Image forming apparatus equipped with maintenance mechanism
AssigneeOlympus Corporation
InventorTakahisa Yamada
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The image forming apparatus is an image forming apparatus equipped with a maintenance mechanism that is divided into a plurality of ink pans, which are connected to each other at an edge of each of which by means of pins, on a bottom surface of each of which a plurality of caps are arranged, which at the time of storage, are stored from guide rails so as to be stored at a position beneath a conveyance path in a V-shaped state, the caps in the ink pans being opposed to each other in a V-shaped state, which are drawn out horizontally along the guide rails to a position beneath the recording head group, and in each of which the caps are allocated to the nozzle surfaces of the recording heads by a hoisting and lowering operation of a belt conveying unit.
Claims12
An image forming apparatus equipped with a maintenance mechanism comprising:
- a recording head group including a plurality of recording heads in a first direction;
- a recording medium conveying mechanism which conveys a recording medium on a conveyance path in a state where the mechanism is opposed to the recording head group;
- an ink supply route for supplying ink to the recording head group;
- a plurality of sealing members to be in contact with nozzle surfaces in each of which an ink ejection nozzle of each of the recording heads is formed, and arranged in the first direction;
- and
- a holding member which holds the plural sealing members divided into groups, which can be moved at a position or positions between the groups so as to be folded into an accordion-shape, and which is configured to be able to be moved between a nozzle surface sealing position, and a retraction position at which the holding member is stored beneath the conveyance path so as to be stored, and which is in an expanded state in the sealing position, and which is in a folded state in the retraction position.
An image forming apparatus equipped with a maintenance mechanism comprising:
- a recording head group in which a plurality of recording heads which ejects ink from nozzles toward a recording medium being conveyed so as to form an image is arranged;
- a conveying mechanism which conveys the recording medium through a predetermined conveyance path;
- and
- a maintenance mechanism that moves a holding member to which sealing members which seal the nozzles of the recording heads are fixed, and which holding member is divided into a plurality of sections so as to be folded between a sealing position and a retraction position, wherein the sealing position is a position the sealing members seal the nozzles with the holding member being in an expanded state, and the retraction position is a position at which the holding member is stored beneath the conveyance path in a folded state where the sealing members are opposed to each other in an inclined manner between the sections of the holding member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.