JP2000079692A - Ink jet recording head and manufacture thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an ink jet recording head having a surface treatment layer excellent in corrosion resistance and water repellency and a method for manufacturing the ink jet recording head simply at low cost. SOLUTION: The ink jet recording head comprises ink ejection openings 3, liquid channels, liquid ejection energy generating sections arranged at a part of the liquid channels, and an aluminum substrate 1 wherein the circumferential fringe part of the ink ejection openings is subjected to surface treatment to form treatment layers of sulfuric acid based alumite and water repellent material.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for ejecting and flying a recording liquid, generally called ink, from a fine opening as a small droplet.
More particularly, the present invention relates to an ink jet recording head having an improved surface treatment layer at the periphery of an ink discharge port of the head and a method of manufacturing the recording head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An ink jet recording head generally has a fine ink discharge port, a liquid flow path, and a liquid discharge energy generating section provided in a part of the liquid flow path. Conventionally, such an ink jet recording head forms a liquid flow path forming portion on which a later-described ink discharge port is formed on a silicon substrate having an electrothermal transducer, and a top plate having an ink supply port is laminated thereon. create.

[0003] It is known that the peripheral portion of the discharge port of the ink jet recording head is generally provided with water repellency, which is advantageous for the discharge stability. Therefore, a process of applying a material having water repellency is performed on the peripheral portion. In practice, a method of dissolving a water-repellent organic polymer in a solvent, drying the solvent with heat after coating, and forming a water-repellent layer is applied.

[0004]

However, the cost of printers has recently been reduced, and the cost of recording heads must be reduced. Therefore, aluminum has been used for the substrate for the ink jet recording head.

On the other hand, in recent years, ink-jet recording apparatuses have been used in fields other than printers such as copiers and textile printing apparatuses. In order to adhere ink to printer media other than paper, such as OHP sheets and cloths, ink jet recording apparatuses have been used. However, inks exhibiting high alkalinity have been used.

That is, in order to improve fixability and water resistance, pigments which are relatively insoluble in solvents may be used as dyes and pigments for ink. In order to make full use of these dyes and pigments, high alkalinity is required. By using the ink shown, effects such as easy dissolution of the dye and improvement of the dispersion stability of the pigment can be obtained.

However, an ink jet recording head made of the aluminum substrate formed by the above-described structure has
When the highly alkaline ink was filled and a standing test was performed at a high temperature, rarely, a part of the substrate around the discharge port was discolored and corrosion sometimes occurred. When the head was mounted on a printer and printing was performed, it was confirmed that the printing quality was significantly deteriorated as compared with that before the standing test.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide an excellent ink jet recording head having a surface treatment layer having good corrosion resistance and water repellency, and to provide a simple and low cost recording head. Can be obtained,
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head.

[0009]

The above objects and objects are solved and achieved by the present invention described below. That is, the present invention provides an ink jet apparatus comprising: an ink discharge port, a liquid flow path, and a liquid discharge energy generation unit provided in a part of the liquid flow path, wherein aluminum is used for a substrate, and a peripheral edge of the ink discharge port is surface-treated. In a recording head, an ink jet recording head is disclosed in which a surface treatment layer on the periphery of the discharge port comprises a treatment layer made of a sulfuric acid-based alumite and a treatment layer made of a water-repellent material.

The ink jet recording head according to the present invention is characterized in that the liquid discharge energy generating section is an electrothermal converter for generating thermal energy, or the ink discharge port is formed of a recording medium. It is a full-line type in which a plurality of ejection ports are provided over the entire width of the recording area.

The present invention further comprises an ink discharge port, a liquid flow path, and a liquid discharge energy generating section provided in a part of the liquid flow path, wherein the substrate is made of aluminum, and the periphery of the ink discharge port is subjected to surface treatment. In the method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head according to the present invention, the step of treating the surface treatment layer at the periphery of the discharge port includes a step of performing a sulfuric acid-based alumite treatment and a step of performing a treatment with a water-repellent material. It discloses a method of manufacturing an ink jet recording head.

In the method of manufacturing an ink jet recording head according to the present invention, the liquid discharge energy generating section is an electrothermal converter for generating thermal energy. And a full line type in which a plurality of ejection ports are provided over the entire width of the recording area of the recording medium.

Means for achieving the object of the present invention are as follows. In an ink jet recording head in which the periphery of the discharge port is surface-treated by using aluminum for the substrate, the surface-treated layer is formed of a sulfuric acid-based alumite-treated layer. And a treatment layer which is a material of the above.

The alumite treatment used for the underlayer of the treatment layer of the present invention is a sulfuric acid-based alumite, and an aqueous sulfuric acid solution is used.
As the water-repellent resin, a fluorine-based or silicone-based resin is used, and a permeation-type material is preferably used. As the treatment method, a coating method, a printing method, a dipping method, or the like is applied, and specifically, a method of transferring using a rubber plate or the like, or applying using a sponge or the like is adopted. In addition, there is a method of performing printing using a flexographic printing machine or the like to form a surface layer.

(Action) Sulfuric acid-based alumite is a porous film, but it is thought that by treating with a water-repellent material, the surface is covered with a dense resin film, so that corrosion resistance is increased. Can be Since there is no sealing process using boiling water or the like, it is possible to easily produce a low-cost, corrosion-resistant head.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings based on embodiments, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

[Embodiment 1] A recording head is prepared. A positive photoresist PMER-AR900 (manufactured by Tokyo Ohka Co., Ltd.) is spin-coated as a photosensitive resin on an aluminum substrate 1 on which an electrothermal conversion element is formed as a liquid discharge energy generating section, and after baking, a liquid flow path is formed. Exposure is performed with a mask aligner PLA-501 (manufactured by Canon Inc.) at an exposure amount of ³ J / cm ² through the mask pattern described above, followed by development processing, post-baking, and forming a mold material serving as a liquid flow path. Was formed.

Next, the top plate 4 prepared above was combined with the substrate, and a thermosetting liquid flow path constituent material was injected between the top plate and the substrate, followed by thermosetting. After curing, cutting was performed with a carbide metal saw (manufactured by Hitachi Tool Co., Ltd.) using a slicer DLS-61 (manufactured by DISCO) to form the discharge port surface of the recording head.

Next, the face surface is used as a cathode and the carbon rod is used as an anode, and immersed in a sulfuric acid aqueous solution to perform anodizing treatment. Subsequently, the discharge port surface was immersed in a crystallon solution (manufactured by Nanofilm Corporation) at 90 ° C. for 5 minutes. Finally, the resist was dissolved and removed by immersion in acetone to form a discharge port, thereby completing an ink jet recording head.

Comparative Example 1 A recording head is prepared. A positive type photoresist PMER-AR900 (manufactured by Tokyo Ohka Co., Ltd.) is spin-coated as a photosensitive resin on an aluminum substrate 1 on which an electrothermal conversion element is formed as a liquid discharge energy generating unit, and prebaked. Exposure is performed with a mask aligner PLA-501 (manufactured by Canon Inc.) at an exposure amount of ³ J / cm ² through the mask pattern described above, followed by development processing, post-baking, and forming a mold material serving as a liquid flow path. Was formed.

Next, the top plate 4 prepared above was combined with the substrate, a thermosetting liquid flow path constituent material was injected between the top plate and the substrate, and then thermosetting was performed. After curing, the recording head was cut with a metal cutter (manufactured by Hitachi Tool) using a slicer DLS-61 (manufactured by DISCO) in order to form a discharge port surface of the recording head.

Next, the face surface is used as a cathode and the carbon rod is used as an anode, and immersed in an aqueous sulfuric acid solution to perform anodizing treatment. Subsequently, a sealing treatment is performed on the discharge port surface in boiling water, followed by Floren C1-25 (manufactured by Nippon Synthetic Rubber Co., Ltd.).
Is printed on the periphery of the discharge port of the nozzle by transfer. Finally, the resist was dissolved and removed by immersion in acetone to form a discharge port, thereby completing an ink jet recording head.

The process of the head of the comparative example is complicated because it has a step of performing treatment with boiling water, but the head of the example is simple because the corrosion resistance and the water repellent process are performed in a single step. Process can be easily performed.

In the above embodiment, a serial type head is prepared. However, the present invention can be applied to a full line type head having a plurality of discharge ports provided over the entire width of a recording area of a recording medium. . Alternatively, the present invention can be applied not only to a head for a single color but also to a head formed with a discharge port for multiple colors.

In the above embodiment, an example in which an electrothermal transducer is used as an energy generating element has been described. However, it goes without saying that the present invention is effective for an ink jet head having other energy generating elements.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, there is provided an ink jet recording head having a surface treatment layer excellent in water repellency and corrosion resistance and excellent in durability, and the recording head can be manufactured simply and at low cost. An excellent method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head that can be obtained by, for example, is provided.
A remarkable effect is achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an outline of a recording head according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view illustrating a configuration of a face surface of a recording head according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 substrate 2 nozzle resin layer 3 ink discharge port 4 top plate 5 anodized layer 6 layer made of water-repellent resin

Claims (6)

[Claims] An ink discharge port, a liquid flow path, and a liquid discharge energy generation unit provided in a part of the liquid flow path;
In an ink jet recording head in which the periphery of the ink ejection port is surface-treated using aluminum as a substrate, the surface treatment layer at the periphery of the ejection port is composed of a treatment layer made of a sulfuric acid-based alumite and a treatment layer made of a water-repellent material. An ink jet recording head, comprising: 2. An ink discharge port, a liquid flow path, and a liquid discharge energy generation unit provided in a part of the liquid flow path,
In the method of manufacturing an ink jet recording head in which aluminum is used as a substrate and the periphery of the ink ejection port is surface-treated, the step of treating the surface treatment layer of the periphery of the ejection port includes a step of performing a sulfuric acid-based alumite treatment and a step of providing water repellency. A method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head, comprising a step of performing a treatment with a material. 3. The ink jet recording head according to claim 1, wherein the liquid discharge energy generating section is an electrothermal converter that generates thermal energy. 4. The method according to claim 2, wherein the liquid discharge energy generating unit is an electrothermal converter that generates thermal energy. 5. The ink jet recording head according to claim 1, wherein the ink ejection port is a full line type in which a plurality of ejection ports are provided over the entire width of a recording area of a recording medium. . 6. An ink jet recording head according to claim 2, wherein said ink ejection port is a full line type in which a plurality of ejection ports are provided over the entire width of a recording area of a recording medium. Manufacturing method.