JPH0664182A - Ink cartridge - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance reliability of an ink cartridge by a method wherein ink is made free from influence by changes of pressure and temperature while the ink cartridge is being transported and stored, and the ink is supplied satisfactorily at all times. CONSTITUTION:In an ink cartridge 1a that is equipped at its bottom with a rubber member 5, through which a pressurizing air-inducing needle 3 and an ink-supplying needle 4 are penetrated, and an air pipe 8a for making the pressurizing air-inducing needle 3 loose-fitted therein that is penetrated into the cartridge body so that it can reach an upper space thereof, the upper end of the air pipe 8a is closed with a thin film-like covering member 12. Furthermore, the cartridge is constructed in a way wherein an interlocking member 13 is provided so that it can operate, interlocking with the pressurizing air-inducing needle 3 to be inserted into the air pipe 8a and can pierce the thin film-like covering member 12 for supplying the pressurizing air.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink which is mounted on a cartridge holder of an ink jet printer and is connected to a pressurizing air introduction needle and an ink supply needle provided on the cartridge holder to supply ink. The present invention relates to a cartridge, and more particularly, to an ink cartridge that can prevent clogging of a filter and improve the reliability of storage of the ink cartridge.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, an ink jet printer for performing desired printing on a paper by ejecting ink to be fed to an ink jet head from its nozzle is widely used because of its quietness.

FIG. 3 shows the construction of a general ink cartridge 1 and a cartridge holder 2 mounted on such an ink jet printer.

The cartridge holder 2 in which the ink cartridge 1 is mounted is in the shape of a receiving box, and an air introduction needle 3 and an ink supply needle 4 are arranged upward at an appropriate interval in a substantially central portion of the bottom upper surface thereof. ing. A pressurizing unit (not shown) is connected to the other end of the air introduction needle 3, and the other end of the other ink supply needle 4 is connected to a nozzle (not shown) of the inkjet head.

Further, the main body of the ink cartridge 1 is formed into a substantially rectangular parallelepiped container shape having a detachable knob portion on the upper portion thereof, and the air introduction needle 3 and the ink supply needle 4 at the time of mounting at the substantially central portion of the bottom portion thereof. A rubber member 5 is arranged at a position to be joined. The rubber member 5 is provided immediately above the rubber member 5 so as to penetrate the ink 6 portion from the engaging portion of the air introducing needle 3 to the air layer 7 in the upper portion of the ink cartridge when mounted. The air pipe 8 is arranged in the vertical direction up to this portion. A smoke tube-shaped fixing base 9 is disposed at the end of the air pipe 8 on the air layer 7 side, and a Teflon membrane filter 10 is provided in the opening thereof.
Are fixed by ultrasonic welding or the like. The Teflon membrane used here has fine pores of 0.1 to 1 μm, and its water repellent property prevents the permeation of the membrane in the front and back and allows only air to pass through.
Therefore, the portion shielded by the filter 10 and the rubber member 5 is a space 11a.

[0006]

However, the Teflon film forming the filter 10 is liable to have defects at a certain frequency, and when the filter 1 is fixed by ultrasonic welding.
0 may be defective. The ink cartridge 1 using the filter 10 having such a defect is upside down, that is, when the filter 10 is immersed in the ink 6 and stored for a long period of time, the temperature of the storage environment changes or the transportation means is changed. The filter 10 was clogged due to changes in atmospheric pressure and temperature.

For example, when the ambient pressure P of the ink cartridge 1 stored upside down becomes lower than the ambient pressure Pa at the time of manufacturing the ink cartridge 1 due to the pressure change due to air transportation, the ink cartridge 1 Elastically deforms, and air flows out from the side of the space 11a through the filter 10 until the pressure in the space 11a becomes P. When the ambient pressure next returns to Pa in this state, the pressure of Pa-P always acts on the filter 10, and the filter 10
Since the ink 6 is pushed in, the filter 10 is clogged.

When such an ink cartridge 1 is used in an ink jet printer, air is not supplied due to outflow and clogging of ink 6, ink 6 is not ejected, and recovery by subsequent recovery operation is also performed. It became impossible and became a fatal defect.

The present invention overcomes the above-mentioned problems with the conventional ones, and is capable of always supplying ink satisfactorily without being affected by pressure changes and temperature changes during transportation and storage of ink cartridges. It is an object to provide a highly reliable ink cartridge.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, an ink cartridge of the present invention has a rubber member into which a pressurizing air introduction needle and an ink supply needle are inserted at the bottom of a main body of the ink cartridge. In an ink cartridge having an air tube that reaches the upper space of the main body from a rubber member and into which the pressurizing air introduction needle penetrating inside the main body is loosely inserted, the upper end of the air tube is closed by a thin film-shaped shielding member. An interlocking member for breaking through the thin film shielding member and feeding the pressurizing air is provided in association with the pressurizing air introducing needle penetrating into the air pipe.

[0011]

According to the ink cartridge of the present invention, instead of the conventional Teflon membrane filter, a thin film shielding member formed of a material having a good sealing property and impermeable to ink due to pressure change is used. It is possible to shield the inside and outside, and to break the thin film-like shielding member at the time of use to communicate the inside and outside of the main body to reliably supply air and to supply ink.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the structure of the ink cartridge of this embodiment, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing the mounting procedure of the ink cartridge of the present invention. The same components as those in the conventional example described with reference to FIG.

The air tube 8a inside the ink cartridge 1a of this embodiment is formed to have a diameter larger than that of the conventional air tube 8, and at the end on the air layer 7 side, for example, a saran having a thickness of 0.1 mm or less is formed. A thin film shielding member 12 made of a material having a permeability of 22.0 g / m ² 24 hr such as coated nylon, polyethylene film, or aluminum foil laminated with polyethylene is fixed by heat sealing or the like.

An interlocking member 13 is vertically movable in the air tube 8a sandwiched between the thin film shielding member 12 and the rubber member 5. The interlocking member 13 has a small hole 1 in the central axis.
It has a hollow rocket shape with 3a, its length is shorter than that of the air tube 8a, and when it is attached to the cartridge holder 2, it is pushed up by the air introduction needle 3 and the conical upper end portion 13b causes It is formed to have a length such that the thin film shield member 12 is broken. In addition, the lower end 13
In the vicinity of a, an O-ring 14 that slides on the inner wall of the air pipe 8a
Is provided and is configured to seal the sliding portion. Therefore, the upper space 11b and the lower space 11c, which are divided by the interlocking member 13 in the air tube 8a, communicate with each other only through the pores 13c which are hollow portions of the interlocking member 13. The diameter of the pore 13c is 3
mm or less is desirable.

The other structure is the same as that of the conventional example shown in FIG.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

When the ink cartridge 1a is mounted on the cartridge holder 2 as shown in FIG.
First, the air introduction needle 3 and the ink supply needle 4 pierce the rubber member 5 arranged at the bottom of the ink cartridge 1a, the air introduction needle 3 is in the air tube 8a, and the other ink supply needle 4 is It penetrates into the ink 6.

The amount of protrusion of the air introducing needle 3 from the upper surface of the rubber member 5 into the ink cartridge 1a is 1 to.
When protruding by about 3 mm, the air introducing needle 4 contacts the lower end portion 13a of the interlocking member 13 as shown in FIG.

Further, by pushing in the ink cartridge 1a, the air introducing needle 3 pushes up the interlocking member 13,
The interlocking member 13 ascends while sliding in the air pipe 8a at the O-ring 14. When the ejection port 3a opened on the side surface of the air introduction needle 3 projects from the rubber member 5 into the ink cartridge 1a by 1 to 2 mm, the tip portion 13b of the interlocking member 13 contacts the thin-film shielding member 12, and When the ink cartridge 1a is completely pushed in, the interlocking member 13 breaks through the thin film shielding member 12 as shown in FIG. 2C, and the inside of the ink cartridge 1a communicates with the pressurized air source through the pores 13c of the interlocking member 13. Then, the pressurized air can be supplied into the ink cartridge 1.

Thereafter, pressurized air is supplied from the pressurized air introduction source into the ink cartridge 1a through the air introduction needle 3 and the pores 13c of the interlocking member 13 in this order, thereby pressurizing the ink 6 inside. The ink is supplied to the ink nozzle portion through the supply needle 4 and used for desired printing.

On the other hand, the ink cartridge 1a of this embodiment
Is stored and transported in the same manner as in the prior art, but the thin film-shaped shielding member 12 that shields the inside and outside has excellent sealing properties and does not allow ink to permeate. No points occur at all.

As described above, according to this embodiment, instead of the conventional Teflon film filter, the thin film-like shielding member 12 formed of a material having a good sealing property and impermeable to ink due to pressure change is used. The end portion of the air tube 8a is closed to shut off the inside and outside of the ink cartridge 1a, and the thin film shielding member 12 is not activated by the interlocking member 13 until it is used.
Since it was configured to rupture and make air communicate,
It is possible to reliably prevent clogging of the filter due to temperature changes and atmospheric pressure changes during storage, which makes it possible to always supply the ink 6 satisfactorily and with high reliability.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but can be modified as necessary.

For example, by adjusting the amount of protrusion of the ink supply needle 4 from the rubber member 5, the ink is not supplied until the ink cartridge 1a is completely mounted and the interlocking member 13 has pierced through the thin film shielding member 12. With such a configuration, it is possible to prevent problems due to incomplete mounting of the ink cartridge 1a. For example, the effect can be exhibited when the ink supply needle 4 is used for detecting the remaining amount of the ink 6.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the diameter of the pore 13c of the interlocking member 13 is preferably 3 mm or less, but this is for the convenience of the user.
This is to prevent the ink 6 from entering the lower space 11c even when the ink cartridge 1 is laid down sideways when the ink 6 is pulled out and temporarily stored. As a method for preventing the infiltration into the
A filter (having a pore size of 3 μm or less such as a Teflon membrane filter) may be installed in that portion.

[0027]

As described above, since the present invention is constructed and operates, clogging of the filter due to temperature change and atmospheric pressure change during storage of the ink cartridge is prevented,
Ink can be always supplied well, and the reliability of the ink cartridge can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the configuration of an ink cartridge of this embodiment.

2A to 2C are explanatory views showing a mounting procedure of the ink cartridge of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the configuration of a conventional general ink cartridge and cartridge holder.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1a Ink cartridge 2 Cartridge holder 3 Air introduction needle 4 Ink supply needle 5 Rubber member 6 Ink 7 Air layer 8a Air tube 12 Thin film shielding member 13 Interlocking member

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A rubber member into which a pressurizing air introduction needle and an ink supply needle are inserted is provided at the bottom of the main body of the ink cartridge, and the rubber member reaches the upper space of the main body and penetrates the inside of the main body. In an ink cartridge having an air tube into which the pressurizing air introducing needle is loosely inserted, the upper end portion of the air tube is closed by a thin film-like shielding member, and the pressurizing air introducing needle penetrating into the air tube is interlocked. An ink cartridge comprising an interlocking member for breaking through the thin film shielding member and supplying pressurized air.