Synthetic resins or natural rubbers -- part of the class 520 ser – Synthetic resins – Compositions to be polymerized by wave energy wherein said...
Reexamination Certificate
1997-04-04
2001-09-18
Dawson, Robert (Department: 1712)
Synthetic resins or natural rubbers -- part of the class 520 ser
Synthetic resins
Compositions to be polymerized by wave energy wherein said...
C347S064000, C522S031000, C522S065000, C522S066000, C522S067000, C528S103000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06291545
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fluorine-containing epoxy resin composition which is readily soluble in commonly used organic solvents and enables formation of a high quality coating film excellent in surface properties (hardness and smoothness), liquid repellent property, and adhesion property. The present invention also relates to a process of treating a surface of an object using said resin composition so as to form a surface excellent in surface properties (hardness and smoothness), adhesion property, and liquid repellent property on the object.
2. Related Background Art
It has been known that liquid repellent agents commonly used are stable thermally and chemically and are excellent in weatherability, water tightness, chemical resistance, solvent resistance, mold releasability, and liquid repellent property; however, they are not necessarily satisfactory in terms of hardness and adhesion to a member.
Such a liquid repellent agent has been used in a variety of industrial fields. For example, in the ink jet field, there has arisen an inconvenience that ink is accumulated on neighborhoods of discharging outlets provided in an ink jet head for discharging ink and the ink thus accumulated possibly causes deviation of the discharging direction of the ink and blocks the discharging outlets, and to cope with such an inconvenience, a liquid repellent agent has been applied on a surface provided with the discharging ports (the surface will be hereinafter occasionally be called a discharging outlet surface).
FIG. 14
is a schematic view showing one example of an ink jet head in which a discharging outlet surface is subjected to a liquid repellent finish using a liquid repellent agent. In
FIG. 14
, reference numeral
101
indicates a substrate for an ink jet head, which is formed of a material such as glass, aluminum or silicon. The substrate
101
is joined with a top plate
102
provided with grooves for forming liquid pathways
104
. The liquid pathways
104
are formed of the grooves of the top plate
102
and the base plate
101
. An energy generating element
103
for discharging ink is provided in each of the liquid pathways
104
. A discharging outlet plate
107
, which is provided with discharging outlets
108
each communicating with the liquid pathways
104
for discharging ink, is joined with a joined body of the substrate
101
and the top plate
102
, to form an ink jet head. A liquid repellent layer
107
a
formed of a fluorine-based resin is provided on a surface having the discharging outlets
108
(hereinafter, referred to as a discharging outlet surface) of the discharging outlet plate
107
. The liquid repellent layer
107
a
has a pattern as shown in
FIG. 4
in which neighborhoods of the discharging ports have different liquid repellent properties than the remaining portion. As is well known, the configuration in which a liquid repellent area extends locally on neighborhoods of discharging outlets and a hydrophilic area
107
′ is formed around the liquid repellent area is effective in removal of ink adhering on the discharging outlet surface, as compared with a configuration in which the liquid repellent area extends over the entire discharging outlet surface.
That is, even in the case where a liquid repellent layer is provided on a discharging outlet surface of an ink jet head, if ink in mist adheres on the discharging outlet surface, it possibly remains thereon. In general, the ink remaining on the discharging outlet surface is removed by a wiping operation using a cleaning blade; however, if the ink remaining on the discharging outlet surface is thickened in viscosity, the removal of the ink using the cleaning blade becomes difficult. When the ink thickened in viscosity is located on neighborhoods of the discharging outlets, the ink accumulated thereon is liable to cause deviation of the discharging direction of ink and to block the discharging outlets. For this reason, the discharging outlet surface is so configured that it has a liquid repellent area around the discharging outlets and a hydrophilic area around the liquid repellent area for moving the ink remaining on the discharging outlet surface to the hydrophilic area. This makes it possible to at least reduce the possibility that the ink remains around the discharging outlets and to easily collect the ink in small droplets to the hydrophilic area, and hence to facilitate the removal of the ink using the cleaning blade.
In this way, the liquid repellent agent applied on a discharging outlet surface of an ink jet head needs to have a desired adhesion property, a desired rigidity (that is, hardness), and a desired wear resistance. From this viewpoint, a fluorine based resin used as the abovementioned liquid repellent agent does not adequately satisfy the needs regarding hardness and adhesion to a member. On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 4-211959 discloses an ink jet head having a discharging outlet surface subjected to a liquid repellent finish using a liquid repellent agent composed of a polymer having a fluorine-containing heterocyclic structure at a main chain. The discharging outlet surface subjected to a liquid repellent finish using the above polymer is excellent in liquid repellent property and also relatively excellent in wear resistance. It is to be noted that the polymer having a fluorine-containing heterocyclic structure at a main chain is being practically used at present as a liquid repellent agent for a discharging outlet surface of an ink jet head.
It is understood from the above description that the polymer having a fluorine-containing heterocyclic structure at a main chain is effective as a liquid repellent agent used for subjecting a discharging outlet surface of an ink jet head to a liquid repellent finish.
The polymer, however, does not adequately satisfy the needs in all cases as will be described below.
That is, in recent years, a variety of cartridge type ink jet heads have been commercially available for eliminating the necessity of maintenance for the ink jet head. Such a cartridge type ink jet head (hereinafter, referred to as an ink jet head cartridge) adopts a configuration that the discharging outlet surface is protected with a discharging outlet surface protecting member such as a sealing tape or a cap. The discharging outlet protecting member is removed when the ink jet head cartridge is mounted on the ink jet system. Accordingly, for an ink jet head cartridge of a type being exchanged in accordance with the color and physical property of printing ink used, the exchanging operation of the ink jet head cartridge is conducted with the discharging outlet surface exposed. Upon this exchanging operation, the discharging outlet surface of the ink jet head cartridge is often brought in contact with the user's finger, the ink jet system and/or a head cartridge storage vessel. In the case where the discharging outlet surface of such an ink jet head cartridge is provided with a liquid repellent layer formed of a liquid repellent agent composed of the polymer having a fluorine-containing heterocyclic structure at a main chain, the liquid repellent layer is relatively excellent in wear resistance in the conventional service; however, since liquid repellent layer is formed of the polymer having a low hardness, it withstands the friction due to the wiping operation but it is possibly scratched when being brought in contact with the above-mentioned obstacles. If the liquid repellent layer is not directly scratched, there is a possibility that contaminants and the like adhere on the discharging outlet surface, and consequently the liquid repellent layer may be damaged when the contaminants adhering on the discharging outlet surface are pressed on the liquid repellent layer by the cleaning blade upon wiping operation.
On the other hand, in recent years, there has been proposed an ink jet system for conducting precise printing using ink in a relatively small droplet so as to further improve the quality of
Aylward D.
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Dawson Robert
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
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