Liquid circulation apparatus and liquid discharge apparatus
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorYuuta AOKI
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A liquid circulation apparatus includes: a head to: discharge a liquid from a nozzle; and circulate the liquid that is not discharged from the nozzle; and a liquid container to: store the liquid to be supplied to the head; and store the liquid collected from the head; a waste liquid container to store waste liquid of the liquid collected from the head; a first liquid feeder to feed the liquid from the liquid container to the head in a first feeding direction; a second liquid feeder to feed the liquid from the head to the liquid container or the waste liquid container in a second feeding direction; and a filter disposed at least: between the first liquid feeder and the head; or between the second liquid feeder and the head.
Claims7
A liquid circulation apparatus comprising:
- a head to:
- discharge a liquid from a nozzle;
- and
- circulate the liquid that is not discharged from the nozzle;
- and
- a liquid container to:
- store the liquid to be supplied to the head;
- and
- store the liquid collected from the head;
- a waste liquid container to store waste liquid of the liquid collected from the head;
- a first liquid feeder to feed the liquid from the liquid container to the head in a first feeding direction;
- a second liquid feeder to feed the liquid from the head to the liquid container or the waste liquid container in a second feeding direction;
- a filter disposed at least:
- betweenthe first liquid feeder and the head;
- or
- between the second liquid feeder and the head;
- and
- a three-way valve disposed:
- between the first liquid feeder and the waste liquid container;
- or
- between the second liquid feeder and the waste liquid container,
- to switch a path between:
- a circulation path to circulate the liquid from the head to the liquid container;
- or
- a waste liquid path to discharge a waste liquid from the filter to the waste liquid container.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.