Claims
- 1. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising:
- a recording head mounted on a carriage such that said recording head is moved along a recording sheet in a horizontal direction thereof to jet ink droplets to form dots on said recording sheet;
- an ink tank for supplying ink through an ink supplying path to said recording head;
- a cap member arranged outside a printing region such that said cap member is moved to and from a nozzle opening of said recording head;
- a suction pump having an ink sucking inlet connected to said cap member and an ink discharging outlet connected to a waste ink tank;
- externally operated instructing means to start said suction pump;
- quantity-of-waste-ink controlling means for controlling a total number of operations of said instructing means; and
- means for disabling said instructing means when the number of operations of said instructing means exceeds a predetermined value regardless of an amount of ink in said waste ink tank.
- 2. An ink jet recording apparatus as claimed in claim 1, in which said instructing means comprises:
- first switch means for providing an instruction signal to suck a predetermined quantity of ink which is required for regaining a proper printing condition during a printing operation; and
- second switch means for providing an instruction signal to suck a predetermined quantity of ink which is appropriate for situations when the recording head is to be replaced.
- 3. An ink jet recording apparatus as claimed in claim 1, in which said instructing means comprises:
- first switch means for providing instruction signals to suck a first quantity of ink and a second quantity of ink which are required for restoring a proper printing condition during a printing operation; and
- second switch means for providing, when said recording head is replaced, an instruction signal to suck enough ink from said recording head so that a maintenance solution previously charged in said recording head is ejected from said head.
- 4. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising:
- a recording head mounted on a carriage such that said recording head is moved along a recording sheet in a horizontal direction thereof to jet ink droplets to form dots on said recording sheet;
- an ink tank for supplying ink through an ink supplying path to said recording head;
- a cap member arranged outside a printing region such that said cap member is moved to and from a nozzle opening of said recording head;
- a suction pump having an ink sucking inlet connected to said cap member and an ink discharging outlet connected to a waste ink tank;
- externally operated instructing means for starting said suction pump;
- storage means for storing a numerical value which is incremented every ink purging operation by an amount corresponding to a quantity of ink to be purged in an ink purging operation; and
- means responsive to said stored numerical value for outputting at least one of (i) a disabling signal to make an ink purging instruction invalid and (ii) an alarm signal, when said stored numerical value reaches a predetermined value independent of the amount of ink in said waste ink tank.
- 5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the quantity of the ink to be purged is varied.
- 6. An ink jet recording apparatus comprising:
- a recording head mounted on a carriage such that said recording head is moved along a recording sheet in a horizontal direction thereof to jet ink droplets to form dots on said recording sheet;
- an ink tank for supplying ink through an ink supplying path to said recording head;
- a cap member arranged outside a printing region such that said cap member is moved to and from a nozzle opening of said recording head;
- a suction pump having an ink sucking inlet connecting to said cap member and an ink discharging outlet connected to a waste ink tank;
- externally operated instructing means to start said suction pump;
- quantity-of-waste-ink controlling means for monitoring a number of operations of said instructing means; and
- means for outputting an alarm signal when the number of operations of said instructing means exceeds a predetermined value regardless of an amount of ink in said waste ink tank.
Priority Claims (7)
Number |
Date |
Country |
Kind |
2-273631 |
Oct 1990 |
JPX |
|
2-273632 |
Oct 1990 |
JPX |
|
2-273633 |
Oct 1990 |
JPX |
|
2-279794 |
Oct 1990 |
JPX |
|
2-293436 |
Oct 1990 |
JPX |
|
2-296003 |
Nov 1990 |
JPX |
|
3-194817 |
Jul 1991 |
JPX |
|
Parent Case Info
This is a continuation of application No. 07/774,861 filed Oct. 11, 1991.
US Referenced Citations (4)
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
774861 |
Oct 1991 |
|