Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Bing Wang

Hirotake Nakamura

Yoichiro Shimizu

Naoya Okazaki

Naoki Katayama

Masayuki Takata

Takamasa Usui

Masayuki Arakawa

An ink jet printer including a stationary frame; a tank supporter which is provided in the stationary frame and which supports at least one ink storing tank storing at least one sort of ink; a recording head which records an image on a recording medium by ejecting a droplet of the ink, and which has at least one ink flow inlet; at least one ink delivering tank which delivers the ink and has at least one ink flow outlet; at least one ink supply tube which is provided between the tank supporter and the ink delivering tank and through which the ink is supplied from the ink storing tank to the recording head via the ink delivering tank, wherein the delivering tank provides at least a portion of at least one ink delivering channel connecting between the ink supply tube and the recording head; a head holder which includes a main portion holding the recording head and the ink delivering tank, and which is movable relative to the stationary frame so that the recording head records the image on the recording medium; and an ink-contact preventing portion which prevents the ink that leaks from the ink delivering channel, from contacting the recording head.

Ink jet printer

An ink cartridge has an ink tank for reserving ink and a joint connected to the ink tank, the joint including an outer frame having an ink channel, and a sealing member made of an elastic material and received in the outer frame, the sealing member having a cylindrical portion and a valve portion. When an ink supply pipe having an ink inlet is inserted into the cylindrical portion, the cylindrical portion abuts against an outer circumference of the ink supply pipe on an ink flow downstream side of the ink supply pipe with respect to the ink inlet. The valve portion leaves the outer frame so as to open the ink channel when the ink supply pipe is inserted into the cylindrical portion, and when the ink supply pipe is not inserted into the cylindrical portion, the valve portion abuts against the outer frame to close the ink channel.

Ink cartridge and inkjet recording apparatus

A head unit is inverted so that an outflow port is in the lowest position. Because the top wall of the buffer tank slopes downwards towards the outflow port, all remaining cleaning fluid that was introduced during manufacture is removed. Also, a notch is provided in the bottom end of an ink introduction port. The notch faces towards the outflow port so that bubbles in the ink exit from the notch and are guided towards the outflow port. The head unit is shipped while the buffer tank is filled with preservation fluid that has high wettability and any openings to the outside air are closed off with covers. When the head unit is used, the preservation fluid is sucked by a purging device and then ink, which has a high affinity for the preservation fluid, is smoothly introduced. Also, the inner surface of the filters are treated to increase the wettability by ink after the filters are fixed to the bottom lid. Afterwards the bottom lid is fixed to the top lid to form the buffer tank.

Ink jet recording apparatus

An ink-package assembly including an ink package fluid-tightly containing a mass of an ink, and a sealing wrapper fluid-tightly enclosing the ink package, wherein an interior space of the sealing wrapper is charged with an inert gas such as a helium gas, which has a lower degree of solubility in the ink, than the air. The interior space of the sealing wrapper is evacuated to a reduced pressure of &#x2212;20 kPa and &#x2212;60 kPa with respect to the atmospheric pressure, as needed. The ink package includes an ink bag and is provided with a spout having a passage, and a cap for closing the passage. Where the sealing wrapper is evacuated, the ink package preferably further includes an ink-bag casing accommodating the ink bag, and a reinforcing structure interposed between the casing and the ink bag, to prevent deformation of the ink bag. Also disclosed is a method of producing the ink-package assembly.

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Nagoya, Japan

Bing Wang