Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Utility Patent
1997-08-25
2001-01-02
Braun, Fred L. (Department: 2852)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
Utility Patent
active
06168254
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus, an ink jet recording head and an ink jet recording head manufacturing method, in which liquid droplets are ejected through ejection outlet to effect printing.
In a recording apparatus such as a printer, copying machine, facsimile machine or the like, an image consisting of dots is recorded on a recording material such as paper, plastic resin thin sheet, cloth or the like.
The recording apparatus can be classified into an ink jet type, a wire dot type, a thermal type, an electrophotographic type and the like. Among them, the ink jet type (ink jet recording apparatus) ejects the recording liquid through the ejection outlets of an ink jet recording head to the recording material. Among various types of ink jet method, the type using thermal energy is advantageous in that the responsivity to the recording signal is high and in that the ejection outlets can be manufactured at high density.
Recently, the amount of data to be recorded is increased, more particularly, graphic patterns or the like are printed with the result of the greater amount of data to be printed, so that even higher high speed recording is desired.
An ink jet recording apparatus of the above-described type and of a so-called full line type having a long ink jet recording head having ejection outlets over the recording material width, is expected as increasing the recording speed.
Referring first to
FIG. 10
, there is schematically shown an example of a conventional ink jet head.
As shown in
FIG. 10
, it is elongated to cover a length of a side of A4 size recording sheet (full-line type).
In this Figure, designated by a reference numeral
100
is a heater board of Si or the like. On top of this, there are provided electrothermal transducers functioning as ejection energy generating elements and electrode wiring (not shown) for supplying the electric power thereto. Designated by
200
is a top plate of glass or metal or the like. It has a recess manufactured by machining or etching or the like to constitute an ink inlet
209
for receiving recording liquid such as ink, and a common liquid chamber in fluid communication with respective ink passages and with the ink receiving port
209
.
Each ink passage is provided corresponding to the ejection energy generating element on the heater board
100
. The top plate is bonded on the heater board
100
, and the heater board
100
is bonded and fixed on the base plate
300
. A confining member
500
functions to connecting and fixing the top plate
200
and the heater board
100
. It is threaded on the base plate
300
through the wiring board
400
. On top of the confining member
500
, an end of a confining spring
600
is fixed by a screw. The other end thereof is contacted to the top surface of the top plate
200
to elastically press the top plate
200
. By doing so, the top plate
200
can be mechanically urged to the heater board
1
.
With this structure, if the top plate involves warping or deformation, it is not possible to press the top plate following the warping or deformation, with the result of non-uniform urging force by the confining spring in the direction of the length. If this occurs, gap may be formed between adjacent passages. In the ink jet head of this type, there is a possibility that the pressure wave upon ejecting the recording liquid may be transmitted to the adjacent ink passages with the result of cross-torque. If this occurs, non-uniformity occurs on the recorded image, and in addition, ejection failure may occur as a result of the reduction of the ejection speed. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 126943/1994 proposes comb-like confining spring to make the spring urging force uniform.
However, when the top plate is to be pressed, it is necessary to correctly align the heater board and the top plate so that the ink passages correspond to the associated ejection energy generating element, respectively. However, with this structure, when the confining spring is mounted before the top plate is mounted, the confining spring is present at a part of the place to be taken by the top plate, and therefore, it is not possible to align and connect the top plate after the confining spring is fixed. For this reason, the confining spring is mounted after the top plate is aligned. In this case, however, if the fixing of the confining spring is executed partially, the fixed portion (screw portion) involves concentrated force with the result of the liability of the deformation of the spring, because the urging force by the confining spring is several tens kg in total. Therefore, the uniform urging is difficult. Therefore, in order to apply the uniform urging force by the confining spring, the fixing of the confining spring has to be uniform. In this case, a very bulky apparatus is required with the result of increase manufacturing cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording head, an ink jet recording head manufacturing method, and an ink jet recording apparatus, wherein assembling is easy, and a manufacturing apparatus can be downsized and simplified.
According to an aspect of present invention, a mechanism is provided to maintain the released and actuated states of the pressure, thus permitting easy manufacturing, small size and simplified manufacturing apparatus, easiness in the assembling and low manufacturing cost.
In another aspect of the present invention, the pressure can be applied in divided manner, and therefore, the adjustment of the magnitude, order and the load distribution in a direction in which the ejection outlet are arranged, are enabled to assure the connection.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a ink jet recording head comprising: a plurality of ink ejection outlets; a first member having a plurality of grooves in fluid communication with said ejection outlets, respectively; a second member having a plurality of energy generating elements for producing energy for ejecting ink in said grooves through said ejection outlets; and a clamping unit for clamping said first member with said second member to constitute ink passages with said grooves, wherein said clamping unit has a plurality of pressure regulating mechanisms, which are independently operable.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet recording head comprising a plurality of ink ejection outlets; a first member having a plurality of grooves in fluid communication with said ejection outlets, respectively; a second member having a plurality of energy generating elements for producing energy for ejecting ink in said grooves through said ejection outlets; and a clamping unit for clamping said first member with said second member to constitute ink passages with said grooves, wherein said clamping unit has a leaf spring member divided into a plurality of urging sections by slits, each section having a through openings, and a spring supporting member for supporting said spring member along an array of said ejection outlets, wherein a pressure regulating mechanism is provided for said urging sections.
According to a further aspect, there is provided a manufacturing method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head including a plurality of ink ejection outlets; a first member having a plurality of grooves in fluid communication with said ejection outlets, respectively; a second member having a plurality of energy generating elements for producing energy for ejecting ink in said grooves through said ejection outlets; and a clamping unit for clamping said first member with said second member to constitute ink passages with said grooves, said method comprising the steps of: connecting said clamping unit to said supporting member, wherein said clamping unit has a leaf spring member divided into a plurality of urging sections by slits, each section having a through openings, and a spring supporting member for supporting said spring
Aono Kiyomi
Goto Akira
Hayasaki Kimiyuki
Inaba Masaki
Karita Seiichiro
Braun Fred L.
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
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