Liquid ejection apparatus
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorShotaro Iida
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A liquid ejection apparatus, including: a head having nozzles; a cap to cover the nozzles; a pump fluidically connected to the cap; a switcher for switching a state of the cap between a capping state and an uncapping state, and a controller configured to: determine a cap parameter relating to a cap evaporation rate being an evaporation rate of water in a remaining liquid remaining in the cap, in consideration of (i) an amount of water that moves from the liquid in the nozzles to the remaining liquid in the capping state and (ii) an amount of water that evaporates from the remaining liquid in the uncapping state; and control the head based on the determined cap parameter to perform a flushing for discharging the liquid from the nozzles.
Claims23
A liquid ejection apparatus, comprising:
- a liquid ejection head having nozzles;
- a cap configured to cover the nozzles;
- a pump fluidically connected to the cap;
- a switcher configured to switch a state of the cap between a capping state in which the cap contacts the liquid ejection head so as to cover the nozzles and an uncapping state in which the cap is spaced apart from the liquid ejection head;
- and
- a controller,
- wherein the controller is configured to:
- determine a cap parameter relating to a cap evaporation rate being an evaporation rate of water in a remaining liquid remaining in the cap, in consideration of (i) an amount of water that moves from the liquid in the nozzles to the remaining liquid in the capping state and (ii) an amount of water that evaporates from the remaining liquid in the uncapping state;
- and
- control the liquid ejection head based on the determined cap parameter so as to cause the liquid ejection head to perform a flushing for discharging the liquid from the nozzles.
A liquid ejection apparatus, comprising:
- a liquid ejection head having nozzles;
- a cap configured to cover the nozzles;
- a pump fluidically connected to the cap;
- a switcher configured to switch a state of the cap between a capping state in which the cap contacts the liquid ejection head so as to cover the nozzles and an uncapping state in which the cap is spaced apart from the liquid ejection head;
- and
- a controller,
- wherein the controller is configured to:
- determine a cap parameter relating to a cap evaporation rate being an evaporation rate of water in a remaining liquid remaining in the cap, in consideration of (i) an amount of water that moves from the liquid in the nozzles to the remaining liquid in the capping state and (ii) an amount of water that evaporates from the remaining liquid in the uncapping state;
- and
- control the switcher and the pump based on the determined cap parameter to switch the state of the cap to the capping state and thereafter discharge the liquid from the nozzles to the cap.
A liquid ejection apparatus, comprising:
- a liquid ejection head having nozzles;
- a cap configured to cover the nozzles;
- a first pump fluidically connected to the cap;
- a second pump fluidically connected to the liquid ejection head, the second pump configured to give a pressure for discharging the liquid from the nozzles;
- a switcher configured to switch a state of the cap between a capping state in which the cap contacts the liquid ejection head so as to cover the nozzles and an uncapping state in which the cap is spaced apart from the liquid ejection head;
- and
- a controller,
- wherein the controller is configured to:
- determine a cap parameter relating to a cap evaporation rate being an evaporation rate of water in a remaining liquid remaining in the cap, in consideration of (i) an amount of water that moves from the liquid in the nozzles to the remaining liquid in the capping state and (ii) an amount of water that evaporates from the remaining liquid in the uncapping state;
- and
- control the switcher and the second pump based on the determined cap parameter to switch the state of the cap to the capping state and thereafter discharge the liquid from the nozzles to the cap.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.