JP2013059865A - Liquid ejection head, adhesive, method for manufacturing liquid ejection head, and liquid ejection device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide: an adhesive which is excellent in solvent resistance and flexibility, with which a liquid ejection head having such a high reliability as allowing high-quality printing for a long period of time can be manufactured; a liquid ejection head manufactured with the adhesive; a method for manufacturing a liquid ejection head with the use of the adhesive; and a liquid ejection device with the liquid ejection head.SOLUTION: The inkjet recording head 1 includes: a substrate 20; a nozzle plate 10; a vibration plate constituted of a vibration film 30 and a support plate 40; and a piezoelectric element 50. Adhesive layers 15, 25, 35 formed of the adhesive are respectively disposed between the substrate 20 and the nozzle plate 10, the substrate 20 and the vibration film 30 and the vibration film 30 and the support plate 40 to join respective both members with each other. The adhesive includes a solid-state copolymer containing alkene and an alkenylene dicarboxylic acid, and a crosslinking agent, as principal components thereof.

Description

  The present invention relates to a droplet discharge head, an adhesive, a method for manufacturing a droplet discharge head, and a droplet discharge apparatus.

For example, a droplet discharge device such as an ink jet printer is provided with a droplet discharge head for discharging droplets. As such a droplet discharge head, for example, an ink chamber (cavity) that communicates with a nozzle that discharges ink as droplets and stores ink, and a piezoelectric element for driving that deforms the wall surface of the ink chamber, What is provided with is known.
In such a droplet discharge head, a part of the ink chamber (vibrating plate) is displaced by expanding and contracting the driving piezoelectric element. Thereby, the volume of the ink chamber is changed and ink droplets are ejected from the nozzles.

By the way, this droplet discharge head has a nozzle plate on which nozzles are formed, a substrate on which ink chambers are formed, a vibration plate that changes the volume of the ink chambers, and a piezoelectric element that vibrates the vibration plate due to strain. They are assembled by joining them together.
Further, the diaphragm has a vibration film that vibrates due to distortion of the piezoelectric element and a support plate that propagates the distortion of the piezoelectric element to the vibration film, and is assembled by joining them together (for example, , See Patent Document 1).
For assembling (joining) such various members, various adhesives such as epoxy adhesives such as bisphenol and novolac, and urethane adhesives are used.

Here, for example, in the bonding between the ink chamber and the vibration plate or the bonding between the ink chamber and the nozzle plate, the adhesive is in contact with the ink stored in the ink chamber for a long time. It is required to have resistance (solvent resistance). Therefore, urethane-based adhesives generally have low solvent resistance and are easily swelled by contact with a solvent, and thus are not suitable for joining such members.
In addition, for example, in joining the vibration film and the support plate, it is necessary to propagate the distortion of the piezoelectric element to the vibration film, so that excellent flexibility is required. Therefore, epoxy adhesives such as bisphenol and novolac are generally highly rigid adhesives and are not suitable for joining such members.

Furthermore, in joining the various members, it is necessary to assemble the droplet discharge head without warping. Therefore, when using an epoxy adhesive such as bisphenol or novolac with high rigidity, it is necessary to cure the adhesive at a relatively low temperature in order to reduce residual stress. There is a problem that it takes a long time to complete the curing.
From the above, the adhesive used for assembling the droplet discharge head is required to be excellent in both solvent resistance and flexibility. However, epoxy adhesives such as bisphenol and novolac, urethane The system adhesive does not have both of these characteristics. Therefore, it is the actual situation that the types of adhesives are changed corresponding to the joining of the members.

JP-A-4-21448

  An object of the present invention is to provide an adhesive capable of producing a highly reliable droplet discharge head that is excellent in solvent resistance and flexibility and can perform high-quality printing over a long period of time, and a liquid produced using such an adhesive. It is an object of the present invention to provide a droplet discharge head, a method of manufacturing a droplet discharge head manufactured using such an adhesive, and a droplet discharge apparatus including such a droplet discharge head.

Such an object is achieved by the present invention described below.
The droplet discharge head of the present invention includes a substrate on which a discharge liquid storage chamber for storing discharge liquid is formed,
A nozzle plate that is provided on one surface of the substrate so as to cover the discharge liquid storage chamber and includes nozzle holes for discharging the discharge liquid as droplets;
A vibration plate provided on the other surface of the substrate so as to cover the discharge liquid storage chamber, and vibrates due to distortion of the vibration means, and a support plate that propagates the distortion of the vibration means to the vibration film; ,
A droplet discharge head having vibration means for vibrating the vibration plate due to distortion,
At least one of the substrate and the nozzle plate, the substrate and the vibration film, and the vibration film and the support plate is bonded via an adhesive layer,
The adhesive layer is formed by curing an adhesive containing a alkene and alkenylene dicarboxylic acid as a main material and a solid copolymer and a crosslinking agent. .
As a result, it is possible to obtain a highly reliable droplet discharge head that is excellent in solvent resistance and flexibility and can perform high-quality printing over a long period of time.

In the droplet discharge head of the present invention, it is preferable that the copolymer further contains (meth) acrylic acid ester.
Thereby, since the solubility with respect to the water of a copolymer can be improved, it becomes possible to select water as a solvent used for an adhesive agent.
In the droplet discharge head of the present invention, the alkenylene dicarboxylic acid is preferably (anhydrous) maleic acid.
Thereby, the adhesiveness with respect to each member of an adhesive agent can be improved.
In the droplet discharge head of the present invention, the alkene is preferably ethylene.
Thereby, handling of an adhesive agent becomes easy.

In the droplet discharge head of the present invention, the copolymer preferably has a weight average molecular weight of 10,000 or more.
This ensures that the polyamide resin is solid.
In the droplet discharge head of the present invention, the temperature at which the copolymer is solid is preferably −273 ° C. or higher and 100 ° C. or lower.
Thereby, it is easily melted by heating in a state where an adhesive is interposed between the members, and then cooled, thereby forming an adhesive layer between the members and easily joining them. be able to.

In the liquid droplet ejection head according to the aspect of the invention, it is preferable that the crosslinking agent is a compound having an epoxy group.
Thereby, since polyamide resin can be reliably bridge | crosslinked via a crosslinking agent, an adhesive agent can be made to show a sclerosing | hardenable characteristic reliably by this bridge | crosslinking.
In the liquid droplet ejection head of the present invention, it is preferable that the copolymers are cured by being cross-linked through the cross-linking agent.
Thereby, since the adhesive after curing exhibits excellent solvent resistance, swelling of the adhesive layer due to contact with ink or the like can be prevented or suppressed accurately.

In the droplet discharge head of the present invention, the Young's modulus after the curing is preferably 3.0 GPa or less.
Thereby, it can suppress or prevent exactly that the residual stress after hardening of an adhesive agent becomes large. For this reason, the obtained head can be prevented from warping or having a moderately suppressed size.
In the droplet discharge head of the present invention, the average thickness of the adhesive layer is preferably 1 μm or more and 100 μm or less.
Thereby, each member joined by the contact bonding layer can be reliably joined.

In the droplet discharge head of the present invention, the vibration film in the form of a film and the support plate provided so as to correspond to a part of the vibration film are bonded via the adhesive layer,
It is preferable that the adhesive layer is formed on substantially the entire surface of the vibration film on the side where the support plate is joined.
Thus, even when the adhesive layer is formed on almost the entire surface of the vibration film, the adhesive layer becomes excellent in flexibility by setting the Young's modulus after curing of the adhesive to 3.0 GPa or less. Therefore, it is possible to reliably prevent the flexibility of the diaphragm itself composed of the vibration film, the support plate, and the adhesive layer from being impaired.

The adhesive of the present invention includes a substrate on which a discharge liquid storage chamber for storing discharge liquid is formed,
A nozzle plate that is provided on one surface of the substrate so as to cover the discharge liquid storage chamber and includes nozzle holes for discharging the discharge liquid as droplets;
A diaphragm provided on the other surface of the substrate so as to cover the discharge liquid storage chamber and vibrating due to distortion of the vibrating means, and a support plate that propagates the distortion of the vibrating means to the vibrating film When,
An adhesive used for assembling a droplet discharge head having vibration means for vibrating the diaphragm due to strain;
At least one of the substrate and the nozzle plate, the substrate and the vibration film, and the vibration film and the support plate is interposed through an adhesive layer formed using the adhesive. Are joined together.
The adhesive is characterized by containing a solid copolymer containing an alkene and alkenylene dicarboxylic acid and a crosslinking agent as main materials.
As a result, it is possible to obtain an adhesive that is excellent in solvent resistance and flexibility, and that can manufacture a highly reliable droplet discharge head that can perform high-quality printing over a long period of time.

The adhesive of the present invention includes a substrate on which a discharge liquid storage chamber for storing discharge liquid is formed,
An adhesive used for assembling a droplet discharge head provided on one surface of the substrate so as to cover the discharge liquid storage chamber and having a nozzle plate having nozzle holes for discharging the discharge liquid as droplets. And
The substrate and the nozzle plate are joined via an adhesive layer formed using the adhesive,
The adhesive is characterized by containing a solid copolymer containing an alkene and alkenylene dicarboxylic acid and a crosslinking agent as main materials.
As a result, it is possible to obtain an adhesive that is excellent in solvent resistance and flexibility, and that can manufacture a highly reliable droplet discharge head that can perform high-quality printing over a long period of time.

A method for manufacturing a droplet discharge head according to the present invention is a method for manufacturing a droplet discharge head in which the droplet discharge head is assembled using the adhesive according to the present invention,
When the adhesive layer is formed between at least one of the substrate and the nozzle plate, between the substrate and the film, and between the vibration film and the support plate, the adhesive is 50 The adhesive layer is formed by crosslinking by heating to a temperature of not lower than ° C.
As a result, the adhesive layer can be brought into a molten state without deteriorating / deteriorating various members used for assembling the droplet discharge head and the formed adhesive layer itself, and the polyamide resins are cross-linked with the cross-linking agent. be able to.
In the method for manufacturing a droplet discharge head of the present invention, it is preferable that the time for heating the adhesive is 1 hour or more and 5 hours or less.
According to the present invention, the time for heating the adhesive and joining the members can be set within the above range, so that the time for forming the adhesive layer, and hence the manufacture of the droplet discharge head can be reduced. Therefore, it is possible to shorten the time required for this.
The droplet discharge device of the present invention includes the droplet discharge head of the present invention or the droplet discharge head manufactured by the method of manufacturing the droplet discharge head of the present invention.
Thereby, a highly reliable droplet discharge device can be obtained.

1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an embodiment in which a droplet discharge head of the present invention is applied to an ink jet recording head. It is the schematic which shows embodiment of an inkjet printer provided with the inkjet recording head shown in FIG. It is a figure (longitudinal sectional drawing) for demonstrating the manufacturing method of an inkjet recording head. It is a figure (longitudinal sectional drawing) for demonstrating the manufacturing method of an inkjet recording head. It is a figure (longitudinal sectional drawing) for demonstrating the manufacturing method of an inkjet recording head.

Hereinafter, a droplet discharge head, an adhesive, a method for manufacturing a droplet discharge head, and a droplet discharge apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail based on preferred embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.
<Inkjet recording head>
First, prior to describing the adhesive of the present invention, a droplet discharge head to which the adhesive of the present invention is applied (the droplet discharge head of the present invention) will be described.
Hereinafter, a case where the droplet discharge head of the present invention is applied to an ink jet recording head will be described as an example.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view showing an embodiment in which the droplet discharge head of the present invention is applied to an ink jet recording head. FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing an embodiment of an ink jet printer including the ink jet recording head shown in FIG. It is. In the following description, the upper side in FIG. 1 is referred to as “upper” and the lower side is referred to as “lower”.
An ink jet recording head 1 (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as “head 1”) shown in FIG. 1 is mounted on an ink jet printer (droplet discharge device of the present invention) 9 as shown in FIG.
The ink jet printer 9 shown in FIG. 2 includes an apparatus main body 92, a tray 921 for installing the recording paper P in the upper rear, a paper discharge port 922 for discharging the recording paper P in the lower front, and an operation panel on the upper surface. 97.

The operation panel 97 is composed of, for example, a liquid crystal display, an organic EL display, an LED lamp, and the like. And.
Further, inside the apparatus main body 92, mainly a printing apparatus (printing means) 94 provided with a reciprocating head unit 93 and a paper feeding apparatus (paper feeding means) for feeding recording paper P to the printing apparatus 94 one by one. 95 and a control unit (control means) 96 for controlling the printing device 94 and the paper feeding device 95.

  Under the control of the control unit 96, the paper feeding device 95 intermittently feeds the recording paper P one by one. The recording paper P passes near the lower part of the head unit 93. At this time, the head unit 93 reciprocates in a direction substantially orthogonal to the feeding direction of the recording paper P, and printing on the recording paper P is performed. That is, the reciprocating motion of the head unit 93 and the intermittent feeding of the recording paper P are the main scanning and sub-scanning in printing, and ink jet printing is performed.

The printing apparatus 94 includes a head unit 93, a carriage motor 941 that is a drive source of the head unit 93, and a reciprocating mechanism 942 that reciprocates the head unit 93 in response to the rotation of the carriage motor 941.
The head unit 93 includes a head 1 having a large number of nozzle holes 11, an ink cartridge 931 that supplies ink to the head 1, and a carriage 932 on which the head 1 and the ink cartridge 931 are mounted at the lower part thereof.
Ink cartridge 931 is filled with four color inks of yellow, cyan, magenta, and black (black), thereby enabling full color printing.

The reciprocating mechanism 942 includes a carriage guide shaft 943 whose both ends are supported by a frame (not shown), and a timing belt 944 extending in parallel with the carriage guide shaft 943.
The carriage 932 is supported by the carriage guide shaft 943 so as to be able to reciprocate and is fixed to a part of the timing belt 944.
When the timing belt 944 travels forward and backward via a pulley by the operation of the carriage motor 941, the head unit 93 reciprocates as guided by the carriage guide shaft 943. During this reciprocation, ink is appropriately discharged from the head 1 and printing on the recording paper P is performed.

The sheet feeding device 95 includes a sheet feeding motor 951 serving as a driving source thereof, and a sheet feeding roller 952 that is rotated by the operation of the sheet feeding motor 951.
The paper feed roller 952 includes a driven roller 952a and a drive roller 952b that are vertically opposed to each other with a recording paper P feeding path (recording paper P) interposed therebetween. The drive roller 952b is connected to the paper feed motor 951. As a result, the paper feed roller 952 can feed a large number of recording sheets P set on the tray 921 one by one toward the printing apparatus 94. Instead of the tray 921, a configuration in which a paper feed cassette that stores the recording paper P can be detachably mounted may be employed.

The control unit 96 performs printing by controlling the printing device 94, the paper feeding device 95, and the like based on print data input from a host computer such as a personal computer or a digital camera.
Although not shown, the control unit 96 mainly includes a memory that stores a control program for controlling each unit, a drive circuit that drives the printing device 94 (carriage motor 941), and a paper feeding device 95 (paper feeding motor 951). Drive circuit, a communication circuit for obtaining print data from a host computer, and a CPU that is electrically connected to these and performs various controls in each unit.

Further, for example, various sensors that can detect the remaining ink amount of the ink cartridge 931, the position of the head unit 93, and the like are electrically connected to the CPU.
The control unit 96 obtains print data via the communication circuit and stores it in the memory. The CPU processes the print data and outputs a drive signal to each drive circuit based on the process data and input data from various sensors. The printing device 94 and the paper feeding device 95 are operated by this drive signal. As a result, printing is performed on the recording paper P.

Hereinafter, the head 1 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, the head 1 includes a nozzle plate 10, a discharge liquid storage chamber forming substrate (substrate) 20 provided on the nozzle plate, and a vibration film 30 provided on the discharge liquid storage chamber forming substrate 20. A support plate 40 provided on the vibration film 30, and a piezoelectric element (vibration means) 50 and a case head 60 provided on the support plate 40. In the present embodiment, the head 1 constitutes a piezo jet head.
A plurality of discharge liquid storage chambers (pressure chambers) 21 for storing ink are formed on the discharge liquid storage chamber forming substrate 20 (hereinafter referred to as “substrate 20” for short). A discharge liquid supply chamber 22 that communicates with the discharge liquid storage chamber 21 and supplies ink to each discharge liquid storage chamber 21 is formed.

As shown in FIG. 1, each of the discharge liquid storage chambers 21 and the discharge liquid supply chambers 22 has a substantially rectangular shape in plan view, and the width (short side) of each of the discharge liquid storage chambers 21 is the discharge liquid supply. It is narrower than the width (short side) of the chamber 22.
Further, each discharge liquid storage chamber 21 is arranged so as to be substantially perpendicular to the discharge liquid supply chamber 22, and each discharge liquid storage chamber 21 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22 are as a whole in plan view. It has a comb shape.

The material constituting the substrate 20 is not particularly limited. For example, silicon materials such as single crystal silicon, polycrystalline silicon, and amorphous silicon, metal materials such as stainless steel, glass materials such as quartz glass, alumina Ceramic materials such as graphite, carbon materials such as graphite, polyolefins, polyvinyl chloride, acrylonitrile-styrene copolymers (AS resins), resin materials such as silicone resins, etc., one or more of these Can be used in combination.
Moreover, the material which gave each process, such as an oxidation process (oxide film formation), a plating process, a passivation process, a nitriding process, to the above materials may be used.

Among these, the constituent material of the substrate 20 is preferably a silicon material or stainless steel. Since such a material is excellent in chemical resistance, even if it is exposed to ink for a long time, the substrate 20 can be reliably prevented from being deteriorated or deteriorated. Moreover, since these materials are excellent in workability, the substrate 20 with high dimensional accuracy can be obtained. For this reason, the accuracy of the volume of the discharge liquid storage chamber 21 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22 is increased, and the head 1 capable of high-quality printing is obtained.
Further, the discharge liquid supply chamber 22 communicates with a discharge liquid supply path 61 provided in a case head 60 described later, and is a part of a reservoir 70 that functions as a common ink chamber that supplies ink to the plurality of discharge liquid storage chambers 21. Parts.

The nozzle plate 10 is bonded to the lower surface of the substrate 20 (the surface opposite to the vibration film 30; one surface) through the adhesive layer 15 so as to cover the discharge liquid storage chamber 21 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22. Yes.
The adhesive layer 15 can be formed using the adhesive of the present invention, and details thereof will be described later.

Nozzle holes 11 are formed (perforated) in the nozzle plate 10 so as to correspond to the respective discharge liquid storage chambers 21. By extruding the ink (discharge liquid) stored in the discharge liquid storage chamber 21 from the nozzle hole 11, the ink is discharged as droplets.
Further, the nozzle plate 10 constitutes the lower surface of the inner wall surface of each discharge liquid storage chamber 21 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22. That is, the nozzle plate 10, the substrate 20, and the vibration film 30 define each discharge liquid storage chamber 21 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22.

Examples of the material constituting the nozzle plate 10 include silicon materials, metal materials, glass materials, ceramic materials, carbon materials, resin materials, or one or more of these materials as described above. The composite material etc. which were combined are mentioned.
Among these, it is preferable that the constituent material of the nozzle plate 10 is a silicon material or stainless steel. Since such a material is excellent in chemical resistance, it is possible to reliably prevent the nozzle plate 10 from being altered or deteriorated even when exposed to ink for a long time. Moreover, since these materials are excellent in workability, the nozzle plate 10 with high dimensional accuracy can be obtained. For this reason, the highly reliable head 1 is obtained.
The constituent material of the nozzle plate 10 preferably has a linear expansion coefficient of 300 ° C. or less and about 2.5 to 4.5 [× 10 ⁻⁶ / ° C.].

The thickness of the nozzle plate 10 is not particularly limited, but is preferably about 0.01 to 1 mm.
Moreover, it is preferable to perform a liquid repellent treatment on the lower surface of the nozzle plate 10 as necessary. Thereby, it is possible to prevent ink droplets ejected from the nozzle holes from being ejected in unintended directions.

A vibration film 30 is bonded to the upper surface (the other surface) of the substrate 20 through the adhesive layer 25 so as to cover the discharge liquid storage chamber 21 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22.
The adhesive layer 25 can also be formed using the adhesive of the present invention, and details thereof will be described later.
The vibration film 30 constitutes the upper surface of the inner wall surface of each discharge liquid storage chamber 21 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22. That is, each of the discharge liquid storage chambers 21 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22 is defined by the vibration film 30, the substrate 20, and the nozzle plate 10. In addition, since the vibration film 30 is securely bonded to the substrate 20, the liquid tightness of each discharge liquid storage chamber 21 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22 is ensured.
Furthermore, the vibration film 30 has a function of elastic deformation. Therefore, the volume of the discharge liquid storage chamber 21 can be changed by displacing (vibrating) the vibration film 30 via the support plate 40 due to the distortion generated in the piezoelectric element 50. As a result, ink is discharged. The

Examples of the material constituting the vibration film 30 include a silicon material, a metal material, a glass material, a ceramic material, a carbon material, a resin material, or a combination of one or more of these materials as described above. Materials and the like.
Among these, the constituent material of the vibration film 30 is preferably a resin material such as polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) or an aramid resin, a silicon material, or stainless steel. Since such a material is excellent in chemical resistance, even if it is exposed to ink for a long time, the vibration film 30 can be reliably prevented from being altered or deteriorated. For this reason, ink can be stored in the discharge liquid storage chamber 21 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22 for a long period of time. Furthermore, since these are materials that can be elastically deformed at high speed, the volume of the discharge liquid storage chamber 21 can be changed at high speed, and as a result, ink can be discharged with high accuracy.
A support plate 40 is bonded to the upper surface of the vibration film 30 via an adhesive layer 35 so as to correspond to a part of the vibration film 30.
The adhesive layer 35 can also be formed using the adhesive of the present invention, and details thereof will be described later.

The support plate 40 has a function of propagating the distortion generated in the piezoelectric element 50 to the vibration film 30 through this. Accordingly, by generating distortion in the piezoelectric element 50, the vibration film 30 is displaced, and as a result, a volume change in each discharge liquid storage chamber 21 can be surely generated.
Examples of the material constituting the support plate 40 include a silicon material, a metal material, a glass material, a ceramic material, a carbon material, a resin material, or a combination of one or more of these materials as described above. Materials and the like.

Among these, it is preferable that the constituent material of the support plate 40 is a silicon material or stainless steel (SUS). Such a material has excellent strength. For this reason, the distortion generated in the piezoelectric element 50 is more reliably transmitted to the vibration film 30, so that the ink is ejected with higher accuracy.
In the present embodiment, the vibration plate (sealing plate) that covers the discharge liquid storage chamber 21 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22 by the laminated body in which the vibration film 30 and the support plate 40 described above are bonded via the adhesive layer 35. ) Is configured.

A piezoelectric element (vibrating means) 50 is joined to a part of the upper surface of the support plate 40 (in FIG. 1, an island-shaped portion formed in an island shape near the center of the upper surface of the support plate 40).
The piezoelectric element 50 is constituted by a laminate of a piezoelectric layer 51 made of a piezoelectric material and an electrode film 52 that applies a voltage to the piezoelectric layer 51. In such a piezoelectric element 50, when a voltage is applied to the piezoelectric layer 51 through the electrode film 52, a distortion corresponding to the voltage is generated in the piezoelectric layer 51 (reverse piezoelectric effect). This distortion causes the vibration film 30 to bend (vibrate) via the support plate 40 and change the volume of the discharge liquid storage chamber 21. Since the piezoelectric element 50 having such a structure is reliably bonded to the support plate 40, the distortion generated in the piezoelectric element 50 can be reliably converted into the displacement of the vibration film 30 via the support plate 40. As a result, the volume of each discharge liquid storage chamber 21 is reliably changed.

  The lamination direction of the piezoelectric layer 51 and the electrode film 52 is not particularly limited, and may be a direction parallel to the support plate 40 or a direction orthogonal thereto. In addition, when the stacking direction of the piezoelectric layer 51 and the electrode film 52 is a direction orthogonal to the support plate 40 as shown in FIG. Say Layer Piezo). If the piezoelectric element 50 is MLP, the displacement amount of the support plate 40 can be increased, which has the advantage that the adjustment range of the ink ejection amount is large.

The surface of the piezoelectric element 50 adjacent to (in contact with) the support plate 40 differs depending on the arrangement method of the piezoelectric element 50, but the surface on which the piezoelectric layer is exposed, the surface on which the electrode film is exposed, or the piezoelectric layer and the electrode Either side of the membrane is exposed.
As a material constituting the piezoelectric layer 51 in the piezoelectric element 50, for example, barium titanate, lead zirconate, lead zirconate titanate, zinc oxide, aluminum nitride, lithium tantalate, lithium niobate, crystal, and the like are available. Can be mentioned.
On the other hand, as a material constituting the electrode film 52, for example, various metal materials such as Fe, Ni, Co, Zn, Pt, Au, Ag, Cu, Pd, Al, W, Ti, Mo, or an alloy containing them. Is mentioned.

  Here, the support plate 40 described above has a recess 53 formed in an annular shape so as to surround a position corresponding to the piezoelectric element 50. That is, the support plate 40 is provided on the vibration film 30 so as to correspond to a part (island portion), and at a position corresponding to the piezoelectric element 50, a part of the support plate 40 is annular. Are isolated in an island shape with a recess 53 therebetween. By adopting a configuration in which the piezoelectric element 50 is joined to such an island-shaped portion, distortion generated in the piezoelectric element 50 can be more reliably propagated to the vibration film 30, so that the bending in the vibration film 30 is prevented. It will occur more reliably.

The electrode film 52 of the piezoelectric element 50 is electrically connected to a drive IC (not shown). Thereby, the operation of the piezoelectric element 50 can be controlled by the driving IC.
Further, the case head 60 is joined to a part of the upper surface of the support plate 40 (in FIG. 1, a portion surrounding the island-shaped portion with the recess 53 therebetween). In this way, the case head 60 and the support plate 40 are joined to reinforce a so-called cavity portion composed of a laminate of the nozzle plate 10, the substrate 20, the vibration film 30 and the support plate 40. The tee portion can be reliably prevented from being twisted or warped.

Examples of the material constituting the case head 60 include a silicon material, a metal material, a glass material, a ceramic material, a carbon material, a resin material, or a combination of one or more of these materials as described above. Materials and the like.
Among these, the constituent material of the case head 60 is preferably polyphenylene sulfide (PPS), a modified polyphenylene ether resin such as Zylon (“Zylon” is a registered trademark), or stainless steel. Since these materials have sufficient rigidity, they are suitable as constituent materials for the case head 60 that supports the head 1.

  The vibration film 30, the adhesive layer 35, and the support plate 40 have a through hole 23 at a position corresponding to the discharge liquid supply chamber 22. Through the through hole 23, the discharge liquid supply path 61 provided in the case head 60 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22 communicate with each other. The discharge liquid supply path 61 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22 constitute part of a reservoir 70 that functions as a common ink chamber that supplies ink to the plurality of discharge liquid storage chambers 21.

In such a head 1, after taking ink from an external discharge liquid supply means (not shown) and filling the interior from the reservoir 70 to the nozzle hole 11 with the ink, each discharge liquid storage chamber 21 is received by a recording signal from the drive IC. Each piezoelectric element 50 corresponding to is operated. Accordingly, the vibration film 30 is bent (vibrated) via the support plate 40 due to the reverse piezoelectric effect of the piezoelectric element 50. As a result, for example, when the volume in each discharge liquid storage chamber 21 contracts, the pressure in each discharge liquid storage chamber 21 increases instantaneously, and ink is pushed out (discharged) from the nozzle hole 11 as a droplet.
In this way, in the head 1, a voltage is applied to the piezoelectric element 50 at a position to be printed via the driving IC, that is, an arbitrary character is printed as a figure or the like by sequentially inputting ejection signals. Can do.

The head 1 is not limited to the configuration described above, and may include, for example, an electrostatic actuator instead of the piezoelectric element 50 serving as a vibration unit.
However, as in the present embodiment, since the vibration means is configured by a piezoelectric element, the degree of bending that occurs in the vibration film 30 can be easily controlled. As a result, the size of the ink droplet can be easily controlled.

In the head 1 configured as described above, the adhesive layers 15, 25, and 35 are formed using the adhesive of the present invention as described above. Hereinafter, the adhesive of the present invention will be described.
The adhesive of the present invention contains a solid copolymer containing an alkene and alkenylene dicarboxylic acid and a cross-linking agent for cross-linking the copolymers as main materials.

  Here, an adhesive containing a alkene and alkenylene dicarboxylic acid in a solid form (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as “copolymer”) and a crosslinking agent as a main material, It is an adhesive exhibiting thermoplasticity due to the fact that the solid copolymer is a polyolefin-based thermoplastic material. Therefore, when joining (adhering) each member using such an adhesive, it becomes a molten state by heating with the adhesive interposed between the members, and then solidifies by cooling. Therefore, the members can be joined to each other. Since each member can be joined by such a relatively easy process of heating and cooling, it is necessary to manufacture the head 1 as compared with the case where each member is joined using a curable adhesive. Time can be shortened.

Moreover, this adhesive is an adhesive which also shows a sclerosing | hardenable characteristic, when copolymers are bridge | crosslinked with a crosslinking agent. Therefore, the adhesive after crosslinking (after curing) exhibits excellent solvent resistance and heat resistance. Therefore, in this embodiment, in the head 1, the adhesive layers 15, 25, and 35 are in contact with ink as shown in FIG. 1, but the adhesive layers 15 and 25 resulting from the contact with the ink are used. , 35 can be prevented or suppressed accurately. Further, since the adhesive layers 15, 25 and 35 are not melted even in a temperature range of about 200 ° C., the head 1 has excellent strength.
In the adhesive having such a configuration, the copolymers can be easily cross-linked via the cross-linking agent by subjecting the adhesive to an annealing treatment (heat treatment).

In the present specification, the solid copolymer is a solid copolymer at room temperature (20 ° C. ± 15 ° C.), preferably at −273 ° C. or more and 100 ° C. or less. Is solid at −273 ° C. or more and 50 ° C. or less. By selecting such a copolymer (polyolefin), it is easily melted by heating in a state where an adhesive is interposed between the members, and then each member is easily cooled by cooling. Can be joined.
Such a copolymer preferably has a weight average molecular weight of 10,000 or more, more preferably 10,000 or more and 100,000 or less, and 10,000 or more and 30,000 or less. Is more preferable. This ensures that the copolymer is solid in the temperature range as described above.

  In such a copolymer, the alkene may be linear or cyclic. For example, ethylene, propylene, 1-butene, 1-hexene, 1-hexene, Penten, isoprene, cyclopentene, cyclohexene, methylenecyclohexane and the like can be mentioned, and one or more of these can be used in combination. Among these, ethylene, 1-butene and the like are preferably used from the viewpoint of handling.

  Furthermore, in such a copolymer, the content of alkene and alkenylene dicarboxylic acid is preferably about 700: 1 to 30: 1 by weight, more preferably about 100: 1 to 60: 1. . Here, the alkene is a material mainly contributing to the solvent resistance of the adhesive, and the alkenylene dicarboxylic acid is a material mainly contributing to the adhesion of the adhesive to each member. And, by setting these contents within the above range, the characteristics of each material are suitably exhibited, so that the resulting adhesive is excellent in both solvent resistance and adhesion characteristics. it can.

  The copolymer contained in such an adhesive may be a copolymer obtained from a material containing an alkene and an alkenylene dicarboxylic acid. For example, the alkene, the alkenylene dicarboxylic acid, and an olefin different from these. It may be a copolymer with a system compound. Examples of such olefinic compounds include aromatic vinyl compounds such as styrene, vinyltoluene, and vinylxylene, (meth) acrylic acid, (meth) acrylic acid esters, and the like. Two or more kinds can be used in combination. In addition, since the solubility with respect to the water of the copolymer obtained can be improved by using (meth) acrylic acid ester as an olefinic compound, it is possible to select water as a solvent used for an adhesive. It becomes.

  The copolymer of alkene and alkenylene dicarboxylic acid may be any of a random copolymer, an alternating copolymer, a block copolymer, and a graft copolymer, but a random copolymer or an alternating copolymer. A copolymer is preferred. Thereby, the adhesive layers 15, 25, and 35 formed by curing an adhesive containing such a copolymer and a crosslinking agent as main materials can have a more uniform film quality.

The cross-linking agent is included in the adhesive in order to cross-link copolymers with each other and thereby cure the adhesive.
The cross-linking agent may be of any configuration as long as it is a compound having a functional group capable of cross-linking the copolymers by reacting with the carboxyl group provided in the copolymer. Specifically, the enolate, isocyanate Compound, melamine compound, urea compound, compound having epoxy group (epoxy compound), carbodiimide compound, oxazoline group-containing compound, aziridine compound, zirconium salt compound, silane coupling agent, compound having acrylic group, compound having glycidyl ether group These can be used, and one or more of these can be used in combination.

A compound having an epoxy group having excellent reactivity with the carboxyl group of the copolymer is preferable. Thereby, since copolymers can be bridge | crosslinked with the outstanding crosslinking density through a crosslinking agent, an adhesive agent can be made to show the more excellent sclerosing | hardenable characteristic by this bridge | crosslinking.
Examples of the crosslinking agent having an epoxy group include 1,6-hexanediol diglycidyl ether, 1,4-butanediol diglycidyl ether, cyclohexanedimethanol diglycidyl ether, trimethylolpropane polyglycidyl ether, and diethylene glycol diglycidyl ether. Such aliphatic glycidyl ethers can be mentioned, and one or more of these can be used in combination.

In addition, you may make it select such a crosslinking agent having an ether bond in the main skeleton (main chain). Thereby, since the crosslinking agent becomes more flexible, the Young's modulus of the cured adhesive layers 15, 25 and 35 can be easily adjusted by appropriately setting the number of ether bonds contained in the main skeleton. can do.
Furthermore, the crosslinking agent may be selected from those having a cyclo ring in the main skeleton (main chain). Since the rigidity of the crosslinking agent is improved when the main skeleton has a cyclo ring, for example, when the flexibility of the adhesive layers 15, 25, and 35 after curing is too high, a structure having a cyclo ring is used. Thus, the Young's modulus of the cured adhesive layers 15, 25, and 35 can be set to a desired size.

As described above, the adhesive containing such a copolymer and a crosslinking agent is an adhesive that exhibits curable characteristics when the copolymers are crosslinked via the crosslinking agent. Therefore, since the cured adhesive exhibits excellent solvent resistance, swelling of the adhesive layers 15, 25, and 35 due to contact with ink can be accurately prevented or suppressed.
The cured adhesive preferably has a Young's modulus after curing (after crosslinking) set to 3.0 GPa or less by appropriately selecting the type of copolymer and crosslinking agent. As mentioned above, it is more preferable to set it within the range of 2.5 GPa or less. As a result, the cured adhesive is excellent in flexibility, so that even if the adhesive of the present invention is applied to the bonding of the vibration film 30 and the support plate 40, that is, the adhesive layer 35, the piezoelectric element 50. Thus, the distortion generated in step 1 can be reliably transmitted from the support plate 40 to the vibration film 30. Furthermore, when the Young's modulus at the time of curing is 3.0 GPa or less, it is possible to accurately suppress or prevent an increase in residual stress after curing of the adhesive. For this reason, the obtained head 1 can be prevented from warping or having a moderately suppressed size.

  Note that when the adhesive layer 35 is formed on almost the entire surface of the vibration film 30 on the side where the support plate 40 is joined as in this embodiment, the adhesive of the present invention is applied to the vibration film 30 and the support plate. It is preferable to use it for joining with 40. Thus, even when the adhesive layer 35 is formed on almost the entire surface of the vibration film 30, the adhesive layer 35 is excellent in flexibility, and therefore the vibration plate composed of the vibration film 30, the support plate 40 and the adhesive layer 35. It is possible to reliably prevent the flexibility of the device itself from being lost.

Furthermore, since the adhesive of the present invention can be excellent in both solvent resistance and flexibility as described above, the bonding between the members when assembling the head 1, that is, the bonding layers 15, 25, 35. It can be applied to any formation.
In such an adhesive, the content ratio of the copolymer and the crosslinking agent is preferably about 700: 1 to 30: 1 by weight ratio, more preferably about 300: 1 to 60: 1. . Thus, the adhesive can reliably exhibit its function as a thermoplastic adhesive before curing, and can reliably function as a curable adhesive after curing.
Such an adhesive may contain other components in addition to the copolymer and the crosslinking agent described above.

Here, the other components contained in the adhesive are not particularly limited, and examples thereof include a curing accelerator, an inorganic filler, and a coupling agent.
Examples of the curing accelerator include diazabicycloalkenes such as 1,8-diazabicyclo (5,4,0) undecene-7, and derivatives thereof.
Examples of the inorganic filler include carbonates such as calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate, silicates such as aluminum silicate and zirconium silicate, oxides such as silicon oxide, aluminum oxide and zinc oxide.
Examples of coupling agents include silane coupling agents and titanium coupling agents.

  Further, an adhesive containing such a copolymer and a cross-linking agent as main materials is made liquid or semi-solid by dissolving or dispersing the copolymer in a solvent or dispersion medium. The medium is not particularly limited. For example, inorganic solvents such as ammonia, water and hydrogen peroxide, alcohol solvents such as methanol, ethanol and isobutanol, ether solvents such as diethyl ether and diisopropyl ether, toluene and xylene Various organic solvents such as aromatic hydrocarbon solvents such as benzene, aromatic heterocyclic compounds solvents such as pyridine, pyrazine, furan, amide solvents such as N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF), or the like A mixed solvent containing can be used.

Using the adhesive of the present invention as described above, the ink jet recording head 1 is manufactured as follows using, for example, the base material 20 ′.
<Method for producing ink jet recording head>
3 to 5 are views (longitudinal sectional views) for explaining a method of manufacturing the ink jet recording head. In the following description, the upper side in FIGS. 3 to 5 is referred to as “upper” and the lower side is referred to as “lower”.

  The method for manufacturing the head 1 according to the present embodiment includes a step of forming an adhesive layer 35 on the vibration film 30 and bonding the vibration film 30 and the support plate 40 via the adhesive layer 35 to obtain a vibration plate. A base material 20 ′ is prepared, the base material 20 ′ is processed to form the substrate 20, an adhesive layer 25 is formed on the substrate 20, and the substrate 20 is vibrated through the adhesive layer 25. The step of adhering the film 30 (vibrating plate), the through hole 23 is formed in a part of the adhesive layer 25, the vibrating film 30, the adhesive layer 35 and the support plate 40, and the recess 53 is formed in a part of the support plate 40 The step of forming, the step of bonding the piezoelectric element 50 on the support plate 40, the step of bonding the case head 60 on the support plate 40, and the adhesive layer 15 on the surface of the substrate 20 opposite to the vibration film 30. Through this adhesive layer 15 And a step of bonding the plate 20 and the nozzle plate 10.

Hereinafter, each process will be described sequentially.
[1] First, the support plate 40 and the vibration film 30 are prepared, and the support plate 40 and the vibration film 30 are bonded to each other through the adhesive layer 35 as shown in FIG. A diaphragm in which the plate 40, the adhesive layer 35, and the vibration film 30 are laminated in this order is obtained.
The adhesive of the present invention is used to form the adhesive layer 35 that adheres the support plate 40 and the vibration film 30. For example, the adhesive layer 35 is formed as follows.

That is, the adhesive layer 35 is formed by supplying an adhesive to at least one of the support plate 40 and the vibration film 30 that are members to be joined by the adhesive layer 35 and then drying the adhesive.
Then, in a state where the support plate 40 and the vibration film 30 are in contact with each other via the adhesive layer 35, the adhesive layer 35 is heated and melted, and the polyamide resins contained in the adhesive layer 35 are cross-linked with a cross-linking agent. To cure. Thereby, the support plate 40 and the vibration film 30 are joined by the adhesive layer 35 in a cured state.

Here, the heating temperature when melting the adhesive layer 35 is preferably 50 ° C. or higher, and more preferably about 100 ° C. or higher and 140 ° C. or lower. Accordingly, the adhesive layer 35 can be brought into a molten state without deteriorating / deteriorating the support plate 40 and the vibration film 30 and the formed adhesive layer 35 itself, and the copolymers are cross-linked with the cross-linking agent. be able to.
Further, when the Young's modulus of the adhesive at the time of curing is set to 3.0 GPa or less, it is possible to accurately increase the residual stress in the adhesive layer 35 even when heated at such a high temperature. Can be prevented or suppressed. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the amount of warpage generated in the formed head 1.

In addition, if heating is performed within such a temperature range, the time for heating the adhesive layer 35 varies slightly depending on the type of copolymer contained in the adhesive, but is preferably set to 20 minutes or more and 24 hours or less. More preferably, the time can be set to 1 hour or more and 5 hours or less, so that the time for forming the adhesive layer 35 and the time for manufacturing the head 1 can be shortened. .
The formed adhesive layer 35 preferably has an average thickness of about 1 μm to 100 μm, and more preferably about 5 μm to 80 μm. By setting the film thickness within such a range, the support plate 40 and the vibration film 30 can be reliably bonded.

  Moreover, it is preferable that each member to be bonded by the adhesive layer 35, that is, the surfaces of the vibration film 30 and the support plate 40, is subjected to a surface treatment for improving the adhesion with the adhesive layer 35. Such surface treatment is not particularly limited, and examples thereof include surface treatment with a coupling agent having a functional group capable of forming a linking structure with a carboxyl group included in the copolymer. Examples of the coupling agent include amino silane and glycidyl ether silane.

In the bonding method of the vibration film 30 and the support plate 40 using the adhesive layer 35 described here, melting of the adhesive layer 35 and cross-linking of the polyamide resins with the cross-linking agent are performed together by heating the adhesive layer 35 once. However, the present invention is not limited to such a case. For example, the following may be performed.
That is, first, the vibration film 30 and the support plate 40 are bonded to each other by the solidified adhesive layer 35 by cooling and solidifying the adhesive layer 35 that has been heated and melted at the first temperature.

Thereafter, the adhesive layer 35 is heated at a second temperature to cure the copolymers by crosslinking with a crosslinking agent, and as a result, a cured adhesive layer 35 is obtained.
In the case of such a configuration, the temperature of the first heating is preferably 50 ° C. or more, preferably 50 ° C. or more, 100 ° C., although it varies slightly depending on the type of copolymer and crosslinking agent contained in the adhesive layer 35. The second heating temperature is preferably 60 ° C. or higher, more preferably 60 ° C. or higher and 80 ° C. or lower.

[2] Next, a flat base material 20 ′ is prepared as a base material for manufacturing the substrate 20 (see FIG. 3B).
Next, as shown in FIG. 3C, the base material 20 ′ is processed to form each discharge liquid storage chamber 21 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22, thereby obtaining the substrate 20 from the base material 20 ′. .
The discharge liquid storage chamber 21 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22 are formed by physical etching methods such as dry etching, reactive ion etching, beam etching, and optically assisted etching, and chemical etching methods such as wet etching. It can carry out using 1 type or in combination of 2 or more types.

[3] Next, as shown in FIG. 3 (d), the substrate 20 and the surface of the vibration plate on the vibration film 30 side are bonded to each other through the bonding layer 25, so that the substrate 20 and the bonding layer 25 are bonded. A laminated body in which the diaphragm is laminated in this order is obtained.
In the formation of the adhesive layer 25 for bonding the substrate 20 and the vibration film 30, the adhesive of the present invention is used similarly to the adhesive layer 35 described above, and the same method as described in the formation of the adhesive layer 35 is performed. The adhesive layer 25 is formed using the same.

[4] Next, as shown in FIG. 4A, a position corresponding to the discharge liquid supply chamber 22 of the substrate 20 among the vibration film 30, the adhesive layer 35 and the support plate 40, that is, the discharge liquid supply chamber. A through hole 23 is formed so as to communicate with 22. Furthermore, the recessed part 53 is formed in the cyclic | annular area | region surrounding the position where the piezoelectric element 50 is assembled among the support plates 40. FIG.
The through holes 23 and the recesses 53 are formed by using various etching methods similar to those described in the above-described formation of the discharge liquid storage chamber 21 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22.

Here, due to the formation of the concave portion 53, an island-shaped portion (island-like portion) is formed in the region surrounded by the concave portion 53, but at this time, the portion is separated from the outer portion of the concave portion 53 of the support plate 40. For this reason, the island portion is displaced in accordance with the residual stress of the adhesive layer 35.
As will be described in the next step [5], since the piezoelectric element 50 is bonded to this island-shaped portion, the position where the concave portion 53 is formed is usually determined in consideration of the displacement of the island-shaped portion. Is set.

  Such misregistration is predicted in advance for a layer made of a curable resin having a small variation rather than a layer made of a thermoplastic resin having a large variation in residual stress in each part of the layer. easy. Therefore, like the adhesive layer 35 formed using the adhesive of the present invention, the islands are formed by forming the recesses 53 by curing the copolymers by cross-linking them using a cross-linking agent. It becomes possible to easily predict the size of the positional deviation of the part.

  Further, when forming the concave portion 53 by etching the support plate 40, it is necessary to leave the adhesive layer 35 at a position corresponding to the concave portion 53. As in the present invention, the adhesive layer 35 is made of a copolymer. By comprising the hardened | cured material mutually bridge | crosslinked through the crosslinking agent, the contact bonding layer 35 will be equipped with the outstanding intensity | strength. Therefore, it is possible to accurately suppress or prevent the adhesive layer 35 from being etched when the support plate 40 is etched.

[5] Next, by preparing the piezoelectric element 50 and joining the piezoelectric element 50 to the island-shaped portion of the support plate 40, as shown in FIG. 4 (b), the substrate 20, the vibration film 30, The support plate 40 and the piezoelectric element 50 are joined together.
[6] Next, the case head 60 is prepared, and the case head 60 is joined to a portion surrounding the island-shaped portion of the support plate 40 with the recess 53 therebetween, as shown in FIG. The substrate 20, the vibration film 30, the support plate 40, the piezoelectric element 50, and the case head 60 are joined to each other.
At this time, the discharge liquid supply chamber 22 communicates with the vibration film 30, the through hole 23 formed in the adhesive layer 35 and the support plate 40, and the discharge liquid supply path 61 provided in the case head 60. A reservoir 70 is formed.
Here, the vibration film 30, the support plate 40, the piezoelectric element 50, and the case head are applied to the substrate 20 on which the base material 20 ′ is previously processed to form the respective discharge liquid storage chambers 21 and the discharge liquid supply chambers 22. Although the case where 60 is joined was demonstrated, it is not limited to this, After joining the vibration film 30, the support plate 40, the piezoelectric element 50, and the case head 60 with respect to base material 20 ', processing to base material 20' is carried out. The substrate 20 may be obtained by forming each discharge liquid storage chamber 21 and the discharge liquid supply chamber 22.

[7] Next, the nozzle plate 10 is prepared, and the surface opposite to the vibration film 30 of the substrate 20 and the nozzle plate 10 are bonded via the adhesive layer 15 as shown in FIG. Thus, the substrate 1 and the nozzle plate 10 are joined to obtain the head 1.
The adhesive layer 15 for bonding the substrate 20 and the nozzle plate 10 is formed using the adhesive of the present invention in the same manner as the adhesive layer 35 described above, and the same method as described in the formation of the adhesive layer 35 is used. Is used to form the adhesive layer 15.
In addition, although this embodiment demonstrated the case where the adhesive agent of this invention was applied to formation of each layer of the adhesive layers 15, 25, 35, it is not limited to such a case, Of the adhesive layers 15, 25, 35 The adhesive of this invention should just be used for formation of at least 1 layer.

As described above, the droplet discharge head, the adhesive, the manufacturing method of the droplet discharge head, and the droplet discharge apparatus have been described based on the illustrated embodiments, but the present invention is not limited to these.
For example, in the method of manufacturing the droplet discharge head of the present invention, the order of the steps may be changed without being limited to the configuration of the above embodiment. In addition, one or two or more arbitrary processes may be added, and unnecessary processes may be deleted.
In addition, the adhesive according to the present invention may be applied to a droplet discharge device that adopts a method other than a method of discharging ink by displacing a diaphragm using a piezoelectric element, for example, a thermal-type droplet discharge device. .

Next, specific examples of the present invention will be described.
1. Preparation of adhesive (Example 1)
A copolymer of ethylene and maleic acid (99: 1 by weight) and cyclohexanedimethanol diglycidyl ether was prepared, and the mixture was mixed at a weight ratio of 99: 1. Thus, the adhesive of Example 1 was prepared by dissolving in toluene.

(Example 2)
An adhesive of Example 2 was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that 1,6-hexanediol diglycidyl ether was used in place of cyclohexanedimethanol diglycidyl ether.
(Example 3)
The adhesive of Example 3 was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that 1,4-butanediol diglycidyl ether was used in place of cyclohexanedimethanol diglycidyl ether.

2. 2. Production of evaluation member 2-1. Manufacture of adhesive layer-formed substrate An adhesive layer in which an adhesive layer is formed by preparing a flat plate made of stainless steel (SUS316), applying the adhesive of each example on the substrate, and then heating. A formed substrate was obtained.
In addition, the application of the adhesive is performed by supplying the adhesive onto the substrate by using a spin coat method, and then increasing the number of rotations from 0 rpm to 1000 rpm over 50 seconds and holding the substrate for 10 seconds. It was. Furthermore, the heating conditions for forming the adhesive layer were that drying was performed at 90 ° C. for 3 minutes, and then heating was performed at 140 ° C. for 3 minutes.

2-2. Production of Peel Strength Measuring Member First, two flat-plate substrates (length 1 cm × width 3 cm × thickness 80 μm) made of stainless steel (SUS316) are prepared, and the adhesive of each example is formed on one substrate. After each was applied, it was dried to form an adhesive layer on the substrate.
In addition, the application of the adhesive is performed by supplying the adhesive onto the substrate by using a spin coat method, and then increasing the number of rotations from 0 rpm to 1000 rpm over 50 seconds and holding the substrate for 10 seconds. It was. Furthermore, the conditions for drying the adhesive were 90 ° C. × 3 minutes.

Next, the other substrate is overlapped with one substrate so as to form a cross shape via the adhesive layer, that is, the bonding portion between the substrates is overlapped so as to form a square (vertical 1 cm × horizontal 1 cm). Then, by heating and then cooling to room temperature, a peel strength measuring member was obtained in which the substrates were bonded together via a bonding film.
In addition, the heating conditions at the time of joining the base materials were set to 140 ° C. × 5 seconds.

3. Evaluation 3-1. Evaluation of Adhesive Layer Forming Substrate For the adhesive layer forming substrate manufactured using the adhesive of each example, the shore strength and film thickness of the adhesive layer with respect to the ink for ink jet printer ("1CBK47" manufactured by Epson Corporation) are measured. did.

And these adhesion layer formation board | substrates were immersed in the ink for inkjet printers (the Epson company make, "1CBK47") on the conditions of 80 degreeC for 5 days, and the film thickness of the adhesion layer was measured again after that.
The shore strength of the adhesive was measured using a Nanoindenter device (MTS, “SA2”).
Among the measured values, the Young's modulus (GPa) of the adhesive layer was determined from the film thickness before immersion and the shore strength. Further, the swelling ratio (%) of the adhesive layer was determined from the ratio of the film thickness before immersion and the film thickness after immersion.

3-2. Evaluation of Peel Strength Measuring Member For the peel strength measuring member manufactured using the adhesive of each example, in accordance with the peel strength test (specified in JIS-G3469), the surface strength is measured as follows. Peel strength was measured.
That is, the peel strength measurement member obtained in each example had one end of one substrate, and the load when peeled off at a rate of 10 mm / min in the direction of 90 ° at room temperature was 90 ° peel. It measured using the peeling test apparatus (The Imada company make, "NX-500NE").
Furthermore, after separately immersing the peel strength measuring member prepared using the adhesive of each example prepared in an ink for an inkjet printer (“1CBK47” manufactured by Epson Corporation) at 80 ° C. for 5 days. The peel strength was measured in the same manner as described above.
These results are shown in Table 1.

As is clear from Table 1, the adhesive layer formed using the adhesive of each example had excellent adhesion (peel strength) to the substrate regardless of before and after immersion of the ink. .
Moreover, in the head-like member manufactured using the adhesive of each Example, the Young's modulus when the adhesive was cured could be set to 3.0 GPa or less.
Furthermore, the adhesive layer formed using the adhesive of each example was able to reduce the swelling ratio due to immersion in ink by curing by adding a crosslinking agent.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Inkjet recording head 10 ... Nozzle plate 11 ... Nozzle hole 15, 25, 35 ... Adhesive layer 20 ... Discharge liquid storage chamber forming substrate 20 '... Base material 21 ... Discharge liquid storage chamber 22 ... ... Discharge liquid supply chamber 23 ... Through hole 30 ... Vibrating film 40 ... Support plate 50 ... Piezoelectric element 51 ... Piezoelectric layer 52 ... Electrode film 53 ... Concavity 60 ... Case head 61 ... Discharge liquid Supply path 70 …… Reservoir 9 …… Inkjet printer 92 …… Device main body 921 …… Tray 922 …… Discharge port 93 …… Head unit 931 …… Ink cartridge 932 …… Carriage 94 …… Print device 941 …… Carriage motor 942 …… Reciprocating mechanism 943 …… Carriage guide shaft 944 …… Timing belt 95 …… Feeding device 951 ... feed motor 952 ...... feed roller 952a ...... driven roller 952b ...... driving roller 96 ...... controller 97 ...... operation panel P ...... recording paper

Claims (16)

A substrate on which a discharge liquid storage chamber for storing the discharge liquid is formed;
A nozzle plate that is provided on one surface of the substrate so as to cover the discharge liquid storage chamber and includes nozzle holes for discharging the discharge liquid as droplets;
A vibration plate provided on the other surface of the substrate so as to cover the discharge liquid storage chamber, and vibrates due to distortion of the vibration means, and a support plate that propagates the distortion of the vibration means to the vibration film; ,
A droplet discharge head having vibration means for vibrating the vibration plate due to distortion,
At least one of the substrate and the nozzle plate, the substrate and the vibration film, and the vibration film and the support plate is bonded via an adhesive layer,
The adhesive layer is formed by curing an adhesive containing a alkene and alkenylene dicarboxylic acid as a main material and a solid copolymer and a crosslinking agent. Droplet discharge head.   The droplet discharge head according to claim 1, wherein the copolymer further contains (meth) acrylic acid ester.   The droplet discharge head according to claim 1, wherein the alkenylene dicarboxylic acid is (anhydrous) maleic acid.   4. The liquid droplet ejection head according to claim 1, wherein the alkene is ethylene.   The droplet discharge head according to claim 1, wherein the copolymer has a weight average molecular weight of 10,000 or more.   6. The droplet discharge head according to claim 1, wherein a temperature at which the copolymer is solid is −273 ° C. or more and 100 ° C. or less.   The liquid droplet ejection head according to claim 1, wherein the crosslinking agent is a compound having an epoxy group.   The liquid droplet ejection head according to claim 1, wherein the copolymers are cured by being crosslinked through the crosslinking agent.   The liquid droplet ejection head according to claim 1, wherein the Young's modulus after the curing is 3.0 GPa or less.   10. The droplet discharge head according to claim 1, wherein an average thickness of the adhesive layer is 1 μm or more and 100 μm or less. The vibration film in the form of a film and the support plate provided so as to correspond to a part of the vibration film are bonded via the adhesive layer,
11. The liquid droplet ejection head according to claim 1, wherein the adhesive layer is formed on substantially the entire surface of the vibration film on a side where the support plate is bonded. A substrate on which a discharge liquid storage chamber for storing the discharge liquid is formed;
A nozzle plate that is provided on one surface of the substrate so as to cover the discharge liquid storage chamber and includes nozzle holes for discharging the discharge liquid as droplets;
A diaphragm provided on the other surface of the substrate so as to cover the discharge liquid storage chamber and vibrating due to distortion of the vibrating means, and a support plate that propagates the distortion of the vibrating means to the vibrating film When,
An adhesive used for assembling a droplet discharge head having vibration means for vibrating the diaphragm due to strain;
At least one of the substrate and the nozzle plate, the substrate and the vibration film, and the vibration film and the support plate is interposed through an adhesive layer formed using the adhesive. Are joined together.
The adhesive comprises a solid copolymer containing an alkene and alkenylene dicarboxylic acid, and a crosslinking agent as main materials. A substrate on which a discharge liquid storage chamber for storing the discharge liquid is formed;
An adhesive used for assembling a droplet discharge head provided on one surface of the substrate so as to cover the discharge liquid storage chamber and having a nozzle plate having nozzle holes for discharging the discharge liquid as droplets. And
The substrate and the nozzle plate are joined via an adhesive layer formed using the adhesive,
The adhesive comprises a solid copolymer containing an alkene and alkenylene dicarboxylic acid, and a crosslinking agent as main materials. A method for manufacturing a droplet discharge head, wherein the droplet discharge head is assembled using the adhesive according to claim 12,
When the adhesive layer is formed between at least one of the substrate and the nozzle plate, between the substrate and the film, and between the vibration film and the support plate, the adhesive is 50 A method of manufacturing a droplet discharge head, wherein the adhesive layer is formed by crosslinking by heating to a temperature of not lower than ° C.   The method for manufacturing a droplet discharge head according to claim 14, wherein the time for heating the adhesive is 1 hour or more and 5 hours or less.   A droplet discharge head comprising the droplet discharge head according to claim 1 or the droplet discharge head manufactured by the method of manufacturing a droplet discharge head according to claim 14 or 15. apparatus.

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