Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-26
2002-07-09
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
C347S065000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06416155
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording head, an ink jet recording cartridge having an ink jet recording head and a recording apparatus.
The present invention is applicable to a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile having a communication system, an apparatus having a printer unit such as a word processor, and further an industrial recording apparatus combined with various processors in a complex constitution for recording into a record medium such as paper, thread, fiber, fabric, leather, metal, plastic, glass, wood, ceramics, or the like. “Record” in this invention means not only giving an image having a meaning of characters or graphics to the record medium, but giving an image having no meaning such as a pattern.
2. Related Background Art
In various types of electronic equipment such as a computer, a word processor, a facsimile device, and a copying machine, an ink jet recording head which enables high-speed recording is widely used as a means for recording into record mediums without generating noises like ones generated by a dot impact printer.
Referring to
FIG. 23
, there is shown a schematic perspective view outlining a main portion of a conventional ink jet recording head. Referring to
FIG. 24
, there is shown its expanded sectional view.
As shown in
FIGS. 23 and 24
, an element base
112
having energy generating elements
102
(See
FIG. 24
) for generating energy used for discharging ink is joined to a grooved top plate
113
having grooves forming ink flow channels
105
, a wall portion
106
to be an ink flow channel wall, and a hollow
107
′ to be a common liquid chamber
107
for supplying ink to the ink flow channels
105
. The grooved top plate
113
includes an orifice plate
104
having a plurality of orifices
101
for communication with the ink flow channels
105
, with being integrally formed. The element base
112
is fixed to a base plate
111
, and further the element base
112
is mechanically contact-bonded to the grooved top plate
113
with a spring force of a pushing member
114
.
In recent years, a high-quality and high-density recording is required for this type of the ink jet recording head and it has brought with it a requirement of the orifices
101
having fine and accurate shapes. Accordingly, the orifices
101
are generally formed by laser processing suitable for fine processing. On the characteristics of the orifices, it is desirable that the orifices
101
have shapes converging in a direction from the side of the ink flow channels
105
to the outside, and therefore the orifices are irradiated for the processing with laser light in a direction from the side of the ink flow channels
105
to the orifice plate
104
.
As shown in
FIG. 24
, if the orifice plate
104
is perpendicularly irradiated with laser light (indicated by a long and two short dashes line
116
), the laser light is inevitably applied to a wall portion
113
a
of the grooved top plate
113
, by which the applied portion is scraped. This makes a hole from which ink leaks into the ink flow channels
105
, by which the ink cannot be discharged. Accordingly, laser light is applied diagonally (indicated by a long and two short dashes line
115
) so as to avoid the wall portion
113
a
when making the orifices
101
diagonally to the orifice plate (Angle of inclination: Approx. 70 to 83 deg). If ink is discharged diagonally to a record medium
103
in recording, however, the discharge direction becomes unstable or dot shapes formed on the record medium tend to be uniformless and enlarged, in other words, the recording quality is deteriorated. Particularly in color printing, a dotted point depends upon each color, by which color-shading or satellite significantly deteriorates an image in some cases in multipath printing at cockling of a record medium or in reciprocating printing.
Therefore, there is suggested a constitution for improving a recording quality by attaching an ink jet recording head to a recording apparatus in an inclined position so that ink is discharged perpendicularly to the record medium in a Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 4-211954.
While the invention in the Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 4-211954 was a practically effective, new problems were found in such a case that a large cockling (a wrinkle or an undulation) may be caused by an absorption of ink on a record medium, particularly a recording sheet or that a mist may adhere to the orifice plate and accumulated.
If the entire ink jet recording head is inclined, the orifice plate is not put in a parallel state with the record medium, but necessarily put in a slightly inclined (approx. 7 to 20 deg) state. Therefore, a large cockling of the record medium causes the record medium to be partially put in contact with the orifice plate since they are too close to each other, by which the recording quality may be partially degraded.
The mist adhering to and accumulated on the orifice plate is generally retained on the orifice plate under an adhering state without affecting the record medium. If the orifice plate is inclined as described above, however, the mist easily moves to one direction being affected by an inertia force caused by a reciprocating motion of the ink jet recording head, and therefore there is a possibility of the mist separating from the orifice plate to adhere to the record medium or the recording apparatus or other components. Particularly the possibility is significant if the adhering mist is accumulated to a large amount or if the ink jet recording head reciprocates at a high speed in high-speed recording.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording head and an ink jet recording cartridge which enable high-quality recording without being so much affected by cockling of a record medium nor high-speed motion and further to provide a recording apparatus having these ink jet recording head and the ink jet recording cartridge.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording head comprising an element base having a plurality of energy generating elements for generating energy used for discharging ink, a grooved top plate having a plurality of grooves corresponding to the plurality of energy generating elements, being joined to the element base, and having a plurality of ink flow channels formed by the plurality of grooves on a joint area side to the element base, an orifice plate having a plurality of orifices having communication with the plurality of ink flow channels respectively and being mounted on the grooved top plate integrally, and a chip tank having supply passages for supplying ink to the plurality of ink flow channels and having a shroud portion for shrouding the orifice plate, wherein a surface in the side of the plurality of orifices of the orifice plate is substantially parallel with the shroud portion of the chip tank and is inclined relative to the element base.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an ink jet recording head comprising an element base having a plurality of energy generating elements for generating energy used for discharging ink, a grooved top plate having a plurality of grooves corresponding to the plurality of energy generating elements, being joined to the element base, and having a plurality of ink flow channels formed by the plurality of grooves on a joint area side to the element base, and an orifice plate having a plurality of orifices having communication with the plurality of ink flow channels respectively, having a recess surface formed on the area in which the plurality of orifices are arranged, and being mounted on the grooved top plate integrally, wherein an area closest to the plurality of orifices among surfaces in the side of the plurality of orifices of the orifice plate is substantially parallel with peripheral areas of the recess surface of the orifice plate and is inclined to the element base.
It is a further object of the pre
Fukui Shigeki
Hosaka Ken
Ishimatsu Shin
Takahashi Wataru
Takenouchi Masanori
Barlow John
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Stephens Juanita
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