Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
1997-03-06
2001-12-11
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S096000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06328414
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus for performing a printing for a printing medium with the use of an ink head for ejecting ink and a treatment liquid head for ejecting treatment liquid to control printing properties of the ink, a printing head unit usable for the printing apparatus, a liquid tank unit adapted to be mounted on the printing head unit, and a printing method.
In recent years, with respect to an ink jet printing apparatus for forming an image by ejecting ink from a printing head to a printing medium such as a paper, a film, a cloth or the like (hereinafter referred to as a printing sheet), a technology having treatment liquid additionally used for improving water resistance of the ink and controlling properties of the ink so as to print an image with high quality. The treatment liquid has a function for suppressing the blur of the ink by suppressing the penetration of the ink to the printing sheet or promoting the drying of the ink. The treatment liquid is ejected to the printing sheet before the ink is ejected or the treatment liquid is ejected to the printing sheet directly after the ink is ejected. An ink jet printing apparatus of the foregoing type is known as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laying-open No. 15-128862.
A conventional ink jet printing apparatus is basically designed so as not to allow the ink to leak from an ink supplying tank. However, there is a fear that ink leaks from a connecting portion between a printing head and an ink supplying tank for some reason, e.g., radical variation of the atmosphere pressure exerted on the ink supplying tank. For this reason, there arises a necessity that printing operation is not incorrectly performed even though the ink leaks in the aforementioned manner. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laying-open No. 60-85964 discloses a dish-like member for receiving the leaked ink from the ink supplying system, the whole ink supplying system arranged on the dish-like member. In addition, there is known the printing apparatus that while the bottom of a housing have not any opening portion so as not to leak the ink. In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laying-open No. 09-024618 discloses that the ink leaked from an ink supplying system is conducted to a specific discharging passage arranged in the printing apparatus, and moreover, the ink is additionally conducted to an ink drain tank from the discharging passage.
With respect to an ink jet printing apparatus adapted to perform a printing by ejecting to a printing sheet the treatment liquid to control printing properties of ink before the ink is ejected or after it is ejected, in the case that a conventional measure is employed to the printing apparatus for ink leakage, there appear problems as noted below when leakage of both of the ink and the treatment liquid occurs.
(1) In the case that a technology for completely covering the bottom of the printing apparatus is employed, there is a fear that the ink and the treatment liquid react with each other and they are solidified, causing the vicinity of a supplying port for supplying ink from an ink supplying portion to a printing head to be closed due to the solidification of the ink and the treatment liquid, and moreover, sealing properties of a printing head relative to the surface of a plurality of ejecting ports are degraded due to adhesion of the solidified ink to a cap head disposed for the printing head.
(2) In the case that the technology for conducting leaked ink to an ink drain tank via a specific discharging passage is employed, there is a fear that the discharging passage is closed due to the reaction of the leaked ink with the leaked treatment liquid in the discharging passage. Thus, there is a fear that the ink or the treatment liquid which leaks later flows out from the discharging passage into the interior of the printing apparatus or flows out from the printing apparatus and it is then solidified with the result that the printing apparatus and associated components are seriously damaged.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus which can prevent an occurrence of malfunction that the printing apparatus and printing operation are not adversely affected even though both of ink and treatment liquid leak in the case that a printing operation is performed for a printing medium with the use of an ink head for ejecting ink and a treatment liquid head for ejecting treatment liquid to control printing properties of the ink.
Other object of the present invention is to provide a printing head unit used for the printing apparatus.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a liquid supplying tank to be mounted on the printing head unit.
Further another object of the present invention is to provide a method of controlling the printing apparatus.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus for performing a printing for a printing medium with the use of an ink head having a plurality of ink ejecting ports formed thereon for ejecting ink supplied from a first ink supplying tank storing the ink and a treatment liquid head having a plurality of treatment liquid ejecting ports formed thereon for ejecting treatment liquid supplied from a first treatment liquid supplying tank storing the treatment liquid to control printing properties of the ink, wherein the printing apparatus comprises;
ink head restoring means for performing restoring for the ink head by sucking ink from the ink ejecting ports,
an ink drain tank for receiving the ink sucked by the sucking operation of the ink head restoring means,
leaked ink conducting means for conducting the ink leaked from the first ink supplying tank to the ink drain tank,
treatment liquid restoring means for performing restoring for the treatment liquid head by sucking treatment liquid from the treatment liquid ejecting ports,
a treatment liquid drain tank for receiving the treatment liquid sucked by the sucking operation of the treatment liquid head restoring means, and
leaked treatment liquid conducting means for conducting the treatment liquid leaked from the first treatment liquid supplying tank to the treatment liquid drain tank.
With respect to the printing apparatus constructed according to the first aspect of the present invention, in the case that the ink-leak from the ink supplying tank connected to the printing head and/or the treatment liquid leak from the treatment liquid supplying tank connected to the printing head, the leaked ink is conducted to the ink drain tank via leaked ink conducting means and the leaked treatment liquid is conducted to the treatment liquid drain tank via leaked treatment liquid conducting means. Thus, the ink and the treatment liquid sucked at the time when the printing head is restored are conducted without any occurrence of mixing and solidification during the ink and the treatment liquid are conducted by utilizing the ink drain tank for receiving the ink therein and the treatment liquid drain tank for receiving the treatment liquid therein.
In the printing apparatus constructed according to the first aspect of the present invention, the first ink supplying tank includes the ink supplying port and the first treatment liquid supplying tank includes the treatment liquid supplying port, and the first ink supplying tank may be detachably attached to the ink head via the ink supplying port and the first treatment liquid supplying tank may be detachably attached to the treatment liquid head via the treatment liquid supplying port. In this case, leakage of the ink from the first ink supplying tank occur from the vicinity of the ink supplying port and leakage of the treatment liquid from the first treatment liquid supplying tank occur from the vicinity of the treatment liquid supplying port.
The printing apparatus may further include a printing head unit structured by combining the ink head and the treatment liquid head integrally, the enclosed space for se
Barlow John
Brooke Michael S
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
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