JPH02187342A - Inkjet recording head manufacturing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance jetting-out performance by composing a jet-out orifice forming member by means of superposing different materials. CONSTITUTION:Orifice plates 40a and 40b stick together to the opening disposing surface of an ink channel 401. A dry film is employed to join a PI film for the material of the plate 40a and a PI film 40a for the material of the plate 40b to the opening surface where the opening of the ink channel is disposed. After the opening of the ink channel is aligned with respect to the orifice shape 91 of a mask 9, excimer laser beams are projected for several sec. With the orifice plates 40a and 40b, their parts irradiated with excimer laser beams are removed to form an orifice 41. At this time, since the scope to be removed varies with the material of the film, such an orifice 41 can be obtained that its diameter becomes smaller as it goes to the top. This shape increases a jet-out speed, makes the jet-out direction uniform and enhances the grade of a recorded picture.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an inkjet recording head, and more particularly to an inkjet recording apparatus equipped with an ejection opening forming member (orifice plate) for ejecting ink.

[Prior Art] As shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, the main body of this type of inkjet recording head includes an orifice plate 40 having orifices 41 (ejection ports) for ejecting ink, and an orifice plate 40 that communicates with each orifice. A top plate for forming an ink liquid path 401, and a substrate 100 that forms a part of the ink liquid path 401 and has an electrothermal transducer 101 that generates energy for ejection.

The orifice plate has a fine orifice for ejecting ink, and this orifice is an important element that influences the ejection performance of the inkjet recording head.

That is, the orifice plate of an inkjet recording head is required to have good workability because it is provided with minute orifices, and good ink resistance because it comes into direct contact with ink.

Conventionally, Sue has been used as a material that satisfies the above performance.

PI, PES, which allows you to easily and inexpensively obtain metal plates such as nickel, C, and nickel, as well as materials of desired thickness.

A resin film material such as PE was used for PEE.

On the other hand, with recent advances in recording technology, high-speed, high-definition recording is becoming required, and for this reason, orifices are being formed with minute sizes (orifice diameters) and high density. It was starting to look like this. As a result, various methods of orifice processing have been devised, and among them, processing using laser light is suitable for microfabrication and is therefore also used for orifice processing.

However, it is extremely difficult to join an orifice plate with minute orifices and a corresponding ink liquid path, and there are cases in which mutual positional deviation occurs frequently, resulting in deterioration of ejection performance and recording quality. Furthermore, although some kind of adhesive is used for bonding, the ink liquid path may be blocked by the adhesive during bonding due to misalignment.

For this reason, in recent years, a method has been adopted in which a resin film as the material for the orifice plate is bonded to the head, and then the orifice is processed using laser light.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, the conventional methods have left behind the following problems.

In other words, the orifice of the inkjet recording head is
A so-called tapered shape is desirable, in which the diameter decreases from the ink liquid path side to the ejection port side.However,
When conventional laser processing is applied to a single film, there is a problem in that the film becomes a tapered shape whose diameter decreases from the ejection port side to the ink liquid path, as shown in FIG.

In addition, it is desirable that the orifice of an inkjet recording head has water repellency so that the ejection orifice surface does not get wet due to unnecessary ink or condensation, or to prevent ink from seeping into the orifice. , treated with water repellent treatment. In this case, there are problems such as the permeable wood entering the inside of the orifice and the inability to obtain a uniform water-repellent surface.

The present invention was made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and its purpose is to improve discharge performance by processing orifices in an orifice plate made of multiple types of materials. An object of the present invention is to provide an inkjet recording head.

[Means for Solving the Problems] To this end, the present invention includes an ejection port forming member having an ejection port for ejecting ink, an ink liquid path communicating with the ejection port, and an ink liquid path disposed in a part of the ink liquid path. In an inkjet recording head that has an ejection energy generating element that generates energy used to eject ink and performs recording by forming flying droplets, the ejection opening forming member includes members made of a plurality of different materials. It is characterized by being constructed by layering.

[Function] According to the above configuration, the shape of the ejection port can be processed into a shape preferable for ink ejection, and further, the workability of the ejection port can be improved, and the adverse effects caused by the ejection port processing can be prevented. becomes possible.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an inkjet recording head according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is disposable and has an integrated ink tank.

As shown in FIG. 8, the inkjet recording head shown in the figure has a top plate integrally formed with a concave portion (hereinafter referred to as ?g) for configuring an ink liquid path and a common liquid chamber, and a top plate that uses ejection energy. An electrothermal converter for generating electricity (hereinafter referred to as a discharge heater) and AJ2 wiring for supplying electric signals thereto are bonded to a substrate formed on an St substrate (hereinafter referred to as a heater board) using a film formation technique. As shown in the figure, an orifice plate 40a, which will be described later, is provided on the opening surface where the opening of the ink liquid path formed by this bonding is arranged.
, 40b are bonded together.

Further, 600 in the figure is a sub-ink tank disposed adjacent to the recording head main body, and this sub-ink tank 60
0 and the above bodies are supported by lids 300 and 800. Furthermore, 1000 is the cartridge body, 11
00 is a lid member of the cartridge body. An ink tank is built inside the cartridge main body, and ink is appropriately supplied to the sub-ink tank 600.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of an ink liquid path of an inkjet recording head according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 40a is 2 f! This is one of the orifice plates made of ¥1 material, and 40b is the other orifice plate. In this embodiment, the plate 40a is made of P! having a thickness of approximately 20 μm. As the material for the film and plate 40b, a dry film (5E-320 manufactured by Tokyo Ohka Co., Ltd.) having a thickness of about 20 μm was used to bond the PI film 40a to the opening surface where the opening of the ink liquid path is arranged.

Further, in this embodiment, the PI film 40a and the dry film 40b were bonded to the opening surface of the ink liquid path, but it goes without saying that the PI film 40a may be bonded after the dry film 40b is bonded to the opening surface. good. By this joining, the recording head main body becomes in the state shown in FIG. 3.

Next, an orifice is formed on the recording head body to which the orifice plate is joined using a laser beam. In this example, an excimer laser was used. As shown in FIG. 4, first, using a SuS mask 9 having an orifice shape 91, the opening of the ink liquid path and the orifice shape 91 of the mask 9 are aligned, and then the excimer laser beam is masked. 9 for a few seconds. Orifice plate 40a
, 40b are removed by removing the portions irradiated with the excimer laser beam, thereby forming an orifice 41. At this time, the area to be removed changes depending on the material of the film, so the second
An orifice 41 having a shape as shown in FIG. 1 is obtained.

As shown in FIG. 2, the shape in which the diameter decreases toward the tip has the effect of increasing the ejection speed and making the ejection direction constant, leading to an improvement in the quality of the recorded image.

FIGS. 5 and 6 relate to other embodiments of the present invention, and FIGS.
It is a sectional view similar to the figure. The shape of the ink liquid path 401 and the material of the orifice plate 40b are joined while performing zero-order alignment using a dry film similar to that shown in FIG. This state is shown in FIG.

Next, the orifice is processed by irradiating excimer laser light in the same manner as in the first embodiment. This state is shown in FIG. As can be seen from FIG. 6, in the wooden embodiment, the SjS material 408' which also serves as a mask serves as the orifice plate as it is, so there is an advantage that there is no need to separately prepare a mask for laser processing.

Note that still other embodiments will be described. The shape of the ink liquid path and the material of the orifice plate 40b are the same as those in the above-described embodiment, and a water-repellent film such as Mylar or Tetra is used as the material of the orifice plate 40a. This film 40a is placed on the plate 40b in advance.
and then to the opening surface of the ink liquid path. After that, the orifice is processed using excimer laser light. In the recording head obtained in this example, the orifice plate serving as the ejection port surface has water repellency, so unnecessary ink accumulation and dew condensation do not occur on the ejection port surface, and stable ejection is possible without these effects. .

The recording head main body described above can be obtained in the form of a cartridge as shown in FIG. 1, and can be used to configure an inkjet printer as shown in FIG. 7, that is, an inkjet printer using a disposable cartridge. Can be done.

In addition, in FIG. 7, 8 is the cartridge shown in FIG. 1, and this cartridge 8 is fixed on the carriage 15 by a pressing member 81, which can reciprocate in the longitudinal direction along the shaft 21. It becomes. Further, the positioning with respect to the carriage 15 is performed, for example, with respect to the lid 300.
This can be done using a hole provided in the carriage 15 and a dowel provided on the carriage 15 side.

Furthermore, electrical connections are made to connection pads provided on the wiring board.
It is only necessary to connect the connectors on the carriage 15.

The ink ejected by the recording head reaches the recording medium 18 whose recording surface is regulated by the platen 19 at a slight interval from the recording head, and forms an image on the recording medium 18.

The recording head is supplied with an ejection signal corresponding to image data from an appropriate data co-supply source via a cable 16 and a terminal connected thereto. The cartridge 8 is selected depending on the ink color used! One or more (two in the figure) can be provided.

Further, in FIG. 7, 17 is a carriage motor for scanning the carriage 15 along the shaft 21;
2 is a wire that transmits the driving force of the motor 17 to the carriage 15. Further, 20 is a feed motor coupled to the platen roller 19 for conveying the recording medium 18.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, the shape of the ejection port can be processed into a shape preferable for ink ejection, and furthermore, the workability of the ejection port can be improved, and the processing of the ejection port can be improved. This makes it possible to prevent the negative effects caused by

As a result, by simply applying conventional discharge port (orifice) processing to a pre-formed discharge port forming member (orifice plate), the discharge performance is improved compared to the conventional method, and the adverse effects derived from water repellent treatment etc. are eliminated. It can be prevented.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an inkjet recording head cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the recording head main body constituting the cartridge shown in FIG. 1, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing the orifice processing process of the recording head main body; FIGS. 5 and 6 are cross-sectional views showing the orifice processing process according to another embodiment of the present invention; and FIG. FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 are an exploded perspective view and a cross-sectional view, respectively, of a conventional example of an inkjet recording head. 40a, 40a', 40b-=orifice plate,
41... Orifice, 100... Substrate (heater board), 101... Electrothermal converter, 400... Top plate, 401... Ink liquid path. 40t) Figure 1 Figure 4 40b Figure 0b Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) An ejection port forming member having an ejection port for ejecting ink, an ink liquid path communicating with the ejection port, and an ink liquid path disposed in a part of the ink liquid path for ejecting ink. In the inkjet recording head that performs recording by forming flying droplets, the ejection orifice forming member has a plurality of layers of members made of different materials. An inkjet recording head comprising: 2) The inkjet recording head according to claim 1, wherein the ejection ports of the ejection port forming member are processed using an excimer laser. 3) The inkjet recording head according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the member constituting the ejection port side of the plurality of members has water repellency. 4) Claim 1, wherein the member constituting the ejection port side of the plurality of members serves as a mask against laser light.
or the inkjet recording head described in 2. 5) The inkjet recording head according to claim 1, wherein the ejection energy generating element is an electrothermal converter. 6) The inkjet recording head according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the ejection energy generating element has a configuration that applies thermal energy to the ink.