Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
1997-10-02
2001-08-28
Barlow, John (Department: 2853)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Ejector mechanism
Reexamination Certificate
active
06281914
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet-type printer device and, in particular, to an ink jet-type printer device which enables simultaneous assembling and electrical connection of its printer head for jetting ink with its printed circuit plate and simplifies a mounting work of the printer head and the printed circuit plate onto its printer body.
2. Description of Related Art
As a conventional ink jet-type printer device which jets ink for information printing from ink jet nozzles, an on-demand type which can be made compact in size and perform a high speed printing operation is used. This type particularly uses a piezoelectric element or a heater for generating an ink jetting pressure by deforming the piezoelectric element or by vaporizing the ink, respectively.
The ink jet-type printer device using the piezoelectric element for the pressure control includes a plurality of ink passages for passing the ink therethrough from an ink supply source, a plurality of partition walls comprising the piezoelectric elements defining the ink passages, and a printer head having a plurality of electrodes provided on the side faces of the partition walls. With a driving signal from an integrated circuit (IC) including a driving circuit therein being applied to the electrodes of the partition walls corresponding to the ink passage for jetting the ink, the adjacent two of the partition walls deform by shearing to vary the volume of the ink passage, so that the ink in the ink passage jets from the jet nozzle provided at the top end of the ink passage.
In one exemplary ink jet-type printer device for two-color printing shown in
FIG. 22
, each of printer heads
135
and
136
has a head plate
140
made of a piezoelectric material including a plurality of ink passages therein, a cover plate
147
fixedly attached to cover the ink passages and an ink inlet pipe
148
for supplying the ink from an ink supply source into the ink passages. The printer heads
135
and
136
are fixedly mounted on a carriage
121
by various fixing members (not shown). A printed circuit plate
132
supporting thereon ICs
149
which include driving circuits therein is also fixed on the carriage
121
. The printed circuit plate
132
is formed with wiring patterns
154
connected to the ICs
149
. Each cover plate
147
is formed with a plurality of leading electrodes
150
which supply electric power to actuators (not shown) provided in correspondence with the ink passages. The leading electrodes
150
and the terminals of the wiring patterns
154
are electrically connected by flexible printed circuit plates (FPC)
110
.
According to the ink jet-type printer device shown in
FIG. 22
, as the printer heads
135
and
136
must be attached to the carriage
121
, various fixing members as well as fixing work are required. Further, as the terminals of each wiring pattern
154
formed on the printed circuit plate
132
and the leading electrodes
150
formed on each printer head
147
must be connected electrically through a number of signal lines of the FCC
110
formed in correspondence with the ink passages, the electrical connection of the signal lines on FCC
110
with the corresponding leading electrodes
150
and the wiring pattern
154
is complicated.
In the case where a plurality of printer heads are provided for the color-printing, in particular, the printer heads
135
and
136
must be spaced apart from each other to mount each FPC
110
therebetween. This arrangement results not only in enlarging the size of a printer device but also in a complicated work for accurately fixing the positions of jet nozzles of the printer heads.
In addition, it is also known by JP-A 6-328684 and JP-7-304168 to attach partly by an adhesive the rear end part of a printer head to a printed circuit plate fixed to a carriage and to connect electrically leading electrodes formed on a piezoelectric-type printer head to a wiring pattern formed on a printed circuit plate by corresponding conductive leading wires.
According to this ink jet-type printer device, as the printing head is held fixed to the printed circuit plate only partly at its rear end part, not only the fixing work is required but also fixing strength is likely to become insufficient. Further, the electrical connection of the leading electrodes to the wiring pattern on the printed circuit plate results in a complicated electric wiring arrangement.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an ink jet-type printer device which requires a simplified assembling and electrical connecting work.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an ink jet-type printer device which enables an electric connection for a power supply between its printed circuit plate and a plurality of ink-jetting actuators of its printer head at the same time as assembling the printed circuit plate and the printer head.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide an ink jet-type printer device which requires a simplified work for assembling its printer head and a printed circuit plate to a printer body.
According to the present invention, a printer head having a plurality of ink passages and a plurality of actuators for the respective ink passages are fixedly attached to a printed circuit plate. The printer head has connecting terminals for supplying electric signals for selectively driving the actuators, while the printed circuit plate has connecting terminals which are the same in number with the connecting terminals of the printer head. The connecting terminals of the printer head and the printed circuit plate are formed in position to contact each other when the printer head is attached to the printed circuit plate.
Preferably, a driving circuit for converting a serial input into a parallel output is mounted on the printer head so that the number of the connecting terminals on the printer head is reduced, or on the printed circuit plate.
More preferably, the printer head has a box-like manifold made of a good thermal conductivity for distributing the ink into the ink passages, and the driving circuit is mounted on the manifold with the connecting terminals of the printer head being formed thereon.
More preferably, the printed circuit plate has inkjetting nozzles in communication with the ink passages of the printer head.
More preferably, the printed circuit plate is made of a flexible sheet having the ink jetting nozzles.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4500895 (1985-02-01), Buck et al.
patent: 4908638 (1990-03-01), Albosta et al.
patent: 4940998 (1990-07-01), Asakawa
patent: 5278584 (1994-01-01), Keefe et al.
patent: 5469199 (1995-11-01), Allen et al.
patent: 5625395 (1997-04-01), Imai
patent: 5684518 (1997-11-01), Nobel et al.
patent: 6-328684 (1994-11-01), None
patent: 7-304168 (1995-11-01), None
Hiwada Shuhei
Imai Koji
Kishi Motoshi
Yoshimura Manabu
Barlow John
Brooke Michael S.
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisa
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
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