Ink Supplying Mechanism

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an ink supplying mechanism which uses an ink cassette and more particularly an ink cassette which accommodates a plurality of ink containers as a multi-color ink container.

2. Description of the Prior Art

In the prior art, when multi-color printing is effected by a multi-color ink container, an ink cassette having a set of color ink containers is used. In such an arrangement, however, loading and unloading of the ink containers are troublesome and coupling units for the ink containers and an ink supply passage are of large size and hence an ink cassette is of large size.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink supplying mechanism which is easy to exchange and fill with multi-color ink.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an ink supplying mechanism which is small in size and simple in construction.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an ink supplying mechanism which prevents misconnection of ink containers of different colors to connecting tubes.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an ink supplying mechanism which facilitates the manufacture of ink containers.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an ink supplying mechanism which effectively uses ink.

The above and other objects of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention.

FIGS. 1A and 1B show a sectional view and a partial enlarged sectional view of an ink container structure;

FIG. 2A shows a perspective view of a multi-color ink container having ink containers shown in FIG. 1 integrated in one unit;

FIG. 2B shows a perspective view of an outer aspect of a separate color ink container;

FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of an outer aspect of an ink cassette in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4 shows a sectional view taken along a line G--G shown in FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 shows a sectional view taken along a line F--F shown in FIG. 4.

FIGS. 1A and 1B show a flexible ink container 1 of a flat bag structure for storing ink 1' therein. The container 1 is made of a three-ply laminated flexible film as shown in FIG. 1B, that is, it comprises an external protective plastic thin film 1a made of nylon having a thickness of 5-10 .mu.m, an aluminum foil 1b having a thickness of approximately 10 .mu.m for preventing evaporation of the ink and denaturation of the ink by ultraviolet rays and an internal main bag 1c made of a polyethylene thin film having a thickness of 50-70 .mu.m. An ink outlet tube 3 for guiding the ink 1' outward is inserted in the ink container 1. The ink outlet tube 3 is made of polyethylene and it is thermally fused when a portion 2 is sealed by thermal fusing.

Referring to FIG. 2A, a plurality of ink containers 1A, 1B, 1C and 1D constructed as described above are integrally formed with the thermal fused areas 2a and 2b connected together. The respective ink containers contain inks of different colors such as black, yellow, cyan and mazenta. The ink outlet tubes 3A, 3B, 3C and 3D inserted in the respective ink containers are arranged at off-centered positions of the respective ink containers. More specifically, they are arranged such that distances between adjacent ink outlet tubes alternately assume a, b, a. While only four ink containers are shown in FIG. 2A, there may be any number of ink containers such as 6 or 8 and the distances between adjacent ink outlet tubes alternately assume a, b, a, b, a . . . . Narrower fused areas 2a and wider fused areas 2b are alternately formed between adjacent ink containers.

As shown in FIG. 2B, the ink containers may not be formed as a unit but four separate ink containers 1A', 1B', 1C' and 1D' (not shown) for respective colors may be provided.

The multi-color ink containers are accommodated in an ink cassette case 4 shown in FIGS. 3 to 5. The ink cassette case 4 comprises an upper case 4A and a lower case 4B, and it is sectioned into two chambers by a partition 4C fixed to one of the cases, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. The ink containers 1A and 1B are accommodated in a space defined by the upper case 4A and the partition 4C, and the ink containers 1C and 1D are accommodated in a space defined by the partition 4C and the lower case 4B. The upper case 4A has stoppers 8 for the insertion of the ink cassette case 4 into an ink supply passage (not shown). A base (not shown) of the ink cassette case 4 has guides 7 which guide the ink cassette case 4 to an ink supplying position and permit the loading of the ink cassette case 4 only when the ink cassette case 4 is inserted in a proper orientation. Connecting tubes (hollow pipes) 6A, 6B, 6C and 6D which are connected to the ink outlet tubes of the ink containers when the ink cassette case 4 is loaded in the loading position are fixed to the base of the ink supplying mechanism. A sealing elastic coupling member 5 is mounted on a surface opposing the connecting tubes 6A-6D of the ink cassette case 4. It functions to seal the outlet tubes 3A-3D of the ink containers as seen from FIG. 4. Also as seen from FIG. 4, the elastic coupling member 5 and the ink containers 1A-1D are connected at four thin tube connecting areas 5A at a rear end of the elastic coupling member 5. Gaps 5B of the elastic coupling member 5 are located at abutting positions to the connecting tubes 6A-6D so that the connecting tubes 6A-6D are connected to the outlet tubes 3A-3B through the elastic connecting member 5 as the ink cassette case 4 is moved. Since the tube connecting areas 5A are thin, they are readily deformed. In order to prevent the leakage of the ink when the tubes 6A-6D are removed, a compression force is applied to the elastic coupling member 5 by clamping frames 10 and 11 integrally formed in the upper case 4A and the lower case 4B, respectively, through bolts 9. When the ink cassette case 4 is moved along the guides 7 toward the connecting tubes 6A-6D, the connecting tubes 6A-6D pass through the sealing elastic coupling member 5 and thrust into the outlet tubes 3A-3D so that the inks of different colors contained in the ink containers 1A-1D are supplied to the ink supply passage. While the ink containers are stacked in two stages as shown in FIG. 5, the height is approximately 20 mm and a difference of levels of inks in the upper and lower ink containers is approximately 10 mm. Accordingly, it does not affect the supply of the inks. Since the ink cassette case 4 is directed to the connecting tubes 6A-6D by the stoppers 8, there is no risk of supplying wrong color inks.

Thus, the multi-color inks can be readily supplied from the ink cassette case to an ink jet printer. By connecting the rear ends of the connecting tubes 6A-6D to a vacuum pump and coupling the ink containers by a three-way cock at the positions shown in FIG. 3 when the inks are filled, the inks of different colors can be readily filled. When the inks of the four colors are not evenly used in color printing, the quantities of the respective inks may be adjusted so that the quantities of disposed inks when the ink cassette is exchanged can be minimized. While the respective ink containers contains inks of different colors in the illustrated embodiment, the ink of a particular color (e.g. black) which is frequently used may be contained in two or more ink containers. In this case, the waste of the unused inks is minimized and the inks can be efficiently used.

In the present invention, since the flat ink containers are sealed by the elastic coupling member to form the multi-color ink container, the levels of the inks in the ink containers which are arranged parallel to the bottom plane of the ink jet printer are substantially same. Accordingly, even when the quantities of the inks are small, the change of the ink levels is as small as 10 mm Aq. Thus, static pressures to the ends of the nozzles are equal and the inks are stably injected.

Since the ink cassette can be loaded and unloaded by a coupling member of a simple construction and the connecting tubes leading to the supply passages, the loading and unloading of the ink cassette are easy and the structure therefor is very compact.

Since the cassette case is sealed by the coupling member when the inks are filled, the inks of different colors can be readily filled.