Liquid discharge apparatus
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorMikio Ogawa
Life of this patent
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Abstract
There is provided a liquid discharge apparatus including a liquid discharge head, a carriage, a cap, and a cap moving mechanism configured to locate the cap in a capping position and in an uncapping position. The cap moving mechanism has a moving member configured to move integrally with the cap in a first direction, a carriage locker, and a restraint portion configured to restrain the moving member from rotating about an axis orthogonal to the first direction. The restraint portion restrains the moving member from rotating such that when the cap arrives in the uncapping position, the rotating range of the carriage locker does not overlap with the carriage in a scanning direction.
Claims15
A liquid discharge apparatus comprising:
- a liquid discharge head including a nozzle surface having a nozzle;
- a carriage mounting the liquid discharge head thereon and being movable in a first direction;
- a cap configured to contact with the liquid discharge head to cover the nozzle;
- and
- a cap moving mechanism configured to move the cap in a second direction intersecting the nozzle surface to locate the cap in a capping position in contact with the liquid discharge head to cover the nozzle, and in an uncapping position separated away from the liquid discharge head, the cap moving mechanism including:
- a moving member holding the cap to be rotatable about a first rotational axis orthogonal to the nozzle surface and configured to move integrally with the cap in the second direction;
- a carriage locker provided on the moving member to rotate integrally with the moving member and configured to restrain the carriage from moving in the first direction, the carriage locker overlapping with the carriage in the first direction with the cap in the capping position, and not overlapping with the carriage in the first direction with the cap in the uncapping position;
- and
- a restraint portion configured to restrain the moving member from rotating about a second rotational axis orthogonal to the second direction,
- wherein the restraint portion restrains the moving member from rotating such that when the cap arrives in the uncapping position, a rotating range of the carriage locker rotated with the moving member does not overlap with the carriage in the first direction.
A liquid discharge apparatus comprising:
- a liquid discharge head including a nozzle surface having a nozzle;
- a carriage mounting the liquid discharge head thereon and being movable in a first direction;
- a cap configured to contact with the liquid discharge head to cover the nozzle;
- and
- a cap moving mechanism configured to move the cap in a second direction intersecting the nozzle surface to locate the cap in a capping position in contact with the liquid discharge head to cover the nozzle, and in an uncapping position separated away from the liquid discharge head, the cap moving mechanism including:
- a moving member holding the cap to be rotatable within the nozzle surface and to move integrally with the cap in the second direction;
- a carriage locker provided on the moving member, the carriage locker overlapping with the carriage in the first direction with the cap in the capping position, and not overlapping with the carriage in the first direction with the cap in the uncapping position;
- and
- a base member supporting the moving member to be movable in the second direction, the base member including a gap in the first direction between the base member and the moving member,
- wherein the carriage locker includes an interspace in the first direction between the carriage locker and the carriage with the cap in the capping position, and
- wherein the gap in the first direction between the base member and the moving member is smaller than the interspace in the first direction between the carriage locker and the carriage with the cap in the capping position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.