Abstract: An airtight elastic cap of an ink-jet recording head and a storage container employing the airtight elastic cap provide high airtightness between a nozzle face and the airtight cap and minimizes ink leak from the recording head even when the head is mounted or dismounted, or when a storage environment changes suddenly. The airtight elastic cap includes a body and an inside wall provided inside thereof. A portion of the wall defines a first space and another portion defines a second space positioned continuously to a center of the first space. The storage container includes a container body that houses the ink-jet recording head and the airtight elastic cap, placed within the container body, that abuts against and protects an ink emission face of the ink-jet recording head while the ink-jet recording is housed.

Abstract: An airtight elastic cap of an ink-jet recording head and a storage container employing the airtight elastic cap provide high airtightness between a nozzle face and the airtight cap and minimizes ink leak from the recording head even when the head is mounted or dismounted, or when a storage environment changes suddenly. The airtight elastic cap includes a body and an inside wall provided inside thereof. A portion of the wall defines a first space and another portion defines a second space positioned continuously to a center of the first space. The storage container includes a container body that houses the ink-jet recording head and the airtight elastic cap, placed within the container body, that abuts against and protects an ink emission face of the ink-jet recording head while the ink-jet recording is housed.

Abstract: An ink tank 1 includes a main ink chamber 11 and a intermediate chamber 16. A second meniscus forming member 17 is provided in a joint portion 2 to be coupled with a printhead 3. A filter 22 is provided in an ink introducing portion 4 of the printhead 3, which is to be coupled with the ink tank 1. The open-space diameter of the second meniscus forming member 17 is selected to be equal to that of the filter 22. With such a construction, the number of foreign materials flowing from the ink tank 1 to the filter 22 is reduced. The result is to reduce a frequency of occurrence of the filter clogging and to elongate a normally operable time of the printer. A fluid resistance in the ink passage ranging from the filter 22 to the nozzle is high. Therefore, air that is left in the jointing portion flows through the second meniscus forming member 17 into the intermediate chamber 16 of the ink tank 1.

Abstract: An ink jet printer which causes ink to fly to a recording medium to form an image, comprising: plural nozzles functioning as ink ejection ports; plural individual flow paths which are disposed with respectively corresponding to the nozzles, the individual flow paths respectively having driving elements which eject internal ink through the nozzles; a common liquid chamber which communicates with the individual flow paths, the common liquid chamber having an opening portion through which ink is supplied into the chamber; an ink supply path which has a sectional area smaller than a sectional area of the opening portion of the common liquid chamber, the ink supply path being connected to the opening portion to guide ink to the common liquid chamber; and an ink supply source for supplying ink through the ink supply path.

Abstract: An ink supply passage 16 has a large cross-sectional area and ink tanks 6 are connected to the top of the ink supply passage 16. An ink supply passage 17 is a flow passage shaped like a semicylinder and has a cross-sectional area equal to or smaller than the cross-sectional area of the ink supply passage 16. Even if bubbles are mixed into the ink supply passage 17, they adhere to the upper portion of the flow passage 17 and do not flow into lower corners, so that a flow passage can be provided and the ink flow is not hindered. Since an ink supply passage 19 connected to a head chip 4 has a small diameter, bubbles mixed into the ink supply passage 19 can be removed by maintenance for sucking ink forcibly. Bubbles mixed upstream are not transported to the ink supply passage 19 because of the flow rate difference caused by the cross-sectional area difference.