Seiko Epson Corporation

Mitsutaka Iwasaki

Hideya Yokouchi

Tatsuya Seshimo

A liquid ejecting apparatus for ejecting liquid from an ejection head, the liquid being supplied from a liquid supplying source, the liquid ejecting apparatus comprising: a carriage having the ejection head including: a liquid channel configured for flowing the liquid from the liquid supplying source to the ejection head; a gas trap chamber which is formed in the midstream of the liquid channel and expands the width of the liquid channel; and a gas recovery chamber which is adjacent to the gas trap chamber and having a gas permeable wall between the gas recovery chamber and the gas trap chamber; a carriage driver which drives the carriage; an attachment/detachment connection which is detachably connected to the gas recovery chamber; and a depressurization unit which decreases a pressure of the gas recovery chamber to a pressure lower than that of the gas trap chamber via the attachment/detachment connection.

Liquid ejecting apparatus

A high-performance gear pump that does not require highly accurate machining is disclosed. The gear pump includes a housing having an accommodation chamber. A drive gear and a driven gear are positioned in contact with an inner surface of the accommodation chamber. The drive shaft is loosely received by the shaft hole of the drive gear, and the driven shaft is loosely received by the shaft support formed in the housing and the cover.

Gear pump and liquid injection apparatus

For cleaning a recording head, a printer seals nozzles by means of a cap member and thus forms a closed circulatory system. In this state, a gear pump is activated and draws waste ink and the air from the cap member. The waste ink and the air then flow in the cap member, a check valve, a tube, the gear pump, and a different tube in this order and are introduced into a first ink cartridge. The air is introduced into a second ink cartridge through a corresponding tube as pressurized air. The check valve prevents the waste ink and the pressurized air from returning to the cap member. This suppresses backflow of the liquid and the air, and ink ejection is performed effectively.

Liquid ejection apparatus

Recording head of a printer is sealed by a cap connected with a gear pump. Fluid is discharged from a nozzle through the cap by a negative pressure being generated by the gear pump. The gear pump is driven at a first rotational speed to suck the fluid in the cap and to discharge the fluid from the nozzle. Subsequently, the gear pump is driven at a second rotational speed lower than the first rotational speed and then it is stopped. This prevents backflow of the fluid to a liquid ejection head and breakage of a liquid meniscus in the nozzle of the liquid ejection head occurring when cleaning of the liquid ejection head is ended.

Liquid ejector cleaning method and liquid ejector

A liquid ejecting apparatus includes: a head member having a nozzle and a liquid-ejecting unit; a main controlling part that drives the liquid-ejecting unit based on ejecting data; a capping member relatively movable between a position away from the head member and a position in contact with the head member; a suction way communicated with an inside of the capping member; and a built-in slide-rotator type of positive displacement pump provided in the suction way. A state-quantity recognizing part recognizes a state quantity related to a dry state in an inside of the positive displacement pump. A judging part judges whether the inside of the positive displacement pump is dry, by comparing the state quantity with a standard state quantity. A preliminary-operation carrying-out part carries out a preliminary operation for wetting the inside of the positive displacement pump, when the inside of the positive displacement pump is dry.

A gear pump includes a housing defining an accommodating chamber and a cover for sealing the accommodating chamber. The accommodating chamber accommodates a drive gear and a driven gear. Each of the drive gear and the driven gear includes an upper surface opposed to the cover and a lower surface opposed to the housing. An annular projection projects from the upper surface of the drive gear or the driven gear for contacting the seal plate. An annular projection projects from the lower surface of the drive gear or the driven gear for contacting the seal plate. The gear pump is capable of lowering the load when the drive gear and the driven gear are rotated.

Growing community of inventors

Nagano-ken, Japan

Mitsutaka Iwasaki