Liquid ejection method, head and apparatus

Details Liquid ejection method, head and apparatus Liquid ejection method, head and apparatus

2000-12-08

2003-06-24

Gordon, Raquel Yvette (Department: 2853)

Incremental printing of symbolic information

Ink jet

Ejector mechanism

C347S014000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06582065

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting head, a liquid ejecting apparatus, using the liquid ejecting head and a liquid ejection method, wherein desired liquid is ejected by generation of the bubble by applying thermal energy to the liquid.
More particularly, it relates to a liquid ejecting head having a movable member movable by generation of a bubble, and a head cartridge using the liquid ejecting head, and liquid ejecting device using the same. It further relates to a liquid ejecting method and recording method for ejection the liquid by moving the movable member using the generation of the bubble.
The present invention is applicable to equipment such as a printer, a copying machine, a facsimile machine having a communication system, a word processor having a printer portion or the like, and an industrial recording device combined with various processing device or processing devices, in which the recording is effected on a recording material such as paper, thread, fiber, textile, leather, metal, plastic resin material, glass, wood, ceramic and so on.
In this specification, “recording” means not only forming an image of letter, figure or the like having specific meanings, but also includes forming an image of a pattern not having a specific meaning.
An ink jet recording method of so-called bubble jet type is known in which an instantaneous state change resulting in an instantaneous volume change (bubble generation) is caused by application of energy such as heat to the ink, so as to eject the ink through the ejection outlet by the force resulted from the state change by which the ink is ejected to and deposited on the recording material to form an image formation. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,723,129, a recording device using the bubble jet recording method comprises an ejection outlet for ejecting the ink, an ink flow path in fluid communication with the ejection outlet, and an electrothermal transducer as energy generating means disposed in the ink flow path.
With such a recording method is advantageous in that, a high quality image, can be recorded at high speed and with low noise, and a plurality of such ejection outlets can be posited at high density, and therefore, small size recording apparatus capable of providing a high resolution can be provided, and color images can be easily formed. Therefore, the bubble jet recording method is now widely used in printers, copying machines, facsimile machines or another office equipment, and for industrial systems such as textile printing device or the like.
With the increase of the wide needs for the bubble jet technique, various demands are imposed thereon, recently.
For example, an improvement in energy use efficiency is demanded. To meet the demand, the optimization of the heat generating element such as adjustment of the thickness of the protecting film is investigated. This method is effective in that a propagation efficiency of the generated heat to the liquid is improved.
In order to provide high image quality images, driving conditions have been proposed by which the ink ejection speed is increased, and/or the bubble generation is stabilized to accomplish better ink ejection. As another example, from the standpoint of increasing the recording speed, flow passage configuration improvements have been proposed by which the speed of liquid filling (refilling) into the liquid flow path is increased.
Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. SHO-63-199972 or the like discloses a flow passage structure as shown in
FIG. 45
, (a), (b). The invention of the flow passage structure and the head manufacturing method disclosed in the publication, is particularly directed to the backward liquid generated in accordance with generation of a bubble (the pressure propagated away from the ejection outlet namely toward the liquid chamber
12
). The back wave is known as energy loss since it is not propagated toward the ejection direction.
FIG. 61
, (a) and (b) disclose a valve
10
spaced from a generating region of the bubble generated by the heat generating element
2
in a direction away from the ejection outlet
11
.
In
FIG. 61
, (b), this valve
10
, is so manufactured from a plate that it has an initial position where it looks as if it stick on the ceiling of the flow path
3
, and is deflected downward into the flow path
3
upon the generation of the bubble. Thus, the energy loss is suppressed by controlling a part of the backward wave by the valve
10
.
However, with this structure, if the consideration is made as to the time when the bubble is generated in the flow path
3
having the liquid to be ejected, the suppression of a part of the backward wave by the valve
10
is not desirable.
The backward wave per se is not contributable to the ejection. At the time when the backward wave is generated inside the flow path
3
, the pressure directly contributable to the ejection has already make the liquid ejectable from the flow path
3
, as shown in
FIG. 61
, (a). Therefore, even if the backward wave is suppressed, the ejection is not significantly influenced, much less even if a part thereof is suppressed.
On the other hand, in the bubble jet recording method, the heating is repeated with the heat generating element contacted with the ink, and therefore, a burnt material is deposited on the surface of the heat generating element due to burnt deposit of the ink. However, the amount of the deposition may be large depending on the materials of the ink. If this occurs, the ink ejection becomes unstable. Even when it the liquid to be ejected is easily deteriorated by the heat, or is not sufficiently formed into a bubble, the liquid is desirably ejected without deterioration of the liquid.
From this standpoint, Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. SHO-61-69467, Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. SHO-55-81172 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,480,259 disclose that different liquids are used for the liquid generating the bubble by the heat (bubble generating liquid) and for the liquid to be ejected (ejection liquid). In these publications, the ink as the ejection liquid and the bubble generation liquid are completely separated by a flexible film of silicone rubber or the like so as to prevent direct contact of the ejection liquid to the heat generating element while propagating the pressure resulting from the bubble generation of the bubble generation liquid to the ejection liquid by the deformation of the flexible film. The prevention of the deposition of the material on the surface of the heat generating element and the increase of the selection latitude of the ejection liquid are accomplished, by such a structure.
However, with this structure in which the ejection liquid and the bubble generation liquid are completely separated, the pressure by the bubble generation is propagated to the ejection liquid through the expansion-contraction deformation of the flexible film, and therefore, the pressure is absorbed by the flexible film to quite a high degree. In addition, the deformation of the flexible film is not so large, and therefore, the energy use efficiency and the ejection force are deteriorated although the some effect is provided by the provision between the ejection liquid and the bubble generation liquid.
Furthermore, it has been found that consideration is to be preferably made to the heat generating region for forming the bubble, for example, the structural elements such as a movable member or a liquid flow path influential to the growth of the bubble downstream of the center line passing through the center of the area of the electrothermal transducer with respect to the flow direction of the liquid or downstream of the center of the area in the surface influential to the bubble generation.
As to such technique, the assignee of this application has filed Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. Hei-7-4109.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a liquid ejection method and apparatus, wherein a pressure of the liquid is

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