Inkjet printer with ink receptor for receiving ink as waste liquid

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10328704-B2
Application number	US-201815914225-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 7, 2018
Priority date	Mar 29, 2017
Publication date	Jun 25, 2019
Grant date	Jun 25, 2019

Abstract

An inkjet printer includes: at least one ink receptor having a tray shape with a bottom plate and an opening facing upward and being horizontally movable; and a suction unit. The at least one ink receptor is configured to receive ink ejected from at least one inkjet head as waste liquid. The suction unit includes at least one suction nozzle arranged above the bottom plate within a movable range of the at least one ink receptor and is configured to suction the ink in the at least one ink receptor through the opening with the at least one suction nozzle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An inkjet printer comprising:
at least one ink receptor having a tray shape with a bottom plate and an opening facing upward, the at least one ink receptor being horizontally movable and configured to receive ink ejected from at least one inkjet head as waste liquid; and
a suction unit comprising at least one suction nozzle arranged above the bottom plate within a movable range of the at least one ink receptor, the suction unit configured to suction the ink in the at least one ink receptor through the opening with the at least one suction nozzle,
wherein the at least one ink receptor is movable with respect to the at least one suction nozzle.

2. The inkjet printer according to claim 1 , wherein
the at least one inkjet head comprises inkjet heads,
the at least one ink receptor comprises ink receptors corresponding to the inkjet heads, respectively,
the at least one suction nozzle comprises suction nozzles corresponding to the ink receptors, respectively, and
the suction unit comprises:
a negative pressure tank shared by the suction nozzles and in which a negative pressure is generated for suctioning the ink in the ink receptors by the suction nozzles, the negative pressure tank configured to store the ink suctioned by the suction nozzles;
an air pump shared by the suction nozzles and configured to generate the negative pressure in the negative pressure tank; and
an ink suction passage connecting the suction nozzles with the negative pressure tank.

Assignees

• Riso Kagaku Corp

Inventors

• Katada Yasuhiro
• Nishiyama Akira
• Nakamura Shunta
• Tsujino Naoto

Classifications

• B41J2/16523 Primary

  Waste ink transport from caps or spittoons, e.g. by suction (Collecting or collectors of waste ink B41J2/1721) · CPC title

• B41J2/16505

  Caps, spittoons or covers for cleaning or preventing drying out · CPC title

• B41J2/2103

  Features not dealing with the colouring process per se, e.g. construction of printers or heads, driving circuit adaptations · CPC title

• B41J2002/1742

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B41J2002/16573

  Cleaning process logic, e.g. for determining type or order of cleaning processes · CPC title