Metal working – Piezoelectric device making
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-30
2003-05-13
Tugbang, A. Dexter (Department: 3729)
Metal working
Piezoelectric device making
C029S890100, C029S852000, C347S071000, C347S072000, C310S311000, C310S348000, C310S359000, C156S275500
Reexamination Certificate
active
06560833
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an ink jet head which jets ink from a nozzle hole by applying an electric voltage to an electrode to deform the shape of the space making up an ink chamber, to a method of manufacturing the ink jet head, to an ink jet printer and to a method of manufacturing the ink jet printer.
There is a letter printing apparatus of the ink jet method which jets ink from a nozzle hole by applying an electric voltage to an electrode to deform the partition wall forming an ink chamber.
If one wishes to carry out image recording of high quality at a high speed using an ink jet head of a conventional type, an ink jet head having a large number of nozzle holes arrayed in a line is required. For such kind of an ink jet head having a large number of nozzles arrayed in a line, from the view point of practical use, it is desired one that has a high driving efficiency, a light weight, a low price, a good workability, and a high strength.
Further, because a polarized piezoelectric ceramic plate has a limit in length for reasons of manufacturing, it has been practiced that a plurality of ink chambers are formed by partition walls in a polarized piezoelectric ceramic plate, and a plurality of such polarized piezoelectric ceramic plates having a plurality of ink chambers are put side by side and bonded by an adhesive; however, in connecting a plurality of polarized piezoelectric plates, it is difficult to adjust the positions of them to keep the intervals between adjacent ink chambers at the connecting portions equal to one another, which makes it difficult to obtain a high-precision ink jet head.
Furthermore, among ink jet heads of the share-mode type which jets ink by deforming the ink chamber, it has been known a chevron type ink jet head which is desirable for carrying out a high-speed and high-quality image recording; however, according to the conventional method of manufacturing the chevron type head, polarized piezoelectric ceramic plates having a plurality of grooves are disposed side by side, and another polarized piezoelectric ceramic plates having a plurality of grooves are superposed and arrayed on them to build an ink jet head having a plurality of ink chambers divided by partition walls; this requires a difficult work of making two piezoelectric plates having mutually coincident positions (of grooves), which makes it difficult to obtain a high-precision ink jet head.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention has been done in view of the above-described points, and it is an object of it to provide an ink jet head and an ink jet printer which is capable of carrying out a high-speed and high-quality image recording and is of low cost and of high precision and a method of manufacturing them.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and to accomplish the object, the structure of this invention has been made as follows:
(1) In an ink jet head or an ink jet printer which jets ink from nozzle holes by applying an electric voltage to an electrode to deform the shape of a space forming an ink chamber, the ink chamber is formed by being surrounded by two piezoelectric base plates which are given polarization and face each other and two non-piezoelectric base plates facing each other, and the piezoelectric base plates have a structure such that each of them is made up of at least two lamination layers of a piezoelectric material and the lamination layer surface is approximately parallel to the non-piezoelectric base plates and the polarizing directions of these two lamination layers of the piezoelectric material are opposite to each other, and an electrode is provided on the surface of each of the piezoelectric base plates and the non-piezoelectric base plates facing the ink chamber.
According to the structure (1), since the ink jet head is constructed such that the ink chamber is formed by being surrounded by two piezoelectric base plates which are given polarization and face each other and two non-piezoelectric base plates facing each other, and the piezoelectric base plates have a structure such that each of them is made up of at least two lamination layers of a piezoelectric material and the lamination layer surface is approximately parallel to the non-piezoelectric base plates and the polarizing directions of these two lamination layers of the piezoelectric material are opposite to each other, and an electrode is provided on the surface of each of the piezoelectric base plates and the non-piezoelectric base plates facing the ink chamber; in comparison with the case that an electrode is provided only to the piezoelectric base plates without being provided to the non-piezoelectric base plates, the work to provide the electrode is easy so that the ink jet head is of low cost and capable of driving the piezoelectric base plates at a low voltage, has a high-efficiency driving performance owing to a large amount of deformation in the piezoelectric base plates, is capable of coping with multiple nozzles, has the capability of high-frequency driving, and jets small droplets with multi-gradation so that an image recording can be conducted at a high-speed with high-quality image.
(2) The ink jet head or the ink jet printer described in (1), wherein an electrode is provided on the ink chamber facing surface of each of the piezoelectric base plates which are given polarization and face each other and on the ink chamber facing surface of either one of the non-piezoelectric base plates facing each other.
According to this structure (2), since an electrode is provided on the ink chamber facing surface of each of the piezoelectric base plates which are given polarization and face each other and on the ink chamber facing surface of either one of the non-piezoelectric base plates facing each other, in comparison with the case that an electrode is provided only to the piezoelectric base plates without being provided to the non-piezoelectric base plates, the work to provide the electrode is easy so that the ink jet head is of low cost and capable of driving the piezoelectric base plates at a low voltage, has a high-efficiency driving performance owing to a large amount of deformation in the piezoelectric base plates, is capable of coping with multiple nozzles, has the capability of high-frequency driving, and jets small droplets with multi-gradation so that an image recording can be conducted at a high-speed with high-quality image.
(3) The ink jet head or the ink jet printer described in (1) or (2), wherein the ink chamber is formed in multi-stages.
According to this structure (3), since the ink chamber is formed in multi-stages, it can carry out a more high-speed and high-quality image recording and can improve resolution of the image with multiple nozzles of the multi-stage ink chamber.
(4) The ink jet head or the ink jet printer described in (1) or (3), wherein the piezoelectric base plates are shaped in a flat surface or a curved surface.
(5) The ink jet head or the ink jet printer described in (1) or (4), wherein the piezoelectric base plates have at least two lamination layers which have different lengths in the layer laminating direction.
According to this structure (5), because the piezoelectric base plates have at least two layers which have different lengths in the layer laminating direction, the shape of the space making up the ink chamber can be deformed in a manner corresponding to the position of a nozzle hole, and ink can be jetted from the nozzle hole more efficiently.
(6) The ink jet head or the ink jet printer described in (1) or (5), wherein the piezoelectric base plates have at least one layer made of a non-piezoelectric material.
According to this structure (6), because the piezoelectric base plates have at least one layer made of a non-piezoelectric material, ink can be jetted from a nozzle hole efficiently by deforming the shape of the space making up the ink chamber variously.
(7) In an ink jet head or the ink jet printer which jets ink from nozzle holes by applying an electric voltage to an electrode to deform an ink chamber which is
Ito Kunio
Kikugawa Shozo
Komatsu Katsuaki
Namiki Takemasa
Nishi Shin-ichi
Frishauf Holtz Goodman & Chick P.C.
Konica Corporation
Tugbang A. Dexter
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