JP2002192744A - Ink cartridge, holder and inkjet recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To make it possible to mount an ink cartridge having a plurality of types of ink capacities to one holder. SOLUTION: A bottom face 3 is provided on a side face 2 of the ink cartridge.
A concave portion 5 parallel to the mounting direction from the upper surface 4 to the vicinity of the upper surface 4, and the ink cartridge and the holder are positioned and mounted by fitting the side wall 32 of the holder 9 with a part of the side wall cut out into the concave portion of the ink cartridge. By changing the volume of the ink storage portion 1b protruding outside the holder, an ink cartridge having a plurality of types of ink capacities can be mounted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an ink cartridge for supplying ink to a recording apparatus, and more particularly, to a mechanism for supporting mounting of a cartridge.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an ink jet printer which forms characters and images by ejecting ink droplets from a recording head having a plurality of ejection nozzles and landing on recording paper,
The recording head is provided on the head holder, and the head holder is formed with a connecting cylinder portion that forms an ink supply path that communicates with the recording head. An ink cartridge provided with a hole is detachably mounted.

That is, a recording head and a connecting cylinder connected to the recording head are provided on a bottom wall of a head holder provided in a substantially horizontal state, and an ink supply hole through which the connecting cylinder can be inserted is formed in the bottom. The ink cartridge provided on the wall is configured to be mounted in the head holder from above.

For example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 9-11500, an ink cartridge has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, and a head holder for accommodating the ink cartridge has a box covering the entire side and bottom surfaces of the ink cartridge. It is configured in the shape of a mold so that the ink cartridge fits into the head holder.

[0005]

At present, the types of ink-jet printers have been diversified from low-end printers for individuals to high-end printers or printers capable of high-speed printing for offices. There is.

For example, roughly, in an ink jet printer for personal use whose main purpose is to print photographs and pictures, a large-capacity color ink cartridge is required because color printing of photographs and illustrations is frequently performed. In addition, in an inkjet printer for office use in which printing of a document is mainly used, a large-capacity black ink cartridge tends to be required because monochrome printing is frequently performed.

[0007] In such a situation, the number of types of ink cartridges is required in accordance with the use of the printer, so the number of types of ink cartridges increases as the number of types of printers increases.

In a conventional ink cartridge and an ink cartridge mounting mechanism, a box-shaped ink cartridge is surrounded by a wall of a head holder. In addition, the design of the head holder must be changed accordingly.

That is, for each ink cartridge,
Since each requires its own unique head holder, the development period for them becomes longer, and it becomes difficult to share the components of the head holder, resulting in higher costs.

[0010] Further, from the viewpoint of the user, it is not possible to select a cartridge having an optimum ink capacity according to the use of the ink jet printer owned by the user.
Cause inconvenience.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an ink cartridge which can easily cope with an increase or decrease in the amount of stored ink without interfering with a mounting mechanism.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a holder suitable for the ink cartridge.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, an ink cartridge according to the present invention has a surface on the ink supply hole side at a predetermined distance from the ink supply hole, and extends in a direction of insertion into and removal from a recording apparatus. A concave portion is formed.

Further, a holder for accommodating an ink cartridge having a recess formed at a predetermined distance from the ink supply hole is provided with a projection engaging with the recess.

Thus, by changing the size of the ink cartridge while maintaining this distance, the ink capacity can be arbitrarily increased or decreased while maintaining compatibility.

[0016]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of an ink cartridge according to the present invention. A case formed in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape is inserted into and removed from the bottom so as to divide the horizontal direction into two parts. A parallel (vertical direction in the figure) concave portion 5 is formed.

One of the two divided areas A is an ink supply unit 1.
A means for applying an appropriate negative pressure to the recording head, that is, a negative pressure that does not allow ink to flow from the nozzles, in this embodiment, a differential pressure valve mechanism is accommodated.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a storage chamber for the differential pressure valve mechanism.

An ink supply hole 7 is formed at the bottom, and an insertion / removal support member, a projection 20 in this embodiment, is formed at the top.

On the other hand, the region B is formed as an ink storage portion 1b, and is formed between the concave portion 5 and the upper surface 4 and between the concave portion 5 and the side surface 2.
And is connected to the region A via a valley 21 between the opposite side. By changing the length L or the volume of the ink storage section, the ink capacity of the ink cartridge can be changed without causing a change in the insertion / extraction property and the characteristics of ink supply to the recording head. it can.

Further, since the ink is supplied to the recording head via the differential pressure valve mechanism, the ink supply characteristics can be maintained regardless of the capacity of the ink storage section.

Further, on the lower surface where the ink supply hole 7 is formed, a concave portion 10 is formed just below the differential pressure regulating mechanism 6 and is opened on the lower surface side. In this embodiment, a projection 11 for identifying an ink cartridge is formed. An area is reserved.

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the negative pressure applying means, in which an annular thick portion 40a is provided on the outer periphery, a thick portion 40c having a through hole 40b formed at the center, and a thick portion 40c is further provided. A membrane valve 40 having a substantially S-shaped bent portion 40d in the vicinity of the thick portion,
It is fixed to the cylindrical holder 41 and fitted in the accommodation room 6.

A coil spring 42 is inserted between the central thick portion 40c and the case body. Coil spring 42
Means that the membrane valve 40 separates from the valve seat 7 when a certain negative pressure acts on the ink supply hole due to the amount of ink consumed by the recording head, and when the ink supply to the recording head is completed, the membrane valve 40 is closed. The elastic pressure is adjusted so that it can elastically contact the valve seat 7.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 2, the holder 9 on which the above-described ink cartridge is mounted has parallel side walls 30, 31 for regulating the position of the ink cartridge in the width direction.
A fixed distance from the connecting cylinder portion 34 communicating with the recording head,
That is, a member that engages with the concave portion 5, in this embodiment, a slit 32 a having a gap d of the region where the concave portion 5 is formed is formed at a position of a distance L ′ between the ink supply hole 7 and the concave portion 5 of the cartridge. Wall 32.

If necessary, a wall 33 may be provided which regulates a front surface of the cartridge parallel to the wall 32.

In this embodiment, the position of the cartridge in the width direction is determined by aligning the cartridge with the side walls 30, 31 of the holder.
When the concave portion 5 is inserted into the wall 32 and the front and rear positions are determined and pushed in, the ink container 1b protrudes out of the holder 9 as shown in FIG. 3, regardless of the size of the ink container. The ink supply hole is inserted into the connecting cylinder 34. When replacing the cartridge, the upper protrusion 20
When the cartridge is lifted upward, the cartridge rises vertically while its rotation is restricted by the wall 32, and the ink supply hole is detached from the connecting cylinder portion 34.

Since a wide area of the ink supply section 1a can be used as a formation area of the projection 11 for identifying an ink cartridge, various types of ink cartridges can be identified without fail.

In the above embodiment, the differential pressure valve mechanism is used to apply a negative pressure. However, the same effect is obtained even when a porous material is loaded.

The same effect can be obtained even if the recess is formed as an elongated hole which is opened on one side surface but opened only at the bottom.

[0031]

According to the present invention as described above, the ink capacity of the ink cartridge can be changed without changing the insertion / removal property and the ink supply property to the recording head.

When the cartridge is replaced, the cartridge rises vertically while its rotation is restricted by the wall of the holder, and the ink supply hole can be detached from the connecting cylinder without damaging the connecting cylinder. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an ink cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are a perspective view showing a state where the ink cartridge is mounted on a holder suitable for the ink cartridge, and a front view showing an insertion process, respectively.

FIG. 3 is a top view showing a state where the ink cartridge is mounted on a holder.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are diagrams illustrating an embodiment in which the ink storage amount is changed while maintaining compatibility of the ink cartridge.

FIGS. 5A and 5B are cross-sectional views showing an embodiment of the negative pressure generating mechanism of the ink cartridge in the valve closed state and the valve open state, respectively.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Ink cartridge 1a Ink supply part 1b Ink storage part 2 Side surface 3 Bottom surface 4 Top surface 5 Depression 6 Differential pressure valve mechanism storage room 7 Ink supply hole 9 Holder 10 Cartridge bottom depression 11 Cartridge identification protrusion 20 Insertion / extraction support protrusion 21 Valley 30 Holder Side wall 31 Holder side wall 32 Holder front wall 32a Slit 33 Holder rear wall 34 Connecting cylinder part 40 Membrane valve 40a Thick part on outer periphery 40b Through hole 40c Thick part at center part 41 Cylindrical holder 42 Coil spring

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An ink cartridge having an ink supply hole formed on one surface of a container for storing ink, the ink cartridge being formed at a location separated by a predetermined distance from the ink supply hole,
An ink cartridge having a concave portion extending in a direction in which the recording device is inserted and removed. 2. The ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein a region on the ink supply hole side from the concave portion forms a negative pressure generating portion, and the other region forms an ink containing portion. 3. The ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein an identification protrusion is formed near the ink supply hole. 4. A holder for accommodating an ink cartridge provided with an ink supply hole on one side surface of a container for accommodating ink, and having a recess extending in a direction of insertion and removal at a predetermined distance from the ink supply hole. A holder provided with a cylindrical portion that engages with the ink supply hole, and a convex portion that engages with the concave portion and extends in the insertion / removal direction at the predetermined distance from the cylindrical portion. 5. The holder according to claim 4, wherein a detection projection corresponding to the identification projection formed near the ink supply hole is formed near the cylindrical portion. 6. An ink jet recording apparatus for accommodating an ink cartridge provided with an ink supply hole on one side surface of a container for accommodating ink, and having a concave portion extending in the insertion / removal direction at a predetermined distance from the ink supply hole. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a cylindrical portion that engages with the ink supply hole; and a convex portion that engages with the concave portion at a position away from the cylindrical portion by the predetermined distance and extends in the insertion / removal direction. apparatus.