Ink jet head maintenance mechanism and ink jet printer equipped with the mechanism
View Patent ↗An ink jet printer has an ink jet head having nozzles for discharging ink into a recording medium to perform printing, and a cap connectable to the ink jet head to cover the ends of the nozzles. To prevent ink from drying on surfaces of the nozzles, the nozzle ends are covered with the cap after completion of printing, and the interior of the cap is filled with ink a predetermined period of time after covering the nozzle ends with the cap. After the elapse of another predetermined period of time from filling the interior of the cap with ink, the interior of the cap is again filled with ink to replenish ink lost from the cap through evaporation. The interior of the cap is filled with ink when power to the ink jet printer is turned off or when no printing is performed for a fixed period time.
1. An ink jet head maintenance mechanism comprising:
an ink jet head for performing printing by discharging ink through nozzles onto a recording medium, and
a cap sealingly connectable to a nozzle surface of the nozzles of the ink jet head after completion of printing,
wherein after printing has been completed and the nozzle surface of the ink jet head has been sealed with the cap, when a predetermined period of time has elapsed, the interior of the cap is filled with ink such that the nozzle surface is sealed with the cap filled with ink, and wherein when a predetermined period of time has further elapsed after filling the cap with ink, the cap is filled with ink again such that ink is always maintained in the interior of the cap.
2. An ink jet head maintenance mechanism according to claim 1 ; wherein the cap has an opening/closing valve communicating with the atmosphere, and filling the cap with ink is performed through an opening/closing operation of the opening/closing valve.
3. An ink jet head maintenance mechanism according to claim 2 ; wherein the opening/closing valve is opened/closed by driving an actuator in response to an input operation from outside.
4. An ink jet printer comprising: an ink jet head maintenance mechanism according to claim 3 ; wherein the ink jet head performs printing by discharging ink onto a recording medium on the basis of printing data to print characters or images on the recording medium.
5. An ink jet printer comprising: an ink jet head maintenance mechanism according to claim 2 ; wherein the ink jet head performs printing by discharging ink onto a recording medium on the basis of printing data to print characters or images on the recording medium.
6. An ink jet head maintenance mechanism according to claim 1 ; wherein ink contained within the interior of the cap is sucked through an opening/closing operation of an opening/closing valve to discharge the ink out of the cap.
7. An ink jet printer comprising: an ink jet head maintenance mechanism according to claim 6 ; wherein the ink jet head performs printing by discharging ink onto a recording medium on the basis of the printing data to print characters or images on the recording medium.
8. An ink jet printer comprising: an ink jet head maintenance mechanism according to claim 1 ; wherein the ink jet head performs printing by discharging ink onto a recording medium on the basis of printing data to print characters or images on the recording medium.
9. In an ink jet printer having an ink jet head having nozzles for discharging ink onto a recording medium to perform printing and a cap connectable to the ink jet head to cover the ends of the nozzles, a method of preventing ink from drying on surfaces of the nozzles comprising the steps:
covering the nozzle ends with the cap after completion of printing;
filling the interior of the cap with ink a predetermined period of time after covering the nozzle ends with the cap; and
after the elapse of another predetermined period of time from filling the interior of the cap with ink, again filling the interior of the cap with ink to replenish ink lost from the interior of the cap through evaporation.
10. In an ink jet printer according to claim 9 ; wherein the step of covering the nozzle ends with the cap is carried out when power to the ink jet printer is turned off or when no printing is performed for a fixed period time.
11. In an ink jet printer according to claim 9 ; wherein the step of covering the nozzle ends with the cap is carried out when power to the ink jet printer is turned off.
12. In an ink jet printer according to claim 9 ; wherein the step of covering the nozzle ends with the cap is carried out when no printing is performed for a fixed period of time.
13. In an ink jet printer according to claim 9 ; wherein the steps of filling and again filling the interior of the cap with ink are carried out by flowing ink through a passage formed in the cap.
14. In an ink jet printer according to claim 9 ; wherein the ink is a quick-drying ink.
15. In an ink jet printer according to claim 9 ; wherein the steps of filling and again filling the interior of the cap with ink are carried out after predetermined periods of time counted by a timer built into the ink jet printer.