Inkjet Printer Head Frame Positioning via Annular Protrusion and Tray Pins
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing inkjet printers face issues with ensuring fluid-tight coverage of ink ejection surfaces due to oversized caps, which makes accurate positioning challenging and complicates the design, leading to potential ink drying and clogging problems.
Innovation Solution
A recording apparatus with a head frame, annular protrusions, and a support tray system that uses positioning pins to ensure precise and fluid-tight coverage of ink ejection surfaces, allowing for accurate alignment and compact design.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If one cap fluid-tightly covers a plurality of ink ejection surfaces, then the cap structure can be simplified, but the cap becomes oversized making accurate positioning difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The cap is divided into multiple separate caps, each corresponding to one ink ejection surface. This segmentation allows each cap to be precisely positioned on its respective ejection surface without the positioning difficulties of a single oversized cap, while still maintaining simplified individual cap structures.
2Device complexity
If one cap fluid-tightly covers a plurality of ink ejection surfaces, then the cap structure can be simplified, but fluid-tight coverage becomes uncertain due to positioning difficulties
Solution Approach 1:
The cap is divided into multiple separate caps, each corresponding to one ink ejection surface. This segmentation allows each cap to be precisely positioned on its respective ejection surface without the positioning difficulties of a single oversized cap, while still maintaining simplified individual cap structures.
3Reliability
If positioning pins are provided in the inner area of the support tray, then the ejection surface can be fluid-tightly covered with certainty, but the device size may increase
Solution Approach 1:
The positioning pins are nested within the inner area of the support tray, utilizing the existing space efficiently. This allows the positioning function to be integrated without significantly increasing the overall device volume, as the pins are contained within the tray's footprint.
Data Source
AI summary
A recording apparatus includes: a plurality of recording heads each of which includes an ejection surface; a head frame; at least one annular protrusion; a support tray; and a moving device. One or more positioning pins are provided in an inner area of the support tray that is enclosed with the annular protrusion, the positioning pins extending in a direction perpendicular to a flat surface which includes a contact portion of the annular protrusion that is come into contact with the head frame, and the head frame has one or more positioning holes into which the positioning pins are insertable in the contact state of the annular protrusion.