Printer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11130347-B2
Application number	US-202016785716-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 10, 2020
Priority date	Feb 12, 2019
Publication date	Sep 28, 2021
Grant date	Sep 28, 2021

Abstract

Provided is a printer including an ink tank, a print head performing printing by using ink in the ink tank, a light source provided at the substrate and irradiating the ink tank with light from a side of the ink tank, a photoelectric conversion device provided at the substrate and detecting light incident from the ink tank in a period during which the light source emits light, and a processing unit detecting an amount of ink based on an output of the photoelectric conversion device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A printer comprising:
an ink tank;
a print head performing printing by using ink in the ink tank;
a substrate;
a light source provided on the substrate and irradiating the ink tank with light from a side of the ink tank;
a photoelectric conversion device provided on the substrate and detecting light incident from the ink tank in a period during which the light source emits light;
a light shielding wall provided on the substrate between the light source and the photoelectric conversion device; and
a processing unit detecting an amount of ink in the ink tank based on an output of the photoelectric conversion device.

2. The printer according to claim 1 , wherein
the photoelectric conversion device is a linear image sensor.

3. The printer according to claim 2 , wherein
the linear image sensor is provided such that a longitudinal direction of the image sensor corresponds to a vertical direction.

4. The printer according to claim 2 , further comprising:
a second linear image sensor provided on a longitudinal direction side of the linear image sensor.

5. The printer according to claim 1 , wherein
the light source is disposed in a first direction which is a horizontal direction with respect to the photoelectric conversion device.

6. The printer according to claim 1 , wherein
at least a portion, facing the photoelectric conversion device, of an inner wall of the ink tank has higher ink repellency than an outer wall of the ink tank.

7. The printer according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a second substrate provided with the processing unit and an analog front end (AFE), wherein
the AFE performs analog-to-digital conversion of an analog signal from the photoelectric conversion device.

8. The printer according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a second substrate provided with the processing unit, wherein
the processing unit outputs a control signal for controlling the photoelectric conversion device.

9. The printer according to claim 1 , wherein
the ink tank includes a filling port into which the ink is filled by a user and a discharging port for discharging the ink toward the print head, and
the substrate is closer to the discharging port than to the filling port.

10. The printer according to claim 9 , further comprising:
a window portion for visually recognizing ink in the ink tank, wherein
the window portion is closer to the filling port than to the discharging port.

11. The printer according to claim 1 , wherein
a plurality of the ink tanks are arranged in a first direction, and
the processing unit detects an amount of ink in each of the plurality of ink tanks based on an output of the photoelectric conversion device by relatively moving the substrate and the ink tanks in the first direction.

Assignees

• Seiko Epson Corp

Inventors

• Netsu Takahiro

Classifications

• B41J2002/17583

  using vibration or ultra-sons for ink level indication · CPC title

• B41J2/1752

  Mounting within the printer · CPC title

• B41J2002/17573

  using optical means for ink level indication · CPC title

• G01F23/292

  Light {, e.g. infrared or ultraviolet} · CPC title

• B41J2/17566 Primary

  Ink level or ink residue control · CPC title