JPH01294049A - Preparation of ink jet head - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the generation of a flaw or chipping in a peripheral edge part, by a method wherein an ink passage forming member is cut to provide a groove to the member and subsequently cut along said groove by a resin bonded cutting blade containing SiC whiskers to form an emitting orifice. CONSTITUTION:A required number of heating elements 2 are arranged on a substrate 1 such as a silicon wafer and an SiO2 protective film 3 is formed thereon. Subsequently, a photosensitive resin film 4 is superposed on said film 3 to be exposed and an unexposed part is dissolved and removed by a developing solution to form an ink passage 8 by the patterned resin film 4p. Next, a flat plate 6 such as a glass plate is superposed through a photosensitive resin layer 7 and irradiated with ultraviolet rays to be fixed. This bonded body is cut and removed (grooved) along a line C-C' at first by a blade composed of diamond grinding particles so as to slightly leave the upper part of an emitting orifice and subsequently cut by a resin bonded extremely thin cutting blade containing SiC whiskers to form an ink emitting orifice. By this method, the flaw or chipping generated in the peripheral edge of the emitting orifice by cutting is eliminated and stable emitting capacity can be obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing an inkjet recording head for generating recording ink droplets used in an inkjet recording system.

(Prior Art) An inkjet recording head used in an inkjet recording method generally includes a fine ejection opening, an ink passage communicating with the ejection opening, and a structure provided in the passage for ejecting ink from the ejection opening. It is equipped with an energy generation means that generates energy used for.

Conventionally, a method described in US Pat. No. 4,417,251, for example, has been used as a method for manufacturing such an inkjet recording head. That is, a wall member for the ink passage is formed using a photosensitive resin on a substrate on which the energy generating means is installed, and then a covering member for the wall member for the ink passage is attached. After the ink passage wall member and the cover member have been joined together in this way, the ink discharge port is formed by cutting at a certain distance away from the energy generating means.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In the method for forming the ink ejection ports of the conventional inkjet recording head described above, the inkjet recording head has a substrate (for example, glass, ceramics, etc.) and a covering member (for example, glass, ceramics, etc.). Because it has a structure in which a resin layer is sandwiched between hard materials such as
It was extremely difficult to select a cutting blade. Conventionally, as a cutting blade that can uniformly cut each of the three layers and has an excellent self-sharpening effect, a resin bond ultra-thin cutting blade has been the most preferred.

By the way, fine processing has been required in the manufacture of inkjet recording heads. For example, in order to extract as many heads as possible from one base material, the line width when cutting is 0.91~0.0. It was suppressed to a range of about 3 mm. For this reason, the amount of protrusion from the flange for fixing the cutting blade to the cutting device body increases relative to the thickness of the cutting blade, and with a resin-bonded ultra-thin cutting blade with low rigidity, the cutting surface will be diagonal. There have been cases where the edge-cutting blade meandered, making it impossible to cut in a straight line, resulting in edge-cutting. As a result, the following problems occurred.

(1) The target location could not be cut, and the distance from the energy generating means to the ink ejection port was unstable, resulting in variations in the ink ejection characteristics of the manufactured inkjet recording head.

(2) Since the cutting blade snakes, the side surface of the cutting blade often swings during the cutting process, which tends to cause scratches and chips on the resin layer around the ink discharge port, which may reduce manufacturing yield. Ta.

(3) Since the side surface of the cutting blade is often exposed, chips discharged through the gap between the side surface and the workpiece flow into the ink path from the ink discharge port and adhere to, for example, energy generating means. However, there were cases where the ink ejection characteristics were deteriorated. For this reason, as a temporary measure, a method of significantly lowering the cutting speed has been considered, but no great effect was obtained, and on the contrary, the problem of prolonging the machining time arose. Another method has been considered to polish the ink ejection port surface after cutting, but this method complicates the manufacturing process to prevent the abrasive material from flowing into the ink path, lacks JLA characteristics, and increases manufacturing costs. There was a problem that there were cases where it was invited. In general, the polishing speed for the resin layer that forms the ink ejection port is faster than that of the substrate or cover member, and as a result, dents may occur in the resin layer or the periphery of the ink ejection port may become distorted. Problems such as sagging or other defects may occur have also been resolved.

(Objective of the present invention and means for solving the problems) The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide inkjet recording heads that are precise and highly reliable in large quantities and at low cost. The purpose is to

A method for manufacturing an inkjet head according to the present invention that achieves such an object is a method for manufacturing an inkjet head comprising an ejection port for ejecting ink and an ink path communicating with the ejection port. a step of providing a groove in the member by cutting the member; a step of forming the discharge port by cutting the member along the groove using a resin bond cutting blade containing SiC whiskers; It is characterized by having the following.

(Summary of the Invention) In the present invention, a groove is provided in a member for forming an ink path by cutting the member, and then a resin bond cutting blade containing SiC whiskers is used to cut the member to form an ink path. A discharge port is formed by cutting.

The reason for performing the step of providing the grooves prior to the step of forming the discharge port by cutting the member is mainly to further stabilize the dimensional accuracy and further reduce the load of cutting. The purpose is

In the present invention, when providing the groove, it is preferable to use a metal bond blade having a multilayer structure.

A metal bond blade is one in which abrasive grains such as diamond are numerically sintered in a gold RxM mixture of copper, nickel, etc.

A resin bond cutting blade is one in which abrasive grains such as diamond are numerically dispersed in a binder made of a thermosetting resin, but the resin bond cutting blade according to the present invention further includes SiC whiskers. It contains.

The SiC whiskers act as reinforcing agents. Therefore, the resin bond cutting blade according to the present invention has extremely high rigidity and is very suitable for manufacturing inkjet heads.

[Examples and comparative examples]

An inkjet recording head was manufactured as follows.

Example 1 In the process shown in FIG. 1, a desired number (two in FIG. 1) of energy generating means 2 consisting of heating elements were arranged on a substrate 1 consisting of a silicon wafer. Furthermore, 5i on top of that
A protective film 3 made of n2 was formed. In the subsequent step shown in FIG. 2, a photosensitive resin 11i4 (II!
A thickness of 50 μm) was formed by lamination. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 2, a photomask 5 having a predetermined pattern was superimposed on the photosensitive resin film 4, and then the photomask 5 was exposed to light from above. At this time, the installation position of the energy generating means 2 and the above-mentioned pattern were aligned using a well-known method. Figure 3 shows resin IN! FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a step in which an unexposed portion of ij4 is dissolved and removed using a developer made of a predetermined organic solvent such as trichloroethane. FIG. 4 shows a photosensitive resin layer 7 on the bonding surface of a flat plate 6 (for example, glass) made of a material that transmits ultraviolet rays as a covering member for the ink passages 8 on a substrate 1 in which grooves are formed to form ink passages 8. FIG. 7 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the laminated material attached to a member 4P forming the wall of the ink channel 8. FIG.

Next, the photosensitive resin layer 7 laminated on the flat plate 6 was irradiated with ultraviolet light (at least 50 mW/crn') to be sufficiently cured. Furthermore, the resin film 4 and the resin layer 7 are subjected to heat curing treatment (1
30 minutes to 6 hours) at 30 to 250°C.

Here, the appearance of the inkjet head after the process shown in FIG. 4 is completed is shown in FIG. 5 as a schematic perspective view. 8-1 in Figure 5
is an ink chamber, 8-2 is an ink passage, 9 is an ink chamber 8-1
shows a through hole for connecting an ink supply pipe (not shown). As described above, after the substrate in which the grooves serving as the ink channels were formed and the ink channel cover member were bonded together, the substrate was cut along the line CC' in FIG. This is ink passage 8-
2, ``This is done to optimize the distance between the energy generating element 2 and the ejection port that ejects ink,''
The area to be cut here is determined as appropriate. For this cutting, a dicing machine or slicing machine using a diamond cutting blade was used.

Before cutting the bonded material, for the purpose of stabilizing the dimensional accuracy of -Fl and further reducing the cutting load, the upper part of the ejection port is slightly left with respect to the ink path cover member. A discharge port was formed by cutting (grooving) in advance with a diameter of .1 mm) and then cutting the track between the two with a blade made of diamond abrasive grains.

Here, the configuration of the diamond blade used for grooving and cutting the bonded material will be described in detail. For pre-processing grooved diamond blades, due to the requirements of high-speed cutting, high dimensional accuracy, and long dressing intervals, the bottom of the cutting groove can be cut at right angles to reduce the load on post-processing.
A metal bond ultrathin cutting blade having a W-shaped tip as shown in the figure was used. The blade has a three-layer structure,
The A layer on both sides has a higher abrasive grain content than the four inner layers, creating a harder structure.

As a cutting blade for post-processing, S is used as a reinforcing material to meet the requirements for high-speed cutting, high dimensional accuracy, and surface accuracy.
A resin bond ultra-thin cutting blade containing iC whiskers was used.

Table 1 shows the configurations of the grooved and cutting blades used in this example.

(Margin below) g! s1 table Table 2 shows the cutting conditions.

Table 2 Example 2 FIGS. 6 to 9 schematically show the manufacturing process of an inkjet recording head made by another method.

In the process shown in FIG. 6, a desired number of energy generating means 2 consisting of heat generating elements (
In Fig. 6, 2 pieces) are arranged. Furthermore, a protective film 3 made of SiO2 was formed thereon.

In the step shown in FIG. 7, grooves 8 to serve as ink channels were formed in another glass plate by photoetching. FIG. 8 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a state in which the grooved plate 10 which has been etched and the substrate 1 on which the energy generating means 2 is disposed are bonded by an adhesive 11. Positioning was performed during bonding so that the energy generating means 2 was placed at a predetermined position corresponding to the multiple grooves.

After the grooved plate 10 and the substrate on which the energy generating means 2 were disposed were completed as described above, cutting was performed along line cc' in FIG. 9 under the cutting conditions shown in Table 2.

Here, an ultra-thin cutting blade having the same configuration as in Example 1 was used for grooving and cutting the bonded product.

Comparative Example 1 The following blade was used for grooving and cutting a bonded product similar to that in Example 1. In other words, for pre-processing grooving, use #800 diamond as the blade and abrasive grain content of 10.
A single-layer metal bond ultrathin cutting blade consisting of vol.% was used. In addition, the post-processing cutting blade contains phenolic resin 60% by volume, '2,000 diamond, 12.5% by volume,
Cutting was performed using a resin bond ultra-thin cutting blade made of 27.5% by volume of SiC abrasive material ('4,000). (The cutting conditions are as shown in Table 2) Comparative Example 2 The same extremely thin cutting blade as in Comparative Example 1 was used for grooving and cutting the same bonded material as in Example 2. (The cutting conditions are as shown in Table 2) [Results of Comparative Study] Performance experiments were conducted on inkjet recording heads manufactured according to Example 1.2 and Comparative Example 1.2.

FIG. 10 shows the cutting results of Example 1 and Comparative Example 1 expressed in terms of yield for each item. Further, FIG. 11 shows the cutting results of Example 2 and Comparative Example 2 expressed in terms of yield for each item. Table 3 shows the overall results including the ink ejection performance results and mass productivity of the above examples and comparative examples.

(Margin below) From the above results, to form the ink ejection ports of the inkjet recording head by cutting, grooves are created using a 3-layer W-type metal bond ultra-thin cutting blade, and then the S
We found that cutting with a resin bond ultra-thin cutting blade reinforced with iC whiskers was most effective. Among them, the content of SiC whiskers is 10 to 25% by volume.
It has been found that the inkjet recording head formed with the blade of the present invention has a particularly remarkable effect on the structure of various inkjet recording heads.

It is preferable that the thickness of the grooving blade be equal to or 3/4 or more of the thickness of the cutting blade, since the grooves serve as a guide for post-processing and more accurate finished dimensions and surface conditions can be obtained. It is also preferable to make the abrasive grain size of the grooving blade equal to or coarser than the abrasive grain size of the cutting blade, since this leads to a reduction in the time required for grooving.

(Effect of the invention) The metal bond ultra-thin cutting blade used for grooving of the present invention has a 3Fl structure and has a W-side cutting edge shape, so it bites at two places when cutting into the workpiece, so it is difficult to cut the groove. The perpendicularity is stable, and the bottom of the cut groove can maintain a shape close to a right angle even during a long dressing interval.

Therefore, by pre-grooving the blade, the load on the resin bond ultra-thin cutting blade for forming the discharge port is extremely reduced, and there is no wobbling or meandering of the side surface of the blade. Here, the effect is further enhanced by using an ultra-thin resin-bonded cutting blade with appropriate addition of SiC whiskers as a reinforcing material. In particular, scratches and chips occurred on the periphery of the ink ejection opening of the inkjet recording head, which has a hard/soft/hard laminated structure with members forming the walls of the ink path made of photosensitive resin compared to the upper and lower substrates. will be completely eliminated.

(2) Chips discharged through the side of the blade do not enter the ink path through the ink discharge port during cutting, so the energy generation means is not affected by contamination by chips and maintains stable discharge characteristics. Obtainable.

(3) The dimensional accuracy between the energy generating means and the ink ejection port is improved, and stable ejection characteristics can be obtained.

(4) Although the process is divided into two processes: grooving and cutting, the throughput is 11 times larger than that of the conventional cutting process.
It is possible to shorten the time by 5 to 1/10.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 5 are schematic diagrams for explaining one embodiment of the method for manufacturing an inkjet head of the present invention. FIGS. 6 to 9 are schematic diagrams for explaining other embodiments of the method for manufacturing an inkjet head of the present invention. FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 are graphs showing the performance results of inkjet heads produced in Examples and Comparative Examples, respectively. FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of a groove forming blade used in an embodiment of the present invention. 1... Substrate 2... Energy generating means 3... Protective film 4... Photosensitive resin film 4P... Buttered resin film 5... Photomask 6... Flat plate 7... - Photosensitive resin layer 8... Ink channel 8-1... Ink chamber 8-2... Ink channel 9... Ink supply hole 10... Grooved plate 11... Adhesive

Claims (1)

[Claims] A method for manufacturing an inkjet head comprising an ejection port for ejecting ink and an ink path communicating with the ejection port, comprising: cutting a member for forming the ink path to provide a groove in the member; A method for manufacturing an inkjet head, comprising the step of: forming the ejection port by cutting the member along the groove using a resin bond cutting blade containing whiskers.