Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Shimpei Shinohara

Seiji Ogasawara

Atsushi Takahashi

Takeshi Sekino

An ink jet printing apparatus can suppress vibrations to a low level without local concentration of abrasion between a carriage and a guide shaft. The ink jet printing apparatus makes the carriage reciprocate along the guide shaft without ejecting ink, thus achieving a stirring operation in which the ink stored in an ink tank is stirred. At least one of a limited range in one direction, in which the stirring operation is performed, and a portion of the guide shaft that contacts the carriage when viewed from the one direction, is changeable.

Printing apparatus

A printing apparatus capable of maintaining print sheet conveying performance while keeping apparatus cost low and apparatus size small is provided. The printing apparatus includes a conveying mechanism and a print unit. The conveying mechanism includes a conveying roller which is a driving roller, a plurality of pinch rollers which are passive rollers disposed facing the conveying roller, and a plurality of pinch roller axles supporting the pinch rollers. The print unit prints onto a sheet conveyed by the conveying rollers and the plurality of pinch rollers. The conveying mechanism includes one or more first pinch roller sets including two pinch rollers and a first pinch roller axle supporting the two pinch rollers, and one or more second pinch roller sets including three pinch rollers and a second pinch roller axle supporting the three pinch rollers.

A first rotator is provided on an upstream side of the carriage that holds a print head and a second rotator is provided on a downstream side of the carriage. The print head is allowed to move to a maintenance unit in a first state in which a sheet is in contact with both the first rotator and the second rotator during printing. The print head is not allowed to move to the maintenance unit in a second state in which the sheet is in contact with either one of the first rotator and the second rotator and the sheet is not in contact with the other rotator during printing.

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Yokohama, Japan

Shimpei Shinohara