JP2000168184A - Ink jet recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To suppress disturbance of image at the time of high speed recording by holding a carriage mounting a recording head slidably by means of a guide rod partially provided with a groove and moving a recording head in the main scanning direction thereby stabilizing the carriage speed. SOLUTION: A carriage 13 is fixed with a bearing 40 fitted slidably over a main guide rod 11 provided with two grooves 41, 41. The groove 41 has width I in the main scanning direction which is set narrower than the width L of the bearing 40, i.e., I<L, in order to prevent the bearing 40 from dropping into the groove 41. End part 41a of the groove 41 is tapered from the peripheral surface of the main guide rod 11 toward the bottom of the groove 41 in order to prevent the groove 41 from rattling when rising over the groove 41 thus stabilizing scanning of the carriage 13. Disturbance of image is eliminated even if the scanning speed of the carriage 13 is increased.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus, and more particularly, to an ink jet recording apparatus which performs recording by moving a carriage having a recording head in a main scanning direction.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As an ink jet recording apparatus used as an image recording apparatus (image forming apparatus) such as a printer, a facsimile, a copying apparatus, etc., a recording head including an ink jet head is mounted on a carriage and the recording head is moved in a main scanning direction. A serial type that prints an image on paper by moving paper (meaning that an image is recorded, not limited to paper) in the sub-scanning direction while ejecting ink droplets from the recording head It has been known.

In such a serial type ink jet recording apparatus, in order to move and scan the carriage in the scanning direction, a guide rod for guiding and holding the carriage so as to be slidable is horizontally mounted in the main scanning direction and attached to the carriage. It is supported by a guide rod via a slide bearing.

[0004]

However, in such an ink jet recording apparatus of the head scanning type, foreign substances (paper dust, etc.) are generated with time because the bearing of the carriage slides on the guide rod. Attaching to the guide rods increases the sliding resistance of the carriage. In particular, when the carriage speed is increased in accordance with the higher printing speed (higher head scanning speed), the fluctuation of the carriage speed (head scanning speed) becomes larger, and the image becomes larger. Disturbance occurs.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has as its object to eliminate image disturbance.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet recording apparatus, wherein a carriage on which a recording head is mounted is slidably held by a guide rod, and the recording head is moved in a main scanning direction. In the ink jet recording apparatus which performs recording by moving the guide rod, a groove is formed in a part of the guide rod.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the inkjet recording apparatus of the first aspect, the width of the groove of the guide rod is smaller than the width of the bearing of the carriage.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the ink jet recording apparatus according to the first or second aspect,
The end of the concave groove of the guide rod is formed in a tapered shape.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the ink jet recording apparatus according to any one of the first to third aspects, the groove of the guide rod is formed in a non-printing area.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a mechanism section of an ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG.
3 is an explanatory view of a guide rod of the recording apparatus, and FIG. 4 is an enlarged explanatory view for explaining the operation of the recording apparatus.

This ink jet recording apparatus comprises a carriage movable in the main scanning direction inside the recording apparatus main body 1, a recording head including an ink jet head mounted on the carriage, an ink cartridge for supplying ink to the recording head, and the like. A paper feed cassette (or a paper feed tray) 4 capable of loading a large number of sheets 3 from the front side is detachably attached to a lower portion of the apparatus main body 1. Then, the paper 3 fed from the paper feed cassette 4 is taken in, a required image is recorded by the printing mechanism 2, and then the paper is discharged to the paper discharge tray 6 mounted on the rear side.

The printing mechanism section 2 holds a carriage 13 slidably in a main scanning direction (a direction perpendicular to the paper surface of FIG. 1) by a main guide rod 11 and a sub guide rod 12 laid on left and right side plates (not shown). On the lower surface side of the carriage 13, a recording head 14 composed of an ink jet head having nozzles for discharging ink droplets of yellow (Y), cyan (C), magenta (M), and black (Bk) is ejected. The ink tank (ink cartridge) 15 for supplying each color ink to the recording head 14 is exchangeably mounted on the upper side of the carriage 5.

The recording head 14 may include a plurality of heads for ejecting ink droplets of each color arranged in the main scanning direction, or a single head having nozzles for ejecting ink droplets of each color. The used one may be used. The ink jet head used as the recording head 14 uses an electromechanical transducer such as a piezoelectric element in the actuator section, uses a heating resistor, or uses an electrostatic force between the diaphragm and the electrode. can do.

On the other hand, the paper 3 set in the paper feed cassette 4
A paper feed roller 21 and a friction pad 22 for separating and feeding the paper 3 from the paper feed cassette 4, a guide member 23 for guiding the paper 3, A transport roller 24 that reverses and transports the sheet 3, a transport roller 25 pressed against the peripheral surface of the transport roller 24, and a transport roller 26 that regulates the angle at which the sheet 3 is sent out from the transport roller 15 are provided.

The paper 3 fed from the transport roller 24 corresponding to the moving range of the carriage 5 in the main scanning direction.
Is provided on the lower side of the recording head 4.

On the downstream side of the printing receiving member 27 in the paper transport direction, there are provided a transport roller 31 and a spur 32 which are driven to rotate in order to send out the paper 3 in the paper discharge direction. A delivery roller 33 and a spur 34 for sending out,
Guide members 35 and 36 that form a paper discharge path are provided.

Here, the main guide rod 11 which slidably guides and holds the carriage 13 is shown in FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG. A bearing 40 is mounted on the carriage 13, and the bearing 40 is slidably fitted on the main guide rod 11.

The main guide rod 11 is provided with two concave grooves 41 at two locations. The width l of the concave groove 41 in the main scanning direction is smaller than the width L of the bearing 40 of the carriage 13 in the main scanning direction (l <L) to prevent the bearing 40 of the carriage 13 from falling into the concave groove 41. I have.

The end 46a of the groove 46 is formed in a tapered shape inclined from the peripheral surface of the main guide rod 11 toward the bottom of the groove 46 so that the bearing 40 of the carriage 13 passes over the groove 41. Rattle is prevented, and scanning of the carriage 13 is stabilized.

Further, the positions of the concave grooves 41, 41 in the main scanning direction of the main guide rod 11 are inside the scanning width SL of the carriage 13 and outside the printing width PL (printing area) (the end side of the rod 11). Direction). Also,
Here, the positions of the concave grooves 41 are formed outside the width CL in which the bearing 40 of the carriage 13 slides during printing.

By forming the groove 41 outside the printing width PL, the foreign matter adhered to the main guide rod 11 is scraped off by the bearing 40 by the scanning of the carriage 13 for printing so as to fall into the groove 41. become. In addition, concave groove 4
1 is formed outside the range in which the bearing 40 of the carriage 13 slides on the main guide rod 11 during printing (the range of the width CL), so that the carriage 13 does not climb over the concave groove 41 during printing, so that an image is formed. Is not disturbed.

With such a configuration, as shown in FIG. 4, foreign matter such as paper dust adhered to the peripheral surface of the main guide rod 41 by the bearing 40 by the main scanning of the carriage 13 as shown in FIG.
2 is scraped off and carried by the main scanning of the carriage 13 into the concave groove 41 of the main guide rod 41 and dropped.

As a result, the sliding resistance between the main guide rod 41 and the bearing 40 of the carriage 13 does not increase, and even if the scanning speed of the carriage 13 is increased, the disturbance of the image due to the speed fluctuation due to the foreign matter does not occur.

Although the above embodiment has been described with reference to an example in which the main guide rod is formed with a groove, the sub-guide rod may also be formed with a groove.

[0025]

As described above, according to the ink jet recording apparatus of the first aspect, the carriage on which the recording head is mounted is slidably held by the guide rod, and the recording head is moved in the main scanning direction to perform recording. In the ink jet recording apparatus for performing the above, since a concave groove is formed in a part of the guide rod, foreign matters such as paper dust adhering to the guide rod can be removed, the carriage speed is stable, and the high speed recording is performed. Disturbance of an image due to speed fluctuation is reduced, and high-quality recording can be performed.

According to the ink jet recording apparatus of the second aspect, in the ink jet recording apparatus of the first aspect,
Since the width of the groove of the guide rod is smaller than the width of the bearing of the carriage, it is possible to prevent the bearing from falling into the groove.

According to the ink jet recording apparatus of the third aspect, in the ink jet recording apparatus of the first or second aspect, the end of the concave groove of the guide rod is formed in a tapered shape, so that the carriage bearing has the concave groove. Rattle during overcoming is reduced, and carriage scanning can be stabilized.

According to the ink jet recording apparatus of the fourth aspect, in the ink jet recording apparatus according to any one of the first to third aspects, the concave groove of the guide rod is formed in the non-printing area, so that the carriage can be moved during printing. Since the bearing does not get over the concave groove, the image can be prevented from being disturbed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a mechanism of an ink jet recording apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of a main part of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of a guide rod of the recording apparatus.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged explanatory view for explaining the operation of the recording apparatus.

[Description of Signs] 1 ... Main body, 2 ... Printing mechanism, 3 ... Paper, 4 ... Paper cassette, 6 ... Discharge tray, 11 ... Main guide rod, 13
... Carriage, 14 ... Recording head, 40 ... Bearing, 41 ...
Groove.

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Masumi Sato 1-3-6 Nakamagome, Ota-ku, Tokyo F-term in Ricoh Company Limited (reference) 2C056 EA18 HA38 2C480 CA01 CA51 DB02 DB06 DB16

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An ink jet recording apparatus in which a carriage on which a recording head is mounted is slidably held by a guide rod and the recording head is moved in a main scanning direction to perform recording, a groove is formed in a part of the guide rod. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: 2. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a width of the groove of the guide rod is smaller than a width of a bearing of the carriage. 3. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an end of the groove of the guide rod is formed in a tapered shape. 4. The ink jet recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the groove of the guide rod is formed in a non-print area.