid supply system comprising a liquid supply container having a liquid storage portion for storing liquid in a closed, a capillary-force generation member which can be set to or removed from the liquid supply container and hold the liquid, an atmospheric air communication portion for communicating with atmospheric air, and a capillary force generating member container provided with a liquid supply portion for supplying liquid to the outside, which is applied to a system using at least two liquid storage members made of fiber and contacted each other as the capillary force generating member.
As a result of studying the above liquid supply system, the present inventor et al. obtained the following three aspects.
(First aspect)
It is a first aspect according to the present invention that at the time of taking a liquid supply container out of a capillary force generating member container, movement of the ink left in a communication portion to a capillary force generating member is changed due to the relation between the position of a contact face of the liquid storage member and the position of the communication portion.
In this first aspect, it is characterized that the contact face is present below the upper end of the communication portion.
(Second aspect)
It is a second aspect according to the present invention that movement of gas during gas-liquid change operation is changed due to the relation between the position of a contact face and that of a communication portion.
In this second aspect, it is characterized that the contact face is present below the upper end of the communication portion and above the lower end of the communication portion.
Even if a gas-liquid interface lowers as ink is consumed and the level of ink in a liquid supply container lowers, lowering of the gas-liquid interface is controlled by the contact face in the communication portion. Therefore, air is introduced into a liquid supply container from the upper side of the communication portion before it is introduced into a lower absorption body (liquid storage member) and thereby, the ink discharged out of the liquid supply container is directly discharged to the lower absorption body (liquid storage member).
Therefore, it is possible to sequence operations and make the operations securely function so as to first, consume the ink in the upper absorption body and the ink in the liquid supply container through gas-liquid change operation and thereafter consume the ink in the lower absorption body (liquid storage member).
(Third aspect)
It is a third aspect according to the present invention that ink movement in a capillary force generating member container when connected with a liquid supply container is changed due to the relation between the position of a contact face and that of a communication portion.
In this third aspect, it is characterized that the contact face is present below the lower end of the communication portion.
When the liquid supply container is connected to the capillary force generating member container in which ink is consumed and the ink is injected into the liquid supply container, the injected ink controls a gas-liquid interface once by a pressure-welding face because the contact face is formed at the lower side of the communication portion. Therefore, it is possible to immediately stabilize the gas-liquid interface of the injected ink.
The present invention is summarized by an invention of “locating a contact face below the upper end of a communication portion” as the synthesis of these first to third aspects.
Under the normal operating state in which a liquid supply container is connected with a capillary force generating member container, a gas-liquid interface L is formed nearby the upper end of a communication portion. Therefore, in case of a liquid supply method of the present invention, a gas-liquid
Hattori Shozo
Hayashi Hiroki
Kitabatake Kenji
Koshikawa Hiroshi
Shimizu Eiichiro
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Nghiem Michael
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