JPH02190342A - Non-contact type recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a high efficient recording head which is high in resolution by a method wherein a structure of a slit-like passage through which a recording medium and a gas current flow is made to be of a groove structure and a protruding structure, and a photographic printing face side edge part of the slit-like passage is made to be of a projecting structure. CONSTITUTION:A groove structure 5 is provided to a substrate 10 of a passage through which a gas current is discharged from a discharge slit of a recording medium. For the gas current 3 which flows between the substrate 10 having this groove and an upper plate 7, its flow speed is quick at a part wherein the width of a gap 6 is narrow and becomes slow at a part wherein the width of the gap is wide. Therefore, for a plane part in which the flow speed is high, pressure drop on a wall surface is large, and for the groove part in which the flow speed is slow, pressure drop becomes small. Therefore, a distribution in magnitude of pressure drop on a wall surface is generated in a width direction according to a pitch of the groove. For a recording medium discharged from the slit part, even one existing in an initial groove part is attracted to the plane part and is concentrated toward a central direction of the plane part. There is an effect of raising resolution by this concentration of the recording medium.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a non-contact recording device, and more particularly to a non-contact recording device for recording engine parts of printers, facsimile machines, etc., and particularly for color recording.

Prior art related to the present invention includes US Pat. No. 37907
03 specification, JP-A-63-57248, and JP-A-63-122553. US Patent No. 37
No. 90703 discloses an orifice, a switching heating means provided near the orifice, and a configuration in which the ejected ink is conveyed to the printing surface by an air flow. However, when the heating means is not turned on, the orifice There is no specific information on air temperature settings that would cause ink to solidify at the tip and cause clogging. Moreover, not only does the ink ejected from the orifice scatter, resulting in poor resolution, but there is no mention of the relationship between the temperature and viscosity characteristics of the recording medium and the temperature of the pressurized gas. For this reason, a large heating power is required, and printing characteristics vary greatly depending on environmental temperature conditions, resulting in problems in reliability. JP-A-63-57248 discloses that a heating means provided near the nozzle opening lowers the surface tension and viscosity of the ink and makes it easier to eject the ink using electrostatic suction force. It does not use variable ink. JP-A No. 63-122553 discloses a multi-layer structure that ejects ink using electrostatic force and uses air to increase printing speed, but does not utilize phase change ink. .

The above two publications are improvements to the conventional electrostatic suction method, and do not utilize phase change as the discharge principle.
There are still problems with image quality deterioration such as clogging when left unused, bleeding of ink adhering to the paper surface, and deformation of the dot diameter. Furthermore, high voltage switching is required, which poses problems in terms of integration and cost.

In addition to the above-mentioned conventional technology, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-263062
No. 6,006,103 discloses a printhead for exciting ink in a continuous flow inkjet printer with pulses of thermal energy.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances,
The flow paths for both the recording medium and the gas flow are slit-shaped instead of a nozzle configuration, and the configuration provides high resolution for ease of manufacture and high image quality, as well as non-contact technology that realizes a high-density full-line head at low cost. The purpose was to provide a mold recording device.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a recording device that performs printing by utilizing phase change of a recording medium, which comprises a recording medium supplying and ejecting means containing a recording agent, and an ejection port of the recording medium. and thermal energy supply means provided nearby.

In a recording apparatus having a gas flow supply/discharge means and a preheating means for preheating a recording medium containing a recording agent up to the vicinity of an ejection port, after the recording medium containing the recording agent is drawn out into the gas flow, both The structure of the slit-like channel through which
The configuration is such that a difference in air flow velocity occurs in the width direction corresponding to the resolution of the recording dots, and furthermore, the structure of the wall surface of the slit-like channel has grooves in the gas flow direction corresponding to the resolution of the recording dots. or a convex structure, and further characterized in that the end portion of the slit-like channel on the printing surface side has a protruding structure in the direction of the printing surface corresponding to the dot resolution. It is something. Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained based on examples.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram for explaining one embodiment of a non-contact recording device according to the present invention. In the figure, l is a common liquid chamber, 2 is an on/off heater, 3 is an air ( Partition plate 5 for ink flow path and gas flow has a groove structure.

6 is a gap, 7 is an upper plate, and 8 is a control lead electrode.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a common lead electrode; 10 indicates a substrate including an ink flow path; 8 A groove structure 5 is provided on the substrate 10 of a flow path through which ink is ejected along with a gas flow from an ejection slit of a recording medium. for example,
When obtaining a resolution of 14 dots/mm, the grooves are 25 to 50 μm @ and 25 to 100 μm deep with an 11 pm pinch. The gas flow 3 flowing between the substrate 10 having this groove and the upper plate 7 has a high flow velocity in the narrow portion of the gap 6, and a low flow velocity in the wide portion. Therefore, the pressure drop on the wall surface where the flow rate is high is large in the flat portion, and the pressure drop is small in the groove portion where the flow rate is slow. Therefore, in one width direction, a distribution of wall surface pressure drop occurs depending on the pitch of the grooves, and the recording medium ejected from the slit part, even the one in the initial groove part, is attracted to the flat part. , and concentrate toward the center of the plane.

Figure 4 is a diagram showing the state of this pressure distribution, where the gas flow is
When flowing at 0~Loom/s, a negative pressure of several 100 g/- is generated, and the pressure distribution corresponds to the depth of the groove. Note that 12 is a recording medium ejection slit, 14 is a gas flow ejection slit, and 15 is a recording medium.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of FIG. 1, in which the groove structure is V.
In Figure 6 showing the structure of the grooves, reference numeral 11 is a heater area. A silicon wafer is used as the substrate, and grooves are formed using etching technology.It can be processed by batch processing, and high-integration and high-precision processing is possible at low cost.

This pressure distribution also produces the same effects as in the case of FIG.

In FIG. 3, the edge of the substrate 10 on the printing surface side is formed into a protruding structure 13 according to the resolution.

A stylus-like projection is also possible. Also in this case, when the gas is discharged from the tip of the substrate due to the viscosity of the gas flow,
It has the effect of focusing in the direction of the protrusion, and has the effect of increasing the resolution by concentrating the recording medium. The tip protrusion can be formed by etching a silicon substrate and bonding it to the substrate 10.

As described above, each of the configurations has the effect of increasing resolution without configuring nozzles corresponding to dots to eject the recording medium and gas flow, resulting in a simple manufacturing process, increasing yield and maintaining high performance. Can be done.

As is clear from the above explanation, according to the present invention, the structure of the slit-like channel through which the recording medium and the gas flow flow is a structure in which a difference in air flow velocity occurs in the width direction, that is, a groove or groove. Since the recording head has a convex structure and the end portion of the slit-like channel on the printing surface side has a protruding structure, it is possible to realize a high-performance recording head with high resolution.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining one embodiment of a non-contact recording device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing another embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a printing surface of a slit channel. FIG. 4, a diagram in which the side end portions have a protruding structure, is a diagram showing the negative pressure distribution generated on the wall surface of the gas flow channel. 1... Common liquid chamber, 2... On/off heater 3.
... Gas flow, 4... Partition plate, 5... Groove structure, 11.
. . . Heating heater area, 12 . . . Recording medium ejection slit, 13 . . . Projection structure. Patent applicant Ricoh Co., Ltd. Figure 1 Figure 3 Figure 2 Figure 4 Value [9/cm2]

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A recording device that performs printing using phase change of a recording medium, which includes: a recording medium supplying and ejecting means containing a recording agent; and a thermal energy supply provided near an ejection port of the recording medium. In a recording apparatus having a means for supplying and discharging a gas flow, and a preheating means for preheating a recording medium containing a recording agent up to the vicinity of an ejection port, after the recording medium containing the recording agent is drawn out into the gas flow. , and a slit-like flow path through which both of them flow, is configured such that a difference in air flow velocity occurs in the width direction in accordance with the resolution of recording dots. 2. Non-contact recording according to claim 1, characterized in that the structure of the wall surface of the slit-like channel has a groove structure or a convex structure in the direction of gas flow corresponding to the resolution of recording dots. Device. 3. The non-contact type recording device according to claim 1, wherein the end portion of the slit-like channel on the printing surface side has a protruding structure in the direction of the printing surface corresponding to the dot resolution.