Ink Cartridge
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorYoshiharu Aruga
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ink cartridge includes an ink pack 21 which discharges ink from an ink outlet 22 upon reception of pressure by air pressure; an outer case 20a, 20b which houses the ink pack 21 therein with the ink outlet 22 exposed so that the ink pack 21 can be pressurized by the air pressure, and includes a pressurized air inlet 23 that is connectable to an air source for pressurizing the ink pack 21; and a pressure adjusting unit 30 which is housed in the outer case and discharges air in the outer case to the outside so that pressure in space of the outer case is kept at a setting value. The setting value of the pressure adjusting unit 30 is set to an optimum value for each ink cartridge, whereby the ink pack can be pressurized in an optimum state regardless of the air pressure from the pressurized air inlet 23.
Claims5
A sub-tank comprising:
- an ink inlet for receiving ink;
- an ink outlet for supplying ink;
- an ink storage chamber connected to said ink outlet;
- a valve housing chamber connected to said ink inlet;
- a valve disposed in said valve housing chamber;
- an urging unit disposed in said valve housing chamber to urge said valve;
- and
- a communicating hole formed in a partition wall between said ink storage chamber and said valve housing chamber toward which said valve is pressed by said urging unit;
- wherein when a pressure in the ink storage chamber is above a predetermined value, and said valve seals said communicating hole;
- wherein when the pressure in the ink storage chamber is below a predetermined value, said valve does not seal said communicating hole, and ink flows through said communicating hole from said valve housing chamber to said ink storage chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.