JP2009220446A - Liquid droplet discharge head, method for manufacturing liquid droplet discharge head, liquid cartridge, and image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a liquid droplet discharge head in which components used as flow path members can be highly precisely connected and stable discharge property can be obtained. <P>SOLUTION: The liquid droplet discharge head has a nozzle for discharging liquid droplets and a plurality of flow path members. At least two layers of the flow path members are formed of metal plates, and positioning holes formed in the metal plates are machined to reduce the rigidity in the peripheral portion. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a droplet discharge head, a method of manufacturing a droplet discharge head, a liquid cartridge, and an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to a processing technique and a processing shape of a metal or resin material that constitutes a flow path member of the droplet discharge head. The processing technology and processing shape of metal or resin material in the present invention can also be applied to industrial manufacturing equipment such as color filter manufacturing equipment using droplet discharge technology, metal wiring manufacturing equipment, dyeing equipment, DNA chip manufacturing equipment, etc. It is.

  Examples of the droplet discharge head include a droplet discharge head that discharges liquid resist as droplets, a droplet discharge head that discharges DNA samples as droplets, and a droplet discharge head that discharges ink as droplets. . Among these, as various image forming apparatuses such as printers, facsimiles, copying machines, plotters, printer / fax / copier multifunction machines, etc., a recording composed of a droplet discharge head for discharging droplets of a recording liquid (for example, ink) is used. A head (printing head) is mounted on a carriage, and the carriage is referred to as a recording medium (hereinafter referred to as “paper”, but the material is not limited to paper, and is also referred to as recording medium, recording paper, transfer material, etc.) (2) is serially scanned in a direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction, and the recording medium is intermittently conveyed according to the recording width, and an image is formed on the recording medium by repeating conveyance and recording alternately ( Recording, printing, printing, and printing are also used synonymously.) There are serial type image forming apparatuses that perform recording, and line type image forming apparatuses that are equipped with line type recording heads. High speed and high image quality are major technical issues in such an image forming apparatus. For high image quality, there is a method of reducing droplets and increasing the density of nozzles as the image resolution increases. There are a method of increasing the driving frequency of droplet discharge and a method of elongating a recording head represented by a line type recording head in which the number of nozzles per head is increased.

  In recent years, the speed of droplet discharge printers has increased, and the number of nozzles has been required to increase as the droplet discharge head becomes longer. Metal plates and resin plates are selected for low-cost applications, such as flow channel plates that form complicated liquid flow channel shapes for flow channel members, and especially for silicon materials. Therefore, stainless steel is relatively advantageous and easy to select.

  In general, a droplet discharge head is composed of a nozzle hole and a liquid chamber (nozzle and a flow path member including the nozzle) formed with a size of several tens of microns, and is formed by a plurality of plates. As a flow path unit, stainless steel, which is difficult to bond, is not desired to have a multilayer structure that requires a joining process. In that case, a laminated material (composite plate) of a metal plate and a resin plate should be used. Is widely known. Further, when processing such a composite plate of a metal plate and a resin plate, wet etching processing or press processing by punching is often used.

  The processed flow path member forms a flow path unit through at least one joining process before becoming a droplet discharge head. The flow path unit is joined to the housing that supports the flow path unit.

Conventionally, a high-precision joining technique is required in the joining process, and a high accuracy is also required for a shape dimension used for alignment in units of parts.
Therefore, in Patent Document 1, an alignment hole used for alignment is formed by press processing, which causes burrs and burrs, resulting in problems in bonding quality. It describes that the effect of burrs and burrs can be avoided by forming a step that is one step lower than the interface where the holes are joined. However, this method increases the head size and is not realistic. Moreover, regarding the alignment hole shape used for joining, a special method is not shown, and it is merely shown that it is formed by press working. With this, it is difficult to ensure a highly accurate shape.

  Patent Document 2 describes that in order to hold a support pin on a circuit board vertically, a hole is formed in an elastic plate, and the pin is set up to secure verticality. However, this method is not suitable because a metal plate used for a flow path member constituting the droplet discharge head requires high rigidity.

  Further, Patent Document 3 describes that there is optical alignment as a general alignment technique. However, although this optical alignment is an effective means, it requires a large cost for the equipment or requires a plurality of steps. However, there is a problem that the manufacturing cost is high.

Japanese Patent No. 2558116 JP 2007-019218 A Japanese Patent No. 2977772

  The present invention eliminates the problems and the like found in the above-mentioned prior art, enables a highly accurate joining of the flow path member and obtains stable discharge characteristics, a method for manufacturing the droplet discharge head, It is an object of the present invention to provide a liquid cartridge and an image forming apparatus on which the droplet discharge head is mounted.

The present invention has been made in view of the above prior art. That is, as a result of many studies and examinations on the droplet discharge head, the present inventor requires a highly accurate joining technique in the joining process of the flow path member, and the shape dimension used for the alignment for each member is also required. Although high accuracy is required, the flow path of the droplet discharge head formed by at least two or more layers composed of a plurality of metal plates by providing the holes used for alignment in the flow path member. In the member, the hole for alignment processed in the metal layer is joined by assembling the parts using the flow path member characterized in that the peripheral portion is processed so as to have low rigidity. It was confirmed that highly accurate bonding was performed in the process, and as a result, a droplet discharge head capable of obtaining stable discharge characteristics could be produced. The present invention has been made based on these matters.
Therefore, according to this invention, the said subject is solved by following (1)-(10).

(1) The invention of claim 1 is a droplet discharge head comprising a nozzle for discharging droplets and a plurality of flow path members, wherein at least two layers of the plurality of flow path members are formed of a metal plate, In addition, the positioning hole processed in the metal plate is processed so that the peripheral portion has low rigidity.
(2) The invention according to claim 2 is the liquid droplet ejection head according to claim 1, wherein the alignment hole processed in the metal plate is a hole formed by etching.
(3) A third aspect of the present invention is the droplet discharge head according to the first or second aspect, wherein the hole for alignment processed in the metal plate is formed in a slit shape so that the periphery thereof has low rigidity. It is processed.
(4) The invention of claim 4 is the liquid droplet ejection head according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein one of the flow path members is a composite material having a metal plate and a resin layer. .
(5) The invention of claim 5 is the droplet discharge head according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the flow path member processed from the composite material having the metal plate and the resin layer is a diaphragm, The composite material is a laminate of stainless steel and polyimide.
(6) The invention according to claim 6 is the droplet discharge head according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the composite material is laminated by applying a polyimide coating to a stainless steel plate.
(7) The invention according to claim 7 is characterized in that the droplet discharge head is formed by bonding the metal plate or the composite material according to any one of claims 1 to 6.
(8) According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the method of manufacturing a droplet discharge head, the flow path member is formed by joining the metal plate or the composite material according to any one of the first to sixth aspects using a pin alignment technique. And a flow path member, a frame that supports the flow path member, and a piezoelectric element unit that has a function of generating a pressure for droplet discharge are joined together. And
(9) The invention of claim 9 is a liquid cartridge in which a droplet discharge head and a tank for supplying liquid to the droplet discharge head are integrated, and the droplet discharge head is any one of claims 1 to 7. It is the droplet discharge head described in 1.
(10) The invention of claim 10 is an image forming apparatus equipped with the droplet discharge head according to any one of claims 1 to 7.

(1) According to the invention described in claim 1, at least two or more layers of the flow path member are formed of the metal plate, and the alignment hole processed in the metal plate has a low rigidity at the periphery. By being processed in such a manner, it is possible to provide a droplet discharge head having a flow path member that can be positioned with high accuracy and can be stably joined.
(2) According to the invention described in claim 2, at least two layers of the flow path member are formed of a metal plate, and the alignment hole provided in the metal plate is a hole formed by etching. Thus, it is possible to provide a droplet discharge head having a flow path member capable of forming a highly accurate processed hole at low cost.
(3) According to the invention described in claim 3, at least two or more layers of the flow path member are formed of the metal plate, and the positioning hole processed in the metal plate has a low rigidity in the peripheral portion. As described above, by processing the slit into the shape of the slit, it is possible to provide a droplet discharge head that enables highly accurate pin alignment by deforming the alignment holes into concentric circles.
(4) According to the invention described in claim 4, since one of the flow path members is a composite material having a metal layer and a resin layer, contamination of the liquid flow path portion can be prevented, and It is possible to provide a liquid droplet ejection head using a laminated flow path material that can reduce the joining step with the path member and is inexpensive to manufacture.
(5) According to invention of Claim 5, the flow-path member processed from the composite material which has a metal layer and a resin layer is a diaphragm, and the said composite material is a laminated material of stainless steel and a polyimide. It is possible to provide a droplet discharge head using a laminated flow path material capable of processing a diaphragm having a stable discharge characteristic that is durable against high-frequency vibrations.
(6) According to the invention described in claim 6, a droplet discharge head using an inexpensive laminated material that does not require an adhesive because the composite material is laminated by applying and coating polyimide on a stainless steel plate. Can be provided.
(7) According to the invention described in claim 7, the liquid flow path portion is formed by bonding a metal plate or a composite material, and a laminated flow path material that can be joined at a jig level and suppresses capital investment is used. A liquid droplet discharge head can be provided.
(8) According to the invention described in claim 8, the droplet discharge head forms the flow path member by joining the metal plate or the composite material using a pin alignment technique, and the flow path member; A droplet discharge head that is formed by bonding a frame that supports the flow path member and a piezoelectric element unit that has a function of generating pressure for droplet discharge, and has high bonding accuracy at a low cost. The manufacturing method of can be provided.
(9) According to the invention described in claim 9, since the liquid droplet ejection head according to the present invention is provided, a highly reliable liquid cartridge can be provided.
(10) According to the invention described in claim 9, since the liquid droplet ejection head according to the present invention is provided, an image forming apparatus capable of performing stable liquid droplet ejection and obtaining a high-quality image is provided. be able to.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. First, a first embodiment of a liquid discharge head according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the liquid droplet ejection head, FIG. 2 is a sectional explanatory view along the liquid chamber longitudinal direction (direction perpendicular to the nozzle arrangement direction), and FIG. 3 is also a liquid chamber short direction (nozzle). FIG.

  The droplet discharge head is bonded to the flow path plate 1 formed by a press working method and a wet etching process, the nozzle plate 3 formed by a press working method to be bonded to the flow path plate 1, and the opposite side. It has a diaphragm 2 formed by a wet etching method using a laminated material, and by these, a nozzle 4 that discharges ink droplets, a pressurized liquid chamber 6 that is an ink flow path, and ink in the pressurized liquid chamber 6. It is formed of an ink supply port 9 for supply and a common liquid chamber 8 communicating therewith.

  Then, pressure generating means (actuator means) for pressurizing the ink in the pressurizing liquid chamber 6 corresponding to each pressurizing liquid chamber 6 on the outer surface side (opposite side of the pressurizing liquid chamber) of the diaphragm 2. A laminated piezoelectric element 12 as an electromechanical conversion element is joined, and the piezoelectric element 12 is joined to a base substrate 13 formed of a highly rigid material such as metal or ceramics.

  Further, between the piezoelectric elements 12, 12, support columns 14 are provided corresponding to the partition walls 1 a between the pressurized liquid chambers 6, 6. Here, the piezoelectric element member is divided into comb teeth by performing slit processing by half-cut dicing, and the piezoelectric element 12 and the column portion 14 are formed one by one. The structure of the column 14 is the same as that of the piezoelectric element. However, since the drive voltage is not applied, the column 14 is merely a column.

  Furthermore, the outer peripheral part of the diaphragm 2 is joined to the frame member 15 with an adhesive. The frame member 15 is formed with a concave portion that becomes the common liquid chamber 8 and an ink supply hole 16 for supplying ink to the common liquid chamber 8 from the outside. The frame member 15 is formed of, for example, an epoxy resin or polyphenylene sulfite by injection molding.

  Here, the flow path plate 1 is made of, for example, a stainless steel material formed into a plate shape. The pressurizing liquid chamber 6, the ink supply path 7, and the damper chamber 50 are formed by a press working method, for example, and a wet etching processing method is performed. The ink supply part is formed by.

  The diaphragm 2 is processed from a laminated material formed by coating a resin on a metal plate having a two-layer structure. For example, the metal plate is made of stainless steel and the resin is made of polyimide. Moreover, the nickel plate produced by electroforming can also be applied to the metal plate. The processing method is a wet etching processing method.

  The nozzle plate 3 forms nozzles 4 having a diameter of 10 to 35 μm corresponding to the pressurized liquid chambers 6. The nozzle plate 3 may be made of a metal such as stainless steel or a combination of a metal and a resin such as a polyimide resin film. Here, the nozzle 4 is formed on stainless steel by a press working method. In the first embodiment, the nozzle 4 has a hole diameter of about 18 to 35 μm on the ink droplet outlet side. Furthermore, the nozzle pitch of each row was 150 dpi.

  Further, a water repellent treatment layer having a water repellent surface treatment (not shown) is provided on the nozzle surface (surface in the ejection direction: ejection surface) of the nozzle plate 3. Examples of the water-repellent treatment layer include PTFE-Ni eutectoid plating, fluororesin electrodeposition coating, vapor-deposited fluororesin (e.g., fluorinated pitch), silicon resin / fluorine resin A water-repellent treatment film selected according to the ink physical properties such as baking after solvent application is provided to stabilize the ink droplet shape and flying characteristics so that high-quality image quality can be obtained.

  The piezoelectric element 12 is composed of a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) piezoelectric layer having a thickness of 10 to 50 μm / layer and an internal electrode layer made of silver / palladium (AgPd) having a thickness of several μm / layer alternately. The internal electrodes are alternately connected to the individual electrodes and the common electrodes, which are end electrodes (external electrodes) on the end faces, and a drive signal is supplied to these electrodes via the FPC cable 17. ing. The pressurized liquid chamber 6 is contracted and expanded by expansion and contraction of the piezoelectric element 12 whose piezoelectric constant is d23. The piezoelectric element 12 expands when a drive signal is applied and is charged, and contracts in the opposite direction when the charge charged in the piezoelectric element 12 is discharged.

  The metal plates are aligned using pins, respectively, and joined to form a flow path unit. Therefore, alignment holes 61, 62, and 63 for pin alignment are processed in each metal plate. The alignment hole diameter (L) is smaller than the pin diameter (K) of the alignment jig pin, and is designed so that the alignment hole and the jig pin are tightly fitted.

  FIG. 4 shows a schematic view of the alignment holes, and FIGS. 4A to 4D show a process until the alignment holes 61 provided in the metal plate are fixed by the jig pins 121. 4A1 is a plan view in a state where the alignment hole 61 is provided in the metal plate, and FIG. 4B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB of FIG. 4A1.

Here, the nozzle plate 3 will be described as an example.
The alignment hole 61 is processed so that the peripheral portion has low rigidity. As one specific example, a slit 66 processed to have low rigidity is provided around the alignment hole 61. Is formed. As shown in FIG. 4, the number and shape of the slits 66 are not limited to those shown in the figure as long as the hole 61 for alignment is deformed into a concentric shape. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 120 denotes a jig base.

  The alignment holes 61 are used for pin alignment by the jig pins 121. The hole diameter L for alignment is smaller than the jig pin diameter K, and L <K. When the alignment hole 61 is inserted into the jig pin 121, the slit 611 is designed to be concentrically deformed and inserted into the jig pin 121. For this reason, the nozzle plate 3 is tightly fitted to the jig pin 121 so that the center of the jig pin 121 and the center of the alignment hole 61 are accurately aligned, and the remaining plates (channel plate 1, diaphragm 2). Similarly, by inserting the metal plate into the jig pin, the metal plates can be joined while aligning with high accuracy.

A second embodiment of the liquid ejection head according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the diaphragm 2 of the droplet discharge head processed with the laminated material to which the present invention is applied. 5A is a plan view of the diaphragm 2, and FIG. 5B is a sectional view taken along line BB in FIG. 5A.
The diaphragm 2 includes a two-layer film of a thin film layer 2A as a first layer film and a thick film layer 2B as a second layer film. The first layer film 2A has a thickness of about 1 to 5 μm ( The second layer film 2B preferably has a thickness of about 10 to 30 μm, and the diaphragm 2 as a whole is formed as a plate of about 10 to 40 μm.

A convex portion 202 to which the piezoelectric element 12 is bonded, a diaphragm portion 201 for propagating the pressure from the piezoelectric element 12 to the pressurized liquid chamber, and a concave portion 203 formed so that the piezoelectric element 12 does not interfere with the diaphragm 2. And the diaphragm-side liquid supply unit 204. The diaphragm-side liquid supply unit 204 has a relatively large hole shape because it is necessary to reduce the fluid resistance of the head as much as possible, and is formed so as to penetrate the first layer film and the second layer film. .
The second layer film has a convex portion 202 for joining the piezoelectric element 12, a concave portion 203 formed so that the piezoelectric element 12 does not interfere with the diaphragm 2, and a column for ensuring the rigidity of the diaphragm 2. It is formed.

In this embodiment, the first layer film is formed of polyimide resin, and the second layer film is formed of stainless steel.
The first layer film forms the diaphragm side liquid supply unit 204 by a wet etching method using a lithography technique, and the convex part 202 to which the piezoelectric element 12 of the second layer film is joined and the piezoelectric element 12 are the diaphragm 2. The recess 203 formed so as not to interfere with the substrate is also processed by a wet etching method using a lithography technique. The diaphragm-side liquid supply unit 204 of the second layer film performs a penetrating process using a SUS material and a polyimide material by a wet etching process. This process may be performed by punching every two layers by pressing.

  FIG. 6 shows an overall schematic diagram of the diaphragm 2 of the droplet discharge head formed of a laminated material to which the present invention is applied. In order to join the other flow path forming member because the flow path is formed, the diaphragm 2 is formed with alignment holes 63, which are holes processed by the wet etching method. ing.

  FIG. 7 shows a schematic diagram of a process flow for processing the holes for the alignment hole 63 and the diaphragm side liquid supply unit 204 in FIG. 6 by the wet etching method in the laminated material. A laminated material in which a resin film (here, using a polyimide film) 611 was applied on a metal plate (here, using a stainless steel plate) 610 was used (FIG. 6A). Next, a resist film 612 is applied onto the polyimide film 611 using a photolithography technique (FIG. 6B), and then a hole diameter 613 larger than the required hole diameter 615 is patterned, and polyimide is formed by wet etching. The film 611 is opened like a hole diameter 613 (FIG. 6C). The resist film 612 is peeled off, and a double-sided resist film 617 is applied onto the polyimide film 611 and the stainless steel plate 610 again by using a photolithography technique, and the hole diameter 616 larger than the required hole diameter 615 is patterned on both sides ( In FIG. 6D, a stainless steel plate 610 is formed by wet etching so as to have a hole diameter 615 (FIG. 6E).

  The nozzle plate 3, the flow path plate 1, the vibration plate 2, the piezoelectric element 12, and the frame 15 shown in the first and second embodiments are joined and assembled as a droplet discharge head. By assembling and bonding the laminated material using the alignment hole having a hole diameter formed in the resin layer larger than the hole diameter formed in the metal layer by punching, high-precision assembly can be performed. As a result, a droplet discharge head having stable discharge characteristics can be manufactured. Further, the polyimide film 611 used in the laminated material may be laminated by bonding in addition to the application.

A third embodiment of the liquid ejection head according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the frame member. In this example, the common liquid chamber 8 has a shape in which the width in the short side direction becomes narrow and the depth becomes shallow at the end portions 8a and 8a in the longitudinal direction. By forming the common liquid chamber 8 in such a shape, it is possible to improve the flowability and bubble discharge performance of the recording liquid.

A fourth embodiment of the liquid ejection head according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
The ink cartridge shown in FIG. 9 will be described.
This ink cartridge is obtained by integrating the droplet discharge head 81 according to any of the above embodiments having the nozzle 80 and the like, and the ink tank 82 for supplying ink to the droplet discharge head 81.
In this way, in the case of an ink tank integrated head, a defective head yield immediately leads to a defect of the entire ink cartridge. Therefore, as described above, the improvement in droplet ejection characteristics improves the reliability of the head integrated ink cartridge. I can plan.

  Next, as a fifth embodiment, an example of a droplet discharge recording apparatus equipped with a droplet discharge head according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 10 is a perspective explanatory view of the recording apparatus, and FIG. 11 is a side explanatory view of a mechanism portion of the recording apparatus.

  The droplet discharge recording apparatus includes a carriage that can move in the main scanning direction inside the recording apparatus main body 81, a recording head that includes the droplet discharge head that implements the present invention mounted on the carriage, and ink that supplies ink to the recording head. A paper feed cassette (or a paper feed tray) 84 in which a large number of sheets 83 can be stacked from the front side is inserted into and removed from the lower portion of the apparatus main body 81. It can be freely mounted, and the manual feed tray 85 for manually feeding the paper 83 can be opened, and the paper 83 fed from the paper feed cassette 84 or the manual feed tray 85 is taken in and printed. After a required image is recorded by the mechanism unit 82, the image is discharged onto a discharge tray 86 mounted on the rear side.

  The printing mechanism 82 holds the carriage 93 slidably in the main scanning direction (the direction perpendicular to the paper in FIG. 9) with a main guide rod 91 and a sub guide rod 92 which are guide members horizontally mounted on left and right side plates (not shown). The carriage 93 is provided with a head 94 comprising a droplet discharge head according to the present invention for discharging ink droplets of each color of yellow (Y), cyan (C), magenta (M), and black (Bk). The ejection ports (nozzles) are arranged in a direction crossing the main scanning direction, and are mounted with the ink droplet ejection direction facing downward. In addition, each ink cartridge 95 for supplying ink of each color to the head 94 is replaceably mounted on the carriage 93.

  The ink cartridge 95 has an air port that communicates with the atmosphere above, a supply port that supplies ink to the droplet discharge head below, and a porous body filled with ink inside. The ink supplied to the droplet discharge head is maintained at a slight negative pressure by capillary force. Further, although the heads 94 of the respective colors are used here as the recording heads, a single head having nozzles for ejecting ink droplets of the respective colors may be used.

  Here, the carriage 93 is slidably fitted to the main guide rod 91 on the rear side (downstream side in the paper conveyance direction), and is slidably mounted on the sub guide rod 92 on the front side (upstream side in the paper conveyance direction). is doing. In order to move and scan the carriage 93 in the main scanning direction, a timing belt 100 is stretched between a driving pulley 98 and a driven pulley 99 that are rotationally driven by a main scanning motor 87, and the timing belt 100 is moved to the carriage 93. The carriage 93 is reciprocally driven by forward and reverse rotation of the main scanning motor 87.

  On the other hand, in order to convey the paper 83 set in the paper feed cassette 84 to the lower side of the head 94, the paper feed roller 101 and the friction pad 102 for separating and feeding the paper 83 from the paper feed cassette 84 and the paper 83 are guided. A guide member 103, a transport roller 104 that reverses and transports the fed paper 83, a transport roller 105 that is pressed against the peripheral surface of the transport roller 104, and a leading end that defines a feed angle of the paper 83 from the transport roller 104 A roller 106 is provided. The transport roller 104 is rotationally driven by a sub-scanning motor 107 through a gear train.

  A printing receiving member 109 is provided as a paper guide member that guides the paper 83 sent from the transport roller 104 below the recording head 94 in accordance with the movement range of the carriage 93 in the main scanning direction. A conveyance roller 111 and a spur 112 that are rotationally driven to send the paper 83 in the paper discharge direction are provided on the downstream side of the printing receiving member 109 in the paper conveyance direction, and the paper 83 is further delivered to the paper discharge tray 86. A roller 113 and a spur 114, and guide members 115 and 116 that form a paper discharge path are disposed.

  At the time of recording, the recording head 94 is driven according to the image signal while moving the carriage 93, thereby ejecting ink onto the stopped sheet 83 to record one line. Record the line. Upon receiving a recording end signal or a signal that the trailing edge of the paper 83 has reached the recording area, the recording operation is terminated and the paper 83 is discharged.

  Further, a recovery device 117 for recovering defective ejection of the head 94 is disposed at a position outside the recording area on the right end side in the movement direction of the carriage 93. The recovery device 117 includes a cap unit, a suction unit, and a cleaning unit. The carriage 93 is moved to the recovery device 117 side during printing standby and the head 94 is capped by the capping means, and the ejection port portion is kept in a wet state to prevent ejection failure due to ink drying. Further, by ejecting ink that is not related to recording during recording or the like, the ink viscosity of all the ejection ports is made constant and stable ejection performance is maintained.

  When a discharge failure occurs, the discharge port (nozzle) of the head 94 is sealed with a capping unit, and bubbles and the like are sucked out from the discharge port with the suction unit through the tube. Is removed by the cleaning means to recover the ejection failure. Further, the sucked ink is discharged to a waste ink reservoir (not shown) installed at the lower part of the main body and absorbed and held by an ink absorber inside the waste ink reservoir.

  In the above description, an ink jet printer has been described as an example of a droplet discharge recording apparatus. However, as described above, the present invention can also be applied to an ink jet copy, an ink jet fax, or a composite recording apparatus thereof. In addition to inkjet recording apparatuses, the present invention can also be applied to industrial manufacturing apparatuses such as color filter manufacturing apparatuses, metal wiring manufacturing apparatuses, textile printing apparatuses, and DNA chip manufacturing apparatuses using inkjet technology.

FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of a liquid discharge head in the present invention. FIG. 4 is an explanatory cross-sectional view along the longitudinal direction of the liquid chamber of the liquid discharge head. It is a cross-sectional explanatory drawing along a liquid chamber short direction similarly. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the position and diameter of the hole for alignment in this invention, and the position and diameter of a jig pin. 4A and 4B schematically show part of a diaphragm of a liquid discharge head processed with a laminated material according to the present invention, where FIG. 5A is a plan view, and FIG. 5B is a cross-sectional view taken along the line bb in FIG. . It is a whole schematic diagram of the diaphragm of the liquid discharge head processed with the lamination material in the present invention. It is a figure which shows the process which processes the hole for alignment in the laminated material in FIG. It is a perspective explanatory view of a frame member of a liquid discharge head in the present invention. It is a perspective view which shows the ink cartridge which concerns on this invention. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an image forming apparatus equipped with a droplet discharge head according to the present invention. It is a side view explaining the mechanism part of the image forming apparatus in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

(In FIGS. 1, 2 and 3)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Flow path plate 2 Diaphragm 3 Nozzle plate 4 Nozzle 15 Frame member 51 Atmospheric release port (communication path)
61, 62, 63 Alignment hole (in Fig. 4)
3 Nozzle plate 61 Alignment hole 66 Slit 121 Jig pin 610 Metal plate (in FIGS. 5 and 6)
2 Diaphragm 2A Thin film layer 2B Thick film layer 63 Positioning hole 201 Diaphragm part 202 Convex part 203 Concave part 204 Diaphragm side liquid supply part (in FIG. 7)
610 Metal plate 611 Resin film 612 Resist film 615 Double-sided resist film (in FIG. 8)
8 Common liquid chamber 15 Frame member 16 Ink supply hole (in FIG. 9)
80 nozzles 81 droplet discharge head 82 ink tank (in FIGS. 10 and 11)
81 Recording device body carriage 93 Carriage 95 Ink cartridge

Claims (10)

  In a liquid droplet ejection head comprising a nozzle for ejecting liquid droplets and a plurality of flow path members, at least two layers of the plurality of flow path members are formed of a metal plate and are processed into the metal plate. The droplet discharge head is characterized in that the peripheral hole is processed so that the peripheral portion has low rigidity.   The droplet discharge head according to claim 1, wherein the alignment hole processed in the metal plate is a hole formed by etching.   3. The droplet discharge head according to claim 1, wherein the positioning hole processed in the metal plate is processed into a slit shape so that a peripheral portion thereof has low rigidity. 4.   The droplet discharge head according to claim 1, wherein one of the flow path members is a composite material having a metal plate and a resin layer.   The flow path member processed from the composite material having the metal plate and the resin layer is a diaphragm, and the composite material is a laminate of stainless steel and polyimide. The droplet discharge head described.   6. The liquid droplet ejection head according to claim 4, wherein the composite material is laminated by applying and coating polyimide on a stainless steel plate.   A droplet discharge head formed by bonding the metal plate or the composite material according to claim 1.   The metal plate or the composite material according to any one of claims 1 to 6 is formed using a pin alignment technique to form a flow path member, and the flow path member and a frame that supports the flow path member A method of manufacturing a droplet discharge head, characterized in that the droplet discharge head is formed by bonding a piezoelectric element unit having a function of generating pressure for droplet discharge.   A liquid cartridge in which a droplet discharge head and a tank for supplying a liquid to the droplet discharge head are integrated, wherein the droplet discharge head is the droplet discharge head according to any one of claims 1 to 7. A liquid cartridge characterized by.   An image forming apparatus comprising the droplet discharge head according to claim 1.