Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
2002-02-07
2004-03-09
Nguyen, Judy (Department: 2361)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S086000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06702427
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid container adapted for use as an ink tank or the like for an ink jet recording apparatus and detachably mountable to the main body of a recording apparatus, and a recording apparatus in which such liquid container is mountable.
2. Related Background Art
The ink jet recording is a recording method of discharging an ink droplet from a minute discharge port provided in an ink jet head and depositing such ink droplet onto a recording medium thereby obtaining a desired record.
The ink jet recording apparatus, executing recording by such ink jet recording method, is provided with an ink jet head for discharging the ink droplet. A discharge energy generating element for generating energy for discharging the ink from the discharge port provided in the ink jet head can be, for example, an electromechanical converting member such as a piezo element or an electrothermal converting member including a heat-generating resistor. The ink jet head employing the electromechanical converting member discharges the ink droplet by directly applying a physical force to the ink. The ink jet head employing the electrothermal converting element discharges the ink droplet by heating the liquid.
With the recent progress in software and computer, such ink jet recording apparatus is required to output a color image. In order to meet such requirement, the ink jet head is being produced in a configuration suitable for forming a color image. In addition to the trend toward the color image output, there is also required a higher definition of the output image, and the ink jet recording is realizing image recording of higher definition and higher quality by increasing the image density and varying the ink concentration, and is thus being widely used not only by the experts of businesses and computers but also by the personal users of homes and small offices.
In such ink jet recording apparatus, there is known a configuration in which there is provided an ink supply system for supplying the ink jet head with the ink to be used for recording and an ink tank holding the ink is detachably connected to the end of such ink supply system. Among the conventional replaceable ink tanks, there is known, as disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-348308, an ink tank provided with an information memory medium capable of recording the information of the ink in the ink tank. Such information memory medium stores various information on the ink and can also record various information according to the status of use of the recording apparatus, whereby the user can always obtain satisfactory output.
FIGS. 44A and 44B
are respectively an elevation view and a lateral view schematically showing a conventional example (hereinafter called conventional example 1). An ink tank
200
is provided with a fluid connection aperture
201
for ink supply, and the face having such fluid connection aperture
201
is further provided with a connection terminal
203
for connecting an information memory medium
204
, provided in the ink tank
200
, with the main body of the recording apparatus. Such face is parallel to the inserting direction
207
of the ink tank
200
into the main body of the recording apparatus. In an ink tank mounting portion in the main body of the recording apparatus, an ink supplying hollow needle is provided in a position opposed to the fluid connection aperture
201
of the ink tank
200
, and a connector (not shown) is provided in a position opposed to the connection terminal
203
of the ink tank
200
.
When the ink tank
200
is mounted on the main body of the recording apparatus, the hollow needle of the main body is inserted into the fluid connection aperture
201
of the ink tank
200
thereby forming the connection of the ink flow path, and the connection terminal
203
of the ink tank
200
engages with the connector of the main body so as to form mutual contacts thereby forming electrical connection. In such operation, the mutual positional relationship between the connecting position of the fluid connection aperture
201
and the hollow needle and the connecting position of the connectors may have certain fluctuation because of the forming precision in the manufacture, so that, if they are provided in fixed positions, there may not be achievable satisfactory connection for example because of the unnecessary stress applied to the connecting portions. Therefore, the connector in the main body of the recording apparatus is rendered movable in perpendicular two directions (X-direction
208
, Y-direction
209
) in a plane parallel to the mounting face of the ink tank.
FIGS. 46A and 46B
are respectively an elevation view and a lateral view of another conventional replaceable ink tank (hereinafter called conventional example 2) disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,074,042. This ink tank
200
is provided with an information memory medium
204
capable of recording information on the ink contained in the ink tank, and with fluid connection apertures
201
,
202
for ink supply. The information memory medium
204
and plural connection terminals
203
constituting electrical connecting portion therefor are provided on a face in a direction X
208
perpendicular to the inserting direction
207
of the ink tank. The face having the information memory medium
204
is further provided with a guide
206
for electrically connecting the connection terminals
203
of the ink tank with a connector of the main body of the recording apparatus. In an ink tank mounting portion in the main body of the recording apparatus, two ink supplying hollow needles are provided in positions opposed to the fluid connection apertures of the ink tank, and a connector is provided in a position opposed to the connection terminals
203
of the ink tank
200
.
When the ink tank
200
is mounted on the main body of the recording apparatus, the two hollow needles of the main body are inserted into the fluid connection apertures
201
,
202
of the ink tank thereby forming connection of the ink flow path, and the connector of the main body is guided by the guide
206
and engages with the connection terminals
203
of the information memory medium thereby forming electrical connection. In such operation, the mutual positional relationship between the connecting position of the fluid connection apertures and the hollow needles and the connecting position of the connectors may have certain fluctuation because of the forming precision in the manufacture, so that, if they are provided in fixed positions, there may not be achievable satisfactory connection for example because of the unnecessary stress applied to the connecting portions. Therefore, the connector in the main body of the recording apparatus is rendered movable in perpendicular two directions (X-direction
208
, Y-direction
209
) in a plane parallel to the mounting face of the ink tank
200
.
However, it may be desirable to form two fluid connecting portions as in the conventional example 2 and to form the connecting terminal in a direction Y perpendicular to the inserting direction (Z direction) of the tank. More specifically there is desired a configuration of the configuration shown in
FIGS. 44A and 44B
but provided with two fluid connecting portions (cf. FIGS.
45
A and
45
B). Such configuration is required for example in a case where a fluid connecting portion
201
is provided for ink supply from the ink tank to the main body and a fluid connection portion
202
is provided for air supply to the ink tank in order to compensate the pressure reduction resulting in the ink tank from the ink supply, and the connection terminal face cannot be formed on the bottom surface because of the limitation in space when plural flat tanks are arrayed.
In case there are employed such two liquid connecting portions, the connection is to be made in three places within a same plane, including the guide portion for electrical connection. Therefore, satisfactory connection cannot be attained by
Hatasa Nobuyuki
Kono Takeshi
Koshikawa Hiroshi
Miyauchi Shinichi
Nanjo Tatsuo
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