Ink Jet Printer
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsAtsuhisa Nakashima, Susumu Kuzuya
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ink jet printer is provided, which intermittently dispenses cleaning liquid onto ink that is adhered to an endless belt that carries printing sheets. A cleaning liquid dispenser is driven by a rotator that rotates in association with the rotation of the endless belt. The rotation position of the rotator is set as a reference, in order to control the feed timing. In this way, a gap can be maintained between two printing sheets that are carried by the endless belt, ink can be jetted toward the gap, and cleaning liquid can be dispensed on the gap. A print process and a flushing process can be sequentially repeated.
Claims23
An ink jet printer comprising:
- an endless belt for carrying at least one printing sheet;
- a pair of rollers for rotating the endless belt;
- an ink jet head for jetting ink towards the printing sheet being carried by the endless belt and towards the endless belt;
- a scraper for removing ink adhered to the endless belt;
- a cleaning liquid dispenser provided between the ink jet head and the scraper;
- and
- a mechanical shifter that moves the dispenser between a first state in which the dispenser supplies the cleaning liquid onto the endless belt and a second state in which the dispenser does not supply the cleaning liquid onto the endless belt, wherein the mechanical shifter is driven in association with the rotation of the endless belt.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.