Ink replenishment container
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorsShun OYA, Tadahiro MIZUTANI, Tadashi WATANABE, Yuta KOIKE, Atsushi KOBAYASHI
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ink replenishment container includes an ink outlet forming portion, a valve that brings an internal flow path into either a fluid communication state or a fluid non-communication state, and a cap, wherein the cap includes a projection that presses a valve body in a second direction in a sealed state, a projection end portion of the projection takes a valve-closed position in a detachment process of the cap, and the cap includes a snap-fit portion that is locked to the ink outlet forming portion by a snap-fit in the sealed state.
Claims4
An ink replenishment container for replenishing ink in a printer, the ink replenishment container comprising:
- an ink accommodating portion configured to accommodate ink;
- an ink outlet forming portion having an outlet opening on a front end side opposite an ink accommodating portion side;
- a valve disposed in the ink outlet forming portion including the outlet opening and configured to bring an internal flow path through which the ink accommodating portion communicates with the outlet opening into either a fluid communication state or a fluid non-communication state;
- and
- a cap configured to take a sealed state in which the cap is attached to the ink outlet forming portion and the outlet opening is sealed and an unsealed state in which the sealing of the outlet opening is released,
- wherein the valve includes a seal member disposed on the front end side, a valve body configured and arranged to come into contact with and to be separated from the seal member, and a spring member configured to bias the valve body in a first direction toward the seal member,
- wherein the valve is brought into a closed state by bringing the valve body into contact with the seal member by the spring member, thereby bringing the internal flow path into the fluid non-communication state,
- wherein the cap includes a projection configured to press the valve body in a second direction opposite to the first direction in the sealed state, the projection having a projection end portion facing the valve body in the sealed state,
- wherein, at least in the sealed state, the valve is brought into an open state by the valve body being pressed in the second direction by the projection and being separated from the seal member, thereby bringing the internal flow path into the fluid communication state,
- wherein in a detachment process of detaching the cap from the ink outlet forming portion, in the unsealed state, the projection end portion takes a valve-closed position at which the valve is in the closed state, the valve-closed position being a position with respect to the ink outlet forming portion in an axial direction along the first direction, and
- wherein the cap includes a snap-fit portion configured to be locked to the ink outlet forming portion by a snap-fit in the sealed state.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.