Apparatus for feeding developing solution for a wet type electrophotographic color printer

Abstract

A developing solution feeder of a wet type electrophotographic color printer includes a plurality of circulation tanks for storing the developing solution to be fed to a developing unit; a plurality of injection nozzles for jetting the developing solution stored in the circulation tanks to a developing gap of the developing unit; a plurality of ink storage tanks and a carrier storage tank for respectively storing the condensed ink of a certain color and a carrier to be fed to the circulation tanks, respectively; a waste tank for collecting the waste developing solution produced from the circulation tanks; a refill cartridge for the supplementation of the condensed ink or the carrier; developing solution refilling/waste developing solution collecting means for refilling the ink storage tanks or the carrier storage tank with the condensed ink or the carrier, respectively, and for evacuating the waste developing solution collected in the waste tank to the empty refill cartridge; and ink injecting/constant feeding means having a gear pump for jetting the condensed ink or the refill cartridge to the ink storage tanks during the condensed ink refilling process by the pumping action while being driven in a certain direction, and for feeding the appropriate amount of the condensed ink stored in the ink storage tanks to the circulation tanks while being driven in a reverse direction. Accordingly, since the condensed ink within the refill cartridge is jetted to the ink storage tanks by the gear pump, the condensed ink is stored in the refill cartridge, purely. As a result, the property change of the condensed ink, which is caused due to the presence of compressed air, is prevented. Further, since the gear pump functions to feed the condensed ink of the ink storage tanks to the circulation tanks, the condensed ink is fed to the circulation tanks in more appropriate amounts.