KR100198224B1 - Printing head capping device of ink jet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a capping apparatus for an ink jet printer, and more particularly, to a capping apparatus for an ink jet printer, which comprises capping means of a print head, wiper means for wiping a print head, and pumping means for discharging a small amount of ink to a print head The present invention relates to a capping device for an ink jet printer capable of capping a print head when an ink cartridge having a print head is placed in an output standby state, The capping means is separated from the print head to be pumped so that the ink contained in the ink cartridge is discharged from the print head as soon as it is transported to the surface, and at the same time, Up / down means for interlocking up and down operations; A driving means for operating the lifting means and a position sensing means for sensing the position of the carrier and controlling the driving means.

Description

Printing head capping device of ink jet printer

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a print head capping apparatus of a conventional ink jet printer using horizontal power of a carrier. FIG.

FIG. 2 is a front sectional view showing a main part of a print head capping device of an ink jet printer according to the present invention, showing a state in which a carrier is in a print standby state.

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2, showing a situation where the carrier is in a state of being printed.

FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway plan view of the print head capping device of the ink jet printer according to the present invention viewed from above in a plan view.

* A brief description of the main parts of the drawing

2: Carrier 3: Ink cartridge

5: Shaft 20: Pallet

30: first case 31: screw

40: capping lever 41: pivot shaft

43: Rubber cap 43a: Through hole

45: Bracket 50: Wiper lever

51: Pivot shaft 53: Wiper support

55: Wiper 59: Tension spring

60: tube 70: cam gear

71: roller 73: cam face

80: second case 81: hole

90: drive motor 91: sun gear

93: planetary gear 95: reduction gear

H: Printhead

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a capping device for an ink jet printer, and more particularly, to a capping device for an ink jet printer, A wiper for wiping the print head, and a print head capping device (not shown) of an ink jet printer capable of alternately raising and lowering the capping means and the wiper means for interlocking the pumping means for discharging a small amount of ink to the print head at the start of printing Capping Device).

An ink jet printer is an output device that prints an image or character on a paper surface while moving a paper surface horizontally with a print head carrier equipped with an ink cartridge in accordance with an output signal. In general, as shown in FIG. 1, A carriage 2 for carrying and transporting the ink cartridge having the print head, a shaft 5 for guiding the carrier, and a timing belt (not shown) for transporting the carrier along the shaft 7, a drive motor 9 for driving the timing belt, a pulley 9a, and the like.

The ink jet printer finely injects the stored ink onto the printing paper through a nozzle formed in the print head on the bottom of the ink cartridge to print a predetermined character or image. However, the nozzles of the print head are not subjected to a printing operation, and when exposed to the atmosphere for a long time, the ink remaining on the surface is clogged and clogged. If the nozzles are clogged like this, printing becomes impossible or printed characters become unclear.

Therefore, there is a need for a print head capping apparatus that covers the nozzle portion of the print head with a rubber cap to seal the nozzle of the print head while the print job is not performed.

Generally, the print head capping device comprises capping means for sealing the print head and wiper means for wiping off ink, water droplets, dust, etc. remaining on the print head. The capping means and the wiper means must move up and down to seal or open the print head or to wipe the nozzle face of the print head. The capping means and the wiper means are driven by the method of using a separate dedicated motor and the method of utilizing the force of the carrier conveyed by the timing belt without a separate dedicated motor.

As shown in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings, the cap 2 and the wiper means 6 (hereinafter, referred to as " carrier ") are driven by the horizontal power of the carrier 2, ) Were moved up and down. However, in this method, the cap carrier 8 can be moved up and down only when the cap carrier 8 is guided by the stepped slot 10 on which the inclined portion is formed and is necessarily horizontally moved for a predetermined period. That is, the capping means 4 itself had to perform the horizontal movement and the vertical movement simultaneously with the cap carrier 8. However, if the capping means is horizontally moved as described above, there is a problem that the volume of the capping device is increased by the movement length. Also, the above-described method using the horizontal power of the carriers is effective in the case of a simple capping device, but in the case of a capping device having various functions and advanced functions, the structure is complicated and the number of parts is increased.

The present invention has been made to solve the conventional problems.

An object of the present invention is to provide a capping apparatus having a pumping function for covering a nozzle of an ink cartridge and discharging a small amount of ink to the outside and an ink jet printer To provide a print head capping apparatus

It is another object of the present invention to provide a capping device and a wiper function that can be operated independently of each other to wipe the nozzle surface of the print head only when the ink cartridge is transported to start printing, The present invention is to provide a print head capping apparatus for an ink jet printer which can be implemented in a very simple manner.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a capping device that moves downward after a pumping operation to cause a small amount of ink to flow out onto the surface of the nozzle as soon as the ink cartridge is transported to start printing and the wiper device rises to wipe the ink spilled on the nozzle surface The present invention provides a print head capping apparatus for an ink jet printer.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print head capping apparatus for an ink jet printer, comprising: a step motor driven by an output signal; A timing belt rotatably coupled to each of the idling pulleys coupled to the printer body so as to correspond to each other and rotated by the step motor; An ink cartridge comprising: an ink cartridge having an ink containing therein an ink distributing printhead; A carrier connected to be conveyed by the timing belt and detachably supporting the ink cartridge; A shaft fixed to the printer body so that the carrier can reciprocate; A capping unit that moves down when the carrier is being conveyed toward the paper by an output signal to open the print head and climbs the print head when the carrier returns to the original position; A wiper means for wiping up the surface of the print head when the carrier is conveyed toward the paper by an output signal and for lowering when the carrier returns to the original position; Pumping means for discharging a small amount of ink to the surface of the print head immediately before the capping means is separated from the print head; Up and down means for interlocking the capping means, the wiper means and the pumping means; Driving means for operating the lifting means; When the carrier returns to the home position after completion of the output, sensing the position and controlling the driving means.

Hereinafter, the components according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a cross-sectional view of the print head capping device of the ink jet printer according to the present invention viewed from the front, wherein the head capping device descends when the print head is being printed, A capping unit that ascends and descends to cap the print head when returning to the home position; A wiper means for wiping the surface of the print head by rising when the print head is transported to the paper surface for printing or returning to the home position; A pumping means for causing a small amount of ink to flow out to the surface of the print head immediately before the capping means is separated from the print head when the print head is transported to the paper surface; When the capping means is lowered, the pumping means is operated and the wiper means is raised. When the print head returns to the original position on the surface of the paper after completion of printing, the capping means is lowered and the capping means is raised to cap the print head Up and down means for interlocking; Driving means for operating the lifting means; And a position sensing means for sensing the position of the ink cartridge and controlling the driving means.

The capping means is for preventing the initial print state from becoming poor by preventing the print head of the ink cartridge lying in the print standby state from drying so as to prevent the nozzle of the print head from being clogged.

As shown in FIG. 2, a part of the pallet 20 is formed with a cut-away space, and a first case 30 is provided on the chassis 21 below the space. And is coupled with a screw 31. In the first case 30, a capping lever 40 is rotatably fixed around the pivot shaft 41. The capping lever 40 is coupled to the first case 30 so as to rotate about the pivot shaft 41. A rubber cap 43 surrounding the periphery of the print head H is attached to the free end of the capping lever 40 And a bracket 4i extending upward in a direction perpendicular to the capping lever 40 is provided between the rubber cap 43 and the pivot shaft 41. [ The aforementioned bracket 45 is spaced a predetermined distance from the rubber cap 43 on the capping lever 40 and its distance is a distance corresponding to the distance from the center of the print head H to the side wall of the carrier 2 .

The above-described rubber cap 43 encloses and seals the print head H, and has a through hole 43a communicating with the inside thereof. Further, a space member 47 extending downward is integrally attached to the free end side of the capping lever 40, that is, below the rubber cap 43. The lower end of the space member 47 is mounted on a wiper means described later, and functions to maintain a distance between the capping lever 40 and the wiper means.

The wiper means is provided for wiping the surface of the print head H when the print head H is being conveyed. The wiper lever 50 is attached to the above-described casing so as to be positioned below the capping lever 40 described above through the pivot shaft 51 Both ends of the pivot shaft 51 constitute a free end. One end of the free end of the wiper lever 50 is coupled with an interlocking means for interlocking with the capping lever 40. A free end of the wiper lever 50 protrudes from the wiper lever 50 toward the pallet 20 53 are provided. A wiper 55 is attached to the upper end of the wiper support 53. The wiper 55 is positioned above the height of the pallet 20 when the wiper lever 50 rises, And is placed on the conveyed line.

The pumping means is for causing a small amount of ink to flow out from the print head when the print head H is conveyed to the paper surface. More specifically, when the printer starts printing by a print command of the computer, So as to smoothly discharge the ink from the nozzles. In order to achieve such a function effectively, the above-described rubber cap 43 is operated immediately before being separated from the print head H, which will be described in more detail below. However, in the above-described rubber cap 43, ) So as to instantaneously create a vacuum inside the rubber cap 43 immediately before the rubber cap is separated from the print head H.

The tube 60 connected to the through hole 43a of the rubber cap 43 is connected to the capping lever 40 and the wiper lever 50 by the driving means for operating the wiper lever 50, A portion of the tube 60 may be slid in a direction away from the through hole 43a during rotation of the cam gear 70. The component according to the preferred embodiment of the pumping means may be provided at one side of the tube 60 A cam gear 70 having a roller 71 formed on one surface thereof; A second case (80) fixed to the chassis (21) so as to rotatably support the cam gear (70); A tube 60 coupled to the through hole 43a of the rubber cap 43 and positioned between the roller 71 and the inner wall of the second case 80; And can be achieved by driving means for rotating the cam gear 70 described above.

One example of the above-described pumping means will be described more clearly in the working examples described below and in the working effects thereof.

The lifting and lowering means is rotatably fixed to the inside of the second case 80. At least one roller 71 is coupled to one side and the end of the wiper lever 50 is brought into contact with the other side And a cam gear 70 having a cam surface 73.

The drive means is fixed to the bottom surface of the pallet 20 and includes a drive motor 90 having a sun gear 91 and driven by an output signal, A planetary gear 93 rotatably coupled to the bottom surface and having a reduction gear 95; a planetary gear 93 rotatably coupled to the inner surface of the second case 80 and having a cam surface 73 And a cam gear 70 that meshes with the reduction gear 95 and rotates.

The position sensing means is for sensing a timing timing for operating the driving means in accordance with the positional change of the carrier 2 on which the ink cartridge 3 is mounted. In this specification, the position sensing means is a proximity switch, A limit switch is provided on the path of the carrier 2 so that the limit switch is touched before the carrier returns to the home position to drive the drive motor 90 through the limit switch.

Hereinafter, an operation example and an effect of the print head capping device of the ink jet printer according to the present invention will be described with reference to a representative embodiment.

First, when power is applied to the printer, the printer performs a self-test by the microcomputer and the built-in sensors. At this time, if the container is sandwiched (jammed) between the feeding roller Thereby aligning the position of the print head to the initial position. At this time, the print head H attached to the ink cartridge 3 is sealed by the rubber cap 43 of the capping means.

When the output command is given to the aligned print head H, the carrier 2 is conveyed by a step motor that drives the timing belt, although not shown in the figure. When the step motor is rotated by the output command, (90) is rotated by an electric signal.

2, when the drive motor 90 rotates, the planetary gear 93 engaged with the sun gear 91 rotates together with the reduction gear 95, The gear 70 is driven. When the cam gear 70 is driven, the roller 71 coupled to the upper surface of the cam gear 70 rotates together to pass a certain section of the tube 60 positioned between the second case 80 and the roller 71 in a compressed state . Accordingly, the roller 71 sweeps through a certain section of the tube 70 in accordance with the rotation of the cam gear 70, so that the inside of the tube, that is, the rubber cap 43 is instantaneously vacuumed, The ink contained in the ink cartridge 3 flows out. At the same time, the end of the wiper lever 50, which is slidably connected to the cam surface 73 of the cam gear 70, is gradually moved from the highest cam surface by the rotation of the cam gear 70 The wiper lever 50 is pivoted about the pivot shaft 51 to lift the wiper 53 upward. Further, the free end of the wiper lever 50 is lowered to the opposite side of the capping lever 40, so that the tension spring 57 coupled to the free end of the wiper lever is pulled.

The tension of the tension spring 59 causes the capping lever 40 to move downward so that the rubber cap 43 is separated from the print head H and the end of the wiper is elastically connected to the cam surface.

When the ink cartridge 3 is fed to the paper and the printing is completed, the step motor returns to the home position. When the carriage 2 returns to the original position, the limit switch provided at a certain place is electrically operated . When the limit switch is touched by the carrier, the drive motor 90 rotates. The drive motor 90 includes a planetary gear 93 meshing with the sun gear 91, a reduction gear 95 formed integrally with the planetary gear, The gear 70 is engaged and rotated.

When the cam gear 70 rotates, the wiper lever 50 connected to the shortest cam face 73 of the cam gear 70 is brought into contact with the cam face which is gradually higher as described above, so that the wiper lever 50 rotates about the pivot shaft 51 to cause the wiper 53 to descend and the opposite end to rise. As a result, when the free end of the wiper lever 50 is lifted, the tensile force of the tension spring 59 coupled between the end portion of the wiper lever 50 and the capping lever 40 is relaxed and the tensile force becomes zero. So that the capping lever 40 is raised. At this time, the end of the space member 47 is separated from the wiper lever 50, and the rubber cap 43 is lifted upward.

Accordingly, when the capping lever 40 is raised, the rubber cap 43 is surrounded by the periphery of the print head H to seal the cap. At this time, since the side of the carrier 2 presses the bracket 45, the rubber cap 43 coupled to the capping lever 40 is pivoted about the pivot shaft 41 So that the print head H is more closely contacted. The space member 47 integrally formed with the capping lever 40 is lifted up from the wiper lever 50 at a lower portion of the rubber cap 43. When the side of the carrier 2 abuts against the bracket 45 and the capping lever 40 is rotated about the pivot axis 41, the tension spring 59 pulls the free end of the wiper lever 50 The end of the wiper lever 50 is pulled up due to the tensile force, but the opposite end of the wiper lever 50 contacts the inner surface of the outlet 81 of the second case 80, A tensile force is generated.

As described above, the print head capping apparatus of the ink jet printer according to the present invention has a simple structure in which the capping of the print head and the wiper operation of the print head are interlocked and the pumping operation can be performed smoothly.

As described above, in the print head capping apparatus of the ink jet printer according to the present invention, the capping means for sealing the nozzles of the print head and the wiper means for wiping the nozzle face of the print head are raised and lowered separately from the capping means, Do not wipe the printhead nozzle face often. Further, since the capping means and the wiper means of the present invention are driven by separate driving means, there is an effect of realizing a complicated function such as an ink pumping function with a simple structure.

While the present invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be practical exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments, but, on the contrary, , It is understood that the present invention is included in the true meaning of the technical idea intended by the present inventor and the claims defined below.

Claims (10)

A step motor driven by an output signal; A timing belt rotatably coupled to each of the idling pulleys coupled to the printer body so as to correspond to each other and rotated by the step motor; An ink cartridge comprising: an ink cartridge having an ink containing therein an ink distributing printhead; A carrier connected to be conveyed by the timing belt and detachably supporting the ink cartridge; A shaft fixed to the printer body so that the carrier can be reciprocated; and a lowering mechanism that opens the print head when the carrier is conveyed toward the paper by an output signal, and raises when the carrier returns to the home position, Capping means for sealing; A wiper means for wiping up the surface of the print head when the carrier is conveyed toward the paper by an output signal and for lowering when the carrier returns to the original position; Pumping means for discharging a small amount of ink to the nozzle surface of the print head immediately before the capping means is separated from the print head; Up and down means for interlocking the capping means, the wiper means and the pumping means; Driving means for operating the lifting means; And a position sensing means for sensing the position of the carriage when the carriage returns to the home position after completion of the output to control the driving means. 2. The ink cartridge according to claim 1, wherein the capping means is rotatably coupled to a first case coupled to a lower portion of the ink cartridge mounted on the print head, the one end of the capping means being pivotable by a pivot shaft, And a capping lever having a rubber cap for sealing the cap and a space member extending in a downward direction of the rubber cap. [2] The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the wiper means is rotatably coupled to the first case (30) by a pivot shaft, and one end of the wiper means is coupled to the capping means at the free end thereof, And a wiper attached to an upper end of the wiper support, the wiper support being slidably connected to the wiper support, the wiper support being extended inside the free end toward the print head, and a wiper attached to an upper end of the wiper support. 4. The apparatus of claim 1 or 3, wherein the lifting / lowering means comprises: a cam gear rotatably coupled to a second case fixed to a lower portion of the pallet, the cam gear having a cam surface having a different height on one side surface; And the free end of the wiper lever is slidably connected to the cam surface. The drive system according to claim 1, wherein the drive means comprises: a drive motor driven by an output command and having a sun gear coupled to a bottom surface of the pallet; A planetary gear rotatably coupled to the second case and meshing with the sun gear; and a reducer gear integrally formed with the planetary gear and meshing with the cam gear. . 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pumping means has a first end coupled to the through hole formed in the bottom surface of the rubber cap, and a predetermined section is positioned between the case and the roller so as to press and pass a portion of the roller when the cam gear rotates And the print head capping device of the ink jet printer. 2. The ink jet printer according to claim 1, wherein the position sensing means is provided with a limit switch on the conveyance path of the carrier for sensing the return of the carrier when the carrier returns to the home position after completion of printing. Capping device. 3. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising a bracket extending upwardly from the cap cap at a predetermined distance from the capping lever. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the distance between the bracket and the rubber cap is the same as the distance from the print head to the side wall of the ink cartridge. The printing head capping apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the interlocking means is a tension spring.