JPH08267771A - Capping device for ink jet nozzle - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To carry out the capping without a separate driving source such as a motor, set the stop position of an ink carriage simply and also carry out the capping securely without generating a clearance between the ink jet nozzle and a cap component in the capping device of an ink jet nozzle. CONSTITUTION: An arm 17 biased in the upward direction by a spring 19 and provided with a cap 18 on its end is set on the side of an ink carriage 2, while a rib 20 is formed on a fixed side component of an ink jet printer 1. Following the straight reciprocating movement of the ink carriage 2, a boss 17a formed on the arm 17 is brought into contact with the rib 20, and the arm 17 is rotated to carry out the capping. Also the cap 18 is supported rotatably on an axis crossing orthogonally a rotating face of the arm 17.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a capping device which is used in a recording device such as an ink jet printer or a facsimile machine and which attaches and detaches a cap to and from an ink jet nozzle according to its use.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an ink jet nozzle used in an ink jet type recording apparatus has a so-called capping device, which is a device for covering a lid (cap) to prevent the ink from being dried when it is not used. In the conventional capping device, a cap member and a cap mechanism are provided on a fixed side member of the recording device, and are separately provided as a drive source of the cap mechanism in association with the operation of the ink carriage moving out of the home station at the start of printing. The motor is operating. A cam or worm gear mechanism is driven by this motor to lower the cap member that is capping the inkjet nozzle. After printing is completed, the motor is rotated in reverse and the cap member is raised to perform capping in conjunction with the movement of the ink carriage into the home station.

[0003]

However, the capping device for the ink jet nozzle as described above requires a separate motor as a drive source for the capping operation, and thus the cost of the capping device increases. Yes, and because the cap member and the cap mechanism are attached to the fixed side member of the recording device,
In order to cover the inkjet nozzles provided on the ink carriage that performs the moving operation with the cap, it is necessary to set the stop position of the ink carriage strictly, and if the stop position shifts, the cap cannot be covered. Furthermore, when the inkjet nozzle and the cap member are relatively inclined, a gap may be created between the inkjet nozzle and the cap member, and the ink may be dried. The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and a separate drive source such as a motor is not required for the capping device of the inkjet nozzle, and the setting of the stop position of the ink carriage is not strictly required. It is another object of the present invention to provide a capping device for an inkjet nozzle, which can surely perform capping without forming a gap between the inkjet nozzle and the cap member.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, an ink jet nozzle capping device according to a first aspect of the present invention ejects ink in an ink cartridge from an ink jet nozzle onto a recording medium by an ink jet method. It is a capping device that is used in a recording device that performs printing by attaching and detaching a cap to and from the inkjet nozzle according to its use. The cap is attached to and detached from the inkjet nozzle and the ink carriage that conveys the ink cartridge is rotated. An arm that is freely provided and has a cap attached to the tip, a cap mechanism that includes an urging member that urges the rotational movement of the arm in an upward direction, and a rib that is provided on a fixed-side member of the recording apparatus, Transfer of ink carriage to home station and home stay By a part and the rib of the arm of the capping mechanism comes into contact with the export operation from ® down, the capping mechanism is driven, in which the cap against the inkjet nozzles to work detachable.
In addition, the ink jet nozzle capping device of the invention described in claim 2 has the configuration described in claim 1.
The rib consists of two parts with different heights.When moving the ink carriage to the home station, the rib with the higher height abuts a part of the arm, and when moving the ink carriage from the home station, the rib is higher. The cap mechanism is driven by the lower rib of the arm contacting a part of the arm, and the part of the arm contacting the two ribs is located below the rotation center of the arm at the time of contact. Thus, the rotation direction of the arm urged by the urging member is switched during the movement of the ink carriage after the contact between the both. Further, in the ink jet nozzle capping device of the invention described in claim 3, in the structure according to claim 1 or 2, the cap has a shaft part perpendicular to a rotation surface of the arm at a tip part of the arm. It is rotatably supported around it.

[0005]

According to the ink jet nozzle capping device of the present invention having the above-mentioned structure, the cap mechanism is driven by bringing the cap mechanism and the rib into contact with each other as the ink carriage moves in and out of the home station. Since the inkjet nozzle can be covered with the cap, it is not necessary to separately provide a motor or the like as a drive source for capping. Further, since the cap and the cap mechanism are attached to the ink carriage side, capping can be surely performed without strictly setting the stop position of the ink carriage. Furthermore, since the arm is biased upward by the biasing member,
The position of the cap mechanism during capping and printing can be firmly fixed. According to the ink jet nozzle capping device of the second aspect, in addition to the action of the first aspect, a part of the arm that abuts against the rib is located below the rotation center of the arm, so that the movement of the ink carriage can be performed. The accompanying rotation direction of the arm is a fixed direction according to the moving direction of the ink carriage, and it is possible to prevent the arm from rotating in the opposite direction. Further, according to the ink jet nozzle capping device of the third aspect, since the cap is rotatably supported by the tip of the rotating arm, even when the ink jet nozzle and the cap are relatively inclined. It is possible to perform capping without creating a gap between the inkjet nozzle and the cap, and it is possible to prevent the ink from drying.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an inkjet printer device having an inkjet nozzle capping device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The inkjet printer device 1 includes an ink carriage 2 that is linearly reciprocally movable, and the ink carriage 2 includes an inkjet nozzle 4a that ejects ink onto a printing paper 3 that is a recording medium to perform printing. The cartridge 4 is held and transported. The ink carriage 2 is linearly reciprocally held by a guide shaft 5 and a guide plate (not shown) mounted between chassis side plates (not shown), and is driven by a toothed drive belt 7 during printing. The toothed drive belt 7 transmits the rotational drive of the motor 8 provided as a drive source of the linear reciprocating movement of the ink carriage 2 to the ink carriage 2.

The ink jet nozzle capping device comprises a rotary shaft 16 attached to the ink carriage 2.
An arm 17 that is rotatably supported by the
It includes a cap 18 provided at the tip of the ink jet printer, a spring 19 for locking the arm 17 to the ink carriage 2, and a rib 20 provided on a fixed-side member of the inkjet printer device 1. The arm 17 is formed with a boss 17a for contacting and abutting the rib 20 and a boss 17b to which the spring 19 is attached. The cap 18 at the tip of the arm 17 is made of a rubber material or a resin material, and is rotatably supported by a shaft orthogonal to the rotating surface of the arm 17. The rib 20 includes contact portions 20a having different heights,
20b and is integrally formed with the fixed member.

As a transport mechanism for the print sheet 3, the print sheet 3 is rotated by a motor (not shown).
A platen roller (not shown) that conveys the sheet, a driven tension roller (not shown) that is provided on the platen roller so as to be able to come into contact with and separate from the platen roller, and that sandwiches the sheet 3 between the platen roller and the platen roller to assist the sheet 3 in conveyance A discharge roller (not shown) that discharges the print paper 3 by being driven to rotate by a motor (not shown), and a discharge roller provided so as to come in contact with and separate from the discharge roller, and sandwich the print paper 3 with the discharge roller. A driven paper discharge tension roller (not shown) is provided to assist the discharge of the printing paper 3. The platen roller, the tension roller, the paper discharge roller, and the paper discharge tension roller are stretched between chassis side plates (not shown) and rotatably supported. 2 is a side view showing an ink carriage 2 and a capping device for the present inkjet nozzle, FIG.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a structure in which the cap 18 is axially supported by the arm 17, and the arm 17 and the cap 18 are disassembled. The structure of the cap 18 will be described with reference to FIG. A rotatable cap holding portion 17c is formed at the tip of the arm 17. This cap holder 1
7 c is a cap holder 1 provided on the cap 18.
The cap 18 is formed in the same shape as the shape of 8a and is fitted into the cap holder 18a to hold the cap 18 in a fixed state with respect to the cap holding portion 17c.

Next, the operation of the ink jet printer device 1 having the above structure will be described. 4A to 4E are views showing the capping operation by the capping device when the ink carriage 2 moves from the home station toward the printing surface of the printing paper 3, and FIGS. 5A to 5E are inks. The figure which shows the capping operation by this capping device when the carriage 2 returns to the home station from the printing surface of the printing paper 3, the printing paper 3 is a platen roller (not shown) and tension roller (not shown) by the paper feeding device not shown. ), And the conveyance of the printing paper 3 is started, the ink carriage 2 waiting in the home station is supported by the guide shaft 5 and is driven by the toothed belt 7 using the motor 8 as a drive source. The inkjet nozzle 4a moves linearly in a reciprocating manner and moves on the printing surface of the printing paper 3 at a constant interval.

In the capping device, the cap 18 is kept in a state of capping the ink jet nozzle 4a by the spring 19 (see FIG. 4A). Here, when the ink carriage 2 is moved out of the home station to start printing, the position of the boss 17a is lower than the rotation shaft 16 of the arm 17,
That posture is maintained. When the boss 17a of the arm 17 is located above the rotation axis 16 of the arm 17, the spring 19 urges the arm 17 upward, so that the arm 17 abuts the abutment portion 20b of the rib 20. This is because some of them cannot rotate or rotate in the opposite direction. As the ink carriage 2 moves out of the home station (moves leftward in FIG. 1),
The boss 17a (see FIG. 4A) of the arm 17 located between the abutting portion 20a and the abutting portion 20b of the rib 20 also starts moving to the left and abuts the abutting portion 20b. This allows
The arm 17 rotates counterclockwise (in FIG. 4), and the cap 18 separates from the ink nozzle 4a (FIG. 4B).
reference). When the ink carriage 2 continues to move to the left, the arm 17 further rotates (see FIG. 4C).
After that, when the ink carriage 2 moves, the arm 17 continues to rotate, and when the boss 17a reaches a position higher than the upper end of the contact portion 20b (see FIG. 4D), the arm 17
Is rotated upward by being urged by a spring 19 to bring the ink jet nozzle 4a into a released state.
Is maintained (see FIG. 4E).

After the above operation, when the ink jet nozzle 4a is moved to a desired position for printing by moving the ink carriage 2 to the left, the ink jet nozzle 4a ejects ink particles onto the printing surface of the printing paper 3. To print. When the inkjet nozzle 4a finishes printing on the entire printing surface of the printing paper 3, the printing paper 3 is ejected outside the inkjet printer device 1 by a paper ejection roller (not shown) and a paper ejection tension roller (not shown), and the ink carriage 2 starts the transfer operation to the home station. When the ink carriage 2 moves into the home station (see FIG. 5A), the arm 17
The boss 17a and the contact portion 20a contact each other (see FIG. 5B). Also here, the posture is maintained so that the boss 17a of the arm 17 is positioned below the rotation shaft 16 of the arm 17 so that the arm 17 can reliably rotate in the capping direction as described above. As a result, the arm 17 rotates clockwise (in FIG. 5) in FIG. 1 (see FIGS. 5C and 5D), and the arm 17 rotates to a position where the cap 18 covers the inkjet nozzle 4a. By the action of the spring 19, the position of the arm 17 is held in a state of being capped on the inkjet nozzle 4a (see FIG. 5 (e)). Ink carriage 2
Is set to complete the transfer to the home station when the arm 17 completes the rotation as described above.

Next, the operation of the cap 18 will be described. When the cap 18 caps the inkjet nozzle 4a by the rotation of the arm 17, the cap 18 is rotated by the rotation of the cap holding portion 17c.
Corresponding to the relative inclination between the inkjet nozzle 4 a and the cap 18, the inkjet nozzle 4 a and the cap 1
8 and 8 without any gap.

Further, the ink jet printer device 1 is
A cam 10 provided integrally with the ink carriage 2,
A print head maintenance mechanism including the wiper 11 and the like is provided. The wiper 11 contacts the print head 4a for cleaning, and is provided on a fixed side member of the recording apparatus via a wiper holder 12 that supports the wiper 11 and a leaf spring 13 attached to the lower portion of the wiper holder 12. ing. From the wiper holder 12, L-shaped outward,
A protruding portion 12a is formed to allow the cam 10 to come into contact with the cam 10. The tip portion of the protruding portion 12a is formed at a position higher than the upper end portion of the wiper 11, a pin 12b that abuts and slides on the cam 10 is provided at the tip portion, and the leaf spring 13 is
It is provided as an elastic member that supports the wiper 11 and the wiper holder 12 so as to be vertically movable. Around the wiper holder 12, a guide 14a for guiding the vertical movement direction,
14b, 14c, 14d are provided, and the print head 4a
Is set so as to come into contact with the wiper 11 when the wiper 11 and the wiper holder 12 move to the uppermost position in the vertical movement. In the print head maintenance mechanism configured in this manner, the wiper 11 and the wiper holder 12 move up and down as the pin 12b abuts and slides on the cam 10 along with the linear reciprocating movement of the ink carriage 2. The wiper 11 comes into contact with the print head 4a to perform cleaning only when the print head 4a moves in one direction during the reciprocal movement.

As described above, according to the ink jet nozzle capping device of this embodiment, the ink carriage 2 is
The boss 17a of the arm 17 and the abutting portions 20a and 20b of the rib 20 come into contact with each other as the arm 17 moves into and out of the home station.
Since the cap 18 and the inkjet nozzle 4a are attached and detached by rotating, the inkjet nozzle 4a does not require a separate drive source such as a motor.
Capping and uncapping can be performed. Further, since the arm 17 and the cap 18 are attached to the ink carriage 2 side, capping can be reliably performed without strictly setting the stop position of the ink carriage 2. Therefore, the stop position of the ink carriage 2 is set. Can be done easily. Then, the spring 19 locks the arm 17 to the ink carriage 2 and biases the arm 17 upward, so that the posture of the arm 17 during printing and capping can be firmly fixed and held. Further, since the cap 18 is rotatably provided at the tip of the arm 17, even when the inkjet nozzle 4a and the cap 18 are relatively inclined, no gap is created between the inkjet nozzle 4a and the cap 18. Capping can be done,
It is possible to prevent the ink in the ink cartridge 3 from drying.

The present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made. For example,
The ink carriage 2 and the arm 17 are locked, and the arm 1
The member used for urging 7 upward is not limited to the spring 19, and another elastic body may be used. Further, the shape of the arm 17 does not necessarily have to be the shape shown in this embodiment, and may be any shape that does not interfere with the capping of the inkjet nozzle 4 a by the rotation of the arm 17 and the movement operation of the ink carriage 2. However, other shapes may be used.

[0016]

As described above, according to the ink jet nozzle capping device of the first aspect of the present invention,
As the cap mechanism and the ribs come into contact with each other as the ink carriage moves in and out of the home station, the cap mechanism is driven, so that it is not necessary to separately install a motor or the like as a drive source for capping. The cap can be attached to and detached from the nozzle.
Further, since the cap and the cap mechanism are attached to the ink carriage side, capping can be surely performed without strictly setting the stop position of the ink carriage. Furthermore, since the arm is biased upward by the biasing member, the posture of the cap mechanism and the position of the cap can be firmly held during capping and printing. According to the ink jet nozzle capping device of the second aspect of the present invention,
In addition to the same effect as the first aspect, since the portion where the arm contacts the rib is located below the rotation center of the arm, the rotation of the arm is limited to a fixed direction according to the moving direction of the ink carriage. The effect that it can be obtained.
According to the ink jet nozzle capping device of the third aspect of the invention, the cap is rotatably supported by the tip of the rotating arm about an axis orthogonal to the rotating surface of the rotating arm. Therefore, even if the relative positional relationship between the inkjet nozzle and the cap is misaligned, capping can be performed without creating a gap between the two, and ink drying can be prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an inkjet printer device including an inkjet nozzle capping device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing an ink carriage and a capping device for the present inkjet nozzle.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a structure in which a cap is axially supported by an arm and the arm and the cap are disassembled.

4 (a) to (e) are diagrams when an ink carriage moves from a home station toward a printing surface of printing paper, FIG.
It is a figure which shows the capping operation by this capping apparatus.

5A to 5E are views showing a capping operation by the capping device when the ink carriage returns from the printing surface of the printing paper to the home station.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Ink Carriage 4 Ink Cartridge 4a Inkjet Nozzle 16 Rotating Shaft 17 Arm 17a Boss 17b Boss 17c Cap Holding Part 18 Cap 18a Cap Holder 19 Spring 20 Rib 20a Abutting Part 20b Abutting Part

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A recording apparatus for performing printing by ejecting ink in an ink cartridge from an inkjet nozzle onto a recording medium by an inkjet method, and a cap is attached to and detached from the inkjet nozzle according to the time of use. In the capping device, a cap that is attached to and detached from the inkjet nozzle, an arm that is rotatably provided on an ink carriage that carries the ink cartridge, and has the cap attached to a tip portion thereof, and the rotation operation of the arm is directed upward. A cap mechanism including a biasing member for biasing; and a rib provided on a fixed-side member of the recording apparatus, the cap mechanism of the cap mechanism being moved in and out of the home station of the ink carriage. Part of the arm abuts the rib Accordingly, the cap mechanism is driven, and the cap is attached to and detached from the inkjet nozzle. 2. The rib is composed of two portions having different heights, and the rib having the higher height comes into contact with a part of the arm during the transfer operation of the ink carriage to the home station, and the rib of the ink carriage is The rib having a lower height abuts a part of the arm during the transfer operation from the home station, whereby the cap mechanism is driven, and a part of the arm that abuts the two ribs is The arm is configured to be positioned below the rotation center of the arm at the time of contact, and the rotation direction of the arm urged by the urging member is switched during movement of the ink carriage after contact between the both. The capping device for an inkjet nozzle according to claim 1, wherein 3. The cap according to claim 1, wherein the cap is rotatably supported at a tip portion of the arm about an axis orthogonal to a rotation surface of the arm. Inkjet nozzle capping device.