Fluent material handling – with receiver or receiver coacting mea – Filling means with receiver or receiver coacting means – Receiver actuated discharge means
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-25
2001-04-24
Maust, Timothy L. (Department: 3751)
Fluent material handling, with receiver or receiver coacting mea
Filling means with receiver or receiver coacting means
Receiver actuated discharge means
C141S094000, C141S100000, C141S104000, C141S31100A, C141S352000, C141S198000, C347S036000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06220314
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a waste-ink collecting apparatus for an ink-jet printer, and, more particularly, to a waste-ink collecting apparatus which collects waste inks to be discharged at the time of maintenance of a recording head that ejects ink.
An ordinary ink-jet printer has a recording head so arranged as to face a recording medium which is to be fed in a predetermined direction. The recording head has a plurality of nozzles aligned in a direction approximately perpendicular to the feeding direction of the recording medium. In printing characters or an image on a recording medium, the recording medium is fed at a constant speed in a predetermined direction and ink is selectively ejected from the nozzles of the recording head.
To accomplish high-resolution printing, the nozzles of a recording head are designed to have a very small diameter and are arranged close to one another at a high density. As the nozzles are made narrow, the nozzles are likely to clog with the passage of time. To prevent clogging of the nozzles of the recording head, the nozzles should be cleaned regularly.
In cleaning the nozzles of the recording head, the recording head is driven to discharge foreign matters and gases from the nozzles with a recording medium unfed. At this time, the waste inks discharged from the nozzles is retained in a predetermined ink retainer.
An air-liquid separation chamber is connected to the ink retainer via a waste-ink tube. Connected to the air-liquid separation chamber is a suction pump which generates negative pressure in the chamber. A filter for trapping an ink mist contained in the discharged gas is provided on the air-discharge side of the suction pump.
When the suction pump is driven, negative pressure is generated in the air-liquid separation chamber, causing the waste inks in the ink retainer to flow into the air-liquid separation chamber via the waste-ink tube. The ink mist discharged via the suction pump is trapped by the filter.
The waste inks that have flown into the air-liquid separation chamber are collected in a waste-ink collection tank by a liquid-discharge pump connected to the air-liquid separation chamber. When the waste-ink collection tank becomes full of waste ink, it is separated from a liquid-discharge tube led out from the liquid-discharge side of the liquid-discharge pump and removed.
With the above conventional structure, if a filter with a rough mesh is selected in consideration of the air discharging performance of the suction pump, it is not possible to completely trap the ink mist contained in the discharged air so that a waste ink is discharged in the air.
As the waste-ink collection tank is designed to be removable after it is separated from the liquid-discharge tube, waste inks are likely to leak from the portion where the waste-ink collection tank is connected to the liquid-discharge tube. The conventional structure therefore requires a collection mechanism for collecting the waste inks that have leaked from the connected portion between the tank and the tube.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a waste-ink collecting apparatus which is simple in structure and which can prevent waste inks from staining the interior of a printer.
To achieve the above object, a waste-ink collecting apparatus according to one aspect of this invention comprises a collection box for collecting waste ink; a holding case for retaining the collection box in a detachable manner; a nozzle unit attached to the holding case, having nozzles for disposing waste ink to the collection box and movable between a waste position where the waste inks are disposable through the nozzles and a standby position where the waste inks are not disposable; and an urging member for urging the nozzle unit to the standby position, whereby installing the collection box in the holding case moves the nozzle unit to the waste position an urging force of the urging member and removing the collection box from the holding case causes the urging member to move the nozzle unit to the standby position.
According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided a waste-ink collecting apparatus which comprises a collection box retaining an absorptive member for absorbing and holding waste inks; a holding case for retaining the collection box in a detachable manner; a nozzle unit rotatably attached to the holding case, having nozzles for disposing waste inks to the absorptive member and rotatable between a waste position where the waste inks are disposable through the nozzles and a standby position where the waste inks are not disposable; first urging member, provided between the holding case and the nozzle unit, for urging the nozzle unit to the standby position; a housing accommodating the holding case in an elevatable manner between a predetermined upper end position and a predetermined lower end position; second urging member, provided between the housing and the holding case, for urging the holding case to the upper end position, whereby installing the collection box in the holding case rotates the nozzle unit to the waste position against an urging force of the first urging means and removing the collection box from the holding case causes the first urging member to rotate the nozzle unit to the standby position, and wherein the holding case is elevated downward to the lower end position by a dead weight thereof against an urging force of the second urging means when the absorptive member absorbs a predetermined amount of waste inks.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4556894 (1985-12-01), Terasawa
patent: 5113206 (1992-05-01), Fukazawa
patent: 5699092 (1997-12-01), Kawakami et al.
patent: 5745134 (1998-04-01), Hirabayashi et al.
patent: 8-99415 (1996-04-01), None
Frishauf, Holtz Goodman, Langer & Chick, P.C.
Maust Timothy L.
Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
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