EP1707370B1 - Imprimante jet d'encre - Google Patents

Imprimante jet d'encre Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1707370B1
EP1707370B1 EP20060111983 EP06111983A EP1707370B1 EP 1707370 B1 EP1707370 B1 EP 1707370B1 EP 20060111983 EP20060111983 EP 20060111983 EP 06111983 A EP06111983 A EP 06111983A EP 1707370 B1 EP1707370 B1 EP 1707370B1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
ink
constricting element
chamber
constricting
print head
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.)
Not-in-force
Application number
EP20060111983
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP1707370A1 (fr
Inventor
Hermanus M.A. Wijshoff
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.)
Canon Production Printing Netherlands BV
Original Assignee
Oce Technologies BV
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 Oce Technologies BV filed Critical Oce Technologies BV
Priority to EP20060111983 priority Critical patent/EP1707370B1/fr
Publication of EP1707370A1 publication Critical patent/EP1707370A1/fr
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP1707370B1 publication Critical patent/EP1707370B1/fr
Not-in-force legal-status Critical Current
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical

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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
    • 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
    • B41J2/17—Ink jet characterised by ink handling
    • B41J2/175—Ink supply systems ; Circuit parts therefor
    • B41J2/17593—Supplying ink in a solid state
    • 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
    • B41J2002/14475—Structure thereof only for on-demand ink jet heads characterised by nozzle shapes or number of orifices per chamber

Definitions

  • the invention pertains to an inkjet printer for jetting ink that is substantially free of solvent, the printer comprising a printhead having an ink chamber with an ink inlet and an ink outlet, an ink supply reservoir in fluid connection with the chamber via the ink inlet, an electromechanical transducer in operative connection with the chamber for generating pressure waves herein, and a heater for substantially uniformly heating the ink in the ink chamber, wherein the ink inlet comprises a constricting element.
  • Such an inkjet printer is known from US patent 4,418,355 (DeYoung, 1983 ).
  • This printer is designed for jetting inks that are substantially free of solvent, i.e. inks that dry or harden on the receiving medium without the need of large amounts of solvent to evaporate from the jetted ink.
  • these inks typically contain less than 10% of material that is not included in the ultimate dried ink.
  • Developments in the field of these inks has resulted even in inks that contains less than 5% or even less than 2% (ultimately approaching zero %) of material that will not be included in the dried ink.
  • Hot melt inks and UV curable inks are typical examples of such inks.
  • solvent free inks typically have a viscosity that is substantially higher than the viscosity of solvent inks.
  • the inkjet head comprises a heating element for substantially uniformly heating the ink in the ink chamber. This is in complete contrast with the known bubble jet printheads which have heaters for locally heating the ink in the chamber. Such local heating may give rise to temperature gradients in the chamber itself amounting up to 40°C.
  • the temperature gradient in an ink chamber will be less than 10°C. In equilibrium circumstances this will be even less than 5°C, and most probably even less than 2°C.
  • the ink chamber 200 is connected to an ink reservoir 212 via an inlet comprising a constricting element 214. This way, it is substantially prevented that pressure waves generated by actuating the electromechanical transducer 204 (see figure 1 ), propagate via the reservoir to neighbouring ink chambers. Such propagation namely induces cross-talk and most probably print artefacts.
  • JP 01 148561 A discloses an inkjet printhead for use with a hotmelt ink.
  • a constricting element is present between an ink supply reservoir and an ink chamber.
  • the known printhead however has an important disadvantage. Due to the fact that solvent free inks have a relatively high viscosity (even at the operating temperature of the printhead these are typical 10 - 15 mPa.s), the restriction in the inlet constitutes an inherent high resistance against free flow of ink from the reservoir to the ink chamber. Therefore, the restriction is bound to certain minimum dimensions depending i.a. on the actual viscosity of the ink and the driving frequency of the electromechanical transducer. This means that the resistance against propagation of pressure waves is not optimal. When the integration density of the nozzles is made higher, and even more so, when the driving frequency becomes higher than 5 kHz, this disadvantage becomes even more pronounced. It is an object of the present invention to overcome or at least mitigate this problem.
  • an inkjet printhead according to the preamble has been devised, wherein the constricting element is such that the pressure drop over the constricting element in the direction from the reservoir to the chamber is smaller than the pressure drop over said element in the opposite direction for the same net fluid flow and wherein the ratio of the length of the constricting element and the mean diameter of this element is less than 10.
  • the constricting element induces somehow a flow directing effect from the reservoir to the ink chamber.
  • a constriction can be chosen having very small dimensions without inducing a deficient supply of ink from the reservoir to the ink chamber.
  • an aspect ratio of less than 10 provides for an additional positive effect on the flow of the ink, which effect seems only be noticable when the dimensional and operational limits of the inkjet printhead are being reached.
  • the mean diameter in this respect means the diameter of a perfect cylinder having the same length and volume as the actual constricting element.
  • Shapes that could be adequately used according to the invention have in common that they are asymmetrical in the direction of flow, e.g. constituting a divergent conduit.
  • a conical conduit has an increasing circular cross-section in the direction of the ink flow
  • the flat wall type has a rectangular cross section with four flat walls of which two are generally parallel and two are diverging.
  • the selection for the type of constricting element depends i.a. on the type of manufacturing process of the printhead.
  • an inkjet printhead having a flat wall type diverging ink chamber inlet.
  • the inkjet printhead disclosed is not designed for the use of solvent free ink jet inks. There are no heating means present to substantially uniformly heat the ink in the ink chamber.
  • From US 4,688,048 there is also known an inkjet printhead having a diverging ink chamber inlet constriction. The inlet shown however is symmetrical in the direction of ink flow and thus induces no net ink flow in the direction of the ink chamber.
  • the printhead shown is not devised for the use of solvent free ink.
  • the length of the constricting element is less than 500 micrometers. This embodiment appears to be a further improvement of the printhead according to the present invention. The reasons for that are not totally clear but may be related to the fact that a shorter constricting element inherently has a lower resistance against fluid flow. In a further embodiment the length of the constricting element is less than 100 micrometer which remarkably improves the flow stimulating effect of the constricting element according to the invention.
  • the ratio of the length of the constricting element and the diameter of the ink chamber is less than 5. This appears to be a further improvement of the printhead according to the invention. It is noted that the diameter of the ink chamber in this respect means the diameter of a perfect cylinder having the same length and volume as the actual ink chamber.
  • Fig. 1 diagrammatically illustrates an inkjet printer.
  • the printer comprises a roller 1 for supporting a receiving material 2, for example a sheet of paper or a transparent sheet, and to move it along the scanning carriage 3.
  • This carriage comprises a support member 5 on which the four printheads 4a, 4b, 4c and 4d are fixed.
  • Each printhead is provided with ink of its own colour, in this case respectively cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black (K).
  • the printheads are specially designed for jetting solvent free ink.
  • the heads are heated by a heater that comprises heating means 9 disposed at the back of each printhead 4 and on the support member 5.
  • the heating means ensure that the temperature of the printheads is high enough to provide for an adequate (low) viscosity of the ink in the ink chambers.
  • the printhead itself is at least partly made of materials with excellent heat conduction such that it is possible for the heater to substantially uniformly heat the ink in the ink chambers (not shown). Temperature sensors (not shown) are also provided for.
  • the printheads are kept at the correct temperature via a control unit 10, by means of which the heating means can be individually actuated in dependence on the temperature measured by the sensors. Since the printheads are subjected to many heating and cooling cycles, the materials of which the printheads are made are well matched with respect to their thermal expansion coefficients.
  • the roller 1 is rotatable about its axis as indicated by arrow A.
  • the receiving material can be moved in the sub-scanning direction (X-direction) with respect to the support member 5 and hence also with respect to the printheads 4.
  • the carriage 3 can be moved in reciprocation by suitable drive means (not shown) in a direction indicated by the double arrow B, parallel to the roller 1.
  • the support member 5 is moved over the guide rods 6 and 7. This direction is termed the main scanning direction or Y-direction. In this way the receiving material can be completely scanned with the printheads 4.
  • each printhead 4 comprises a number of print elements each provided with an ink chamber (not shown) having their own nozzle 8.
  • the nozzles form for each printhead one row which extends perpendicularly to the axis of roller 1 (sub-scanning direction).
  • the number of ink chambers per printhead will be many times larger and the nozzles distributed over two or more rows.
  • Each ink chamber is provided with an electromechanical transducer (not shown) whereby the pressure in the ink duct can be suddenly increased so that an ink drop is ejected through the nozzle of the associated chamber in the direction of the receiving material.
  • a means of this kind comprises, for example, a piezo-electric element.
  • Figure 2 schematically shows a portion of the piezo-electrically driven inkjet printhead 4.
  • the portion depicted in figure 2 comprises four ink chambers 11 that under operating conditions contain the printing ink, in this case an adequately liquified hot melt ink.
  • an outlet 17 is provided, which extends between the ink chamber and a nozzle 8 provided for in front end 13 of the ink jet head.
  • the ink chamber 11 is connected to an ink supply reservoir 14 which serves to supply the ink chambers with new ink.
  • the individual ink chambers are connected to the ink supply reservoir via an inlet 15 that is formed as a constricting element.
  • the upstream end 12 of the constricting element has a very small opening (5 ⁇ m mean diameter) when compared to the diameter of the ink supply reservoir 14 (300 ⁇ m), the ink chamber itself (100 ⁇ m) and the nozzle opening (30 ⁇ m).
  • Each of the ink chambers 11 is connected to a piezo-electric transducer. This transducer can be actuated whereupon it shrinks or expands. This way, by transferring that movement to the ink in the corresponding ink chamber, pressure waves can be generated in the ink. As a result of these pressure waves, a droplet of ink can be jetted out of the nozzle. After that, the same amount of ink is fed from ink reservoir 14 to the corresponding ink chamber.
  • the small opening 12 of inlet 15 almost completely prevents the generated pressure waves to propagate to neighbouring ink chambers via the common ink supply reservoir. Still, the supply of ink from the reservoir 14 to each of the ink chambers 11 seems not to be hindered by the small opening 12 of the inlet 15. On the contrary, it appears that the specific design of the constricting inlet, namely a design wherein the pressure drop over this element in the direction from inlet opening 12 to nozzle 8 is smaller than the pressure drop over said element in the opposite direction, provides for a very good ink supply from the reservoir to the ink chamber.
  • the pressure drop over the constricting element can be easily calculated in accordance with the common general knowledge in the art of fluid dynamics, for example as explicitly described in Sensors and Actuators A 46-47 (1995) pages 549 - 556 .
  • constricting elements which can be used in the printhead according to the invention. Both constricting elements have a length I as indicated of 90 ⁇ m.
  • Element 15A is conically shaped (symmetrical around it's axis of length) and has a circular inlet 12 formed as a spout. This inlet has a smallest diameter of 6 ⁇ m.
  • the outlet 20 of element 15 has a diameter of 40 ⁇ m.
  • the aspect ratio (length divided by mean diameter) of element 15A is thus approximately 4.
  • Element 15B is a flat wall element of which the two diverging walls 21 and 22 are visible. Two flat parallel walls (not shown) close element 15B and provide for a height of 20 ⁇ m in the constriction.
  • Opening 12' has a width of 4 ⁇ m (and thus the actual measures of opening 12' are 4 x 20 ⁇ m. Opening 20' has a width of 30 ⁇ m (and thus the actual measures of opening 20' are 30 x 20 ⁇ m.
  • the aspect ratio of element 15B is thus approximately 5.

Claims (7)

  1. Tête d'impression à jet d'encre pour une encre d'impression qui est sensiblement dépourvue de solvant, la tête d'impression (4a-4d) ayant une chambre d'encre (11) avec une entrée d'encre (15) et une sortie d'encre (17), un réservoir d'alimentation d'encre (14) en relation fluidique avec la chambre via l'entrée d'encre, un transducteur électromécanique (16) en relation fonctionnelle avec la chambre pour générer des ondes de pression à l'intérieur, et un dispositif chauffant (9) pour chauffer de manière sensiblement uniforme l'encre dans la chambre d'encre, où l'entrée d'encre comprend un élément d'étranglement, où l'élément d'étranglement est tel que la chute de pression après l'élément d'étranglement dans la direction d'écoulement à partir du réservoir vers la chambre est inférieure à la chute de pression après ledit élément dans la direction opposée pour le même écoulement de fluide net et caractérisée en ce que le rapport de la longueur de l'élément d'étranglement et le diamètre moyen de cet élément est inférieur à 10, le diamètre moyen de l'élément d'étranglement étant défini comme le diamètre d'un cylindre parfait ayant une longueur et un volume identiques à ceux de l'élément d'étranglement réel.
  2. Tête d'impression à jet d'encre selon la revendication 1, où la longueur de l'élément d'étranglement est inférieure à 500 µm.
  3. Tête d'impression à jet d'encre selon la revendication 2, où la longueur de l'élément d'étranglement est inférieure à 100 µm.
  4. Tête d'impression à jet d'encre selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, où l'élément d'étranglement comprend un élément de forme conique (15A) et une entrée circulaire (12) formée comme une buse.
  5. Tête d'impression à jet d'encre selon l'une quelconque des revendications 1 à 3, où l'élément d'étranglement comprend un élément (15B) ayant deux parois divergentes et ayant deux parois parallèles.
  6. Tête d'impression à jet d'encre selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes, où le rapport de la longueur de l'élément d'étranglement et du diamètre de la chambre d'encre est inférieur à 5.
  7. Imprimante à jet d'encre comprenant une tête d'impression selon l'une quelconque des revendications précédentes.
EP20060111983 2005-03-31 2006-03-30 Imprimante jet d'encre Not-in-force EP1707370B1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP20060111983 EP1707370B1 (fr) 2005-03-31 2006-03-30 Imprimante jet d'encre

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP05102536 2005-03-31
EP20060111983 EP1707370B1 (fr) 2005-03-31 2006-03-30 Imprimante jet d'encre

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP1707370A1 EP1707370A1 (fr) 2006-10-04
EP1707370B1 true EP1707370B1 (fr) 2010-08-11

Family

ID=36928916

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP20060111983 Not-in-force EP1707370B1 (fr) 2005-03-31 2006-03-30 Imprimante jet d'encre

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EP (1) EP1707370B1 (fr)

Families Citing this family (1)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8735558B2 (en) 2005-02-14 2014-05-27 Pacific Arrow Limited Blocking the migration or metastasis of cancer cells by affecting adhesion proteins and the uses of new compounds thereof

Family Cites Families (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4317124A (en) * 1979-02-14 1982-02-23 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Ink jet recording apparatus
US4418355A (en) 1982-01-04 1983-11-29 Exxon Research And Engineering Co. Ink jet apparatus with preloaded diaphragm and method of making same
US4688048A (en) 1985-09-05 1987-08-18 Nec Corporation Drop-on-demand ink-jet printing apparatus
CA1300974C (fr) * 1987-10-30 1992-05-19 Kenneth E. Trueba Architecture de canal d'alimentation d'imprimante a jet d'encre concu pour contrer les effets de resonance
JPH01148561A (ja) * 1987-12-04 1989-06-09 Seiko Epson Corp インクジェットヘッド
DE69411091T2 (de) * 1993-07-26 1998-11-12 Canon Kk Flüssigkeitsstrahlaufzeichnungskopf und damit versehene Flüssigkeitsstrahldruckvorrichtung
ES2203740T3 (es) * 1996-07-31 2004-04-16 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Cabezal de chorros de burbujas y aparato para chorros de burbujas que utiliza el mismo.

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
EP1707370A1 (fr) 2006-10-04

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