Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Toshihiro Sasaki

Hiroki Tajima

Itaru Watanabe

Akihiro Yamanaka

Yutaka Koizumi

Akira Goto

Yasushi Iijima

Hiroyuki Maeda

Takeshi Kono

Tetsuto Kageyama

Mitsuru Kurata

Takeaki Shima

Tomoyuki Nagase

An ink jet recording apparatus comprises a recording head including a discharge port for discharging ink, a first liquid chamber at the upstream side in the direction of ink flow toward the discharge port, and a second liquid chamber at the downstream side, an ink tank for containing ink to be supplied to the recording head, an ink supply tube for causing the ink tank to communicate with the recording head, a shut-off valve provided in the ink supply tube and opening or closing the ink supply tube, a cap for covering the discharge port; and a suction pump for forcedly discharging the ink in the recording head from the discharge port when the cap covers the discharge port. The shut-off valve is opened when the first and second liquid chambers are reduced to respectively desired pressures by the suction pump in a state where the cap covers the discharge port and the shut-off valve is closed, whereby the ink in the ink tank is supplied through the ink supply tube to the first and second liquid chambers.

Ink jet recording apparatus

A cartridge is detachably mountable to a holder of an ink jet recording apparatus, so as to be freely reciprocatable to scan across a recording medium and record thereon by discharging ink. The cartridge is defined by a cartridge main body, and is provided with a recording head for discharging ink from plural nozzles formed in parallel on a lower face of the cartridge main body facing the recording medium. A front face of the cartridge main body is provided with an electrical connection portion having cartridge electrodes, which are electrically connectable with corresponding electrodes of the holder. A rear face opposite to the front face is provided with an ink connection portion connectable to corresponding supply ports which supply ink to the recording head from a main tank installed elsewhere on the ink jet recording apparatus. With the cartridge thus structured, the force exerted for connection to the supply port does not affect the precision with which the cartridge is mounted on the holder.

Cartridge with opposed electrical and ink connection portions, and carriage and ink jet recording apparatus for same

The invention prevents drawbacks resulting from the bubble generated at the downstream side of the filter, while minimizing the waste in the ink. The recording head has a sub tank for storing ink supplied from the exterior, and a liquid chamber storing the ink supplied from the sub tank and supplying ink directly to a nozzle for ink discharge. A filter is provided between the sub tank and the liquid chamber. The liquid chamber holds ink of a predetermined amount in such a manner that the ink therein is separated by gas between the filter and the liquid chamber.

Liquid supply system, ink jet recording head, ink jet recording apparatus and liquid filling method

In a liquid ejecting apparatus in which ink is supplied from an ink tank to a print cartridge detachably mounted on a carriage through a tube, connection between an ink needle at a tube side and an interconnecting member at a cartridge side can sealingly be effected positively, and ink supplying and connecting means can be made compact. A closing film having a small hole and a central slit is provided at a tip end of an interconnecting member made of soft material and fitted into an ink flow-in projection portion of the print cartridge into which an ink needle is inserted. Further, a notched needle tip end avoiding configuration is provided at a lower part of a tip end of the projection portion so that abutment between the projection portion and the ink needle can be avoided when the print cartridge is mounted and dismounted, thereby reducing a shifting amount of a needle holding member.

Liquid ejecting apparatus

Printing head for printer

An ink-jet printing apparatus can maintain a liquid level height in an ink storing portion in an air buffering vessel at a predetermined height and can simplify an associated mechanism for connection between a scanning carriage and a stationary ink tank while a low cost single tube is employed. An air buffering vessel of the ink-jet printing apparatus has one ink supply opening from the ink storage tank and at least two suction and discharge openings located at mutually different height in a vertical direction. Upper opening of the at least two suction and discharge openings serves for air suction and discharge. Lower opening serves for ink supply and discharge, and is communicated with a connection opening of the printing head.

Ink-jet printing apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Toshihiro Sasaki