Ink Jet Printer Air Bubble Removal via Integrated Buffer Tank
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional ink jet printers face challenges in efficiently removing air bubbles from air buffer chambers, leading to reduced printing quality and increased complexity due to the need for multiple air buffer chambers and complex maintenance operations, especially when handling multiple ink colors.
Innovation Solution
An ink jet printer design incorporating a buffer tank with an air-discharging device featuring a valve member and sealing mechanism that allows for reliable discharge of air from the buffer tank, including retaining means to ensure the sealing member moves with the rod portion, enabling efficient air removal without clogging the printing head and reducing the need for extensive ink discharge.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an air buffer chamber is provided to collect air bubbles, then recording quality is maintained, but the device complexity and size increase due to additional components like ink returning tubes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the air buffer chamber and air discharging device into an integrated unit mounted on the carriage. The air discharging device is directly coupled to the air buffer chamber, eliminating the need for separate ink returning tubes and complex circulation systems. This merging reduces device complexity while maintaining the air bubble collection function that ensures recording quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the air discharging function from the ink circulation system and places it directly on the carriage. By providing a dedicated air discharging device that operates independently from the ink tank circulation system, the patent removes the need for complex ink returning tubes while maintaining effective air bubble removal, thus reducing device complexity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple air buffer chambers are provided for multiple color inks, then full-color printing capability is achieved, but maintenance efficiency decreases due to the need to remove air bubbles from all chambers simultaneously
Solution Approach 1:
The patent provides separate air buffer chambers for different color inks (cyan, magenta, yellow, black), allowing independent air bubble collection for each color channel. Each chamber can be managed independently, enabling selective maintenance operations rather than requiring simultaneous air removal from all chambers, thus improving maintenance efficiency while maintaining full-color printing capability.
3Ease of operation
If air is allowed to mix with circulated ink, then air bubbles are naturally carried to the ink tank, but the device requires complex circulation systems and increases in size
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a dedicated air discharging device as an intermediary component that actively removes air bubbles from the air buffer chamber. This mediator component enables efficient air bubble removal without requiring complex ink circulation systems or large device volume, as the air discharging device handles air removal independently rather than relying on natural convection through extensive circulation pathways.
Data Source
AI summary
An ink jet printer including a carriage which is movable relative to a sheet of paper, a recording head which is mounted on the carriage and records an image on the sheet by ejecting a droplet of ink toward the sheet, one or more ink tanks which store the ink or inks to be supplied to the recording head, a buffer tank which is mounted on the carriage, and one or more ink flow passages in which the inks are supplied from the ink tanks to the recording head via the buffer tank. The buffer tank has, at a height position higher than a height position where the recording head is provided, one or more air buffer chambers which accommodate respective amounts of the inks, and collect air bubbles produced in the ink flow passages.