Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha

Shinichiro Fujii

Yasuhiro Suzuki

Tadao Kamano

Sakae Shiida

Takuro Ito

Takashi Kashiwagi

Akira Nuita

Masaaki Oyaide

Hiroshi Yamaguchi

Juntaro Oku

Hiroyuki Takada

Mitsuo Kubo

Hitoshi Ushiogi

Tsugio Narushima

Hidenobu Suzuki

Akira Sato

Izumi Araki

Norio Kouzu

Yoshihide Akuzawa

An ink-jet printer includes a rotary drum , having a dielectric peripheral surface , for rotating at a constant speed, a sheet loader for loading a sheet to the rotary drum , a sheet holding system for causing the sheet to be held on the peripheral surface of the rotary drum , and a print head section for printing an image on the sheet held on the peripheral surface of the rotary drum by jetting ink to the sheet while the rotary drum makes a predetermined number of rotations. Particularly, the sheet holding system includes a charging section and a supplementary charger section . The charging section is charges the peripheral surface of the rotary drum on an upstream side of the loading point where the leading end of the sheet loaded by the sheet loader contacts the peripheral surface of the rotary drum . The supplementary charger section charges the sheet to supplement the electrostatic attraction force attenuated during the rotation of the rotary drum

Ink-jet printer

An ink supplement system comprises a bottle holder unit for holding an ink bottle storing ink and detachably attached thereto, and an ink tank for receiving ink from the ink bottle held by the bottle holder unit. Particularly, the ink bottle includes an ink supply port having a filter affixed to a back thereof, and the bottle holder unit includes an ink supplement pump which suctions ink through the ink supply port of the ink bottle attached to the bottle holder unit so as to supplement the ink into the ink tank.

Ink supplement system

A nozzle unit having a plurality of nozzle heads is vertically moved by an elevating mechanism between a printing position where it prints on a printing surface, and a non-printing position above the printing position and separate from the printing position by a predetermined distance. When the nozzle unit moves to the printing position, it is disengaged from the elevating mechanism to be free from it. The nozzle unit which has moved to the printing position is supported by a head support mechanism to be movable in the main scanning direction.

An ink-jet printer includes a rotary drum for rotating at a constant speed, a sheet loader for loading a paper sheet onto the rotary drum a sheet holding system for holding the paper sheet loaded by the sheet loader on the rotary drum and a print head for printing an image by ejecting ink onto the paper sheet which is held on the rotary drum by the sheet holding system and rotated together with the rotary drum In particular, the sheet loader has a pair of loading rollers and for feeding the paper sheet while pinching the paper sheet, and a roller moving mechanism for separating the loading roller from the other loading roller to release the paper sheet after the leading edge of the paper sheet has been held on the rotary drum

An ink-jet printer includes a rotary drum for holding a print medium, a print head for printing an image by ejecting ink onto the print medium held on the rotary drum, an ink receiving unit facing the print head at a non-printing time to receive ink ejected from the print head, and an ink collecting section for collecting ink from the ink receiving unit. Particularly, the ink collecting section includes a blade member for wiping out ink which is remaining on the ink receiving unit without being collected after ejection of ink.

An ink-jet printer includes a rotary drum,, having a dielectric peripheral surface,for rotating at a constant speed, a sheet loader,for loading a sheet to the rotary drum,, a sheet holding system for causing the sheet to be held on the peripheral surface,of the rotary drum,, and a print head section,for printing an image on the sheet held on the peripheral surface,of the rotary drum,by jetting ink to the sheet while the rotary drum,makes a predetermined number of rotations. Particularly, the sheet holding system includes a charging section,and a supplementary charger section,. The charging section,charges the peripheral surface,of the rotary drum,on an upstream side of the loading point where the leading end of the sheet loaded by the sheet loader,contacts the peripheral surface,of the rotary drum,. The supplementary charger section,charges the sheet to supplement the electrostatic attraction force attenuated during the rotation of the rotary drum

An apparatus for holding a printing medium on a rotary drum, includes a rotary drum, a suction device, a medium holding mechanism and a medium removing device. The drum has a recess at its outer surface to extend along its rotation center line and rotates at a predetermined speed. A region of the outer surface, which is adjacent to a rearward end of the recess along the rotation direction, is smaller in the diameter than the remaining of the outer surface. The suction device holds by suction the medium onto the outer surface. The holding mechanism has a hook in the recess and selectively drives the hook between close and open positions. At the close position, the hook is placed over the adjacent region while being prevented from radially outwardly projecting from the remaining of the outer surface, and at the open position it is distanced from the adjacent region. When the medium arrives at the adjacent region, its leading end is held by the hook shifted from the open position to the close position and cooperated with the adjacent region and, when the drum rotates a specific number, the hook is returned to the open position. The removing device removes the medium from the outer surface when the drum rotates the specific number and the hook has moved from the close position to the open position.

Apparatus for holding a printing medium on a rotary drum and ink jet

Suction ports (14) are provided in one end (15R) of a drum (10), connecting the interior (16) and exterior of the drum (10). Corresponding suction ports (34) are provided at a stationary side (5R), opposing the suction ports (14), respectively. A suction fan (32) is provided, which draws air from the interior (16) of the rotating drum (10) through the corresponding suction ports (34) and the suction ports (14). A printing medium M can be attracted and held onto the outer circumferential surface (11) of the drum (10) by virtue of negative pressure, by utilizing the negative pressure generated in the interior (16) of the drum (10) as the suction fan (32) rotates and a plurality of suction holes (12) extending in a radial direction and connecting the interior and exterior of the drum (10). A damper (38) is provided at the air outlet port of the suction fan (32), for opening and closing the outlet port of the fan (32).

Printing medium holding apparatus for a printer using air suction force

An ink-jet printer includes a rotary drum having a peripheral surface with a plurality of suction holes arranged therein for rotating at a constant speed, a sheet loader for loading a paper sheet to the peripheral surface of the rotary drum, a sheet holding system for holding the paper sheet on the peripheral surface of the rotary drum by applying negative suction pressure to the paper sheet via the suction holes, and a print head for printing an image by jetting ink onto the paper sheet. The rotary drum has an outer cylindrical member which serves as the peripheral surface, an inner cylindrical member having a diameter smaller than the outer cylindrical member, and a partitioning wall for fixing the inner cylindrical member in the outer cylindrical member at a uniform distance from the outer cylindrical member and for partitioning the space between the inner cylindrical member and the outer cylindrical member into a plurality of air rooms in a drum rotational direction. The sheet holding system includes a plurality of suction air holes which are arranged in the inner cylindrical member to associate with the air rooms, a suction unit for suctioning air via the suction air holes to set the air rooms in a negative pressure state, and an air-flow control mechanism for sequentially setting the suction air holes from a closed state to an open state as the suction holes pass a loading position of the paper sheet by rotation of the rotary drum.

Ink-jet printer which securely holds a printing medium without

An ink-jet printer includes a rotary drum for rotating at a constant speed and holding a paper sheet on its peripheral surface, a print head having ink-jet nozzles aligned in the axial direction of the rotary drum to perform printing by spitting ink from these ink-jet nozzles on the paper sheet rotating together with the rotary drum, and a sheet feed-in mechanism for feeding a paper sheet from a cassette and a manual feed tray to the rotary drum. Particularly, the sheet feed-in mechanism has a loading roller unit for loading the paper sheet to the rotary drum, a pickup section for picking up a paper sheet from one of the cassette and the manual feed tray to strike the leading end of the paper sheet against the loading roller unit, and a control section for controlling the loading roller unit to feed, to the rotary drum, the paper sheet whose posture has been corrected upon strike by the pickup section. The pickup section has a paper feed path which guides the paper sheet picked up from one of the cassette and the manual feed tray to the loading roller unit via a merging point, and has a bend accepting space located at the merging point for accepting a bend of the paper sheet.

Ink-jet printer controlling application of printing medium to a rotary

An ink-jet printer includes a rotary drum which rotates at a constant speed; a medium holding system which holds a printing medium on the rotary drum; and a print head which prints an image by jetting ink onto a printing medium which is held on the rotary drum by the medium holding system and which rotates along with the rotary drum, while the rotary drum makes a predetermined number (greater than one) of rotations during a printing operation. The medium holding system includes a front-end clamping section, on the peripheral surface of the rotary drum, for clamping a front end of the printing medium; a rear-end clamping section set apart from the front-end clamping section in a rotational direction of the rotary drum along the peripheral surface of the rotary drum, for clamping a rear end of the printing medium; and a driving section for driving the front-end clamping section and the rear-end clamping section to clamp the printing medium on the peripheral surface of the rotary drum during one rotation of the rotary drum made before printing of the image is initiated and to release the printing medium from the peripheral surface of the rotary drum during another rotation of the rotary drum made after printing of the image is completed. A motion of the rear-end clamping section is mechanically enabled by a motion of the front-end clamping section after the rotary drum rotates by an amount which corresponds to a distance between the front-end and rear-end clamping sections.

Growing community of inventors

Mishima, Japan

Shinichiro Fujii