Ink delivery system and ink delivery method of liquid -type electrophotographic printer

摘要

An ink delivery system and an ink delivery method are disclosed. The ink delivery method includes the steps of: detecting an ink concentration of each circulation tank by corresponding one of predetermined concentration sensors; adjusting the ink concentration of the circulation tank by supplying concentrated ink from an ink cartridge to the circulation tank when the ink concentration of any one of the circulation tanks is lower than a predetermined range; generating a message informing that the concentrated ink in the corresponding ink cartridge is consumed when the concentration is not within the predetermined range even after a preset number of the ink concentration adjusting steps are repeated; determining whether or not the solvent in a solvent cartridge is consumed with a level sensor when the ink concentration of any one of the circulation tanks is higher than a predetermined range; adjusting the concentration by supplying the solvent to the corresponding circulation tank when the solvent remains in the solvent cartridge; and generating a message informing that the solvent in the solvent cartridge is consumed when the solvent in the solvent cartridge is consumed. With the ink delivery method, since whether or not the liquid in the ink cartridges and the solvent cartridge can be determined by whether or not the concentration of the ink in each circulation tank varies with the liquid supply operations, and, accordingly, level sensors and ink tanks can be omitted, the structure of a printer can be simple, and the ink delivery system can be more stabilized by reducing the number of level sensors having a relatively high possibility of malfunction.