Air Purge Mechanism - Ricoh D124 Detailed Descriptions Manual

5.4.4 AIR PURGE MECHANISM

When an air sensor detects air in a sub tank, the air is not purged until the job ends.
At the end of the job:
 The machine moves the carriage unit to the right and stops when the tank to be
purged is aligned with the air release solenoid.
 The correct position to stop is detected by monitoring the horizontal encoder strip
behind the carriage unit.
 When the carriage unit has positioned the print head tank [1] behind the air
release solenoid [2], the solenoid switches on and pushes the plunger [3].
 The plunger pushes in the purge valve [4] and the excess air is purged from the
sub tank.
 After the air has been purged, the ink supply motor turns on to supply more ink to
replace the purged air with ink.
 As more ink flows into the tank, the actuator moves in direction of the red arrow
toward the full position.
 After air has been purged, ink is pumped from the cartridge up to the sub tank, and
then 0.6 cc of ink is pumped out by reversing the ink pump.
D124 104 Detailed Descriptions