Patent Application
20170120606
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid storage bottle, a liquid storage bottle package, and a method of manufacturing the liquid storage bottle package.
Description of the Related Art
In a liquid tank that is used in a liquid ejection apparatus such as an inkjet printer, there is a liquid tank having an inlet through which liquid is charged and being capable of refilling the liquid tank with liquid through the inlet from a separately prepared liquid refilling container (liquid storage bottle). In a pressurized state in which an internal pressure of the liquid refilling container is higher than the atmospheric pressure, when a cap of the liquid refilling container is opened, the liquid in the liquid refilling container may be splashed to contaminate a user's hand and a periphery thereof. Therefore, it is desired that the liquid refilling container be in a pressure-reduced state in which an internal pressure is lower than the atmospheric pressure.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-12375, there is disclosed a method of bringing an inside of an ink container into a pressure-reduced state by closing an opening in a state in which the ink container is squeezed, and restoring an original shape of the container with elasticity thereof when the ink container is brought out of the unsqueezed state.
According to one aspect of the present invention, provided is a liquid storage bottle, including: a main body portion configured to store a liquid; a nozzle portion configured to discharge the liquid stored in the main body portion; a cap mounted on the nozzle portion; a space portion formed between the nozzle portion and the cap; and a communicating portion configured to allow the space portion to communicate with outside of the liquid storage bottle, in which the nozzle portion includes a contact portion which comes into contact with the cap in a state in which the cap is mounted on the nozzle portion, and the communicating portion is a groove portion formed by cutting out a part of the contact portion.
Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.
As in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-12375, in a case where the ink container is accommodated in a bag, and the inside of the ink container is brought into the pressure-reduced state, a pressure-reduced space has a small inherent volume, and hence a film forming the bag may have flexure (creep) when the bag is left to stand for a long period of time or placed in a high temperature environment. As a result, the degree of pressure reduction in the bag is easily decreased.
In this regard, in Japanese Patent No. 3289778, there is disclosed a technology of forming recesses in a surface of a cover configured to cover an opening of an ink cartridge main body having ink storing chambers, and using each recess as a pressure-reduced space configured to accumulate negative pressure for deaeration when packing is performed in a pressure-reduced state. Further, in Japanese Patent No. 4321565, there is disclosed that a pressure-reduced space configured to accumulate negative pressure is arranged in an ink tank when the ink tank is packed in a pressure-reduced state. Each of the pressure-reduced spaces allows the degree of deaeration of ink to be maintained for a long period of time by increasing the volume of the pressure-reduced space in a package. In a case where the ink container disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2014-12375 is to be provided with such a pressure-reduced space, there can be conceived to reduce the pressure of a space in a lead-out flow path 89. However, after a film 83 is opened, a container 73 is brought into close contact with a cap 75 so that this space serves as a sealed space to prevent leakage of ink. Therefore, there is a difficulty in deaerating the lead-out flow path 89 for use as a pressure-reduced space.
In view of the above, the present invention is directed to providing a liquid storage bottle capable of suppressing a decrease in degree of internal pressure reduction with a simple configuration, a liquid storage bottle package, and a method of manufacturing the package.
Now, an embodiment of the present invention is described with reference to the attached drawings. Components that have the same functions are denoted by the same reference symbols throughout the drawings, and repetitive description thereof may be omitted.
The conveying roller 13 is driven to intermittently rotate to intermittently convey the recording medium. The carriage 15 reciprocates in a direction orthogonal to a conveying direction of the recording medium conveyed by the conveying roller 13 in accordance with rotary drive of the carriage motor 16. During this reciprocating scanning, liquid is ejected from an ejection port formed in the recording head 14 on the carriage 15 onto the recording medium to record an image or the like on the recording medium.
The liquid is stored in the liquid tanks 12, supplied to the recording head 14 through a liquid flow path 17, and ejected from the recording head 14. In this embodiment, ink of four colors (for example, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) is used as the liquid, and liquid tanks 12a to 12d for the respective four colors, which store the ink of the respective colors are arranged as the liquid tanks 12. The liquid tanks 12a to 12d for the respective colors are arranged on a front surface portion of the liquid ejection apparatus 1 inside the housing 11.
A spout 26 which is an opening configured to refill the liquid tank 12 with liquid is formed on top of the liquid tank 12. The spout 26 is formed to be inclined upward in a vertical direction on a front surface side. However, the spout 26 may be formed on top of the liquid tank 12 rather than on an inclined surface. A tank cap 27 configured to seal the storing chamber 21 in the liquid tank 12 can be mounted on the spout 26. In the example of
With the above-mentioned configuration, the outside air can be introduced into the storing chamber 21 through the open air port 28 in a case where liquid in the storing chamber 21 is consumed in a state in which the storing chamber 21 is sealed with the tank cap 27. Further, even when air in a space above a liquid level in the storing chamber 21 is expanded by atmospheric pressure changes and temperature changes, liquid can be stored in the buffer chamber 22, and hence leakage of the liquid from the open air port 28 can be prevented.
The cap screw portion 103a is screwed onto the upper screw portion 102d to mount the cap 103 on the nozzle portion 102. The lower screw portion 102c is screwed onto the bottle screw portion 101a to connect the nozzle portion 102 to the bottle portion 101.
Now, a configuration of the nozzle portion 102 and the cap 103 is described more in detail.
As illustrated in
In a case where the cap 103 is fitted onto the nozzle portion 102 while allowing the cap screw portion 103a to be screwed onto the upper screw portion 102d, the contact portion 113 comes into contact with the cap 103 to complete fitting of the cap 103 onto the nozzle portion 102. It is preferred that the liquid storage bottle 100 be designed so that, during the fitting, the contact portion 113 is brought into contact with the cap 103 after the above-mentioned sealing portion 111 is brought into contact with the cap 103. In this case, flexure of the sealing portion 111 can be prevented. A part of the contact portion 113 has counterbore portions 114, which are groove portions formed by cutting out a part of the contact portion 113.
At the portion where the counterbore portion 114 is not formed as illustrated in
In this embodiment, the contact portion 113 is provided at the upper end portion of the upper screw portion 102d along the periphery of the nozzle portion 102, and two counterbore portions 114 are provided at two positions opposed to each other in the contact portion 113. Each of the counterbore portions 114 has a depth 114a of from 0.3 mm to 0.7 mm, a width 114b of from 3.2 mm to 3.8 mm, and an effective length 114c of from 0.6 mm to 1.0 mm. Further, the reduced-pressure holding space 112 has a volume of about 2.6 mL, and the liquid storage bottle 100 has an air volume of about 23 mL. Therefore, a ratio of the volume of the reduced-pressure holding space 112 to the air volume in the liquid storage bottle 100 is about 1:9.
In the liquid storage bottle package 300, the liquid storage bottle 100 is accommodated in a state in which an internal air pressure of the pillow bag 200 is reduced to a level lower than atmospheric pressure. The internal pressure of the liquid storage bottle 100 is also in a reduced state as described above, and hence the inside of the liquid storage bottle 100 and the inside of the pillow bag 200 are both in a reduced low pressure state. It is preferred that the inside of the liquid storage bottle 100 have a pressure value larger than a pressure value of the inside of the pillow bag 200.
A method of manufacturing the liquid storage bottle package 300 is described. In order to manufacture the liquid storage bottle package 300, the liquid storage bottle 100 is first prepared, and then the liquid storage bottle 100 is packed in the pillow bag 200 in a pressure-reduced state as illustrated in
Therefore, the air volume of air occupying inside the pillow bag 200 can be increased by the volume of the reduced-pressure holding space 112. It is preferred that a ratio of the volume of the reduced-pressure holding space 112 to an air volume in the pillow bag 200 be in a range of from 1:1.6 to 1:3.2. The air volume in the pillow bag 200 as used herein is an air volume inside the pillow bag 200 excluding the volume of the reduced-pressure holding space 112 in a state after packing in a pressure-reduced state.
According to the above-mentioned embodiment, the reduced-pressure holding space 112 between the nozzle portion 102 through which liquid stored in the bottle portion 101 is discharged and the cap 103 mounted on the nozzle portion 102 communicates with the outside of the liquid storage bottle 100. Therefore, the air volume in the pillow bag 200 can be increased without using a complicated structure, such as forming an unfilled chamber in the bottle portion 101. Therefore, a decrease in degree of internal pressure reduction can be suppressed with a simple configuration. In this embodiment, an increase in the number of components can also be suppressed. Further, the reduced-pressure holding space 112 is covered with rigid members such as the nozzle portion 102 and the cap 103, and hence changes in the volume of the reduced-pressure holding space 112 can be suppressed even when the pillow bag 200 has flexure. Therefore, a decrease in the air volume due to the flexure of the pillow bag 200 can be suppressed, and hence a decrease in the degree of pressure reduction in the pillow bag 200 can be suppressed for a long period of time.
As an example, the liquid storage bottle package 300 in this embodiment and a comparative package in which a liquid storage bottle having no reduced-pressure holding space 112 was packed in the pillow bag 200 were evaluated for a decrease in the degree of pressure reduction in the pillow bag 200.
Specifically, the liquid storage bottle package 300 and the comparative package were stored for a long period of time with the internal pressure (gauge pressure) of the pillow bag 200 set to −84 kPa and the air volume in the pillow bag 200 set to 5.9 mL. Then, the internal pressure of the pillow bag 200 was measured for a case where the air volume in the pillow bag 200 was reduced to 4.0 mL due to flexure of the pillow bag 200 over time in each of the liquid storage bottle package 300 and the comparative package. At that time, the internal pressure of the pillow bag 200 in the comparative package was increased up to −76 kPa, whereas the internal pressure of the pillow bag 200 in the liquid storage bottle package 300 was increased only up to −80 kPa. Therefore, it was confirmed that a decrease in the degree of pressure reduction in the pillow bag 200 can be suppressed in the liquid storage bottle package 300.
In the embodiment described above, the illustrated configuration is merely an example, and the present invention is not limited to the configuration. For example, the liquid ejection apparatus 1 is not limited to a serial type inkjet printer but can be appropriately changed. Further, the liquid storage bottle configured to refill the liquid tank of the liquid ejection apparatus 1, which is an inkjet printer, with liquid is used to describe the liquid storage bottle according to the present invention. It is preferred that the liquid storage bottle according to the present invention be for use in such an inkjet printer, but the use is not limited as long as at least liquid can be stored therein.
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 such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.
This application claims the benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2015-214403, filed Oct. 30, 2015, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-214403 | Oct 2015 | JP | national |
