JP2010061834A - Method for manufacturing heater - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for manufacturing a heater capable of preventing a pinhole from being generated in a heat-generating resistor. <P>SOLUTION: This method for manufacturing the heater A1 including a substrate 11, the heat-generating resistor 21 formed on the substrate 11, and electrodes 31, 32 formed on the substrate 11, and brought into electric continuity with the heat-generating resistor 21, includes a bonding process for bonding a resistor sheet 2 formed into the heat-generating resistor 21, onto a substrate material 1 formed into a plurality of substrates 11, and a dividing process for obtaining the plurality of heaters A1, by dividing the substrate material 1 together with the resistor sheet 2. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&amp;INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a heater for heating a print medium.

  FIG. 9 shows a top view of an example of a conventional heater (see, for example, Patent Document 1). The heater 9A shown in this figure is used for heating to thermally fix toner transferred to a printing medium such as recording paper in a printer, for example. The heater 9A includes a substrate 91, a heating resistor 92, and an electrode 93. The substrate 91 has a long rectangular shape. The heating resistor 92 is formed on the substrate 91 and has a strip shape. There are two electrodes 93, one on each end of the substrate 91. The electrodes 93 are connected to both ends of the heating resistor 92, respectively.

  In general, when the heater 9A is manufactured, the thickness of the heating resistor 92 (size in the depth direction in the drawing) may be non-uniform. When the thickness of the heating resistor 92 is not uniform, a portion where the thickness of the heating resistor 92 is extremely small is formed. And while the heater 9A is in use, there is a possibility that the portion becomes high temperature and the heating resistor 92 is cut. In order to suppress the unevenness of the thickness of the heating resistor 92, it is preferable to increase the thickness of the heating resistor 92. However, when screen printing is used, if the thickness of the heating resistor 92 is increased, pinholes are easily generated in the heating resistor 92 due to clogging of the screen. The occurrence of the pinhole causes a problem that the resistance value of the heating resistor 92 is different from a desired resistance value.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-180862

  The present invention has been conceived under the circumstances described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a heater capable of avoiding the generation of pinholes in a heating resistor.

  A heater manufacturing method provided by the present invention includes a substrate, a heating resistor formed on the substrate, and an electrode formed on the substrate and electrically connected to the heating resistor. In the manufacturing method, a plurality of the substrate materials are bonded to the substrate material to be the plurality of substrates by dividing the substrate material together with the resistor sheet, and a bonding step of bonding the resistor sheet to be the heating resistor. And a dividing step of obtaining a heater.

  According to such a configuration, clogging that has occurred when the heating resistor is formed by screen printing can be avoided. Therefore, it is possible to avoid the occurrence of pinholes.

  In preferable embodiment of this invention, before the said bonding process, it further has the process of forming the electrically conductive film used as the said electrode in the said board | substrate material, In the said bonding process, at least of the said resistor sheet | seat. A part is laminated on the conductive film. According to such a configuration, the conductive portion can be formed so as not to cover the end portion of the heating resistor. Therefore, damage to the conductive part in the vicinity of the end part can be prevented.

  In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in the step of forming the conductive film, the plurality of first electrodes with respect to a plurality of first electrodes arranged in a first direction and an axis of symmetry extending in the first direction. A plurality of second electrodes arranged in line symmetry with respect to the electrodes, and in the bonding step, the resistor sheet so as to overlap with any of the plurality of first and second electrodes. Is laminated on the conductive film, and in the dividing step, the substrate material is divided along a second direction orthogonal to the first direction. According to such a configuration, it is possible to efficiently manufacture a heater including a pair of the electrodes formed on both ends of the substrate and the heating resistor covering the electrodes.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the heating resistor is made of BaTiO ₃ PTC ceramic.

  Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description given below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a plan view of a heater manufactured by the manufacturing method according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view of the main part taken along the line II-II in FIG. The heater A1 shown in these drawings includes a substrate 11, a heating resistor 21, and electrodes 31 and 32. The heater A1 is used, for example, for heat-fixing the toner transferred to the recording paper in the laser printer. In FIG. 1, the protective film 4 is omitted for convenience of understanding.

As shown in FIG. 1, the substrate 11 has a long rectangular shape and is made of an insulating material. Examples of the insulating material include AlN and Al ₂ O ₃ . As shown in FIG. 2, the heating resistor 21 is formed on the substrate 11. The heating resistor 21 is made of a BaTiO ₃ based ceramic. Nichrome, ruthenium oxide, or other known resistor materials may be used as the material constituting the heating resistor 21. The thickness of the heating resistor 21 (the size in the thickness direction z1 of the substrate 11) is, for example, 20 μm to 100 μm.

  As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the electrode 31 is formed at one end of the substrate 11 in the longitudinal direction X1 and the electrode 32 is formed at the other end of the substrate 11 in the longitudinal direction X1. The electrodes 31 and 32 are for supplying power to the heating resistor 21. The electrodes 31 and 32 are made of, for example, Pt or Ni. Here, when Ni is used as the material of the electrodes 31 and 32, the electrodes 31 and 32 are formed in a reducing atmosphere. Furthermore, the electrodes 31 and 32 may be made of a known conductive material such as Ag. The thickness of the electrodes 31 and 32 (size in the thickness direction z1) is, for example, 5 μm to 20 μm. The protective film 4 is for protecting the heating resistor 21 and is made of, for example, glass.

  Next, the manufacturing method of heater A1 is demonstrated using FIGS.

  First, a rectangular substrate material 1 as shown in FIG. 3 is prepared. This substrate material 1 becomes a plurality of substrates 11 described above. Further, the first direction y2 corresponds to the short direction y1 of the substrate 11 shown in FIG. The second direction x2 corresponds to the longitudinal direction X1 of the substrate 11 shown in FIG. The angle formed by the direction y2 and the direction x2 is 90 degrees. Then, a conductive film 3 is formed by applying a conductive paste to the substrate material 1.

  The conductive film 3 includes a plurality of electrodes 31 'and a plurality of electrodes 32'. The plurality of electrodes 31 'are arranged in the direction y2. On the other hand, the plurality of electrodes 32 ′ are arranged so as to be line symmetric with respect to the plurality of electrodes 31 ′ with respect to the target axis L extending in the first direction. The electrode 31 'is the electrode 31 shown in FIGS. Similarly, the electrode 32 'is the electrode 32 shown in FIGS.

  Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the resistor sheet 2 is bonded to the substrate material 1 so as to overlap both the electrodes 31 ′ and 32 ′. The resistor sheet 2 serves as the plurality of heating resistors 21 described above. Examples of the resistor sheet 2 include a ceramic green sheet or other sheets made of a material constituting the heating resistor 21. In FIG. 4, it can be said that a part of the resistor sheet 2 is laminated on the conductive film 3.

  Next, the electrodes 31 ′ and 32 ′ and the resistor sheet 2 are baked together. After the electrodes 31 ′ and 32 ′ are formed and fired, the resistor sheet 2 may be pasted and fired. Depending on the type of the resistor sheet 2, it is not necessary to fire the resistor sheet 2 after the resistor sheet 2 is attached to the substrate material 1.

  Next, although not shown, the protective film 4 shown in FIG. 2 is formed. After that, as shown in FIG. 5, the substrate material 1 is divided together with the resistor sheet 2 along the line s extending in the direction x2. As a result, the heater A1 shown in FIGS.

  Next, the effect | action of the manufacturing method of heater A1 concerning this embodiment is demonstrated.

  According to this embodiment, it is not necessary to use screen printing in order to provide the heating resistor 21. Therefore, it is possible to avoid a problem such as pinholes caused by clogging of the screen.

  Moreover, since there is no possibility of generating pinholes, the thickness of the heating resistor 21 can be set to an arbitrary size. As a result, by adjusting the thickness of the heating resistor 21, the resistance value of the heating resistor 21 can be substantially adjusted.

  The electrodes 31 and 32 have a flat shape along the substrate 11 and do not have, for example, a shape having a bent portion that covers the end of the heating resistor 21. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the electrodes 31 and 32 from being damaged in the vicinity of the end portion.

  Furthermore, the heater A1 including a pair of electrodes 31 and 32 formed on both ends of the substrate 11 and the heating resistor 21 covering these electrodes can be efficiently manufactured.

  6 to 8 show a second embodiment of the present invention. In these drawings, the same or similar elements as those in the above embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals as those in the above embodiment.

  FIG. 6 shows a cross-sectional view of the main part of the heater manufactured by the manufacturing method according to the present embodiment. In the heater A2 shown in this figure, the electrode 33 has a film shape and is formed over almost the entire surface of the substrate 11. The heating resistor 21 is also in the form of a film and is laminated above the electrode 33 in the drawing. Similarly, the electrode 34 is also in the form of a film, and is laminated above the heating resistor 21 in the figure.

  Next, a method for manufacturing the heater A2 will be described. 7 and 8 show one process of the method for manufacturing the heater A2 shown in FIG.

  First, as shown in FIG. 7, a strip-shaped electrode 33 ′ (conductive film 3) extending in a plurality of directions x 2 is formed on the substrate material 1. Next, as shown in FIG. 8, the resistor sheet 2 is bonded to the substrate material 1. Next, a strip-shaped electrode 34 ′ extending in a plurality of directions x <b> 2 is formed on the resistor sheet 2 so as to overlap the electrode 33 ′ in the thickness direction z <b> 1 of the substrate material 1. After that, as described in the first embodiment, the protective film 4 is formed, and the substrate material 1 is divided along the line s extending in the direction x2. As a result, the heater A2 shown in FIG. 6 is obtained.

  Even by such a method, no pinhole is generated in the heating resistor 21. In addition, thereby, the resistance value of the heating resistor 21 can be adjusted by adjusting the thickness of the heating resistor 21.

  The heater manufacturing method according to the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. The specific configuration of each part of the heater manufacturing method according to the present invention can be varied in design in various ways. For example, the conductive sheet may be formed after the resistor sheet 2 in the first embodiment is formed on the substrate material 1.

It is a top view of the heater manufactured by the manufacturing method concerning a 1st embodiment of the present invention. It is principal part sectional drawing in the II-II line | wire of FIG. It is the figure which showed 1 process of the manufacturing method of the heater concerning 1st Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a process following FIG. 3. It is the figure which showed the process following FIG. It is principal part sectional drawing of the heater manufactured by the manufacturing method concerning 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is the figure which showed 1 process of the manufacturing method of the heater concerning 2nd Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a step following FIG. 7. It is a top view which shows the conventional heater.

Explanation of symbols

A1, A2 Heater 1 Substrate material 11 Substrate 2 Resistor sheet 21 Heating resistor 3 Conductive film 31, 32, 31 ', 32', 33, 34, 33 ', 34' Electrode 4 Protective film x1 Longitudinal direction y1 Short direction z1 thickness direction x2 second direction y2 first direction L symmetry axis

Claims (4)

A substrate,
A heating resistor formed on the substrate;
An electrode formed on the substrate and in conduction with the heating resistor;
A method of manufacturing a heater comprising:
A bonding step of bonding a resistor sheet to be the heating resistor to a plurality of substrate materials to be the substrate,
A dividing step of obtaining the plurality of heaters by dividing the substrate material together with the resistor sheet;
A method for producing a heater, comprising: Before the bonding step, further comprising a step of forming a conductive film to be the electrode on the substrate material,
The manufacturing method of the heater of Claim 1 which laminates | stacks at least one part of the said resistor sheet on the said electrically conductive film in the said bonding process. In the step of forming the conductive film, a plurality of first electrodes arranged in a first direction and a symmetry axis extending in the first direction are line symmetric with respect to the plurality of first electrodes. Forming a plurality of arranged second electrodes;
In the bonding step, the resistor sheet is laminated on the conductive film so as to overlap with any of the plurality of first and second electrodes,
The heater manufacturing method according to claim 2, wherein in the dividing step, the substrate material is divided along a second direction orthogonal to the first direction. The method for manufacturing a heater according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the heating resistor is made of a BaTiO ₃ PTC ceramic.

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