JP2914146B2 - Manufacturing method of nozzle plate - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a nozzle plate in which nozzles for ejecting ink are provided by a laser beam.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a method of manufacturing this kind of nozzle plate, there is a method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-121842, and the outline thereof will be described below. A nozzle plate constituting a head for ejecting ink has nozzles for ejecting a plurality of inks. Then, the nozzle is a polyimide, a plate formed of a polymer material such as polyether sulfone, through a mask provided with a transparent portion corresponding to the portion of the nozzle plate where the nozzle is processed, It is formed by irradiating an excimer laser beam. Explaining the formation process, the plate absorbs the excimer laser beam by the irradiation of the excimer laser beam, then the molecular bond of the polymer material is broken, and the broken molecule and atom are decomposed and scattered. Nozzles are formed (Chemical Review, published by American Chemical Society, 1989, vo
l. 89, no. 6). In this nozzle shape, the inner diameter on the excimer laser beam incident side is larger than the inner diameter on the excimer laser beam exit side. Here, the shape of the nozzle is preferably such that the inner diameter of the ink ejecting side is smaller than the inner diameter of the inside of the head, so that an excimer laser beam is irradiated from the surface of the nozzle plate inside the head to form a nozzle, A nozzle plate is manufactured.

[0003]

However, as described above, when the nozzle is processed on a plate made of a material such as polyimide or polyethersulfone, the spread angle and non-uniformity of the excimer laser beam and the inside of the nozzle during processing are reduced. 4 due to irregular reflection of the excimer laser beam
As shown in (a), the circumferential area 26 of the nozzle 25 is processed before the central area 27 of the nozzle 25. Then, due to the non-uniformity of the energy of the excimer laser beam 2 or the like, as shown in FIGS. 4B and 4C, a part of the circumferential region 26a of the nozzle 25 may remain without being processed. is there. Then, the central region 27 of the nozzle 25 processed after the circumferential region 26 of the nozzle 25 remains without being processed, and the central region 27 is not processed by the energy of the excimer laser beam 2 thereafter. The region 26 a is rotated around the axis and turned over, so that further processing by the excimer laser beam 2 is not performed, and as a result, it remains as the lid 11. When such a lid 11 is present, there is a problem that the flying direction of the ink droplet is affected and the flying direction varies, thereby deteriorating the printing quality.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to provide a method of manufacturing a nozzle plate which does not cause variations in the flight direction of ink droplets.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a nozzle plate in which nozzles for ejecting ink are provided by a laser beam. A step of bonding an adhesive member having adhesiveness to one surface, and from the other surface of the plate opposite to the one surface , to the one surface side
Of the plate inside the laser beam irradiation area
Irradiating a laser beam so that a portion remains, and peeling the adhesive member from the one surface of the plate .
Removing the part of the plate .

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a method of manufacturing a nozzle plate in which nozzles for ejecting ink are provided by a laser beam, a laser beam from one surface of the plate serving as the nozzle plate to the other surface opposite to the one surface.
Part of the plate inside the beam irradiation area is processed
Irradiating a laser beam to remain without being, on the other surface of the plate, a step of adhering an adhesive member having an adhesive property, by peeling the adhesive member from the other surface of the plate, the Remove the part of the plate
And a step of performing

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the laser beam is an excimer laser beam.

[0008]

In the method of manufacturing a nozzle plate according to the first aspect of the present invention having the above structure, an adhesive member having adhesiveness is adhered to one surface of the plate, and the other surface of the plate opposite to the one surface is removed from the other surface. Laser beam irradiation on the one surface side
A laser beam is irradiated so that a part of the plate remains inside the irradiation area , and nozzle processing is performed. The one <br/> portion of the plate remaining upon the nozzle machining without being pressurized Engineering, by peeling the adhesive member from the one surface of the plate is removed.

In the method of manufacturing a nozzle plate according to a second aspect of the present invention, the one side of the plate is opposite to the one side.
The press inside the laser beam irradiation area on the other side
The nozzle is processed by irradiating a laser beam so that a part of the plate remains unprocessed, and the other of the plate is processed.
After the adhesive member is adhered to the surface, it is peeled off,
Wherein the plate that remains without being pressurized Engineering at the nozzle machining
First part is removed.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. However, the same members as those in the related art are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. FIG.
FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram illustrating a configuration of a laser processing machine. The optical path of the excimer laser beam 2 oscillated from the laser oscillator 1 to the processing table 8 is formed by the mirrors 3a, 3b, and 3c. A beam expander 4 that expands the excimer laser beam 2 to a desired size is provided in an optical path between the mirror 3a and the mirror 3b. Mirror 3
A mask 5 for forming the excimer laser beam 2 into a shape corresponding to the hole to be drilled is provided in the optical path between the mirror b and the mirror 3C.
A field lens 6 for guiding a mask image that has passed through the mask 5 to an imaging optical system 7 is provided. The imaging optical system 7 is provided between the mirror 3c and the processing table 8, and serves to narrow the excimer laser beam 2 transmitted through the mask 5 to a workpiece placed on the processing table 8 to a predetermined size. Things. In the present embodiment, the nozzle sheet 9 as a plate is a workpiece, and the support sheet 10 as an adhesive member is adhered to the lower surface of the nozzle sheet 9. Is to be processed. Mask 5 and imaging optical system 7
Is appropriately set according to the nozzle shape, laser processing conditions, and the like. The excimer laser used in this embodiment is a KrF excimer laser having a wavelength of 248 nm. FIGS. 1 and 2 show a specific embodiment in which the lid 11 is removed by using a supporting sheet 10 having adhesiveness adhered to the lower surface of the nozzle sheet 9. The nozzle sheet 9 is formed of a polymer material such as polyimide, and an adhesive supporting sheet 10 is adhered to the lower surface of the nozzle sheet 9. The supporting sheet 10 has an adhesive property on one side or both sides. In the case of this embodiment, a sheet having an adhesive property on one side is used, and as shown in FIG. The attached surface is adhered to the lower surface of the nozzle sheet 9 in close contact. A sheet obtained by laminating the nozzle sheet 9 and the support sheet 10 is bonded to the support sheet 10 as shown in FIG.
The excimer laser beam 2 is applied to the nozzle sheet 9 to perform nozzle processing.

In the nozzle processing, the support sheet 10 may be slightly processed, but the irradiation time and energy of the excimer laser beam 2 are set so that the support sheet 10 is not penetrated. Desirably, the irradiation of the excimer laser beam 2 is stopped immediately after the processing of the nozzle sheet 9. Then, as described above, due to the spread angle and non-uniformity of the laser beam 2 and irregular reflection of the excimer laser beam 2 inside the nozzle during processing, the nozzle 2
5 is processed before the central region of the nozzle 25, and when the processing of the nozzle 25 is completed, FIG.
As described above, the lid 11, which is the central region of the unprocessed nozzle 25, is bonded to the supporting sheet 10. Next, as shown in FIG. 2C, the support sheet 10 is peeled off from the nozzle sheet 9. At this time, the lid 11 has not been processed in the nozzle sheet 9 is removed thus the adhesive force of the support sheet 10, the nozzles 25 of the clean shape without lid 11 is obtained. Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. First, the nozzle sheet 9 is set on the processing table 8 (FIG. 1), and the nozzle processing is performed by irradiating the excimer laser beam 2. Then, FIG.
As shown in (a), the lid 11 is formed on the exit side of the excimer laser beam 2 of the nozzle 25. Then, as shown in FIG. 3 (b), the adhesive surface of the adhesive supporting sheet 10 is brought into contact with the nozzle sheet 9 on the exit side of the excimer laser beam 2, and then as shown in FIG. 3 (c). The support sheet 10 is peeled off from the nozzle sheet 9. Thereby, the lid 11 formed on the nozzle 25 is removed from the nozzle sheet 9 by the adhesive force of the supporting sheet 10. As described above, in the first and second embodiments, the lid 11 in the central region of the unprocessed nozzle 25 is removed from the nozzle sheet 9 by the adhesive force of the supporting sheet 10. The ejected ink drops do not vary in the flight direction. Therefore, in the ink ejecting apparatus using the nozzle plate, the printing quality is good. still,
The ink ejecting apparatus is not particularly limited, such as a method using piezoelectric ceramics and a bubble jet method. It should be noted that the present invention is not limited only to the above-described embodiment, and that various changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, in the present embodiment, the supporting sheet 10 having an adhesive property is used, but the supporting sheet 10 having an adhesive property may be used.

In the present embodiment, the supporting sheet 10 has adhesiveness on one side, but may have adhesiveness on both sides. In this case, the support sheet is bonded onto the processing table 8 and the nozzle sheet is
And the nozzle sheet does not move during the nozzle processing. Furthermore, equipment for preventing the nozzle sheet from moving during nozzle processing is unnecessary.

[0013]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the method for manufacturing a nozzle plate of the present invention, a portion remaining without being processed by the laser beam is removed by the adhesive force of the adhesive member. Therefore, there is no unprocessed portion on the exit side of the nozzle, and the flying direction of the ink droplet does not vary. Therefore, in the ink ejecting apparatus using the nozzle plate manufactured as described above, the printing quality is good.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an apparatus for processing nozzles of a nozzle plate according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a method for manufacturing a nozzle plate according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing a nozzle plate manufacturing method according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a conventional nozzle plate manufacturing method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Excimer laser beam 9 Sheet for nozzle 10 Sheet for support 11 Lid

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing a nozzle plate in which nozzles from which ink is ejected are provided by a laser beam, wherein a step of adhering an adhesive member having adhesiveness to one surface of a plate serving as the nozzle plate; From the other side opposite to one side , the one side
The plate inside the laser beam irradiation area on the side
Irradiating a laser beam such that a portion remains in, in particular peeled off the adhesive member from the one surface of the plate
Removing the part of the plate. 2. A manufacturing method of the ink nozzle plate in which the nozzle is provided by a laser beam ejected from one side of the plate serving as the nozzle plate, one that
Laser beam irradiation area on the other side opposite to the surface
Part of the plate inside the
Irradiating a laser beam on to the other surface of the plate, a step of adhering an adhesive member having an adhesive property, in particular peeled off the adhesive member from the other surface of the plate
Removing the part of the plate. Wherein the laser beam is method of manufacturing a nozzle plate according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that an excimer laser beam.