Maintenance method for discharge unit
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorsTatsuya Teramoto, Taki Hashimoto
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Abstract
Provided is a maintenance method for a discharge unit which has a nozzle hole and plasticizes a material containing a thermoplastic resin to generate a plasticized material. This maintenance method includes a heating step of heating a material or a plasticized material present in a flow path which communicates with a nozzle hole and through which the material or the plasticized material passes at a temperature equal to or higher than the thermal decomposition temperature of the material or the plasticized material, and a releasing step of releasing the material or the plasticized material thermally decomposed in the heating step from the flow path.
Claims9
A maintenance method for a discharge unit, the discharge unit including a nozzle hole and being configured to generate a plasticized material by plasticizing a material containing a thermoplastic resin, the method comprising:
- heating the material or the plasticized material present in a flow path communicating with the nozzle hole and through which the material or the plasticized material passes, at a temperature not less than a thermal decomposition temperature of the material or the plasticized material, the discharge unit includes a discharge adjustment unit disposed in the flow path and configured to adjust the opening area of the flow path;
- and
- releasing, from the flow path, the material or the plasticized material thermally decomposed in the heating by
- closing the flow path using the discharge adjustment unit until a pressure in the flow path reaches a first specified value from a value lower than the first specified value;
- and
- opening the flow path using the discharge adjustment unit when the pressure exceeds the first specified value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.