Dual-Side Maintenance Unit for Compact Serial Printer
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Solution Overview
Problem
In serial-type printing apparatuses with multiple discharge heads, the installation of maintenance units on one side of the platen leads to increased size in the scanning direction due to the requirement for lateral space, which is inefficient and limits the apparatus's compactness.
Innovation Solution
The maintenance unit is installed on both sides of the platen in the scanning direction, with a capping unit on one side to prevent ink drying and a wiping unit, configured as a cloth wiper moving in a direction intersecting the scanning direction, on the other side, along with a flushing and pressure flushing reception unit on the scanning start region to facilitate efficient maintenance and reduce the apparatus's size.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the maintenance unit is installed on one side of the platen, then the carriage can be maintained, but the apparatus increases in size in the scanning direction
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dimensionality change by distributing maintenance units to both sides of the platen in the scanning direction, transforming the single-side maintenance configuration into a dual-side configuration. This allows the carriage to access maintenance functions from either side during its reciprocating motion, effectively utilizing the spatial dimension and reducing the overall apparatus size while maintaining full maintenance capability
Solution Approach 2:
The maintenance unit is segmented into separate capping and wiping components that can be independently positioned on different sides of the platen. This segmentation allows each component to be optimally placed according to the carriage's reciprocating path, with the capping unit on one side and the wiping unit on the other, reducing the need for a single large maintenance station
2Reliability
If the capping unit covers the entire discharge head, then nozzle protection is improved, but planar space requirement increases
Solution Approach 1:
The capping unit is designed to provide localized protection only to the nozzle surface that requires it, rather than covering the entire discharge head uniformly. The cap is positioned to make contact only with the nozzle area, allowing the rest of the discharge head to remain exposed and reducing the overall planar space requirement while maintaining nozzle protection reliability
3Productivity
If the wiping unit is configured with lateral width equal to the carriage, then wiping efficiency is improved, but space requirement on one side of platen increases
Solution Approach 1:
The wiping unit is positioned on the opposite side of the platen from the capping unit, utilizing the other available side of the platen for maintenance functions. This spatial redistribution allows the wiping unit to have sufficient lateral width for efficient wiping without concentrating all maintenance space requirements on one side, thereby reducing the overall apparatus footprint in the scanning direction
Data Source
AI summary
A printing apparatus is a serial-type printing apparatus including a discharge head configured to discharge a liquid (ink) toward a medium, a carriage configured to reciprocate in a scanning direction in a state of supporting the discharge head, and a platen configured to guide transport of the medium, and a maintenance unit is installed sandwiching the platen from both sides in the scanning direction and configured to maintain performance of the discharge head.