Image Forming Device Capable Of Stably Supporting Carriage
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKenji Samoto, Noriyuki Kawamata
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A downward component force of a tensile force exerted on a timing belt at a belt coupling part and the weight of a carriage act upon a first sliding surface of a first guide member and a second sliding surface of a second guide member via a first sliding protrusion and second sliding protrusions. Since the center of gravity of the carriage is located between the first sliding protrusion and the second sliding protrusions, the carriage can be stably supported by the first and second guide members while the carriage remains stationary or moves at a constant speed in a main scanning direction.
Claims6
An image forming device comprising:
- a recording head having a nozzle surface;
- a carriage that mounts the recording head and is reciprocatable in a first direction;
- a first guide member having a first sliding surface extending in a horizontal direction;
- a second guide member having a second sliding surface extending in the horizontal direction, the second guide member being disposed on a downstream side of the first guide member with respect to a second direction orthogonal to the first direction;
- and
- an endless belt that extends in the first direction above the second guide member and is movable in the first direction, wherein:
- the first sliding surface and the second sliding surface slidably support the carriage and extend parallel to the nozzle surface;
- the carriage is provided with a first protruding member that contacts the first sliding surface and a second protruding member that contacts the second sliding surface;
- both the first protruding member and the second protruding member protrude downward from a bottom side of the carriage;
- and
- the carriage and the endless belt are coupled to each other at a coupling point located between the first protruding member and the second protruding member with respect to the second direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.