JP4775513B2 - Inkjet printer - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a printer having an ink jet print head. More specifically, the present invention relates to an ink jet printer capable of painting the surface of a recording medium such as a tape without a gap.

  Various types of ink jet printers are known. In these printers, printable ranges are individually set for a specified recording medium size. Usually, the printing range is within the range slightly inside the recording medium size, so that the upper, lower, right, It is defined as the left margin. Each margin is set to a value within a range of about 3 to 13 mm. Accordingly, a specification that can print to the edge of the recording medium has not been proposed.

  As an ink jet printer, a small printer configured to perform color printing on each color tape as a recording medium has been proposed. This type of small-sized inkjet printer prints color on a tape by supplying ink from ink tanks of cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) to an inkjet print head. It can be performed.

  As a tape, an adhesive layer is formed on the back side of the tape, and the adhesive layer is covered with release paper, cut after printing to a certain length, and peeled off the release paper to give a label at the desired location. There is something that can be pasted. Printers that perform printing on such tapes are called label printers, label word processors, and the like, and have recently been on the market.

  When printing (solid coating printing) that fills a recording medium, for example, a tape without gaps, is performed using this ink jet printer, there is a problem that an unpainted portion may be formed on the edge of the tape (for example, the width direction). There is.

  That is, for example, if solid printing is performed so that the print head is reciprocated in the width direction of the tape so as to eliminate the remaining coating at the edge in the tape width direction, the print head is aligned with the edge on the printing start side in the width direction of the tape. Thus, it is necessary to start the printing operation by the print head and to stop the printing operation in accordance with the edge on the printing end side in the tape width direction.

  However, it is generally difficult to drive the print head and start printing accurately at the print start position, or to stop printing accurately at the print stop position. This is because the tape transport position is slightly deviated in the width direction, or there is an influence such as a reciprocal movement of the print head and a deviation of the ink droplet ejection operation.

  If an accurate printing operation cannot be realized, for example, if the start of the printing operation is delayed from the point in time when the print head is positioned at the edge of the tape, an unpainted portion occurs at the edge in the width direction of the tape.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above, the problem of the present invention is to perform printing in which a part of the edge of the recording medium, the entire width, the entire length, or the entire surface is filled without any gaps without leaving unpainted edges on the recording medium such as tape. Hereinafter, such a printing operation is generically referred to as “solid printing”.)
It is to realize an ink jet printer capable of performing the above.

An ink jet printer according to the present invention includes a print head for ejecting ink to a recording medium conveyed, a carriage for carrying said print head, an ink jet printer including a sensor, a, in the printing end of the recording medium The width of the recording medium to be conveyed or the widthwise end of the recording medium to be conveyed is detected by the sensor, and the ink is ejected to a position outside the end of the recording medium based on the detection result by the sensor. It is performed.

  Furthermore, the sensor is an optical sensor.

1 is an external perspective view of an ink jet printer according to a first embodiment to which the present invention is applied. It is a schematic sectional drawing of the part which cut | disconnected the printer of FIG. 1 by the II-II line. It is a schematic block diagram which shows the structure of the principal part of the printer of FIG. It is a schematic block diagram which shows the structure of the state which looked at the principal part of the inkjet printer of FIG. 1 from the upper side. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram illustrating only a paper guide of the printer illustrated in FIG. 1. It is a schematic block diagram which shows the control system of the inkjet printer of FIG. It is a schematic block diagram which shows the structure of the principal part of the inkjet printer of Example 2 of this invention. It is a block diagram which takes out and shows the ink collection container of the printer of FIG. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a printing operation of the printer of FIG. 7. It is a schematic block diagram which shows the principal part of the inkjet printer which is a modification of the printer of FIG.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
(First embodiment)

  FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an ink jet printer to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a portion cut along the line II-II. The ink jet printer 1 of this example is of a type called “label printer”, “label word processor” or the like that performs printing on the surface of a tape having an adhesive layer covered with release paper on the back side. is there.

  Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the inkjet printer 1 has a thin rectangular parallelepiped casing 101 as a whole, and the front half of the upper surface is an operation surface 102. Here, various keys are arranged, and a print button 103 and a power button 104 for instructing a printing operation are also included. An opening / closing lid 105 is attached to the rear half of the casing 101. The opening / closing lid 105 can be opened / closed around its rear end so that the inside is opened as viewed from the operation surface 102 side, and the lock is released by operating the lid opening / closing button 106 arranged on the operation surface 102. Can be opened.

  When the lid 105 is opened, a mounting portion 23 for the tape cartridge 3 to be described later is formed inside. Therefore, the tape cartridge 3 can be attached and detached by opening this lid. A transparent window 105a is attached to the lid 105, through which the presence or absence of the tape cartridge 3 can be confirmed. A liquid crystal display unit 107 for displaying character information and the like input via the keys on the operation surface 102 is disposed at a position adjacent to the lid 105.

  On the other hand, a tape discharge port 101b is formed on the back side surface 101a of the casing 101, and the printed tape is discharged to the outside through this. The tape discharged from here is guided by the tape discharge guide plate 108. A power supply unit 112, a battery 113 such as a nickel cadmium battery, and the like are mounted inside the casing 101 on the back side of the operation surface 102.

  Next, FIG. 3 shows a schematic configuration of a main part of the inkjet printer 1 mounted in the casing 101. In the figure, reference numeral 2 denotes a base for mounting each component, which is mounted on the bottom plate of the casing 101. On top of this, a tape cartridge 3, three ink tanks 4 (4C, 4M, 4Y) and an ink jet print head 5 are arranged. The print head 5 is carried by a head carriage 6, and the head carriage 6 is supported by a lead screw 7 that spans between the left and right side walls 21 and 22 of the base 2. The carriage 6 is supported by a guide shaft (not shown) arranged in parallel with the lead screw 7 so as to be movable left and right (in the axial direction of the lead screw) in a non-rotatable state. Therefore, by rotating the lead screw 7, the head carriage 6 and the print head 5 carried thereon can be reciprocated in the left-right direction (first direction) indicated by arrows A and B in the drawing.

  A tape guide member 8 is disposed in the center of the movement range of the print head 5 so as to face the print head 5. The tape guide member 8 is a member corresponding to a platen disposed opposite to a print head of another printing format such as a thermal printer, and defines a printing position by the print head 5.

  Here, in this example, the guide member 8 constitutes an ink collecting means. As shown in FIG. 5, the surface of the guide member 8 of this example is formed by a rectangular ink filter 81 capable of absorbing and passing ink. The ink filter 81 can be composed of, for example, a stainless steel mesh filter. The ink filter 81 is attached to the surface of a rectangular parallelepiped ink absorbing portion 82 made of an ink absorbing material. Therefore, the ink adhering to the surface of the guide member 8 passes through the ink filter 81 and is absorbed by the ink absorber 82 side.

  In FIG. 3 again, a head cap mechanism 9 is disposed at a position closer to the side wall 22 than the guide member 8. The head cap mechanism 9 is at a position outside the reciprocating movement range of the print head 5 during printing. In a non-use state, the print head 5 moves to the position of the head cap mechanism 9 and is held in a state of being blocked by the cap surface 91 of the cap mechanism 9. An ink pump 11 for forcibly supplying ink manually from the ink tank 4 to the print head 5 is disposed at a side position of the tape cartridge 3 before starting printing.

  Next, FIG. 4 shows an arrangement configuration when the main components of the inkjet printer 1 of FIG. 3 are viewed from above. The configuration of the main part of the inkjet printer 1 of this example will be described in detail with reference to this figure as well.

  First, the tape cartridge 3 has a case 31 having a certain thickness, a core shaft 32 rotatably accommodated therein, and a tape T having a certain width W1 wound around the outer periphery thereof. Yes. The upper half portion of the front end surface of the case 31 protrudes forward, and this portion includes a tape guide 33 formed of a PET film and a tape pressing roller 34 pressed against the surface with a certain elastic force. And a tape feeding portion. The tip of the tape T is initially set to be sandwiched between them. The support member 35 of the tape pressing roller 34 is supported on the case 31 side through a coil spring 36 so as to be movable up and down with respect to the tape guide 33. The support member 35 is connected to a lever 37. The lever 37 has a front end surface 37 a that protrudes outward from the upper surface of the case 31. When the front end surface 37a is pushed in, the tape pressing roller 34 is pressed against the tape guide 33 side in conjunction with this. Further, six display portions 38 for displaying the width dimension of the built-in tape T are formed on the upper surface of the case 31.

  On the side of the ink jet printer main body to which the tape cartridge 3 having this configuration is detachably mounted, a mounting portion 23 for mounting the tape cartridge 3 is formed. In the mounting portion 23, the tape feed roller 12 is disposed at a position directly below the tape guide 33 that defines the tape feeding portion of the tape cartridge 3. The roller 12 has a shape in which large diameter portions and small diameter portions are alternately formed. Further, as described above, the opening / closing lid 105 for attaching / detaching the tape cartridge to / from the mounting portion 23 is attached immediately above the tape cartridge 3.

  Thus, in this example, the recording medium supply source is basically constituted by the tape cartridge 3 in which the tape T is stored and the mounting portion 23 in which the tape cartridge 3 is mounted.

  As can be seen from FIG. 2, the opening / closing lid 105 is formed with a pushing portion 105b capable of pushing the tip end surface 37a of the lever 37 protruding from the upper surface of the tape cartridge when the lid 105 is closed. Further, the opening / closing lid 105 facing the display unit 38 for displaying the tape width dimension formed on the upper surface of the case of the tape cartridge 3 is formed with a detection unit 105c for detecting these.

  Next, the transport path of the tape T fed out from the tape cartridge 3 will be described. The tape T is fed out by rotating the tape feed roller 12. A plurality of tape guide pieces 13 made of PET film are arranged in contact with the outer periphery of the small diameter portion of the tape feed roller 12. By these tape guide pieces 13, the leading end of the tape T is reliably guided toward the front side in the transport direction. A stainless steel tape guide 14 is disposed on the front side of the tape guide piece 13 in the conveying direction. The tape T is guided toward the printing position by the guide 14 and the guide 15 opposed thereto. The printing position is defined by the print head 5 and the guide member 8 opposed to the print head 5. The surface of the guide member 8 is a mesh filter 81, which is disposed on the surface of an ink absorbing portion 82 formed from an ink absorbing material. The tape T that has passed this printing position passes through the tape cutting position 17 while being pressed against the tape guide 16 side by the tape pressing roller 15, and is carried out to the outside from the tape discharge port 101b.

  The drive force transmission system of the above-described tape feed roller 12 and the head carriage 6 carrying the print head 5 will be described. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a tape feed motor 18 is attached to the inside of the side wall 22 of the base 2. The motor output shaft 18 a is connected to the end of the rotating shaft 121 of the tape feed roller 12 through a gear train 181. In this example, the gear train 181 has a power switching function. When the head carriage 6 moves toward the side wall 22 and pushes the protrusion 182 projecting from the side, the power transmission path is switched. The power of the motor 18 is transmitted to the cap mechanism 9 side. As described above, in this example, the means for transporting the tape as the recording medium basically includes the tape feed roller 12, the motor 18 as the drive source, and the gear train 181 for transmitting power from the motor 18 to the roller 12. It is configured.

  On the other hand, a head drive motor 19 is disposed inside the other side wall 21 on the base. The motor output shaft 19a is connected to the end of the lead screw 7 via a speed reduction mechanism 191 composed of a gear train.

  Next, the ink supply means forcibly manually supplies the ink tank 4, three ink tubes 41 (41 </ b> Y, 41 </ b> M, 41 </ b> C) for supplying ink from here to the print head 5 side, and ink supply. Basically, the ink pump 11 is configured to perform the following. The three ink tanks 4C, 4M, and 4Y store inks of cyan, magenta, and yellow, respectively, and color printing is possible using these ink tanks.

  Here, in the inkjet printer 1 of the present example, the maximum width of the tape T that can be loaded is set to W (max) as shown in FIG. The printable range W (p) in the tape width direction (moving direction of the print head 5) by the print head 5 is set to be slightly wider to the left and right than the maximum tape width W (max). And the mesh filter 81 which prescribes | regulates the surface of the guide member 8 mentioned above over this printable range is arrange | positioned.

  Therefore, in the case of the example shown in the figure, since the attached tape width is W1, the printable range by the print head 5 is set to a range W (p1) including this.

  The tape width in the tape cartridge 3 to be mounted can be detected by reading the six display units 38 arranged on the upper surface of the case 31. For example, the tape width dimension is displayed depending on whether or not each display unit 38 has a hole, and the presence or absence of holes in these display units is determined by a mechanical sensor or an optical sensor that constitutes the detection unit 105c on the ink jet printer side. What is necessary is just to detect with a simple sensor.

  FIG. 6 shows a schematic configuration of a control system of the ink jet printer 1 of this example. In the figure, reference numeral 100 denotes a control circuit constituted by a microcomputer, and an input unit 110 constituted by a key group disposed on the operation surface 102 of the inkjet printer 1 is connected to the input side. Further, a detection unit 105c for detecting the tape width is connected. On the output side of the control circuit 100, a display unit 107 such as a liquid crystal display device for performing various displays, a printer controller 140 for controlling a printing operation by the print head 5, and motors 18 and 19 are controlled. Motor drivers 150 and 160 are connected. Based on a control program stored in the ROM of the control circuit 100 in advance, under the control of the control circuit 100, a printable range corresponding to the tape width stored in the mounted tape cartridge 3 is set. The operations such as solid printing described in the above are performed. As described above, in this example, the print drive control unit is configured around the control circuit 100.

  A solid coating printing process in which the entire width of the tape T is filled with ink by the ink jet printer 1 of this example configured as described above will be described. In this case, no margin is set at both ends in the width direction of the tape T, and the print range is set to a range W (p1) wider than the tape width W1. By driving the motor 18 and rotating the tape feeding roller 12, the tape T is fed out from the tape cartridge 3 and conveyed toward the printing position. The lead screw 7 is rotated by the motor 19 in synchronization with the transport operation of the tape T, and the print head 5 is moved by the carriage 6. The printing head 5 is moved in the direction indicated by the arrow A in the figure, and printing is started from the time when it reaches the edge T1 of the tape T conveyed to the printing position, that is, from the time T0 in FIG. Also, the end point of printing by this forward movement is the point after passing the other edge T2 of the tape T, the point of time T3 in FIG.

  As described above, in the inkjet printer 1 of this example, printing is performed in a printing range wider than the transported tape width W1, so that no unpainted portion is generated at the edge T1 or T2 of the tape T. .

  Here, when such printing is performed, in the printing operation on the front side of the edge T1 of the tape T and the printing operation after passing through the edge T2 of the tape T, ink droplets ejected from the print head are Then, it flies to the guide member 8 side without adhering onto the tape T. In this example, the surface 81 of the guide member 8 is arranged over the printable range, so that the ejected ink droplets do not fly to other parts and adhere to the surface 81 of the guide member. Adhere to. Furthermore, in this example, the guide member 8 includes a mesh filter 81 and an ink absorbing portion 82 that is continuous therewith. Accordingly, the ink droplets ejected toward the surface 81 of the guide member and attached thereto pass through the mesh filter 81, reach the rear ink absorbing portion 82, and are absorbed and held therein. Therefore, the ink droplets remain attached to the surface of the guide member, and the tape T conveyed later is not soiled by the ink droplets.

  In this way, if the inkjet printer 1 of this example is used, it is possible to perform solid coating printing of the entire width of the tape without generating unpainted areas and without staining other portions of the tape with ink droplets. It is.

  After the printing is finished, when the head carriage 6 carrying the print head 5 moves in the direction of arrow B and returns to the end as shown in the figure, the rotary cutter 61 mounted on the carriage 6 is driven. In this state, the carriage 6 moves in the arrow A direction. Thereby, the tape T is cut into a fixed length and discharged to the outside.

  Thereafter, the roller 12 is reversely rotated by the motor 18 and the leading end of the tape T is returned to just before the printing position. Further, the carriage 6 moves to the other side wall 22 and pushes the protrusion 182 outward by the side surface. As a result, the motor 18 and the tape feed roller 12 are disconnected from each other, and the roller 12 stops. Instead, the cap mechanism 9 is driven and the print head 5 is capped.

  When the opening / closing lid 105 covering the mounting portion 23 is opened in order to replace the tape cartridge 3, the tape T having the leading end positioned before the printing position is rewound, and the leading end becomes the tape cartridge. It returns to the space between the pressing roller 34 and the tape guide 33 that define the tape feeding portion.

  As described above, in the ink jet printer 1 of this example, a wide print range is set on the left and right sides of the attached tape width so as to perform the solid coating printing of the entire width of the tape and the printing as the guide member. A device having an ink absorbing surface capable of absorbing ink over a range including a possible range is employed. Therefore, it is possible to perform solid coating without leaving unpainted portions at both ends of the tape. Further, since the ink droplets ejected by printing at positions deviated from both ends of the tape are absorbed by the guide member, the transported tape is not soiled.

  When only one edge in the width direction on the tape surface is solid-printed, the printing range is set so that the printing operation is performed from the time before the edge or until the edge is passed. You only have to set it.

In the above description, the operation of performing printing so that no unpainted portion is generated at both ends of the tape has been described. Of course, it is also possible to perform printing so that no unpainted portions are left on the front and rear edges of the tape. For example, in order to prevent the remaining coating from occurring at the front end of the tape, printing may be started before the front end of the tape reaches the printing position by the print head. In addition, in order to prevent unpainted ink from remaining at the trailing edge of the tape, printing continues until the trailing edge of the tape (printing end) has passed the printing position, and the tape is cut at the position of the printing end. You just have to do it. In this case, as the ink collecting means, one having an ink absorbing surface having a necessary width in the tape conveying direction may be adopted.
(Second embodiment)

  7, 8, and 9 show the main part of an ink jet printer that is most suitable for solid printing on a large-sized recording medium such as a poster. However, it goes without saying that this example can also be applied to a recording medium having a relatively small size such as a tape taken up in the first embodiment.

  The ink jet printer 200 of this example is different from that the recording medium is a paper sheet such as a poster, the carriage mechanism of the print head is a belt-pulley type, and the configuration of the ink collecting means formed on the paper guide is different. Is basically the same as in the first embodiment. Therefore, in the following description, only these different parts will be described.

  First, as shown in FIG. 7, in the ink jet printer 200 of the present example, the carriage 202 carrying the print head on the lower surface also carries three color ink cartridges 203Y, 203M, and 203C. One side of the carriage 202 is supported so as to be able to reciprocate in the width direction of the recording paper 205 along the surface of the carriage guide plate 204. The other side of the carriage 202 is supported by a carriage guide shaft 206 running parallel to the guide plate 204 so as to be reciprocally movable in the same direction. The carriage 202 supported in this manner is connected to a timing belt 209 that extends between the driving pulley 207 and the driven pulley 208. The drive pulley 207 is attached to the output shaft of the carriage motor 210. Therefore, by driving the motor 210, the print head carried on the carriage 202 can be reciprocated in the width direction of the recording paper 205 being conveyed.

  A paper feed roller 221 and a pair of paper pressing rollers 222 and 223 pressed against the outer peripheral surface are disposed on the front (upstream) side in the conveyance direction of the recording paper 205 with respect to the carriage 202 carrying the print head. The recording paper 205 is conveyed toward the print position by the print head.

  Under the print head, a guide member for the recording medium 205 is provided at least over the reciprocating range of the print head, and an ink recovery mechanism 211 is disposed on the guide member. As shown in FIG. 8, the ink recovery mechanism 211 is transported with a rectangular ink recovery container 212 that is sufficiently wider than the width of the recording paper to be transported, and an ink absorber 213 disposed therein. A plurality of guide ribs 214 are provided for guiding the recording paper. The ink recovery container 212 has a bottom plate 212a and front, rear, left and right side walls 212b, 212c, 212d, and 212e rising from the periphery, and the upper side is open. The ink absorbing material 213 is disposed in a U-shape on the bottom surface 212a of the ink collection container 212 so as to extend from the side wall 212b to the left and right side walls 212c and 212d. Then, fan-shaped guide ribs 214 are formed so as to protrude vertically at equal pitches in the width direction from the bottom wall 212a surrounded by the three-side inner periphery of the ink absorbing material 213 and the front side wall 212e of the ink collection container. Has been. The upper ends of these ribs 214 protrude slightly upward from the upper end surface of the ink collection container 212, so that the recording paper 205 passing over the ink collection container 212 is guided by the upper end portions of these ribs 214. Is done.

  Here, the bottom wall 212a of the ink collection container 212 is provided with an ink discharging means. That is, an ink absorption tube 215 is connected and communicates with the ink absorbing material 213 side. The other side of the ink recovery pipe 215 is connected to the side of an ink suction pump (not shown).

  In the printer of this example in which the ink recovery mechanism is configured in this way, as shown in FIG. 9, the left and right ink absorbing material portions include the passing positions of both end portions of the recording paper 205 being conveyed, The width is set to include a printing width W (p) that is set wider than the maximum width W (max) of the recording paper 205. As in the first embodiment, in the width direction of the recording paper 205 to be conveyed, printing started from a point before the print head reached the end 205L of the recording paper, and passed through the end 205R of the recording paper. By continuing printing until later, solid printing is performed with no unpainted ink on both ends. When such printing is performed, ink droplets that have not adhered to the surface of the recording paper and have jumped to the back side reach the surface of the ink absorbing material 213 of the ink recovery mechanism 211 and are absorbed therein. . Therefore, there is no adverse effect such as the subsequent recording paper gets dirty.

  Further, in this example, in order to perform solid coating so that the front and rear ends in the conveyance direction of the recording paper 205 cannot be left uncoated, the following is performed. The print position by the print head is indicated by a line P in FIG. This printing position is set so as to be located approximately in the middle of the width in the transport direction (between the lines L1 and L2) of the ink absorbing material. Printing by the print head is started immediately before (upstream) the front end 205F of the recording paper 205 reaches the line P. Further, the printing is continued until the rear end 205R of the recording paper 205 passes through the line P. By performing printing in this way, it is possible to perform solid coating printing in which no unprinted portion is generated at the front and rear ends (downstream end and upstream end in the transport direction) of the recording paper 205. Even when such printing is performed, the ink droplets flying without adhering to the recording paper are surely captured by the ink absorbing material on the back surface side and absorbed therein. Therefore, it is possible to avoid the adverse effect that ink droplets adhere to an undesired portion and stain subsequent recording paper.

  Here, in this example, the ink absorbing material 213 is arranged in a U-shape. Of course, the rectangular ink absorbing material 213 may be disposed over the entire bottom surface of the ink collection container 212. Furthermore, it may be arranged in a frame shape. However, in this example, since the ink absorbing material 213 is disposed only in the portion where the ink droplets fly, it is economical because the amount of use is small. Further, the installation space for the ink absorbing material can be reduced. Even if the amount of use is reduced in this way, there is no problem because the ink discharging means is provided in this example as described below.

  In other words, in this example, an ink collection tube 215 is connected to the ink absorbing material 213 so that the ink collected here can be collected and removed. Therefore, it is possible to avoid problems such as excessive accumulation of ink in the ink absorbing material 213 and a decrease in recovery efficiency thereof.

In this example, the width dimension of the recording paper 205 is detected as follows. That is, the reflective optical sensor 231 is attached to the side surface of the head carriage 202. This sensor 231 detects the width dimension of the conveyed recording paper or the position through which the end of the recording paper in the width direction passes. Based on this detection result, a print range over a wider range than both ends of the recording paper is set. The sensors 231 may be installed on both sides of the carriage and detect the positions of both ends based on the detection results of both sensors. Alternatively, when one sensor is used, the positions of both ends of the recording paper may be detected by moving the carriage in the width direction before printing.
(Modification of the second embodiment)

  FIG. 10 shows a modification of the ink recovery mechanism in the second embodiment. The ink recovery mechanism 311 of this example is also composed of an ink recovery container 312 and an ink absorbing material 313 disposed in the ink recovery container 312. The ink recovery mechanism 311 itself reciprocates integrally with the print head carriage 315 by the carriage 314. Is configured to move.

  That is, the ink recovery mechanism 311 is supported by the carriage 314, and the carriage 314 is supported by a pair of guide shafts 316 and 317 extending in parallel so as to be reciprocally movable. The carriage 314 is connected to a timing belt 318, and the timing belt 318 is stretched between the driving pulley 319 and the driven pulley 320. The drive pulley 319 is connected to the output shaft of the carriage motor 322 via the reduction gear train 321. On the other hand, the head carriage 315 carrying the print head is supported by the guide plate 332 and the guide shaft 333 so as to be able to reciprocate similarly to the case of the second embodiment. The timing belt 336 is connected between the driving pulley 334 and the driven pulley 335. The drive pulley 334 is connected to the output shaft of the carriage motor 322 via the gear train 337. In this example, by driving the two timing belts 318 and 336 in synchronization, the ink recovery mechanism 311 is reciprocated integrally with the print head.

  A guide member 361 wider than the maximum printing width is disposed between the head carriage 315 and the ink recovery mechanism 314. The guide member 361 is predetermined toward the front (upstream) side in the conveyance direction of the recording paper 362. It extends for the length of.

  Since the ink recovery mechanism 311 of this example configured as described above moves together with the print head, it is not necessary to dispose the ink absorbing material over the width including the reciprocating range of the print head as in the second embodiment. Therefore, the ink recovery mechanism can be made compact. In particular, in an ink jet printer that prints a recording sheet having a width of 1 meter such as a large poster, the ink collecting mechanism of this example is used rather than configuring the ink collecting mechanism over the entire width as in the second embodiment. Thus, it may be advantageous to configure the ink recovery mechanism to move integrally with the print head.

In this example as well, it is desirable that the ink absorbing material 313 is sucked by the ink collecting pump 342 via the ink collecting pipe 341 and can be collected in the ink tank 343.
(Other embodiments)

  In each of the above embodiments, in order to perform color printing, three ink tanks each incorporating three color inks of cyan, magenta, and yellow are mounted. However, the present invention is not limited to a color printer, and can of course be applied to, for example, an ink jet printer in which only a black ink tank or only one color ink tank is mounted.

  When performing color printing, it is desirable to use white ink in addition to the three colors of cyan, magenta, and yellow instead of the above embodiments. In this way, each color can be printed with good reproducibility even when the ground color of the recording medium is other than white.

  That is, the colors that can be formed by mixing cyan, magenta, and yellow are only red, green, blue, and black, and the other colors are expressed by area dithering using the dither method. Therefore, these colors are often inferior to colors expressed by normal printing, and color reproducibility is poor. Further, when printing on a recording medium whose ground color is not white, black characters can be printed by mixing three colors, but white characters cannot be reproduced using three colors of cyan, magenta, and yellow. However, if white ink is used in addition to these three colors, such an adverse effect can be avoided.

  On the other hand, as the recording medium, the ground color was not particularly mentioned. Basically, any color recording medium can be used in the printer of the present invention. In the case of an ink jet printer equipped with four colors of cyan, magenta, yellow and white as described above, it is preferable to prepare a transparent recording medium, for example, a transparent tape, because all colors can be reproduced. .

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Inkjet printer, 2 ... Base, 3 ... Tape cartridge, 38 ... Tape width display part, 4 ... Ink tank, 5 ... Inkjet print head, 6 ... Head carriage, 7 ... Lead screw, 8 ... Guide member, 81 ... Mesh screen (paper guide surface) 82 ... Ink absorption part, 120 ... Tape width detection part, T ... Tape (recording medium), W1 ... Tape width, W (p1) ... Print range during solid printing, 200 ... Inkjet printer 211 ... Ink collection mechanism 212 ... Ink collection container 213 ... Ink absorber 215 ... Ink collection tube 205 ... Recording paper 311 ... Ink collection mechanism 314 ... Ink collection mechanism carriage 341 ... Ink collection Tube, 342 ... ink recovery pump, 343 ... ink tank, P ... printing position.

Claims (3)

A print head that ejects ink to a transported recording medium;
A carriage carrying the print head;
An ink jet printer comprising a sensor,
In printing at the edge of the recording medium,
The sensor detects the width dimension of the recording medium being conveyed ,
An ink jet printer, wherein the ink is ejected to a position off the end of the recording medium based on a detection result by the sensor. A print head that ejects ink to a transported recording medium;
A carriage carrying the print head;
An ink jet printer comprising a sensor,
In printing at the edge of the recording medium,
The sensor detects the end of the conveyed recording medium in the width direction,
An ink jet printer, wherein the ink is ejected to a position off the end of the recording medium based on a detection result by the sensor. The ink jet printer according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the sensor is an optical sensor.

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