Search

EP-4737123-A1 - LIQUID SUPPLY APPARATUS AND SYSTEM

EP4737123A1EP 4737123 A1EP4737123 A1EP 4737123A1EP-4737123-A1

Abstract

A liquid supply apparatus (100) includes a liquid container (200) including a containing part (201) having flexibility, and a connecting part (202) provided at an end portion of the containing part, a channel connected to the connecting part and configured to flow a liquid out of the liquid container, rotation means (120) for rotating the containing part with respect to the connecting part, regulating means (117) for regulating displacement of the connecting part in a direction crossing a connection direction between the connecting part and the channel.

Inventors

  • ISHIDA, YUJIRO
  • HANE, TAKUYA
  • UEDA, MASAHARU
  • SUZUKI, SEIJI
  • TAKAHASHI, RYUTARO
  • KURIHARA, SHU
  • KITANO, KEIICHI
  • IIMURA, KENTA
  • MARUYAMA, RYOHEI
  • FUKUI, KOHEI
  • NAGASHIMA, MASAKAZU
  • YONEYAMA, HIROMASA

Assignees

  • Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20251028

Claims (16)

  1. A liquid supply apparatus (100) comprising: a liquid container (200) including a containing part (201) having flexibility, and a connecting part (202) provided at an end portion of the containing part; a channel connected to the connecting part (202) and configured to flow a liquid out of the liquid container (200); rotation means (120) arranged to rotate the containing part (201) with respect to the connecting part (202); and regulating means (117) arranged to regulate displacement of the connecting part (202) in a direction crossing a connection direction between the connecting part (202) and the channel.
  2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the containing part (201) includes a first end portion provided with the connecting part (202), and a second end portion on an opposite side of the first end portion, and the rotation means (120) is configured to rotate the containing part with respect to the connecting part (202) about a position apart from the connecting part (202) to a side of the second end portion as a rotation center.
  3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the rotation means (120) is arranged to rotate the containing part (201) in an up/down direction.
  4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the rotation means (120) rotates the containing part (201) between a first position and a second position, and the first position is a position at which the containing part is close to horizontal as compared to the second position.
  5. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of storage means (101) arranged in an up/down direction and each capable of storing the liquid container (200), wherein the rotation means (120) is arranged to rotate the containing part (201) of the liquid container (200) stored in storage means (101) of an uppermost stage with respect to the connecting part (202).
  6. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising storage means (101) capable of storing the liquid container (200), wherein the liquid container (200) is placed on a tray (110) and detachably stored in the storage means (101), the tray (110) comprises: a tray main body (113); and a placement member (112) which is rotatably supported by the tray main body (113) and on which the containing part (201) is placed, and the rotation means (120) is arranged to rotate the placement member (112).
  7. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the placement member (112) is rotated between a first position and a second position, at the first position, a bottom wall part of the placement member (112) abuts against the tray main body (113), and at the second position, the bottom wall part of the placement member (112) separates from the tray main body (113).
  8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein in a state in which the tray (110) is extracted from the storage means (101), the placement member (112) is located at the first position.
  9. The apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the tray (110) comprises lock means (131) arranged to lock the placement member (112) to the first position, and lock of the placement member (112) by the lock means (131) is canceled by attaching the tray (110) to the storage means (101).
  10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the lock means (131) comprises a movable member (137) configured to be displaceable to a lock position at which the placement member (112) is locked to the first position and an unlock position at which the lock is canceled, and the storage means (101) comprises an operation member (103) configured to abut against the movable member (137) when the tray (110) is attached to the storage means (101) and displace the movable member (137) to the unlock position.
  11. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the rotation means (120) comprises: a driving source (300); a driving mechanism (122) configured to rotate the placement member (112) by a driving force of the driving source (300); and a biasing member (304) arranged to bias the placement member (112) to the second position.
  12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the placement member (112) rotates from the second position to the first position by driving of the driving source (300).
  13. The apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the tray (110) comprises a holding part (150) provided on the tray main body (113) and configured to hold the connecting part (202).
  14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein in a state in which the connecting part (202) is held by the holding part (150), a part of the connecting part (202) projects from a periphery of the holding part (150) of the tray (110).
  15. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the connecting part (202) and the holding part (150) engage with each other in a direction different from an attachment/detachment direction of the tray (110) to/from the storage means (101).
  16. A system (1) comprising a liquid discharge apparatus (50) for discharging a liquid, and a liquid supply apparatus (100) for supplying the liquid from a liquid container (200) including a containing part (201) having flexibility, and a connecting part (202) provided at an end portion of the containing part (201) to the liquid discharge apparatus (50), wherein the liquid supply apparatus (100) comprises: a channel connected to the connecting part (202) and configured to flow the liquid out of the liquid container (200); rotation means (120) arranged to rotate the containing part (201) with respect to the connecting part (202); and regulating means (120) arranged to regulate displacement of the connecting part (202) in a direction crossing a connection direction between the connecting part (202) and the channel.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to a liquid supply apparatus. BACKGROUND A liquid containing a substance with sedimentability sometime needs to be stirred to disperse the sediment before use. For example, in a printing apparatus that performs printing by discharging liquid ink to a print medium, when using ink such as pigment ink or metallic ink, the stirring is needed to disperse the sediment in some cases. International Publication No. WO 2017/217001 discloses an apparatus that stirs ink by rotating an ink cartridge. In a configuration that rotates an ink cartridge, like International Publication No. WO 2017/217001, a member such as a tube that forms a channel of ink to an ink supply destination is deformed along with the rotation of the ink cartridge. If the rotation of the ink cartridge is repeated, the member such as a tube is also repetitively deformed. The member such as a tube may be fatigued and need to be exchanged early. SUMMARY The present disclosure provides a technique of suppressing fatigue of a member that forms a channel. The present disclosure in its first aspect provides a liquid supply apparatus as specified in claim 1. Optional features are specified in claim 2 to 15. The present disclosure in its second aspect provides a system as specified in claim 16. Features of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following description of embodiments with reference to the attached drawings. The following description of embodiments is described by way of example. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a printing system according to the embodiment of the present disclosure;Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a liquid supply apparatus provided in the printing system shown in Fig. 1;Fig. 3 is an explanatory view showing the internal structure of the liquid supply apparatus shown in Fig. 2;Fig. 4 is a perspective view of a liquid container;Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a tray;Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a tray;Fig. 7 is a perspective view of a lock mechanism;Figs. 8A to 8C are operation explanatory views of the lock mechanism shown in Fig. 7;Fig. 9 is a perspective view of a tray on which the liquid container is placed;Fig. 10 is a front view of the connecting part of the liquid container;Fig. 11 is a view showing the tray with the liquid container placed thereon viewed from the side of a rear wall part;Fig. 12 is a perspective view of the periphery of a holding part of the tray;Fig. 13 is a perspective view of a connecting unit;Figs. 14A and 14B are operation explanatory views of a rotation unit;Figs. 15A and 15B are operation explanatory views of a rotation unit; andFig. 16 is a view showing the posture of the liquid container at the maximum rotation position. DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings. Note, the following embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the claims. Multiple features are described in the embodiments, but it is not the case that all such features are required, and multiple such features may be combined as appropriate. Furthermore, in the attached drawings, the same reference numerals are given to the same or similar configurations, and redundant description thereof is omitted. <Configuration of System> Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a printing system 1 according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. The printing system 1 includes a liquid supply apparatus 100 and a liquid discharge apparatus 50. The liquid discharge apparatus 50 discharges a liquid to a print medium, and the liquid supply apparatus 100 supplies the liquid to the liquid discharge apparatus 50. In this embodiment, the liquid supply apparatus 100 supplies ink to the liquid discharge apparatus 50, and the liquid discharge apparatus 50 discharges the ink to a print medium by an inkjet method, thereby printing an image. The printing system 1 according to this embodiment is a system that prints an image by discharging ink to a continuous sheet wound in a roll, and is a high-speed line printer capable of performing high-speed printing. Note that "print" includes not only forming significant information such as characters and graphics but also forming images, figures, patterns, and the like on print media in a broad sense, or processing media, regardless of whether the information is significant or insignificant or whether the information is visualized so that a human can visually perceive it. In addition, although in this embodiment, sheet-like paper is assumed as a "print medium", cloth, a plastic film, and the like may also be used. In the drawings, arrows X, Y, and Z indicate directions crossing each other. In this embodiment, the arrows X and Y indicate horizontal directions that are orthogonal to each other, and the arrow Z indicates the vertical direction. The Z direction is the up/down direction (height direction) of the printing system 1. The X direction is