Patent ID: 9434180
Filing Date: 2016-09-06
CPC Classification: B41J,B41M

Claim Text:
1. An ink jet printer that performs printing using an ink jet scheme on a plurality of three-dimensional objects simultaneously, wherein shapes of the plurality of three-dimensional objects are substantially identical, the ink jet printer comprising: an ink jet head that discharges ink droplets; and a print object retaining section that retains the plurality of three-dimensional objects being a printing target so as to face the ink jet head, wherein each of the plurality of three-dimensional objects being the printing target at least includes, as a print surface to be printed by the ink jet printer, a first print surface, and a second print surface being a side surface relative to the first print surface, the print object retaining section includes: a shaft member extending in a direction perpendicularly intersecting a direction along which the ink jet head discharges ink droplets, a shaft retaining section that retains the shaft member in a rotatable manner, a three-dimensional object fixing member that is a fixing member fixing the plurality of three-dimensional objects relative to the shaft member, and causes the plurality of three-dimensional objects to rotate together with the shaft member by being fixed relative to the shaft member, and a rotation stopping means for stopping rotation of the shaft member at a predeterminedly set position, wherein the print object retaining section comprises: a plurality of the three-dimensional object fixing members, each of which is correspondingly fixed to the shaft member, wherein two pieces of the three-dimensional objects of the plurality of the three-dimensional objects are retained in a manner that rear surfaces of the first print surfaces in the two pieces of the three-dimensional objects face each other with the shaft member interposed therebetween, the rotation stopping means stops the rotation of the shaft member at a first angle by which the first print surface faces the ink jet head in case of performing printing on the first print surface of the three-dimensional object, and the rotation stopping means stops the rotation of the shaft member at a second angle by which the second print surface faces the ink jet head in case of performing printing on the second print surface of the three-dimensional object, wherein when the first print surface is a surface larger than the second print surface, the ink jet printer performs printing on the first print surface later than printing on the second print surface.