JP2000301720A - Inkjet head - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a highly reliable ink jet head having a high density, a high number of nozzles and uniform characteristics at an extremely low cost. A nozzle, a cavity communicating with the nozzle, an ink reservoir communicating with the cavity, a common electrode formed on the cavity, a continuous piezoelectric body formed on the common electrode, Since there is an elastic vibrating portion formed in parallel with the piezoelectric body at a position corresponding to the cavity on the body, a large number of nozzles are arranged at a high density,
An ink jet head having uniform characteristics can be provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet head for selectively depositing ink droplets on a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional technique, as shown in FIG.
A plurality of sets of ink cavities 620, nozzles 621, ink supply paths 622, and ink reservoirs 630 communicating with the respective ink supply paths 622 and retaining ink are formed between the glass substrate 600 and the thin glass plate 610. There is an ink jet head that cuts a plate of the piezoelectric body 650 formed as described above into the area of the ink cavity, and adheres a thin glass plate to each ink cavity.

According to Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-2024, an elastic plate is formed on a single piezoelectric body, and a groove is formed on either the piezoelectric element surface or the elastic plate surface to form a vibrator. The method of doing is introduced.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Ink cavity 62
The width of 0 is about several hundred μm on one side, and it is necessary to bond a plate of a piezoelectric body 650 having a size similar to these to each ink cavity 620 as mechanical displacement generating means. However, in the head having such a structure, the piezoelectric body 65 is not provided.
The positioning accuracy of the ink cavities 620 and the ink cavities 620 cannot be increased, the workability at the time of bonding the piezoelectric body 650 is poor, the variation in characteristics due to the non-uniform bonding is large, the peeling of the bonded portion is likely to occur, There is a problem that the characteristics vary greatly due to internal strain.

[0005] These problems are problems that have become more and more noticeable as the number of nozzles is increased or the nozzle density is increased in order to improve the performance of the printer.

Further, the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-2024 also requires grooving, so that the burden of manufacturing steps cannot be avoided.

Accordingly, the present invention solves these problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a highly reliable ink jet head having a high density, a high number of nozzles and uniform characteristics at a very low cost. That is.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided an ink jet head comprising: a nozzle; a cavity communicating with the nozzle; an ink reservoir communicating with the cavity; a common electrode formed on the cavity; And a resilient vibrating portion formed in parallel with the piezoelectric body at a position corresponding to the cavity on the piezoelectric body.

More preferably, the portion corresponding to the cavity of the elastic vibrating portion is made of a metal plate.

[0010] More preferably, the elastic body vibrating section includes:
The area is smaller than the cavity.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 1 is a structural view of an ink jet head according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1A is a plan view. FIG. 1B is a sectional view. On a base substrate 210 made of glass, a cavity 220, a nozzle 221, and an ink supply path 2 are provided.
22, an ink supply port 262, and an ink reservoir 240 are formed. The piezoelectric body 230 has a common electrode 251 on one side, and an elastic body vibrating section 253 and a wiring section 254 on the other side. A pressure generating member 260 is formed by the piezoelectric body 230, the common electrode 251, and the elastic body vibrating section 253. The common electrode 251 is connected to the ground,
Reference numeral 4 is connected to a drive circuit (not shown), and drives the pressure generating member 260 by a drive signal to cause ink to fly. The cavity 220 of the base substrate 210 and the elastic body vibrating portion 253 are joined so as to face each other, and the ink jet head of this embodiment is obtained.

Next, a method of manufacturing the pressure generating member 260 will be described with reference to FIG. On one surface of a piezoelectric body 230 made of a piezoelectric material such as a lead zirconate titanate-based composite perovskite ceramic, plating, sputtering, vapor deposition,
A conductive material such as Cr, Ni, and Au is formed to a thickness of about 0.5 μm by thick film printing or the like. An elastic plate 263 formed of a metal plate having a desired shape is attached on the flexible film 261 on another surface.

Here, a method of manufacturing the elastic plate 263 will be described with reference to FIG.

Referring to FIGS. 3A and 3B, polyimide,
A through hole 311 having a desired shape is formed in a tape-like flexible film such as polyester by a press working method or the like. Next, as shown in FIG. 3C, a metal plate 312 of Ni, Cu, stainless steel or the like is attached to the entire surface. Further, FIG.
(D) As shown in (e), the desired shape of the metal plate 312 is etched by a photolithography technique or the like to form the elastic plate 253 and the wiring portion 254. This manufacturing technique is based on TAB (Tape Automa) for IC mounting.
It is known as a method for producing a ted bonding tape.

The elastic plate 263 manufactured as described above
4 (a) to 4 (d) show a method of sticking to the piezoelectric body.

In FIG. 4A, the common electrode 251 side of the piezoelectric body 230 having the common electrode 251 formed on the base 400 is fixed by a vacuum chuck or the like, and an adhesive 4 such as epoxy is used.
10 is applied to the opposite side. Further, after the elastic plate 263 described with reference to FIG.
As shown in (b), the piezoelectric body 230 and the elastic plate 263 are brought into close contact with the pressing tool 420. Thereafter, in order to separate the tape-shaped elastic plates 263 individually, pressing is performed with a cutting blade 430 as shown in FIG. 4C, and press working is performed to obtain a structure as shown in FIG. 4D.

The above description includes the elastic vibrating section 253 and the wiring section 25.
Although this is an example in which 4 is extended in two directions, it is also possible to extend in four directions as shown in FIG.

As described above, the ink jet head according to the present embodiment uses the piezoelectric member 230 constituting the pressure generating member 260 in a large sheet shape without processing, and provides an elastic plate having good workability. Since only 263 is processed, the workability is extremely good, and the pressure generating member can be formed with high density.

[0020]

According to the present invention, there is provided a nozzle, a cavity communicating with the nozzle, an ink reservoir communicating with the cavity, a common electrode formed on the cavity, and a continuous electrode formed on the common electrode. An ink jet head having uniform characteristics in which a plurality of nozzles are arranged at a high density since the piezoelectric body has a piezoelectric body and an elastic body vibrating portion formed in parallel with the piezoelectric body at a position corresponding to the cavity on the piezoelectric body. Can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a structural diagram of an ink jet head of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a method for manufacturing an ink jet head according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a method for manufacturing an ink jet head according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a method for manufacturing an ink jet head according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 220: Cavity 221: Nozzle 230: Piezoelectric 240: Ink reservoir 251: Common electrode 253: Elastic vibration part 260: Pressure generating member 261: Flexible tape 263: Elastic plate

Claims (3)

[Claims] A nozzle, a cavity communicating with the nozzle, an ink reservoir communicating with the cavity, a common electrode formed on the cavity, a continuous piezoelectric body formed on the common electrode, An ink jet head comprising an elastic body vibrating portion formed in parallel with the piezoelectric body at a position corresponding to the cavity on the piezoelectric body. 2. The ink jet head according to claim 1, wherein a portion of the elastic body vibrating portion corresponding to the cavity is made of a metal plate. 3. The ink jet head according to claim 1, wherein the elastic body vibrating section has a smaller area than the cavity.