Cleaner unit, printing apparatus, and method to clean a printing apparatus
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsAkiko Niimi, Kazuyuki Kondo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A cleaner unit to clean an inkjet head, ejecting ink onto a recording medium, and an ink conveyer tube, conveying the ink to the inkjet head, of an inkjet printer in cleaning liquid, is provided. The cleaner unit includes an air-liquid two-phased cleaner conveyer tube, which conveys air-liquid two-phased cleaner, and a cleaner spout, which is connected to an upstream-side end of the ink conveyer tube and to a downstream-side end of the air-liquid two-phased cleaner conveyer tube with respect to a fluid flow, and through which the air-liquid two-phased cleaner is supplied to the ink conveyer tube.
Claims24
A cleaner unit to clean an inkjet head, ejecting ink onto a recording medium, and an ink conveyer tube, conveying the ink to the inkjet head, of an inkjet printer in cleaning liquid, comprising:
- an air-liquid two-phased cleaner conveyer tube, which conveys air-liquid two-phased cleaner;
- and
- a cleaner spout, which is connected to an upstream-side end of the ink conveyer tube and to a downstream-side end of the air-liquid two-phased cleaner conveyer tube with respect to a fluid flow, and through which the air-liquid two-phased cleaner is supplied to the ink conveyer tube.
An inkjet printing apparatus, comprising:
- an inkjet head, which is configured to eject ink to form an image on a recording medium;
- an ink supplying unit, which is configured to contain the ink to be supplied to the inkjet head;
- an ink conveyer tube, which is configured to connect the ink supplying unit with the inkjet head and convey the ink to the inkjet head;
- and
- a cleaner unit to clean the inkjet head and the ink conveyer tube in cleaning liquid,
- wherein the cleaner unit includes:
- an air-liquid two-phased cleaner conveyer tube, which conveys air-liquid two-phased cleaner;
- and
- a cleaner spout, which is connected to an upstream-side end of the ink conveyer tube and to a downstream-side end of the air-liquid two-phased cleaner conveyer tube with respect to a fluid flow, and through which the air-liquid two-phased cleaner is supplied to the ink conveyer tube.
A method to clean an inkjet head, ejecting ink onto a recording medium, and an ink conveyer tube, conveying the ink to the inkjet head, of an inkjet printer in cleaning liquid, by:
- blending air in the cleaner liquid to generate air-liquid two-phased cleaner;
- and
- supplying the air-liquid two-phased cleaner to the ink conveyer tube and the inkjet head.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.