The present disclosure relates to a liquid storage container configured to store liquid.
Among liquid tanks used in liquid ejecting apparatuses such as inkjet printing apparatuses, there is a liquid tank that can be replenished with liquid. For example, by using a liquid storage container including a discharge port for pouring the liquid, the liquid tank can be replenished with the liquid from the liquid storage container through the discharge port. In this type of liquid storage container, in order to prevent smearing of the surroundings and the hand of a user, a valve with a slit is provided at a front end of the discharge port, and leakage of the liquid is thereby forcedly stopped (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2018-95277 (hereinafter, referred to as Document 1)).
Document 1 describes a container which includes a discharge port main body and a cover capable of opening and closing the discharge port by covering it and in which a valve with a slit is provided inside the discharge port main body. Document 1 describes a configuration in which the discharge port is sealed with the cover before the cover is completely closed, and then, completely closing the cover causes a protrusion formed in the cover to be inserted into the valve and open the slit portion of the valve.
In the configuration described in Document 1, just after the cover starts to open, the protrusion moves away from the valve, and the valve is thereby closed. Thus, the sealing of the liquid storage container is maintained in the case where the cover is opened. With this configuration, in the case where the air pressure inside the liquid storage container is higher than the outside air pressure, there is a possibility that the liquid sprays out of the liquid storage container on opening the valve to replenish the liquid tank with the liquid from the liquid storage container. Moreover, there is a possibility that, in the case where the liquid storage container is tilted such that the discharge part is directed downward, the hydraulic head difference of the liquid in the liquid storage container acting on the valve exceeds the withstanding pressure of the valve and opens the valve, causing the liquid to spray out. The spraying-out liquid may directly reach the outside of the liquid storage container.
A liquid storage container according one aspect of the present disclosure includes: a discharge port member including a discharge port through which liquid stored in a storage portion is discharged; a cover portion configured to be attachable to and detachable from the discharge port member and to be capable of opening and closing the discharge port; a liquid stop valve provided inside the discharge port member; and a protrusion provided inside the cover portion and configured to open the liquid stop valve in closing the cover portion, in which the storage portion is sealable by at least one of a first sealing portion formed of a contact portion between the cover portion and the discharge port member and a second sealing portion formed of the liquid stop valve, and the first sealing portion and the second sealing portion are configured to be simultaneously unsealed.
Further features of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.
Embodiments are described below with reference to the drawings. Note that the same configurations in the description are denoted by the same reference numerals. Moreover, the arrangement of constituent elements relative to one another, the shapes of the constituent elements, and the like that are described in the embodiments are merely examples.
The liquid is stored in the liquid tanks 12 and is supplied to the print head 14 via a liquid distribution passage 17 to be ejected from the print head 14. In the embodiment, inks of four colors (for example, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) are used as the liquid, and four liquid tanks 12a to 12d for the respective colors that store the inks of the respective colors are provided as the liquid tanks 12. In the following description, in the case where the individual liquid tanks, distinguished from one another, are referred, alphabets are added at the ends, for example, liquid tanks 12a to 12d. In the case where any one of the liquid tanks is referred to, the liquid tank is referred to as the liquid tank 12. The liquid tanks 12a to 12d for the respective colors are arranged in a front face portion of the liquid ejecting apparatus 1 inside the case 11.
In the case where the liquid is supplied from the liquid storage container 2 to the liquid tank 12, the communication flow passage 122 of the liquid tank 12 is inserted into an opening of the nozzle 22 of the liquid storage container 2. The nozzle 22 of the liquid storage container 2 is provided with recess portions configured to engage with the protruding portions 19 of the socket 18 in the liquid ejecting apparatus 1, and the liquid storage container 2 is aligned in the case where the communication flow passage 122 is inserted into the opening of the nozzle 22. Then, the liquid in the liquid storage container 2 is supplied to the storage chamber of the liquid tank main body 121 via the communication flow passage 122 by means of hydraulic head difference.
The liquid storage container 2 includes two sealable portions (hereinafter, referred to as sealing portions).
The first sealing portion is described with reference to
Moreover, as the method of attaching the cap 23 to the nozzle 22, instead of screwing, a fitting portion other than the sealing portion may be provided. For example, there may be employed a configuration such as an externally-fitted cover in which a cap 23 is fitted to the outside of a nozzle 22 or an internally-fitted cover in which a cap 23 is fitted to the inside of a nozzle 22.
The second sealing portion is described with reference to
Since the valve 25 is biased toward the opening of the seal 24 with the spring 26, the liquid stop valve structure can maintain the interior of the liquid storage container 2 in the sealed state in the state where the cap 23 is removed from the nozzle 22. In the case where the liquid is supplied from the liquid storage container 2 to the liquid tank 12, the communication flow passage 122 is inserted into the nozzle 22 through the opening of the seal 24, thereby opening the valve 25. Then, as described above, the liquid in the liquid storage container 2 is supplied to the storage chamber of the liquid tank main body 121 via the communication flow passage 122 by means of hydraulic head difference.
In the embodiment, the two sealing portions are configured to be temporarily simultaneously unsealed in cap-opening in which the cap 23 is removed from nozzle 22 and in cap-closing in which the cap is attached to the nozzle 22. This configuration allows the interior of the liquid storage container 2 to communicate with the atmosphere and can equalize the pressure inside the liquid storage container 2 with the outside air pressure. Details are described below.
As illustrated in
Since the above configuration temporarily simultaneously sets the first sealing portion and the second sealing portion to the unsealed state in opening the cap 23, this configuration allows the interior of the liquid storage container 2 to communicate with the atmosphere and can equalize the pressure in the liquid storage container 2 with the outside air pressure. Accordingly, the occurrence of spraying-out of the liquid due to an increase in the internal pressure of the liquid storage container 2 can be suppressed in the case where the cap 23 is opened and the liquid tank main body 121 is replenished with the liquid from the liquid storage container 2. Moreover, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of overflow of the liquid from the liquid tank main body 121. Furthermore, since the second sealing portion maintains the interior of the liquid storage container 2 in the sealed state after the cap 23 is opened, the occurrence of leakage of the liquid can be suppressed even if the liquid storage container 2 is turned upside down.
As a sealing method of the two sealing portions described above, there are a method of achieving sealing by pressing a rigid material and a flexible material such as rubber or elastomer against each other, a method of achieving sealing by fitting rigid materials to each other, and the like.
In the embodiment, there is employed a method in which a rigid material such as polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP) is used for the nozzle 22 and the cap 23 in the first sealing portion, and these parts are configured to be fitted to each other. In the first sealing portion, two parts made of the same material may be fitted to be in contact with each other, or two parts varying in physical property may be brought into contact with each other. A flexible material such as rubber or elastomer is used as the material forming the seal 24 in the second sealing portion. A rigid material such as polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP) is used as the material forming the valve 25 in the second sealing portion. Then, there is employed a method of achieving sealing by pressing the seal 24 and the valve 25 against each other.
Moreover, as illustrated in
Stainless steel (SUS) and the like can be given as the material forming the spring 26. Polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and the like can be given as the material forming the holder 27. As a method of fixing the holder 27 to the nozzle 22, it is preferable to form the holder 27 and the nozzle 22 by using the same material and welding the holder 27 and the nozzle 22 to each other.
As described above, in the embodiment, in opening and closing the cap 23, the state where the valve 25 is opened by the protrusion 23f of the cap 23 occurs while the cap 23 and the nozzle 22 are not sealed. Specifically, the state where the first sealing portion and the second sealing portion are temporarily simultaneously unsealed occurs. Accordingly, it is possible to cause the interior of the liquid storage container 2 to communicate with the atmosphere and equalize the pressure in the liquid storage container 2 with the outside air pressure. This can suppress the occurrence of overflow in the liquid tank 12 due to spraying-out of the liquid in the case where the liquid tank 12 is replenished with the liquid from the liquid storage container 2. Moreover, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of spraying-out of the liquid that would occur in the case where the liquid storage container 2 is tilted.
In the first embodiment, a description is given of the example in which the pressure in the liquid storage container 2 is released by employing the configuration in which the two sealing portions are temporarily simultaneously unsealed in opening and closing the cap 23. Simultaneously unsealing the two sealing portions can suppress the occurrence of spraying-out of the liquid in the liquid storage container 2. However, simultaneously unsealing the two sealing portions may sometimes cause droplets of the liquid in the liquid storage container 2 to come out. In the present embodiment, a description is given of an example of suppressing the occurrence of the case where the liquid in the liquid storage container 2 turns into droplets and scatters to the outside of the container. The basic configuration of the liquid storage container 2 is the same as that in the first embodiment, and description thereof is omitted.
Polypropylene (PP) or polyethylene (PE) is used as the materials of the cap 23 and the nozzle 22 in the embodiment. The same material or different materials may be used as a combination of the materials. Specifically, in the contact portion, two parts varying in physical property may be in contact with each other, or two parts made of the same material may be in contact with each other. In the case where the cap 23 and the nozzle 22 are assembled together at high speed, different materials are preferably used.
In the case where the sealed state is canceled with the outside air pressure being lower than the pressure inside the sealed space of the liquid storage container 2, gas and liquid contained in the interior of the liquid storage container 2 are guided to the outside. In the embodiment, as illustrated in
As described above, according to the embodiment, it is possible to suppress scattering of the droplets of the liquid in the liquid storage container 2 to the outside in opening the cap 23 to remove it from the nozzle 22.
Although the example in which the liquid storage container 2 includes two sealing portions of the first sealing portion and the second sealing portion is described in the first embodiment, the liquid storage container 2 may include three or more sealing portions. For example, the cap 23 may be an externally-fitted cover that fits on the outside of the nozzle 22 and an internally-fitted cover that fits on the inside of the nozzle 22. In any case, the liquid storage container 2 only needs to be configured such that the sealing portions are simultaneously unsealed in opening and closing the cap 23.
In the second embodiment, the example based on the liquid storage container 2 described in the first embodiment is described. Specifically, the liquid storage container 2 including the first sealing portion and the second sealing portion is described as an example. However, the liquid storage container 2 may be a liquid storage container including no second sealing portion.
Although the example in which the liquid storage container is used to replenish the liquid tank of the liquid ejecting apparatus with the liquid is described in the above embodiments, the liquid storage container may be a container used to replenish a liquid tank of any apparatus with liquid. Moreover, although the example in which the ink is used as the liquid stored in the liquid storage container is described, the liquid storage container may store any kind of liquid.
While the present disclosure has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the disclosure 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. 2020-122025, filed Jul. 16, 2020, which is hereby incorporated by reference wherein in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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JP2020-122025 | Jul 2020 | JP | national |
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