JPH10278288A - Ink tank and production thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an ink tank for containing a porous material requiring compression easily while reducing the assembling cost by setting the compression ratio of the porous material for holding ink in a tank body at a specified value or above and making an opening for inserting the porous material at the time of assembling the tank in the surface of the tank body having largest cross-sectional area. SOLUTION: An opening 34 for inserting a porous material 32 is made in the surface of a tank body 31 having largest cross-sectional area, a hole 35 for supplying ink to a recording head is made in a perpendicularly intersecting surface, i.e., the bottom surface when an ink tank 7 is mounted on a carriage, and an atmosphere open port 36 is made in the opposite surface. Lateral and longitudinal dimensions of the porous material 32 are set smaller than those of the tank body 31 so that the porous material 32 can be inserted without being compressed in the lateral and longitudinal directions. Height dimension is set such that the compression ratio will be 1.1 or above under a state where a cover body 33 is welded to the opening 34 and the porous material 32 is contained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink tank and a method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to an ink tank used for an ink jet recording apparatus and a method for manufacturing the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ink jet recording apparatus has little vibration and noise at the time of recording and is easy to colorize. Therefore, it is used not only for a printer for outputting data of a digital processing device such as a computer but also for facsimile and copying. It is supposed to be. As a configuration of a recording apparatus, a serial scan type is generally used in which an ink tank is mounted on a carriage together with a recording head, and recording is performed while moving the recording head in the main scanning direction.

In such an ink tank, when the internal ink (mainly water-based ink) is not bubbled by the vibration of the carriage, and when an ink jet head is disposed below the ink tank, the ink tank may be used. In order to prevent the ink from dropping, it is necessary to reduce the ink pressure at the ink jet head to a negative pressure. The structure which absorbs the pressure and generates a negative pressure is widely used.

Here, as a porous body having a capillary force,
Polyurethane-based urethane foams are widely used for reasons such as chemical stability when immersed in ink.
However, a urethane foam body that can be generally manufactured cannot generate a negative pressure required for an ink tank even when housed in a tank body as it is because the cells constituting the foam are too large.

[0005] In order to reduce the cells of the urethane foam, there is a urethane foam produced by compressing while heating after heating to generate a necessary negative pressure (see JP-A-5-16385). In this ink tank, when the urethane foam body is heated, a part of the urethane is decomposed, components are eluted in the ink, and a problem such as clogging of the head occurs.

As described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-107836, polyether-based urethane foams which have small cells and do not require compression have been developed from the beginning, but the actual cell size is larger than necessary. Although not as large as conventional urethane foam, the capillary force is insufficient in an uncompressed state with a compression ratio of 1.0.

[0007] Therefore, an ink tank in which a urethane foam body is compressed and stored in a tank body is generally used.
This will be described with reference to FIG. 5. In this ink tank, an opening 101a is formed in an upper portion of a vertically long box-shaped tank case (tank body) 101 having a small sectional area, and a porous body 102 is formed from the opening 101a. After being compressed and inserted from both directions indicated by arrows in FIG. 1, the tank lid 103 is welded to the opening 101a of the tank body 101 and sealed. A supply port 104 for supplying ink to the ink jet head is formed at the bottom of the tank body 101, and an atmosphere release port 105 for communicating the atmosphere with the inside of the tank is formed on the ink lid 103. .

As a method of compressing the porous body and inserting the porous body into the ink tank body, for example, the method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
As described in Japanese Patent No. 16385, the porous body is sandwiched and compressed to a desired size by a jig having a U-shaped cross section, and the compressed body is held in the tank body by a piston while being kept in the compressed state. Various methods are used, such as a method of inserting, a method of compressing a porous body and then cooling it to a material composition deformation temperature or lower to maintain the compressed state and inserting the porous body, and a method of folding and inserting the porous body in two. ing.

[0009]

As described above, in the conventional ink tank, the opening for inserting the porous body of the tank main body is formed on the surface where the cross-sectional area of the tank main body is the smallest. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, in order to insert the porous body 102 having the width a × b × h in the tank body 101, when the width a is smaller than the opening 101a, the length b is It is compressed in advance to a size that allows the opening 101a to be inserted, and in this state, it is inserted from the opening 101a.

However, in order to insert the porous body into the tank body while maintaining the compressed state, it is necessary to use a jig as described above or to maintain the shape by cooling. Therefore, the man-hour for inserting the porous body is increased, and the assembly cost is increased. Also, if you try to insert the original without maintaining the compressed state,
As a result, the porous body is deviated, turned up, and wrinkled, and the quality of the ink tank is deteriorated.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has as its object to provide an ink tank which can easily accommodate a porous body which needs to be compressed and which can reduce the assembly cost, and a method of manufacturing the same. I do.

[0012]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink tank for a recording apparatus having a porous body for holding ink in a tank body. The body has a compression ratio of 1.1 or more, and an opening for inserting the porous body at the time of assembling the ink tank is formed on a surface having the largest cross-sectional area of the tank body.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the method for manufacturing an ink tank according to the first aspect, the porous body is compressed and inserted into the tank body, and the opening is sealed with a lid member. It was configured to stop.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a mechanism of an ink jet recording apparatus equipped with an ink tank according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a main part of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a schematic exploded perspective view of the ink tank.

In this ink jet recording apparatus, the carriage 5 is moved in the main scanning direction (indicated by an arrow A in FIG. 2) by a guide rod 3 and a guide plate 4 which are laid between left and right side plates 1 and 2 (see FIG. 2).
Direction), a recording head 6 composed of an inkjet head is mounted on the lower surface side of the carriage 5 with the ink droplet ejection direction facing downward, and ink is applied to the recording head 6 on the upper surface side of the carriage 5. An ink tank (ink cartridge) 7 for supply is mounted.

The recording head 6 includes a yellow (Y) ink,
Four heads that eject magenta (M) ink, cyan (C) ink, and black (Bk) ink are arranged in the main scanning direction. In order to supply each color ink to these heads, the ink tank 7 also includes four ink tanks of each color.

The carriage 5 is driven by a driving pulley 9 rotated by a main scanning motor 8 comprising a stepping motor.
Belt 1 stretched between the motor and the driven pulley 10
1, the carriage 5, that is, the recording head 6, is moved in the main scanning direction by controlling the driving of the main scanning motor 8.

On the other hand, a platen roller (hereinafter, simply referred to as "platen") 15 for transporting the paper 14 in the sub-scanning direction (the direction indicated by the arrow B in FIG. 2), and the paper 14 is disposed by being pressed against the peripheral surface of the platen 15. The paper feed rollers 16, 17 and the pinch roller 18 defining the paper feed angle, the guide plate 19 facing the recording head 6, the paper discharge roller 20 downstream of the recording head 6 in the paper transport direction, and the paper discharge roller 20. And a spur roller 21 for pressing the sheet pressed against the sheet.

The rotation of the sub-scanning motor 23, which is a stepping motor, is transmitted to the platen 15 via the gears 24 to 26 and the platen gear 27, and the platen 15 is driven to rotate.
4 is fed between the recording head 6 and the guide plate 19 through the platen 15, the paper feed rollers 16, 17 and the paper pressing roller 18, and the platen 15 feeds the paper 14 by a predetermined amount, and the gear meshes with the platen gear 27. The paper 14 is sent out in the paper discharging direction (the direction indicated by the arrow B in FIG. 2) by the paper discharging roller 20 and the paper pressing spur roller 21 rotated via 29.

In the printer thus configured, the paper 14 is conveyed in the sub-scanning direction while moving and scanning the recording head 6 (carriage 5) in the main scanning direction, and ink droplets are ejected from the nozzles of the recording head 6. By letting
A required color image is recorded on the paper 14.

In this printer, a reliability maintenance / recovery mechanism (subsystem) 30 for the recording head 6 is provided on the right side of the main scanning area of the carriage 5 so that when the printer is in a printing standby state, it can be read from the host. When print data is not transferred for a predetermined time, or at a predetermined time interval, a reliability maintenance / recovery operation such as removal of stains on the nozzle surface and nozzles of the recording head 6 is performed.

The details of the ink tank 7 used in such an ink jet recording apparatus will now be described with reference to FIG. The ink tank 7 includes a tank body 31 and a porous body 32 made of urethane foam.
And a lid member 33. The tank body 31 has an opening 34 for inserting the porous body 32 on the surface having the widest cross-sectional area, and a surface orthogonal to the opening 34, that is, the ink tank 7 is attached to the carriage 5. An ink supply hole 35 for supplying ink to the recording head 6 is formed on a surface serving as a bottom surface when mounted, and an air release port 36 is formed on a surface facing the surface on which the ink supply hole 35 is formed. I have.

When the size of the porous body 32 is a width a × b height × h (h is the height direction when mounted on the recording head 6), the dimensions of the width a × b are tank. Next to the body 31
The porous body 32 can be inserted into the porous body 32 without being compressed in these directions by compressing the cover member 33 into the opening 34 of the tank body 31 by compressing the cover member 33 into the opening 34 of the tank body 31. The compression ratio (= apparent volume before compression / apparent volume after compression) is set to a size that is 1.1 or more in a state where 32 is stored. Therefore, the porous body 3
Before the container 2 is stored in the tank body 31, the height h is higher than the height of the tank body 31.

As described above, when the compression ratio of the porous body 32 is 1.
1 or more and the porous body 3
2 is formed on the surface of the tank body 31 having the largest cross-sectional area, so that the porous body 32
Is easily inserted into the tank main body 31 and the porous body 32 is compressed and stored through the lid member 33, and the porous body 32 and the inner surface of the tank main body 31 are easily turned without friction or the like due to friction. You can insert it.

An example of a method for manufacturing the ink tank 7 will be described with reference to FIG. After setting the tank main body 31 on the jig 41 of the ultrasonic welding machine as shown in FIG. 7A, the tank main body 31 is set as shown in FIG.
The porous member 32 is inserted into the inside, and the lid member 33 is placed on the porous member 32. And the horn 42 of the ultrasonic welding machine
Is lowered to compress the porous body 32 while pressing it with the lid member 33, and as shown in FIG.
3 is brought into close contact with the opening 34 of the tank body 31. Next, the horn 42 of the ultrasonic welding machine is oscillated to open the lid member 33.
Is welded to the tank body 31.

As described above, the porous body 32 is
Since compression is performed from the state in which the porous body 32 has entered the inside, the influence of friction between the porous body 32 and the inner wall surface of the tank body 31 is small, and the porous body 32 is unlikely to be turned or shifted. At the same time, the compression insertion of the porous body and the sealing by the lid member can be completed at the same time, so that the equipment for compression insertion of the porous body becomes unnecessary, the processing time can be shortened, and the assembly cost is reduced.

[0027]

As described above, the ink tank according to the first aspect of the present invention is an ink tank for a recording apparatus having a porous body for holding ink in the tank main body, wherein the compression ratio of the porous body is 1. At least one, and the opening for inserting the porous body at the time of assembling the ink tank is formed on the surface having the largest cross-sectional area of the tank body, so that the porous body is inserted into the tank body. , The porous body can be easily inserted, and the number of assembling steps can be reduced.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the method for manufacturing an ink tank according to the first aspect, the porous body is compressed and inserted into the tank body and the opening is sealed with a lid member. Therefore, the porous body can be compressed from the state of being inserted into the tank main body, the insertion of the porous body becomes easy, and the number of assembling steps is reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a mechanism of an ink jet recording apparatus equipped with an ink tank according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a main part of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic exploded perspective view of the ink tank.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a manufacturing process of the ink tank.

FIG. 5 is a schematic exploded perspective view of a conventional ink tank.

[Explanation of symbols]

7: ink tank, 31: tank body, 32: porous body, 33: lid member, 34: opening, 35: ink supply port, 36: atmosphere release port.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Masato Igarashi 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ricoh Company (72) Inventor Akiko Konishi 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Stock Ricoh Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Masayuki Kotani 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Stock Company Ricoh Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Hirotaka Mochizuki 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Stock Company Ricoh ( 72) Inventor Ikuko Tanaka 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Ricoh Co., Ltd.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An ink tank for a recording apparatus having a porous body for holding ink in a tank body, wherein the compression ratio of the porous body is 1.1 or more, and the porous body has a high compression ratio when the ink tank is assembled. An ink tank, wherein an opening for inserting a substrate is formed on a surface of the tank body having the largest cross-sectional area. 2. The method of manufacturing an ink tank according to claim 1, wherein said porous body is compressed and inserted into said tank body, and said opening is sealed with a lid member. Tank manufacturing method.