In a suction recovery method in a liquid jet recording apparatus in which the discharge port surface of a recording head is capped by a cap in response to the movement of a carriage carrying the recording head thereon and which is provided with an atmosphere release valve for introducing the atmosphere into the cap after or during the suction of ink from the discharge ports, provision is made of one or more rails disposed on the back of the cap in parallel to the direction of movement of the carriage, and driving means for providing a time difference between the timing of the capping drive of the cap and the valve closing timing of the atmosphere release valve in response to the movement of the carriage to the suction recovery position.
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/920,672 filed Jul. 28, 1992, now abandoned, which in turn is a division of application Ser. No. 07/845,796, filed Mar. 9, 1992, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,153,613, which is a continuation of U.S. patent Appln. Ser. No. 07/574,064, filed Aug. 29, 1990, now abandoned.
Priority Data
Aug 31, 1989 [JP] 1-226322 Aug 31, 1989 [JP] 1-226323 Dec 08, 1989 [JP] 1-319717
An ink jet printer of the present invention includes a recovering device for repeating, at the time of recovery from defective ink ejection, the suction of ink a plurality of times while varying a suction pressure acting on the ink. This successfully reduces the amount of bubbles and reduces the number of times of suction to thereby obviate the wasteful consumption of ink at the time of recovery. A printing method practicable with the ink jet printer and a storage medium storing the printing method are also disclosed.
Structure according to the invention simultaneously controls operation of a sled assembly for servicing of an inkjet print cartridge and a mechanism for controlling advancement of a print medium into a printing path. The structure according to the invention can be used with either a facsimile machine that uses thermal inkjet printing, or with a thermal inkjet printer. In one embodiment, the structure includes a sled assembly which further includes at least one wiper and at least one cap, a paper pick pressure plate, and a mechanism for simultaneously controlling movement of the sled assembly and the pressure plate. The paper pick pressure plate is controlled to selectively contact a paper pick roller such that the print medium is advanced through the printing path when the pressure plate contacts the pick roller and the print medium is not advanced through the printing path when the pressure plate does not contact the pick roller. In a further embodiment, the mechanism for simultaneously controlling further comprises a dual cam mechanism. A cam ring of the dual cam mechanism interacts with a cam follower to move the sled assembly and a cam of the dual cam mechanism contacts the pressure plate to move the pressure plate directly.
There are provided a purge cap 46 used both for a recovery and a protecting operations and protecting caps 21A-D used only for a protecting operation, in which the number of the protecting caps 21A-C is kept in three, less by one than the number of the ink jet heads. When the carriage is in the recovery area, the purge cap 46 alone is advanced to cover one of the ink jet heads, performing a recovery operation. When the carriage is in a protecting position, the purge cap 46 and the protecting caps 21A-C are obliquely advanced together, thereby covering all of the ink jet heads.
An ink jet recording apparatus includes a cap to cover the discharge ports for discharging ink. This cap includes an atmospheric conduction passage for conductively connecting the interior of the cap with the air outside, and an ink exhausting device for exhausting ink deposited in the interior of the cap to the outside preferably by utilizing the ink's own weight. With this cap structure, ink is exhausted outside the cap, thus reliably coping with ink leakage that might otherwise take place when ink tanks are replaced or the main body is vibrated. At the same time, it is made possible to maintain the atmospheric conduction passage in good condition at all times.
An ink jet device including a head having a nozzle surface formed with a nozzle through which ink droplets are ejected; a carriage on which the head is mounted; a cap for covering the nozzles of the head; a suction pump for generating pressure within the cap; a sheet feed mechanism for transporting a recording medium; a line feed motor for supplying a drive force; a switching mechanism for switching transmission of the drive force of the line feed motor from the sheet feed mechanism to the suction pump when the carriage enters a predetermined movement range and from the suction pump to the sheet feed mechanism when the carriage leaves the predetermined movement range; and cap movement mechanism moving the cap against the nozzle surface of the head while the carriage is at a position within the predetermined movement range and further moving the cap out of abutment with the nozzle surface of the head while the carriage is at another position within the predetermined movement range.
