JP2009190285A - Liquid ejection apparatus and printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A liquid ejecting apparatus and a printing apparatus capable of locking a carriage while reducing cost and size are provided.
A carriage 17 capable of reciprocating movement, a print head 14 mounted on the carriage 17, and a retracted position separated from a movement path of the print head 14 that moves together with the carriage 17 are close to the movement path of the print head 14. In the printer having the wiping mechanism 50 which moves the wiper 61 to the wiping position and wipes the wiper 61 by bringing the wiper 61 into contact with the nozzle forming surface provided with the nozzles of the print head 14 moved together with the carriage 17. The slider 62 has a slider 62 that supports the wiper 61. The slider 62 is formed with an engaging portion 63a that engages the carriage 17 and restricts the movement of the carriage 17 by moving to the wiping position.
[Selection] Figure 7

Description

  The present invention relates to a liquid ejection apparatus that ejects liquid droplets from a nozzle of an ejection head, and a printing apparatus including the liquid ejection apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a printing apparatus such as an ink jet printer is configured to perform printing by ejecting ink droplets from a plurality of nozzles to desired positions by a print head mounted on a carriage that can reciprocate.
In such a printing device, a pump device that sucks out ink from the nozzles to eliminate clogging of the nozzles of the head, or when printing is not performed (such as during standby) to prevent clogging of the nozzles of the heads A capping device for sealing the nozzle of the head is provided. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).
JP 2006-264243 A

By the way, in the printing apparatus as described above, when the carriage on which the head is mounted moves from the standby position toward the printing area during transportation, the head may be damaged or damaged by the impact. The sealing state of the nozzle cannot be maintained, and ejection failure occurs due to drying of the nozzle.
For this reason, a lock mechanism is provided in which the lock member is moved by the drive mechanism and the lock member is engaged with the carriage at the standby position.
However, providing such a lock member, such as a lock member or a drive mechanism for moving the lock member, increases the number of parts, occupies space, and increases the cost and size of the apparatus. This is not preferable.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid ejecting apparatus and a printing apparatus that can lock a carriage while reducing cost and size.

A liquid ejection apparatus according to the present invention capable of solving the above-described problems includes a carriage that can reciprocate, an ejection head that is mounted on the carriage, and a retreat position that is separated from a movement path of the ejection head that moves with the carriage. And a wiping mechanism that moves the wiper to a wiping position close to a movement path of the discharge head and wipes the wiper by bringing the wiper into contact with a nozzle surface provided with the nozzle of the discharge head that is moved together with the carriage. A liquid ejection device comprising:
The wiping mechanism has a slider that supports the wiper, and an engaging portion that engages the carriage and restricts the movement of the carriage by movement to the wiping position is formed on the slider. It is characterized by that.

  According to the liquid ejecting apparatus having this configuration, the slider that supports the wiper of the wiping mechanism is formed with the engaging portion that engages the carriage and restricts the movement by moving to the wiping position. Without providing a separate locking mechanism, the carriage can be locked by the wiping mechanism, the increase in the number of parts can be suppressed as much as possible, and space can be saved. That is, the carriage can be locked while reducing the cost and size of the apparatus.

A head cap that seals in contact with the nozzle surface of the ejection head in a state where the carriage is disposed at a predetermined standby position;
It is preferable that the engaging portion of the slider is engaged with the carriage disposed at the standby position.
According to the liquid ejection apparatus having this configuration, the carriage is disposed at a predetermined standby position, and the nozzle surface of the ejection head is capped and protected by the head cap. Since the movement is restricted, it is possible to reliably maintain the protection state of the nozzle surface and prevent the nozzle from drying.

Further, it is preferable that movement of the carriage disposed at the standby position is restricted by a frame provided on one end side of the movement path and the engagement portion of the slider moved to the wiping position.
According to the liquid ejection apparatus having this configuration, the carriage disposed at the standby position is engaged from both sides by the frame provided at one end side of the movement path and the engaging portion of the slider moved to the wiping position. Therefore, the movement of the carriage can be reliably regulated.

Moreover, it is preferable that the carriage has an engagement piece that can be engaged with the engagement portion of the slider moved to the wiping position.
According to the liquid ejecting apparatus having this configuration, the movement of the carriage can be well regulated by the engagement of the slider moved to the wiping position being engaged with the engagement piece of the carriage.

Further, a printing apparatus of the present invention includes any one of the above liquid ejection devices,
Ink droplets are ejected from the ejection nozzles to perform a printing process on the substrate.

  According to the printing apparatus having this configuration, it is possible to maintain high ink ejection reliability at the nozzles of the ejection head, and it is possible to perform printing with high quality.

Hereinafter, examples of embodiments of a liquid ejection apparatus and a printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a roll paper printer that is a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the roll paper printer shown in FIG. 3 is a schematic side view showing the internal configuration of the roll paper printer shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the roll paper printer shown in FIG. 1 with the printer case removed.

  The roll paper printer 1 of the present embodiment performs color printing on roll paper by an ink jet method using a plurality of types of color ink liquids, and as shown in FIG. A roll paper cover 3 and an ink cartridge cover 7 are provided on the front surface of the printer so as to be freely opened and closed. A recording paper discharge port 4 having a predetermined width corresponding to the width of the roll paper is formed on the front surface of the printer case 2a. A paper discharge guide 5 protrudes forward below the recording paper discharge port 4, and an opening / closing lever 6 for opening the roll paper cover 3 is disposed on the side of the paper discharge guide 5. A rectangular opening 2b for inserting and removing roll paper is formed below the paper discharge guide 5 and the opening / closing lever 6 in the printer case 2a. The opening 2b is sealed by the roll paper cover 3. .

  When the open / close lever 6 is operated, the roll paper cover 3 is unlocked. When the paper discharge guide 5 is pulled forward after unlocking, as shown in FIG. 2, the roll paper cover 3 is opened until it becomes almost horizontal forward with the lower end as a center. When the roll paper cover 3 is opened, the roll paper storage unit 11 formed inside the printer is opened, and the recording paper transport path from the roll paper storage unit 11 to the recording paper discharge port 4 is opened. The roll paper can be easily replaced from the front. In FIG. 2, the exterior portion of the roll paper cover 3 and the opening / closing lever 6 are not shown.

  As shown in FIG. 3, a roll paper storage unit 11 is formed in the center of the main body frame 10 in the width direction inside the roll paper printer 1. The roll paper storage unit 11 stores the roll paper 12 in a direction along the roll paper width direction in the printer width direction.

  A head unit frame 13 is horizontally attached to the upper end of the main body frame 10 above the roll paper storage unit 11. The head unit frame 13 includes a print head 14 that is an inkjet head, a linear scale 15 and an encoder sensor 16 for detecting the position of the print head 14, a carriage 17 on which the print head 14 and the encoder sensor 16 are mounted, and a carriage 17. A carriage guide shaft 18 for guiding the movement of the printer in the printer width direction is arranged. A carriage transport mechanism including a carriage motor 19 and a timing belt 20 for reciprocating the carriage 17 along the carriage guide shaft 18 is disposed.

  The print head (discharge head) 14 is mounted on the carriage 17 so that the nozzle surface 14a for discharging ink droplets faces downward. The encoder sensor 16 is disposed on the upper end surface 14 b of the print head 14. The carriage guide shaft 18 is stretched horizontally in the printer width direction, and the linear scale 15 is stretched parallel to the carriage guide shaft 18 above the print head 14.

  A platen 21 that extends horizontally in the printer width direction with a certain gap is disposed below the print head 14. The printing position of the print head 14 is defined by the platen 21. A tension guide 22 curved downward is attached to the rear end of the platen 21. The tension guide 22 is biased upward by a spring, and the recording paper 12 a drawn from the roll paper 12 stored in the roll paper storage unit 11 is printed in a state where a predetermined tension is applied by the tension guide 22. It is pulled out along the recording paper conveyance path passing through the position.

  On the rear side of the platen 21, a rear paper feed roller 23 is stretched horizontally in the printer width direction. A rear paper pressing roller 24 having a predetermined width is pressed against the rear paper feeding roller 23 through the recording paper 12a with a predetermined pressing force. A front paper feed roller 25 is disposed at a front end side portion of the platen 21. A front paper pressing roller 26 is pressed against the front paper feeding roller 25 from above via the recording paper 12a. The rear paper feed roller 23 and the front paper feed roller 25 are driven by a paper feed motor 27 mounted on the main body frame 10.

  While the carriage 17 is reciprocatingly moved along the carriage guide shaft 18, printing is performed on the surface of the portion of the recording paper 12 a that is fed from the roll paper 12 and positioned at the printing position by the print head 14 mounted on the carriage 17. Is done. The printing position is controlled based on the detection signal of the encoder sensor 16. After a series of line printing in the width direction of the recording paper 12a is completed, the rear paper feeding roller 23 and the front paper feeding roller 25 are rotationally driven to feed the recording paper 12a by a predetermined pitch. After this, the next line is printed. Thus, the recording paper 12a is printed by the print head 14 while being intermittently sent out at a predetermined pitch. For example, a scissors-type recording paper cutting device 28 is disposed at the recording paper discharge port 4 from which the recording paper 12a after printing is discharged. The recording paper cutting device 28 cuts the recording paper 12a positioned between them in the width direction.

  The platen 21, the tension guide 22, the rear paper feed roller 23, and the front paper feed roller 25 are configured to open and close together with the roll paper cover 3.

  When the ink cartridge cover 7 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is opened, the inner cartridge mounting portion 9 (see FIG. 4) is opened, and the ink cartridge 8 can be attached to and detached from the cartridge mounting portion 9. become.

  The ink cartridge 8 contains a plurality of color ink packs in a cartridge case. In the case of the roll paper printer 1 of the present embodiment, the ink cartridge 8 is pulled out by a predetermined distance in front of the cartridge mounting portion 9 in conjunction with the operation of opening the ink cartridge cover 7.

When each ink pack in the ink cartridge 8 is mounted on the cartridge mounting portion 9, the ink supply needle provided on the cartridge mounting portion 9 side is inserted and connected to the ink supply port of the ink pack. An ink channel 31 fixed in the printer case 2 a is connected to the ink supply needle of the cartridge mounting portion 9, and one end of a flexible ink supply tube 33 is connected to the ink channel 31. .
The other end of the ink supply tube 33 is connected to the carriage 17 and communicates with the print head 14 via a damper unit and a back pressure adjustment unit.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the upper position of the cartridge mounting portion 9 that is out of the printing area is a standby position (maintenance area) of the carriage 17 that reciprocates. A head maintenance mechanism 40 that performs a maintenance operation of the print head 14 exposed on the lower surface of the carriage 17 is disposed below the standby position.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the head maintenance mechanism 40 includes a head cap mechanism 60 for sealing the nozzle formation surface 14a of the print head 14, a wiper mechanism 50 for wiping the nozzle formation surface 14a, and a head cap. An ink suction mechanism 70 for sucking residual ink from the mechanism 60 is provided.

  The wiper mechanism 50 and the ink suction mechanism 70 are driven by a pump motor (not shown). These parts are attached to a housing 39 that can be attached to and detached from the printer body.

  The wiper mechanism 50 and the head cap mechanism 60 are provided side by side in the reciprocating direction of the carriage 17, and the ink suction mechanism 70 is provided on the rear side of the printer (the upper back side in FIG. 5) of the head cap mechanism 60.

  The wiper mechanism 50 is moved back and forth in the vertical direction by the driving force of a pump motor transmitted by a power transmission mechanism (not shown) configured by a gear train composed of a plurality of gears.

  The ink suction mechanism 70 is a tube pump in which one end of the tube 72 is connected to the head cap mechanism 60 and the other end is connected to the waste ink introducing portion of the ink cartridge 8. When the ink suction mechanism 70 is driven, Ink is sucked from the nozzles of the print head 14 via the head cap mechanism 60 and discharged into the waste ink storage chamber of the ink cartridge 8.

  As shown in FIG. 6, the head cap mechanism 60 is slidably provided on the housing 39 along the moving direction (left and right direction in FIG. 6) of the carriage 17, and is moved by being pressed by the carriage 17, and the print head. 14, a cap holder 42 slidably provided on the slider 41 so as to be close to and away from the head 14, a head cap 44 fixed to the print head 14 side of the cap holder 42, and a cap holder according to the position of the slider 41. And a cam mechanism 45 that changes the distance between the print head 14 and the print head 14.

  The slider 41 is formed with an abutting portion 48 on the standby position side that contacts the positioning portion 47 on the standby position side (right side in FIG. 6) of the carriage 17 that moves toward the standby position and is pressed by the carriage 17. It is biased by a spring (not shown) in the direction in which the contact portion 48 is brought into contact with the positioning portion 47. The slider 41 moves integrally with the carriage 17 when the contact portion 48 is pressed by the positioning portion 47 when the carriage 17 is within a predetermined range on the standby position side.

  The cam mechanism 45 includes a plurality of cams 51 and 52 provided at fixed positions and a plurality of cam followers 53 and 54 provided on the slider 41. When the slider 41 moves together with the carriage 17, the cam followers 53 and 54 are moved. It moves along the cams 51 and 52. Therefore, the slider 41 moves integrally with the carriage 17 and is raised and lowered stepwise by the cam mechanism 45, whereby the cap holder 42 approaches and separates from the print head 14.

  The wiper mechanism 50 includes a slider 62 and a wiper 61. The slider 62 is formed in a box shape, and the slide portion 63 is supported and guided by a guide portion 64 provided in the housing 39 so as to slide in a direction approaching and separating from the moving path of the print head 14. ing. A wiper 61 made of a rubber plate material, which is an elastic material, is embedded in the slider 62.

  The slider 62 approaches and moves away from the movement path of the print head 14 that moves together with the carriage 17. That is, the slider 62 can move between the position where the wiper 61 is most lowered (retracted position) and the wiping position where the wiper 61 is moved up to perform the process of wiping off the dirt on the nozzle forming surface 14a. Yes. The wiping position is such that the tip of the wiper 61 comes into contact with and rubs against the nozzle forming surface 14 a of the print head 14. Thereby, the wiper 61 can wipe off foreign matters such as ink adhering to the nozzle forming surface 14a. Depending on the type of ink, the wiper 61 may be formed of soft plastic or the like.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the guide part 64 of the housing 39 has an inclined part 64a on the wiper 61 side. The slide part 63 of the slider 62 protrudes from the inclined part 64 a without overlapping the guide part 64 in a state where the slider 62 is raised to the wiping position. A part of the slide portion 63 protruding from the inclined portion 64a of the guide portion 64 is an engaging portion 63a.

Further, the carriage 17 is formed with an engaging piece 17a protruding downward on the lower surface near the end on the printing area side (right side in FIG. 6).
When the slider 62 rises to the wiping position, the engaging portion 63a of the slide portion 63 protruding from the inclined portion 64a of the guide portion 64 is disposed on the moving path of the engaging piece 17a of the carriage 17.

Note that the engagement portion 63a of the slide portion 63 is disposed with a slight gap on the print region side (left side in FIG. 6) from the engagement piece 17a in a state where the carriage 17 is disposed at the standby position. .
In addition, a side plate portion (frame) 13a of the head unit frame 13 is disposed on the opposite side (right side in FIG. 6) to the printing area, which is one end side of the movement path of the carriage 17, and the carriage 14 is disposed at the standby position. In this state, the carriage 17 is disposed at a position slightly spaced from the side plate portion 13a.

  In the roll paper printer 1, the print head 14 is cleaned by the head maintenance mechanism 40. This cleaning is performed at a predetermined timing or at the time of a user's operation. The head cap 44 is brought into close contact with the nozzle forming surface 14a of the print head 14, and the inside is sucked by the ink suction mechanism 70 to perform printing. An ink suction process for sucking thickened ink from the ink nozzles of the head 14 and a wiping process for wiping dirt on the nozzle forming surface 14a of the print head 14 with the wiper 61 are performed.

  Further, in the roll paper printer 1 provided with the head maintenance mechanism 40, a predetermined amount of ink from the ink nozzles of the print head 14 is started before or periodically to form an ink meniscus at the ink nozzles of the print head 14. A flushing process for ejecting ink into the head cap 44 and a capping process for protecting the head cap 44 by closely contacting the nozzle forming surface 14a of the print head 14 are performed after the suspension of printing in order to prevent clogging of the ink nozzles.

  Further, in the roll paper printer 1, the head maintenance mechanism 40 performs an ink ejection test for inspecting whether ink droplets are normally ejected from the ink nozzles of the print head 14.

  Here, in the roll paper printer 1, when the carriage 17 is arranged at the standby position and the head cap 44 is brought into close contact with the nozzle forming surface 14 a of the print head 14 and the capping process is performed, the slider 62 of the wiper mechanism 50 is performed. Rises to the wiping position. Then, as shown in FIG. 8, the engaging portion 63a of the slide portion 63 is disposed on the printing region side of the engaging piece 17a of the carriage 17, and the engaging piece 17a of the carriage 17 is engaged by the engaging portion 63a. Is done.

  Accordingly, the carriage 17 is in a locked state in which movement is restricted by the side plate portion 13a and the engagement piece 17a of the head unit frame 13 (the state shown in FIG. 6). Therefore, even if the carriage 17 is transported in this state, the movement of the carriage 17 is restricted, so that capping by the head cap 44 is maintained.

Next, a case where the wiping process is performed from the locked state will be described.
First, the slider 62 of the wiper mechanism 50 is once lowered to the retracted position, and the engagement state of the engagement piece 17a by the engagement portion 63a is released.
Thereafter, the carriage 17 slightly moves to the printing area side and stops, and the engaging piece 17a is arranged closer to the printing area than the engaging portion 63a.
In this state, the slider 62 of the wiper mechanism 50 is raised to the wiping position, and the carriage 17 is moved again to the printing area, whereby the nozzle forming surface 14a of the print head 14 is wiped by the wiper 61.

  As described above, according to the liquid ejection device of the present embodiment, the slider 62 that supports the wiper 61 of the wiping mechanism 50 moves to the wiping position, thereby engaging the engagement piece 17a of the carriage 17. Since the engaging portion 63a for restricting the movement is formed, the carriage 17 can be locked by the wiping mechanism 50 without providing a separate locking mechanism for locking the carriage 17, and an increase in the number of parts is suppressed as much as possible. In addition, space saving can be achieved. That is, the carriage 17 can be locked while reducing the cost and size of the apparatus.

  The carriage 17 is disposed at a predetermined standby position, and the nozzle forming surface 14a of the print head 14 is capped and protected by the head cap 44 of the head cap mechanism 60. Since the movement of 17 is restricted, it is possible to reliably maintain the protection state of the nozzle forming surface 14a and prevent the ink nozzles from drying.

Further, the carriage 17 disposed at the standby position is engaged from both sides by the side plate portion 13a of the head unit frame 13 provided at one end side of the moving path and the engaging portion 63a of the slider 62 moved to the wiping position. Therefore, the movement of the carriage 17 can be reliably regulated.
Therefore, according to the roll paper printer 1, the reliability of ink ejection from the ink nozzles of the print head 14 can be maintained in a high state, and printing can be performed with high quality.

  The liquid ejection device according to the present invention includes a color material ejection head, an organic EL display, and an FED (surface emitting display) used for manufacturing a color filter such as a liquid crystal display including the ink jet printer exemplified in the above embodiment. ) And other electrode material discharge heads, bioorganic discharge heads used in biochip manufacturing, etc., liquid discharge devices using liquid discharge heads that discharge liquids, sample discharge devices as precision pipettes, etc. it can.

1 is an external perspective view of a roll paper printer that is a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an external perspective view showing a state in which a roll paper cover of the roll paper printer shown in FIG. 1 is opened. FIG. 2 is a schematic side view showing an internal configuration of the roll paper printer shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a state where a printer case is removed from the roll paper printer shown in FIG. 1. It is a perspective view of a head maintenance mechanism. It is a front view which shows a carriage and a maintenance mechanism. It is the side view seen from the printing region side which shows a carriage and a maintenance mechanism. It is a perspective view of a wiper mechanism portion.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Roll paper printer (liquid discharge apparatus, printing apparatus), 13a ... Side plate part (frame), 14 ... Print head (discharge head), 14a ... Nozzle formation surface (nozzle surface), 17 ... Carriage, 17a ... Engagement piece , 44 ... head cap, 50 ... wiping mechanism, 61 ... wiper, 62 ... slider, 63a ... engagement portion.

Claims (5)

A reciprocating carriage, a discharge head mounted on the carriage, and a wiper is moved from a retracted position separated from a movement path of the discharge head that moves together with the carriage to a wiping position close to the movement path of the discharge head. A wiping mechanism that wipes the wiper by bringing the wiper into contact with a nozzle surface provided with nozzles of the ejection head that is moved together with the carriage,
The wiping mechanism has a slider that supports the wiper, and an engaging portion that engages the carriage and restricts the movement of the carriage by movement to the wiping position is formed on the slider. A liquid discharge apparatus characterized by that. The liquid ejection device according to claim 1,
A head cap that contacts and seals the nozzle surface of the ejection head in a state where the carriage is disposed at a predetermined standby position;
The liquid ejecting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the engaging portion of the slider is engaged with the carriage disposed at a standby position. The liquid ejection device according to claim 2,
The movement of the carriage disposed at the standby position is restricted by a frame provided on one end side of the movement path and the engagement portion of the slider moved to the wiping position. Discharge device. The liquid ejection device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The liquid ejection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the carriage includes an engagement piece that can be engaged with the engagement portion of the slider moved to the wiping position. Comprising the liquid ejection device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
A printing apparatus that performs printing on a substrate by ejecting ink droplets from the ejection nozzle.

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