Seiko Epson Corporation

Tsuyoshi Tomii

Yoichi Kobayashi

Masaki Shimomura

Takashi Akahane

Toshikazu Kotaka

Toshio Kumagai

Seiji Mochizuki

Takuya Yasue

Koichiro Yokoyama

Kazuo Saito

Susumu Murayama

Kazutoshi Kashiwabara

Seiichi Hirano

Kazuhisa Kawakami

Eiji Kumai

Kenichi Miyazaki

Masatomo Kanamitsu

Katsuhiko Iida

Hayato Nishikaze

Koichi Endo

Yukihiro Hanaoka

Kiyoto Komuro

Narihiro Oki

Hitoshi Hayakawa

Masanori Yoshida

Masayuki Kumazaki

Kazumi Kamoi

Hiromi Shishiuchi

Shigeki Hayashi

Atsushi Nishizawa

Yoji Sasai

Michiyo Ichikawa

A supporting part,arranged nearer to a head,than a pair of carrier rollers,and on the same side as a rib,based upon paper S for supporting the side Sb of the paper S toward the head,is provided. The supporting part,is formed so that it is wider than the rib,The driving roller,of the pair of carrier rollers and the supporting part,are overlapped when they are viewed from a direction in which paper is carried. A ringed member,may be also provided in place of overlapping the supporting part,and the driving roller

Ink-jet printer for preventing contact between a sheet and in ink-jet head

A printer having a paper handling mechanism that includes a paper feed roller pair located upstream of a recording head. The paper feed roller pair includes a roller having a roller axis and a follow-up roller having a follow-up roller axis. A line between the roller axis and the follow-up axis is inclined towards the recording head. A paper discharge roller pair located downstream. The paper discharge roller pair includes a discharge roller having a discharge roller axis and a discharge follow-up rolling having discharge follow-up roller axis. A line between the discharge roller axis and the discharge follow-up roller axis is inclined towards the recording head.

Printer with improved paper handling mechanism

A printer is provided wherein printing can be executed continuously after the rear end of printing paper comes off a paper feeding roller without loss in print image quality. Specifically, the position of a point nipped by a paper ejecting roller is placed higher than the position of the top face of a record medium regulating part, and the surface of the paper located upstream of the paper ejecting roller is pressed downward. The position of the top face of the record medium regulating may be varied and backed up. As a result, the rear end of the paper being pressed downward may be caused not to touch the print head. The printer is also provided with a driving controller, that executes an interlace recording method, and the end on the upstream side of the flat top face of the record medium regulating part is located within a range of the array of dot formation elements. The drive controller records a first line of a record object using dot formation elements located at the rear end of the recording head, after the front end of the record medium reaches the end on the upstream side of the top face of the record medium regulating part and is therefore properly positioned. Subsequently, the interlace recording method is executed by repeating sub scanning, by a predetermined sub scanning distance, and main scanning by the recording head.

Dot recording device

A sheet feeder, or a printer incorporating the sheet feeder, has separation pads for separating a sheet to be fed by sheet feed rollers from the next sheet and a roller spring which produce urging force smaller than that produced by a spring of the separation pad. Idle rollers are brought into contact with the separation pads by means of the roller spring, thereby preventing the lowering of the next sheet. A sheet reset lever is pivoted so as to return the next sheet to a hopper. As a result, the sheet sheets stacked on the hopper in an inclined state is fed one by one through use of a separation pad method without increasing force for driving rollers and a back tension.

Sheet feeder and printer

In a printer, a bottom of an automatic paper feeder is formed by a bottom itself of a printer case; an operation lever is provided for operating a hopper and separation pawls arranged in a stacker section; a spring member is used as a changeover mechanism for a paper feed-in roller; an ink shielding portion is provided over an entire print area; the paper is discharged while forcibly urging the paper in a concave shape in which its printed surface is concaved; and a changeover is effected between a paper feeding operation and a pumping operation by a carriage at both ends of a carriage-moving area.

Printer sheet discharge method

A paper discharge section for a printer having a printer body includes first and second support portions mounted on the printer body. At least one of the support portions is slidable towards and away from the other support portion. A paper pushing down portion is mounted on the printer body and positioned intermediate the support portions. The first support portion can rotate between at least a first position at which the first support portion supports a first bottom side portion of the sheet of paper and at least a second position in which the first support portion does not support the first bottom side portion of a sheet of paper. A slidable edge guide for guiding a first side edge of a sheet of paper is provided and slidable towards the other edge guide. A linkage mechanism links the slidable edge guide to the first support portion to cause the first edge guide and first support portion to slide together.

Ink jet printer

An ink jet printer including a feed roller for feeding paper to a print area where print is effected by an ink jet head, a transparent roller to transport the paper which rotates at a peripheral speed faster than a feed roller, and an ink shielding portion positioned between the paper the print area and the ink jet head. The ink jet printer may also include a shaft which supports starwheels at the ends thereof, the central portion thereof being urged toward a plurality of paper discharge rollers.

Printer

An ink jet printer having a pair of supporting portion for supporting from below both side portions of a sheet to be discharged after characters are printed on the surface of a sheet. At least one of the pair of supporting portion includes a roller, which may be either a driving roller, which conveys discharging sheets from the sheet discharge section, or a driven roller, which rotates upon contacting a discharging sheet to convey the sheet from the sheet discharge section. As a consequence, the sheet is discharged smoothly, without reducing sheet feeding accuracy even when stiff sheets are printed upon by the printer.

Sheet discharge section for a printer

Ink jet printer having paper supports and guides

A method for discharging a sheet from a printer that includes feeding a first sheet from a sheet tray, conveying the sheet by the force applied by the driving roller until a leading edge of the first sheet contacts the trailing edge of a second sheet, thereby urging the second sheet in the feed direction such that the second sheet is no longer supported by supporting portions, and reversing the direction of the first sheet by reversing the rotation of the driving roller.

A printer including an automatic paper feeder having a stacker section capable of setting a plurality of sheets of paper therein, wherein a bottom of said stacker section is formed by a bottom itself of a printer case. In addition, the printer may include a hopper disposed in the stacker section to urge the paper upwardly, a pair of swinging members each having a separation pawl located above a corner of the paper and a pressing-down portion for pressing down the hopper, each of the swinging members being supported swingably about a shaft located between the separation pawl and the pressing-down portion and an operation lever having a pair of actuating portions capable of pressing downward the swinging members and supported rotatably above the stacker section.

Paper feeder in a printer

An ink jet type recording device has a recording head which is moved over a recording sheet to jet ink droplets to form dots on it, an ink tank for supplying ink to the recording head, a cap member arranged outside the printing region in such a manner that it is moved to and from the recording head, a suction pump having an ink sucking inlet connected to the cap member and an ink discharging outlet connected to a waste ink tank. Also, a switch is provided for starting the suction pump; a memory circuit is provided for storing data representing the quantity of waste ink sucked out by the suction pump; and a control circuit is provided for nullifying an ink purging instruction when the sum of the quantities of waste ink exceeds a predetermined value. When it is detected through the memory circuit that the sum of the quantities of waste ink thus sucked out is beyond the capacity of the waste ink tank, the ink purging operation is suspended irrespective of a forcible ink purging instruction from the switch.

Ink jet printing apparatus having means for preventing excessive ink

According to the present invention, there is disclosed a capping device for an ink jet printer which is constructed such that a cap supporting member 14, adapted to move from the non-capping position to the capping position by the thrust action of a carriage 3, is arranged on the home position side of the ink jet printer so that the outer end part of the cap supporting member 14 is displaced toward the nozzle surface of a printing head 4 with the aid of a guide surface 15b having an inclined surface 15a, until a cap 5 on the cap supporting member 14 is brought into close contact with the nozzle surface of the printing head 4 with an adequate intensity of thrust force by means of a turnable lever 8 operatively connected to the inner end of the cap supporting member 14, while resilient force of a cap spring 11 is exerted on the base end part of the turnable lever 8 so as to normally bias the cap supporting member 14 in the direction toward the printing head 4.

Capping device for ink jet printer

A capping device for an ink jet printer includes a cap supported on a cap support member adapted to press the cap against a print head with a uniform pressure distribution despite variation in the positional relationship between the print head and the cap support member. The uniform pressure distributed is enhanced by supporting the cap by the support member in such a manner to permit the cap to pivot in at least two degrees of freedom. After the cap is sealed around an ink orifice of the printer, a preliminary suction operation reduces the pressure within a cavity defined by the cap and the print head. The pressure within the cavity is then returned to atmospheric pressure and then reduced again, but to a level which will not interfere with the ink meniscus level in the print head. The first period of suction lasts longer than the second suction period. By providing the capping device with tubes which resist the corrosive effects of ink and prevent gas from penetrating therethrough, excessive air buildup within the print head can be avoided.

Growing community of inventors

Nagano, Japan

Tsuyoshi Tomii