JPH0681741U - Inkjet device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] Do not stain the platen or printing paper when wiping the head required for an inkjet printer. [Configuration] Wiping surface 22a of wiper blade 22
However, the wiper blade 22 is arranged so as to be inclined with respect to the moving direction B1 of the head 2 and substantially orthogonal to the nozzle surface of the head 2. Therefore, due to the elastic force of the wiper blade 22 at the moment of ending the wiping,
The wiped ink is applied to the platen 16 and the printing paper 17.
Will be thrown away in the direction that is not placed.

Description

[Detailed description of the device]

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

 The present invention provides a head that ejects ink droplets from a nozzle, a carriage that moves the head along a platen, and a flexibility that wipes the nozzle surface of the head as the carriage moves to a non-printing position. And an inkjet device having a member.

[0002]

[Prior art]

 Conventionally, an ink jet device of this type has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-77669, and its schematic configuration will be described below with reference to FIG.

A head 35 that ejects ink from nozzles (not shown) is mounted on a carriage 34, and the carriage 34 is moved along the platen 31 by a drive source (not shown). Then, ink is ejected from the head 35 along with the movement of the carriage 34 onto the printing paper 32 conveyed onto the platen 31 by a rubber roller (not shown), and image data is printed. A flexible wiper blade 36 for wiping the nozzle surface of the head 35 is provided in the vicinity of the home position HP of the carriage 34 (on the left side of the platen 31 in FIG. 3), and the wiping surface 36 a of the wiper blade 36 has a wiping surface 36 a. It is arranged so that it is perpendicular to the moving direction of the. Further, the wiper blade 36 is movable between an advancing position shown by a broken line in FIG. 3 for sliding contact with the head 35 for wiping and a rearward retracted position shown by a solid line in FIG. 3 not sliding for contact with the head 35.

After printing the image data, the wiper blade 36 is arranged at the forward position, and the nozzle surface of the head 35 and the wiping surface 36 a of the wiper blade 36 are brought into sliding contact with each other by the movement of the carriage 34 to the home position HP. The nozzle surface is wiped.

[0005]

[Problems to be solved by the device]

 However, in the above-described inkjet device, since the wiping surface 36a of the wiper blade 36 is arranged perpendicularly to the moving direction of the head 35, the wiping surface 36a of the wiper blade 36 is brought into close contact with the nozzle surface of the head 35 by the elastic force due to bending during wiping. The wiper blade 36 that is ejected ejects the wiped ink at the moment when the wiper blade 36 separates from the head 35, and the ejected ink is scattered to the platen 31 side. For this reason, the scattered ink may adhere to the platen 31 and the printing paper 32 and stain them.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet device that does not stain the platen or the printing paper during wiping.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

 To achieve this object, in claim 1 of the present invention, a head that ejects ink droplets from a nozzle, a carriage that moves the head along a platen, and a carriage that moves to a non-printing position In an inkjet device having a flexible member for wiping a nozzle surface of the head, a contact line formed by contact between the wiping surface of the flexible member and the nozzle surface of the head is a moving direction of the head. It is inclined to the direction.

According to the second aspect, the ink adsorbing member is provided in a direction substantially perpendicular to the wiping surface of the flexible member.

[0009]

[Action]

 In the inkjet device of the present invention having the above structure, the flexible member is arranged so that the contact line is inclined with respect to the moving direction of the head, and the nozzle surface of the head is wiped. Immediately after the wiping, due to the elastic force of the flexible member, the wiped ink is ejected in the direction in which the platen and the printing paper are not arranged.

[0010]

【Example】

 Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, the configuration of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. A platen 16 is provided in the housing 21 of the printer 1 so as to be rotatable in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1, and a guide shaft 4 is provided along the platen 16. A carriage 3 is slidably attached to the guide shaft 4, and a belt 7 is attached to the carriage 3. The belt 7 is wound around the idle pulley 8 and the drive pulley 6. The drive pulley 6 is rotated by the drive motor 5, and the rotation of the drive pulley 6 moves the carriage 3 along the guide shaft 4 via the belt 7 in the direction of arrow B in FIG. A head 2 is mounted on the carriage 3 so as to face the platen 16, and printing ink is stored in the head 2.

The printing paper 17 is inserted into the housing 21 in the direction of arrow C in FIG. 1 from the rear of the printer 1, is conveyed in the direction of arrow D along the platen 16, and is discharged from the housing 21 of the printer 1. . When the printing paper 17 is conveyed to the platen 16, the head 2 ejects ink as the carriage 3 moves, whereby desired data is printed.

A cap 9 is provided at a non-printing position of the head 2 on the left side of the platen 16 in FIG. 1, and a cap rubber 10 for closely contacting the head 2 is attached to the cap 9. The cap 9 is attached to the head 2 so as to be movable in the arrow E direction in FIG. 1, and the cap rubber 10 is appropriately attached to the head 2. A connecting tube 12 is attached to the cap 9 and is connected to the pump 11. A discharge tube 13 is connected to the pump 11, and the discharge tube 13 is connected to a waste ink tank 14 containing an adsorbent 15.

A flexible wiper blade 22 is provided between the platen 16 and the cap 9 in the non-printing position. The wiper blade 22 is attached so as to be movable in the direction of arrow F in FIG. The wiper blade 22 normally stands by at a retracted position where it does not come into contact with the head 2, and at the time of wiping, it is moved to a forward position where it can be slidably contacted with the head 2 by a moving means (not shown). As shown in FIG. 2A when the inside of the printer 1 is viewed from the front, the wiping surface 22a of the wiper blade 22 is inclined with respect to the moving direction B1 of the head 2 and is substantially at the nozzle surface of the head 2. I'm going straight. As described above, the wiper blade 22 is inclined so that the wiping surface 22 a can wipe the entire nozzle surface of the head 2.

Further, a droplet suction member 23 that absorbs ink is arranged in a direction substantially perpendicular to the wiping surface 22a of the wiper blade 22 at the forward position and is arranged in parallel to the wiping surface 22a. . The surface of the droplet adsorbing member 23 facing the wiping surface 22a has two stages and is divided into two. The upper surface is a cleaning surface 23a that contacts the wiping surface 22a of the wiper blade 22 and cleans the wiping surface 22a. The lower surface is a droplet adsorbing surface 23b that adsorbs the ink ejected by the elastic force of the wiper blade 22 immediately after wiping.

Next, the operation of the printer 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printing paper 17 is inserted in the housing 21 of the printer 1 in the direction of arrow C and is conveyed to the platen 16. Then, the head 2 attached to the carriage 3 which is moved in the direction of arrow B by the drive motor 5 ejects ink according to the data input when it is sent to the position of the print paper 17, and the ink is ejected onto the print paper 17. Form an image. After that, when the head 2 prints a certain amount or the user operates the head 2 as needed, the head 2 is maintained. During the maintenance, the head 2 is moved to the platen 16 in FIG. It will be moved to the left non-print position. Next, the cap 9 approaches the head 2 and the cap rubber 10 adheres to the head 2 to cover the vicinity of the nozzle of the head 2. Then, the pump 11 sucks the ink and the air bubbles in the head 2, and further the foreign substances attached to the vicinity of the nozzle, and discharges them to the adsorbent 15 in the waste ink tank 14.

The wiper blade 22 can be engaged with the head 2 by the moving means whenever the nozzle surface of the head 2 is contaminated with ink or the like, or whenever the head 2 prints a certain amount. Moved to the forward position. Then, as shown in FIG. 2B when the inside of the printer 1 is viewed from above, the wiping of the nozzle surface of the head 2 and the wiper blade 22 is performed along with the movement of the head 2 to the non-printing position (the direction of arrow B1 in the drawing). The surface 22a comes into sliding contact with the nozzle surface, and the nozzle surface is wiped. At the time of this wiping, the wiper blade 22 is slidably brought into contact with the wiper blade 22 from the position indicated by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 2B to the position indicated by the solid line. At this time, the contact line formed by the contact between the nozzle surface of the head 2 and the wiping surface 22a of the wiper blade 22 is inclined with respect to the moving direction B1 of the head 2. When the inclination angle is 30 ° to 60 °, the area where the wiper blade 22 is arranged does not become large, and ink ejected during wiping does not adhere to the platen 16 or the printing paper 17.

Then, at the moment of ending the wiping, the wiper blade 22 tries to restore to the shape shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 2 by the elastic force. The ink wiped by the restoring force is ejected downward in FIG. 2A, that is, in the direction in which the platen 16 and the printing paper 17 are not arranged. The ejected ink is adsorbed on the droplet adsorbing surface 23b of the droplet adsorbing member 23. Further, due to the restoring force, the wiper blade 22 bends in the direction in which the droplet adsorbing member 23 is arranged, contacts the cleaning surface 23a of the droplet adsorbing member 23, and the wiping surface 23a is cleaned.

In the inkjet printer 1 thus configured, the wiping surface 22 a of the wiper blade 22 1 is inclined with respect to the moving direction B of the head 2 and is substantially orthogonal to the nozzle surface of the head 2. At the moment of ending the wiping, the wiped ink is ejected by the elastic force of the wiper blade 22 in the direction in which the platen 16 and the printing paper 17 are not arranged. Therefore, the ejected ink does not adhere to the platen 16 and the printing paper 17, and the platen 16 and the printing paper 17 are not contaminated.

Further, since the wiper blade 22 is provided with the droplet suction member 23 that absorbs ink in a direction substantially perpendicular to the wiping surface 22a when the wiper blade 22 is moved to the forward position, the wiper blade 22 immediately after wiping. The ink repelled by the elastic force of is adsorbed by the droplet adsorbing member 23 and does not stain the inside of the printer 1.

Furthermore, since the droplet suction member 23 is provided with the cleaning surface 23a, the wiping surface 22a comes into contact with the cleaning surface 23a by the restoring force of the wiper blade 22 immediately after wiping, and the wiping surface 22a is cleaned. Be touched. Therefore, wiping is performed well.

In this embodiment, the contact line formed by the contact between the nozzle surface of the head 2 and the wiping surface 22a of the wiper blade 22 during wiping is inclined with respect to the moving direction B of the head 2 and Although the wiping blade 22 was arranged so that the wiping surface 22a is substantially orthogonal to the nozzle surface of the head 2, the contact line formed by the contact between the nozzle surface of the head 2 and the wiping surface 22a of the wiper blade 22 is If the wiper blade 22 is arranged so as to be inclined with respect to the moving direction B of the head 2, the wiping surface 22 a may be inclined with respect to the nozzle surface of the head 2.

Further, in the present embodiment, the ink jetted from the head 2 flies in the horizontal direction and is printed, and the ink jet apparatus of the present invention is used in the printer 1. Well, for example, it may be used in a device that prints by ejecting ink in the vertical direction.

Further, although the droplet suction member 23 is fixed in the present embodiment, it may be provided so as to be movable so as to move during wiping.

Further, although the head 2 is arranged perpendicularly to the moving direction B in the present embodiment, the head 2 may be arranged so as to be inclined with respect to the moving direction B.

In this embodiment, the cleaning surface 23a of the droplet suction member 23 and the droplet suction surface 23b are made of the same material, but they may be made of different materials.

[0028]

[Effect of device]

 As is clear from the above description, according to the inkjet device of the present invention, the contact line formed by the contact between the wiping surface of the flexible member and the nozzle surface of the head is different from the moving direction of the head. The wiping ink is ejected in the direction in which the platen and the printing paper are not arranged by the elastic force of the flexible member at the moment of ending the wiping. Therefore, the ejected ink does not adhere to the platen and the printing paper, the platen and the printing paper do not become dirty, and the printing quality can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an inkjet printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing the vicinity of a wiper portion of the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the vicinity of a wiper portion of a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Printer 2 Head 22 Wiper Blade 22a Wiping Surface 23 Droplet Adsorbent

Claims (2)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A head that ejects ink droplets from a nozzle, a carriage that moves the head along a platen, and a flexible device that wipes the nozzle surface of the head as the carriage moves to a non-printing position. In an inkjet device having a flexible member, a contact line formed by contact between a wiping surface of the flexible member and a nozzle surface of the head is inclined with respect to a moving direction of the head. Inkjet device. 2. The ink jet apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an ink adsorbing member provided substantially perpendicular to a wiping surface of the flexible member.