Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
1996-09-13
2001-01-30
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
active
06179412
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid discharging head for effecting printing by discharging printing (recording) liquid from a discharge port by means of thermal energy, and a liquid discharging apparatus utilizing such head. The above-mentioned printing includes ink application onto various kinds of ink substrate capable of receiving ink, such as cloth, fiber, paper and sheet material, and the above-mentioned apparatus includes all the information processing apparatus and printers serving as the output apparatus for such information processing apparatus, and the present invention is applicable to such printing or apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
Ink jet printing method is recently attracting attention because of its features that the noise at the printing operation can be reduced to a negligible level, that high-speed printing operation is possible and that image fixation on so-called plain paper is possible without particular treatment.
Among such ink jet printing technologies, the ink jet printing method disclosed for example in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 54-51837 and the German Patent Laid-Open Application (DOLS) 2843064 is different from other ink jet printing methods, in that the driving force for ink discharge is obtained by applying thermal energy to liquid.
More specifically, in the ink jet printing method disclosed in the above-mentioned patent applications, the liquid effected by thermal energy undergoes a state change involving a rapid volume change, and is discharged from an orifice at the front end of a printing head, by the force generated by such state change. The discharged liquid forms a flying droplet, which is deposited onto a printing material to perform recording.
In particular, the ink jet printing method disclosed in the above-mentioned DOLS 2843064 is not only extremely advantageously applicable to so-called drop-on-demand printing method, but also has the advantage of providing a high-quality image of a high resolving power at a high speed, since a full-line head with multiple orifices arranged at a high density can be easily realized.
The printing head employed in the above-mentioned ink jet printing methods is composed, as shown in
FIG. 1
, of an ink discharge unit including orifices (discharge ports)
206
for discharging liquid droplets, plural nozzles
204
communicating with the orifices
206
, provided in a part thereof with heat action portions where the thermal energy for liquid discharge is applied to the liquid and divided by flow path walls
203
, and a common liquid chamber for supplying the nozzles
204
with recording liquid, electrothermal converting members (heat generating members)
202
serving as means for generating thermal energy, and a printing head substrate
201
provided with a wiring portion
209
for supplying the heat generating members
202
with electric currents. The liquid is supplied to the common liquid chamber
207
from an unrepresented liquid reservoir tank through a supply pipe
208
.
In such conventional ink jet printing technologies, the ink jet recording head utilizing pigment ink has been associated with the drawbacks that the ink is of a limited pot life as it tends to solidify by the coagulation of the pigment component, that the response frequency of ink discharge cannot be made high because of the high viscosity of ink, and that the time required for image fixation is extremely long because of poor permeability of such ink into the recording paper. It has been tried to overcome such drawbacks by reducing the pigment concentration or by employing a solvent of higher permeability, but such measures result in a loss in the recording density or blotting of the ink on the recording paper and are not effective sufficiently.
On the other hand, the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application proposes an ink jet recording method of superposing the recording ink and a process liquid for improving the image quality, storage durability and liquid permeability. In this proposed method, the color ink jet recording apparatus is provided with separate drum-structured heads.
In such recording method, however, the image quality, image fixation and image durability become significantly deteriorated if the hit position of the processing liquid is displaced even slightly from that of the recording ink. In particular, in the above-mentioned conventional configuration in which the head for the processing liquid and that for the recording ink are formed separately, the components of the recording heads and of the printer main body, particularly the carriage unit thereof, have to be highly precisely prepared in order to match the his positions of the processing liquid and the recording ink, thus leading to a higher cost. Also these parts require an enormously long time for the adjustment, and, for these reasons, such ink jet printer is much more expensive in cost than the ordinary ink jet printers. These drawbacks are particularly conspicuous in the printer in which the user can replace the recording heads. Also it will be easily understood that the printing speed cannot be much improved even if the response speed is increased. These drawbacks are similarly encountered also in the recording method in which inks of different kinds are to be deposited on a same hit position.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A first object of the present invention is to provide a liquid discharging head capable of high-quality recording with a high speed, by precisely matching reaching positions of inks of different kinds or of processing liquid and ink.
A second object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet printing apparatus capable of mounting a liquid discharging head capable of high-quality recording with a high speed, by precisely matching the reaching positions of inks of different kinds or of processing liquid and ink.
The above-mentioned objects can be attained, according to the present invention, by a liquid discharging head comprising first and second element boards provided with a plurality of energy generating elements for generating energy for liquid discharge and positioned in mutually opposed manner, and a grooved member positioned between the first and second element boards and provided with grooves for forming liquid flow paths respectively corresponding to the energy generating elements in combination with the first element board, grooves for forming liquid flow paths respectively corresponding to the energy generating elements in combination with the first element board and discharge ports respectively communicating with the liquid flow paths.
There is also provided a liquid discharging head cartridge including the liquid discharging head mentioned above and a liquid reservoir containing ink to be supplied to the liquid discharging head.
There is also provided a liquid discharging apparatus including the liquid discharging head mentioned above and means for detachably supporting the liquid discharging head.
The liquid discharging head, the liquid discharging head cartridge and the liquid discharging apparatus of the present invention can provide an image of extremely high quality, firm fixation and high durability because of the absence of aberration between the reaching positions of liquids of two kinds, as the nozzles for the two liquids are integrally formed by a single grooved member.
Also the manufacturing cost of the liquid discharging head and of the entire printing apparatus can be reduced, by an integral configuration of the nozzles for the discharge of the two liquids.
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patent: 4313124 (1982-01-01), Hara
patent: 4345262 (1982-08-01), Shirato et al.
patent: 4367480 (1983-01-01), Kotoh
patent: 4380771 (1983-04-01), Takatori
patent: 4412224 (1983-10-01), Sugitani
patent: 4417251 (1983-11-01), Sugitani
patent: 4437100 (1984-03-01), Sugitani et al.
patent: 4450455 (1984-05-01), Sugitani et al.
patent: 4459600 (1984-07-01), Sato et al.
patent: 4463359 (1984-07-01), Ayata et al.
patent: 4509063 (19
Ishinaga Hiroyuki
Kawai Jun
Okada Masaaki
Sugitani Hiroshi
Barlow John
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Stephens Juanita
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