The present disclosure relates to a cartridge to be detachably mounted on an inkjet printing apparatus which contains a liquid such as ink.
A type of cartridge for printing has been known in which a printing unit that ejects a printing agent and a liquid chamber containing the printing agent by letting an absorber absorb it are combined together. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H10-95128 (hereinafter, referred to as Literature 1) discloses an example of a cartridge which has an ink absorber inside a main body member and supplies an ink held in the ink absorber to a printing element substrate through a filter and an ink channel. In Literature 1, a lid member is welded to an opening of the main body member to define an internal space. This type of cartridge is replaced with a new cartridge in a case where the originally contained ink runs out.
However, a configuration such as the one in Literature 1 has a possibility that detaching the lid member from the opening of the main body member forms asperities on the lid member or at the opening of the main body member, making it impossible to weld the lid member again, which makes the configuration not suitable for recycling.
A cartridge of the present disclosure is a cartridge including: an absorber that holds a liquid; a tank including an opening and an absorber chamber which accommodates the absorber; a lid member joined to the opening of the tank; and a partition member disposed between the absorber and the lid member located inside the absorber chamber, and including a protruding portion. The protruding portion of the partition member abuts on the absorber, and the lid member and the partition member are separate members.
Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.
The reason for a difficulty in a manufacturing process will now be described using
The lid member and the tank are both made of plastic, and are welded to each other by pressing the welding rib provided to the lid into abutment with the tank's welding surface, and vibrating the lid in this state at a high frequency, thereby fusing the abutting portions to each other with frictional heat or the like. To ensure that the entire circumference of the tank is tightly closed with the lid, it is necessary to sufficiently melt the welding rib to give a sufficient fusing margin.
In a case where the used cartridge is left in a state of having run out of the ink for a long time, the residual ink remaining in a very small amount inside the absorber solidifies and causes clogging. This leads to a possibility of leakage of the ink introduced into the tank again.
Considering such a circumstance, the cartridge recycling requires taking out the absorber and cleaning it or replacing it with a new one. To replace the absorber, it is necessary to detach the welded lid member, but reusing the detached lid member can be difficult in some cases.
The welding rib of this detached lid member has partly lost its height. Thus, in a case of re-welding the detached lid member to the tank, it may not be possible to melt the welding rib in a sufficient volume, which may cause leakage. To handle this problem, one may consider forming a welding rib that is originally tall in anticipation of the fact that welding will be performed several times to reuse the lid member. In this approach, the height of the cartridge itself changes according to the number of times the lid member is to be reused. Thus, there is a possibility of another problem that an attachment failure of the cartridge to the printing apparatus may occur.
Considering the above points, it would be difficult to reuse the lid member disclosed in Literature 1, and the detached lid member will be discarded. This, however, is hardly environmentally friendly in terms of reducing waste plastic. In addition, the recycling rate representing the ratio between the weight of the parts of the collected cartridge excluding the ink and the weight of the parts reused in the recycled cartridge is also low. Thus, there is a possibility that the recycled cartridge is not accepted as “recycled” in the market.
Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to drawings.
The cartridge 100 includes a print head 110 that ejects the ink, a tank 120 that contains the ink, an absorber 130 that absorbs and holds the ink, and a partition member 140 that presses the absorber 130. The cartridge 100 also includes a lid member 150 joined to the tank 120, and filters 160 that remove foreign substances inside the tank 120. The print head 110 is configured to eject the ink based on ejection data, and disposed at the bottom surface of the tank 120 on the lower side in the vertical direction. The absorber 130 is made of a fibrous material, a porous material, or the like, and is capable of holding the ink inside with capillary forces acting thereon. The absorber 130 is accommodated in an absorber chamber 121 of the tank 120 in abutment with the filters 160, which are for removing foreign substances. The ink inside the tank 120 and the absorber 130 fluidly communicates with the print head 110 through the filters 160 and ink channels 122. With such a configuration, the ink inside the absorber 130 can be supplied to the print head 110, thus making it possible to perform printing. The lid member 150 is disposed so as to close the opening of the tank 120, and defines the absorber chamber 121 with the tank 120. The lid member 150 has an atmosphere communication port 151, and allows air to be taken in therethrough from the outside as the ink inside the tank 120 is consumed by printing. The partition member 140 is disposed between the absorber 130 and the lid member 150, and holds the absorber 130 so as to fix it while pressing it. In the present disclosure, a cartridge in which a print head, a tank, and the like are integrated with one another is used, but the cartridge is not limited to this type. The print head, the tank, and the like do not have to be integrated with one another. Details of the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 will be described later.
Next, the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 of the cartridge according to the present embodiment will be described using
The atmosphere communication port 151 is provided on the outer side of the lid member 150 substantially at the center of the lid member 150, and a circular recess 152 (see
On the surface of the lid member 150 facing the partition member 140, there is formed a welding rib 156 protruding along the outer shape of the lid member 150. The lid member 150 is welded to the tank 120 by melting the welding rib 156 of the lid member 150. Specifically, by pressing the welding rib 156 of the lid member 150 and a welding surface 123 (see
As illustrated in
The first lid member wall rib 157a (see
As illustrated in
The partition member 140 has an elongated shape. For example, the partition member measures 15.2 mm in the transverse direction and 64 mm in the longitudinal direction. The aspect ratio of the partition member 140 in this case (the ratio of the width to the length in this case) is 1:4. Although the partition member 140 has an elongated shape, the lattice pattern of the absorber holding ribs 145 provides a strong structure that is resistant to deformation. The shape of the partition member 140, which is strong, makes it possible to downsize most of the members of the cartridge 100.
In a case where the cartridge 100 receives impacts, such as vibrations, and/or an environmental change, such as a temperature change or an atmospheric pressure change, occurs, there is a possibility of leakage of the ink inside the cartridge 100 from the atmosphere communication port. In particular, when collected after use, the cartridge 100 may receive more intense impacts and greater environmental changes than during its general transport. Accordingly, there is a possibility of leakage of the ink remaining inside from the atmosphere communication port 151. To prevent this leakage, the blocking walls are provided, which are formed by bringing the first lid member wall rib 157a and the first partition member wall rib 141a into abutment with each other and the second lid member wall rib 157b and the second partition member wall rib 141b into abutment with each other.
Also, in the present embodiment, positioning pins 158 are formed on the lid member 150 (see
Moreover, considering the handling in the production, it is preferable that the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 be combined together. However, the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 will be separated from each other in a case of recycling the cartridge, which will be described later. Thus, it is desirable that the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 be combined together only to such an extent that they are separable. For this reason, in the present embodiment, the lid member 150 includes a riveting pin 159 (see
An example of the heat riveting of the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 has been briefly described above. The configuration in the present embodiment in which the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 are fitted to each other by heat riveting will now be described in detail with reference to
The partition member 140 is combined to the lid member 150. The pair of positioning pins 158 and the riveting pin 159 are formed on the lid member 150. In the partition member 140, there are formed the positioning ports 143, which correspond to the pair of positioning pins 158, the riveting opening 144, into which the riveting pin 159 can be inserted, and a catch portion 144A. The riveting pin 159 of the lid member 150 is inserted into the riveting opening 144 and then the tip of the riveting pin 159 is riveted by heating to form the riveted portion 180. In this way, the riveted portion 180 gets caught on the catch portion 144A of the partition member 140, thus fixing the partition member 140. With the above configuration, the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 are fixed in the horizontal direction on the sheet of
The present disclosure is intended to make an absorber in a used cartridge clean and free from clogging. While a comparative example proposes an absorber cleaning method in which an absorber is cleaned without a lid detached, the present embodiment does not employ this method. The reasons for this will now be described.
The comparative example of the method of cleaning a used absorber includes the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-238283, for instance. In this cleaning method, a cleaning liquid is introduced into a porous body (hereinafter “absorber”) from hollow needles and discharged from ink supply ports (head) to clean the absorber. This cleaning method has the advantage of implementing recycling at a low cost in a very simple manner. With this cleaning method, however, it is sometimes difficult to thoroughly clean the residual ink in the absorber. As mentioned earlier, an ink remaining in an absorber may solidify. In this case, it will be necessary to redissolve the solidified ink with the cleaning liquid and discharge it. Redissolving the solidified ink requires introducing the cleaning liquid into the absorber and leaving it in the absorber for a long time to gradually dissolve the solidified ink. Without the ink sufficiently dissolved, the absorber will not be clean even if the cleaning liquid is introduced and discharged multiple times. In a case of choosing to leave the cleaning liquid in the absorber for a long time, the cleaning will require a considerable amount of time, which will lead to another problem of being unable to implement mass production. Moreover, this cleaning method also has a possibility that the cleaning liquid and the residual ink having permeated in the absorber cannot be fully discharged and remain in the absorber. The cleaning liquid having permeated in the absorber is supposed to be sucked out from the ink supply ports to be discharged. However, in a case where an air passage is formed during this suction, it will mostly the air inside the cartridge that will be sucked out, and the cleaning liquid and the residual ink to be discharged will remain inside. In a case where a new ink is introduced with the cleaning liquid and the residual ink still remaining inside, the tonality of the ink changes. This leads to a possibility of failing to form desired images.
Due to the above, reliably making an absorber clean requires detaching the lid member and taking out and cleaning the absorber or replacing it with a new one. For this reason, the present embodiment employs the recycling method of the present disclosure.
A cartridge recycling method in the present embodiment according to the present disclosure will now be described using
The cartridge recycling process firstly starts from a step S801 of preparing a used cartridge 100. Then, the process moves to a lid member detachment step S802 of detaching the lid member 150 after checking the exterior of the cartridge, cleaning the exterior, etc. In this step, the lid member 150 is moved relative to the tank 120 to detach the lid member 150. Then, the process proceeds to a step S803 of separating the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 from each other. In the separation step S803, the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 are separated since the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 have been combined together by riveting. As mentioned earlier, the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 are fixed to each other by this riveting to such an extent as to be easily separable from each other. The partition member 140 can therefore be detached from the lid member 150. The separated lid member 150 is discarded whereas the partition member 140 is reused. Then, in an absorber removal step S804, the absorber 130 having run out of the ink is taken out of the tank 120. Thereafter, a tank cleaning step S805 is performed. In the tank cleaning step S805, the inside of the tank 120 is cleaned. The process then proceeds to an absorber insertion step S806. In the absorber insertion step S806, the absorber 130 taken out in the absorber removal step S804 and cleaned thereafter (S806A) may be inserted into the tank 120. Alternatively, a new absorber may be inserted into the tank in the absorber insertion step S806. In the absorber cleaning step S806A, the absorber 130 is cleaned not only by introducing a cleaning liquid and discharging it by suction in one direction but also immersing the whole absorber 130 in the cleaning liquid to cause the cleaning liquid to thoroughly permeate the absorber 130. The absorber 130 can also be pressed to be deformed in the cleaning liquid to be cleaned. In this way, the residual ink can be thoroughly removed. After the absorber insertion step S806 is an ink introduction step S807, in which the ink soaked into the absorber 130 through introduction needles or the like to be introduced into the tank 120. Then, there is a lid member welding step S808, which is preceded by a step S808A of thermally riveting the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 in order to improve the handleability, as mentioned earlier. In the riveting step S808A, the heat riveting is performed using a new lid member 150 and the partition member 140 separated in the separation step S803. In the heat riveting in this step too, the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 are riveted to such an extent that the lid member 150 can be easily detached with hands in consideration of the future recycling. The lid member 150 and the partition member 140 combined together are placed on the absorber, and the lid member welding step S808 is performed. Since the lid member 150 is new, the welding can be done to tightly close the cartridge. The following step is S809 in which a printing test, packaging, and so on are performed to complete a recycled cartridge.
In the black ink cartridge in the present embodiment described above, the weight of the lid member 150 is approximately 13% of the weight of the whole cartridge with no ink, and the weight of the partition member 140 is approximately 11%. In the case of discarding the lid member 150 and reusing the partition member 140, the recycling rate is approximately 87%. In the case of the lid of the type in the comparative example in which the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 are combined together, the weight of the lid is approximately 19%, and the recycling rate will be 81% if the lid is discarded. Since the lid member 150 is a substantially flat plate-shaped part, the weight of the part that has to be discarded can be reduced as much as possible. This improves the recycling rate as compared to the lid in the comparative example.
As illustrated in
A second embodiment of the present disclosure will now be described. The basic configurations in the present disclosure and functions and components similar to those in the first embodiment will not be described, and the differences will be described.
The cartridge 200 includes: a print head 110 that ejects the inks; a tank 220 that contains the inks; three absorbers 230A, 230B, and 230C that absorb and hold the respective inks; and partition members 240A, 240B, and 240C that press the respective absorbers 230. The cartridge 200 also includes a lid member 250 joined to the tank 220, and filters 260 that remove foreign substances inside the tank 220. The absorbers 230A, 230B, and 230C are accommodated in absorber chambers 221A, 221B, and 221C of the tank 220 in abutment with the filters 260, which are for removing foreign substances. The inks inside the tank 220 and the absorbers 230A, 230B, and 230C fluidly communicates with the print head 110 through the filters 260 and ink channels 122. With such a configuration, the inks inside the absorbers 230A, 230B, and 230C can be supplied to the print head 110. The lid member 250 is disposed so as to close the opening of the tank 220, and defines the absorber chambers 221A, 221B, and 221C with the tank 220. The lid member 250 has atmosphere communication ports 251A, 251B, and 251C through which the respective absorber chambers communicate with the atmosphere, and allows air to be taken in therethrough from the outside as the inks inside the tank 220 are consumed by printing. The partition members 240A, 240B, and 240C are disposed between the respective absorbers 230A, 230B, and 230C and the lid member 250, and fix and hold the respective absorbers 230A, 230B, and 230C. The present embodiment too can achieve similar advantages to those of the first embodiment by using similar components to those in the first embodiment. In particular, in a case of reusing the lid member 250, it is necessary to tightly close all of the three chambers. Accordingly, the yield of welding is expected to be lower than that with a single-color cartridge. Considering such a point, the present embodiment can provide a more effective recycling method than the recycling method in the first embodiment. The partition members in the present embodiment are three partition members are provided for respective inks but are not limited to this configuration. A single partition member may be provided, or two or four or more partition members may be provided. Also, the tank in the present embodiment is configured such that three absorber chambers are formed in the tank and three absorbers are accommodated respectively in the three absorber chambers. However, the tank is not limited to this configuration. Multiple absorber chambers may be formed, and multiple absorbers may be accommodated in each absorber chamber.
Next, a third embodiment of the present disclosure will be described. The basic configurations in the present disclosure and functions and components similar to those in the first embodiment will not be described, and the differences will be described.
The method of fixing the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 is not limited to heat riveting of the tip of the riveting pin 159 as described in the present disclosure. As another method, the tip of the riveting pin 159 or another portion of the lid member may be formed in a different shape that allows the lid member and the partition member to be mechanically fitted to each other, and the lid member and the partition member are not joined to each other.
As illustrated in
In a case of using vibration welding as the welding method as in the comparative example described above, the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 are fixed in the vertical direction of the vibration welding. This makes it possible to avoid friction between the lid member wall ribs of the lid member 150 and the partition member wall ribs of the partition member 140 due to abutment between these ribs. Instead of performing heat riveting, one may consider placing the partition member 140 in the tank 120 before the vibration welding of the tank 120 and the lid member 150, positioning and placing the lid member 150 over the partition member 140, and then performing the vibration welding as another method of fixing the lid member 150 and the partition member 140. In this method, the tank 120 and the partition member 140 need to be positioned relative to each other, and a sufficient gap cannot be provided between the tank 120 and the partition member 140. Thus, in the vibration welding, the tank 120 and the partition member 140 may bump against each other. As a result, the ink cartridge may become unusable due to damaging of the tank 120 and the partition member 140 or the like, or the durability of the tank 120 may drop. Moreover, since the ink cartridge is recycled, vibration welding is performed each time the recycling process is performed. Accordingly, damage accumulates in the tank 120 and the partition member 140.
For this reason, by combining the lid member 150 and the partition member 140 together in advance as in the present disclosure, a sufficient gap is provided between the tank 120 and the partition member 140. This prevents the damaging of the tank 120 and the partition member 140 due to the vibration welding.
The structures of the lid members and the partition members in the embodiments of the present disclosure are applicable to tanks of any shapes. For example, in the present disclosure, the tank 220 is applicable to cartridges with configurations having multiple absorber chambers, as illustrated in
While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all equivalent structures and functions.
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Applications No. 2023-066411, filed Apr. 14, 2023, and No. 2024-031334, filed Mar. 1, 2024, which are hereby incorporated by reference wherein in their entirety.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2023-066411 | Apr 2023 | JP | national |
2024-031334 | Mar 2024 | JP | national |