The present disclosure relates to a liquid storage bottle which stores a liquid therein.
In a liquid tank used in a liquid ejection apparatus such as an ink jet recording apparatus, a liquid can be replenished from a separately prepared liquid storage bottle through an inlet for injecting the liquid. In the liquid storage bottle for replenishing the liquid, in order to prevent hands or surroundings of a user from becoming dirty, in most cases, a slit valve which is opened and closed depending on an internal pressure of the bottle is provided in the inlet for injecting the liquid separately from a sealable cap. Moreover, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2018-95277 discloses a method of maintaining a state where a slit valve is opened even when an inlet is sealed by a cap, in order to prevent the slit valve from not being opened due to solidification of a liquid when not used, such as during long-term storage. In this method, when the cap is mounted on a nozzle, a protrusion provided on a bottom surface of the cap is inserted into a slit of the slit valve, and thus, it is possible to maintain the state where the slit valve is open.
However, in the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2018-95277, at a time when sealing of the inlet is released by the cap when the cap is opened, the protrusion is not inserted into the slit and the slit valve is closed. Accordingly, an inside of the bottle is sealed. Therefore, if an internal pressure of the liquid storage bottle is higher than an outside air pressure, even when a bottle main body is simply tilted to inject the liquid, a head pressure of the liquid inside the bottle acts on the slit valve and exceeds a pressure required to open the slit, and thus, the liquid may leak out.
According to the present disclosure, there is provided a liquid storage bottle including: a bottle main body; a nozzle which has an inlet through which a liquid stored in the bottle main body is injected; a cylindrical cap which is mountable on the nozzle to open or close the inlet; a slit valve which is provided in the inlet and includes a plurality of slits intersecting each other; and a sealing unit which seals the inlet when the cap is mounted on the nozzle, in which the cap includes a protrusion which protrudes from a surface facing the inlet toward the slit valve when the cap is mounted on the nozzle. According to an aspect, a tip portion of the protrusion faces the slit valve at a position separated in a radial direction of the nozzle from an intersection of the plurality of slits in a state where the inlet is sealed by the sealing unit, and according to another aspect, the protrusion is inserted into the slit to open the slit during a period from a state where the inlet is sealed by the sealing unit to a state where sealing of the inlet is released by the sealing unit.
Further features and aspects of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description of example embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.
The present disclosure is directed to providing a liquid storage bottle capable of suppressing liquid leakage even when a bottle main body is tilted in order to inject a liquid.
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. In the present specification, a case where a liquid ejection apparatus (ink jet recording apparatus) is replenished with a liquid (ink) will be described as an example of use of a liquid storage bottle of the present disclosure. However, the use of the liquid storage bottle is not limited to this. Moreover, in the following descriptions, configurations having the same functions are denoted by the same reference numerals in the drawings, and descriptions thereof may be omitted.
A liquid ejection apparatus 1 is a serial type ink jet recording apparatus, and has a housing 11 and large-capacity liquid tanks 12 which are disposed inside the housing 11. The liquid tank 12 stores ink which is a liquid ejected to a recording medium (not illustrated).
The liquid ejection apparatus 1 includes a conveying roller 13 which conveys the recording medium (not illustrated), a carriage 15 in which a recording head 14 for ejecting a liquid is provided, and a carriage motor 16 which drives the carriage 15. For example, the recording medium is paper. However, the recording medium is not particularly limited as long as an image is formed by the liquid ejected from the recording head 14. The conveying roller 13 is intermittently driven rotationally, and thus, the recording medium is intermittently conveyed. As the carriage motor 16 is rotationally driven, the carriage 15 reciprocates in a direction intersecting a conveying direction of the recording medium, and the liquid is ejected to the recording medium from an ejection orifice provided in the recording head 14 during reciprocating scanning of the carriage 15. Accordingly, the image is recorded on the recording medium.
The liquid is stored in the liquid tank 12 and is supplied to the recording head 14 through a liquid flow path 17. As the liquid, ink of four colors (for example, cyan, magenta, yellow and black) is used, and as the liquid tank 12, four liquid tanks 12a to 12d each storing the ink of each color are provided. Each of the four liquid tanks 12a to 12d is disposed in a front surface portion of the liquid ejection apparatus 1 inside the housing 11.
The liquid tank 12 includes a tank main body 121 which stores the liquid, an inlet 122 which communicates with a liquid storage chamber in the tank main body 121, and a tank cover 123 which is mountable on the tank main body 121 so as to cover the inlet 122. The tank cover 123 is removed from the tank main body 121, and thus, the liquid tank 12 is replenished with the liquid through the exposed inlet 122. After the liquid is replenished, the tank cover 123 is mounted on the tank main body 121 in order to suppress evaporation of the ink from the liquid storage chamber in the tank main body 121, and thus, the liquid storage chamber in the tank main body 121 is sealed.
The liquid storage bottle 2 is a cylindrical container for replenishing the liquid tank 12 with the liquid, and includes a bottle main body 21 which stores the liquid, a nozzle 22 and a cap 23. The nozzle 22 is fixed to the bottle main body 21 and has a function of injecting the liquid stored in the bottle main body 21. The cap 23 can be mounted on the nozzle 22 so as to open and close an inlet 22c described later of the nozzle 22, and has a function of shielding an inside of the bottle main body 21 from an outside air and sealing the liquid storage bottle 2. In the present embodiment, both the bottle main body 21 and the nozzle 22 are resin parts and are fixed to each other by welding as described later. However, the bottle main body 21 and the nozzle 22 may be sealed with a flexible part therebetween so as to be fixed to each other.
A bottle welding portion 21a is formed in an upper portion of the bottle main body 21, and a nozzle welding portion 22a is formed in a lower portion of the nozzle 22. One of an inner peripheral surface and a bottom surface of the nozzle welding portion 22a is welded to the bottle welding portion 21a, and thus, the nozzle 22 is fixed to the bottle main body 21. A nozzle screw portion 22b having a male screw formed on an outer peripheral surface is formed at a center portion of the nozzle 22, and a cap screw portion 23a having a female screw formed on an inner peripheral surface is formed in a lower portion of the cap 23. The male screw of the nozzle screw portion 22b is screwed to the female screw of the cap screw portion 23a, and thus, the cap 23 is mounted on the nozzle 22.
The nozzle 22 has an inlet 22c which injects the liquid, and a nozzle seal portion 22d formed of an annular rib provided along a peripheral edge portion of the inlet 22c. A slit valve 24 which is opened or closed depending on an internal pressure of the liquid storage bottle 2 is provided in the inlet 22c. The slit valve 24 has a valve body 24a which is made of a material having flexibility and three slits 24b which are formed in the valve body 24a and intersect each other, and in a closed state, the slit valve 24 can seal the inlet 22c. Six split pieces 24c are formed in the valve body 24a by the three slits 24b. Moreover, the number of slits 24b is not limited to this, and may be two or four or more. In this case, a plurality of slits 24b can be formed so as to be 2n times symmetrical with respect to a center of the circular valve body 24a as illustrated in the figures, where n is the number. Accordingly, the split pieces 24c can be evenly opened, and the liquid in the liquid storage bottle 2 can be smoothly injected.
A cap seal portion 23b which is formed of an annular rib and a protrusion 23c which protrudes toward the slit valve 24 are provided on a bottom surface (a surface opposite to the inlet 22c) of the cap 23. The cap seal portion 23b is fitted to the nozzle seal portion 22d when the cap 23 is mounted on the nozzle 22, and thus, functions as a sealing unit which seals the inlet 22c together with the nozzle seal portion 22d. In a state where the inlet 22c is sealed by the cap seal portion 23b and the nozzle seal portion 22d, and a tip portion of the protrusion 23c faces the valve body 24a of the slit valve 24 at a position separated from an intersection 24d of the plurality of slits 24b in a lateral direction (a radial direction of the nozzle 22). According to this configuration of the protrusion 23c, as described later, in a case where the internal pressure of the liquid storage bottle 2 is higher than an outside air pressure when the cap 23 is opened, it is possible to release the internal pressure. In the present embodiment, the protrusion 23c is provided integrally with the cap 23. However, the protrusion 23c may be provided separately from the cap 23.
In a state where the cap 23 is mounted on the nozzle 22 and the inlet 22c is sealed, as described above, the protrusion 23c faces the valve body 24a at the position separated from the intersection 24d of the slit 24b in the lateral direction and is not in contact with the valve body 24a. Here, if the cap 23 starts to be opened, the fitting between the cap seal portion 23b and the nozzle seal portion 22d is released, and the sealing of the inlet 22c is released. In this case, when the internal pressure of the liquid storage bottle 2 is higher than the outside air pressure, as illustrated in
Meanwhile,
If the internal pressure of the liquid storage bottle 2 increases in a state where the cap 23 is not mounted on the nozzle 22, as illustrated in
According to this configuration, even in a case where the internal pressure of the liquid storage bottle 2 increases, the protrusion 23c comes into contact with the slit valve 24 when the cap 23 is opened or closed. Therefore, the internal pressure can be released to the outside. Moreover, a length of the protrusion 23c is not particularly limited and can be set to an optimal length according to an amount of deformation of the valve body 24a which is actually deformed by an increase in the internal pressure of the liquid storage bottle 2. Therefore, for example, in a case where the amount of deformation of the valve body 24a is relatively small, in a state where the inlet 22c is sealed by the cap seal portion 23b and the nozzle seal portion 22d, the tip portion of the protrusion 23c may be in contact with the valve body 24a to such an extent that the valve body 24a is not deformed.
Moreover, if the protrusion 23c is only to be brought into contact with the expanded valve body 24a, it is also considered that the tip portion of the protrusion 23c faces the intersection 24d of the slit 24b in a state where the cap 23 is mounted on the nozzle 22 (a state where the inlet 22c is sealed) as illustrated in
Each of left sides of
In order for the protrusion 23c to come into contact with the expanded valve body 24a and open the slit 24b, the protrusion 23c cannot come into contact with at least one of the plurality of split pieces 24c formed by the slit 24b. That is, the number of protrusions 23c is not limited to one, but a plurality of the protrusions 23c may be provided. However, as illustrated in
In addition, in a case where a plurality of protrusion 23c is provided, as illustrated in
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
Each of
As illustrated in
In the present embodiment, the configuration of the protrusion 23c is different from that of the first embodiment. Accordingly, a method of releasing the pressure in the liquid storage bottle 2 when the cap 23 is opened or closed is different from that of the first embodiment. Specifically, as illustrated in
As described above, depending on the thickness of the protrusion 23c, if the protrusion 23c is inserted into the slit 24b near the intersection 24d, the closed state of the slit 24b may be maintained. In order to suppress this, the protrusion 23c can have a predetermined thickness. Specifically, in a case where the protrusion 23c has a columnar shape as illustrated in
The shape of the protrusion 23c can be a columnar shape as illustrated in
While the present disclosure has been described with reference to example embodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited to the disclosed example 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. 2019-069101, filed Mar. 29, 2019, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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JP2019-069101 | Mar 2019 | JP | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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20200238722 | Ishizawa | Jul 2020 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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2018-95277 | Jun 2018 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20200307872 A1 | Oct 2020 | US |