Ink container with plural ink chambers emptied sequentially, and recording apparatus having the same
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorKenichirou Hashimoto
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ink container includes at least one partition dividing the container into plural ink chambers connected in series through an ink path in each the partition; an air vent for communicating a first ink chamber with the atmosphere and an ink supply port for supplying ink from a second ink chamber; wherein the ink path in each the partition provides for an ink flow to the supply port that empties each the chamber in the series in turn as ink is supplied from the supply port; wherein the second ink chamber has a volume smaller than another ink chamber.
Claims23
An ink container comprising:
- at least one partition dividing said ink container into plural ink chambers including at least a first ink chamber and a second ink chamber, said partition defining an ink path connecting said plural ink chambers in series;
- an air vent for communicating said first ink chamber with atmosphere;
- and
- an ink supply port for supplying ink from said second ink chamber to outside;
- wherein said ink path includes an ink absorbing material and provides for an ink flow to said ink supply port that empties each of said plural ink chambers in said series sequentially as ink is supplied from said ink supply port,
- wherein said second chamber has a space that directly contains the ink and further has a wall, at least a portion of the wall comprising a light-transmissible material, and
- wherein said second ink chamber has a horizontally extending cross-sectional area which in use is smaller than that of at least one other of said plural ink chambers so that a change in an ink level in said second ink chamber due to consumption of the ink is greater than that in said one other chamber.
An ink jet recording apparatus for effecting recording on a recording material using ink ejection means for ejecting ink from a recording head, the apparatus comprising:
- an ink container for supplying ink to the recording head and having at least one partition dividing said ink container into plural ink chambers including at least a first ink chamber and a second ink chamber, said partition defining an ink path connecting said plural ink chambers in series;
- an air vent for communicating said first ink chamber with atmosphere;
- an ink supply port for supplying ink from said second ink chamber to said recording head;
- scanning means for scanningly moving the recording head relative to the recording material;
- driving means for driving the ink ejection means of said recording head, and
- detecting means for detecting whether a remaining amount of ink in said second ink chamber is smaller than a predetermined amount;
- wherein said ink path includes an ink absorbing material and provides for an ink flow to said ink supply port that empties each of said plural ink chambers in said series sequentially as ink is supplied from said ink supply port,
- wherein said second chamber has a space that directly contains the ink and further has a wall, at least a portion of the wall comprising a light-transmissible material, and
- wherein said second ink chamber has a horizontally extending cross-sectional area which in use is smaller than that of at least one other of said plural ink chambers so that a change in an ink level in said second ink chamber due to consumption of ink is greater than that in said one other chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.