1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a cartridge which accommodates a printing material therein, a printing material supply system which includes a cartridge and a printing apparatus, and printing apparatus to which the cartridge is detachably mounted.
2. Related Art
A printer which is an example of a printing apparatus has a cartridge that accommodates ink therein and is detachably mounted thereto, and performs printing by supplying the ink from the cartridge to a printing head. Recently, a cartridge in which a circuit board that stores information regarding ink (for example, the color of ink) is mounted is used (for example, JP-A-2003-341100, JP-A-2007-230249, Specification of U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,147, JP-T-2002-505212, and JP-T-2002-513341). The circuit board mounted in the cartridge includes a storage device that stores the information regarding the ink and a terminal group (also referred to as a “cartridge side terminal group”) for electrical connection to a printer. As the cartridge is mounted to a cartridge mounting unit of the printer, the cartridge side terminal group comes into contact with a terminal group (also referred to as an “apparatus side terminal group”) provided in the cartridge mounting unit. Accordingly, each terminal of the cartridge side terminal group is electrically connected to the corresponding terminal of the apparatus side terminal group, such that signal reception and transmission between the printer and the cartridge is performed.
However, in the techniques of JP-A-2003-341100 and JP-A-2007-230249, due to manufacturing errors in the cartridge mounting unit or the cartridge, there is a possibility that the cartridge side terminal group and the apparatus side terminal group may not come into contact with each other so as to be electrically connected.
In the technique of Specification of U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,147, a connector provided with the apparatus side terminal group is movably provided in the cartridge mounting unit. Specifically, the connector is configured so as to be movable in a direction (the X axis direction and the Y axis direction in FIG. 7 of Specification of U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,147), orthogonal to an insertion direction (the Z axis direction in FIG. 7 of Specification of U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,147), of the cartridge. In addition, in the technique of Specification of U.S. Pat. No. 6,203,147, a recessed portion is provided in the front surface of the cartridge, and the cartridge side terminal group is arranged on the side surface in the recessed portion along the insertion direction. In this technique, since the connector is configured to be movable, the connector is moved according to the position of the cartridge when the cartridge is mounted to the cartridge mounting unit. Accordingly, there is an attempt to achieve proper connection between the cartridge side terminal group and the apparatus side terminal group.
In the technique described above, positioning in the X axis direction and the Y axis direction of the connector is performed by four side surfaces of the recessed portion in which the cartridge side terminal group is arranged. Therefore, errors in the shape of the recessed portion occur due to design errors in the cartridge, and thus there is a possibility that contact between the cartridge side terminal group and the apparatus side terminal group may not be properly achieved.
In addition, in the technique described above, there is a possibility that the apparatus side terminal group may rub against the side surface of the recessed portion or the cartridge side terminal group between when the cartridge is inserted into the cartridge mounting unit and when the cartridge is mounted to the cartridge mounting unit. There may be cases where the apparatus side terminal group rubs against the side surface of the recessed portion or the like, the constituent member of the cartridge is cut, and shavings are generated. In addition, there may be cases where dust is pulled therein due to static electricity generated by rubbing of the apparatus side terminal group against the side surface of the recessed portion or the like. When shavings, dust, and the like are present at the periphery of the apparatus side terminal group and the cartridge side terminal group, there may be cases where contact between the apparatus side terminal group and the cartridge side terminal group is not properly achieved.
In addition, in the techniques of JP-T-2002-505212 and JP-T-2002-513341, the connector is configured to be movable in the X axis direction which is a direction perpendicular to the insertion direction of the cartridge. In addition, in the techniques of JP-T-2002-505212 and JP-T-2002-513341, the recessed portion is provided in the front surface of the cartridge, and the cartridge side terminal group is provided on the bottom surface that is perpendicular to the insertion direction of the recessed portion. In the techniques of JP-T-2002-505212 and JP-T-2002-513341, as a guiding member provided in the recessed portion is inserted into a guiding slot of the cartridge mounting unit, positioning of the cartridge side terminal group and the apparatus side terminal group is performed.
In the techniques described above, the cartridge side terminal group is provided on the bottom surface of the recessed portion which is recessed in the reverse direction to the insertion direction and has a relationship of opposing the apparatus side terminal group in the insertion direction. Therefore, when the cartridge is attached to and detached from the cartridge mounting unit, the possibility of the apparatus side terminal group rubbing against the cartridge may be reduced. However, the cartridge side terminal group and the apparatus side terminal group come into point contact with each other between when the cartridge is inserted into the cartridge mounting unit and is connected thereto. Therefore, there is a possibility that contact between the cartridge side terminal group and the apparatus side terminal group may not be achieved due to a slight manufacturing error in the cartridge mounting unit or the cartridge.
The problems as described above are significant particularly in a large printer which performs printing on a large-sized sheet (for example, A2 to A0 sizes) because the size of the cartridge is increased.
The problems as mentioned above are problems that are not limited to the cartridge and the printer having the cartridge that is detachable, but are common to a printing apparatus that supplies (ejects) different types of printing materials (for example, toner) from ink and a cartridge that is detachably mounted to the printing apparatus.