The ink supply valve is located between the ink tank and ink tube to prevent ink leakage from occurring when the ink tube on the ink tank side is opened during
replacement of the ink tank.
The ink supply valve is opened and closed by the valve open/close mechanism which is driven by the valve motor.
The ink tank unit consists of two tank bases each of which contains ink tanks for three colors and the ink tubes for six colors.
The ink tubes coming from the PC, PM and C ink tanks feed both printheads L and R. Two valve open/closed detection sensors and valve motor control the opening
and closing of the ink supply valves to prevent the ink tubes to whichever printhead that is not engaged in any operation, such as ink filling and suction, from being