Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Controller
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-02
2002-08-13
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Controller
C347S086000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06431681
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus which has a liquid container removably mountable in the main assembly of a recording apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to the structure of the juncture between the main assembly of a recording apparatus and a liquid container.
In an ink jet recording method, a desired recording is made by causing ink droplets to be shot out of microscopic ejection holes in an ink jet head in such a manner that the ink droplets land on recording medium.
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 the main assembly of 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 apparatus, those that employ an ink jet recording system (ink jet recording apparatuses) 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 stations 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.
The ink jet head of the above described ink jet recording apparatus is provided with ejection energy generation elements for generating the energy for ejecting ink from the ejection holes. As for examples of the ejection energy generation elements, there are an electromechanical transducer such as a piezoelectric element, a laser, an electrothermal transducer having a heat generating resistor, and the like. In the case of laser, electromagnetic waves are irradiated from the laser to generate heat used for ejecting ink droplets, and in the case of the electrothermal transducer, ink droplets are ejected by heating liquid by the electrothermal transducer.
In recent years, a great amount of progress has been made in the fields of computers and the software therefor. Consequently, it has become necessary for an ink jet recording apparatus to be capable of outputting a color image. In order to cater to such a necessity, some ink jet heads have been enabled to record in color.
Further, not only has it become necessary to record in color, but also to record with a high degree of preciseness. In the case of an ink jet recording method, the capability to output an image with a higher degree of preciseness and quality has been realized by increasing printing density, changing ink density, and/or the like. As a result, a recording apparatus which employs an ink jet method has come to be widely used not only by business people and computer professionals, but also by personal users in homes and small offices.
An ink jet recording apparatus such as the above described one requires a single or plurality of ink containers for holding ink. One example of such ink containers is an ink cartridge, which is removably mountable in the main assembly of an ink jet recording apparatus.
FIG. 8
is an exploded perspective view of an ink cartridge mountable in a conventional recording apparatus, and shows the structure thereof.
FIG. 9
is a sectional view of the ink cartridge shown in FIG.
8
.
As shown in
FIGS. 8 and 9
, 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
543
and 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 the 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
.
As an ink cartridge structured as described above is mounted into the recording apparatus main assembly, two hollow needles (unshown), with which the recording apparatus main assembly is provided, penetrate the corresponding elastic members
556
, establishing two passages between the interior of the ink container
541
and the recording apparatus main assembly to allow the liquid within the ink container
541
to be sent to the recording apparatus main assembly in exchange for the air therefrom.
More specifically, the ink which has been stored in the ink container
541
is supplied to the recording apparatus main assembly through one of the hollow needles having penetrated the elastic members
556
, and the air is sent into the ink container in return through the other hollow needle.
However, a conventional ink cartridge such as the one described above is not given a function of allowing a user to determine whether or not an ink cartridge has been properly mounted in the recording apparatus main assembly during the mounting of the ink cartridge into the recording apparatus main assembly Therefore, there is a possibility that an ink. cartridge will be pressed against the recording apparatus main assembly by an unnecessarily large amount of force, and such application of a large amount of force might result in damages to the ink cartridge and/or the recording apparatus main assembly. Also, there is a possibility that an ink cartridge might be repeatedly mounted or dismounted until a user becomes convinced than the ink cartridge has been properly mounted in the recording apparatus main assembly. Such repeated mounting or dismounting of an ink cartridge means more probable the occurrence of damages to the ink container or recording apparatus main assembly. In other words, lack of the aforementioned function completes a user to carry out an otherwise unnecessary operation, which is a problem.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention was made in consideration of the problems, such as those described above, which the conventional technologies have. Thus, the principal object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus, a
Fukazawa Hideo
Hatasa Nobuyuki
Koizumi Yutaka
Tajima Hiroki
Umeyama Mikiya
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Stewart Jr. Charles W.
LandOfFree
Recording apparatus, liquid container cartridge and liquid... 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, liquid container cartridge and liquid..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Recording apparatus, liquid container cartridge and liquid... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2878010