JPH11320908A - Ink supply container - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent blow out of an ink through a ventilation hole by providing a partition wall assembly inside the partitioned room so as to provide a gap in the vicinity of the ventilation hole in an ink supply container comprising a foam member held in at least one partitioned room. SOLUTION: A partition wall assembly 55 provides a space for air 56, that is, an opening 56 for preventing compression of a part of a foam member 48 with respect to the portion of a lid 49 including a ventilation hole 32. In the case an ink is introduced into a partitioned room 60, the foam member 48 is in the state filled with the ink, but the ink is not contacted with the ventilation hole 32. According to a general transportation procedure, the ventilation hole 32 is sealed during transportation or storage. Blow-out of the ink through the ventilation hole 32 can be prevented at the time of removing a tape or mounting the container.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink recording apparatus, and more particularly, to an ink supply container for supplying ink to a print head from an ink impregnated foam member contained in a compartment of an ink supply container. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Ink is drawn from an ink supply container by capillary action through an outlet port of the container and into a manifold that fluidly connects the ink to a printhead.
The manifold supplies ink to the ink path to replenish ink after each ink jet, i.e., after an ink droplet has been fired from the corresponding nozzle.

[0003] It is important to maintain the ink at the nozzles at a negative pressure so that the ink does not drip onto the recording medium unless the ink droplets are ejected by thermal energy. In addition, the negative pressure advantageously serves to ensure that the size of the ink droplets ejected from the nozzles is constant when ink is consumed from the ink container. The negative pressure is typically -0.5 to -2.0 ink. One known method of providing negative pressure ink is to place an open cell foam with the ink suspended therein by capillary action in an ink container. The foam is generally a partially filled reticulated urethane foam. The absorbency of this foam member keeps the ink at a negative pressure in the printhead. Ink tanks containing ink retaining foams are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Patent Nos. 5,185,614, 4,771,295, and 5,486,855.

[0004]

A problem with this type of foam-type ink supply container is that the foam is inserted into the container so that the foam contacts all inner walls. As a result, a part of the ink-impregnated foam comes into contact with the air holes of the ink tank necessary for maintaining the negative pressure. Generally, a concentrated portion of the ink is formed near the ventilation hole. After the container is first filled with ink, the vent is sealed during transport, but ink may "blow" out of the vent when the seal is removed. In addition, ink may leak out of the vent when the container is properly mounted.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention, air is added to the interior of a container by adding a bulkhead near the vent to prevent foam from contacting the vent. A working space or void is created near the vent of the container.

In accordance with a second embodiment, an air space or void is created between the foam and the vent by embossing a portion of the foam in the area of the ink container near the vent.

More specifically, the present invention is an ink supply container holding a foam member in at least one compartment so as to create a void (air space) near the vent. A partition assembly is disposed inside the compartment.

[0008]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a full color thermal ink jet printer 6 incorporating a preferred embodiment of a foam holding ink supply container of the present invention. This printer 6 is exemplary only, and the invention is not limited to other types of thermal ink jet printers, but may be used in other types of reproduction devices such as piezo printers, dot matrix printers, and ink jets driven by signals from a document raster input scanner. It can also be implemented in a printer. The printer 6 has four ink containers 10, 12, 14, 1 fluidly connected to a divided print head 18.
6. The print head 18 has a plurality of nozzle groups, each nozzle group corresponding to a different ink color. The printhead cartridge is mounted on a carriage 19 supported on rails 20. The carriage rail 20 is supported by the frame 23 of the printer 6. Each printhead cartridge has an ink container containing ink to be supplied to the printhead 18. The print head 18 selects and ejects ink drops under the control of an electrical signal received from a controller (not shown) of the printer 6 via an electrical cable (not shown).

When printing, the carriage 19 is mounted on the rail 2
It reciprocates back and forth in the direction of arrow 21 along 0. Its full width traversal constitutes the scan path. The actual print area is included in the scan path. As the carriage 19 reciprocates back and forth along the scanning path and passes over a recording medium 34 (eg, a paper sheet or transparency),
Ink droplets are ejected from a selected one of the printhead nozzles onto a sheet of paper. Generally, the recording medium 34 remains stationary during each pass of the carriage 19. When each pass is completed, the recording medium 34 indicates the arrow 3
Step feed is performed in the direction of 6. For a more detailed description of the operation of the printer 6 and details of the printhead structure, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,571,599 and 4,833,491,
And reissued U.S. Patent No. 32,572.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of the ink container 10 having the outlet port 40 and the vent 32. FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the manifold 42. The manifold 42 includes ink tubes 46A to 46D and a plate member 44. The end of the ink tube 46A is pressed against the ink-impregnated foam member 48 in the ink container 10 (means not shown). Another foam member 50 having a plurality of through holes 52A to 52D is slidingly fitted to the ink tubes 46A to 46D of the manifold 42. When the manifold 42 is in the operative position shown in FIG. 2, the foam member 48 is compressed against the lid 49 of the container 10, except for the area around the vent 32, as described below.

FIG. 4 shows the foam member 48 and the ink container before the ink is filled. FIG. 2, FIG. 3, and FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, each ink container represented by the container 10 has 2 ink containers.
It has two compartments. In the case of the ink container 10, the first compartment 6
0 indicates that the ink is stored therein. The ink is filled from the ink inlet 61 of the upper wall 62C. Second compartment 6
2 has an open-cell foam member 48 inserted therein. The compartment 62 has side walls 62A and 62B. Ink reaches the foam member 48 from the compartment 60 through the internal port 68 and fills the foam member with ink. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention, the septum assembly 55 prevents the portion of the foam member 48 from being compressed against the portion of the lid 49 including the vent 32. , A space 56 for air, that is, a gap 56 is formed. The partition assembly 55 is located at a distance d below the upper wall 62C,
Two ribs 55 attached to the side walls 62A, 62B
A, 55B. In the preferred embodiment, d
Is about 3 mm. The ribs are arranged such that a gap 63 remains between them. The gap 63 allows air and a small amount of ink to enter the gap 56 so that the ink falls into the underlying foam member. To clearly indicate the location of the septum assembly 55, an empty container 22 is shown in FIG. When the foam member 48 is inserted into the compartment 62, an air gap 56 (see also FIG. 2) is created as a space for air. When the ink is placed in the compartment 60, the foam member 48 becomes full of ink, but the ink does not touch the vent 32.
In accordance with common shipping procedures, vent 32 is typically sealed with a sealing tape during shipping or storage. The conventional problem is solved because ink does not blow out through the air holes 32 when removing the tape or attaching the container.

FIG. 5 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the foam member 48 is embossed along the region 48A so as not to contact the air holes 32, and the foam member portion in the region 48A is removed.

As shown in FIG. 5, the container 10 has an open end 70 into which the foam member 48 is inserted. After inserting the foam member, a lid 49 made of polypropylene is welded in place. To insert the foam into the interior cavity 62 of the polypropylene ink tank, use a jig to compress the foam to 27% of its initial size and then push the foam into the cavity until it reaches the bottom completely.
During the insertion operation, the foam is compressed using Teflon-coated compression fingers so that the foam does not physically contact the walls of the ink tank. This avoids any static or dynamic loads against the insertion operation. Once the foam has completely reached the bottom, a push rod is protruded through the compression finger to hold the foam in place in the cavity as the compression finger is retracted. When the form is inserted, the embossed portion 48A becomes an air gap and separates the main body of the foam member 48 from the vent 32, so that the same effect as that obtained by using the above-described partition assembly 55 is obtained. can get.

Although described with reference to a thermal ink jet printer, the present invention can be used with other types of printers that require ink to be supplied to the printhead as well. Examples are piezoelectric printers, acoustic ink printers, and inkjet plotters.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a full-color inkjet printer incorporating an ink supply container of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the print head cartridge shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an exploded view of a manifold to which the ink container of FIG. 1 is connected.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the ink container before a foam insertion step and an ink filling step, showing a structure of a partition assembly disposed near a ventilation hole.

FIG. 5 is an exploded view of the ink container showing the foam member embossed to create a void space for air in the area near the vent.

[Explanation of symbols]

 6 Full-color thermal inkjet printer 10, 12, 14, 16 Ink container 18 Print head 19 Carriage 20 Rail 21 Carriage moving direction 23 Frame 22, 24, 26, 28 Ink container 32 Vent hole 34 Paper 36 Paper feed direction 40 Exit port 42 manifold 44 plate member 46A to 46D ink tube 48 foam member 48A embossed area of foam member 49 lid 50 another foam member 52A to 52D through hole 55 partition assembly 55A, 55B rib 56 gap 60 first compartment 61 air Inlet 62 Second compartment 62A, 62B Side wall 62C Upper wall 63 Gap 68 Internal port 70 Open end of ink container

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Vladimir M. Coptic, New York, USA 14534 Pittsford Charmwood Road 38

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An ink supply container holding a foam member in at least one compartment, wherein the compartment is disposed therein to create a space for air near a vent. An ink supply container having a partition assembly. 2. The ink supply container according to claim 1, wherein the partition assembly is a pair of ribs respectively attached to opposite walls of the compartment, and the ribs are separated by a gap. An ink supply container, characterized in that: 3. The ink supply container according to claim 1, wherein the main body of the foam member is embossed so as to create the air space when the foam is seated. Supply container.