JP2600141B2 - Print record head - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a print recording head for applying an electric signal to a print recording medium.

2. Description of the Related Art Hitherto, an energization recording method has been proposed as a printing method in which an electric signal is converted into heat energy, the ink is melted by the heat energy, and the ink is transferred to paper to form an image.

As a print recording head used in such a recording method, as shown in FIG. 7, a plurality of recording electrodes 8 are formed in parallel on a plate-like rigid body 10 made of ceramic or the like, and the recording electrodes 8 are covered with an insulating layer 9. Print head (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-12426), or a return electrode having a larger contact area than the recording electrode, and the recording electrode and return electrode are integrated. A recording head (for example, see JP-A-59-171666) has been proposed.

For example, referring to FIG. 6, a print recording medium in which a conductive layer 4 and an ink layer 5 are provided on a support (heat generating layer) 3 which can generate heat is used. A print recording head 16 in which the electrode 1 and the return electrode 2 are integrated is pressed substantially at right angles to generate heat in a portion of the support to which an electric signal is applied from the needle electrode 1 so that only the ink layer in that portion is heated. The melted ink is transferred to the transfer material 6 on the elastic back pressure contact member 7 to form a recorded image.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention The former print recording head has a structure in which a recording electrode is provided on a rigid support such as a ceramic, and an insulating film is further laminated thereon, so that image forming is performed. In this case, it is necessary to bring the end face of the print recording head into surface contact with the surface of the print recording medium. Therefore, if the print recording head is tilted with respect to the print recording medium, the contact ratio is extremely reduced, so that there is a problem that the print recording head must be always kept vertically.

Also, in the latter print recording head, since both the recording electrode and the return electrode exist on the contact surface with the print recording medium, the pressure contact area of the print recording head increases, and therefore the total pressure contact force increases, and In the case where the opposing roll is used, it is difficult to perform the pressing operation, or the driving torque is increased. As a result, the reliability of print recording is impaired.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems.

That is, an object of the present invention is to provide a print recording head which can easily control a contact angle with a print recording medium, has high contact reliability, and has small friction with the print recording medium.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a print recording head whose characteristics do not change for long-term use.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a print recording head capable of easily increasing the density of recording electrodes.

Means for Solving the Problems The print recording head of the present invention comprises a plurality of recording electrodes provided in parallel on at least a rigid support, and a portion of the edge of the rigid support which comes into contact with a print recording medium. In addition, a semi-circular shape with a diameter of 100 μm to 5 mm integrally formed with the rigid support or a ratio of the short axis to the long axis is 1.0 to 2.0 and the short axis is 100 μm
A rigid ridge having a semi-elliptical cross section of about 5 mm is provided.

The configuration of the print recording head of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1 corresponding to the embodiment. A plurality of recording electrodes 8 are provided in parallel on an insulating rigid substrate 11 which is a rigid support. A ridge 21 is formed at a portion of the edge of the insulating rigid substrate that comes into contact with the print recording medium.

In addition, in the print recording head of the present invention, it is preferable to provide an insulating protective layer. In this case, the recording electrode is provided so that the recording electrode is exposed at a portion of the edge portion of the rigid support that comes into contact with the print recording medium. There is a need.

Action The print recording head of the present invention is used for obtaining a recorded image by a current recording method. That is, the print recording head is
Pressure contact with a print recording medium having an ink layer that is melted by heat generation, a plurality of recording electrodes at the edge of the print recording head,
The contact is made to slide on the print recording medium. In response to an electric signal from the print recording head, the heating element layer of the print recording medium generates heat, the ink layer in the heated portion is melted, the ink layer is transferred onto the transfer material, and recording is performed. in this case,
Since a ridge is provided at the edge of the rigid support at the portion which comes into contact with the print recording medium, as shown in FIG. When pressed against the recording medium 17, the recording medium 17 can be pressed with a contact angle θ. Further, since the contact is performed at the rounded ridge portion, the friction with the print recording medium is small, and the contact reliability is enhanced.

Examples Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to examples shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a part of a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention,
A plurality of recording electrodes 8 are formed in a stripe shape on an insulative rigid substrate 11 provided with a ridge 21 at an edge, and the recording electrodes are covered with an insulating protective layer 12 except for the edge.

The ridge provided on the edge of the insulating rigid substrate has a diameter of 100
A semicircle of μm to 5 mm or a semi-elliptical shape with a minor axis of 1.0 to 2.0 and a minor axis of 100 μm to 5 mm in the major axis direction or a semi-elliptical shape similar to this has a semicircular shape. preferable.

If the ratio of the short axis to the long axis is out of the above range, the curvature of the ridge changes greatly, and the angle control becomes difficult. If the size of the ridge is smaller than the above range, the effect is small, and if the size is large, the contact area becomes too large, and it is difficult to control the size of the transfer dot.

As the insulating rigid substrate, an insulating ceramic, plastic, a metal plate having an insulating coating, or the like is used, and a ridge is provided on an edge thereof. The ridge can be formed by various methods.

For example, (1) a method of forming an insulative rigid substrate having a ridge at an edge by molding, and (2) a method of melting an edge of an insulative rigid substrate 11 to form a flat plate 13 as shown in FIG. After forming a raised portion by pressing against, a method such as a method of shaping by polishing or the like is used.

A conductive metal film (Ni, Cu, Au, Ag, Cu, Ta, Ti, Fe,
Al, W, Zn, Sn, Pt, Pb and alloys containing them) are formed to a thickness of 0.1 to 50 μm by bonding metal foil, vacuum deposition, sputtering deposition, electroless plating, electrolytic plating, etc. . Next, the metal film is patterned into stripes by a combination of lithography and wet etching using an optical laser, or a dry etching method using plasma.

An insulating protective layer 12 is formed on the recording electrode 8 formed as described above. The insulating protective layer is formed using a known synthetic resin by, for example, a photolithographic method, wet etching, or the like so that the edge portion where the convex shape is formed is exposed.

When the print recording head of the present invention is pressed against the print recording medium, it may be pressed vertically.However, the print recording head is inclined from the surface of the print recording medium by 30 ° to 70 ° from the surface of the print recording medium. It is desirable to perform pressure contact so as to have a contact angle in the range of ゜.

Next, a more specific example of the print recording head of the present invention will be described.

As shown in FIG. 2, a semicircular ridge with a radius of 1 mm is provided at the end of the alumina substrate.

First, Cr was deposited to a thickness of 1000 mm and Cu to a thickness of 10 μm on the above substrate by vacuum evaporation.
A striped pattern electrode having a pitch of 60 μm and a pitch of 125 μm was formed. By combining photolithography and wet etching on the formed pattern electrode, an insulating protective layer is provided so that the tip of the pattern electrode is exposed by 3 mm,
The desired print recording head was obtained.

The effect was evaluated by the experiment shown in FIG. 4 using the obtained print recording head. That is, the print recording head 16 is mounted on an aluminum drum 19 having a diameter of 150 mm 19 using a weight 20 at 30 g / cm
^A pressure was applied at 2, and a voltage was applied between the pattern electrode and the aluminum drum while rotating the aluminum drum to check conduction, and the contact probability was obtained. Further, the contact probability was evaluated by changing the contact angle between the aluminum drum and the print recording head.

 The results are shown below.

For comparison, an experiment was similarly conducted on a recording medium having the same structure as that of the above-mentioned print recording medium (see FIG. 5) except that the recording medium had no ridges. The results are shown below.

From the above results, it was confirmed that the print recording head of the present invention was less dependent on the conductivity due to the contact angle, was more stable, had higher conductivity, and had higher contact efficiency.

Effects of the Invention Since the print recording head of the present invention has the above-described configuration, even if the contact angle θ to the print recording medium changes, as shown in FIG. Contact can be maintained. Therefore, it is easy to control the pressing of the print recording head, and the reliability of contact between the print recording head and the print recording medium is high. Further, since the ridge has a curved surface, the frictional force with the print recording medium is small, and the pressing pressure may be small.

Therefore, the characteristics do not change for long-term use. Further, there is an additional effect that a recording electrode having a high density, for example, a recording electrode having a density of 12 lines / mm or more can be easily formed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a method for forming a ridge, FIG. 3 is an explanatory view for explaining the operation of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of an experiment for evaluating the effect of the present invention, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a comparative example, FIG. 6 is an explanatory view for explaining the operation of a conventional example, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a conventional example. It is. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Needle electrode, 2 ... Return electrode, 3 ... Support (heating layer), 4 ... Conductive layer, 5 ... Ink layer, 6 ... Transfer material, 7 ... Elastic back pressure contact material, 8: recording electrode, 9: insulating layer, 10: plate-shaped rigid body, 11: insulating rigid substrate, 12 ...
... an insulating protective layer, 13 ... a flat plate, 16 ... a print recording head, 17 ... a print recording medium, 18 ... a back pressure welding material, 19 ... an aluminum drum, 20 ... a weight, 21 ... a ridge.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Koichi Saito 2274 Hongo, Ebina-shi Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. JP-A-62-161562 (JP, A) JP-A-62-178364 (JP, A) JP-A-62-253466 (JP, A) Fully open Showa 60-46245 (JP, U) Really open (JP, U)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A print recording head having a plurality of recording electrodes arranged side by side on a rigid support, wherein a portion of the rigid support in contact with a print recording medium has an arc-shaped cross section or a short axis having a diameter of 100 μm to 5 mm. And the ratio of the major axis is 1.0 to 2.0 and the minor axis length is 10
A print recording head provided with a projection having a semi-elliptical cross section of 0 μm to 5 mm.