Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
1997-02-03
2001-06-05
Le, N. (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Fluid or fluid source handling means
Reexamination Certificate
active
06243116
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART
The present invention relates to an ink container to be installed in a color recording apparatus, a method for installing the ink container into the apparatus or removing it, and an apparatus in which the ink container can be installed. In particular, it relates to an exchangeable ink container that takes up less space, has a larger ink capacity, and can be reliably installed into a recording head cartridge; a method for installing the ink container into the apparatus or removing it; and an apparatus in which the ink container can be installed.
In the field of ink jet recording, in recent years, an ink jet unit in the form of a cartridge, in which a recording head and an ink container are integrated into a single unit, has come to be widely used in order to reduce the apparatus size, to accomplish a maintenance free operation, and other reasons. This type of ink jet unit can be easily installed on, or removed from, a scanning carriage provided in the apparatus, and can be simply exchanged with a fresh one by a user when the ink within the ink container is depleted.
Also, in the ink jet recording field, demand for color recording has been growing rapidly. As for a structure that employs the ink jet unit described in the foregoing to satisfy the demand for color recording, there are employed for color printing, for example: a structure in which a plurality of ink jet units, each containing a different color ink, are aligned on the carriage in parallel with the scanning direction; a structure in which an integral color ink jet unit comprising color ink containers, each containing one of the yellow, magenta, or cyan color inks that are used for color printing and being aligned in parallel with the recording heads that eject these inks, respectively, and an ink jet unit dedicated to eject black ink, which are disposed on the carriage to effect color printing, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,295; or the like structure.
The ink jet unit is discarded with the recording head when the ink within the ink container is depleted. However, the durability of the recording head is extremely long relative to the amount of the ink containable in the ink container. Therefore, discarding such an ink jet unit is not preferable from the viewpoint of natural resource preservation, environmental protection, or the like.
Therefore, a different structure has been proposed, such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,419,678, in which the recording head and ink container of the ink jet unit are rendered separable from each other so that it is possible to discard only the depleted ink container and replace it with a fresh one.
During the installation or removal of the ink container of the ink jet unit in which the recording head and ink container are separable, the ink delivery portion of the ink container is horizontally slid toward the ink receiving portion of the recording head, and since it is installed through a sliding motion, a large space is required to slide the ink container.
In the color recording apparatus, in particular a full-color recording apparatus, four ink containers that correspond to four colors, respectively, are aligned in parallel with the scanning direction; therefore, the space that the ink containers occupy in the apparatus is rather large. More specifically, the connection space in which the ink containers are connected to the recording heads, that is, the projected area of the ink container relative to the bottom surface of the recording apparatus, is extremely large. As described above, when an attempt is made to apply the structure, in which the recording head and ink container are rendered easily separable, to the apparatus for recording color images, it invites an increase in the apparatus size due to the ink container structure.
As for the ink jet unit in which the recording head and ink container are integrated, a structure such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,245,361 and 4,872,026 has been proposed, in which the ink jet unit is mounted through a rotary motion about a point near the recording head. In the case of such an ink jet unit, the recording head and ink container are pre-integrated; therefore, all that is needed is to provide a structure for fixing reliably the ink jet unit position on the carriage regardless of the connection between the two components.
However, when this installation method is applied to an ink jet recording unit in which the recording head and ink container are rendered independently separable, more specifically, when an attempt is made to connect the ink container to the recording head having been disposed on the carriage, it is extremely difficult to connect the two, which is apparent in consideration of the connection between the ink tapping pipe of the recording head and the ink delivery portion of the ink container.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The inventors of the present invention earnestly pursued solutions for the aforementioned problems. As a result, it was discovered that when the internal structure of the color ink (cyan, magenta, and yellow) storing container was devised so that the ink container could be vertically inserted to the recording head from above, through the rotary motion about an axial point on the lateral surface of the ink container, the projection area of the color ink container relative to the apparatus bottom surface could be reduced, and also, the space necessary for connecting the color ink container to the recording head could be reduced to a size small enough not to interfere with the other structural components.
Therefore, a primary object of the present invention is to provide an ink container structure capable of offering the largest ink capacity within a space allowed for the ink container, a method for installing such an ink container into the apparatus or removing it, and an apparatus into which such an ink container can be installed.
The present invention was made based on the aforementioned observations, and its primary object is to provide an ink container comprising a plurality of ink storing portions, each of which storing one of a plurality of types of ink to be supplied to the color recording head, wherein at least three color inks are partitioned from each other by the partitions that divide the internal space of the ink container.
Also, the present invention is characterized in that the supply ports, through which one of three types of ink is supplied to the corresponding recording head, are disposed near a point at which each ink storing portion is in contact with the other two.
Further, the present invention is characterized in that the ink container comprises a piece of ink absorbing material and an ink delivering member that delivers the ink out of the ink absorbing material, wherein the ink delivering member is composed of a fiber bundle and regulates the ink so that it flows only in one direction.
Further, the ink container in accordance with the present invention is characterized in that it is inserted into an ink container accommodating portion through a rotary motion about a point on the ink container, and the ink delivery port of the ink container has a conical surface, the diameter of which tapers inward.
Since a plurality of ink containers are not aligned in parallel with the scanning direction, the projection area of the ink container can be reduced.
Since the ink delivery port is disposed adjacent to a point at which each ink delivery port is directly in contact with the rest, the connecting space in which the ink containers are connected to the recording heads can be reduced.
The ink delivery port is given the conical surface; therefore, the ink container can be easily and reliably installed through a rotary motion.
With the use of a simple and inexpensive method, that is, just by placing an elastic sealing member between the ink delivery port of the ink container and the ink receiving portion of the recording head, a load inevitably imparted when the ink container is installed or removed can be reduced, whereby the ink is prevent
Hamasaki Yuji
Hinami Jun
Kotaki Yasuo
Miyagawa Masashi
Nozawa Minoru
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Le N.
Nghiem Michael
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