EP0653304A1 - Tete d'impression du type a jet d'encre - Google Patents

Tete d'impression du type a jet d'encre Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0653304A1
EP0653304A1 EP94916426A EP94916426A EP0653304A1 EP 0653304 A1 EP0653304 A1 EP 0653304A1 EP 94916426 A EP94916426 A EP 94916426A EP 94916426 A EP94916426 A EP 94916426A EP 0653304 A1 EP0653304 A1 EP 0653304A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
recording head
nozzle
ink jet
nozzles
jet type
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Granted
Application number
EP94916426A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP0653304A4 (fr
EP0653304B1 (fr
Inventor
Tomoaki Abe
Kazuo Koshino
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Seiko Epson Corp
Original Assignee
Seiko Epson Corp
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Seiko Epson Corp filed Critical Seiko Epson Corp
Publication of EP0653304A1 publication Critical patent/EP0653304A1/fr
Publication of EP0653304A4 publication Critical patent/EP0653304A4/fr
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP0653304B1 publication Critical patent/EP0653304B1/fr
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Lifetime legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/135—Nozzles
    • B41J2/14—Structure thereof only for on-demand ink jet heads
    • B41J2/14201—Structure of print heads with piezoelectric elements
    • B41J2/14233—Structure of print heads with piezoelectric elements of film type, deformed by bending and disposed on a diaphragm
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/135—Nozzles
    • B41J2/145—Arrangement thereof
    • B41J2/15—Arrangement thereof for serial printing
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/485—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by the process of building-up characters or image elements applicable to two or more kinds of printing or marking processes
    • B41J2/505—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by the process of building-up characters or image elements applicable to two or more kinds of printing or marking processes from an assembly of identical printing elements
    • B41J2/51—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by the process of building-up characters or image elements applicable to two or more kinds of printing or marking processes from an assembly of identical printing elements serial printer type
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/005—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by bringing liquid or particles selectively into contact with a printing material
    • B41J2/01—Ink jet
    • B41J2/135—Nozzles
    • B41J2/14—Structure thereof only for on-demand ink jet heads
    • B41J2002/14387—Front shooter

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to an ink jet type recording head of an on-demand type for jetting ink droplets in response to a printing signal to form an ink image on a recording medium such as recording paper. More specifically, the present invention concerns an array of nozzles and a shape of an ink chamber for jetting a droplet of ink.
  • JP-A-60-147348 discloses such an ink jet type recording head capable of realizing higher recording density than the linear array density of the nozzles.
  • the recording head having the linearly arranged nozzles along a single straight line is obliquely disposed with respect to the main scanning direction to increase the recording density.
  • the structure of this recording head owns such problems that pitch fluctuation occurs in recording pixels, which is caused by dimensional errors or the like such as dimensional errors occurred when the recording head is mounted on the carriage. Accordingly, printing qualities are greatly influenced.
  • the nozzles are arranged on a plurality of slanted straight lines in a zigzag form, and therefore, the printing quality could be improved irrelevant to accuracy in the mounting dimension.
  • the pitches between the respective nozzles must be narrowed, namely the angle ⁇ should be made small.
  • this angle setting is essentially restricted in order to prevent an occurrence of crosstalk or the like, which is caused by interference among the ink chambers at the bending portions of the slanted straight lines.
  • this recording head is so constructed as to have a plurality of bending portions, permeance depths in ink are different from each other between the recorded image at the bending portion and the recorded image at the peripheral portion. Then, as illustrated in Fig. 13, a plurality of fluctuation will be produced in the entire recorded image.
  • an object of the present invention to provide an ink jet type recording head capable of realizing high recording density and high printing quality, which is made highly integrated.
  • An ink jet type recording head is characterized in that nozzles for jetting ink droplets are arranged substantially along a V-shaped line which is opened toward the main scanning direction of the recording head.
  • the ink jet type recording head is characterized in that the nozzles are arranged substantially along combination lines of inclined line segments which are opened toward the main scanning direction, and such nozzles arranged along at least one inclined line segment among the nozzles located along the inclined line segments which are mutually adjacent to each other, are shifted along the main scanning direction.
  • the ink jet type recording head is characterized in that the nozzles are arranged substantially along combination lines of inclined line segments which are opened toward the main scanning direction, and a part of the nozzles arranged along the inclined line segments are shifted along the main scanning direction.
  • Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram with respect to a nozzle arrangement and an ink chamber arrangement of an ink jet type recording head according to the present invention.
  • Fig. 2 schematically shows a printing condition of a first embodiment of the present invention.
  • Fig. 3 is an enlarged diagram for representing a portion of nozzles according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
  • Fig. 4 is a graph showing positional shifts in pixels according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
  • Fig. 5 is a perspective view for explaining a mounting condition of the ink jet type recording head according to the present invention.
  • Fig. 6 is a perspective view showing a transporting mechanism of the ink jet type recording head according to the present invention.
  • Fig. 7 schematically shows a printing pattern of the first embodiment of the present invention.
  • Fig. 8 schematically shows an ink jet type recording head according to another embodiment of the present invention.
  • Fig. 9 schematically represents an ink jet type recording head according to another embodiment of the present invention.
  • Fig. 10 schematically shows an ink jet type recording head according to a further embodiment of the present invention.
  • Fig. 11 is an explanatory diagram of the ink jet type recording head according to the present invention.
  • Fig. 12 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the conventional nozzle arrangement and the conventional ink chamber arrangement.
  • Fig. 13 is an explanatory diagram for indicating the conventional printing condition.
  • Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a nozzle arrangement and an ink chamber arrangement of an ink jet type recording head according to an embodiment of the present invention.
  • the recording head according to this embodiment is provided with nozzles 190 to 197 for jetting a droplet of ink, and ink chambers 170 to 177 communicated with these nozzles.
  • the recording head is equipped with each ink chamber communicated with 32 nozzles along one line, i.e., 64 nozzles in total.
  • the nozzles are arranged at a constant interval in such a manner that these nozzles are positioned along line segments L1 and L2 corresponding to such straight lines inclined to opposite directions with respect to the X direction, namely the main scanning direction (moving direction of the recording head mounted on a carriage).
  • This line segment is inclined at an angle of ⁇ in such a manner that the pitch P1 of each nozzle along the sub-scanning direction becomes 1/360 inches, and the line segment L1 and the line segment L2 constitute a substantially V shape.
  • the ink chambers are arranged outside the V-shaped area formed by the line segments L1 and L2.
  • a width "d4" of the respective ink chambers is made so wide as to be able to obtain a sufficient ink jetting amount, i.e. , 450 micrometers, and a depth thereof is made so deep as to be able to secure sufficient ink flowability, i.e., 150 micrometers.
  • such a pressure applying means for applying pressure to the ink chambers constructed in the above-described manner, such a pressure applying means may be employed in which a piezoelectric element is laminated to a vibrating plate that constitutes the wall of the ink chamber, or a piezoelectric element is printed on a vibrating plate and the resultant object is sintered.
  • the recording head of the present invention since the arrangement of the nozzles is formed in a V shape, the following problems of the conventional recording head as described in JP-A-4-312859 could be solved. That is, in the prior art recording head, dark/light ink fluctuation occurs in plural places. To the contrary, in accordance with the recording head of the present invention, as shown in Fig. 2, such a place where printing density becomes high is suppressed only to the area near the nozzle 192 at the central portion, and printing density around the edge nozzle 190 can be made uniform, so that the printing density fluctuation could be suppressed to the minimum place, i.e., one place over the entire printing width "b". Accordingly, even when a bit image such as a graphic is recorded by using the recording head of this embodiment, it is possible to print out a high quality image without deteriorating texture.
  • FIG. 3 Another pitch between the nozzle 194 and the nozzle 191 was selected to be P1x3.
  • Fig. 3 there is shown a partial enlarged diagram of such a bending portion that these nozzles were positionally shifted.
  • the nozzle array along the line segment L2 is positionally shifted from the nozzle array along the line segment L1 by an amount of 2.5 times as large as one nozzle pitch along the "-X" direction.
  • the nozzle 191 along the line segment L2 is arranged at a position of d1/2 between the nozzle 193 and the nozzle 194 along the line segment L1.
  • the minimum distance between the nozzles 191 and 194 which are mutually positioned at the nearest place from each other can be made long, while maintaining sufficiently high printing density. Also, a sufficient rigidness of the wall between the ink chamber 171 and the ink chamber 174 can be achieved. As a consequence, it is possible to eliminated adverse influence given to ink jetting such as crosstalk.
  • the printing timing of the nozzles (namely, nozzles 191, 195, 196, 197 shown in drawing) shifted along the main scanning direction can be correctly obtained by counting the reference timing (interval of reference timing corresponds to pitch p1 in this embodiment) along the main scanning direction by an integer (for instance, nozzle 191 is shifted from nozzle 192 by 20 reference timings).
  • the reference timing along the main scanning direction may be directly obtained from either outputs of linear encoders arranged along the same direction, or pulse numbers of a stepping motor for driving the recording head.
  • the pixels could be formed accurately also from the nozzle groups which were shifted along the main scanning direction without additionally employing a specific timing generating mechanism, whereby higher printing qualities could be achieved.
  • the shape of the ink chamber positioned near the nozzle is made not by a curved surface with a simple R, but by a curved surface having a smaller R at the portion nearer to the nozzle, so that the distance between the nozzles located adjacent to each other may be widened.
  • R of the curved surface near the nozzle is stepwise made small.
  • the diameter of a single pixel on the recording medium 1 is preferably on the order of 100 to 120 micrometers, taking account of such a fact that the recording medium can be completely covered.
  • the positional shifts of 20 to 30 micrometers in the pixels could be visually recognized, resulting in deterioration of printing qualities.
  • the actual positional shift with respect to the angle ⁇ is represented in Fig. 4.
  • the recording head of the present invention can be readily mounted on such an ink jet type recording apparatus capable of easily replacing the recording head by the user without paying any care to mounting accuracy to the carriage, because of the above-described reasons.
  • the recording head may be easily mounted even if such a recording apparatus is a recording apparatus arranged by such a simple supporting mechanism with an arm 360 and a pin 361 as shown in Fig. 5.
  • the recording head 9 is relatively transported along the main scanning direction (x-direction in this figure) relative to the recording medium while droplets of ink 50 are jetted from the nozzle 190 and so on, thereby forming pixels on the recording medium 1.
  • the recording medium 1 is transported along the sub-scanning direction (y-direction in this figure) perpendicular to the main scanning direction.
  • the recording operation is continued by performing such a process that pixels are formed on an empty portion of the recording medium 1 along the main scanning direction (x-direction in this figure).
  • This transportation of the recording head is performed by driving a belt 6 via a pulley 5 by a stepping motor 10, as illustrated in Fig. 6.
  • a stepping motor 10 for driving a belt 6 via a pulley 5 by a stepping motor 10.
  • smoothing and continuous patterns are printed out as shown in Fig. 7 by employing the recording head of this embodiment. Therefore, the printing using the recording head of this embodiment is advantageous in that there is substantially no visual observation of disturbance in the vertical lines or the like, thereby providing high quality printing.
  • Fig. 8 shows another embodiment of the present invention.
  • This embodiment is characterized in that a part of the nozzles (a nozzle 192 in this figure) positioned along the inclined line L1 is positionally shifted along the main scanning direction (x-direction in this figure).
  • a droplet of ink is jetted from the nozzle 192 at the earlier stage onto the recording medium and then is dried, thereby forming pixels at the earlier stage.
  • Fig. 9 shows a further embodiment of the present invention.
  • the nozzles are so arranged that they are positioned along a plurality of line segments L1, L2, L3 and L4.
  • different colors are allocated to the respective line segments in such a manner that a black color is allocated to the line segment L1, a cyan color is allocated to the line segment L2, a magenta color is allocated to the line segment L3, and a yellow color is allocated to the line segment L4.
  • the line segments L1 and L4 are separated from the line segments L2 and L3 along the main scanning direction (x-direction), respectively, so that a distance between the nozzles 190 and 191 is made large, and another distance between the nozzles 192 and 193 is made large. Accordingly, it is prevented that other different colors would flow into the nozzles 190, 191, 192, 193 to produce color mixture and muddy colors.
  • Fig. 10 shows a further embodiment of the present invention.
  • This recording head is formed in a lozenge shape by combining two sets of V-shaped nozzle arrangements.
  • the printing operation by the other set of the V-shaped nozzle arrangement is carried out in order to fill the pixel between the printed pixels by the thinning manner.
  • problems such as ink blurring.
  • a stacked type ink jet type recording head is preferably utilized.
  • stacked flow path ports in a flow path from an ink chamber 17 to a nozzle 2 may be gradually shifted with ease.
  • the position of the nozzle 2 may be shifted outside the ink chamber rather than the edge portion of the ink chamber 17, the location of the ink chamber can be lowered as compared with that of the nozzle.
  • the distances between the adjacent ink chambers can be made sufficiently long.
  • crosstalk can be sufficiently prevented, and also the distances between the nozzles can be shortened. It is therefore possible to arrange the nozzles at high density.
  • Fig. 11 it is so constructed that the ink is supplied from a common ink chamber 11 to the ink chamber 17, and then is jetted from the nozzle 2 via the flow path by pressuring vibrating plates 19 stacked on the ink chamber 17 by way of a piezoelectric element 20.
  • the ink jet type recording head of the present invention is suitable to be utilized in such recording apparatuses as a printer, a facsimile, and a copying machine.

Landscapes

  • Particle Formation And Scattering Control In Inkjet Printers (AREA)
EP94916426A 1993-06-03 1994-05-31 Tete d'impression du type a jet d'encre Expired - Lifetime EP0653304B1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
JP133631/93 1993-06-03
JP13363193 1993-06-03
PCT/JP1994/000871 WO1994029110A1 (fr) 1993-06-03 1994-05-31 Tete d'impression du type a jet d'encre

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0653304A1 true EP0653304A1 (fr) 1995-05-17
EP0653304A4 EP0653304A4 (fr) 1995-07-26
EP0653304B1 EP0653304B1 (fr) 1999-03-24

Family

ID=15109340

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP94916426A Expired - Lifetime EP0653304B1 (fr) 1993-06-03 1994-05-31 Tete d'impression du type a jet d'encre

Country Status (4)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0653304B1 (fr)
JP (1) JP3418986B2 (fr)
DE (1) DE69417347T2 (fr)
WO (1) WO1994029110A1 (fr)

Cited By (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0799699A2 (fr) * 1996-04-04 1997-10-08 Seiko Epson Corporation Tête stratifiée d'enregistrement à jet d'encre
EP0820871A2 (fr) * 1996-07-26 1998-01-28 Seiko Epson Corporation Tête d'enregistrement du type à jet d'encre
US6220698B1 (en) 1996-07-26 2001-04-24 Seiko Epson Corporation Ink jet type recording head
US20130063522A1 (en) * 2011-09-13 2013-03-14 Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha Inkjet head and inkjet recording apparatus

Families Citing this family (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JP3987139B2 (ja) * 1995-06-27 2007-10-03 セイコーエプソン株式会社 インクジェット式記録ヘッド

Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0389016A1 (fr) * 1989-03-04 1990-09-26 Philips Patentverwaltung GmbH Imprimante matricielle
EP0430064A2 (fr) * 1989-11-30 1991-06-05 International Business Machines Corporation Imprimante série par matrice de points
JPH04312859A (ja) * 1991-04-11 1992-11-04 Seiko Epson Corp インクジェット記録ヘッド

Family Cites Families (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JPS57212074A (en) * 1981-06-24 1982-12-27 Fujitsu Ltd Printing head

Patent Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0389016A1 (fr) * 1989-03-04 1990-09-26 Philips Patentverwaltung GmbH Imprimante matricielle
EP0430064A2 (fr) * 1989-11-30 1991-06-05 International Business Machines Corporation Imprimante série par matrice de points
JPH04312859A (ja) * 1991-04-11 1992-11-04 Seiko Epson Corp インクジェット記録ヘッド

Non-Patent Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, vol. VII,no. 13, 1987 LOS ANGELES US, pages 104-107, JOHN M. MCINTYRE '24-Wire Dot Matrix Printers Raise Quality Of Print And Graphics' *
PATENT ABSTRACTS OF JAPAN vol. 017 no. 133 (M-1383) ,19 March 1993 & JP-A-04 312859 (SEIKO EPSON CORP) 4 November 1992, *
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SID, vol. 25,no. 4, 1984 PLAYA DEL REY, CA US, pages 311-314, TAKADA ET AL. 'THE EFFECT OF HEAD SHAPE ON DOD INK-JET DROP FORMATION' *
See also references of WO9429110A1 *

Cited By (11)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP0799699A2 (fr) * 1996-04-04 1997-10-08 Seiko Epson Corporation Tête stratifiée d'enregistrement à jet d'encre
EP0799699A3 (fr) * 1996-04-04 1998-12-23 Seiko Epson Corporation Tête stratifiée d'enregistrement à jet d'encre
US6024436A (en) * 1996-04-04 2000-02-15 Seiko Epson Corporation Laminated ink jet recording head
EP0820871A2 (fr) * 1996-07-26 1998-01-28 Seiko Epson Corporation Tête d'enregistrement du type à jet d'encre
EP0820871A3 (fr) * 1996-07-26 1999-02-10 Seiko Epson Corporation Tête d'enregistrement du type à jet d'encre
US6042223A (en) * 1996-07-26 2000-03-28 Seiko Epson Corporation Ink jet type recording head
US6220698B1 (en) 1996-07-26 2001-04-24 Seiko Epson Corporation Ink jet type recording head
US6371601B1 (en) 1996-07-26 2002-04-16 Seiko Epson Corporation Ink jet type recording head
EP1285763A2 (fr) * 1996-07-26 2003-02-26 Seiko Epson Corporation Tête d'enregistrement du type jet d'encre
EP1285763A3 (fr) * 1996-07-26 2003-03-19 Seiko Epson Corporation Tête d'enregistrement du type jet d'encre
US20130063522A1 (en) * 2011-09-13 2013-03-14 Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha Inkjet head and inkjet recording apparatus

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
JP3418986B2 (ja) 2003-06-23
WO1994029110A1 (fr) 1994-12-22
EP0653304A4 (fr) 1995-07-26
EP0653304B1 (fr) 1999-03-24
DE69417347T2 (de) 1999-11-04
DE69417347D1 (de) 1999-04-29

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