JPH08867U - Inkjet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [PROBLEMS] To reliably scrape waste ink without leaving a streak of the waste ink on the nozzle surface of the print head. SOLUTION: The cleaning belt 3 is attached to the belt wheels 2 and 2.
The outer peripheral surface of this belt is provided with a blade group including three wiper blades 4a, 4b, 4c as one group. A large number of slits S are provided in the two wiper blades 4a, 4b located on the leading side in the moving direction, and the moving loci of these slits are different from each other. The remaining one wiper blade 4c located at the end of the moving direction has no slit.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Technical Field of Device]

 The present invention relates to an inkjet printer.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 Conventionally, it has been indispensable to clean the print head as a condition for obtaining good printing in the ink jet printer, and in response thereto, an ink jet printer equipped with various types of print head cleaning devices has been proposed.

As a first example, a plate-shaped blade is provided at a predetermined position of a printer case where the print head reciprocates, and when the head block moves with the carrier, the nozzle surface of the print head makes elastic contact with the blade. In some cases, a cleaning device for scraping off waste ink adhering to the nozzle surface is provided (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-101448). In this example, the tip of the blade is divided into multiple pieces, and when the waste ink is absorbed in these divided gaps and left on the side of the nozzle surface, or when the nozzle surface separates from the blade, , The waste ink is splashed off to prevent the inside of the printer case from becoming dirty.

As a second example, when the print head comes to the cleaning position, the cleaning belt provided with a plurality of plate-shaped blades is rotated downward by the driving force of the motor, so that the blades move toward the nozzle surface. There is a device (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-31166) in which the waste ink on the nozzle surface is scraped off by elastically contacting with. In this example, each blade is made of rubber, and elastically deforms to move while elastically contacting the nozzle surface to perform the cleaning operation. However, with this configuration, the dirt on the nozzle surface wraps around both sides of the head, and sufficient cleaning cannot be performed. Therefore, in reality, a large number of slits are provided in the blade, and when scraping the waste ink on the nozzle surface, care should be taken so that the slit absorbs the waste ink so that no waste ink remains on the nozzle surface. Has been.

[0005]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 As described above, in each of the above-mentioned first and second examples, the blade is divided or the slits are provided to absorb the waste ink so that the waste ink of the print head can be reliably removed. However, after scraping waste ink with a blade equipped with slits, the nozzle surface has a streak of waste ink left behind, which makes it difficult to clean the nozzle reliably.

An object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet printer equipped with a cleaning device that can reliably scrape off the waste ink without leaving a streak of the waste ink on the nozzle surface of the print head.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 A feature of the present invention is that the cleaning device for cleaning the nozzle surface of the print head is provided with at least one wiper blade group including a plurality of wiper blades, and the movement direction of the plurality of wiper blades forming each wiper blade group is set. The last wiper blade has no slits, while the remaining wiper blades have slits.There are multiple wiper blades with slits, and these slits have different trajectories. Where it is.

Another feature of the present invention is that at least one of the group of wiper blades is provided with a recess corresponding to the shape of the nozzle surface of the print head.

[0009]

[Embodiment of device]

 FIG. 1 shows a main part of an ink jet printer to which the present invention is applied. As shown in the drawing, a belt wheel 2 and 2 are attached to shafts 1 and 1 which are vertically provided in parallel with each other. A belt-shaped cleaning belt 3 is wound around the belt wheel in an endless belt shape so as to be parallel to the front and rear. On the outer peripheral surface of the cleaning belt 3, a wiper blade group is provided integrally with the cleaning belt 3, the wiper blade group including three wiper blades 4a, 4b and 4c.

Each of the wiper blades 4a, 4b, 4c constituting the wiper blade group is made of an elastic material such as a flat rubber plate and has flexibility. Of the group of three wiper blades, the two wiper blades 4a and 4b located on the leading side in the moving direction are slitted wiper blades having a large number of slits S from the tip to the root. . The remaining one sheet 4c located at the rearmost in the moving direction is a slitless wiper blade having no slit S at all. The number of slits S of the wiper blades 4a and 4b with slits is set so that the number of the leading wiper blades 4a is larger than that of the trailing wiper blades 4b so that the slits have different intervals. That is, the loci of movement of the slits S of the two wiper blades with slits are different from each other.

On the other hand, in front of the cleaning belt 3, two carrier guides 5 and 5 are supported by a printer case (not shown), and the carrier 6 is reciprocally moved by being guided by these carrier guides 5 and 5. It is attached to. A head block 7 is mounted on the carrier 6, and a print head 8 projects from the front end of this head block. When the carrier 6 is at the home position, the nozzle surface 8a of the print head 8 is covered with a nozzle cap (not shown).

When the carrier 6 is located at a cleaning position slightly outside the home position, the nozzle surface 8a of the print head 8 is set so as to face the flat portion 3a of the cleaning belt 3 having no wiper blade. In addition, the wiper blades 4a, 4b, 4c are provided so as to sequentially move elastically in contact with the nozzle surface 8a when the cleaning belt 3 rotates.

As shown in FIG. 2, a blade cleaning 9 is disposed below the cleaning belt 3 at appropriate intervals, and a foam ink 10 is stored below the blade cleaning tank 9 to collect waste ink. 11 are arranged.

The structure of the drive means of the cleaning belt 3 is as shown in FIG. 3, and the rotation of the motor 12 causes the belt wheel 2 to rotate via the drive gear 13 and the train wheel 15 below the control gear 14. Done. The rotation movement of the cleaning belt 3 is stopped by a cam 16 and a switch 18 which are provided so as to rotate integrally with the control gear 14. That is, the movable contact piece 17a of the switch 18 is normally in contact with a position slightly beyond the longest portion of the cam 16 and is apart from the fixed contact piece 17b, and the switch 18 is off.

Next, the operation will be described.

When starting the printing operation, the nozzle cap is removed from the nozzle surface 8 a of the print head 8 at the home position, and the carrier 6 is conveyed toward the printing section. Ink is ejected from the nozzle surface 8a at the printing portion to print on the recording paper.

When the printing operation is completed, the print head 8 passes the home position to reach the cleaning position, and the cleaning operation of the nozzle surface 8a is started. That is, the motor 12 of the driving means is rotationally driven, the belt wheel 2 is rotated through the drive gear 13, the control gear 14, and the train wheel 15, and the cleaning belt 3 is rotationally moved in the direction of the arrow in FIG. Each wiper blade 4a, 4b, 4c of the group moves downward while sequentially contacting the nozzle surface 8a. At this time, each wiper blade elastically deforms so as to be bent backward, scraping the waste ink adhering to the nozzle surface 8a while rubbing the nozzle surface 8a at the tip. The three wiper blades are arranged first with a slitted wiper blade 4a having a large number of slits S, then with a slitted wiper blade 4b having a small number of slits, and finally with a slitless wiper blade. 4c are sequentially elastically contacted with each other, and the lines of the waste ink by the preceding wiper blades 4a and 4b left on the nozzle surface 8a are scraped off.

Since a plurality of slitted wiper blades 4a and 4b are provided and the movement loci of the slits S are different, the positions of the lines of the waste ink of the slitted wiper blades are different, and therefore the preceding slitted wiper bleed 4a is used. The remaining streaks of the waste ink are scraped off by the slittered wiper blade 4b in the following, the amount of the waste ink on the nozzle surface 8a is reduced, and finally the remaining streaks are scraped off by the slitless wiper blade 4c. In this way, when the cleaning belt 3 makes one revolution, the three wiper blades 4a, 4b, 4c sequentially scrape off the waste ink on the nozzle surface 8a, and clean the print head cleanly so that this waste ink does not remain. Ends. The slit wiper blade 4b may have the same number of slits and different slit positions.

When the cleaning is completed, the cleaning belt 3 is stopped at a position where the nozzle surface 8a faces the flat portion 3a. The waste ink scraped by each wiper blade group during the cleaning operation is elastically contacted with the blade cleaning 9 when the wiper blade group comes downward due to the rotation movement of the cleaning belt 3, and this time scraped from the nozzle surface. Then, the waste ink adhering to the wiper blades 4a, 4b, 4c is scraped off. The waste ink scraped off by the blade cleaning 9 drips from here, is absorbed by the foam material 10 provided therebelow, and is collected in the waste ink collecting tank 11.

When the cleaning operation is completed, the rotational movement of the cleaning belt 3 is stopped. This is because the cam 16 rotates with the rotation of the control gear 14 and the movable contact piece 17a contacts the shortest part of the cam. It gradually separates from the fixed contact piece 17b, then gradually approaches the longest part, and when it comes in contact with the longest part, it makes elastic contact with the fixed contact piece 17b (the state shown in FIG. 3), at which time the switch 18 is turned on. . When the switch 18 is turned on, the motor 12 is stopped. The cam 16 further rotates slightly due to inertia, and stops when the movable contact piece 17a comes into contact with the original position slightly past the longest portion of the cam.

Therefore, the movement amount of the cleaning belt 3 corresponds to the rotation amount of the belt wheel 2 that is rotationally driven while the cam 16 makes one rotation. The nozzle surface 8a is set to rotate, and the nozzle surface 8a is cleaned by the wiper blades 4a, 4b, 4c as described above.

Note that the number of wiper blades in the wiper blade group is not limited to three and can be set arbitrarily, and the preceding plurality of wiper blades are wiper blades with slits, and the last wiper blade in the moving direction. The wiper blade may be a non-slit wiper blade.

Further, the cleaning belt 3 is not limited to one rotation by one rotation of the cam 16, and the cleaning belt may be one half rotation or one third rotation. In this case, One group of wiper blades is provided within one movement amount of the cleaning belt.

In the example shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the cleaning belt 23 is configured to rotate once by two cleaning operations, and two groups of wiper blades are provided on the outer circumference of the belt. The wiper blade group of each one group is arranged in a position where three slit wiper blades 24a and 24b and a slitless wiper blade 24c are arranged close to each other. Are provided, and a flat portion 23a is formed between the two groups. In this case, when the cleaning belt 23 makes a half turn, the wiper blades 24a, 24b and 24c move while sequentially elastically contacting the nozzle surface 8a of the print head 8 to scrape off the waste ink. As shown in FIG. 5, by narrowing the gap between the wiper blades 24a, 24b, 24c of each group, a sufficiently large flat portion 23a, 23a without a wiper blade can be provided between the groups, and the nozzles The surface facing the surface 8a can be safely secured. In this case, since the two wiper blade groups are used alternately, the movement amount per cleaning operation is small and the wear of the wiper blade is reduced, so that the life thereof is extended.

Next, in the example shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, a concave portion K corresponding to the front end portion of the print head 8 is provided at the tip end portion of each wiper blade 34 a, 34 b, 34 c. This is for scraping off the waste ink adhering to the corners of the step portion when there is a step difference between the front end faces of the head block 7 and the print head 8 due to the nozzle surface 8a as shown in FIG. 7, for example. It was done like this.

It should be noted that among the group of wiper blades, those having the concave portion and those not having the concave portion may be appropriately mixed.

[0027]

[Effect of device]

 In the present invention, the rearmost wiper blade of the group of wiper blades has no slit, and the remaining plurality of wiper blades have slits, and the movement loci of the respective slits between the plurality of slit wiper blades are shown. Since they are different, cleaning of the nozzle surface of the print head is performed in order, which ensures reliable cleaning without leaving streaks and improves cleaning efficiency. If the wiper blade has a recess that corresponds to the shape of the nozzle surface of the print head, the wiper blade reaches the recess on the print head side so that the waste ink can be scraped off more reliably. This has the effect of ensuring that the head is cleaned.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a main part of an inkjet printer to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a configuration for cleaning the wiper blade of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a driving means of the wiper blade of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a main part perspective view showing another example.

FIG. 5 is a side view of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a main part showing another example.

7 is a plan view showing the shape of the concave portion of the wiper blade shown in FIG. 6 and the nozzle surface of the print head that faces the concave portion.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3 Cleaning belt 4a Wiper blade with slit 4b Wiper blade with slit 4c Wiper blade without slit 8 Print head 8a Nozzle surface S Slit 24a Slit wiper blade 24b Wiper blade with slit 24c Wiper blade without slit 34a Wiper blade with slit 34b Wiper with slit Blade 34c Wiper blade without slit K Recess

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. An inkjet printer provided with a cleaning device for cleaning a nozzle surface of a print head, wherein the cleaning device is provided with at least one group consisting of a plurality of wiper blades. While the rearmost wiper blade in the moving direction is a slitless wiper blade, the remaining wiper blades are slitted wiper blades, and the slitted wiper blades are provided in plurality.
An ink jet printer characterized in that each slit is provided at a position having a different movement trajectory. 2. The ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the group of wiper blades is provided with a recess corresponding to the shape of the nozzle surface of the print head.