Ink jet recording apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorHaruo Uchida
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An ink jet recording apparatus incorporating a plurality of ink tanks that is independently exchangeable. An amount of ink suction for a suction recovery operation is changed and controlled based on the ink tank being exchanged. In this way, a small-sized apparatus operating at a low running cost is possible by saving and decreasing the ink amount discharged by controlling the ink discharge more than necessary during the suction recovery process after exchanging the ink tank.
Claims14
An ink jet recording apparatus for recording images onto a recording medium by a recording head having a plurality of ink tanks detachably mounted to the apparatus, wherein lengths of flow ducts from each of the ink tanks to discharge port arrays are different, comprising:
- a cap operable to cap the discharge port arrays;
- a generating unit connected to the cap and operable to suck ink from the discharge port arrays by generating negative pressure inside the cap capping the discharge port arrays;
- and
- a controller controlling the generating unit to change an amount of suction inside the cap capping the discharge port arrays based on the length of the flow duct corresponding to an exchanged ink tank.
A method for restoring ink in an ink jet recording apparatus for recording images onto a recording medium by a recording head having a plurality of ink tanks detachably mounted to the apparatus, wherein lengths of flow ducts from each of the ink tanks to discharge port arrays are different, the apparatus including a cap, the method comprising the following steps:
- a capping step of capping the discharge port arrays with the cap;
- and
- a changing step of changing amounts of suction inside the cap capping the discharge port arrays based on the length of the flow duct corresponding to an exchanged ink tank.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.