发明名称 Liquid ejection apparatus having ejection opening to which humid air is supplied
摘要 A liquid ejection apparatus includes: a conveyor mechanism for conveying a recording medium in a conveying direction; a head including an ejection face including an ejection opening region having ejection openings; a capping unit; an air supply opening and an air discharge opening; a humidification unit; and a recording control unit. The recording medium is conveyed so as to avoid areas within first and second avoidance distances respectively from the air discharge opening and the air supply opening in a perpendicular direction perpendicular to the conveying direction. The sum of the first and second avoidance distances is greater than a value obtained by subtracting a length of the ejection opening region from a separation distance between the supply and discharge openings in the perpendicular direction and not greater than a value obtained by subtracting the width of the recording medium in the perpendicular direction from the separation distance.
申请公布号 US8814320(B2) 申请公布日期 2014.08.26
申请号 US201313739845 申请日期 2013.01.11
申请人 Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha 发明人 Ito Takashi
分类号 B41J2/165 主分类号 B41J2/165
代理机构 Baker Botts L.L.P. 代理人 Baker Botts L.L.P.
主权项 1. A liquid ejection apparatus, comprising: a conveyor mechanism configured to convey a recording medium in a conveying direction; a head comprising an ejection face opposed to the recording medium conveyed by the conveyor mechanism, the ejection face comprising an ejection opening region having a plurality of ejection openings through which the head ejects liquid to record an image on the recording medium, the ejection opening region having a length greater than a width of the recording medium in a conveyance perpendicular direction that is a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction; a capping unit configured to selectively establish one of: a sealing state in which an ejection space opposed to the ejection face is isolated from an outside space; and an open state in which the ejection space is open to the outside space; an air supply opening and an air discharge opening communicating with the ejection space in the sealing state and arranged such that the ejection opening region is interposed between the air supply opening and the air discharge opening in the conveyance perpendicular direction when seen in a direction perpendicular to the ejection face; a humidification unit configured to perform a humidifying maintenance in the sealing state by supplying humid air into the ejection space via the air supply opening and by discharging air from the ejection space via the air discharge opening; a recording control unit configured to control the head to perform image recording by ejecting the liquid from at least one of the plurality of ejection openings which is opposed to the recording medium; and a flushing control unit configured to control the head to perform flushing by ejecting the liquid from at least one of the plurality of ejection openings after the sealing state and before the image recording, wherein the conveyor mechanism is configured to convey the recording medium in the image recording such that the recording medium avoids an area within a first avoidance distance from the air discharge opening in the conveyance perpendicular direction and an area within a second avoidance distance from the air supply opening in the conveyance perpendicular direction, wherein a sum of the first avoidance distance and the second avoidance distance is greater than a value obtained by subtracting a length of the ejection opening region in the conveyance perpendicular direction from a separation distance between the air supply opening and the air discharge opening in the conveyance perpendicular direction and equal to or less than a value obtained by subtracting the width of the recording medium in the conveyance perpendicular direction from the separation distance, wherein the plurality of ejection openings are divided into a plurality of ejection-opening groups in a direction directed from the air supply opening toward the air discharge opening, the plurality of ejection-opening groups each being constituted by at least one of the plurality ejection openings, wherein the plurality of ejection-opening groups comprise: a discharge-side ejection-opening group containing at least one of the plurality of ejection openings which is located within the first avoidance distance from the air discharge opening;a supply-side ejection-opening group containing at least one of the plurality of ejection openings which is located within the second avoidance distance from the air supply opening; andan other ejection-opening group that is at least one ejection-opening group different from the discharge-side ejection-opening group and the supply-side ejection-opening group, and wherein the flushing control unit is configured to control the head to perform the flushing such that an amount of the liquid discharged from the each of the discharge-side ejection-opening group and the supply-side ejection-opening group is greater than an amount of the liquid discharged from the other ejection-opening group.
地址 Nagoya-shi, Aichi-ken JP