Liquid discharger including a head, a cap, a belt, and a belt cleaner

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9849678-B2
Application number	US-201615282582-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2016
Priority date	Oct 7, 2015
Publication date	Dec 26, 2017
Grant date	Dec 26, 2017

Abstract

A liquid discharger includes a head to discharge liquid droplets, a cap to cover a nozzle face of the head; a cap mover to move the cap to a capping position at which the cap faces the nozzle face of the head or to move the cap to an evacuation position at which the cap does not face the nozzle face of the head. Further, there is a belt arranged to face and clean the cap at the evacuation position, the belt having a width and length enough to cover whole area of a rim of the cap; a conveyer to drive the belt, and a belt cleaner which faces the belt to clean the belt.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A liquid discharger, comprising:
a head to discharge liquid droplets;
a cap to cover a nozzle face of the head;
a cap mover to move the cap to a capping position at which the cap faces the nozzle face of the head or to move the cap to an evacuation position at which the cap does not face the nozzle face of the head;
a belt which faces and cleans the cap at the evacuation position, the belt having a width and length to at least cover an entire rim of the cap;
a conveyer to drive the belt; and
a belt cleaner which faces the belt to clean the belt.

2. The liquid discharger as claimed in claim wherein:
the cap mover moves the cap laterally to the capping position or to the evacuation position, and
the cap mover moves the cap vertically until the rim of the cap contacts the belt when the cap is positioned at the evacuation position.

3. The liquid discharger as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the belt moves vertically toward the cap until the rim of the cap contacts the belt.

4. The liquid discharger as claimed in claim 1 , wherein both of the cap and the belt move vertically toward each other until the rim of the cap contacts the belt.

5. The liquid discharger as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
a controller to keep the cap and the belt in contact with each other when the cap is being positioned at the evacuation position.

6. The liquid discharger as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
a controller to control the liquid discharger such that the conveyer does not drive the belt while the rim of the cap contacting the belt.

7. The liquid discharger as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the belt includes an elastic and water-resistant material.

8. The liquid discharger as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a surface of the belt that contacts the cap includes a mesh shape.

9. The liquid discharger as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
a tensioner to adjust a tension applied to the belt.

10. The liquid discharger as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
a pressurizing plate that applies pressure on the belt against the cap from an inside of the belt.

11. The liquid discharger as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
an ejector to eject cleaning liquid on the belt, the ejector being disposed behind a position where an object attached on the belt arrives at the belt cleaner.

12. The liquid discharger as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
a charger to charge the belt, the charger disposed upstream side of the position where the belt contacts the cap in a belt convey direction;
a discharger to discharge electricity on the belt, the discharger disposed upstream side of the belt cleaner in a belt convey direction.

Assignees

• Sakai Keitaroh
• Osanai Toshitaka
• Akaishi Nobuyuki
• Morinaga Shigeru
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Sakai Keitaroh
• Osanai Toshitaka
• Akaishi Nobuyuki
• Morinaga Shigeru

Classifications

• B41J2/16511 Primary

  Constructions for cap positioning (B41J2/16547 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B41J2/16508 Primary

  connected with the printer frame · CPC title

• B41J2/16505 Primary

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