Seiko Epson Corporation

Yoshie Kumagai

Hisashi Miyazawa

Takao Kobayashi

Hisashi Koike

Kazumichi Shimada

Hideki Oikawa

In accordance with the invention, in order to increase the volume of an ink cartridge containing color inks, to prevent the ink cartridge from being improperly mounted on a print head, to ensure that required rigidity of an ink cartridge, and to ensure the viscosities of different inks remain uniform, in an ink cartridge body, a plurality of ink chambers are arranged in at least two linear arrays, and ink supplying ports associated with the ink chambers are also arranged in two linear arrays, whereby the size of the ink cartridge can be reduced, and easy loading of the ink cartridge can be insured. Additionally, the ink supply ports may be arranged in a zig-zag, offset manner to allow for a further reduction in the size of the ink chambers and ink cartridge. The open outer ends of the ink supply ports are formed substantially flush with the bottom walls of the ink chambers. Therefore, the volumes of each of the ink chambers is increased. Further, at least one or the like is provided on the outside of the ink cartridge, to insure the strength and rigidity of the ink cartridge. Circuitous grooves are formed in the surface of a cover member so that the grooves communicating with ink chambers having a smaller volumes are longer than grooves communicating with ink chambers having larger volumes, thus insuring uniform viscosities of all of the inks.

Growing community of inventors

Nagano, Japan

Yoshie Kumagai