Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-09
2001-12-18
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
active
06331051
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording head for recording by discharging recording liquid. The invention also relates to a method of manufacture therefor.
2. Related Background Art
The ink jet recording method is a method whereby to record by discharging liquid droplets (ink) from the fine discharge ports to a recording medium. Since this recording method is of non-impact type, there is no considerable amount of noises, while it is made possible to utilize an ordinary recording sheet for a highly precise recording at higher speeds. There is also an advantage, among many others, that a color recording is possible by use of plural colors of ink. A recording apparatus (an ink jet recording apparatus) that adopts the ink jet recording method is arranged to use, in general, an ink jet recording (IJC) which is formed integrally with discharge ports to discharge ink, and discharge energy generating elements to provide ink with discharge energy.
FIG. 15
is an exploded perspective view which shows the structure of the principle parts of the conventional ink jet recording head.
By the application of film formation technologies and techniques, the heater board
910
is provided with a silicon substrate, electrothermal converting member arranged on the silicon substrate (discharge heaters), and the electric wiring of aluminum or the like to supply electric power to the discharge heaters. Also, the printed-circuit board
920
is arranged for the heater board
910
. On the printed-circuit board
920
, there are provided the wiring (connections by use of wire bonding, for instance) for the heater board
910
; a pad
921
positioned on one end of this wiring to receive electric signals from the main body of an apparatus (not shown); and a signal and power supply pad
922
positioned on the other end, which serves as the electrical connector to connect it with the heater board.
The grooved ceiling plate
945
is formed by means of injection molding or the like with an orifice plate provided with an ink inlet opening
942
whereby to receive ink to be supplied from the ink tank and guided to the common liquid chamber which will be described later, and a plurality of discharge ports corresponding to each of the ink flow paths. On this grooved ceiling plate
945
, there are arranged, among some others, partition walls to separate a plurality of ink flow paths, respectively, and the common liquid chamber to retain ink to be supplied to each of the ink flow paths. On the grooved ceiling plate
945
, the ink flow paths are formed as the respective grooves. For an integral formation of the kind, polysulfone or the like is named as a suitable material, for example.
On the reverse side of the printed-circuit board
920
, a supporting member
930
is arranged to support the printed-circuit board
920
flatly. The supporting member
930
is formed by metal, for example, which becomes the bottom plate of the ink jet unit.
The heater board
910
, the supporting member
930
, and the grooved ceiling plate
945
are fixed to each other by use of the pressure bar spring
950
. The pressure bar spring
950
is configured in a U-letter shape to exerts pressure. With the pressure thus exerted, it presses them uniformly in the arrangement direction of grooves that serve as ink flow paths. In other words, the pressure bar spring
950
is arranged to engage with the reverse side of the supporting member
930
with the foot portions
951
extended to pass through the holes
931
of the supporting member
930
, respectively. Then, this spring member
950
pinches the heater board
910
and the grooved ceiling plate
945
to engage with each other, and press and fix the heater board
910
and the grooved ceiling plate
945
by the intensive biasing force exerted thereby in cooperation with the front apron portion
952
. In this respect, the printed-circuit board
920
is installed on the supporting member
930
by means of adhesive bonding using the bonding agent
932
or the like.
In this manner, the grooved ceiling plate
945
and the heater board
910
are bonded. Thus, the ink flow paths are completed ultimately with the grooves of the grooved ceiling plate
945
and the heater board
910
. The end portion of the heater board
910
abuts upon the surface of the reverse side of the orifice plate
940
perpendicularly. There is then no gap created between the grooved ceiling plate
945
and the heater board
910
.
The grooved ceiling plate
945
is formed by the simultaneous cutting of the surface of the orifice plate
940
and the ink flow path groove formation surface where the aforesaid abutting surface and the grooves are formed. Then, in the subsequent process, the grooving and drilling are performed by means of laser processing. Further, in the following process, the substrate and the ceiling plate member are bonded to form the ink flow paths as described above.
However, for an ink jet recording head which should be of a large size in order to provide many numbers of discharge ports (2,000 or more, for example), there is encountered a problem that the ceiling plate member presents the warping which is beyond the compulsory control of the laser processing system when the ceiling plate member is processed by the irradiation of laser to process the ink flow path grooves and ink discharge ports continuously per block (128 pieces, for instance), and that there are created per block of processing, steps each having the width of jaw, and also, the drilled area variation of each ink discharge port that follows such step. Here, the contour variations on the circumference of each ink flow path, and the depth variation thereof are also created by the instability of the laser system itself or the like. The contour variations on the circumference of the ink flow paths thus created may cause the defective discharges. For an elongated ink jet recording head, it is particularly important not to allow such variations to take place.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Now, therefore, the present invention is designed with a view to solving the problems encountered in the conventional art regarding a large ink jet recording head provided with many numbers (2,000 or more) of ink discharge ports. It is an object of the invention to provide an ink jet recording head having a ceiling plate member (a drilled ceiling plate) whose processing precision is enhanced in the direction of ink flow paths and an ink discharge direction. The enhancement is achieved without forming steps having a jaw width; without variation in hole area of the ink discharge ports due to warping of the ceiling plate member; and also without forming variations in configuration and depth of each ink flow path groove due to an instability of the laser apparatus itself, or the like. It is also the object of the invention to provide a method of manufacture of such ink jet recording head.
In order to achieve the objects described above, the ink jet recording head of the present invention comprises a plurality of discharge ports for discharging ink; a plurality of ink flow paths communicated with the discharge ports; a plurality of substrates having discharge energy generating elements for providing discharge energy for ink; a supporting member for supporting a plurality of substrates in a state of being arranged; and a ceiling plate member for forming the ink flow paths by being bonded to a plurality of substrates arranged. For this ink jet recording head, the plurality of substrates are provided with a member becoming the side wall of the ink flow paths and the ceiling plate member has the ink flow path side wall corresponding to the gap between the plurality of substrates, respectively.
Also, the method of the present invention for manufacturing such ink jet recording head, which is provided with a plurality of discharge ports for discharging ink; a plurality of ink flow paths communicated with the discharge ports; a plurality of substrates having a discharge energy generating elements for providing discha
Abe Tsutomu
Aono Kiyomi
Karita Seiichiro
Koizumi Yutaka
Kubota Masahiko
Barlow John
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Mouttet Blaise
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