JPH06155751A - Method for manufacturing ink jet print head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance the durability of a blade by lowering the load to the blade by obliquely providing an elastic plate with respect to a blade at the time of the cutting processing of the plane in the direction vertical to nozzles so that the blade penetrates into the elastic plate to cut the plate. CONSTITUTION:At the time of the processing of a nozzle orifice part 22, the bonded member of a passage substrate 17 and an elastic plate 16 is strongly fixed on the frame having a blade 8 fixed thereto to be set to a state not generating the processing irregularity due to vibration. The elastic plate 16 is arranged at an angle D becoming below about 90 deg. so that the blade 8 penetrates into the bonded member on the side of the elastic plate to cut the bonded member. The angle D is adjusted to a state reducing cutting load considering the material qualities of the passage substrate 17 and the elastic plate 16 and a nozzle orifice shape. Pref., the passage substrate 17 is composed of polysulfone and the elastic plate 16 is an SUS membrane and, after both of them are bonded, the inclination of about 80 deg. is provided with respect to the blade 8 to perform cutting molding to be capable of stably processing the bonded member without cracking the square nozzle opening part 22 and destructing the bonded part.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a recording head for an on-demand type ink jet printer which discharges ink droplets in response to a print signal to form an ink image on a recording medium such as recording paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A method of manufacturing an ink jet print head in which a substrate having a plurality of sets of nozzles and ink channels of pressure chambers and a groove communicating with a supply port is bonded to a top plate is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. It is described in Japanese Patent No. 228861.

In the above conventional technique, the vertical edge of the nozzle, that is, the nozzle opening is manufactured by cutting or polishing.

[0004]

The problems of the conventional manufacturing method will be described in detail with reference to FIG. Since the bonded body of the flow path substrate 17 and the elastic plate 16 is a combination of the elastic plate 16 having low rigidity and the flow path substrate 17 having high rigidity for transmitting the ink ejection pressure, the strength of the bonded portion is easily broken. Has directionality. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, when the angle D ′ of the elastic plate 16 with respect to the surface of the blade 8 is 90 degrees or more, the elastic plate 1
Therefore, peeling failure of 6 occurs. Further, even if the peeling does not occur, there is a problem that a processing load is applied to the boundary surface between the flow path substrate 17 and the elastic plate 16 having low strength, and cracks or chips around the nozzle opening 22 occur. Further, the manufacturing is also performed on a joint between a flow path substrate that forms a nozzle, a pressure chamber, and a communicating ink flow path serving as a supply port on the surface, and an elastic plate that transmits the ink discharge pressure to the pressure chamber facing the flow path substrate. A load is applied by the method, and the reliability of the ink flow path shape maintenance or the ink sealability between the flow paths is impaired.

Further, in cutting, which is a processing method, the durability of the blade is remarkably deteriorated because the same portion of the blade is processed.

An object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet head that solves the above problems.

[0007]

According to the method of manufacturing an ink jet print head of the present invention, a flow path substrate forming a communicating ink flow path serving as a nozzle, a pressure chamber and a supply port is made of a synthetic resin, The elastic plate that transmits the ink discharge pressure to the pressure chamber that is joined to face the flow path substrate is an inkjet print head made of a thin film of metal and / or synthetic resin or any single material. In the cutting process, the elastic plate side is cut into the blade so that the blade is inclined.

[0008]

EXAMPLES The method for manufacturing an ink jet type print head according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to examples. Figure 1
It is a figure for demonstrating the manufacturing method of this invention. Figure 2
FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of an inkjet print head that utilizes displacement of a piezoelectric element in the direction of an applied electric field as an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a partial sectional view taken along the line AA ′ of FIG. 2 and is a diagram for explaining a driving method.

In these drawings, reference numeral 17 denotes a flow path substrate which forms a nozzle 19, a pressure chamber 18 and a supply port 20 together with the elastic plate 16. The convex portion of the flow path substrate 17 serves as a partition wall 21 that divides the pressure chambers 18 and 18 individually. An ink jet type print head is configured by arranging the piezoelectric elements 12 fixed by the base 11 in a one-to-one correspondence at the respective positions in contact with the pressure chambers 18 via the elastic plate 16. When the pressure chambers 18 are arranged at a low density, the piezoelectric element may be arranged at the position where it abuts against the partition wall 21.

An ink jet type print head manufactured according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The piezoelectric element 12 is
An electrode 23 (see FIG. 3) fixed to and electrically connected to the signal electrode 13 of the base 11 is provided on one side surface, and an electrode 24 fixed to and electrically connected to the common electrode 14 is provided on the other side surface.
(See FIG. 3) are provided. The electrode 23 and the electrode 24 are connected to the drive circuit 15 via the signal electrode 13 and the common electrode 14, respectively. The piezoelectric elements 12 are arranged in parallel on the base 11.

The piezoelectric element 12 has a comb-shaped structure, and a plurality of piezoelectric elements 12 are formed in parallel. These are processed by, for example, a dicing saw, a wire saw, or the like, and a full cut for cutting the piezoelectric element 12 to the surface of the base 11 or a half cut for not cutting to the base 11 is performed. The material of the piezoelectric element 12 is lead zirconate titanate (PZT) here, and either a single-layer piezoelectric element or a laminated piezoelectric element can be used. In this embodiment, a single layer piezoelectric element is used.

In the present embodiment, the signal electrode 13 is formed by fixing the piezoelectric element block to the base 11 and then cutting the base 11 by the cutting means.
By cutting to the surface, each piezoelectric element 12 is formed as an independent electrode. The common electrode 14 electrically connects a thin film such as a copper foil to a part of the electrodes 24 of the plurality of piezoelectric elements 12.

The flow path substrate 17 is integrally formed with a groove forming a pressure chamber 18 and a nozzle 19 communicating with the groove. The flow path substrate 17 can be easily formed by injection molding of plastic, for example. Other techniques include molding by etching with a photosensitive resin and the flow path substrate 17
The partition wall 21 and the other portions can be separately formed by press working, etching, etc., and then fixed to each other. However, here, since the nozzle opening surface 22 of the continuous nozzles 19, 19, ... Is cut with a sharp blade, a synthetic resin is used as a basic material. However, since the elastic plate 16 needs a characteristic for transmitting the ink ejection pressure, it is a thin film of metal, for example, electroformed nickel or synthetic resin having a thickness of about 1 to 2 μm, for example, 5
A polyimide thin film of about μm is used.

Next, the operation of the print head of this embodiment will be described. The ink ejection operation will be described with reference to FIG. A signal is applied to the signal electrode 13 from the drive circuit 15 (see FIG. 2) and is transmitted to the one electrode 23 of the piezoelectric element 12. The other electrode 24 of the piezoelectric element 12 connected to the common electrode 14
Is a common potential, a piezoelectric effect occurs due to a change in potential at the electrode 23 due to signal transmission, and the piezoelectric element 12 is mounted on the base 1
It is displaced in the direction of the pressure chamber 18 based on 1. The driving method according to the present invention will be described based on this operation.

As shown in FIG. 3a, the piezoelectric element 12 displaces the pressure chamber 18 of the elastic wall 16 fixed to the piezoelectric element 12 in the B direction for pressing the pressure chamber 18, thereby causing a decrease in the volume of the pressure chamber 18 and a dynamic pressure of ink ejection. Occurs and ink is ejected.
Further, as the next operation, as shown in FIG. 3b, the piezoelectric element 12 displaces the elastic wall 16 fixed to the piezoelectric element 12 in the pressing release C direction, thereby causing a change in the volume of the pressure chamber 18 to increase.
An ink supply dynamic pressure is generated and the ink fills the pressure chamber 18.
An ink image can be formed on a medium such as paper by selectively transmitting a signal to the piezoelectric element 12 that is in contact with the pressure chamber 18 communicating with the nozzle 19 required for printing in the above operation.

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a method of manufacturing a nozzle opening portion according to the present invention. The nozzle opening 22 can be easily formed by moving the sharp blade 8 in the E direction or moving the nozzle opening 22 in the opposite E direction. In this figure, 17 is a flow channel substrate, and a plurality of nozzles 19 are provided in the flow channel substrate 17. Reference numeral 16 denotes an elastic plate. The elastic plate 16 is joined to the flow path substrate 17 to form a nozzle opening 22 at the edge thereof.

According to the manufacturing method of the present invention, the shapes of the plurality of nozzle openings 22 formed by joining are easily shaped into the same shape. First, when the nozzle opening 22 is processed, the bonded body of the flow path substrate 17 and the elastic plate 16 is firmly fixed on the same frame as the frame for fixing the blade 8 and thus does not cause processing blur due to vibration from the surroundings. Put in a state. Then, the elastic plate 16 is 90% thick with respect to the blade 8 so that the blade 8 which is a feature of the present invention enters the elastic plate 16 for cutting.
Install at an angle D that is less than degrees. However, considering the durability of the sharp blade 8, it does not reach 0 degrees, preferably 45 degrees.
The angle is adjusted to be not less than 70 degrees, more preferably not less than 70 degrees and less than 90 degrees. The angle is adjusted in consideration of the materials of the flow path substrate 17 and the elastic plate 16 and the nozzle opening shape so that the cutting load is small. In this embodiment, polysulfone is bonded to the flow path substrate 17 and both members are bonded to the elastic plate 16 with the SUS thin film, and then the blade is inclined by 80 degrees and cut and molded, and the square nozzle opening 22 is not cracked or cracked. Moreover, stable processing was possible without breaking the joint.

[0018]

As described above, the nozzle opening formed by the flow path substrate of the ink ejection device and the elastic plate, which are closely arranged in parallel, is cut from the elastic plate side by a sharp blade. By providing an angle so that it can enter, it is possible to maintain reliability in the bonding strength between the flow path substrate and the elastic plate,
Further, since a wide portion of the blade is used, the load on the blade is low and the durability is improved. In addition, since the nozzle opening shape can be easily cracked and stably formed without chipping, the ink ejection characteristics can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a manufacturing method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the configuration of an ink jet type print head according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3A is a partial cross-sectional view for explaining a driving method according to the embodiment. (During Ink Ejection) (b) It is a partial cross-sectional view for explaining the driving method of the above embodiment. (When supplying ink)

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a conventional manufacturing method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 Base 12 Piezoelectric Element 13 Signal Electrode 14 Common Electrode 15 Drive Circuit 16 Elastic Plate 17 Flow Channel Substrate 18 Pressure Chamber 19 Nozzle 20 Ink Supply Port 21 Partition Wall 22 Nozzle Opening 23 Piezoelectric Element Electrode 24 Piezoelectric Element Electrode

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A flow channel substrate, which forms a communicating ink flow channel serving as a nozzle, a pressure chamber, and a supply port on the surface, is made of a synthetic resin, and an ink ejection pressure is applied to the pressure chamber which is bonded to face the flow channel substrate. In the ink jet type print head made of a thin film of metal and / or synthetic resin or a single material, the elastic plate that transmits the force is cut by the blade from the elastic plate side when cutting the plane perpendicular to the nozzle. A method for manufacturing an ink jet print head, wherein the elastic plate is inclined with respect to the blade. 2. The method for manufacturing an ink jet print head according to claim 1, wherein an inclination between the elastic plate and the blade of the ink jet print head is less than 90 degrees.