Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Utility Patent
1998-03-12
2001-01-02
Le, N. (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S008000
Utility Patent
active
06168260
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus of the serial type in which a carriage holding a recording head undergoes the main scanning in a direction perpendicular to a conveying direction of a recording medium (the sub-scanning direction).
2. Related Background Art
The recording apparatus having functions of printer, copier, facsimile device, or the like, or the recording apparatus used as an output device of workstation or composite electronic equipment including a computer, a word processor, or the like is constructed so as to record an image on a recording material (recording medium) such as paper or a plastic thin film, based on image information. These recording apparatus can be classified based on their recording methods, for example, into the ink Jet type, the wire dot type, the thermal type, the laser beam type, and so on.
In the recording apparatus of the serial type adopting the serial scan method for performing the main scanning in the direction perpendicular to the conveying direction of the recording material (the sub-scanning direction), an image is recorded on the entire recording material by repeating such operation that an image for a line is recorded (or mainly scanned) by recording means mounted on a carriage arranged to move along the recording material, the recording material is fed by a predetermined amount (or conveyed by a pitch) after completion of the recording in one line, and thereafter an image for a next line is recorded (or mainly scanned) on the recording material after being stopped again.
An example of the conventional serial type recording apparatus is one in which the carriage carrying the recording head in a detachable state is slidably mounted on a guide shaft and a guide rail provided parallel to each other. The carriage is coupled with a part of a timing belt stretched between a pulley fixed to an output shaft of a carriage motor and an idle pulley rotatably supported, and the recording head is reciprocated by forward rotation and backward rotation of the carriage motor. The carriage is provided with a gap distance adjusting portion for adjustment of a gap between the recording head and the recording material.
This gap distance adjusting portion will be described referring to FIG.
15
.
FIG. 15
is a drawing for explaining the gap distance adjusting portion of the carriage in the conventional serial type recording apparatus. The view of the carriage
1050
shown in FIG.
15
corresponds to the top plan view of carriage
50
of
FIG. 1
that illustrates an embodiment of the present invention described hereinafter.
As shown in
FIG. 15
, the gap distance adjusting portion is provided in the upper part of carriage
1050
and is composed of an adjusting lever
1581
, a press lever
1582
, a press spring
1583
, and a top cover
1584
.
The adjusting lever
1581
is pivoted by putting a pin thereof in a hole provided in the carriage
1050
. The adjusting lever
1581
has polygonal slide faces
1585
in different distances from the center of rotation of the adjusting lever
1581
, according to the number of gap distance positions. The press lever
1582
is pivoted about a pin provided on the carriage
1050
and urges a slide face
1585
of the adjusting lever
1581
against the guide rail
1082
by the press spring
1583
; for example, describing with
FIG. 1
, it biases the carriage in a rotational direction so that the top part of carriage
50
may be displaced to this side about the guide shaft
81
. When a slide face
1585
of the adjusting lever
1581
is switched to another, the carriage rotates about the guide shaft
1081
, thus achieving change in the gap distance. The top cover
1584
is fixed by claws formed on the both sides of the carriage
1050
, thereby holding the adjusting lever
1581
, the press lever
1582
, and so on. The adjusting lever
1581
has elasticity and a projection is formed at the tip thereof. This projection is fitted in either one of plural grooves formed at predetermined positions in the top cover
1584
to fix the adjusting lever
1581
, thus establishing a gap of a predetermined distance.
Further, an ink jet recording apparatus is provided with a recovery mechanism for performing a recovery process for the recording head mounted on the carriage, at one end of the reciprocal scan range of the carriage. The recovery mechanism has a cap for removing viscosity-increased ink in the recording head and for protecting the recording head during the non-recording period. With the carriage in the structure of
FIG. 15
contact pressure was achieved between the recording head and the cap on the occasion of contact by utilizing the urging force of the press lever against the guide rail. The gap adjusting mechanism of this structure has an advantage of permitting easy gap adjustment by the simple structure and an advantage of permitting execution of a good recovery process of the recording head, because the contact pressure to the cap is obtained by use of the urging force of urging means.
In recent years, remarkable progress is made in improvement in the quality of an image and further development is under way to decrease in the diameter of dots of color recording image, increase in multiple gradation levels, and so on. Under such circumstances, the structure of the carriage in the conventional recording apparatus as described above had such a drawback that the urging force for urging the cap against the recording head also acted on the guide rail during the scan of the carriage and thus force to twist the carriage, i.e., force to rotate the carriage in the direction of the arrow about the center of rotation at the contact portion between the guide rail
1082
and the slide face
1585
as in
FIG. 15
, acted so as to exert a great load on the scan of the carriage. This was a hindrance against enhancement of the accuracy of recording position and against improvement in durability, for example, from the reason that abrasion would proceed at the sliding portion against the guide rail during long-term use or the like so as to degrade the sliding property and in turn cause stick-slip.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus in which an urging force for rotationally urging a carriage is made to act between the carriage and a guide member for guiding movement of the carriage only in a predetermined region in a moving region of the carriage, for solving the above problem.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus in which the urging force for rotationally urging the carriage is made to act between the carriage and the guide member for guiding movement of the carriage only in the predetermined region in the moving region of the carriage, whereby the carriage can be urged and displaced in the predetermined region while enhancing the accuracy of recording position and the durability in a region except for the predetermined region.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus in which the urging force on the cap is given during the nonrecording period whereas no torque acts on the carriage during the recording scanning of the carriage, thereby enhancing the accuracy of recording position and the durability.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus having a carriage for realizing reciprocal scanning of a recording head for recording in a recording medium, guide means for guiding the carriage in reciprocal scan directions, and a positioning member and a press member placed opposite to each other with the guide means in between on the carriage, wherein the press member is not pressed against the guide means in a region except for a predetermined region in a reciprocal scan region of the carriage but is pressed against the guide means in the predetermined region.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5475404 (1995-12-01), Takahashi et al.
patent: 5751301 (1998-05-01), Saikawa et al.
patent: 2 318 947 (1974-10-01), Non
Kawakami Hideaki
Yanagi Haruyuki
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Hsieh Shihwon
Le N.
LandOfFree
Recording 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 Recording apparatus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Recording apparatus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2459604