Carriage Positioning for Safe Ink Cartridge Replacement
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing liquid discharge devices face issues with ink leakage and medium contamination during cartridge replacement, as ink can leak from the nozzle or droplets form due to pressure changes, leading to waste and potential print quality issues.
Innovation Solution
The liquid discharge device is designed with a carriage that moves to a specific position during cartridge replacement, ensuring the nozzle surface is outside the conveying area and not in contact with the medium, and includes an evacuation operation to relocate the printed area, preventing ink from reaching the medium and maintaining print quality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If cartridge replacement is performed in conventional liquid discharge devices, then the liquid container can be replaced, but ink leaks from the nozzle or droplets form due to pressure changes, causing medium contamination
Solution Approach 1:
The carriage is moved to a predetermined position (replacement position) before cartridge replacement is performed. This preliminary positioning ensures that the discharge head is located where ink leakage will not contaminate the medium, allowing safe cartridge replacement without harmful effects.
Solution Approach 2:
A predetermined replacement position is introduced as an intermediary location between the printing area and the maintenance area. This intermediate position serves as a safe zone for cartridge replacement, isolating the replacement operation from both the medium and the cap, thereby preventing contamination and ensuring operational safety.
2Productivity
If cartridge replacement is performed with medium in conveying area, then continuous printing can be maintained, but ink droplets can drop on the medium or nozzle surface can scrape against the medium
Solution Approach 1:
Before cartridge replacement, the system preliminarily evaluates whether the medium is in a safe position relative to the discharge head at the replacement location. This preliminary check prevents replacement operations that would cause ink droplets to drop on the medium or the nozzle surface to scrape against it, thereby maintaining print quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs a determination process that provides feedback on whether cartridge replacement can be safely performed based on the current position of the medium. This feedback mechanism ensures that replacement operations are only executed when they will not compromise print quality, allowing continuous printing to resume afterward.
3Ease of operation
If carriage is pushed during liquid container replacement, then replacement operation can be completed, but liquid leaks from nozzle due to pushing pressure
Solution Approach 1:
The carriage is preliminarily positioned at the replacement position before the liquid container replacement operation begins. This preliminary positioning ensures that even if pushing pressure causes liquid to leak from the nozzle during replacement, the liquid will not contaminate the medium or cause other harmful effects, thereby maintaining reliability.
Data Source
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AI summary
A liquid discharge device includes a discharge head configured to discharge a liquid on a medium conveyed, a carriage on which the liquid discharge head and a liquid cartridge are mounted configured to move in an X-axis direction, a cap disposed outside a conveying area in the X-axis direction, and configured to have contact with a nozzle surface of the discharge head on which a nozzle opens, and a control section configured to control moving of the carriage. When one of the replacement of the liquid cartridge and refill of the liquid container is performed, the control section locates the carriage at the first position where the nozzle surface is opposed to the area between the conveying area and the cap in the X-axis direction.