JP2000334954A - Liquid discharge head and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve an adhesive force by forming a protruding portion entering a discharge port and a channel and protrusions to become a plurality of spacers on a connecting surface of a head body of an orifice plate, forming heights of the protrusions lower than the protruding portion so that the all are equal. SOLUTION: An orifice plate is irradiated with an excimer laser from its connecting surface 49 side, and a plurality of independent protruding portions 45 and protrusions 48 are formed on its connecting surface 49 through discharge ports 41. Heights of the protrusions 48 are lowered from the heights of the protruding portions 45 and all equal. A shape becoming the orifice plate is continuously obtained in a reel-like film-like resin formed with discharge ports 41 at the portions 45, the resin is cut in a size necessary at each one head of the liquid discharge head to complete the orifice plate. Thus, its adhesive force can be improved, and a deviation, unevenness or the like of discharging can be prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid ejection head for recording by ejecting liquid as flying droplets and attaching the droplets to a recording medium, and a method of manufacturing the same. It relates to the formation of an orifice plate having an outlet.

Further, the present invention provides a facsimile having a printer, a copying machine, and a communication system for performing recording on a recording medium such as paper, thread, fiber, cloth, leather, metal, plastic, glass, wood, ceramics and the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to a liquid discharge head applicable to an industrial recording apparatus combined with various processing apparatuses in combination with a device such as a word processor having a printer unit, and a method of manufacturing the same.

[0003] In the present invention, "recording" means not only forming an image having a meaning such as characters and figures on a recording medium, but also forming an image having no meaning such as a pattern on a recording material. Also means.

[0004]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an ink jet recording apparatus which performs recording by discharging ink as a recording liquid from an orifice formed in a liquid discharge head has been known as a recording apparatus excellent in terms of low noise, high speed recording and the like. Have been.

[0005] This ink jet recording apparatus includes:
A variety of proposals have been proposed, some of which have been commercialized with improvements, and others of which are currently being put to practical use.

An example of this type of conventional liquid discharge head will be described with reference to FIG. The liquid discharge head shown in the figure has a substrate 250 on which a plurality of energy generating elements 251 for generating energy for discharging ink are provided in parallel, and a position which is joined to the upper surface of the substrate 250 and corresponds to each of the generating elements 251. A head body 246 provided with a top plate 260 having grooves each forming an ink flow path 261, and ejection ports 241 for ejecting ink, which are joined to the end faces of the substrate 250 and the top plate 260. Has an orifice plate 240 formed at a position communicating with the flow path 261.

The discharge ports 241 formed in the orifice plate 240 are minute, and the discharge ports 241 are an important factor that affects the discharge performance of the liquid discharge head. Therefore, the orifice plate 2 of the liquid ejection head
As for the performance of 40, it is necessary that the workability is good because the fine discharge port 241 is provided, and that the ink 40 has good ink resistance because it comes into direct contact with the ink.

[0008] With the recent progress in printing technology, high-speed, high-definition printing has been demanded. Therefore, the size (orifice diameter) of the discharge port 241 has become very small, and the discharge port 241 has a small size. 241 has been formed at a high density. As a result, as a material of the orifice plate 240, a method of using a resin film such as polysulfone, polyethersulfone, polyphenylene sulfide, polyetheretherketone, or polyimide, and forming an orifice in the resin film by micromachining by ablation of excimer laser. Is most commonly used. The material of the orifice plate 240 may be silicon, ceramics, or a metal material.

However, the orifice plate 240
When the nozzles are bonded to the head body 246, the fine discharge ports 24
It is extremely difficult to connect 1 to the flow path 261 communicating with the discharge port 241 without any gap.

As a countermeasure for the above, as shown in FIG. 11, independent projections 245 are formed for each of the discharge ports 241 around the discharge ports 241 on the surface of the orifice plate 240 on the head body 246 side. The entire convex portion 245 or a part of the convex portion 245 enters the flow channel 261, and in a state where the convex portion 245 is fitted to the flow channel 261,
The bonding surface 244a,
The method of joining the orifice plate 240 to the 244b has been used.

According to this method, the orifice plate 24
This prevents the adhesive resin 242 used for bonding the adhesive resin 242 from flowing into the discharge port 241 or the flow path 261, and makes the bonding surface of the orifice plate 240 with the head main body 246 a concave portion. Of the orifice plate 240 and the head main body 246 is prevented by preventing the entry into the flow path 261 and the entry of air bubbles.

[0012]

In the above-described conventional liquid discharge head, when the orifice plate is bonded to the bonding surface of the head body with an adhesive resin, the distance from the face surface of the orifice plate to the bonding surface of the head body is fixed. Otherwise, there is a problem that ejection stability cannot be obtained. Therefore, for example, by mixing a filler into the adhesive,
Measures have been taken to keep the thickness of the adhesive constant.

However, the adhesive resin containing the filler has a problem that the particle diameter of the filler is not uniform and the ink resistance and the adhesive strength are reduced. Further, if the face surface of the orifice plate has irregularities, there is a problem that the adhesive resin layer becomes non-uniform, and the discharge becomes uneven or uneven.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has a constant distance from a face surface of an orifice plate to a joining surface of a head body to improve adhesive force and discharge. It is an object of the present invention to provide a liquid ejection head which does not cause deflection or unevenness and a method for manufacturing the same.

[0015]

According to the present invention, there is provided a liquid discharge head comprising at least one kind of a convex portion having a discharge port formed on a joint surface of a head body with an orifice plate and entering a flow path. One or more spacers are formed as protrusions, and the heights of the protrusions are lower than the heights of the protrusions and are all equal.

In the method of manufacturing a liquid discharge head according to the present invention, a step of preparing a film-like resin to be an orifice plate, a convex portion entering the flow path on the surface of the film-like resin, and a lower portion than the convex portion Forming a protrusion having the same height by molding, forming a discharge port in the convex portion, and entering the convex portion into the flow path, and joining an orifice plate to the head main body. It is characterized by having.

[0017]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described based on embodiments with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a liquid discharge head to which the present invention is applied.

As shown in FIG. 1, the liquid discharge head according to the present invention includes a head body 46 in which a top plate 60 is joined to the surface of a substrate 50, an orifice plate 40 joined to the front end face of the head body 46, and the like. It is composed of The substrate 50 includes a plurality of energy generating elements 51 for generating thermal energy used for discharging a liquid such as ink, and Al wiring for supplying an electric signal to the energy generating elements 51. . This substrate 50
A plurality of energy generating elements 51 and the Al wiring are formed on a Si substrate by a film forming technique.

On one surface of the top plate 60, grooves for forming a plurality of flow paths 61 in which the energy generating elements 51 are respectively disposed, and ink supplied to the respective flow paths 61 are temporarily held. A groove for forming a liquid chamber 62 is formed. Further, a supply port 64 for supplying ink into the liquid chamber 62 is formed in the top plate 60. By joining the substrate 50 and the top plate 60 such that the energy generation elements 51 are arranged in the respective flow paths 61, the head body 46 including the plurality of flow paths 61 and the plurality of energy generation elements 51 is configured. Have been. On the front end surface of the head body 46, that is, the joint surface 44 a of the substrate 50 with the orifice plate 40 and the top plate 60
On the surface including the joint surface 44b with the orifice plate 40,
The opening of each flow channel 61 is arranged.

On the other hand, the orifice plate 40 is formed with a plurality of discharge ports 41 each communicating with the flow path 61. A plurality of independent convex portions 45 are formed for each discharge port 41 around the discharge port 41 on the joint surface of the orifice plate 40 with the head main body 46. The orifice plate 40 is joined to the joining surfaces 44a and 44b by the adhesive resin 42 as an adhesive in a state where the respective convex portions 45 enter the flow channel 61 and the convex portions 45 are fitted into the flow channel 61. .

In this liquid discharge head, bubbles are generated on the energy generating element 51 by the thermal energy generated from the energy generating element 51 acting on the ink in the flow channel 61, and the discharge is performed by utilizing the generation of the bubbles. Ink is ejected from the outlet 41.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a part of a production line used for the liquid discharge head of the present invention. The figure shows a process in which a molten resin is extruded into a film shape by an extruder and pressed by a cooling roll provided with a relief mold of a desired shape on the surface to form a desired shape on a film. I have. That is, a cooling roll 5 and a nip roll on which a film-shaped resin 3 extruded from a die 2 of an extruder 1 is set with a relief mold 4 having a shape corresponding to the discharge port 41 and the projection 45 shown in FIG. By pressing at 6, a desired shape is continuously formed on the surface of the film-shaped resin 3. Thereafter, it is wound up in a reel shape by a take-up roll 8 via a take-up roll 7.

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing an excimer laser processing apparatus for forming a discharge port or the like in a film-like resin.
The laser 13 emitted from the excimer laser oscillator 9 is applied via the condenser lens 11 and the mask 12 to the film-shaped resin 3 of the object installed in a reel shape.

In the above embodiment, the production line for the film-like resin shown in FIG. 2 and the laser processing apparatus shown in FIG. 3 are separate, but the winding roll 8 is used in the production line for the film-like resin shown in FIG. Before this, the laser processing apparatus shown in FIG. 3 can be arranged.

FIG. 4 is a view showing a film-like resin continuously produced by the production line shown in FIG. 2 and the laser processing apparatus shown in FIG. (A) is a plan view of the film-shaped resin 3, (b) is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of (a), (c)
FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of a portion B of the film-like resin shown in FIG. 1A, and FIG. 2D is a cross-sectional view taken along line CC of FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, on the surface of the film-shaped resin 3,
The projection 45, the discharge port 41, and the projection 48 are formed.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a method of manufacturing the projections and the discharge ports of the film-like resin shown in FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 5A and 5A, a plurality of independent projections 45 are formed on the film-shaped resin 3 by the relief mold 4 provided on the cooling roll 5.
And a plurality of concave portions 43 respectively arranged at the center of the convex portion 45 are continuously formed in the extrusion direction of the film-shaped resin 3. Each recess 43 is for forming the discharge port 41. As shown in FIGS. 5B and 5B,
By irradiating the laser 13 to the bottom surface of each concave portion 43, a through-hole penetrating the film-shaped resin 3 is formed on the bottom surface of each concave portion 43 as shown in FIGS. 5C and 5C '. Thereby, the discharge port 41 is formed in the film-shaped resin 3.

The film-shaped resin 3 serving as a reel-shaped orifice plate manufactured in this manner is cut into a required size for each head of the liquid discharge head, and an orifice plate for each head is completed.

Next, the manner of manufacturing the liquid discharge head after forming the orifice plate will be described with reference to FIG.

B while maintaining tackiness by UV irradiation
A stage is formed, the curing shrinkage is completed, and a cationic polymerization type epoxy-based adhesive resin 42 that can be bonded by heating and pressure bonding is transferred to the bonding surface 44 of the head body where the openings of the flow channels 61 are arranged by the transfer method.
a, 44b. Thereafter, irradiation with ultraviolet rays of 1 mW / cm ² is performed for 60 seconds to form a B-stage.
The curing shrinkage was terminated.

Next, the orifice plate 40 is
1. Head body 4 on which substrate 50 and top plate 60 are formed
The convex portion 45 provided around the orifice was fitted into the flow path 61 of No. 6.

Thereafter, a load of 1 kg / cm ² is applied from the surface of the orifice plate 40 to the orifice plate 40.
And the head body 46 was brought into close contact with each other, and was heated and pressed at 60 ° C. while maintaining the state, whereby the curing of the adhesive resin 42 was completed.

In the present embodiment, as an adhesive resin for joining the orifice plate and the head main body, it is made into a B-stage while maintaining tackiness by UV irradiation to complete curing shrinkage, and further UV irradiation or heating is performed. An epoxy-based adhesive that hardens by the use of the adhesive was used. The adhesive can be adhered only by heating and pressing. (Example 1) Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to examples.

Using a production line shown in FIG. 2, a polysulfone resin (Udel P3900: manufactured by Amoco Co.) was used as a raw resin under the following processing conditions (A).
It was extruded to a thickness of μm and pressed by a cooling roll 5 and a nip roll 6 at a temperature of 15 ° C. provided with a relief mold 4 on the surface, and cooled. The convex portions 45 are formed as shown in FIGS.
'), And the pitch of the convex portions 45 is 600
At an interval equivalent to dpi, the height x width x height is 30 µm x 30 µ
The concave 43 has a dimension of m × 10 μm, the fitting convex part forming side has a diameter of φ25 μm, and the opening dimension of the surface opposite to the convex part forming side has a diameter of φ25 μm.
A relief type is manufactured so as to have a diameter of 20 μm and a round projection pattern having a size of φ10 μm and a height of 3 μm as shown in FIG. Independent projections 45 and projections 48,
In addition, the filled resin 3 to be a reel-shaped orifice plate in which the concave portion 43 was formed in the convex portion 45 was continuously obtained. (A) Extrusion processing conditions Die opening: 0.5 mm Extruder setting temperature: rear part 315 ° C, middle part 360 ° C,
Head and die part 370 ° C. Cooling roll temperature: 15 ° C. Extruded thickness: 50 μm Nip pressure (air gauge pressure): 2 kgf / cm 2 Next, a water-repellent layer was formed on the surface (face surface) opposite to the surface on which the convex portions were formed. In this embodiment, CTX-C is used as the water repellent.
Z5A (Asahi Glass Co., Ltd.) was used.

After the water-repellent treated surface is hydrophilized by corona treatment, the final film of the water-repellent is applied to the film-like resin which becomes a reel-shaped orifice plate which has been pressed by using a microgravure coater (manufactured by Yasui Seiki). Coating and prebaking at 80 ° C. were continuously performed so that the thickness became 0.1 μm. After coating and pre-baking are completed, the film-shaped resin to be wound into a reel-shaped orifice plate is heated in a heating furnace for 150 minutes.
Heating at 5 ° C. for 5 hours completed the formation of the water repellent.

In this embodiment, the water-repellent treatment and the pressing are performed separately. However, the pressing may be performed while supplying a water-repellent agent to the nip roll 6 to form a water-repellent layer on the surface. Before winding, a water-repellent coating can be applied by setting a water-repellent coating roll.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 5 (b) and 5 (b '), an excimer laser beam 13 is irradiated from the bonding surface side of the orifice plate, as shown in FIGS. 5 (c) and 5 (c'). As shown in FIG. 7, a plurality of independent protrusions 45 and protrusions 48 are formed on the face surface 49, and a reel-shaped film-shaped resin having the discharge openings 41 formed in the protrusions 45, as shown in FIG. The shape of the orifice plate was continuously obtained.

Next, the film-shaped resin serving as a reel-shaped orifice plate was cut into a required size for each liquid discharge head to complete an orifice plate.

Further, the orifice plate 40 was fitted and joined to the head main body 46 in the same manner as described in the embodiment, thereby producing a liquid discharge head.

The height of the protrusion 48 has a dispersion accuracy of 3 ± 0.5 μm or less.
It has been confirmed that the tip of 8 serves as a spacer at the joining surfaces 44a and 44b of the head body 46, and that the distance between the face surface 49 of the orifice plate 40 and the head body 46 is kept constant. . In the printing evaluation using the manufactured liquid ejection head, good printing quality was obtained without printing defects such as warpage and unevenness. The heights of the projections 48 need to be lower than the heights of the protrusions 45, and it is preferable that all of them are equal.

Further, in addition to the present embodiment, as shown in FIG.
8B), or as shown in FIG.
5, the projection 48 is spherical, or the projection 45 or the projection 48 is formed as shown in FIG.
May have a tapered outer shape.

Further, as long as the heights of the projections 48 are equal, the shapes of the projections 48 may be different. (Embodiment 2) A second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

A film-like resin to be a reel-shaped orifice plate was prepared in the same manner as in the first embodiment except that the height of the projection 48 was 1 μm.

In this embodiment, the projections 4
A groove 47 having a width of 20 μm and a depth of 5 μm was formed in a portion 70 μm away from 5 using the laser processing apparatus shown in FIG. The groove 47 is used as a remaining groove for the adhesive resin remaining when the orifice plate and the head main body are bonded.

Next, the film-shaped resin serving as a reel-shaped orifice plate was cut into a required size for each liquid discharge head to complete an orifice plate.

Further, the liquid discharge head was manufactured by fitting and joining the orifice plate 40 to the head body 46 in the same manner as described in the embodiment.

The height of the projections 48 has a variation accuracy of 1 ± 0.5 μm or less.
It was confirmed that the front end of the head 8 played a role as a spacer at the joint surfaces 44a and 44b of the head body 46, and the distance between the face surface 49 and the head body 46 was kept constant.

In the printing evaluation of the manufactured liquid discharge head, good printing quality was obtained without printing defects such as warpage and unevenness.

[0050]

Since the liquid discharge head and the method of manufacturing the same according to the present invention are constructed as described above, the distance from the face surface of the orifice plate to the bonding surface of the head body is kept constant by the projection, and the bonding is performed. The force is improved, and the discharge is not distorted or uneven. Also, the projections, discharge ports, and projections of the orifice plate can be continuously and easily formed by extrusion and laser processing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a liquid ejection head to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a part of a production line used for producing a liquid ejection head of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a view schematically showing a laser processing apparatus for forming a discharge port or the like in a film-like resin.

FIG. 4 is a view showing a film-like resin continuously produced by the production line shown in FIG. 2 and the laser processing apparatus shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a view showing a method of manufacturing the projections and the discharge ports of the film-like resin shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a view showing an orifice plate having a convex portion and a convex portion on the face surface and a concave portion on the convex portion according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an orifice plate having a projection and a projection on a face surface and a discharge port formed on the projection in the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a view showing the shapes of convex portions and protrusions according to another embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a view showing an orifice plate having a convex portion and a projection on a face surface and a discharge port formed on the convex portion according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is an exploded perspective view of a conventional liquid ejection head.

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view along a flow path direction of a conventional liquid ejection head.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 extruder 2 die 3 film-like resin 4 relief type 5 cooling roll 6 nip roll 7 take-up roll 8 take-up roll 9 excimer laser transmitter 11 condensing lens 12 mask 13 laser 40 orifice plate 41 discharge port (orifice) 42 adhesive resin 43 concave portion 44a, 44b joining surface 45 convex portion 46 head body 47 groove 48 projection 49 face surface (joining surface) 50 substrate 51 energy generating element 60 top plate 61 flow path 62 liquid chamber 64 supply port

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Masami Kasamoto 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Hiroyuki Ishinaga 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Within Canon Inc. (72) Tora Nagata, Inventor 3- 30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Hiroyuki Sugiyama 3- 30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Stocks Inside the company (72) Inventor Junji Tatsumi 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Genji Inada 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. F Terms (reference) 2C057 AF25 AF30 AF93 AG04 AG46 AP02 AP13 AP23 AP25 AP45 AQ03 BA05 BA13

Claims (7)

[Claims] An orifice plate having one or more discharge ports for discharging droplets, a flow path communicating with each of the discharge ports, a liquid chamber for supplying liquid to the flow path, A head body including a supply port for supplying a liquid to the liquid chamber, and an energy generating element for generating energy used for discharging the liquid provided in each of the flow paths. In the liquid discharge head which is joined to the orifice plate, a discharge port is formed and a projection which enters the flow path, and one or more kinds of one or more projections are formed on the joint surface of the orifice plate with the head body. The height of the projections is lower than the height of the projections, and the heights of the projections are all equal. 2. The liquid discharge head according to claim 1, wherein a groove is formed on a joint surface of the orifice plate with the head main body. 3. The liquid ejection head according to claim 1, wherein the orifice plate is made of a resin, silicon, ceramics, or a metal material. 4. The liquid ejection head according to claim 3, wherein the resin is any one of polysulfone, polyethersulfone, polyphenylene sulfide, polyetheretherketone, and polyimide. 5. An orifice plate having one or more discharge ports for discharging liquid droplets and a convex portion entering the flow path, a flow path communicating with each of the discharge ports, and supplying a liquid to the flow path. A liquid chamber for supplying the liquid, a supply port for supplying the liquid to the liquid chamber, and energy generation for generating energy used for discharging the liquid disposed corresponding to each of the flow paths In a method of manufacturing a liquid ejection head joined to a head body having an element, a step of preparing a film-like resin to be an orifice plate, and a step of entering the flow path on a surface of the film-like resin. Forming a projection and a projection having the same height lower than the projection by molding; forming a discharge port in the projection; and allowing the projection to enter the flow path, and setting the orifice plate to a head. Joining to the main body. A method for manufacturing a liquid discharge head. 6. The method for manufacturing a liquid discharge head according to claim 5, wherein the discharge port is formed as a discharge port by processing the concave portion with a laser processing device. 7. The method for manufacturing a liquid discharge head according to claim 5, wherein a groove is formed on a joint surface of the orifice plate with the head body by a laser processing device.