JPH09272208A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily regain the function without the need of parts replacement or the risk of fouling hands by providing a cleaning device contacting with a cleaning means for cleaning an ink discharging surface of a recording head and/or a discharging function recovery means detachably to an image forming apparatus main body. SOLUTION: A cleaning cartridge 11 comprises a cleaning solvent tank 12 for a solvent of an ink, which is supplied to a cleaning solvent head 14 comprising a cleaning solvent discharging hole 14a via a supply pipe 13. An absorbent 15 is provided in the vicinity of the cleaning solvent head 14. In cleaning a cap portion, by replacing recording head with the cleaning cartridge 11, a signal contact portion 209 recognizes the cleaning cartridge 11 so that the absorbent 15 moves on the cap upward to be contacted and discharge a cleaning solvent. After a predetermined time, with the cap descended, foreign substances adhering on the absorbent 15 while passing by a blade are cleaned by the movement of the cartridge.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer or a plotter, which ejects ink from a recording head to form an image on a recording material. And / or a cleaning device for cleaning the function recovery means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An image forming apparatus that forms an image (including characters and symbols) on a recording material such as paper by ejecting ink from a recording head according to an image signal can record a highly precise image at high speed. In addition, it has been widely used in recent years because it has various advantages such as downsizing of recording means, easy cost reduction, less noise generation, and easy formation of color images using multicolor inks. Is coming.

The image forming means of this type of device is an ink ejected in accordance with an image signal from a recording material, such as paper, which is made to face an ink ejection surface of a recording head in which a large number of fine nozzles are arranged in a row. Is attached to the recording material to form an image.

Therefore, in order to obtain a high-quality image, it is essential that ink is constantly and stably ejected from a required nozzle to a predetermined position when necessary, and paper powder, dust or the like or a thickened ink is ejected onto the ink ejection surface. , Solidified ink, etc.,
Adhesion of unnecessary ink droplets may cause deterioration of image quality. There is also a problem that ink is not ejected by exposing the nozzle surface to the atmosphere when not in use.

In order to cope with such a situation, a means for cleaning the nozzle surface by arranging a cleaning blade opposite to the ink ejection surface, and covering the nozzle surface with a cap when not in use Conventionally, there has been proposed a means for forming a hermetically sealed state or applying a negative pressure to the nozzle at this time to suck and remove the thickened ink and the like.

The known means for cleaning the ink ejection surface will be briefly described with reference to FIG. This figure is a schematic perspective view of the image forming apparatus. A guide rail 203 is arranged on the apparatus main body, and a carriage 205 attached to a conveyor belt 204 and moving in the left-right direction in the figure is provided on the rail 203. A recording head 206 is detachably arranged on the carriage.

Below the recording head 206, the platen 2
An ink ejection surface is provided at a portion facing 08, the head 206 is moved along the guide rail 203, and a recording material (not shown) mounted on a platen 208 is responsive to an image signal. An image is formed by ejecting ink. When one stroke of ink is discharged,
The recording head 206 returns to the old position, and then the recording material is moved by a predetermined amount in the direction orthogonal to the head moving direction to perform the same image forming operation as described above. This is continued until one page of the recording material is completed. To be done.

As shown in FIG. 9, the recording head 206
Is attached to the carriage 205 in the direction of the arrow in the figure, and both are connected by a signal contact portion 209.
Image formation control is performed by signals such as a temperature sensor and a head presence / absence detection.

A cleaning section 100 is disposed on the left side of the "FIG. 8" in the figure and outside the image area. FIG. 10 is an enlarged view showing the cleaning section. A flexible cleaning blade 101 attached to a holding member 102 is arranged in this portion. Further, a cap 103 attached to a recovery pump 104 is arranged on the left side of the drawing.

When the recording head 206 mounted on the carriage 205 moves to the left from the state shown in FIG. 10A, the blade 101 abuts the ink ejection surface on the lower surface of the recording head 206. When the ink ejection surface reaches the position of the cap 103 by moving to the left by rubbing and rubbing, the cap 103 rises and abuts the ink ejection surface to seal it (FIG. 10B). Then, the ink of each nozzle is sucked by the action of the recovery pump 104. The sucked waste ink is discharged through the pipe 105.

As described above, the recording head 206 reciprocates a plurality of times to form an image, whereas the blade 1
The cleaning operation with 01 is performed once every several lines or once every several seconds. The cap operation is carried out when the power supply is turned off and when the cap 206 is in operation standby.
5 moves to the position of the cab 103 to move the cap 10
3 rises and becomes a sealed state. The suction operation by the pump 104 is performed when the power is turned on or when the recording head is replaced.

[0012]

On the other hand, such a cleaning means cannot avoid deterioration of the cleaning function due to long-term use. This will be briefly described below with reference to FIG. When the ink ejection surface of the recording head 206 is rubbed and cleaned by the blade 101, the cleaned ink, the thickened ink adhering to the surface, the dust, the paper dust and the like adhere to the blade, which is designated by the symbol X. As shown in the figure, the blade remains attached to the surface of the ink, and if the ink ejection surface is rubbed against it, these are rubbed on the ink ejection surface and the cleaning function deteriorates. There is a risk of not contacting and possibly becoming unable to clean.

Further, if foreign matter adheres to the upper surface Y of the rib portion of the cap 103, the foreign matter adheres to the ink ejection surface during the operation of the cap and the dirty surface is rubbed with the blade, so that cleaning cannot be performed.

If cleaning is performed in such a state,
Since it is inevitable that the image quality is deteriorated, in order to avoid such a situation, before the rubbing of the ink ejection surface 206F of the recording head 206, for example, as shown in FIG. The edge 206E of the ejection surface is brought into contact with the blade to remove foreign matter attached to the blade 101,
A means has been proposed in which a cleaning member 206S is attached to an appropriate position of the recording head to remove foreign matter adhering to the blade.

At the same time, however, the fact is that such a means has not yet yielded satisfactory results. To briefly describe this, in this type of image forming apparatus, in order for the ejected ink to accurately reach a predetermined position on the recording material, the ink ejection surface and the surface of the recording material placed on the platen are required. The spacing between them cannot be too wide. Also, when liquid ink adheres to the recording material,
When the recording material is paper, it expands to cause floating of the paper, and when the ink ejection surface contacts and rubs against the recording material, the image quality is remarkably deteriorated.

As shown in FIG. 12, the edge 206E of the ink ejection surface of the recording head 206 and the blade 10
Although the contact area with 1 is the portion indicated by the symbol L in the figure, since the ink ejection surface cannot be lowered so much as described above, the area L is increased to enhance the cleaning function of the edge 206E with respect to the blade 101. Is limited. The same applies to the cleaning member 206S.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and in the image forming apparatus of the ink jet system, even when the image quality is deteriorated due to long-term use, replacement of parts and contamination of fingers and the like are caused. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus whose function can be easily restored without doing so.

[0018]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is directed to an image forming apparatus equipped with a recording head for ejecting ink onto a recording material to record the ink on the ink ejection surface of the recording head. A cleaning device for cleaning the ejection surface and / or a recovery device for recovering the ink ejection function to clean the cleaning device and / or the recovery device. A cleaning device (1) for cleaning an ink ejection surface of an image forming device and / or a function recovery device, which is detachably attached to a main body of the forming device, or
In the above (1), a cleaning device is added to the recording head (2), or in the above (1), the cleaning device is provided together with the recording head. A cleaning device (3) characterized in that it is replaceable with a recording head detachable from the image forming apparatus main body, and has a cleaning means and / or an ink ejection function for cleaning an ink ejection surface of the recording head. A cleaning cartridge (4) characterized by cleaning and / or recovering the cleaning means and / or the recovery means by contacting the recovery means for recovery, or the cleaning cartridge (4) above, wherein Or a cleaning cartridge (5), characterized in that it contains a cleaning liquid serving as a solvent.
The cleaning cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the built-in ink is manually discharged and discharged. (6),
Alternatively, the cleaning cartridge (7) according to the above (5), characterized in that the cleaning cartridge (7) is provided with a drive source for discharging and flowing out the built-in ink outside the cleaning cartridge.
Alternatively, in the above (5), the cleaning cartridge (8) is provided with a drive source for discharging and flowing out the built-in ink into the cleaning cartridge, or any of the above (1) to (3) The cleaning device described above or the cleaning cartridge described in any one of (4) to (8) is attached to the main body of the image forming apparatus so as to be replaceable with the recording head, and the cleaning device or the cleaning cartridge is used to attach the cleaning cartridge to the main body. In the image forming apparatus (9) or the above (9), the control means selects a cleaning mode. The cleaning device or cleaning cartridge In the image forming apparatus (10) characterized by outputting an instruction, or in the above (9) or (10), the control means outputs a command to remove the cleaning device or the cleaning cartridge at the end of cleaning. In the image forming apparatus (11) or the above (9), the control means automatically detects that the cleaning cartridge is a cleaning cartridge by replacing the cleaning cartridge in the recording head conversion mode, and performs cleaning. The image forming apparatus (12) executes.

With this structure, the function of the cleaning member of the recording head can be easily restored without the operator's fingers being contaminated or the inside of the apparatus being contaminated.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIGS. 1A and 1B are perspective views of a cleaning cartridge showing an embodiment of the present invention. This cleaning cartridge has substantially the same outer shape as the recording head used for normal printing, and is replaced with the recording head as needed and mounted on the carriage.

The cleaning cartridge 11 has a cleaning liquid tank 12 which serves as a solvent for ink, and supplies the cleaning liquid contained therein to a cleaning liquid head 14 having a cleaning liquid discharge hole 14a through a supply pipe 13.
An absorber 15 is disposed near the cleaning liquid head 14 at a position where the contact area is larger than the contact area between the blade 101 provided on the image forming apparatus main body side and the ink ejection surface of the recording head. .

The mode of cleaning will be described below with reference to the operation flowcharts of "FIG. 2A" to "FIG. 2C" and "FIG. 3". When cleaning the blade and the cap portion on the apparatus main body side, the recording head mounted on the carriage is removed and the cleaning cartridge 11 is mounted. At this time, the signal contact portion 209 on the apparatus main body side is identified as the cleaning cartridge 11 (stage S1 in FIG. 3). Alternatively, when the cleaning mode is selected, an instruction to attach the cleaning cartridge may be issued. As a result, it is possible to prevent the cleaning operation from being started with the normal cartridge.

2A to 2C, all the cleaning cartridges move in the direction of arrow a. From the position of "Fig. 2A" to "Fig.
As it moves to the position indicated by "C" (stage S2),
The cleaning liquid is discharged while the cleaning liquid discharge hole 14a moves on the cap 103 (stage S3), and a certain time is waited (stage S4).

Next, the absorber 15 moves on the cap 103 (stage S5). The cap 103 is raised by a means such as a solenoid (not shown) and comes into contact with the absorber 15 (stage (S6). At this time, since the cleaning liquid discharge hole 14a of the cartridge 11 is located on the blade 101, the cleaning liquid is discharged. As shown in "FIG. 1B", the discharge may be performed by providing the pump 1 in the cleaning cartridge so that the cleaning liquid is discharged and discharged.
At this time, the discharge may be performed by pressing the portion indicated by reference numeral 1a, or when the cleaning cartridge is converted into a cleaning cartridge, the cleaning cartridge may be automatically detected and a cleaning operation may be automatically performed by a pump ( Stage 7). Alternatively, the cleaning liquid may be caused to flow out by moving to the cap position and sucking with a suction pump in a normal suction operation.

After waiting for a fixed time (stage S8), the cap is lowered (stage S9). Next, the absorber 15 reaches the blade 101 by the movement of the cartridge (stage S10), and waits for a certain time (stage S11). When the cartridge 11 is further moved, the absorber 15 passes through the blade 101 to clean foreign matters and the like adhering to the blade 101 (stage S12), and the cleaning is completed.

As described above, by using the cleaning cartridge as described above, the blades and caps on the main body side are washed with the cleaning liquid, and after waiting for a certain period of time, the foreign substances adhering to these members are immersed in the cleaning liquid. By doing so, it becomes easy to remove, and since it is wiped off by the absorber after that, it is extremely effective for recovering the functions of the blade and the cap, and does not contaminate the operator's fingers or various parts of the apparatus during cleaning. Further, in the apparatus of the above-described embodiment, the cleaning liquid is discharged and the absorber is used in combination, but a sufficient cleaning effect can be obtained with either one.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a cleaning cartridge showing another embodiment of the present invention. The cleaning cartridge 11 has an absorber holding member 1 at a lower position thereof.
6 is provided, and absorbers 15a, 15b, 15
It is arranged so that c does not contact each other. These absorbers are used for the recording head 206 mounted on the main body of the apparatus during printing.
It is assumed that the contact area is larger than the contact area of H. Further, the signal contact portion 209 is insulated so that the cartridge cannot be detected. The absorber 15b is impregnated with the cleaning liquid at the time of use.

The cleaning cartridge 11 having the above-described structure is mounted on the carriage and the apparatus main body is switched on to perform the cleaning operation. Alternatively, the cleaning operation is performed by manually moving the cleaning cartridge. The cleaning operation will be described below with reference to FIG. 5A.

The cartridge 1 in the direction of arrow a in FIG. 5A.
1 is moved and stopped at a position where the absorber 15b comes into contact with the blade 101 for a certain period of time.

Next, when the cartridge is further moved in the direction "a" to reach the position of "FIG. 5B", the absorber 15c wipes off the foreign matter and cleaning liquid adhering to the blade 101.

Next, as shown in FIG. 5C, the absorber 15b is moved onto the cap 103, the cap is raised and maintained in that state for a certain period of time, and then the cap is lowered.

Then, as shown in FIG. 5D, the cartridge 11 is moved in the direction of the arrow b to bring the absorber 15a to the position of the cap 103 and raise the cap 103 to bring it into contact with the absorber 15a. After maintaining this state for a time, the cap is lowered.

When the cartridge 11 further moves in the b direction and reaches the "FIG. 5E" position, the absorber 15b contacts the blade 101 and stops for a certain period of time.

When the cartridge further moves in the b direction to reach the position shown in FIG. 5F, the absorber 15a moves to the blade 1
01 and the foreign matter and cleaning liquid adhering to the blade are wiped to complete the cleaning.

Since the cleaning liquid is not ejected in the apparatus of this embodiment, the cost for the processing is low. "Figure 6"
Is a flowchart showing the above operation.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing still another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the cleaning recording head 206 for printing is not removed from the carriage during cleaning, but the cleaning member 17 is detachably mounted on the recording head 206 mounted on the carriage.

The cleaning member 17 is provided with the absorber 15 so that when the cleaning member 17 is mounted on the recording head 206, the head is close to the edge 206E of the ink ejection surface. The absorber 15 is formed so that the contact area of the blade 17 with the blade 101 is increased by the reference symbol L when the member 17 is attached to the recording head 206.

When the recording head 206 moves on the blade 101 in the cleaning mode, the absorber 15 also comes into contact with the blade 101 and cleans it. In this case, it is of course possible to impregnate the absorber 15 with the cleaning liquid. With such a configuration, the blade can be cleaned even in an image forming apparatus that is not a cartridge type.

[0039]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In an image forming apparatus that forms an image by ejecting ink onto a recording material, it is possible to remove contamination of a blade that cleans an ink ejection surface of an image forming unit without contaminating a finger or a peripheral portion. There is a remarkable effect in improving the workability of the device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1A is a schematic perspective view of a recording head showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1B is a schematic perspective view showing an example of the same cleaning liquid processing means.

FIG. 2A is an explanatory diagram showing a relative position with respect to a blade at the time of starting the operation of the cleaning cartridge.

FIG. 2B is an explanatory diagram showing a state in which the cleaning cartridge is performing blade cleaning.

FIG. 2C is an explanatory view showing a cleaning cartridge wiping the cleaning cartridge with a cleaning liquid after completion of blade cleaning.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation of the above cleaning cartridge.

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view of a cleaning cartridge according to another embodiment.

FIG. 5A is an explanatory diagram showing a position when the cleaning cartridge starts cleaning.

FIG. 5B is an explanatory view showing a mode in which the cleaning cartridge rubs the cap and the blade.

FIG. 5C is an explanatory view showing a cleaning cartridge cleaning the cap.

FIG. 5D is an explanatory view showing a cleaning cartridge rubbing the cap and the blade.

FIG. 5E is an explanatory view showing a cleaning cartridge cleaning the blade.

FIG. 5F is an explanatory view showing a cleaning cartridge rubbing the blade.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing the operation of the above cleaning cartridge.

FIG. 7 is a schematic perspective view of a cleaning member according to still another embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a schematic perspective view schematically showing the configuration of a known image forming apparatus.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view showing a relational arrangement of a recording head and a carriage.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a mode in which the ink ejection surface of the recording head is cleaned.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a cleaning portion on the apparatus body side of the same.

FIG. 12 is a side view of an essential part showing another cleaning means for the ink ejection surface of a known recording head.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Cleaning Cartridge 12 Cleaning Liquid Tank 14 Cleaning Liquid Discharging Head 15, 15a, 15b, 15c Absorber 17 Cleaning Member 100 Cleaning Site 101 Blade 102 Blade Holding Member 103 Cap 104 Recovery Pump 203 Guide Rail 204 Belt 205 Carriage 206 Recording Head 208 Platen 209 Signal Contact part

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Kei Naosuke Yosuke 6-3-3 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo Within Copier Corporation (72) Inventor Kunitoshi Hayashi 6-3-3 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo No. Copia Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Tomohiro Ishizu 6-3-3 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo No. 6-3 Inventor Yasushi Sawada 6-3-3 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo Within Copier Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Shigehiko Ito 6-3-3 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka City, Tokyo Within Copier Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Yasuhiro Kawamoto 6-3-3 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka City, Tokyo Copier Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Takeo Sasaki 6-3-3 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka City, Tokyo Copier Co., Ltd. (72) Fumitaka Aoki 6-3-3 Shimorenjaku, Mitaka City, Tokyo Copy A in the Corporation

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A cleaning unit and / or an ink ejecting function of an image forming apparatus having a recording head for ejecting ink onto a recording material to record the ink on the ejection surface of the recording head so as to clean the ejection surface. A cleaning device that contacts the recovery means for recovering the cleaning means and / or cleans the cleaning means and / or the recovery means, wherein the cleaning device is detachably attached to the main body of the image forming apparatus. A cleaning device for cleaning an ink ejection surface of an image forming apparatus and / or a function recovery device. 2. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning device is added to the recording head. 3. The cleaning device according to claim 1, wherein the cleaning device is provided together with the recording head. 4. An image forming apparatus main body, which is detachably replaceable with a detachable recording head and which comes into contact with a cleaning means for cleaning an ink ejection surface of the recording head and / or a recovery means for recovering an ink ejection function, A cleaning cartridge for cleaning and / or recovering the cleaning means and / or the recovery means. 5. The cleaning cartridge according to claim 4, wherein a cleaning liquid serving as a solvent is contained in the ink. 6. The cleaning cartridge according to claim 5, wherein the built-in ink is manually discharged and discharged. 7. The cleaning cartridge according to claim 5, further comprising a drive source for ejecting and discharging the built-in ink outside the cleaning cartridge. 8. The cleaning cartridge according to claim 5, further comprising a drive source for discharging and discharging the built-in ink in the cleaning cartridge. 9. A cleaning device according to any one of "claim 1" to "claim 3" or a cleaning cartridge according to any one of "claim 4" to "claim 8",
The image forming apparatus comprises: a mounting unit that is detachably attached to the main body of the image forming apparatus; a control unit that executes cleaning of the cleaning unit and / or the recovery unit of the apparatus main body by the cleaning device or the cleaning cartridge. A characteristic image forming apparatus. 10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the control means outputs a command to attach the cleaning device or the cleaning cartridge when the cleaning mode is selected. 11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9 or 10, wherein the control means outputs a command to remove the cleaning device or the cleaning cartridge at the end of cleaning. 12. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the control means automatically detects the cleaning cartridge by replacing the cleaning cartridge in the recording head conversion mode and executes cleaning.