| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To supply ink by a new means instead of by capillary force and thereby enable restarting of the ink supply even when the ink supply is once suspended by detecting the presence of the ink near a ball and controlling a means to supply the ink for recording to the ball in response to a detection result output. SOLUTION: A ball 1 is held in a freely rotating manner and in such a state that the ball 1 is not ejected out, keeping a gap for allowing outflow of the ink between an enclosure 2 and the ball 1. In addition, the ball 1 is rotated in contact with a recording medium to make the ink flow out of an ink reservior 3 for writing. Electrodes 4a, 4b of an ink sensor are provided in the ink reservior 3 and a signal to indicate the emptiness of the ink is output when the resistance value of both electrodes 4a, 4b is increased, while a signal to indicate the filling of the ink is output when the resistance value is decreased. Further, an electricity/heat energy converting element 7 for discharging the ink is provided on a heater board 5 supported on a base plate 24 and a tip tank 8 and a nozzle are constituted on a top plate 6. The element 7 controls the discharge of the ink from an ink tank 10 by a signal from the sensor 4 with the help of a control circuit 14 through a drive circuit 13 on a PCB 12.
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