Head maintenance mechanism for ink jet printer and ink jet printer incorporating the same
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorAtsushi Nishioka
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A head cap is reciprocally movable between a capping position for covering nozzles of a print head and a retracted position separated from the nozzle surface. A pump is connected to the head cap. A pump gear is rotated by a drive source to drive the pump. A cylindrical cam is reciprocally rotatable between a first position and a second position to reciprocally move the head cap. A frictional clutch rotates the cylindrical cam together with the pump gear, but rotates only the pump gear when the cylindrical cam reaches each one of the first position and the second position.
Claims20
A maintenance mechanism for a print head having a nozzle surface in which are formed a plurality of nozzles, comprising:
- a head cap, reciprocally movable between a capping position for covering the nozzles and a retracted position separated from the nozzle surface;
- a pump, connected to the head cap;
- a drive source;
- a pump gear, rotated by the drive source to drive the pump;
- a cylindrical cam, reciprocally rotatable between a first position and a second position to reciprocally move the head cap;
- and
- a frictional clutch, which rotates the cylindrical cam together with the pump gear, but rotates only the pump gear when the cylindrical cam reaches each one of the first position and the second position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.