1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus which ejects a liquid onto a medium which is caused to cling to a medium supporting portion.
2. Related Art
In the related art, an ink jet printer, which performs printing by ejecting an ink onto a medium (such as paper) that is transported on a medium supporting portion, is known as a liquid ejecting apparatus which is capable of ejecting a liquid. Directly after the paper is printed onto by such a printer, the paper may sometimes warps due to ink being absorbed therein, causing and swelling so as to form small waves in the paper. This phenomenon in which warping occurs due to swelling is also referred to as cockling. When the transport direction of the paper is the longitudinal direction of the paper, there are many cases in which unevenness occurs along the short direction (a width direction which intersects the transport direction) of the paper.
Furthermore, when the paper warps due to such cockling, there is a concern that the landing positions of the ink droplets will be scattered and the print quality will be reduced. Accordingly, a printer has been proposed in which ribs and concave portions are provided alternately on a medium supporting portion so as to be aligned across the width direction. The paper is sucked by providing suction pores in the inner bottom portion of the concave portions. Thus, the paper is caused to cling to the ribs, and the shifting of the landing positions of the ink droplets is suppressed (refer to JP-A-2005-212425).
However, since the intervals of the unevenness which occurs due to cockling change according to the material, the thickness and the like of the paper, it is preferable to change the pitch, the size and the like of the ribs, which are provided on the medium supporting portion, according to the paper. However, since the size of the ribs is small and it is necessary to dispose many ribs according to the positions of concave portions and suction pores, there is a problem in that a great amount of labor is incurred in order to form ribs of different pitches and sizes.
Furthermore, this problem is not limited to a printer which performs printing by ejecting an ink onto paper, and is generally common to all liquid ejecting apparatuses which eject a liquid onto a medium which clings to a medium supporting portion.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds