Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-23
2002-03-26
Nguyen, Thinh (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S065000, C347S067000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06361155
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording head of an ink jet recording apparatus and a method for manufacturing the ink jet recording head of the ink jet recording apparatus, and more particularly to an on-demand type ink jet recording head of the ink jet recording apparatus and a method for manufacturing the on-demand type ink jet recording head, wherein the ink jet recording head ejects a series of ink droplets from its nozzles onto a recording medium in response to printing data inputted to the ink jet recording apparatus, so that the thus ejected ink droplets form desired characters, patterns or images on the recording medium.
2. Description of the Art
Heretofore, an ink jet recording head of a Kyser system has been known as one of conventional ink jet recording heads.
The Kyser system ink jet recording head (hereinafter referred to simply as a conventional ink jet recording head) is shown in FIG.
15
. As is clear from
FIG. 15
, the conventional ink jet recording heed is substantially constructed of: ink reservoir
1
; a plurality of pressure generating chambers
2
which are arranged side-by-side in a direction perpendicular to the paper, wherein each of the chambers
2
assumes an elongated shape; a plurality of ink supply ports
3
for supplying ink from the ink reservoir
1
to the pressure generating chambers
2
; a plurality of vibrating plate portions
4
, wherein each of the vibrating plate portions
4
defines or forms a bottom plate portion of each of the pressure generating chambers
2
, and serves to change each of the pressure generating chambers
2
in volume in response to printing data inputted to a conventional ink jet recording apparatus provided with the conventional ink jet recording head; a plurality of piezoelectric actuators
5
, wherein each of the piezoelectric actuators
5
is disposed adjacent to each of the vibrating plate portions
4
and serves to vibrate each of the vibrating plate portions
4
; a plurality of ink erection nozzles
6
, wherein each of the ink ejection nozzles
6
communicates with each of the pressure generating chambers
2
to eject ink from the pressure generating chambers
2
therefrom in response to the printing data; and, a plurality of nozzle communicating ports
7
, wherein each of the nozzle communicating ports
7
provides fluid communication between each of the pressure generating chambers
2
and each of the ink ejection nozzles
6
.
Ink is supplied from an ink cartridge (not shown) to each of the ink ejection nozzles
6
of the conventional ink jet recording head through fluid passages. These fluid passages are constructed of the ink reservoir
1
, the ink supply ports
3
, the pressure generating chambers
2
, the nozzle communicating ports
7
, and the nozzles
6
in this order. On the other hand, the piezoelectric actuators
5
are combined with the vibrating plate portions
4
to form a vibration system for generating pressure waves in the above-mentioned fluid passages.
In the conventional ink jet recording head having the above construction, in printing operations, the piezoelectric actuators
5
are energized to rapidly displace the vibrating plate portions
4
, and thereby rapidly changing the pressure generating chambers
2
in volume, whereby pressure waves are generated in the above fluid passages. When the pressure waves are in their pressure-increasing phase, a small amount of ink is pushed out of the pressure generating chambers
2
through the ink ejection nozzles
6
to become ink droplets
8
ejected onto the recording medium (not shown) such as a sheet of paper or the like, and thereby forming desired dots on the recording medium. Formation of such dots on the recording medium is repeated in response to the printing data to form the desired characters, patterns or images on the recording medium.
The conventional ink jet recording head having the above construction is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei8-58089, wherein the conventional ink jet recording head is constructed of a plurality of its component plates varying in cavity patterns. As shown in
FIG. 16
, component plates of the conventional ink jet recording head include a nozzle plate
6
a
, a reservoir plate
1
a
, a supply port plate
3
a
, a pressure generating chamber plate
2
a
, a vibrating plate
4
a
, and piezoelectric actuators
5
which are stacked vertically in this order and bonded to each other using an adhesive to form the conventional ink jet recording head.
The nozzle plate
6
a
is provided with a plurality of ink ejection nozzles
6
which are arranged in a row or staggered along an appropriate straight line. On the other hand, the reservoir plate
1
a
is provided with: a cavity for forming an ink reservoir
1
; and, ports forming part of a nozzle communicating ports
7
. The supply port plate
3
a
is provided with ink supply ports
3
and ports forming part of the nozzle communicating ports
7
. The pressure generating chamber plate
2
a
is provided with a plurality of cavities for forming a plurality of pressure generating chambers
2
each of which assumes an elongated shape. These pressure generating chambers
2
are arranged side-by-side in a direction perpendicular to their longitudinal axes, wherein the longitudinal axis of etch of the pressure generating chambers
2
horizontally extends in FIG.
16
. On the other hand, the vibrating plate
4
a
is partitioned into a plurality of vibrating plate portions
4
each of which forms a bottom plate portion of each of the pressure generating chambers
2
.
In fabricating the conventional ink jet recording head by connecting the above-mentioned various types of component plates with each other, for example, according to a method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho57-91274, a liquid adhesive film is applied to each of opposite surfaces of a desired one of the component plates through a transfer printing process or an ordinary printing process, and thereby preparing an adhesive layer having a thickness of, for example, several &mgr;m. After completion of formation of the adhesive layer, these component plates are successively stacked vertically in a stack and bonded to each other under pressure to produce the conventional ink jet recording head.
At this time, in stacking vertically these component plates coated with the adhesive layers
9
(
FIG. 17
) in the stack under pressure, the adhesive layers
9
tend to flow out of their applied areas under the influence of pressure to enter an interior of each of the ink reservoir
1
, the nozzle communicating ports
7
and the ink ejection nozzles
6
. Occurrence of such flowing out of the adhesive layers
9
results in the following problem. Namely, as shown in
FIG. 17
, for example, in bonding the reservoir plate
1
a
to the supply port plate
3
a
, when the pressure applied to the reservoir plate
1
a
, and supply port plate
3
a
and/or the thickness of the adhesive layers are excessively large, an excess adhesive layer
10
tends to extrude into interiors of the nozzle communicating ports
7
. Such extrusion of the excess adhesive layer
10
into the interiors of the nozzle communicating ports
7
increases friction losses in ink flow, which impairs smooth ejection of ink droplets
8
from the intended nozzles
6
, or increases interference between the nozzles
6
to cause accidental ejection of ink droplets
8
from the nozzles
6
not intended.
Consequently, in order to prevent the above problem, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei5-330067 discloses a prior art teaching a means for permitting an excess amount of an adhesive layer to escape into a plurality of escape grooves
13
without occurring any problem, wherein: as shown in
FIG. 18
, the means is constructed of a plurality of nozzle grooves
12
and the plurality of the escape grooves
13
both of which nozzle grooves
12
, and escape grooves
13
are formed in a flow passage plate
11
. In this prior art, in bonding a drive plate (not show
Kanda Torahiko
Ohno Kenichi
Otsuka Yasuhiro
NEC Corporation
Nguyen Thinh
Ostrolenk Faber Gerb & Soffen, LLP
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