Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-27
2002-09-03
Pham, Hai (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S048000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06443563
ABSTRACT:
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application Nos. 10-322878 (1998) filed Oct. 27, 1998, 10-322879 (1998) filed Oct. 27, 1998, 10-322880 (1998) filed Oct. 27, 1998, 10-311050 (1998) filed Oct. 30, 1998, the contents of which are incorporated hereinto by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electro-thermal conversion device board which includes an electro-thermal conversion device layer having a plurality of heat generation parts arranged corresponding to a liquid flow passage for conducting a liquid used for recording, an ink-jet recording head provided with the electro-thermal conversion device board, an ink-jet recording apparatus using the same, and a production method of an ink-jet recording head.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an ink-jet recording apparatus is provided with a recording head for ejecting an ink as a liquid used for recording. A bubble-jet type recording head, as shown in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 62-261452 (1987) and 62-261453 (1987), comprises an ink ejection member having an ink ejection port forming surface on which a plurality of ink ejection ports for ejecting ink drops are formed at a predetermined interval, an electro-thermal conversion device board having electro-thermal conversion device layers arranged corresponding to respective ink flow passages communicating with respective ink eject ports, and a printed circuit board for supplying drive control signals to the respective electro-thermal conversion device layers of the electro-thermal conversion device board.
The ink ejection member is provided with a common liquid chamber which stores a predetermined amount of ink supplied from an ink tank. The common liquid chamber is communicated with an end of each ink flow passage formed by a partition wall member disposed in parallel and opposite to each other. Accordingly, this distributes the ink from the common liquid chamber to respective ink flow passages, which is ejected as an ink droplet from the ink ejection port.
In the electro-thermal conversion device board, for a multi-value recording system in which the size of ejected liquid-droplet is changed according to a multi-value recording image data, one is proposed in which a plurality of heat generation parts of a plurality of electro-thermal conversion device layers are respectively driven selectively.
The electro-thermal conversion device board, for example, as shown in
FIGS. 17A and 17B
, comprises a base table part
6
in which is disposed between an ink flow passage
2
ai
of the ink ejection member and a printed circuit board (not shown) of the electro-thermal conversion device layer, and a heat generation part
8
ai
(i=1 to n, n is an integer) and heat generation part
20
ai
(i=1 to n, n is an integer) of the electro-thermal conversion device layer are disposed on one of the surfaces according to each ink flow passage, a discrete electrode layer
10
with one end thereof electrically connected to the heat generation part
8
ai,
a discrete electrode layer
18
is flush with the discrete electrode layer
10
and having one end thereof electrically connected to the heat generation part
20
ai,
a common electrode layer
12
in which one end is electrically connected respectively to the heat generation part
8
ai
and the heat generation part
20
ai
and formed on the same plane as of the discrete electrode layers
10
and
18
, a protective layer
16
covering all of the adjacent heat generation parts
8
ai
and
20
ai,
the discrete electrode layer
10
, and the discrete electrode layer
18
, and a cavitation resistant layer
14
covering the entire surface of the protective layer
16
.
In
FIGS. 17A and 17B
, parts corresponding to the two ink flow passages
2
ai
(i=1 to n, n is an integer)of the ink ejection member are shown representatively, and other parts are omitted.
The heat generation part
8
ai
and the heat generation part
20
ai
are disposed on a common straight line along the same ink flow passage on the same plane of the base table part
6
. The heat generation part
8
ai
is disposed at a position closer to the ink ejection port of the ink ejection member than the heat generation part
20
ai.
The capacity (heat generation amount) of the heat generation part
8
ai
is smaller than the capacity (heat generation amount) of the heat generation part
20
ai.
The other end of the common electrode layer
12
formed on the heat generation part
8
ai
and the heat generation part
20
ai
is connected with a reference power supply for supplying a predetermined power.
The cavitation resistant layer
14
formed with a rough surface has shallow grooves correspondingly between respective partition wall members
4
a
i
(i=1 to n, n is an integer) of the ink ejection member and also has elongate grooves
14
a
correspondingly to respective partition wall members
4
ai.
Adjacent ink flow passages
2
ai
are formed independently without communication with each other by closely contacting one end of the partition wall member
4
ai
of the ink ejection member with the cavitation resistant layer
14
at a predetermined pressure.
In this case, the number of ink ejection ports has a tendency to increase recently in compliance to the requirement for high resolution of the resulting recording images, and therefore, in view of obtaining a compact recording head, the distance between adjacent ink flow passages and the distance between adjacent heat generation parts
8
ai
and heat generation parts
20
ai
also tend to be decreased.
When, as described above, a plurality of heat generation parts
8
ai
and heat generation parts
20
ai
are formed on a same straight line for each ink flow passage, and the discrete electrode layers
10
and
18
and the common electrode layer
12
are formed in parallel on a same plane, wiring between respective electrode layers and the reference power supply becomes complicated and relatively increased.
Further, when the number of ink ejection ports is increased to enhance image density, it is also considered that widths of the respective heaters, the discrete electrode layers
10
and
18
, and the common electrode layer
12
are decreased to reduce the width of each ink flow passage. However, by decreasing the width of each heat generation part, there is a danger of deteriorating the heating efficiency and ink ejection performance, and still further, decrease in width of the discrete electrode layers
10
and
18
and the common electrode layer
12
has a certain limitation because of an increase in wiring resistance. Therefore, increased density of heat generation parts of the electro-thermal conversion device board and increased density of ink ejection ports and a compact electro-thermal conversion device board are not easy to realize.
In view of the above problems, a first object of the present invention is to provide an electro-thermal conversion device board having a plurality of heat generation parts arranged corresponding to liquid flow passages for conducting a liquid used for recording, an ink-jet recording head provided with an electro-thermal conversion device board, an ink-jet recording apparatus using the recording head, and a production method of the ink-jet recording head which is capable of providing high-density heaters of the electro-thermal conversion device board and ink ejection ports and a compact electro-thermal conversion device board, an ink-jet recording head provided with the electro-thermal conversion device board without deteriorating ink ejection performance.
Further, when making multi-value recording as described above, the bubble generation power is controlled by selectively changing the area of the driven electro-thermal conversion device. Therefore, the bubble generation power when forming a small liquid droplet is substantially small compared to a bubble generation power when only a single electro-thermal conversion device is disposed in one flow passage. In such a state, if there is
Imanaka Yoshiyuki
Kitani Masashi
Miyakoshi Toshimori
Mochizuki Muga
Ozaki Teruo
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Firzpatrick, Cella, Harper & Scinto
Pham Hai
LandOfFree
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