Recording apparatus with an electric field forming section

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10543688-B2
Application number	US-201816030454-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 9, 2018
Priority date	Jul 12, 2017
Publication date	Jan 28, 2020
Grant date	Jan 28, 2020

Abstract

A recording apparatus includes an electric field forming section including a conductive member and configured to form an electric field, and the conductive member includes at least one first portion and a second portion, each of the at least one first portion being disposed at a position being nearer the recording head than a position of the second portion and included in a corresponding one of at least one liquid discarding region each of which, in an execution of borderless recording, is used for the ejection of the liquid onto an outside of a corresponding one of at least one edge whose position corresponds to each of at least one predetermined size of a medium, the second portion being disposed in a recording region other than the at least one liquid discarding region.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A recording apparatus comprising:
a recording head including nozzles through which liquid is ejected onto a transported medium; and
an electric field forming section including a conductive member and configured to, upon supply of a voltage to the conductive member, form an electric field between a nozzle forming face of the recording head and a nozzle facing portion facing the nozzle forming face,
wherein the conductive member includes at least one first portion and a second portion, each of the at least one first portion being disposed at a position being nearer the recording head than a position of the second portion and included in a corresponding one of at least one liquid discarding region which, in an execution of borderless recording for ejecting the liquid onto both of an outside and an inside of each of at least one edge among edges of the medium, is used for the ejection of the liquid onto the outside of a corresponding one of the at least one edge whose position corresponds to each of at least one predetermined size of the medium, the second portion being disposed in a recording region other than the at least one liquid discarding region,
wherein a strength of the electric field associated with the at least one first portion is greater than a strength of the electric field associate with the second portion with a constant voltage applied to the conductive member.

2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a first absorbing member provided on a side of the nozzle facing portion and configured to absorb the liquid.

3. The recording apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the conductive member is provided between the first absorbing member and the recording head.

4. The recording apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a carriage including a bottom face portion provided with at least one portion through which the nozzle forming face of the recording head is exposed, the carriage being configured to reciprocate in a scanning direction of the recording head; and
a second absorbing member provided within a region of the reciprocation of the carriage and configured to absorb the liquid,
wherein the carriage is configured to be displaced in a direction in which the nozzle forming face advances/retracts relative to the nozzle facing portion, and has an advanced state in which at least one portion of the bottom face portion is in contact with the second absorbing member, and a retracted state in which the bottom face portion is retracted from a position of the advanced state to a position away from the second absorbing member.

5. The recording apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein, within the region of the reciprocation of the carriage, the second absorbing member is disposed on a second end side located opposite a first end side on which a home position of the carriage is provided, and
wherein, in the advanced state, the second absorbing member is in contact with a portion constituting the bottom face portion of the carriage and located further toward the second end side than the nozzle forming face.

6. The recording apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a recording unit including a bottom face portion provided with at least one portion through which the nozzle forming face of the recording head is exposed,
wherein a concave and convex shaped portion configured to retain the liquid utilizing surface tension is provided in at least one portion of the bottom face portion of the recording unit.

7. The recording apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a recording unit including a bottom face portion provided with at least one portion through which the nozzle forming face of the recording head is exposed,
wherein at least one groove portion is provided in at least one portion of the bottom face portion of the recording unit, and a third absorbing member is provided in the bottom face portion, and
wherein the at least one groove portion is configured to guide liquid having been adhered on the bottom face portion to the third absorbing member.

8. The recording apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a second conductive member is provided between the recording head and the conductive member.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Ito Tatsuya
• Yoshino Satoshi
• Sato Makoto
• Tamai Kensuke

Classifications

• B41J29/13

  Cases or covers · CPC title

• B41J2/14314

  Structure of ink jet print heads with electrostatically actuated membrane · CPC title

• B41J2/16517 Primary

  Cleaning of print head nozzles (B41J2/16505, B41J2/1707 take precedence) · CPC title

• B41J2/095

  electric field-control type · CPC title

• B41J11/0065 Primary

  Means for printing without leaving a margin on at least one edge of the copy material, e.g. edge-to-edge printing · CPC title