Printer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11007777-B2
Application number	US-201916656588-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 18, 2019
Priority date	Dec 26, 2018
Publication date	May 18, 2021
Grant date	May 18, 2021

Abstract

A printer is provided to includes an ink head; a placement unit; a positional reference arranged near the placement unit as a reference for performing position adjustment in the up-down direction; and a first reflection member configured to be disposed at a lateral position separated from the placement unit toward a lateral side so that a position of the first reflection member in the up-down direction overlaps the positional reference and the printing target in a lateral view, wherein the first reflection member reflects light arriving from a lateral surface of the printing target and the positional reference, and an upper end of a reflective surface which reflects light is positioned above the positional reference and a lower end is positioned below the positional reference.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A printer, comprising:
a housing;
an ink head that is configured to be movable in a horizontal direction and applies ink on a printing target;
a placement unit on which the printing target is placed;
a positional reference that is arranged near the placement unit and is used as a reference for performing position adjustment of the printing target in an up-down direction; and
a first reflection member for visually recognizing the printing target, configured to be disposed at a lateral position of the housing separated from the placement unit toward a lateral side so that a position of the first reflection member in the up-down direction overlaps the positional reference and the printing target in a lateral view, wherein the first reflection member reflects light arriving from a lateral surface of the printing target and the positional reference, and an upper end of a reflective surface which reflects light is positioned above the positional reference and a lower end of the reflective surface is positioned below the positional reference,
or the first reflection member for visually recognizing the printing target, being configured to be disposed at an upper position of the housing separated from the placement unit toward an upper side so that a position of the first reflection member in the horizontal direction overlaps the printing target in a plan view, wherein the first reflection member reflects light arriving from a top surface of the printing target,
wherein the housing covers the ink head, the placement unit, the positional reference, and the first reflection member.

2. The printer according to claim 1 ,
wherein when the first reflection member is disposed at the lateral position, the first reflection member is disposed at a position that does not overlap a region in which the ink head is movable in a plan view.

3. The printer according to claim 1 , further comprising a second reflection member that is disposed at a position below the positional reference and a position separated from the placement unit toward the lateral side and upwardly reflects light reflected from the first reflection member, when the first reflection member is disposed at the lateral position.

4. The printer according to claim 2 , further comprising a second reflection member that is disposed at a position below the positional reference and a position separated from the placement unit toward the lateral side and upwardly reflects light reflected from the first reflection member, when the first reflection member is disposed at the lateral position.

5. The printer according to claim 1 , wherein when the first reflection member is disposed at the lateral position, the top surface and the lateral surface of the printing target and the positional reference are configured to be visually recognized from above through a window portion that is arranged on an upper side of the housing or imaged from above by an imaging unit arranged on the upper side of the housing.

6. The printer according to claim 2 , wherein when the first reflection member is disposed at the lateral position, the top surface and the lateral surface of the printing target and the positional reference are configured to be visually recognized from above through a window portion that is arranged on an upper side of the housing or imaged from above by an imaging unit arranged on the upper side of the housing.

7. The printer according to claim 3 , wherein when the first reflection member is disposed at the lateral position, the top surface and the lateral surface of the printing target and the positional reference are configured to be visually recognized from above through a window portion that is arranged on an upper side of the housing or imaged from above by an imaging unit arranged on the upper side of the housing.

8. The printer according to claim 4 ,
wherein when the first reflection member is disposed at the lateral position, the top surface and the lateral surface of the printing target and the positional reference are configured to be visually recognized or imaged from above.

9. The printer according to claim 1 ,
wherein when the first reflection member is disposed at the upper position, the position of the first reflection member in the up-down direction is disposed at a position above an upper end of the ink head.

10. The printer according to claim 1 , further comprising a third reflection member that is disposed at a position below the positional reference in the up-down direction and a position separated from the placement unit toward the lateral side and that laterally reflects light reflected from the first reflection member, when the first reflection member is disposed at the upper position.

11. The printer according to claim 5 , further comprising a third reflection member that is disposed at a position below the positional reference in the up-down direction and a position separated from the placement unit toward the lateral side and that laterally reflects light reflected from the first reflection member, when the first reflection member is disposed at the upper position.

12. The printer according to claim 9 ,
wherein when the first reflection member is disposed at the upper position, the top surface and the lateral surface of the printing target and the positional reference are configured to be visually recognized from the lateral side through a window portion that is arranged on the lateral side of the housing or imaged from the lateral side by an imaging unit arranged on the lateral side of the housing.

13. The printer according to claim 10 ,
wherein when the first reflection member is disposed at the upper position, the top surface and the lateral surface of the printing target and the positional reference are configured to be visually recognized from the lateral side through a window portion that is arranged on the lateral side of the housing or imaged from the lateral side by an imaging unit arranged on the upper side of the housing.

14. The printer according to claim 11 ,
wherein when the first reflection member is disposed at the upper position, the top surface and the lateral surface of the printing target and the positional reference are configured to be visually recognized from the lateral side through a window portion that is arranged on the lateral side of the housing or imaged from the lateral side by an imaging unit arranged on the upper side of the housing.

15. The printer according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an illumination unit that is arranged in the housing and irradiates the printing target with illumination light; and
a control unit that controls on and off of the illumination light of the illumination unit based on operations for performing printing on the printing target.

16. The printer according to claim 2 , further comprising:
an illumination unit that is arranged in the housing and irradiates the printing target with illumination light; and
a control unit that controls on and off of the illumination light of the illumination unit based on operations for performing printing on the printing target.

17. The printer according to claim 1 , further comprising an imaging unit that is arranged on an upper side of the housing and is configured to be capable of imaging the top surface and the lateral surface of the printing target and the positional reference from above, or that is arranged on a lateral side of the housing and is configured to be capable of imaging the top surface and the lateral surface of the printing target and the positional reference from the lat

Assignees

• Funai Electric Co

Inventors

• Hayashi Akira
• Takagi Masaaki

Classifications

• B41J3/4073

  Printing on three-dimensional objects not being in sheet or web form, e.g. spherical or cubic objects (B41J3/283, B41J3/286 take precedence; building up a 3D object using individual droplets from jetting heads B29C64/112) · CPC title

• A45D2029/005

  Printing or stamping devices for applying images or ornaments to nails · CPC title

• A45D29/00 Primary

  Manicuring or pedicuring implements · CPC title

• B41J29/02

  Framework · CPC title

• A45D29/22

  Finger-supports · CPC title