JP2013120861A - Ink jet device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To cool the interior of a carriage more efficiently.SOLUTION: An ink jet device 1 includes: a carriage 2; a cover 3; a head driver integrated circuit 4; and a heat sink 5. The cover 3 covers a head 8, the head driver integrated circuit 4, and the heat sink 5. A fan 6 for drawing air for cooling the heat sink 5 and a vent hole 2a which exhausts the air are provided at the cover 3. The heat sink 5 is disposed between the fan 6 and the vent hole 2a.

Description

  The present invention relates to an inkjet apparatus.

  Patent Document 1 describes an ink jet recording apparatus equipped with a radiator that dissipates heat generated by a drive circuit.

Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2005-14469 (published on January 20, 2005)

  When the carriage on which the head driver integrated circuit is mounted becomes a closed system by attaching its own structure or cover, etc., even if trying to cool by taking in air from the outside, it is warmed by the heat generated by the head driver integrated circuit. It is conceivable that the generated air accumulates in the interior, and the cooling efficiency decreases.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and an object thereof is to provide an ink jet apparatus capable of cooling the carriage more efficiently.

  An ink jet apparatus according to the present invention includes a carriage for mounting a head for ejecting ink onto a recording medium, a covering portion provided as a part of the carriage or separately from the carriage, and a head. A head driver integrated circuit for driving; and a heat radiating portion for radiating heat generated in the head driver integrated circuit, wherein the covering portion includes the head mounted on the carriage, the head driver integrated circuit, and the heat radiating. When the covering portion is a part of the carriage, the carriage is provided on the carriage. When the covering portion is separate from the carriage, at least one of the covering portion and the carriage is provided on the carriage. A gas introduction part for taking the gas for cooling the heat radiating part into the area from outside the area covered with the covering part; Luo and an exhaust unit is provided for discharging the gas out of the region, and the gas inlet portion, and wherein said heat radiating portion is disposed between the exhaust.

  After the heat radiation part is cooled with the gas taken in from the gas introduction part, the warmed gas can be discharged from the discharge part. Therefore, the inside of the carriage can be cooled more efficiently.

  In the ink jet apparatus according to the present invention, it is more preferable that the exhaust portion is disposed closer to the head than the heat radiating portion.

  By exhausting the gas heated by the heat radiating unit from a position closer to the head, the gas can contribute to drying of the recording medium on which the ink has landed.

  In the ink jet apparatus according to the present invention, the line for transmitting data to the head driver integrated circuit is more preferably an optical fiber.

  In the present invention, a head driver integrated circuit is provided, but it is desirable to make the heat dissipation portion smaller. However, if the heat radiation portion is made smaller, the heat radiation effect is reduced. Therefore, if an optical fiber is used for transmitting data to the head driver integrated circuit, reduction of the heat dissipation effect can be suppressed. Because the optical fiber can transmit a large amount of data in a space-saving manner, it can secure a wider flow path for the gas introduced from the gas introduction part than when using a flexible flat cable or the like that requires a large area in the plane direction. It is. The optical fiber also contributes to noise reduction.

  According to the present invention, there is an effect that the inside of the carriage can be cooled more efficiently.

1 is a diagram illustrating an outline of a configuration of an inkjet device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of the configuration of the ink jet apparatus 1. In FIG. 1, it is the perspective view shown so that the inside of the cover 3 could be seen.

  The ink jet apparatus 1 includes a carriage 2, a cover (covering portion) 3, a platen 7, a guide mechanism 9, and an optical fiber 10. The ink jet apparatus 1 is an apparatus for ejecting and drawing ink on a medium (recording medium) 100 placed on a platen 7.

  The carriage 2 is for mounting the head 8. The carriage 2 on which the head 8 is mounted reciprocates along the direction defined by the guide mechanism 9 to eject ink from the head 8 while scanning the medium 100. This direction is a reciprocating direction from the front to the back and from the back to the front with respect to FIG.

  A vent (exhaust part) 2 a is provided on the side wall of the carriage 2. The vent 2 a is an opening for exhausting air (gas) introduced into the carriage 2 out of the carriage 2. The exhaust part with which the inkjet apparatus which concerns on this invention is provided is not limited to an opening part like this embodiment, For example, you may comprise with air blowers, such as a fan.

  The vent 2a is provided on the head 8 side from a heat sink (heat radiating part) 5 described later. In other words, it can be said that the vent 2 a is provided on the side closer to the platen 7 than the heat sink 5. Thereby, the air heated by cooling the heat sink 5 is discharged to a position close to the medium 100. The air discharged in the vicinity of the medium 100 contributes to the drying of the ink that has landed on the medium 100. That is, according to the present embodiment, the drying efficiency of the medium 100 can be further improved.

  The upper surface of the carriage 2 is open and is continuous with the space covered with the cover 3.

  The cover 3 covers the space above the carriage 2 and covers the head 8, the head driver integrated circuit 4, and the heat sink 5.

  In the present embodiment, the carriage 2 and the cover 3 are separately provided and connected, but the covering portion according to the present invention is not limited to such a form. The covering portion may be provided as a part of the carriage. That is, the carriage may have a closed structure that covers the head, the head driver integrated circuit, and the heat radiating portion.

  The cover 3 is for preventing the head driver integrated circuit 4 and the like covered therein from being contaminated by ink mist. In inkjet printing, there is a possibility that ink mist generated when ink is ejected from the head may contaminate the apparatus itself. For example, the head driver integrated circuit may be contaminated with ink mist. When the head driver integrated circuit is contaminated with ink mist, problems such as malfunction occur. Therefore, in the present invention, the contamination by the ink mist is prevented by providing the covering portion.

  The head driver integrated circuit 4 generates a signal for driving the head 8 on the basis of received information such as characters and pictures to be drawn, and drives the head 8 to perform drawing based on the information. Integrated circuit.

  The heat sink 5 is for radiating the heat generated by the head driver integrated circuit 4 to lower the temperature of the head driver integrated circuit 4.

  A fan (gas introduction part) 6 is provided above the cover 3.

  The fan 6 is for sending air into the area from outside the area covered with the cover 3.

  A heat sink 5 is disposed between the fan 6 and the vent 2a. With this arrangement, the air introduced by the fan 6 cools the heat sink 5.

  The air heated by cooling the heat sink 5 is pushed by new air introduced from the fan 6 and moves toward the medium 100. And it exhausts out of the carriage 2 from the vent 2a. This contributes to drying of the ink that has landed on the medium 100 as described above.

  The optical fiber 10 is a line for sending data from a control unit such as a computer (not shown) to the head driver integrated circuit 4.

  The control unit transmits information representing a graphic or the like to be drawn to the head driver integrated circuit 4 via the optical fiber 10. Based on this information, the head driver integrated circuit 4 creates a signal for driving the head 8.

  By using an optical fiber as the data transmission line, the cooling efficiency of the heat sink 5 by the air introduced from the fan 6 can be further improved. This is because an optical fiber can transmit a large amount of data in a space-saving manner, and can secure a wider flow path of air introduced from the fan 6 than using a flexible flat cable or the like that requires a large area in the plane direction. is there. Thereby, it has the further advantage that the heat sink 5 can be reduced in size. An optical fiber is more preferable because it contributes to noise reduction.

  As described above, the data line employed in the ink jet apparatus according to the present invention is preferably an optical fiber, but is not limited thereto. Even if an optical fiber is used for a transmission / reception line for information representing a graphic or the like to be drawn, the transmission / reception line for information representing the status of the inkjet apparatus 1 may be a flexible flat cable.

  In this embodiment, the air vent 2a is provided in the carriage 2, and the fan 6 is provided in the cover 3. However, the present invention is not limited to such a form. In other words, in the present invention, the gas introduction part may be provided in at least one of the covering part and the carriage, and the exhaust part may be provided in at least one of the covering part and the carriage.

[Additional Notes]
As described above, the inkjet apparatus 1 is an inkjet apparatus that includes the carriage 2 for mounting the head 8 that ejects ink onto the medium 100 and the cover 3 that is provided separately from the carriage 2. The carriage 2 includes a head driver integrated circuit 4 for driving the head 8 and a heat sink 5 that dissipates heat generated by the head driver integrated circuit 4, and the cover 3 includes the head 8 mounted on the carriage 2, The cover 3 covers the head driver integrated circuit 4 and the heat sink 5. The cover 3 is provided with a fan 6 for taking air for cooling the heat sink 5 into the area from outside the area covered with the cover 3. The carriage 2 is provided with a vent 2a for discharging air from the area to the outside of the area, and the fan 6; Heat sink 5 is disposed between the outlet port 2a.

  After the heat sink 5 is cooled with the air taken in from the fan 6, the warmed gas can be discharged from the vent 2a. Therefore, the carriage 2 can be cooled more efficiently.

  In the ink jet apparatus 1, the vent 2 a is more preferably disposed on the head 8 side than the heat sink 5.

  By exhausting the air heated by the heat sink 5 from a position closer to the head 8, the air can be contributed to the drying of the medium 100 on which the ink has landed.

  In the inkjet apparatus 1, it is more preferable that the line for transmitting data to the head driver integrated circuit 4 is the optical fiber 10.

  In this embodiment, the head driver integrated circuit 4 is provided, but it is desirable to make the heat sink 5 smaller. However, if the heat sink 5 is made smaller, the heat dissipation effect is reduced. Therefore, when the optical fiber 10 is used for transmitting data to the head driver integrated circuit 4, it is possible to suppress a reduction in the heat dissipation effect. This is because the optical fiber 10 can transmit a large amount of data in a space-saving manner, so that a wider flow path of air introduced from the fan 6 can be ensured than when a flexible flat cable or the like that requires a large area in the plane direction is used. It is. The optical fiber 10 also contributes to noise reduction.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications are possible within the scope shown in the claims, and embodiments obtained by appropriately combining technical means disclosed in different embodiments. Is also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

  The present invention can be used for inkjet printing.

1 Inkjet device 2 Carriage 2a Vent (exhaust part)
3 Cover (covering part)
4 Head driver integrated circuit 5 Heat sink (heat dissipation part)
6 Fan (gas introduction part)
8 head 10 optical fiber 100 medium (recording medium)

Claims (3)

A carriage for mounting a head for ejecting ink onto a recording medium;
A coating provided as a part of the carriage or separately from the carriage;
A head driver integrated circuit for driving the head;
A heat radiating part for radiating heat generated in the head driver integrated circuit,
The covering portion covers the head, the head driver integrated circuit, and the heat dissipation portion,
When the covering portion is a part of the carriage, the heating portion is cooled on the carriage. When the covering portion is separate from the carriage, the heat radiating portion is cooled on at least one of the covering portion and the carriage. A gas introduction part for taking gas into the area from outside the area covered with the covering part, and an exhaust part for discharging gas from the area outside the area,
An ink jet apparatus, wherein the heat dissipating part is disposed between the gas introducing part and the exhaust part.   The inkjet apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the exhaust unit is disposed closer to the head than the heat radiating unit.   3. The ink jet apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the line for transmitting data to the head driver integrated circuit is an optical fiber.

Images