Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Controller
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-04
2004-12-07
Pham, Hai (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Controller
C347S014000, C347S065000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06827416
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid discharge head and a liquid discharge apparatus used for a printer and a video printer as an output terminal of a copying machine, a facsimile machine, a word processor, a host computer or the like. Specifically, the present invention relates to a system for a maintenance of an electro-thermal conversion element for generating bubble forming thermal energy which is utilized for discharge liquid and a liquid discharge head having a movable member which is displaced accompanied by the formation of the bubble and a liquid discharge recording apparatus mounted with the liquid discharge head and the movable member.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, there has been known an ink jet recording method, the so-called bubble jet recording method, wherein, by giving ink energy such as heat, the ink is allowed to produce a change of state accompanied by a rapid volume change and, by an action force resulting from this change of state of the ink, the ink is discharged from the ink discharge port, and is adhered onto a medium to be recorded so as to perform an image forming. In the recording apparatus using this bubble jet recording method, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,129, there are usually arranged a discharge port for discharge the ink, an ink flow path communicating with this discharge port and an electro-energy conversion member as energy generating means for discharging the ink which is inside the ink flow path.
According to such a recording method, high quality images can be recorded at high speed with a low noise. At the same time, the head performing this recording has many excellent merits in that, because the discharge ports for discharging the ink are arranged in high density, not only recording images of high resolution but also color images can be easily acquired using a small-size device. For this reason, in recent years, this bubble jet recording method has come to be used for a number of business machines such as printers, recopying machines, facsimile machines and the like and, furthermore, even come to be used as far as in the field of an industrial system such as a textile printing apparatus or the like.
As such a bubble jet technique has become more widespread in various fields of products, in recent years, the following various types of demand for further developments have been on the rise.
For example, regarding the request for improvement of energy efficiency, optimization of a heat generating element by adjusting the thickness of the protection layer of the heat generating element can be enumerated. This method is effective in terms of improving propagation efficiency of the generated heat to the liquid.
Further, in order to obtain high quality image, there has been proposed a driving condition for giving an liquid discharge method or the like having high ink discharge speed for performing an excellent ink discharge based on a stable bubble generation or, with a view toward high-speed recording, there has also been proposed an improved shape of the liquid flow path for acquiring a liquid discharge head having high refill speed of the discharged liquid to the inside of the liquid flow path.
Furthermore, by returning to the basic principles of the liquid discharge, experimental studies have been made to provide a new liquid discharge method utilizing the bubble, a head used for that method or the like, and the liquid discharge method and the head used for that method, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-201966 specification, have been proposed.
Here, the conventional liquid discharge method and the head used for that method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-201966 specification will be described with reference to
FIGS. 8A
to
8
D and
FIGS. 9
to
10
.
FIGS. 8A
to
8
D are views explaining a discharge principle in the conventional liquid discharge head, and each of
FIGS. 8A
to
8
D is a cross-sectional view along the liquid flow path direction.
FIG. 9
is a partially broken oblique view of the liquid discharge head as shown in
FIGS. 8A
to
8
D.
FIG. 10
is a cross-sectional view of a modified example of the liquid discharge head as shown in
FIGS. 8A
to
8
D. The liquid discharge heads shown in
FIGS. 8A
to
8
D and
FIG. 10
have the most basic constitutions which control the propagation and the direction of the pressure as well as the growth direction of the bubble based on the bubble at the time of discharge liquid and improve a discharge force and a discharge efficiency. In
FIG. 9
, reference symbol C denotes a center of the heat generating element region.
y As used herein, “upstream” and “downstream” have to do with the flow direction of the liquid from a supply source of the liquid to a discharge port through the upper direction of the bubble generating region or the constitutional direction of the liquid flow.
Further, what is meant by “downstream side” represents a discharge port side of the bubble which is taken as mainly directly acting on the discharge of the liquid droplet. To be more concrete, it means the downstream side regarding the above-described flow direction or the above-described constitutional direction against the center of the bubble, or the bubble to be generated in the region at the downstream side rather than the center of the heat generating element region. (Similarly, what is meant by “upstream side” regarding the bubble itself is an upstream side regarding the above-described flow direction or the constitutional direction against the center of the bubble, or the bubble to be generated in the region at the upstream side rather than the center of the heat generating element region). Further, what is meant by “comb teeth” is a form in which a supporting point of the movable member is a common member and the front of a free end of the movable member is open.
In the liquid discharge head as shown in
FIGS. 8A
to
8
D, a heat generating element
502
for allowing thermal energy to act on the liquid as a discharge energy generating element for discharge the liquid is installed at an element substrate
501
. On the element substrate
501
, corresponding to the heat generating element
502
, a liquid flow path
503
is arranged. The liquid flow path
503
communicates with a liquid discharge port
504
and also communicates with a common liquid chamber
505
for supplying the liquid to a plurality of liquid flow paths
503
and receives an amount of the liquid matching the liquid discharged from the discharge port
504
.
On the portion corresponding to the liquid flow path
503
of the element substrate
501
, a plate shaped movable member
506
having a flat surface portion opposing to the heat generating element
502
is installed in the shape of a cantilevered balcony. The movable member
506
is constituted by a material such as a metal or the like having an elasticity. One end of the movable member
506
is fixed to a pedestal
507
which is formed by patterning photosensitive resin or the like on the wall of the liquid flow path
503
and the element substrate
501
. In this way, the movable member
506
is supported by the pedestal
507
so as to constitute a supporting point
508
of the movable member
506
.
Further, by making the movable member
506
to be comb teeth shaped, the movable member
506
can be easily prepared and yet at a low cost, and an alignment of the movable member
506
to the pedestal
507
can also be easily made. The movable member
506
has the supporting point
508
at the upstream side of a large flow which flows to the side of the discharge port
504
through the upper direction of the movable member
506
from the common liquid chamber
505
by a discharge action of the liquid, and is arranged at a distance of about 15 &mgr;m apart from the heat generating element
502
in a position opposing to the heat generating element
502
such as to conceal the heat generating element
502
so that it has a free end
509
to this supporting point
508
Ishinaga Hiroyuki
Kanda Hidehiko
Matsumoto Nobuyuki
Misumi Yoshinori
Nguyen Lam
Pham Hai
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